• Kira Cochrane riffs on Freud's relationship to his muse at The Guardian: "Down the ages, the role of artist has almost always been taken by a man, the role of muse by a woman, and in this relationship we have seen the clearest, most delineated understanding of man as active, powerful subject, and woman as passive, benumbed, decorative object."
• And Annika Mengisen asks, "What does $33.6 million mean in the art world?" at The New York Times: "Does this symbolize a thriving art market, is it a happy exception, or is it even worth the price? According to one estimate, the money paid for the painting could have paid for 20 minutes of America’s gasoline consumption."
• See what artists are saying at Art News about the size of the model, the merit of arguably "ugly" images in our arguably "ugly" world and concepts of truth and beauty in contemporary art.
  

Remember to adjust your screensaver preferences if you want to take "a relaxing meditative trip around the world," as Davies phrases it. If your timing is off and (like me) you're rarely idle, you may never get your window seat.

In celebration of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ birthday (Aug. 29, 1780), take a break and consider the French neoclassical painter’s works in this slideshow put together by Brenda of Dayton, Ohio. While you’re at it, check out some of her other fine art videos.

The other day as I flipped through the book, Paintings That Changed the World (Prestel), I stopped on the entry for Ingres’ painting, Turkish Bath. According to the book, it was this masterpiece—created during the last years of his life, at 82 years old—that established the artist as a revolutionary. Which struck me as odd, considering that his emotional portraits and exaggerated proportions (as in La Grande Odalisque, painted 48 years prior) seem to qualify to me as going against rigid neoclassical conventions. But I digress. Enjoy the slideshow.