Tuesday, December 6, 2011

The Infinite Art Tournament, Round 2: Fra Angelico v. Anguissola

Fra Angelico
c.1387-1455
Italian
Defeated Florentine master Andrea del Sarto in Round 1 by a decisive but respectful margin.





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Sofonisba Anguissola
c.1532 - 1625
Italian
Defeated Italian predecessor Antonello da Messina in Round 1 by two votes -- a one-vote swing would have resulted in a draw.  YOUR VOTE COUNTS!






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[In the M5K personal tourney, this round pits Fra Angelico v. Antonello da Messina.]

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Vote for the artist of your choice!  Votes go in the comments.  Commentary and links to additional work are welcome.  Polls open for at least one month past posting.

19 comments:

Nichim said...

Anguissola!!!!!!!!!!

Elizabeth said...

Anguissola, definitely.

Morgan said...

I think you'll find that Anguissola beat da Messina in the first round, not del Sarto.

My vote goes for Angelico and I can't put my finger on why. I wouldn't be unhappy with the results either way; they're both pretty rad.

Michael5000 said...

Morgan: Good eye. And before sunrise, even.

Voron X said...

(And once again, both my previous round artists lost.)

It's interesting that Fra Angelico taught Ghirlandaio who taught Michelangelo who taught/tutored Anguissola.

This is hard. Fra is very important, it seems, but it's rare in that period to find a successful female artist.

I'm almost about to toss a coin, but I'm going to go with Anguissola, I think. Her family has cool names.

mrs.5000 said...

OK, Anguissola's self-portrait is awesome, and she led an awesome life (I've just been reading in Wikipedia, I didn't know about her at all.) But she's up against Fra Angelico, a longtime love. I've made books with his work, and I've visited the monks' cells in Florence with those spare, beautiful frescoes that mirror and transfigure the cells they adorn, and they are as sublime a marriage of art and architecture as anything I can think of. So Fra Angelico for me.

UnwiseOwl said...

Fra Angelico by a nose, but I love them both.

Jenners said...

Actually, I'm not a big fan of either but I'll go with Anguissola

pfly said...

After initially thinking Fra, then looking over these a bunch, I'll go with Anguissola after all.

Voron X said...

Actually, I think I'd like to change my vote to Fra Angelico. I forgot that we're talking about different media.

lamanyana said...

Fra Angelico - I just love the geometry of his work.

Candida said...

I love them both. Why can't we be having them knock out more cubists or something before facing off?

For Anguissola, the self-portrait where she shows Bernardino Campi painting her (and the canvas where she is painting him painting her) is pretty cool. And there are some lovely portraits. But they are... portraits. And I am the person who, when in London, stared at a colleague who was inviting me to go to the National Portrait Gallery, and said, with utter bemusement, "Why would I want to go see a bunch of paintings of people?"

Fra Angelico, but with recognition that people like Sophonisba Anguissola helped me see why visiting the National Portrait Gallery would not be a waste.

Michael5000 said...

One emailed vote for the Fra.

Michael5000 said...

Well, this is all very awkward, but the Anguissola self-portrait, which I had never seen before, KNOCKS MY SOCKS OFF. It immediately jumps on to the short list of Most Favored Painting. Which, amazingly, has me voting against Fra Angelico in Round 2. Anguissola.

Man! That is one heavyweight matchup.

Also awkward: in my personal tourney, Anguissola didn't make it into Round 2. Out of Fra Angelico and Antonello da Messina, Fra Angelico wins by a nose.

Chuckdaddy said...

Fra

Christine M. said...

Anguissola

Michael5000 said...

Two very strong contenders end up... in a tie. Voting is closed in this contest.

Chuckdaddy said...

Hmmm... I kind of want to keep this to myself... But it's looking like Fra won this outright. Wish I'd caught this earlier.

Michael5000 said...

Several recounts revealed that it's actually a tie, that Fra Angelico won 7-6, and that Fra Angelico won 8-6. For some reason, this one is really hard to tally. Eventually, I made a chart.

The actual, definitive score was: Fra Angelico 8, Anguissola 6.

Well caught, Chuckdaddy.