Caravaggio is one of the bad boys of classic art – his life was anything but quiet and peaceful.
So it’s always surprising to see how he mastered topics that were quite contrary to his lifestyle. But maybe he longed in his heart for such a good and quiet life?
From Wikipedia (which has a nice entry about this painting):
The seven acts represented on the painting are the following Corporal Works of Mercy traditionally recognized by the Roman Catholic church, as follows:
On the right appear: (1) the burial of the dead and the episode of the so-called Carità Romana (Cimon’s daughter breastfeeding her father, who was sentenced to life in prison), containing at once the two charitable acts of (2) visiting prisoners and (3) feeding the hungry.
Appearing in the foreground are St. Martin and the beggar, symbolizing (4) dressing the naked. Next to this scene, the host and St. James of Compostela allude to the (5) offering of hospitality to pilgrims. Samson drinking from the ox jaw represents (6) relieving the thirsty. The youth on the ground behind the beggar of St. Martin may also represent the merciful gesture of (7) caring for the sick.
Excellent report on what’s really going on in Israel. And how fanaticism makes the lives of ordinary people hell. While the Mainstream Media focuses on Al-Quaeda, they mostly miss the slow grinding and brutal realities in all the other spots (like this one in this report, but also the tyranny in Egypt, Libya and other countries in the region).
1. Click player below to start the music. 2. Click the image to dive into the art. 3. Study for three and a half minutes this painting.
Another great work of Art by Maestro Draper and once again a highly romantic and loving moment. Two lover who can only share two short moments each day when they pass each other …
This painting has a harsh realism to it – which I find rather intriguing. Many romantic painter can really turn the most dreadful moments into cheesy art, but Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret keep it simple and honest. Character traits not many painters posses, most of them love drama and spilling it all over their canvases …
The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun – click for a larger version.
The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun – click for a larger version.
The Great Red Dragon and the Beast from the Sea – click image for a bit larger image.
The Number of the Beast is 666 – click image for a bit larger image.
William Blake was a very unusual artist. While most of his contemporary colleagues were wallowing in Romanticism he dug deeper. A lot of his work is romantic, but there is always a dark background that makes you feel uneasy and intrigued at the same time.
From Wikipedia:
William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". His visual artistry has led one modern critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced". Although he only once journeyed farther than a day’s walk outside London during his lifetime, he produced a diverse and symbolically rich corpus, which embraced ‘imagination’ as "the body of God", or "Human existence itself".
Considered mad by contemporaries for his idiosyncratic views, Blake is held in high regard by later critics for his expressiveness and creativity, and for the philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his work. His paintings and poetry have been characterized as part of both the Romantic movement and "Pre-Romantic", for its large appearance in the 18th century. Reverent of the Bible but hostile to the Church of England, Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American revolutions, as well as by such thinkers as Jacob Boehme and Emanuel Swedenborg.
I often wonder how old paintings really looked like when the artist originally painted them. Too many ingredients like egg yolk age or darken over time, so we only see a darker version.
The Mona Lisa was recently cleaned and “improved” – and she looks great and much more natural.
Lord Leighton is one of my personal gods. I love his art – so I was pretty excited to hear that his work would be on display at the Villa Stuck here in Munich.
What an disappointment.
Only a few paintings came to Munich – it was mostly sketches and a few sculptors.
Evelyn de Morgan belongs to the rare breed of female classical painters. Her Pre-Raphaelite style is as powerful and enchanting as that of her male colleagues.
3. Study for four minutes this great study of madness and anger.
Illya Repin is a revelation for me. His panoramic paintings are strong and full of harsh realism. They are more like an ancient newsreel showing the human condition without false romanticism – although he has painted some "nice" art as well.
The Madness of Ivan the Terrible is a perfect subject for an artist with such rare talents. Ivan is one of the darkest human characters you can imagine. His life was nothing short of hell on earth – for himself and thousands of his underlings.
I am actually surprised that Hollywood has discovered his story yet – he would make a great movie of blood and tears. Russian cinema obviously has made some movies about him – the great Sergei Eisenstein made a two part saga of Ivan the Terrible.
To it is still a mystery why the sculpting has lost the top spot to painting. Until the early Middle Age sculpting reigned supreme in the visual arts, but then it slowly lost to paintings.
