for art geeks

If you're a fan of Lucas Cranach the Elder, you might enjoy fiddling with this funky tool at the Getty website. Apparently Cranach hid highly decorative micro details in his canvases that have only recently been discovered. Pretty cool!

Thanks to Julio for the tip--and for that time he got me back-stage at the National Gallery to see a Cranach under treatment. A special memory.

You might also enjoy the following novel by an old professor of mine at Temple University. Toby used the image of obsessively detailed canvases quite effectively therein:


And, of course, the greatest novel about art and northern Renaissance painting:



(image credit)