Jesse Locker
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jessemlocker.bsky.social
Jesse Locker
@jessemlocker.bsky.social
13K followers 1.9K following 2.7K posts
Professor of art history at Portland State University. Author of Artemisia Gentileschi: The Language of Painting (Yale University Press) and some other stuff. 2 parts Weltschmerz, 1 part vermouth, a dash of film noir.
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Jesse Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · Aug 11
How your email finds me
Pier Francesco Mola, Caricature of a man with four flying letters, pen and ink drawing, ca. 1647-1657 (Victoria and Albert Museum)
Reposted by Jesse Locker
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Bird pies in painting 🦢🥧
David Teniers the Younger
Kitchen Interior, 1644 copper Dimensions 55.5 x 77.5 cm Mauritshuis, The Hague Jacob van Velsen, A Musical Party, 1631 oil on wood 40 × 55.8 cm National Gallery, London Pieter Claesz, Still Life with Peacock Pie, 1627, oil on panel, 30 1/2×50 3/4 in., National Gallery of Art, Washington Joachim von Sandrart, Allegory of February, c. 1642, 149 cm (58.6 in); Width: 124 cm (48.8 in) Staatsgalerie, Schleissheim
November 25, 2024 at 3:12 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Claes van Heussen, Fruit and Vegetable Seller, 1630, Oil on canvas, 157 x 200 cm (Private collection)
"This colossal still-life is signed and dated 1630 by Claes (Nicolaes) van Heussen, a Haarlem specialist of the genre. Details regarding his life are sparse and only a handful of his works have been identified. They are variously signed (C.v. Heussen and C.V. Heus) and are dated between 1626 and 1631. He won enough local fame in his own day for Samuel Ampzing to make a passing reference to him in his history of Haarlem, published in 1628. To judge from his surviving works van Heussen was inspired by the huge, abundant displays of fruits and vegetables favoured by Flemish artists and by their followers in the Northern Netherlands. Apparently he did not attempt the unpretentious, monochromatic still-lifes that Pieter Claesz and Willem Claesz Heda were painting at this very time in Haarlem, today prized as Holland's unique contribution to the subject. Like so many exuberant Flemish still-life specialists, he felt compelled to animate his still-lifes with some live action and, as they often did, he called upon a figure painter to do the job. In this painting, Frans Hals painted the coquettish young woman who has turned momentarily to look at the viewer as she reaches into a basket." https://www.wga.hu/html_m/h/heussen/fruit_ve.html
November 24, 2025 at 10:22 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, La Brioche, 1763, Oil on canvas, 47 x 56 cm (Musée du Louvre, Paris)
"Chardin ranks as one of the forerunners of modern painting. Volumes and empty spaces stand in a reciprocal relationship within his compositions. There is a magical quality to the mutual self-definition of the assembled objects, each of which possesses its own field of tension and individual aura. Chardin succeeds in lending objects an emotional dimension, in animating them, without stripping them of their concrete tangibility His achievement consists of enriching a painting based on art and tradition with everyday experience, actualised thanks to direct observation from nature. His masterly brushwork interprets his preliminary studies and eschews the danger of formulaic banality and the vapid perpetuation of well-known motifs." https://www.wga.hu/html_m/c/chardin/2/11brioch.html
November 24, 2025 at 4:39 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Federico Castelluccio, best known for playing Furio Giunta in the Sopranos, is a master painter and art collector. He discovered a long-lost painting by Baroque artist Guercino and assisted with the restoration on Artemisia Gentileschi at the Getty bsky.app/profile/coli...
