While there is no shortage of virtuoso brushwork by vintage art stars here, these masterworks are sometimes startlingly simpatico with both antique and avant-garde styles. Paul van Somer's 1620 Elizabeth, Vicountess Faulkland, (top) reveals a smirking noblewoman in an outrageous Peruvian Colonial looking outfit, but her hairdo is even wilder, a kind of medieval bouffant with a filigree of flowers and lace. An extravaganza worthy of Max Ernst, this somehow recalls both Frida Kahlo and The Bride of Frankenstein, left. And Henry VIII, Mary I and Will Somers the Jester, above, an anonymous mid-16th century court painting of imposingly outfitted royals looking like they're plotting palace intrigue as a sinister jester skulks grimly in the shadows, is also improbably cinematic. Curated by Newcomb art historian Anne Dunlop, and featuring works loaned by Houston's stellar Blaffer Collection, this old master portrait show suggests that, rather than a fixed period of time, the aesthetic meaning of "modern" may involve a certain, psychologically expressive, state of mind. ~Bookhardt
Early Modern Faces, European Portraits, 1480-1780: Paintings and Prints by Old Masters, Through June 29, Newcomb Art Gallery, Tulane University, 865-5328