PINTURA (Allegory of Painting)

©1997 Donald R Ricker

(45"x90" oil on hardboard)

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One pictures her as a beautiful young woman with her mouth covered with a scarf and a mask held around her neck by a gold chain. She takes her brushes in one hand while the other holds a painted self-portrait. Her raiment is coruscatingly beautiful as befits Painting, the most noble profession of the inventive human spirit. She has bound her mouth to signify the painters' ordinary prediliction for silence and solitude, which bring life and strength to the imagination. She carries the mask to show that painting and subject are inseparable. Technical skills allow the artist to 'beat' nature so that the painting is understood both by the senses and by the intellect. (from the 1643 French edition of ICONOLOGIE by Caesar Ripa)

PINTURA (Allegory of Painting) was exhibited March 1998 at Toast Gallery in Anchorage AK at the group show SYMBOLOGY and again in a solo exhibition at the D Street Cafe in Anchorage AK November 2000

PINTURA (digital study)  was selected by Juror Claire Romaro for the 11th annual NO BIG HEADS Self-Portrait competition,  11/21/96 - 12/12/96 at the University of Alaska Anchorage Campus Center Gallery 

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