Federico Castelluccio as Furio Giunta in the Sopranos wearing one of his signature patterned shirts
November 23, 2025 at 7:47 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Unidentified Spanish painter (known as Master of the Amsterdam Bodegón), Kitchen scene, c. 1610-1625, oil on canvas, 100 cm x 122 cm (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
"Kitchen piece or Bodegón. The smiling chef stands with a large bowl of red wine behind a table laid out with all sorts of food: poultry, quail, a duck, a turkey, fish, mackerel, cheese, pies, rolls, sausages, hams, a pigeon, a red sea bream, and a pig's trotter. In front lies a deck of cards and some coins." https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Kitchen-Scene--3864a99eda3ad3900cfd4f947e6bb385?tab=data
November 23, 2025 at 5:12 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
How to make tortillas, from Girolamo Benzoni, La Historia del Mondo Nuovo (Venice, 1565)
A woodcut of three women in a thatched hut grinding maize, forming and cooking tortillas text reads: "Modo di fare il pane Le donne Molandaie che lo macinano pigliano una quantità di questo grano, & la sera inanzi lo bagnano con acqua fredda; la mattina con due pie[tre]..." ["Method of making bread The miller women who grind it take a quantity of this grain, and in the evening they soak it in cold water; in the morning, with two stones..."] https://archive.org/details/la-historia-del-mondo-nuovo/page/n123/mode/1up?q=pane
November 22, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Reposted by Jesse Locker
openculture.bsky.social
When Neapolitans Used to Eat Pasta with Their Bare Hands: Watch Footage from 1903
When Neapolitans Used to Eat Pasta with Their Bare Hands: Watch Footage from 1903
Even if you don't speak Italian, you can make a decent guess at the meaning of the word mangiamaccheroni. The tricky bit is that maccheroni refers not to the pasta English-speakers today call macaroni...
www.openculture.com
November 21, 2025 at 6:06 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Félix Nadar, Pierrot the Photographer, 1854-55, 210 x 280 mm (Musée d'Orsay). From a series of photographs of the famous mime Charles Deburau (son of Baptiste Deburau who was portrayed in Marcel Carné's “Les enfants du Paradis”)
"The portrait of Pierrot as a photographer is the first in the Deburau album. It was the perfect introduction to the series intended to promote Nadar's studio. The star is shown alongside a camera which he seems to be operating. His left hand is telling the model to look at the lens and not at him. With his right hand, he is taking out a plate." https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/pierrot-the-photographer/2gFyvE8QvTMW_A?hl=en
November 21, 2025 at 7:06 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Sir Anthony Weldon, A Cat May Look Upon a King (printed for William Roybould, at the Unicorn in Pauls Church-yard, 1652)
Frontispiece of a book with a portrait of James I of England and opposit, a sleepy looking cat
November 21, 2025 at 5:15 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Honestly a little excited for the Leonardo-Epstein-Illuminati conspiracy theory convergence
What Those Jeffrey Epstein Emails About Leonardo's 'Salvator Mundi' Really Mean | Artnet News
Emails reveal that Epstein was speculating about the $450-million sale of Salvator Mundi—and whether it was connected to Trump.
news.artnet.com
November 20, 2025 at 5:52 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Adam Elsheimer, The Artist in Despair, c. 1599, pen and brown ink, 71/8 x 75/8 in. (182 x 195 mm), Munich, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung
An artist its at a table in a gesture of melancholy surrounded by tools of art, an allegory of poverty, and hungry children and animals. To the left, a child peers into a bare cupboard
November 20, 2025 at 4:24 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Art school problems
Hand-drawn sign reading "Did you lose your beret? Someone found it! Come to the art office"
November 19, 2025 at 4:54 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Johannes Jelgerhuis, Pieter Meijer Warnars' bookstore on the Vijgendam in Amsterdam, 1820 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
"Amsterdam’s cultural elite met up in this book and print shop. Warnars, the owner, was a bookdealer, publisher and printer. These activities are reflected in the full bookcases, the hanging banner, new reams of paper and the printing press on the floor. The painter of this scene, Johannes Jelgerhuis, was also a noted actor. The pronounced perspective of the shop interior makes it look like a stage set with a city view as a backdrop." https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/The-Shop-of-the-Bookdealer-Pieter-Meijer-Warnars-on-the-Vijgendam-in-Amsterdam--f1db15873a09965c63b77155a777d2ff
November 19, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Reposted by Jesse Locker
mollycrabapple.bsky.social
Hey authors! Check to see if Anthropic stole your book to train their slop generator on. You’re entitled to $1500 per stolen Work.

