If you could have any five works of art in your house

[Scipio]

Christ Pantocrator from St. Catherine of Sinai Monastery
Ilya Repin, Reply of the Zaporozhan Cossacks
Carpeaux, Bust of Alexandre Dumas fils
William Blake, The Tyger
NC Wyeth, cover painting of The Black Arrow

[Sheilbh]

A Francis Bacon Triptych. Possibly this one because I've seen it:

El Greco's Opening of the Fifth Seal:

Turner's Burning of Parliament:

A complete illustrated Shahnameh.
And the Dying Gaul.

[crazy canuck]

I would acquire and then sell the five most expensive pieces of art and use the proceeds to build and stock the best wine cellar I could manage leaving sufficient money to allow me to retire to enjoy the fruits of my labour.

[Sheilbh]

I would acquire and then sell the five most expensive pieces of art

So a lot of Jeff Koons

[crazy canuck]

I would acquire and then sell the five most expensive pieces of art

So a lot of Jeff Koons

I dont need to look at them.  I just need to enjoy the wine they will allow me to purchase while I sit in my amazing wine cellar.

[The Larch]

El Greco's Opening of the Fifth Seal:

This year is El Greco's year over here, and they're doing a bucketload of retrospectives and conferences about him in Toledo. The main thesis being defended by critics is that, even if he was well appreciated during his life, his style was really a precursor for much more advanced styles like Expresionism and Cubism than the Renaissance period than he lived. That picture you chose could easily be used to defend that thesis.

[garbon]

I would acquire and then sell the five most expensive pieces of art

So a lot of Jeff Koons

Not that you were necessarily doing so, but I really don't get the angst about Jeff Koons making as much money as he possibly can.

[Liep]

I just googled Jeff Koons...

[garbon]

I liked his The New as a series of displayed vacuum cleaners.

[The Larch]

It could be worse, I guess, it could be Damien Hirst.

[Queequeg]

This year is El Greco's year over here, and they're doing a bucketload of retrospectives and conferences about him in Toledo. The main thesis being defended by critics is that, even if he was well appreciated during his life, his style was really a precursor for much more advanced styles like Expresionism and Cubism than the Renaissance period than he lived. That picture you chose could easily be used to defend that thesis.

IDK.  He's kind of an Icon painter doing Mannerism.  I mean, I think a lot of his work prefigures Expressionism and Post-Impressionism but IDK if it'd be accurate to describe Greco as somehow "knowing" about Expressionism or that his style was "more advanced."  There's David and Turner between Greco and Schiele, and I wouldn't call Greco more "advanced" than Caravaggio, even if I like Greco more. 

[garbon]

This year is El Greco's year over here, and they're doing a bucketload of retrospectives and conferences about him in Toledo. The main thesis being defended by critics is that, even if he was well appreciated during his life, his style was really a precursor for much more advanced styles like Expresionism and Cubism than the Renaissance period than he lived. That picture you chose could easily be used to defend that thesis.

IDK.  He's kind of an Icon painter doing Mannerism.  I mean, I think a lot of his work prefigures Expressionism and Post-Impressionism but IDK if it'd be accurate to describe Greco as somehow "knowing" about Expressionism or that his style was "more advanced."  There's David and Turner between Greco and Schiele, and I wouldn't call Greco more "advanced" than Caravaggio, even if I like Greco more. 

I like Caravaggio better but I don't think it would make sense to say that he prefigures Cubism.  I assume advanced here just means along the style that portrays figures in a less "realistic" manner. I think that's fair to put El Greco further along on that than say Caravaggio - though I think overall as the thesis that it is a bit of a reach.

[Queequeg]

I don't agree with that logic at all, BTW.  That there's some kind of linear line with bullshit, boring Abstract Expressionism as the "most advanced" form of painting because it doesn't depict anything.  Delacroix is great.  Caravaggio is great.  New Objectivity wasn't "worse" than Expressionism because Otto Dix and Grosz painted vaguely realistic human figures.

[Sheilbh]

This year is El Greco's year over here, and they're doing a bucketload of retrospectives and conferences about him in Toledo. The main thesis being defended by critics is that, even if he was well appreciated during his life, his style was really a precursor for much more advanced styles like Expresionism and Cubism than the Renaissance period than he lived. That picture you chose could easily be used to defend that thesis.

I take Quee's quibble over 'advanced', but I agree and that's part of what I love about El Greco (and Turner).

[Sheilbh]

I like Caravaggio better but I don't think it would make sense to say that he prefigures Cubism.  I assume advanced here just means along the style that portrays figures in a less "realistic" manner. I think that's fair to put El Greco further along on that than say Caravaggio - though I think overall as the thesis that it is a bit of a reach.

I think Larch (and the critics) meant advanced purely temporally with no implied judgement.