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Oregon, United States
loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !

Monday, December 07, 2015

a fine neapolitan dog and his lady

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund (PD)
I haven't found when exactly the British painter George James (died 1795) got down to Italy to paint "A Whole Length of a Lady of Petrella, in the Kingdom of Naples," which he exhibited in 1765. He did move to France toward the end of his life, where he died in prison during the French revolution. His crime? Being English. Anyway, I found this a strange, striking image, overlain with an atmospheric pall against which details glow:  her skirt, her lips, the gold collar on her dog's neck.  She's not any ordinary person, not with those clothes and not with that delicate pet who looks at her so winsomely. We may never know more.
I think "Petrella" might be the same as the modern-day town of Petrella Tiferna, which you can see in this brief YouTube video.
Posted by at 5:51 AM
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1 comment:

parlance said...

Now you've got me fascinated about this lovely little town. My teesny bit of Italian couldn't reveal what that shroud-like thing was in the church, so I'm going to have to investigate. Wilipedia says lots of people left that town for Canada.

3:06 AM

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