Who Arted: Weekly Art History for All Ages

Explore the unlikely stories of Lisa Gherardini, Leonardo da Vinci, and Vincenzo Peruggia and their roles in making the Mona Lisa the most famous painting in the world. Delve into the background of Mona Lisa, the obstacles faced by Leonardo da Vinci, and the peculiarities of the painting. Learn about Leonardo's notebooks and the enigmatic smile of Mona Lisa.

On September 12, 1940, a dog fell down a fox hole and four boys went in after it. They descended into a cavern with a makeshift lamp and hopes of finding their dog, but they found way more creatures than they were expecting. In this episode, we explore the caves of Lascaux, France and some of the most famous prehistoric art in the world.Check out my other podcast Art Smart | Rainbow Putty Science LabWho ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An artist’s skillful application of paint will make an artwork good, but a good story makes that artwork great. In 2010, a painting went on auction at Sotheby’s and sold for $1.5 million and I would argue that price is not because of the image, or the artist, but rather the story.Harry Hahn was an American pilot fighting in World War 1. He was fortunate to not only survive the brutal war, but also while serving overseas, he met the love of his life. He married a French woman named Andree Lardoux. Her aunt, the Comtesse Louise de Montaut decided to give the young couple one of the old paintings in her collection as a wedding present. This gift seemed particularly special as a French connoisseur by the name of George Sortais had examined the painting in 1916 and he had declared it to be the work of none other than Leonardo da Vinci.Check out my other podcast Art Smart | Rainbow Putty Science LabWho ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In November of 1957, a small committee was formed. February 17, 1958, they held the first public meeting of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. That same year, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament asked the artist Gerald Holtom to create a symbol for the movement. The CND has been at the forefront of the peace movement in the UK and claims to be Europe’s biggest single-issue peace campaign. Holtom’s design though has become one of the most widely recognized symbols on the planet. I am talking of course of the peace sign. More than one peace sign exists. There is a hand gesture comprised of a thumb holding down the ring finger and pinky as the index and middle fingers are splayed to form a “v” In some bit of irony, that hand gesture started on the battlefields of World War II. Allied soldiers held up the gesture signaling “v for victory” and sometime later, anti-war protesters adopted the gesture as a peace sign. The universal symbol developed by Gerald Holtom though, is the other peace sign, the one consisting of a circle with a vertical line down the center and two diagonal lines forming an inverted v shape going from the center of the vertical line down to the bottom portion of the circle. Gerald Holtom made line drawings representing the flag semaphores of N and D for nuclear disarmament then put it into a circle to represent the globe and because let’s face it, the roundness looks nice.Check out my other podcast Art Smart | Rainbow Putty Science LabWho ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Diego Velazques was one of the most significant painters of Spain's Golden Age in the 17th century. He was a master of both portraiture and genre painting, Las Meninas is a sort of mix of both. We see people who seem rather formally dressed by today’s standards, but the subject is also, it was a peak behind the curtain of royal life. Withing the work, the first focal point would be the little girl, the infanta margarita, daughter of the king and queen of spain. She is dramatically lit from the side by light streaming in from the window. The top half of the composition is essentially in shadow, and we see her looking out at us, the viewers. Diego Velazquez included himself in the scene as he stands before his giant canvas. Within this oil on canvas painting, we see a representation of a painter working on canvas. Velazquez also seems to break the fourth as he looks out at the viewer. There is a figure standing in the doorway in the back of the composition. The strong light in the doorway pulls our focus there as a secondary focal point, and that figure seems to be caught in motion and again, he looks out at us, the viewers.In this episode, I referenced Jan van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait. To learn more about that, check out my previous episode:Jan van Eyck | The Arnolfini PortraitCheck out my other podcast Art Smart | Rainbow Putty Science LabWho ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rene Magritte's painting, Son of Man, is among the most famous images of the Surrealist Movement. It is one of the few artworks that transcends the museum and has become a part of pop culture. Actually technically it isn’t even in the museums. Son of Man is privately owned and rarely seen on public display, but it has been referenced in books, movies like Stranger than Fiction and The Thomas Crown Affair, tv shows like The Simpsons, music videos by the likes of Michael Jackson. Of course listeners of this show no doubt recognize that the painting was also the inspiration for the greatest pop culture image of all time, my podcast cover art.Related episode: Rene Magritte | The False Mirror (full episode)Check out my other podcast Art Smart | Rainbow Putty Science LabWho ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steven Seidenberg is an incredible photographer and in this episode, I spoke with Steven Seidenberg and the writer, Carolyn White about a little-known bit of history in Post World War 2 Italy. His latest book The Architecture of Silence: Abandoned Lives of the Italian South documents the ruins of a failed policy that gave impoverished people a bit of land and housing without the infrastructure needed to sustain a community. The companion book Distant Voices: on Steven Seidenberg's Architecture of Silence is a collection of essays that help put it all into perspective with relevant historical context.Find Steven Seidenberg:ww.stevenseidenberg.comLinks to buy the books:https://www.amazon.com/Architecture-Silence-Abandoned-Italian-South/dp/8869658902/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1YOGKULHMU1C6&keywords=architecture+of+silence&qid=1687919169&s=books&sprefix=architecture+of+silence%2Cstripbooks%2C217&sr=1-3https://www.amazon.com/DISTANT-VOICES-Seidenbergs-ARCHITECTURE-SILENCE/dp/8869658961/ref=sr_1_1?crid=32C3234K86US5&keywords=distant+voices+carolyn+white&qid=1687919234&s=books&sprefix=distant+voices+carolyn+whit%2Cstripbooks%2C144&sr=1-1And a link to a recent piece on his work in Rome, documenting a migrant tent city that was destroyed in 2018.https://placesjournal.org/article/baobab-tent-city-in-rome/Check out my other podcast Art Smart | Rainbow Putty Science LabWho ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alma Thomas was an amazing African American painter known for her abstract paintings with bold brush strokes that take on a mosaic quality.Check out my other podcast Art Smart | Rainbow Putty Science LabWho ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In honor of Alfonse Mucha's birthday, I thought I would post an encore of my mini episode about the poster that catapulted him to fame. In December 1894, Alphonse Mucha just happened to be in the print shop checking some proofs for a friend, when in walked an actress, Sarah Bernhardt in need of posters for her upcoming play. All of the regular artists she worked with were off for the holidays leaving Mucha as her only option. It was a tremendous stroke of luck for both of them as Mucha created a stunning poster that not only flattered the actress, it caught the attention of collectors all around Paris. People were cutting the posters off of displays and bribing the poster hangers so they could get copies, and the Mucha style laid the foundation for Art Nouveau.Related episodes: Alphonse Mucha | Gismonda (full episode from season 1) Art Smart: Art Nouveau Check out my other podcasts Art Smart | Rainbow Putty Science LabWho ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This mini episode is about The Book of the Dead, a collection of funerary texts from ancient Egypt. To better understand the collection as well as the culture and mythology behind these works, I looked a little bit at the page showing the judgment of Hunefer, a high-ranking scribe and priest. I gave a quick shoutout to Abigail Green from CourseStorm.com who was kind enough to include me in her blog post listing The Best Art Podcasts for Arts Organizations, Educators and Creatives. Check out her list if you are looking for other art education related podcasts: https://www.coursestorm.com/blog/best-art-podcasts/Check out my other podcast Art Smart | Rainbow Putty Science LabWho ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast. If you are interested in advertising on this or any other Airwave Media show, email: advertising@airwavemedia.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices