Answers to the Friday Afternnon Challenge PLUS a bonus round question!

[CTyankee]

If you would like to take the Challenge please stop here and go to: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2243357

Here are the Answers:

1. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

2. Getty Museum, Los Angeles

3. Tate Modern, London.

4. L'Orangerie, Paris.

5. Rene Magritte Museum, Brussels.

6. San Marco Convent Museum, Florence

Bonus question: What famous artist sank to his knees upon viewing this work:

[midnight]

1. K&R Beautiful...

[WinkyDink]

2. Because he paid homage, I'll say Dali, upon seeing Vermeer's "View of Delft."

I pretty much started by recognizing Delft (slightly leaning tower), as I visited several times!

[CTyankee]

3. Yes, altho I did not learn this until a docent at the Mauritshuis told me

about Dali's pilgrimage.

View is located across the room from Girl with Pearl Earring. I hope you were able to go to The Hague as well as Delft. The Mauritshuis is astonishingly beautiful! And right around the corner from the government buildings. I would go back in a heartbeat except that the museum is closing April 5 for renovations, not opening again until 2014! However, the two Vermeers, along with Carel Fabritius's famous goldfinch painting and other great works, will be distributed to another museum in The Hague so that people won't be deprived of such masterpieces.

Have you read "Vermeer in Bosnia" by Lawrence Weschler? It is an essay in his book of essays by the same name that tells the story of an Italian judge at a warcrimes trial of Bosnian war criminal during the 1990s. The judge sought relief from the unending testimony and evidence of horrendous torture and violence, when he went to the Mauritshuis to "sit with the Vermeers" as he put it. It was with the Girl that he found "serenity, peace and centered-ness." It is Weschler's contention that in Vermeer's day, all of Europe was Bosnia, awash in the most godawful terror and bloodshed, mass killings and rape, and that Vermeer "created his own peace" with his works. It is an interesting take on why Vermeer painted as he did!

[WinkyDink]

5. Been all over The Netherlands except for the Hague! (I'd go if Bush went, heh). And sorry to

say, I have not read this book. The older I get, the much less I read. Or rather, the fewer books I read.

[CTyankee]

7. Get the book out of the library -- for the essay, not the rest of it!

It's not a long read, but interesting for someone who loves art.

Sorry you missed The Hague. I thought it was lovely! Go there when the Mauritshuis re-opens, tho, as it is a star of the city!

I went thru Holland on a tiny, spartan barge thru the canals. I loved the fact that the barge would dock right there in the middle of the city/town, put down the little gangplank, and off you go on foot to practically anyplace you want to go.

Gouda was a place I think I could LIVE in! What a lovely place!

My only disappointment was Leiden. I felt it was rundown and overcrowded and I was not impressed by its main drag with cheap clothing stores and a MacDonald's. I realize it is a university town and there is a housing shortage, but it wasn't so nice...

[CTyankee]

9. What you see reproduced here does not do this work justice!

The original just glistens! It is quite mesmerizing and fantastically beautiful. I couldn't stop looking at it. It's the same technique he uses in his Milkmaid (the glistening on the bread!).

I must say that was a big surprise to me...

[RainDog]

13. I just wanted to tell you

that I follow your threads, love them so much, and want to thank you. they're a pleasure to read.

Weschler's work is also wonderful.

[lapislzi]

4. Rifling through my roster of Dutch painters...

I'm going to guess Van Gogh because of his fierce adherence to Dutch landscape painting tradition, and his deep religious faith.

Of course, I could be as full of you-know-what as the next person, but there you are.

Thank you, as always for your Fabulous Friday challenges!

[WinkyDink]

6. See above. :-)

[CTyankee]

8. As WinkyDink said, it was Dali. What a drama queen he was!

Van Gogh, I learned, was crazy about Franz Hals (his terrific museum is in Haarlem). Van Gogh loved the guy on the far left of Hals's famous "Meagre Company" in which the guys are all in gorgeous gold silk organza sashes and snazzy boots. Van Gogh said he had never seen such a handsome man in a painting...

[CTyankee]

10. Thanks! I actually have yet another Challenge with museum "signatures" which

I will do in a couple of months...

Next week, something completely different, but just as difficult (or easy, depending on your knowledge base!). However, no Challenge is too much for DUers! You guys are fabulous!:hi:

[elleng]

11. No real idea, so why did TURNER pop into my mind???

:hi:
Just saw 'answer,' and love the story. Imagine Dali falling to his knees??? HAHAHA!

[CTyankee]

12. Well, if you saw the Woody Allen film where Adrian Brody played a FABULOUS Dali,

you won't think it too crazy to learn he went down on his knees in adoration of the painting. but it's a delicious story nonetheless...