Painter Idol - True Classic Season - Round 8 - VOTE FOR THREE

[McTeague]

THE PAINTINGS IN THIS ROUND

Georges de La Tour
The Penitent St. Jerome (c. 1624)



Joseph Wright of Derby
Grotto with Banditti (1778)




Peter Bruegel the Elder
The Procession to Calvary (1564)



Caravaggio
The Taking of Christ (1602)



Samuel Van Hoogstraten
The Slippers (1658)





THE PLAYERS

1- @DameOctaviaSpencer
2- @ladylurks
3- McTeague
4- @Nora
5- @Pingy




THE RULES

1- Each player picks a painting, by the painter they chose, for each round, except for the finale, in which they'll pick two.

2- There will be two stages.

3- The first stage will consist of six non-eliminatory rounds, and the votes each painter gets is the number of points they get. At the end of Round 6, the 3 painters with the fewest points will be automatically eliminated. The next two with the fewest points left will go onto a battle poll, with the painting they chose for Round 6, to see which one of the two is the fourth eliminated painter. In the case of a tie in points at the end of Round 6, the tie-breaker will be who has more votes in Round 6. If there's still a tie, the one who had more points in Round 5 will prevail, then round 4, then round 3, etc. In the duel to pass to Stage 2, the tie-breakers will be the same.

4- Stage two: after the first seven painters have been eliminated, stage two will be eliminatory until the finale. Tie-breakers will be: 1- number of votes in the relevant regular round; 2- total number of votes in the regular rounds of the game until then. This will apply to the finale too: if there’s a tie in the finale, the painter with the most total votes in the game wins.

5- In the semifinals, in which only 3 painters are left, there may be no elimination match between the two least voted painters, if the difference in votes between the second and the third is superior to 30% of the votes. Also, if the players agree that there's no duel.

6- In Stage 1, each round will be open for two days, except the elimination matches which will last one day. In Stage 2, both regular rounds and elimination rounds will be open for 24 hours.

7- The order in which the paintings will be showed will be alphabetical, but rotating, meaning it's purely alphabetical in Round 1, but in the subsequent rounds the one that was second in the previous round will be first, the first goes to last place, etc.

[ladylurks]

Grotto by the Seaside in the Kingdom of Naples with Banditti, Sunset (1778)
Joseph Wright

The warm sunset tones of this piece form a striking contrast to the fractured silver luminescence of the Julia grotto painting.

Seen on their own the enigmatically grouped banditti have an elusive and mysterious imaginative force, though their purpose is not entirely clear. Judy Egerton has suggested that there is some connection between the subjects in these two companion pieces. With the story of Julia's banishment in mind, cast as she was onto an island in the Bay of Naples, can the banditti be a troop of mercenaries who took her there? - perhaps deliberating now as to the justice of her plight, stricken with remorse at their part in her terrible fate.

[McTeague]

Well, nothing like running the risk of being eliminated to make me use quickly my faves, the ones I REALLY chose Van Hoogstraten for, and that I hoped I could show. This is the one I was talking about as being an even better version of a similar concept, when I used that view of a corridor with the dog, the parrot, the cat, etc.

In this one, Van Hoogstraten doesn't even need living creatures to create a mystery and tell a (possible, only possible) story.

The slippers left somewhere in the middle of a corridor. An open door with the keys still in it. A candle without a flame...

May this be telling the story of an infidelity? The broom and slippers, symbol of domesticity, are abandoned, and someone has left the keys to a door in said door, to allow someone to enter. The candle has been blown (the fire "taken"?). Make of it what you will! Perhaps it may just be telling the story of a housewife doing home chores and something has interrupted her and she's just going to see who knowcked at the door, lol. But the air of playful mystery in the painting is inescapable, so there has to be more...

But it is also Van Hogstraten showing off his talent for perspective, and his theory about fooling the eye. The painting-within-a-painting at the end of the corridor is saying "I could make it ad infinitum, this painting is just another frame towards another world that could have another endless perspective in it, and have another painting-within-a-painting at the end of it..." A supremely baroque, supremely playful masterpiece.

[McTeague]

I want to also add that I find this to be one of the highest-level rounds in the game (in all seasons), and watching, contemplating these paintings on my computer, for a long while, is a pleasure, and I think all 5 paintings are stellar. From the color composition in the La Tour, sandwiching the skinny saint among solid mases of red, to the treatment of that golden light in the Wright, or to how moving I find Carvaggio's depiction of Jesus' arrest (resignation in his face, in contrast to the outrage around him and Judas' guilty look as he kisses Jesus), it's just amazing. But my favorite may be that Bruegel masterpiece, which is just one of the greatest works of any art discipline ever, and even had an entire movie devoted to it! As always with Bruegel, the details are juicy, but this time they may be best. You zoom in in any area of the painting, and it feels like a mini-masterpiece that could be a separate painting. In particular the hill leading to the mount where Christ will be crucified, with that desolate windy path flanked by torture wheels (with human remains and crows!), the mill at the top of the rock, and the walled town on the left. Ugh, also the reflection of the guy in red crossing the little river. The movie The Mill and the Cross focused on the painting's secret political content: the Netherlands was under Spain's (apparently cruel, and religion-prosecuting) rule, so the "Roman" soldiers pushing Christ towards his death are dressed like Spanish soldiers, and the mill, the Netherlands symbol, is at the top of a vertical pole forming a cross with its sails, perhaps signaling the Netherlands had the "true" Christianism, and were being crucified like Christ himself by the Spaniards. Ah, what I'd give to watch this painting live!

[Peppin]

Sad to see La Tour doing so bad, for me it's by far the best painting this round

[Luc]

Sad to see La Tour doing so bad, for me it's by far the best painting this round

I love it too. Something unsettling about it.

[CINNAMON]

It is cruel to be forced to make a choice for any number less than 5 paintings in this round. Each exemplifies the genius of the individual painters. Incredible submissions in this round. Bravo.

[affy18]

Bruegel and Van Hoogstraten

I think I love every painting in this round, though?

[HoneyDarling]

For me, there is something about The Penitent St. Jerome, that is uncomfortable, unsettling, awkward and yet paradoxically, it is also contemplative and beautiful. That's what art is.

[McTeague]

So, there's a triple tie in the middle: Bruegel, Caravaggio, and Wright.

Their total points in the game as of now are:

- Wright: 154
- Bruegel: 152
- Caravaggio: 142

So, because of tie-breaker rules, it's Caravaggio who goes to the duel with La Tour.

1- Van Hoogstraten: 22 Points
2- TIE: Bruegel, Caravaggio, Wright: 14 Points
5- La Tour: 8 Points