For my very first give-away your prize will be my oversized wall calendar. This way you get many lovely images (if I do say so myself, and you know I do) and you get something for the new year.

Now for the rules.

First answer this question (in the comments, not just in your head):   If you could own any painting which one would it be and why? If you would post a link that would be even better. Although it won’t help your chances of winning it will make it much more enjoyable for us all .

How this works: I will put the number of comments into a random number generator, whichever number that baby spits out will be the winner (if I can’t figure out how those work then I will have The Man pick a number between 1 and the yet to be seen number of comments, not fancy but it works).  I will then ship the calendar to you.

I will most likely do a top 5 comments as well. You won’t win anything, but it’s an extra way for me to thank you all for participating.

I will start, I would love to be able to look at this Pasini every single day.  It has that quality that just makes me sigh. Everything is in place and it all seems to hum together. Don’t even get me started on the gorgeous spot of teal. In real life it is lovely.

The winner will be announced next Wednesday! Good luck!

(p.s. I’m so excited.)

(p.p.s. Sept. and Nov. will have full size images by next Wednesday)

After the opening the man of the house and I slipped off to the Art Institute to find the Pasini. I always talk about this painting and had not been able to get Joe to see it until tonight. We also stumbled onto the Caravaggio painting that is supposed to make it’s debut tomorrow night to members only. Oops. It was a bit crowded for my taste and I couldn’t stand back far enough to appreciate it, but I did get up close and check it out.  Now, I’m not saying Caravaggio is not worth a peek, but he was a little ruined for me.  Let me put it this way….which painting really gets the emotion and expression of the scene in the paintings Painting One or Painting Two ? WARNING: You may find the images disturbing. Caravaggio painted No. 2, a woman from around the same time period painted No. 1. She got the arterial spary down. (It’s more than a little creepy if you stop and think about how she could have gotten the knowledge of arterial spray in that period) Almost nobody knows her name. More people know Caravaggio’s name than hers and most people don’t know Caravaggio’s name. Artemsia Gentileschi (that’s her name) is kind of a bad ass. She was raped as a teenager by the man to whom she was apprenticing. After the man decided not to marry her her father sued him. Not because he raped his daughter, but because he kept two of her paintings. While testifying she had to endure thumbscrews to prove she was telling the truth (yes the thumbscrews are exactly what you think they are). As an artist that is insane. If the wounds became infected she would most likely never be able to handle a brush again. Again, I’m not saying Caravaggio isn’t good or that some of his other painting are not amazing, but I’m saying let’s see him do them after thumbscrews….

Note: Originally posted on 10/9/09 at blog.limitedpalette.com