Look up your work, and if you’re in the database, file a claim
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup/
Submit a Claim
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:39 AM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Looking for (extremely subtle) Michaelina Wautier socks?
Socks Wautier - Flower Garland with a Dragonfly : KHM Shop
Add a touch of Flemish art into your wardrobe with these vibrant socks featuring a detail from Michaelina Wautier’s (c. 1614/18–1689) unique painting 'Flower Garland with a Dragonfly' (1652).
shop.khm.at
November 19, 2025 at 12:33 AM
Reposted by Jesse Locker
dbellingradt.bsky.social
Nice one! Reminds me of bsky.app/profile/dbel...
dbellingradt.bsky.social Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · Sep 26
Hard to unsee that the #earlymodern papal secretary Giovanni Battista Agucchi (holding a letter on the painting) made it somehow to nowadays Argentina.
A young man from Argentina looking like the papal secretary Giovanni Battista Agucchi. A painting of papal secretary Giovanni Battista Agucchi holding a letter.
November 18, 2025 at 6:59 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Oil sketch by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo stolen from the Prado in 1897 discovered in France. ¡Enhorabuena, @benitonavarrete.bsky.social!
El Museo del Prado logra la cesión temporal por diez años de un Murillo robado de sus salas en 1897
   El Museo del Prado ha anunciado este miércoles que expondrá próximamente un boceto de mano...
www.europapress.es
November 18, 2025 at 8:43 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
A+ butt engraving

[Hendrick Goltzius, The Farnese Hercules, 1591, 16 9/16 x 11 15/16 in. (42.1 x 30.4 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art]
Rear view of an impossibly large statue of of the Farnese Hercules with two men looking on Detail of Hercules' but showing burin lines
November 18, 2025 at 4:14 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Black Glass Madonna, by unknown artisans of the Innsbruck Court Glassworks, 1570-1591, Lampworked and pressed glass on wood mount, 52.5 x 28.8 cm (20 11/16 x 11 5/16 in.), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
"This depiction of the Virgin and Child was made in the Innsbruck Court Glasshouse or Innsbrucker Hofglashütte of Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria by Venetian glass artisans. The composition is likely based on the statue of Our Lady of Loreto from the cathedral in Loreto, Italy of a Black Madonna and Child. Our Lady of Loreto refers to the Holy House (or Santa Casa) where the Virgin Mary was born. According to tradition, the house was transported by angels from Nazareth to Loreto. When locals went inside the house they found a beautiful dark wooden statue of the Virgin and Child. They thought the dark or black skin of the mother and son signified the carving was old and made by St. Luke, one of the authors of the gospels about the life of Jesus." https://www.gardnermuseum.org/experience/collection/12086
November 17, 2025 at 6:49 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Elizabeth Cropper on Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi
Fathers and Daughters – Part 3 | Nicholas Hall
How Orazio Gentileschi prepared his daughter Artemisia for success, as seen through the eyes of the art historian Elizabeth Cropper.
www.nicholashall.art
November 17, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by Jesse Locker
tomdavidson92.bsky.social
Pope Leo absolutely cooking
November 16, 2025 at 7:47 AM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
First exhibition ever dedicated to 16th-century Flemish painter Catharina van Hemessen to premier at the National Gallery, London, in 2027 www.nationalgallery.org.uk/about-us/pre...
