Sarah Fisichella

Spot the works by today's artist, Quentin Metsys, that hung in the home of the great collector Cornelis van der Geest in my own time. Had all the stars! I am here too, in person and in painting.

View of the entrance hall with rococo hunting trophies painted in blue on the white panelling and, all around the bottom, arched niches to serve as kennels for the Electress Maria Amalia’s dogs

Enfilade from a room with yellow panelling and silvered rococo carving into the central Hall of Mirrors, large clear glass chandeliers without drops hanging from the centre of each room

The Hall of Mirrors, with nicely clouded mirrors on each side of the octagonal (?) room, surrounded by a profusion of pale gold rococo boiseries in a pale blue background

Ceiling detail: silvery rococo carving of nymphs, birds, foliage and hunting trophies against a backdrop of pale blue and pale pink

I'm back in Toronto, but if you'll indulge me the travel snaps will continue! Here, Amalienburg, a pavilion in the grounds of the Nymphenburg palace #c18th #c18 #18thc

Back view of the top half of the of a hand stitched redingote shaped to fit the torso closely. It t resembles a man’s tailored jacket with deep revers and a deep pointed collar at the back

Front view of the 1790s redingote that shows the structured open robe gown with a white petticoat beneath and a white fichu tucked around the neck

Fabric detail of part of the collar of the 1790s redingote showing the covered decorative buttons and the revers of the collar. The fichu is visible tucked into the neckline

This is one of my favourite silhouettes, the sharp structure created by a c1790 redingote. It has the trappings of male tailoring whilst retaining the contemporary expectations of femininity. And as for the fabric….. #LACMA #FashionHistory 🗃️🪡

16th century woodcut of a mouse in profile

A very adorable mouse from 1554

Chinese wallpaper depicting birds birds (including a pair of peafowl) perched on and flying amidst the leafy branches of small trees - in green on a pink/buff background

Chinese wallpaper reflected in a rococo mirror framed with gilt dragons

A panel of the green and buff/pink bird wallpaper next to a white marble fireplace with a gold-framed mirror resting in the mantel and a painting of a white fox with a partridge in its mouth directly above

The extraordinary two-level bathing hall, with an ornate gilt bronze gallery overlooking the bathing area below, which is tiled in blue and white with a two-tiered marble bench at one end and two gold taps on the side wall. It must have taken hours to get the water to waist level! Not the only bath-house in Munich, but certainly the prettiest ;)

Badenburg, a bathing pavilion in the grounds of Nymphenburg #c18th #c18 #18thc

Lot 43. The Peter Van Slyke Collection. A Dutch Delft blue and white brush back (borstelrug), circa 1730; 15.9 cm long10 cm wide. Price Realised USD 381 (Estimate USD 1,500 - USD 2,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2025

www.alaintruong.com/2025/10/dutc...

Musk: X will delete all heuristics from its recommendation system within six weeks. ...the familiar logic of likes, replies, and reposts that shaped Twitter for years is about to disappear. In its place, Grok, the platform's in-house Al model, will read and watch more than one hundred million posts.

An adorable little #Roman figurine of a mouse playing a trumpet - because, why not?

#Archaeology #AncientBlueSky

Jester wooden marionette looks over an occult tome by candlelight

Faust attempts to summon Mephisto

Marionette stage scene showing the King's castle aflame and his entire court drowning

Mephisto flanked by two demons enter a flaming room.

🚨Public Service Announcement
Jan Švankmajer's wonderful wonderful LEKCE FAUST (1994) is currently available on YouTube (HD transfer, original Czech with English subs) if you want to treat yourself...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=adZp...

The bottom of the tall rectangular Arnolfini Portrait, showing the little toy dog at near the feet of the husband and wife. He's a little brown terrier type, with long silky hair (a mix of several shades of brown, with lots of blonde highlights and a little grey in the tiny short muzzle), rounded upright ears, and a short tail. He stands on bare wide plank wood floorboards, next to his mistress' sumptuous green velvet dress, puddled around her. The dog is looking directly at the viewers, unlike the humans, who look askance at each other. Jan van Eyck, Bruges, 1434. National Gallery, London (NG186)

Focusing on what's clearly the most important part of the famed Arnolfini Portrait: the dog.

Jan van Eyck painted every hair on that dog's coat, and frankly I can't even see the humans in this work, because the dog is perfect.

Painted in 1434, Bruges. #NationalGallery #dog
📸 me

Bottom corner of a 17th century book showing drawings

Title page of 'Epigrammes' by Ben Jonson, showing doodles at the bottom of the page

Delightful doodles of some pipe smoking Georgians found by Maddock Fellow Danielle Magnusson on the works of Ben Jonson, printed in 1616 #Readers #Epigrams

detail of the mole in MS. Ashmole 1511 (The Ashmole Bestiary), folio 36r. England, Early 13th century, illuminated manuscript on vellum. Illustration of a grey quadreped mammal identified as a mole, top-down flattened view, on a gold background with a rectangular frame.

To celebrate #MoleDay here is the Ashmole mole :)
MS. Ashmole 1511 (The Ashmole Bestiary), folio 36r. England, early 13th c. Illuminated manuscript on vellum.
Bodleian Libraries digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/faef...

A Snowy Egret puffs up all of its feathers to intimidate others. Deep blue water fills the background.

