Thursday, January 31, 2008

Personal shrines- My Monthly Journal Quilt

One of those resolutions of mine was to do a monthly quilt, in a larger format.
I love this painting, Beata Beatrix by Dante Gabriel Rosetti, who painted 6 versions of this, with one copy being painted by a contemporary. I have seen 3 of the paintings and the copy. I have 3 left to see before I die, one of those things on the "bucket list"... as it were.
This version started it all, and is the last painted, and had to be completed by Ford Maddox Brown, and is here in Chicago, at the Art Institute. I have two other works using it. They are all in my personal collection, one of which is an actual shrine-type-thing. I don't mean to use the work in a "breaking copyright" sense, I just love it so much, I can't help it.
I believe in personal shrines made of similar things. I have lots of "collections" of stuff, ever so arranged to make me smile when I see them. There was a book long ago called something like "personal altars" that discussed this sort of collecting and arranging, and religion was not really part of it. I guess that's why I keep going back to the painting and including it in my work. I could never own the original, so I keep copies of it in my personal works, like a shrine to art.

2 comments:

Cyber Fyber said...

Hi!
I'm suppose to be busy trading and linking everyone's blog to CYBER FYBER...but Rosetti's painting stopped me dead in my tracks. I love this image...all of them...I didn't know how many there were though. I've simply stood in awe before the ones in the Birmingham Museum of Art. My son dances for Birmingham Royal Ballet now. I love visiting all the Pre-Raphaelite paintings there. Well...back to finalizing our trade. Thanks for the visual "eye candy" along the route!
Susan

Cheryl said...

Thank you! I have seen the copy in Birmingham, and the one in London at the Tate. There's one in Edinburgh Scotland, 3 over here in the US, and 1 copy here in the US too.
Looking to our trade, and congrats on your son's acceptance to BRB!