Pete Panse Latest

Today, recordonline.com from the Times Herald-Record published a letter by Jerry Fisher, father of a Middletown High School student who received a $60,000 scholarship after following Pete Panse's advice to enroll in a figure-drawing class. Mr Fisher's letter - headlined Middletown art teacher was vilified for trying to help - repudiates the unwarranted attacks on Pete's integrity and is well worth reading (title link). Why did I choose to illustrate this post with a detail from Caravaggio's Amor Victorious? It is Valentine's Day. So we need a Cupid, and this is one of the finest Cupids ever painted. How can an artist paint an anatomical study of this quality unless he has a naked sitter? And practice makes perfect. This is what life classes are all about. Prudes who don't understand this should not be in charge of high schools that offer art courses. (For comparisons of two Cupids by Bouguereau and two St John the Baptists as a Child by Caravaggio click HERE).