Postcards From Abroad: Berlin, Germany, 11-15 Oct 2006: Gemaldegalerie Paintings <br><i>Ladies Of A Certain Vintage</i>

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Berlin, Germany, 11-15 Oct 2006: Gemaldegalerie Paintings
Ladies Of A Certain Vintage

West Berlin's Gemaldegalerie has a remarkable collection

of early Netherlandish and Italian Renaissance paintings. Achingly vivid depiction of

Woman is a major thematic cord that binds religious and secular art.

In Madonna in the Church by Jan v an Eyck, a larger-than-life Mary stands inside an intricately etched church interior, cradling the infant Jesus in her arms. A supernatural amber aura emanates from, and transfigures, the central figures. Rogier van der Weyden, van Eyck's contemporary and equal, imbued his subjects with unparalleled emotional depth and intensity that was revolutionary in his time. Woman Wearing a Gauze Headdress conveys with delicate sensitivity a Flemish noblewoman's demure confidence. The white gauze headdress, primly pinned into place, is a tour-de-force of finely woven details, translucency and textures. Petrus Christus' masterpiece Portrait of a Young Girl enthralls with the subject's petulant half-smile and detached gaze, drawing one to wonder, "Who is she?"

Peter Paul Rubens reenacted the Greek myth of Perseus Freeing Andromeda from certain ravage by the seamonster, to whom she has been sacrificed, with dramatic free brush strokes and luscious colours. She glows, nude, bowing in gratitude, as he, incarnadine cape furiously flapping, rushes forward.

More contemplative and sedate are Jan Vermeer's works. A magician at creating myriad light effects, his leitmotif is of scenes of everyday life set in rooms lit by natural light filtering in through open windows. The Woman With a Pearl Necklace holds her necklace carefully to the light, admiring its reflection in the mirror. In The Glass of Wine, we are voyeurs of the secret love life of the couple: witnessing the precise moment that temperance succumbs to indiscretion as wine trickles from the glass into her quivering hitherto chaste lips.

Frans Hals' Portrait of Malle Babbe incisively captures the crude sneering laugh of tavern proprietress 'Mad Babbette' aka 'The Witch of Haarlem'. An owl perched precariously on her left shoulder, she gruffly twists her thick torso around to countenance her

customers with choice curses, giving as good as she gets.

The Dutchman Hal's restricted dark palette and grimy realism contrast sharply with the luminous pastels and ethereal beauty of the Italian Raffaello Sanzio's Colonna Ma donna (begun by Raffaello, completed by Ridolfo Ghirlandaio). Here, Mary's fresh-faced buxom country maiden fondly gazes at and quietly adores baby Jesus seated on her lap. He playfully clutches her decolletage, looking at us, grinning. The taut outstretched right arm artfully connects the holy duo compositionally.

Tiziano Vecellio painted four works of Venus with musicians, allegories to Love, Music's Muse. In Venus and the Organ Player, she is object of the latter's ogling. She, cool to his infatuation, is alas unattainable.

Inspired by Botticelli's similar painting, Piero di Cosimo's delightful Venus, Mars and Cupid shows Venus and her lover Mars in an idyllic landscape, the latter exhausted and spread out in deep post-coital slumber. Mars is utterly vanquished, his armour is in disarray; his arms, cherubs' toys. Feted by her son Cupid and a white rabbit, symbol of fecundity, supreme Venus presides over her spoils. Love conquers all.