September 13, 2012

Francisco de Zurbaran "Santa Casilda"

Fantastic!

my new discovery and it's a new addition to my gallery of enigmatic women's portraits

According to her legend, St. Casilda, a daughter of a Muslim king of Toledo (called Almacrin or Almamun), showed special kindness to Christian prisoners by carrying bread hidden in her clothes to feed them.

Once, she was stopped by Muslim soldiers and asked to reveal what she was carrying in her skirt. When she began to show them, the bread turned into a bouquet of roses.

She was raised a Muslim, but when she became ill as a young woman, she refused help from the local Arab doctors and traveled to northern Iberia to partake of the healing waters of the shrine of San Vicente, near Buezo, close to Briviesca. When she was cured, she was baptized at Burgos (where she was later venerated) and lived a life of solitude and penance not far from the miraculous spring. It is said that she lived to be 100 years old.

September 08, 2012

Glass Violin Concerto 3rd movement

“Live all you can: it's a mistake not to. It doesn't matter what you do in particular, so long as you have had your life. If you haven't had that, what have you had?”

Henry James

it's the 3rd movement of violin concerto by Philip Glass

an underrated piece of music, but one of my friends told me it was like movement of life itself, it never stops. it's also our inner dialogue.

I wanted to share it, because these days I had a lot of questions in my mind, questions to myself and I felt this way, in a mood for Glass's music

May 12, 2011

Hieronymus Bosch ( c 1450-1516)

"The Ship of Fools"

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While looking for some quotes I suddenly came across this painting by Bosch and afterwards I have decided to make a post about him .

In The Ship of Fools Bosch is imagining that the whole of mankind is voyaging through the seas of time on a ship, a small ship, that is representative of humanity. Sadly, every one of the representatives is a fool. This is how we live, says Bosch--we eat, dring, flirt, cheat, play silly games, pursue unattainable objectives. Meanwhile our ship drifts aimlessly and we never reach the harbour. The fools are not the irreligious, since promiment among them are a monk and a nun, but they are all those who live ``in stupidity''. Bosch laughs, and it is sad laugh. Which one of us does not sail in the wretched discomfort of the ship of human folly? Eccentric and secret genius that he was, Bosch not only moved the heart but scandalized it into full awareness. The sinister and monstrous things that he brought forth are the hidden creatures of our inward self-love: he externalizes the ugliness within, and so his misshapen demons have an effect beyond curiosity. We feel a hateful kinship with them. The Ship of Fools is not about other people, it is about us.

The Extraction of the Stone of Madness

The unique vision of Bosch

The extraordinary painter Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450-1516) stands apart from the prevailing Flemish traditions in painting. His style was unique, strikingly free, and his symbolism, unforgettably vivid, remains unparalleled to this day. Marvellous and terrifying, he expresses an intense pessimism and reflects the anxieties of his time, one of social and political upheaval.

"Paradise and Hell"

At the time of his death, Bosch was internationally celebrated as an eccentric painter of religious visions who dealt in particular with the torments of hell. During his lifetime Bosch's works were in the inventories of noble families of the Netherlands, Austria, and Spain, and they were imitated in a number of paintings and prints throughout the 16th century, especially in the works of Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

"Garden of Earthly Delights"

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May 07, 2011

Paul Allier "Four Seasons" Pochoir

"L'ete"

"Summer" is reflected in the rich, full-bodied color of this image.In the later 1920's, following the close of the great Parisian fashion illustration magazines, many of the illustrators who did not move to Vogue, Harper's, etc. produced small albums of fashion designs. Allier's "Les Quatre Saisons" published by Galerie Lutetia of Paris in 1928, was such an example. Allier's jewel-like charming innocence of "Summer" from this series is a late 1920's classic and as such appears on page 98 of Julian Robinson's excellent book "The Golden Age of Style" (Orbis Publishing, 1976) as well as on page 162 of his earlier work "The Brilliance of Art Deco".

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"L'Automne"

"L'Hiver"

"Le Printemps"

May 03, 2011

Eyolf Soot ( 1859-1928)

I lampelys 1885

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Discovered thanks to Polar Bear's Tale

Eugene de Blaas ( Eugene von Blaas)

Eugene de Blaas, also known as Eugene von Blaas or Eugenio de Blaas (24 July 1843 – 10 February 1932) was an Italian painter in the school known as Academic Classicism. He was born at Albano, near Rome, to Austrian parents. His father Karl, a Jew and also a painter, was his teacher. The family moved to Venice when Karl became Professor at the Academy in Venice. He often painted scenes in Venice. He became professor in the Academy of Venice.