Attitude. Snowy Egrets are the masters of attitude! © Sandra Blair
#birds #photography #snowyegret #egret #birdphotography #wildlifephotography

She lies naked on a sofa, propped up on her elbows, exposing her voluptuous bottom. The white and pink of the bedclothes and O'Murphy's fresh skin colour contrast with the green velvet that covers the sofa, the green velvet drapery that hangs down and the green of the wall hangings. O'Murphy had the temerity to think she could oust La Pompadour as maîtresse en titre and was banished (she had a good run for a bit though)

François Boucher, portrait of Marie-Louise O'Murphy aka de Morphy (1752), one of the petites maîtresses (minor mistresses) of Louis XV, Alte Pinakothek #c18th #c18 #18thc @museumbums.bsky.social

Extremely à la mode baroque tableside carving / fruit sculpture performance from Mattia Giegher's Tre Trattati (1639)

gallica.bnf.fr/view3if/ga/a...

A painted bust of a woman whose head is a skull, adorned by flowers and a bird pecking at a branch

Flemish painter Catarina Ykens II, mostly known for still her lifes, puts the EEK in Ykens in this memento mori. Signed and dated: "Catharina ykens. filia Devota f. 1688" (Phoebus Foundation, Antwerp).

Seems to be a tiny mouse (other suggestions gratefully received) hitching a ride on this fifteenth-century manicule. In a copy of Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics, printed at Barcelona c. 1473. Now @theulspeccoll.bsky.social Inc.3.H.3.3[3472].

Otherworldly fungi from ‘Enciclopedia Universal Ilustrada Europeo-Americana.’ Published in Barcelona by Hijos de J. Espasa in a set of 72 volumes, 1908-1930.

#naturalhistory #mycology #mushrooms #sciart #mushroomart

Which snuffbox would you like to own? ✨

These ornate little containers are snuffboxes, and were used to hold powdered tobacco in the 17th and 18th centuries. Each one is a tiny artwork in itself.

👁️ https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection

Personifications by George Spratt. Originally lithographed by George Madeley and published by Charles Tilt in London. Senefelder Lithographic Co. released prints for the American Market, c1830-1831.

I saw these at the Boston Athenæum.

#PrintHistory #SpecialCollections

Depicted as a lady of wealth, (soft) power and taste, wearing a green silk gown trimmed with pink roses and ribbons, seated on a pink and white sofa that peeps out from behind the elaborate dress, framed by yellow silk draperies, with a bookcase surmounted by an enormous clock in the background and a small black and tan spaniel at her feet. On a small table to her right are letters; next to the dog, drawings

François Boucher, portrait of Madame de Pompadour (1756), maîtresse en titre (the main one) of Louis XV, Alte Pinakothek #c18th #c18 #18thc

Detail from a frintispiece of Tractatus physicus de tarantula, 1668, showing wolf spiders in the foreground and a smaller spider suspended from a tree, with a blue pencil for scale

In the 17th century some Europeans believed that a bite from a tarantula (or rather wolf spider) led to tarantism, a type of hysteria that could only by cured by a frenzied dance, the tarantella!

We sure do

The carapace, legs, and underside are black, while the white upperside of the abdomen features black spots, and six strawberry red spines with black tips. Dark blue, webbed background.

Female Spinybacked Orbweaver
(Gasteracantha cancriformis)

yesterday at Barefoot Beach
Bonita Springs, Florida

#Arachtober #Bugsky #blueSkyMonday #macroMonday #spooktober #halloween 🎃
#macro #photography #macroPhotography #arachnids #spiders #nature #eastcoastkin #art #barefootbeach #spiderwebs 🕷️

A four panel comic called Happy Halloween From The Birds. In panel 1, a pileated woodpecker has pecked its huge gaping rectangular holes in a pumpkin. In panel 2, a yellow-bellied sapsucker has pecked a face using its standard rows of small holes. In panel 3, a satin bowerbird has carved a pumpkin into a bower and placed its favorite blue candies all around it. In panel 4, a loggerhead shrike has impaled mini pumpkins on a fence's metal spikes and is saying "fight me."

Spooky season approaches, so I'm going to repost some of my Halloween comics from years past.

Two toed sloth by Charles Reuben Ryley from ‘Musei Leveriani explicatio, anglica et latina’ by George Shaw. London, Impensis Jacobi Parkinson, 1792-1796. Smithsonian Libraries and Archives.

#InternationalSlothDay #Sloths #naturalhistory #sciart #rarebooks

So weird how this keeps happening. www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

A digital illustration in a bestiary inspired style featuring a medieval style dragon with feathery wings and a lion-like head, wirh a severed arm in its mouth. The dragon is mostly blue, with green spots and legs, green and orange feathers in its wings, and an orange head. The severed arm is wearing a modern shirt and jacket sleeve and the hand is giving a thumbs up. The background is dark blue with sparkle-stars and a moon, and there's a picture-frame-like border with flame details and a label reading: eat the corporate leeches.

One of the stamp rallies I'm joining for MCM is the Medieval rally!
Here's the postcard print I'm contributing to the prize pack! 😁💕
#MCMLdn #MCMLondon #EatTheRich

Such empathy with these huddled beasts on a 10th/11thC whalebone chesspiece, perhaps a rook or a bishop, snuggling up against cold and damp autumn days…
www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...

What do you think of pastels? 🖍️

Swiss painter Jean-Etienne Liotard impressed the French crown princess with his pastels that he was asked to portray nearly the entire royal family. Easy to carry and quick to use, pastels were ideal for travelling artists.

👁️ https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200108464