In which we are feeling artsy

My favorite class in college was an art history course I took--something like Cave Painting from a Really Long Time Ago to Pictures Painted by People You've Heard of, or something like that. It covered the paintings at Lescaux up through the early nineteenth century, and our final was a series of 50 slides. The professor scrolled through and we had to identify the piece, the period, and the artist. I LOVED it. If there had been an entire degree plan structured around it, I'd still be there, believe me. As it was, I didn't even have enough spare credits to take the second half of the course and consequently used to know much more about Hellenic sculptures than Cubism. (I say "used to" because most of what I learned in college is GONE. I found a Russian history notebook a few years ago full of detailed notes about boyars and such and I literally could not remember a single fact. Oh, yes, I can. Parts of Russia are cold. See? I was paying attention.)

Anyway, I particularly loved the Renaissance paintings, the shift from purely religious works to a more secular perspective--although Renaissance madonnas are some of the most sublime works ever painted. But while I just admire these paintings, other folks are digging deeper.

Poor Leonardo is about to be exhumed so researchers can determine if the Mona Lisa is a self-portrait. (The rumor has been circulating for ages.) I remember seeing a documentary where a self-portrait of Leonardo was superimposed upon the Mona Lisa's face and the features were almost an exact match. And if memory serves, they fit the Shroud of Turin's features as well....

In further Leonardo news, someone else has apparently discovered a musical score buried in The Last Supper. You can actually listen to the music here. A commenter referred to it as "The Last Supper: The Musical", but it would have to go a LONG way to light a fire under Andrew Lloyd Webber.