Sure you can show much bigger and fantastic scenes on canvas than you can show in stone, but sculptures are real and have a life-like power to them images simply lack.
Ways of Seeing was a 1972 BBC television series created chiefly by writer John Berger and producer Mike Dibb, that gave rise to a later book of the same name. The series and book criticize traditional Western cultural aesthetics by raising questions about hidden ideologies in visual images.
3. Study for four minutes this great piece of art and all the drama.
John Charles Dollman (1851-1934) is hardly a well known Master and he has only produced a few interesting paintings – but this one of my all time favorites (I think that Chimp near that temptress is just brilliant) .
According to Athanasius, the devil fought St. Anthony by afflicting him with boredom, laziness, and the phantoms of women, which he overcame by the power of prayer, providing a theme for Christian art. After that, he moved to a tomb, where he resided and closed the door on himself, depending on some local villagers who brought him food. When the devil perceived his ascetic life and his intense worship, he was envious and beat him mercilessly, leaving him unconscious. When his friends from the local village came to visit him and found him in this condition, they carried him to a church.
In ancient Roman mythology Aurora, goddess of the dawn, renews herself every morning and flies across the sky, announcing the arrival of the sun. Her parentage was flexible: for Ovid she could equally be Pallantis, signifying the daughter of Pallas,[1] or the daughter of Hyperion.[2] She has two siblings, a brother (Sol, the sun) and a sister (Luna, the moon), and four children, the Winds
Aurora appears most often in Latin poetry with one of her mortal lovers. A myth taken from the Greek Eos by Roman poets tells that one of her lovers was the prince of Troy, Tithonus. Tithonus was a mortal, and would age and die. Wanting to be with her lover for all eternity, Aurora asked Zeus to grant immortality to Tithonus. Zeus granted her wish, however Aurora had failed to ask him for eternal youth. As a result, Tithonus ended up aging eternally. Aurora ended up turning her beloved Tithonus into a grasshopper.
3. Study for three minutes this great piece of art and it’s momentum.
The death of heroes is always celebrated with grandeur and excitement in classical paintings. Sure there are many pieces of canvas that try to cope with pain as well. But there are only a few pieces of art that deal with those left behind.
Maestro Bouguereau presents to us these two women mourning the death of a loved one. But instead of loads of drama and hysteria he leaves us to observe the silent suffering of these two graces. There is no story, there is no name on the grave.
The scene is set in an autumn setting – and no season is more symbolic for the mortality of life.
In the Homeric story, Orestes, a member of the doomed house of Atreus which is directly related to Tantalus and Niobe, was absent from Mycenae when his father, Agamemnon, returned from the Trojan War with Cassandra, a Trojan Princess, as his concubine, and was murdered with an axe by his wife, Clytemnestra, in retribution for his sacrifice of his daughter Iphigeneia to obtain favorable winds to Troy for the Greek fleet. Eight years later, Orestes returned from Athens and with his sister Electra avenged his father’s death by slaying his mother and her lover Aegisthus.
According to Pindar, the young Orestes was saved by his nurse Arsinoe or his sister Electra, who conveyed him out of the country when Clytemnestra wished to kill him. In the familiar theme of the hero’s early eclipse and exile, he escaped to Phanote on Mount Parnassus, where King Strophius took charge of him. In his twentieth year, he was urged by Electra to return home and avenge his father’s death. He returned home along with his friend Pylades, Strophius’s son.
In the Odyssey, Orestes is held up as a favorable example to Telemachus, whose mother Penelope is plagued by suitors.
Orestes goes mad after the deed and is pursued by the Erinyes, whose duty it is to punish any violation of the ties of family piety. He takes refuge in the temple at Delphi; but, even though Apollo had ordered him to do the deed, he is powerless to protect Orestes from the consequences. At last Athena receives him on the acropolis of Athens and arranges a formal trial of the case before twelve Attic judges. The Erinyes demand their victim; he pleads the orders of Apollo; the votes of the judges are equally divided, and Athena gives her casting vote for acquittal. The Erinyes are propitiated by a new ritual, in which they are worshipped as Eumenides, and Orestes dedicates an altar to Athena Areia.
