PORTRAITS FROM JAMA

I have been wanting to do a change of pace for a while and since the political scene in Plainfield has been relatively quiet lately I am posting three JAMA "portrait" covers.

JAMA is the weekly Journal of the American Medical Association and for years it has featured the works of various artists of different disciplines and ages on its covers. There is an explanation page included but to copy as a photo the print is too small to post on the blog.

I have chosen three portraits, the first one "The Young Woman of Albano" ( L'Albanaise) was painted in 1872 by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875) A Frenchman in Albano Italy.



The second portrait was painted in 1884 by Ilya Efmovich Repin (1844-1930) a Russian. The subject is his 29 year old friend Vsevoled Mikhaiovitch Garshin an author who suffered from depression and 4 years after this portrait committed suicide by jumping from his 5th floor apartment..
The third "portrait" by Miguel Mateo Maldonato y Cabrero (1695-1768) in 1750 was not painted from life . The subject Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz lived in the 17th Century. She was an avid reader and by the age of 16 was proficient in Latin, Greek, and arithmetic. The University was only open to males but the Marquesa of Mancera the wife of the Viceroy of New Spain (Mexico) took fancy to her and became her patron, tutor and friend. She left the 'Court life to join the Convent of the Order of San Jeromino.

There she was permitted to write for publication and wrote on "women's right for education", the "double standard" and other controversial subjects years before their times. In 1690 the Bishop of Puebla "suggested" that she abandon her secular writings and concentrated on religious issues. In 1694 she signed a a statement of contrition and died of an epidemic that swept through the Convent in 1695 killing most of the sisters.

Additional information on the artists and their subjects can be found in Wikipedia.