art museum trip

Last Tuesday had an Art trip, with artist friend Carole, to Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA to see Luis Meléndez: Master of the Spanish Still Life (1716–1780) Considered the greatest still life painter of 18th-century Spain. While his still lifes are gorgeous, his self-portrait is absolutely stunning!!! The colors glow and the detail on his clothing is exquisite. His dream was to become a court painter. An argument with heads of the Academy got his father fired and him without any support to further his career for portrait painting. Too bad. We managed to get into a tour of the museum and found ourselves in front of Velasquez paintings (1 self-portrait and another of a young girl). While I'm sure the court afficienados of the time thought they were great paintings, I thought they lacked the beautiful glowing colors and warmth of subject that the Melendez self-portrait had. Would have been wonderful to see what Luis would have done.