Jesse Locker
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jessemlocker.bsky.social
Jesse Locker
@jessemlocker.bsky.social
21K followers 1.9K following 2.8K 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
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jessemlocker.bsky.social
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)
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Coptic spell to Acquire a Beautiful Voice, 6th–7th century CE, Egypt, ink on papyrus, 37.3 x 25.4 cm (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven)
archives.yale.edu/repositories...
Worn papyrus with drawings of figures, symbols, and writing in Coptic. More here https://smarthistory.org/coptic-magical-text/
January 10, 2026 at 10:20 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Louise Hollandine, Princess Palatine, Self-portrait holding a paintbrush, c. 1650, oil on panel (formerly Sotheby’s)
“The sitter was the seventh child and second daughter of Frederick Elector Palatine and his wife Elizabeth. She was born in The Hague, shortly after her parents' arrival in the Netherlands following Frederick's defeat in Bohemia in 1620. She was christened Louise after her paternal grandfather and Hollandine as a tribute to the States of Holland, her godfathers, and the country of her birth. She was a talented artist who studied with Honthorst and painted a number of members of her family. In December 1657 she left her home in disguise and became a Catholic nun. In 1664 she became Abbess of the convent of Maubuisson, and continued to live there until her death at the age of eighty-eight. This elegant self-portrait dates from c. 1650.”
January 10, 2026 at 4:25 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
I searched for "sprezzatura" on Amazon and I think they got the right idea
An ad for tight, tan bell-bottomed pants with the caption "70s Disco Pants for Men, Jeans for Men"
January 9, 2026 at 9:11 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Counterpoint: There is no “race” to find Leonardo’s DNA. Why would there be? To build an army of super Leonardo da Vincis? And anyway “a chalk drawing attributed by some to Leonardo” is probably not the best way to find it.
The Race to Find Leonardo da Vinci’s DNA Just Took a Major Twist
Scientists have uncovered genetic evidence that they say may be linked to the Renaissance master, but some experts are more skeptical
www.scientificamerican.com
January 9, 2026 at 3:18 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Happy birthday to Elisabetta Sirani, who had the right idea. Born January 8, 1638.
Elisabetta Sirani, Timoclea Throwing the Captain of Alexander the Great into a Well, 1659, oil on canvas, 228 cm (89.7 in) s 174.5 cm (68.7 in) in the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, Naples
January 8, 2026 at 9:44 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Symposium at the @museodelprado.es: "Protagonistas femeninas en la formación de las colecciones del Museo del Prado. Isabel de Farnesio," March 6-7 www.museodelprado.es/recurso/prot...
January 8, 2026 at 5:57 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, Sad Forebodings of What is to Come (plate one from The Disasters of War series), 1814/20, published 1863, Etching, burin, drypoint and burnishing on ivory wove paper with gilt edges, Art Institute of Chicago.
"The lone figure kneeling in a garden evokes Christ in the garden of Gethsemane before the Crucifixion. Ill-defined chaos swirls in the dark background, as the man’s outstretched arms signal his apprehension of and abandonment to the unknown future." https://www.artic.edu/artworks/79014/sad-forebodings-of-what-is-going-to-happen-plate-one-from-the-disasters-of-war
January 8, 2026 at 3:57 PM
Reposted by Jesse Locker
literaryhub.bsky.social
“i want back my rocking chairs, / solipsist sunsets, / & coastal jungle sounds...”

A poem by Renee Nicole Good, who was murdered by ICE earlier today.

lithub.com/renee-nicole...
Renee Nicole Good, murdered by ICE, was a prize-winning poet. Here’s that poem.
Renee Nicole Good, 37, mother to a six-year-old boy, was murdered earlier today by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, a few blocks from her home. According to the Minnesota Star Tribune: [An ICE agent] s…
lithub.com
January 8, 2026 at 3:54 AM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Small, groundbreaking exhibition on 16th-century painter Catharina van Hemessen coming to Antwerp and London next year
First-ever oil painting depicting an artist at work to star in female Old Master exhibition
Catharina van Hemessen’s self-portrait will be presented at the National Gallery, as interest in early women painters grows
www.theartnewspaper.com
January 7, 2026 at 7:07 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Jacopo Ligozzi, Jerboa, c. 1580-1600, drawing, 260 x 341 mm (Gabinetto disegni e stampe degli Uffizi, Florence)
A drawing of a jerboa, a hopping desert rodent, in an empty background
January 7, 2026 at 4:58 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Julius Exner, A girl from Fanø, Denmark, in traditional dress and mask (strude) for the harvest, 1899, oil on canvas, 31 cm (12.2 in) x 23 cm (9 in), Private collection
A painting of a woman in a harvest costume, holding a basket and a wooden rake, and wearing a dress, scarf, apron, and a traditional mask (strude) that covers all of her head except her eyes
January 6, 2026 at 3:36 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Finding novel ways to get moving on the first day back at work
Galvani, Luigi 1737-1798.; L. Galvani, De viribus electricitatis in motu; musculari commentarius, cum J. Aldini; dissertatione et notis. Acc. epistolae ad animalis; electricitatis theoriam pertinentes. Mutinae :; Soc. Typog., 1792.; Tab. II (Wellcome collection). An illustration of a man applying electrical currents to a dead sheep and pairs of frog legs to trigger movement
January 5, 2026 at 5:11 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Leonardo da Vinci, Cats, lions, and a dragon, 1517-18, Pen, ink, black chalk on paper, 271 x 204 mm (Royal Library, Windsor)
