Jesse Locker
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jessemlocker.bsky.social
Jesse Locker
@jessemlocker.bsky.social
54K followers 2K following 3.6K posts
Professor of art history at Portland State University. Author of Artemisia Gentileschi: The Language of Painting (Yale University Press) and some other stuff. 2 parts Weltschmerz, 1 part vermouth
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jessemlocker.bsky.social
Jesse Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · Oct 19
Just because you're dead doesn't mean you can't be sassy

[Jan Luyken, after Cornelis van Dyk, Skeleton of a Man, 1680 etching, 139 mm × 86mm (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)🎃💀]
A swaggering skeleton resting his hand on his hip, what's left of his hair blowing in the breeze. In the background a funeral procession leading to a church.
Reposted by Jesse Locker
jessemlocker.bsky.social
11th-century University of Paris professor Raymond Diocrès, considered a saint at his death, returns to life at his funeral to warn he has been condemned to Hell for his sins

[Vicente Carducho, Saint Bruno’s Conversion before the Body of Diocrès, 1626-1632, oil on canvas (Museo Nacional del Prado)]
"Raymond Diocrès, a notable professor at the University of Paris, was already considered saintly when he died in 1082. At his funeral, he himself spoke to the attendees three times to inform them that God had accused, judged and finally condemned him for his sins. This first work from the series shows the deceased’s horror as well as the surprised visage of Bruno of Cologne (1035-1101), who was also a Paris University professor at that time. And here, it is clear that Vicente Carducho drew on the series that Juan Sánchez Cotán had painted for the charterhouse in Granada between 1615 and 1617. Both artists conceived this scene in a similar manner, with the deceased speaking from his position at the center of a majestic architectural setting. Some details are the same in both works, such as the clergyman wearing glasses (who appears on opposite sides of the two painting), or the mourning cross on a velvet-covered base" https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/saint-brunos-conversion-before-the-body-of-diocres/3ad3fd61-69b1-488a-a65c-c4416ee54f54
October 20, 2025 at 2:25 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Art history swag for the for Jordan Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design Grand Opening celebration tomorrow. You’re invited! www.psu.gd/grandopening
A box of pink pencils that read “Art history makes you smarter” and “Portland State University” #pdx
October 12, 2026 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by Jesse Locker
jessemlocker.bsky.social
When a pet is too much work.

[Alessandro Casolani, Young Woman Contemplating a Skull, 1567-1591, 62.9cm x 44.7cm (Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen)]
A painting of a woman in a yellow dress holding a rosary and contemplating a skull with way too much hair still on it
October 2, 2025 at 5:55 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
"Would you like fresh ground pepper with that?"

[Giovanni Martinelli, Death Comes to the Banquet Table, c. 1630-1640, Oil on canvas (New Orleans Museum of Art)] 💀
a group people gathered around a banquet table full of bread, fruit, tarts, and wine, looking in alarm at a skeleton who has appeared from the right holding an hourglass and address the members of the party
October 11, 2026 at 4:22 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, “The Devil's Lamp (The Bewitched Man),” 1798, oil on canvas, 42.5 × 30.8 cm (National Gallery, London). From the play "El Hechizado por Fuerza": the priest Don Claudio believes he has been bewitched and will die if the oil if his lamp is not perpetually replenished 🎃🐐
"We see Claudio eagerly replenishing the oil in the lamp, which is in the form of an almost life-size ram. The inscription in the bottom right contains the first part of two words, lampara descomunal (‘monstrous lamp’) – the words that the fearful and superstitious Claudio cries out loud." (NG) https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/francisco-de-goya-a-scene-from-the-forcibly-bewitched
October 11, 2026 at 3:24 AM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
When Saturday lute practice turns into an allegory of vanity 💀

[Luigi Miradori, called il Genovesino, Lute player, 1639/1641, oil on canvas, 138 x 100 cm, Genoa, Musei di Strada Nuova, Palazzo Rosso)]
A woman plays a lute at a table surrounded by jewels, coins, and other vanities, as a skull appears in the darkness above her #halloween #spooky
October 10, 2026 at 5:00 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
“After a month of looking at these Renoirs,” said one suspected burglar, “we just couldn’t take it anymore.”
theartnewspaper.bsky.social The Art Newspaper @theartnewspaper.bsky.social · 3d
Two Renoir paintings stolen last month from the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, near Nice, in south-east France have been recovered. Six suspects have also been arrested.