3. Study for two and a half minutes this great piece of art and all the drama.
Maestro Hans Memling is hardly a household name, but his artwork deserves close attention. Although his topics are typical for his day and age – it’s his intensity and skill that impresses me.
3. Study for three and a half minutes this great piece of art and all the drama.
One of the most fascinating things about ancient Greek culture is their insights into the human psyche. Their Gods depict all the basic human desires and archetypes – and western culture is still using these.
Bacchus (which is the Roman version of Dionysus) and Cupid (which is Eros in the Greek original) are certainly still in "use" today. Drinking and lust go very well together.
Dürer’s portraits are simply breath taking. The details, the atmosphere and the intimacy. He took this art form to a new level as a master painter and an artist.
Dürer was born on May 21, 1471, third child and second son of his parents, who had between fourteen and eighteen children. His father was a successful goldsmith, originally named Ajtósi, who in 1455 had moved to Nuremberg from Ajtós, near Gyula in Hungary. The German name "Dürer" is derived from the Hungarian, "Ajtósi". Initially, it was "Thürer," meaning doormaker, which is "ajtós" in Hungarian (from "ajtó", meaning door). A door is featured in the coat-of-arms the family acquired. Albrecht Dürer the Elder married Barbara Holper, from a prosperous Nuremberg family, in 1467.
My father suffered much and toiled painfully all his life, for he had no resources other than the proceeds of his trade from which to support himself and his wife and family. He led an honest, God-fearing life. His character was gentle and patient. He was friendly towards all and full of gratitude to his Maker. He cared little for society and nothing for worldly amusements. A man of very few words and deeply pious, he paid great attention to the religious education of his children. His most earnest hope was that the high principles he instilled into their minds would render them ever more worthy of divine protection and the sympathy of mankind. He told us every day that we must love God and be honourable in our dealings with our neighbours.
But one more thing is truly remarkable: the age of his father. Not many people reached 70 in these days. Albrecht Dürer himself died age 56 – a lot younger than his father. I couldn’t find out when his father actually died.
Franz von Stuck – who actually lived here in Munich – is one of my favorite painters. His images are strong and mythical. Many of his paintings have nightmarish qualities and often deeply penetrate the viewers psyche.
3. Study for eight minutes this great piece of art and all the drama.
Maestro Bouguereau has painted a lot of crap – mostly woman more or less dressed. But he also had many great moments, full of drama, insight and pure bliss.
"Homer and his guide" is one such moment. It shows the dignity and vulnerability of the great (blind) author – and the aggression and hate he faces from dogs and enemies (in the background). The scene plays on Mount Ida – and Homer is protected and guided by the goat herder Glaucus. Notice the lyra on Homers back – his instrument as a poet – and his firm posture – like nothing in the world can shake him. The boy seems more afraid than he is – he holds – rather nervously – a big stone in his hand.
It’s also a great scene about compassion and following your path, even when you need outside help and you are despised by others.
The moment is taken from a tale about Homer – as Homer himself seems to be only a fictional character. So the creator of some of the greatest Greek myths – the Iliad and the Odyssey – turns out to be a myth himself.
Even when you have only the slightest interest in science this image should make you shivers: you find here some of the greatest brains of the last century in one image.
Our world still hasn’t fully digested all the insights of quantum physics. We still struggle to glue it all together. We have made tremendous progress in the last 80 years to understand how the universe works – but we still lack a unifying theory for everything. But it will come.
2. Click the image to also have a closer look at the lady.
3. Study for three minutes the picnic.
I know it’s rude – but I would label Maestro Fragonard as a horny Kitsch painter – but that is exactly why his “Swing” is the best image to celebrate the beginning of spring. And yes, he was a Frenchmen.
Click image for a larger image of the right panel.
Many great paintings like this one are hard to see or show on a blog – because they are painted on walls or ceillings. “Portable” painting on canvas are a modern “trend”.
So Paul Delaroche’s painting of the ceiling of the National School of Fine Arts in Paris is literally a neck breaking piece of art. I can show you only three fragments of the semi-circular painting – you have to stitch together in your mind. Some day someone will make a 3D panorama shot of this.