"Catharina van Hemessen is the earliest Flemish woman artist for whom verifiable work survives. She signed this portrait in Latin in the top right corner. We do not know who the sitter was, but she was evidently wealthy. Her fine shirt, visible at her neck and wrists, is ornated with delicate black embroidery and only loosely tied across the neck; the bodice of her dress is dark grey corded and watered silk; and her sleeves are of red velvet. Her gloves are decorated with black and golden embroidery. Her belt is made of gold and black beads and cylinders, held in place with gold settings. It may likely carry a pomander (a round vessel, usually a fine piece of gilded metalwork, containing perfume) at its end. A small dog with what seem to be bells on its collar is tucked under her arm. Portraits of women with pet animals, often lapdogs, were quite common in the sixteenth century." https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/catharina-van-hemessen-portrait-of-a-woman
November 16, 2025 at 7:27 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Gustav Klimt, Beech Grove I, 1902, Oil on Canvas, 100 x 100 cm (Galerie Neue Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden)
“Gustav Klimt, whose paintings of women are exemplary of the Secessionist Vienna of the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, came to landscape painting late in life. During his summer stays in Seewalchen am Attersee from 1898 onwards, he also painted, according to his own account, a “small beech forest (in sunshine) with a few conifers mixed in.” The artist constructed a viewfinder with a square cutout out of cardboard and held it in front of his eye so that the sky and horizon were almost completely excluded. The viewer's gaze finds no vanishing point in the balanced composition of “Beech Forest I.” A precisely captured stand of young trees—probably birches and aspens—stretches from the high horizon toward the viewer. Light falls on the foliage, which is rendered in the brushstrokes and dabs typical of the Impressionists. The paint is applied thinly, the tones are harmonized, and chiaroscuro contrasts are avoided. This gives the entire picture a delicate appearance. The mineral-like shimmering leaf litter, the mottled tree bark, and the playful sunspots become a comprehensive ornament. With his fir forest paintings from 1901, which already featured the parallel rhythm of the tree trunks as their theme, Klimt continued to create symbol-laden atmospheric landscapes typical of the turn of the century. In “Beech Forest I,” he is now so close to nature that the desire to stylize and experiment is subordinated to the magic of what he sees. (Author: Birgit Dalbajewa, 2018)” https://skd-online-collection.skd.museum/Details/Index/246365
November 16, 2025 at 5:25 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Francisco Goya, Girl Dancing to a Guitar, 1796-97, Indian ink wash, 170 x 99 mm (Museo del Prado, Madrid)
"This popular scene, traditionally interpreted as being set in an Andalusian context, could also be set in Madrid. Drawn with just the tip of the brush, it stands out for the light wash used to depict the majo in the background. The young woman shown in profile, dancing with her arms at her waist, seems to be slightly moving her feet to the sound of music. Nevertheless, her serious gesture and her distant gaze introduce an element of restlessness in contrast to the guitarist´s smile." https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/girl-dancing-to-a-guitar/6f78681e-07ea-4f7f-8d65-adf80988fb88
November 16, 2025 at 1:31 AM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Antonio Pérez de Aguilar, Artist's Cupboard, c. 1769 (Museo Nacional de Arte INBA, Mexico City)
"This work simulates a cupboard, located in a niche, inside which two boards have been fitted as shelves, covered by a glass sheet held in place by a narrow wooden frame, with a lock in the center of the left jamb from which some keys are hanging. On the bottom shelf are ranged objects of indigenous, Chinese and Spanish origin. Pertaining to the first of these cultures is a tompeate or palm-leaf basket, some gourds for drinking chocolate, one of which sits atop a hammered-copper chocolate pot and the other behind it, as well as a carved coconut shell with silver trimmings, also used for drinking chocolate. From China, there is a blue and white porcelain plate, while the chocolate jar, the glass and the bottles are of Spanish origin. The middle shelf holds two silver plates with scalloped edges, in front of which there are four cylindrical wooden boxes for cajeta (Mexican caramelized-milk confection) or some other type of confiture. In the center there are two small loaves of wheat bread behind which there stands a honey pot, covered with a clothe from which a spoon handle is protruding and lastly, on the right, there is a keg that might contain olives or some other sort of pickled food covered with a plate. The top shelf holds series of objects associated with the arts: book and notes, stringed instruments, a palette and some brushes, a sculpture and a saw. This piece passed to the MUNAL from the San Diego Viceregal Painting Gallery in the year 2000." https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/cupboard/1AEcwQ1XSN1qLw?hl=en
November 15, 2025 at 1:13 AM