buff.ly/nug7hsg
October 9, 2026 at 4:23 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Unknown Lombard artist, Cats Singing, Directed by an Owl, c. 1700, oil on canvas, within a painted lunette (formerly Sotheby’s, London) 🎃🐈‍⬛
A cat orchestra directed by an owl, with sheet music made of little drawings of mice, cats playing instruments, a demon plays a horn with his butt, as well as some other nonsense
October 9, 2026 at 4:13 PM
Reposted by Jesse Locker
karlsteel.bsky.social
**early modern spectacle**
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d
Ossoff: "I think Pete Hegseth is frankly a deeply unwell person who seems to relish this kind of brutality all the while he's running a department that is falling into chaos. The guy cannot run the military competently and is spending his time with this kind of obscene medieval spectacle."
October 9, 2026 at 2:17 AM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
You don't hear much about it, but mosaic was still a flourishing art form in the seventeenth century - Marcello Provenzale, a genius of Baroque mosaics in the Rome of the Borghese family. The exhibition in Cento www.finestresullarte.info/en/exhibitio...
Marcello Provenzale, Face of Christ (c. 1600; micromosaic, 50.3 x 37.8 cm; Cento, Grimaldi Fava Collection). Detail of a mosaic showing visible tesserae
October 8, 2026 at 7:53 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
"Hey, you don't think grandma's a witch, do you?"

[John Michael Wright, Portrait of Mrs Salesbury with her Grandchildren Edward and Elizabeth Bagot, 1675-6, oil on canvas, 129.5 x 133.6 cm (Tate)] 🎃
A portrait of a woman in a pointy black hat (definitely a witch) with two young children
October 8, 2026 at 2:31 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Relaxing with a cigarette while AI prepares my class for tomorrow
A vintage ad or article(?) with a black-and-white photo of an old-fashioned robot holding a bucket and sponge as it washes a car, which a man in a blazer with a cigarette watches. The text reads: "The Reckitt Industrial robot is a computerized cleaner. First presented to the world in January 1977, it is 3 ft 2 in. (0.97 m.) high and weighs under three stone (19 kg.). can scrub and polish floors, dust anc polish desks and furniture, sweep vacuum, and remove excess water Dennis Weston's Tinker, which can be programmed to perform any reasonable task"
October 8, 2026 at 3:17 AM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Antoine Wiertz, Premature Burial, 1854, 160 cm (62.9 in) x 235 cm (92.5 in) (Antoine Wiertz Museum, Brussels). The inscription of the coffin reads: “MORT DU CHOLERA / Certifié par nous Docteurs / Sansdoutes” (“DEAD FROM CHOLERA / Certified by us Doctors / Without a doubt”) 🎃💀
Three wooden coffins in a catacomb, one being pushed open by a man with a horrified look on his face. The inscription of the coffin reads: “MORT DU CHOLERA / Certifié par nous Docteurs / Sansdoutes” (“DEAD FROM CHOLERA / Certified by us Doctors / Without a doubt”) #halloween
October 7, 2026 at 2:47 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Teaser for the documentary "Artemisia's Secrets," about the restoration of Artemisia Gentileschi's Penitent Mary Magdalene in the Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo
www.youtube.com
October 7, 2026 at 3:58 AM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
If you're in the Portland area and care about visual arts, you won't want to miss the grand opening celebrations for Jordan Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design Grand Opening, Oct. 13, 4-8 pm. DJ! Churros! Clown bingo! Knitting with algae! Art! And lots more! ☞ www.psu.gd/grandopening #pdx
Grand Opening! — PSUGD
www.psu.gd
October 6, 2026 at 5:29 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Morris Kantor, Haunted House, 1930, oil on canvas,
94.3 × 84.5 cm (37 1/8 × 33 1/4 in.), Art Institute of Chicago 🎃
"Morris Kantor drew inspiration from the material culture of historical New England—ladder-back chairs, colonial portraiture, marine painting, wallpaper—in this fantastical rendering of a supposedly haunted house in rural Massachusetts. A shadowy figure lurks at the composition’s darkened right edge, an unknown presence encroaching on the comforts of the sitting room. Kantor later recalled that such a setting, with “its peculiar moldy smell, the fading beauty of old plaster discolored by time and living … turned my imagination to the past, to the people who had lived there and gone.” A Russian immigrant, the artist engaged with the stories and objects of American history as catalysts for his Surrealist, dreamlike musings." https://www.artic.edu/artworks/9614/haunted-house
October 6, 2026 at 2:16 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
So excited that Patrizia Cavazzini will be giving the 30th annual Sydney J. Freedberg Lecture on Italian Art at the National Gallery of Art. A well-deserved honor!
Women Painters in Italy c.1600: Opportunities and Constraints: Sydney J. Freedberg Lecture on Italian Art | National Gallery of Art
www.nga.gov
October 6, 2026 at 2:32 AM
Reposted by Jesse Locker
mykafuiohkafui.bsky.social
𝟏.) 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭

This gift option isn’t just 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴, it’s 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 —with the added benefit of being perfect for the woman who has it all! 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘑𝘰𝘩𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵 fits your requirements that your present be 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 and 𝘯𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘺, but 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘭 for a budding courtship.
October 5, 2026 at 4:25 AM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Odilon Redon, The Battle of the Bones, 1881, Charcoal on paper, 44.7 x 37.3 cm (Kröller-Müller Museum) 💀
A charcoal drawing of a skeleton at a table with a plate, a glass, and a wife carafe. Another skeleton leans its head out of open bed curtains
October 5, 2026 at 2:18 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
For those who think Rembrandt's "Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp" isn't gross enough, thankfully there's also his "Anatomy lesson of Dr. Jan Deijman," painted about 30 years later, showing the dissection of a criminal call "Zwarte Jan" by renowned anatomist Jan Deijman 🎃💀🧠
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, The Anatomy Lesson of Joan Deyman 1656, Oil on canvas, 100 x 134 cm (Historisch Museum, Amsterdam). A scene of a body being dissected with the brain exposed and a doctor looking on.
October 4, 2026 at 9:32 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Adolph Menzel, Death as an Unwelcome Guest, 1844/1845. Watercolor and gouache. 5.1 x 3.6 in. (Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin). Death politely recognizes that this is a shoe-free house.
Death, dressed in a top hat and overcoat, rings the doorbell as he removes his shoes. Inscribed: "1844: Plusquamperfectum" ("more than finished")
October 4, 2026 at 4:20 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Job: Associate Professor of Art and Architecture of the Medieval World at Johns Hopkins University #medievalsky
Associate Professor of Art and Architecture of the Medieval World, Baltimore
Lauren Crabtree. Department of the History of Art at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 01.07.2027, Bewerbungsschluss: 30.10.2026
arthist.net
October 4, 2026 at 4:31 AM
Reposted by Jesse Locker
michaelwarburton.bsky.social
— “You got types?"

— “Only you, darling. Lanky brunettes with wicked jaws."

Myrna Loy & William Powell in

THE THIN MAN (1934)
October 3, 2026 at 12:57 PM
Reposted by Jesse Locker
tropigotico.bsky.social
October 3, 2026 at 12:49 PM
jessemlocker.bsky.social
Pensionante del Saraceni, The Fright, c. 1615-20, Oil on canvas 65.4 x 52.1 cm (72.5 x 86 x 5.4 cm) (Gaudium Magnum Foundation). I'm not sure what's going on here, but such a great study in characteristically baroque extremes of emotion and some dazzling optical effects. 🎃
A young man in a shadowy interior suddenly recoils in fright, causing his fear to erupt in an agitated cry, almost as though he were trying to tell us that it is we, looking at him, who are the source of that fear. The young man, shown in a half-bust pose in the foreground, is accompanied solely by a clear, half-full carafe that reflects his image in a sophisticated play of echoes in an optical-scientific vein.
October 3, 2026 at 4:58 PM