Andrew Loomis on:

The Female Figure

"Rosalind Hayes is built like a brick $h¡thouse." ~ Andrew Loomis

A Vermeer Restored

or: Hey, but leading scientists and experts agree!

Only, you see, that or something like it ain't it.

This is~

Vermeer's glazes have both faded and (even worse) been scrubbed away by tasteless heavy handed hacks, so all that remains is a duotone underpainting* (which they pass off as his subtle use of colour). Now if thats what remains of the master's hand …fine …but the gall to claim it's a restoration of Vermeer's original vision.

Condition before cleaning**~

file under: Further proof of,  "It just doesn't matter anymore …"

*a.k.a. ~ Dead-colouring (as in grey, lifeless)

**which it needed, but this would only prelude an extensive repaint (that no one will do), so why bother?

Master Copy #8

Degas after Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, better known in the history of art as Sodoma (pronounced So'-do-mah).

Sodoma (1477 – 1549)  Saint Sebastian, 1525

•••

EDGAR DEGAS

1834 - 1917

SAINT SÉBASTIEN

stamped Degas (lower left) and dated Flor 1857 (lower right); stamped Atelier Ed. Degas on

reverse

pencil on paper

30.1 by 23.5cm., 11 7/8 by 9 1/4 in.

Executed in Florence in 1857.

PROVENANCE

Estate of the artist

Sale: Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 4ème Vente Atelier Edgar Degas, 2nd-4th July 1919, lot 97b

Pozze

Private Collection, Paris

Thence by descent to the present owner

•••

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_Sodoma