Celebrating My "Double-Nickel" Birthday

Agnus Dei, ca. 1635-40, oil on canvas, Francisco de Zurbarán

Heartfelt thanks everyone for the warm birthday wishes, you made my day week extra special. Blessed with generous and loving family and friends, I was pampered for nearly a week with homemade dinners, nights on the town, museum visits, and thoughtful gifts.* God bless you all! ~ Giovanni

(L) Philip IV, King of Spain, probably 1624, oil on canvas, Diego
Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez. (R) Margherita Gonzaga, Princess
of Mantua, ca. 1606, oil on canvas, Frans Pourbus the Younger

Wolf and Fox Hunt, ca. 1616, oil on canvas, Peter Paul Rubens and Workshop

(L) The Calmady Children, 1823, oil on canvas, Sir Thomas Lawrence.
(R) Don Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares, ca. 1636
or later, oil on canvas, Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo

Cassone with painted front panel depicting the Conquest of Trebizond, after ca. 1461, poplar wood, linen, polychromed and gilded gesso with panel painted in tempera and gold, attributed to workshop of Apollonio di Giovanni di Tomaso and workshop of Marco del Buono Giamberti

(L) The Last Judgment, ca. 1436-38, oil on canvas, transferred
from wood, Jan van Eyck. (R) The Adoration of the Magi,
ca. 1475, oil and gold on oak, Heironymous Bosch

Sunrise, ca. 1646-47, oil on canvas, Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellée)

(L) Chimneypiece (cheminée) ca. 1665-70, limestone, after a design by Jean Le Pautre. (R) Venus Giving Arms to Aeneas, 1704, terracotta, Jean Cornu

Louis XIV, 1681, bronze medallion, François Bertinet

Louis XIV in Allegorical Armor, ca. 1648, bronze medal, Michael Molart

Philippe, Due d'Anjou, 1655, bronze medal, French

One can never have too much poetry and art: (L) Selected Poems of Ezra Pound and (R) The Secret Armoire: Corot's Figure Paintings and the World of Reading

I got new editions of some old favorites: (L) Mitra-Varuna by Georges
Dumézil and (R) The Myth of the Eternal Return by Mircea Eliade

The real surprise was getting books by two of my favorite sword & sorcery
and sci-fi artists: (L) Den Volume 1: Neverwhere by Richard Corben
and (R) Inksplosion: 150 Ink Drawings by Mike Hoffman

* Photos of the artwork were taken at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The books were thoughtful gifts from friends and family.