flat Baroque.

Diego Velázquez. The Infanta Margarita.  1655. Oil on canvas.  Musée du Louvre.

Thanks to a mother who understands the importance of patronizing the arts, I've been a lover of all types of art since I first crawled God's green earth. With every art history class I take, I become more enthralled by new works I never knew existed.  

There are some works, however, that I have loved from the moment I saw them.  It's the question that is asked on the first day of class or in a conversation about art:  "What is your favorite piece of art or time period."  

Well, thankfully we just started covering Baroque art.  I love Baroque. Love. It's running neck and neck with Impressionism, and though the whole style may run a close second to the Impressionist movement, my favorite work is a Velázquez.  I've seen The Infanta Margarita three times:  twice in Atlanta during the Louvre Atlanta exhibit and once in the Louvre.  I fell in love.  The poster from the High Museum exhibit hung in my room for three years.  I still don't fully know why I am so mesmerized by it, but it is undeniably striking.  
Just taken at face value it's absolutely exquisite.  The colors are beautiful, the strokes are beautiful, the details are beautiful.  But there is such an emotion in her face that I just think is so gracefully captured.  It's one of several portraits of Margarita Teresa of Spain, but this one has just captured my heart.  

Here's to two weeks of being immersed in the best of the Spanish. (okay...and Italians, Flemish, Dutch, English...)