In 1837 Delaroche received the commission for the great picture, 27 metres long, in the hemicycle of the award theatre of the École des Beaux Arts. The commission came from the Ecole’s architect, Felix Duban. This represents seventy-five great artists of all ages, in conversation, assembled in groups on either hand of a central elevation of white marble steps, on the topmost of which are three thrones filled by the creators of the Parthenon: architect Phidias, sculptor Ictinus, and painter Apelles, symbolizing the unity of these arts.
To supply the female element in this vast composition he introduced the genii or muses, who symbolize or reign over the arts, leaning against the balustrade of the steps, beautiful and queenly figures with a certain antique perfection of form, but not informed by any wonderful or profound expression. The portrait figures are nearly all unexceptionable and admirable. This great and successful work is on the wall itself, an inner wall however, and is executed in oil. It was finished in 1841, and considerably injured by a fire which occurred in 1855, which injury he immediately set himself to remedy (finished by Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury); but he died before he had well begun, on the 4th of November 1856.
There not much a simple soul and music lover like me can write about such a genius.
I remember when I was 16 and a coworker introduced and educated me about classical music. Since I loved symphonic soundtracks like Star Wars or Star Trek II that was easily done – and I was hooked. Loved Beethoven and his wild emotions and free spirit. Mozart – nah – that was shallow. My coworker told me to be patient – and the taste for Mozart would come with maturity. Now that I am an old fart myself I have to say he was right. Now I am very much into Mozart and much more can hear and appreciate all his subtleties and nuances.
The challenge with Mozart – for any new acolyte of classical music – is his huge volume of work. It ranges from entertaining little melodies to to breath taking requiems. There is music for almost any occasion and mood in his huge repertoire.
Click to play “The Marriage of Figaro – Overture”:
Click to play “Klaviersonate Nr. 15 C-dur KV 495″:
Click to play “Symphonie Nr. 31 D-dur KV 297 ‘Pariser’”:
So if you like what you just heard and want to dig deeper buy one of the many “Best of Mozart” CD or MP3 collections. Check the pieces and maybe pick one piece that you enjoyed in particular.
His operas range from easy to monumental, so if you want to see one go to YouTube and dig a bit deeper. The Magic Flute is always a safe choice and charming, Don Giovanni is more like Heavy Metal.
Even Wall Street and big banks are in serious trouble.
The Industrial-Military-Complex has worked in the past – but only because it employed massive amounts of people. Today’s streamlined and outsourced manufacturing no longer is a benefit to the American masses (only to the stockholders).
Who is to blame? A lazy US congress, a very bad President, the huge American deficit, the expensive war in Iraq and the total lack of good oversight of the financial markets and big business.
I wonder if most Americans will ever understand how long the Bush legacy, deficit and his idiotic war will burden their lives?
3. Study for three minutes this great piece of art and all the drama.
What better way to celebrate Easter than watching some Christian pain porn? Maestro Waterhouse once again proves his sense for drama and half naked ladies with this piece.
Poor little St. Eulalia was just a young girl, when she was brutally tortured and than finally killed for refusing to pay homage to pagan gods. From Wikipedia:
Eulalia of Mérida was a Roman Christian child martyred in Emerita in Lusitania (modern Mérida in Spain) during the persecution of Christians in the reign of emperor Diocletian and his co-emperor Maximian. Others place her death at the time of Trajan Decius (AD 249-51).[2] There is some dispute as to whether Saint Eulalia of Barcelona, whose story is similar, is the same person.[3]
Eulalia was a devout Christian virgin, aged 12–14, whose mother sequestered her in the countryside in AD 304 because all citizens were required to avow faith in the Roman gods. Eulalia ran away to the law court of the governor Dacian at Emerita, professed herself a Christian, insulted the pagan gods and emperor Maximian, and challenged the authorities to martyr her. The judge’s attempts at flattery and bribery failed. According to the Spanish-Roman poet Prudentius of the fifth century, she said:
Isis Apollo Venus nihil est, Maximianus et ipse nihil: illa nihil, quia factu manu; hic, manuum quia facta colit
(Isis, Apollo and Venus are naught, Nor is Maximian anything more; Nothing are they, for by hand they were wrought, He, for of hands he the work doth adore)
She was then stripped by the soldiers, tortured with hooks and torches, and burnt at the stake, suffocating from smoke inhalation. She taunted her torturers all the while, and as she expired a dove flew out of her mouth. This frightened away the soldiers and allowed a miraculous snow to cover her nakedness, its whiteness indicating her sainthood.