"A sheet of more than twenty drawings of cats and lions in a wide variety of positions; lying asleep, sitting, prowling, playing, fighting, and in one case frightened, standing with humped back and fur standing on end; in the lower half, drawn at an odd angle, is a study of a dragon, with its head bent back over its shoulder. One of the most charming of all of Leonardo's drawings, it covers the full range of his modes from the most stylised and 'Leonardesque', in the coiling dragon, to the most acutely observed and unaffected, in the many studies of domestic cats. The most detailed studies, at centre right, show the cats sleeping, and seem to have been done directly from the life, with the subject motionless; by contrast the depictions of cats fighting had to be visualised on the basis of fleeting impressions. In most of the fights it is difficult to discern which limb belongs to which cat, and in the study at lower centre he has drawn the two cats locked together as a single unit, almost symmetrical, in the manner of a Romanesque carving. Surrounding the studies of domestic cats are seven drawings of a single lioness, mostly crouching or prowling." https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/cats-lions-and-a-dragon-leonardo-da-vinci/OQFncnIYokEdMg?hl=en
January 4, 2026 at 5:47 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
January (detail), Castello del Buonconsiglio (Trento, Italy), c. 1400
A fresco of people in a snowy landscape dressed in not very seasonally appropriate medieval costume engaged in a snowball fight
January 4, 2026 at 1:03 AM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, The sleep of reason produces monsters (Plate 43 from "Los Caprichos"), 1797-98, Etching and aquatint, 216 x 152 mm (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
"This is the best known image from Goya's series of 80 aquatint etchings published in 1799 known as 'Los Caprichos' that are generally understood as the artist's criticism of the society in which he lived. Goya worked on the series from around 1796-98 and many drawings for the prints survive. The inscription on the preparatory drawing for this print, now in the Prado Museum in Madrid, indicates that it was originally intended as the title page to the series. In the published edition, this print became plate 43, the number we can see in the top right corner. Nevertheless, it has come to symbolise the overall meaning of the series, what happens when reason is absent. Various animals including bats and owls fly above the sleeping artist, and at the lower right a lynx watches vigilantly alerting us to the rise of monstrous forces that we are able to control when sleep descends." https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/338473
January 3, 2026 at 5:24 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Meanwhile in Naples...
January 2, 2026 at 10:27 PM
Reposted by Jesse Locker
rsaorg.bsky.social
📣 We are thrilled to announce that the Winter 2025 issue of Renaissance Quarterly (vol. 78.4) has been published online. You can view it here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #RenTwitter #earlymodern #Renaissance
@universitypress.cambridge.org
January 2, 2026 at 3:43 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Pietro Longhi, The Meeting, 1746, Oil on canvas, 24 x 19 1/2 in. (61 x 49.5 cm) (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
"Longhi made his career with small-scale scenes of contemporary Venetian life, often focused on erotic anecdotes and not necessarily with clear narrative sequences. Like those of his English contemporary Hogarth, many of these compositions were engraved and circulated as prints throughout Europe. Here, amid the games of disguise that fueled flirtations during Carnival, a man in blue invites a woman for a tryst. The man in the red cloak holds keys to a private theater box that he is willing to rent to the couple for a private meeting. In the mirror overhead, the reflection of a canopied bed and a painting of the Holy Family offers ironic commentary on the scene." https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436905
January 2, 2026 at 5:14 PM
Reposted by Jesse Locker
museodelprado.es
¡Feliz 2026!
“Uvas de España”, María Luisa de la Riva. Museo del Prado
December 31, 2025 at 11:31 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Pythagoras shunning fava beans, accompanying the advice, "Do Not Eat Beans!" from Speculum principis (Mirror of Princes) [fol. 25 recto], French, 1512/1514 (National Gallery of Art)
'Drawn using pen and brown ink on cream-colored paper, a robed man to our right holds up both hands and looks away from a plant in this vertical composition. A hood covers the man’s head, and he has a long beard. His hands shield his face from the plant to our left, which is painted with watercolor to give it green leaves and stems and dark pink flowers. A handwritten name above the man reads, "Pythagoras." The plant is labeled “Fabe.” A crack splits the ground from the bottom right corner of the paper across the page.' https://www.nga.gov/artworks/86044-do-not-eat-beans-fol-25-recto
December 30, 2025 at 11:21 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Rest in peace, reina bsky.app/profile/elpa...
December 29, 2025 at 4:45 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Adam Elsheimer, The Stoning of Saint Stephen, about 1603-1604, Oil on tinned copper, 34.70 x 28.60 cm (National Galleries of Scotland)
“Saint Stephen was the first Christian martyr and experienced a vision of the open heavens as he was being stoned to death. He had angered the authorities in Jerusalem with his zealous preaching and was accused of blasphemy. He wears the robes of a deacon, as he was also one of the first seven deacons appointed by the apostles. A beam of intense light shines on the kneeling saint and angels tumble towards him bearing the palm fronds of martyrdom and a laurel crown. The Flemish landscape artist Paul Bril, who lived in Rome, may have owned this painting.” https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/4874/stoning-saint-stephen
December 26, 2025 at 5:56 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Viggo Johansen, Glade jul (Happy Christmas), 1891 (Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen)
A painting of an affluent family joining hands and singing, Scandinavian style, around a lighted, decorated Christmas tree
December 24, 2025 at 2:07 AM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Godfried Schalcken, Girl with a Candle, 1670-75, Oil on canvas, 61 x 50 cm, Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence
A painting of a young woman looking at the viewer, illuminated only by a candle that she shields with one hand
December 22, 2025 at 5:36 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
For the last night of Chanukah: a Menorah Bong from the collection of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
A Grav Menorah Bong | Treasures from the YIVO Collections
YouTube video by YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
www.youtube.com
December 22, 2025 at 4:38 AM