Hunt and Pick

As many of you know, I spend a great deal of time just rambling around the net to see what there is to see with subjects that interest me or to do research for others who just want answers without the thrill of the hunt. If you like art, I've found a great site to share. It is the Web Gallery of Art. Again this is one of those great educational sites or just a place for the pure pleasure of the beauty there. There are hundreds of paintings from museums all over the world and each can be enlarged so that you can see the detail.

When you go to the home page there will be music. If you are one of those who don't like music other than what you choose, just hit the "escape" key and it will turn off. On all the other pages, you can choose to play or not play the selection they have chosen to go with the time period of the paintings on those pages. The artists are listed in alphabetic order, just pick a letter of your favorite, or you can go to a page and select all the artists from a given period in art.

As it happens, I adore El Greco. Most of his paintings are a mesh of wild colors and dramatic views on religious themes or lush studies of scenery such as his "View of Toledo", but throughout his life he also painted pictures that almost look like modern realism. So here are two portraits of that type painted in the 1500s. Doesn't the "Lady In Furs" look as if she is going out for a formal evening tonight?