Your clues this week are:

• The artist was an American, but wasn't born in the United States of America.
• A prolific painter and contributor to the gene pool, the artist created over 1,000 portraits and 16 offspring -- 11 of whom survived to adulthood.
• Besides art, our artist was also proficient in the areas of militia captain, saddler, taxidermist, political radical, watch maker, carpenter, legislative representative, silversmith, abolitionist, optometrist, upholsterer, museum founder, naturalist, sign painter, dentist, and spouse (by virtue of having married three times).

And


• The sitter in this portrait was elected to both houses of Congress, served as the Secretary of State, was the first person to lie in state in the United States Capitol, and, perhaps most importantly, introduced the mint julep to Washington, D.C.

Please email me your guesses over the coming week. I'll post the winner and correct answer with next week's guessing game. Good luck!

Last Week's Answer:

I was happy that Alain was the first to respond correctly to the clues last week. He knew that the artist was Melchor Perez de Holguin (Bolivian, ca. 1665-after 1732) and this painting, Saint Michael Archangel (1708), is supposed to show the War in Heaven. (I still think it would have been helpful if Holguin had painted ... oh, I don't know ... adult-sized legs on the sword-wielding Michael, since he is battting Satan, who is super powerful and probably fights dirty, but that's just me.) Bravo to you and your persistence, Alain!

Your clues this week are:

• The Hispano-American Baroque artist was born in colonial Alto Perú, in a town named "lake-open plain" if one uses the regional variant of Quechua. However, most of the artist's life was spent in a fabulously wealthy town at the foot of Cerro Rico -- also in Alto Perú. Incidentally, "Alto Perú" went the way of the Dodo in 1824.
• Some claim that the artist's teacher was Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-1682), but there is no evidence that the artist traveled to either Seville or Madrid. It is more likely that the artist saw engravings of Murillo's work.
• The artist was held in high regard for the ability to emphasize facial features. This was fortunate, I think, because you may have noticed that something went horribly, horribly wrong between this figure's torso and ankles.

And


• Speaking of the anatomically challenged figure, he looks a bit blasé. Considering that he is trying to kick a red dragon with seven heads and ten horns off of his turf, he might want to at least act interested.

Please email me your guesses over the coming week. I'll post the winner and correct answer with next week's guessing game. Good luck!

Last Week's Answer:

The clues last week led many readers astray to the corner of O'Keeffe and Hartley -- two artists we all adore, even though they were incorrect guesses (this time). Llyn, however, was right on the money with Raymond Jonson (1891-1982) and his Cliff Dwellings, No. 3 (1927). Jonson co-founded the Transcendental Painting Group in 1938, "Transcendental" being the Kant reference. No one mentioned the Yellowstone Caldera for bonus points but, considering its eruption would be the stuff of nightmares, perhaps no one wants to think about it. Anyhow, a big standing ovation for Llyn, and hang in there Alain!

Before last week, I would have said one involved Soul Brother Number One James Brown, and the other non-recyclables. That would have worked, too, were it not for the word "art" tailgating both "funk" and "junk." So once again I sallied forth, armed only with an Inter-Library Loan card and a can-do attitude. Now that I know, you, too, can know how to compare and contrast Junk Art and Funk Art. I figure if "Doing It to Death" (the actual name of "Gonna Have a Funky Good Time") plays in your head the whole time, that's your business. ("In order for me to get down, I have to get down in D," is not the worst life motto when you think about it.)