Johan Gustaf Sandberg, Swedish
Poussin, Raphael, Rubens, Dürer & Rembrandt, Just Before the Breakup of Their Boy Band, The Recording Artists, 1828
Oil on canvas
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Info about this artist is pointed to by my comment and reply at another blog entry.
/// In a “meeting” which never took place,
these Five Artists each angles his face
so he can’t see the others.
This is no band of brothers;
it’s a badly combined hack disgrace.
/// It appears Sandberg managed to find
separate portraits which then he combined.
But, though they’re side-by-side,
clearly, he never tried
to unite them. They’re snobbish or blind.
/// Light and shadows don’t seem as they should,
and they stand stiff as five blocks of wood.
Three are “looking” at us,
but two aren’t, and thus,
it’s like art by A.I.— not so good.
/// But, perhaps my critique is too strong.
There’s some merit, though much here is wrong.
As Rembrandt might have said,
(were the rest not yet dead),
“Why can’t we five all just get along?”
/// It is not that they weren’t aware
that a smile attracts more than a glare.
They won’t let their teeth show
in this solemn tableau,
due to long-ago poor dental care.