Can’t wait for Mel Gibson to make another bloody movie about her.
The painting itself has an unusual symmetry, since the main subject literally falls flat on the lower third of the image. The central space is almost vacant. Compared to most other Waterhouse paintings (where the woman and the tension is located smack in the center of the image) this one requires some “looking” to realize what is actually going on.
3. Study for seven minutes (sorry, a bit longer than usual) this great piece of art.
I am a huge Beethoven fan. This human being was simply amazing and his music still sends shivers down my spine. And I guess I am not alone.
One of the things that pisses me off about Beethoven is that we don’t have any recordings of him playing the piano. It has been reported that he was not only a genius composer but also a master of the black & white keys.
Can anyone please build a time machine and bring back a good recording?
This portrait from Herr Stieler is the only one were Beethoven could be persuaded to sit down and be painted. People noted back than that this portrait was actually pretty close to the van’s passionate self.
Under the almost mad Air Force General Curtis LeMay the American bombed Japan to bits. Since most Japanese cities were built with wood Curtis ordered incendiary bombs to be used instead of normal bombs – and the effect was devastating.
On March the 10th 1945 more than 25% of Tokyo was destroyed and over 100.000 people were killed. That us MUCH more than in Dresden (were estimates range from 24.000 to 40.000). Even Hiroshima (est. 80.000 direct deaths) and Nakasaki (est. 40.000 to 75.000 deaths).
But the firebombing of Tokyo is one of the many forgotten war crimes and human disasters.
3. Study for three minutes this great piece of art.
The Story of Elijah is a huge epic – for Jews, Christians and Muslims alike. He has raised the dead and brought fire from haven. Quite a religious superman. But he had his weak moments too.
He challenged King Ahab and Queen Jezebel of Israel to a contest – and was promptly forced to flee their anger. As usual for prophets in the region he was stranded in the desolate wilderness with hardly enough food and water. He has a harsh time ahead of him (from Wikipedia):
Elijah travels, for forty days and forty nights, to Mount Horeb and seeks shelter in a cave. God again speaks to Elijah (1 Kings 19:9): “What doest thou here, Elijah?” Elijah lays out all his complaints and his despair. Up until this time Elijah has only the word of God to guide him, but now he is told to go outside the cave and “stand before the Lord.” A terrible wind passes, but God is not in the wind. A great earthquake shakes the mountain, but God is not in the earthquake. Then a fire passes the mountain, but God is not in the fire. Then a “still small voice” comes to Elijah and asks again, “What doest thou here, Elijah?” Elijah responds again with his complaints and his sense of hopelessness.
In the scene above we see an Angel bringing supplies to the sleeping Elijah.
Lord Leighton has this keen sense for drama and posture for his scenes. He knows how to place his actors for full effect. Too bad he never made movies – I am sure he would have been a great director for something like Cleopatra or Gone with the Wind.
I love these ancient Greek statues – almost all amazing graces. I wish there was a 3D image for showing off such artwork on the web – so we could rotate the statue and zoom into details.
A crouching position is pretty unusual – most statues stand up – which makes them more impressive to their followers (remember we talk about the Goddess Venus here).
Many sculptures have an eerie presence that goes way beyond the power and energy most paintings posses. It is a magnificent mixture of grace and reality that overwhelms.
The label “Depression” includes a wide range of mental conditions, reasons and cures. A new study found out that most Anti-Depressants only help a few people – which made the drug companies very unhappy.
Overall we have to ask ourselves as a society why we haven’t come to grips with “happiness” and why so many people feel the need for medication or drugs to cope with life?
I don’t think we are unhappier and life is harsher than say in the Middle Ages – but people today “expect” to be happy all the time, while in most periods in human history we were just glad to be alive with some food and security.
Happiness is mandatory! So smile or medicate …
In our rich societies we are constantly bombarded with images, products and ideas about “happiness” – so reaching this stage seems the ultimate goal today. Just being alive, safe, clothed, feed, secure, educated, fucked and cared for isn’t enough anymore.
People with serious depressions need better medicine – and for the rest of us: we need better education and training how to cope with life and our own desires. Just because you are unhappy or can’t cope with obstacles in your life doesn’t mean you suffer from depression …
