Author: Zaidan Art Blog
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05 Works, Today, February 14th, is Lupercalia/ Valentine’s Day, With Footnotes – #45
Lupercalia was an ancient pastoral annual festival observed in the city of Rome between February 13 and February 15, to avert evil spirits and purify the city, releasing health and fertility. At the Lupercal altar, a male goat and a dog were sacrificed by one or another of the Luperci, under the supervision of the Flamen…
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Charles West Cope, Taming the Shrew 01 Painting, The amorous game, Part 58 – With Footnotes
The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1592. The main plot depicts the courtship of Petruchio and Katherina, the headstrong, obdurate shrew. Initially, Katherina is an unwilling participant in the relationship; however, Petruchio “tames” her with various psychological torments, such as keeping her from…
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Nejib Belkhodja, MEDINA ENTRE DEUX ORAGES – MEDINA BETWEEN TWO STORMS 03 Works, The Art Of The Nude, with footnotes #9
Born in 1933, Nejib Belkhodja was the son of a Dutch opera singer and a Tunisian aristocrat of Turkish descent. The family lived in the medina of Tunis–a walled city within a city that was home to the rich and influential and often seen as the heartbeat of most North African cities. Even in the face of their…
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René Magritte, LA MAGIE NOIRE 03 Works, The Art Of The Nude, with footnotes # 59
La magie noire belongs to a group of works Magritte executed in the 1940s, on the subject of a female nude in an unidentified landscape. The woman is depicted in a classical manner. This traditional representation, however, is juxtaposed with the unexpected colouration of the figure, whose upper body gradually acquires the tone of the…
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03 Works, Today, February 13th, is Saint Catherine de’ Ricci’s Day, With Footnotes – 44
Saint Catherine de’ Ricci, O.S.D. (Caterina de’ Ricci) (23 April 1522 – 2 February 1590), was an Italian Dominican Tertiary sister. She is believed to have had miraculous visions and corporeal encounters with Jesus, both with the infant Jesus and with the adult Jesus. She is said to have spontaneously bled with the wounds of…
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06 Works, Today, February 12th, is Julian the Hospitaller’s Day, With Footnotes – #43
Julian the Hospitaller is a Roman Catholic saint. According to de Varazze, on the night Julian was born, his father, a man of noble blood, saw pagan witches secretly lay a curse on the boy that would make him kill both his parents. His father wanted to get rid of the child, but his mother did…
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John Randall Bratby; VENICE WASHING 01 Painting; the Canals of Venice, with foot notes. #72
John Randall Bratby RA (19 July 1928 – 20 July 1992). Despite inauspicious beginnings at Kingston School of Art (which he left upon failing an intermediate exam in arts and crafts), John Bratby’s enormous artistic potential soon earned him a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, and would see him become one of the…
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William Thon, Running Home 01 Work, Marine Paintings – With Footnotes, #247
Thon was born in New York City in 1906. He spent his childhood summers camping on Staten Island. He joined the Navy during World War II, and shortly after the war won the Rome Prize, a fellowship to the American Academy in Rome. He later became a trustee of the Academy. In 1951, Thon received a…
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04 Works, Today, February 11th, is Our Lady of Lourdes’s Day, With Footnotes – 42
Our Lady of Lourdes is a Roman Catholic title of the Virgin Mary venerated in honour of the Marian apparitions that reportedly occurred in 1858 in the vicinity of Lourdes in France. The first of these is the apparition of 11 February 1858, when 14-year old Bernadette Soubirous told her mother that a “lady” spoke…
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Mohamed Ehsai, MOHABBAT (KINDNESS) 01 Painting, Middle East Artists, with Footnotes, #7
Mohabbat–the Farsi word for kindness, compassion and sympathy–is a tribute to the sacred art of calligraphy, however in the present work, the word holds a more secular meaning. The writing turns into abstraction and the letters, which are overlaid and distributed in a circular and dense yet joyful composition, are no longer decipherable. The morphed…
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Thomas Saliot, Sailing girl 01 Marine Painting – With Footnotes, #246
Thomas Saliot: “I live in Morocco, France and Spain where i paint simple iconic images from the net or my life, like big oil sketches. I have been painting professionally for over thirty years. Sort of a child of Hopper, figurative and Pop art, i love colors, provocation and big canvas. Thomas Saliot was born in…
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03 Icons, Today, February 10th, is Saint Valentina of Palestine’s Day, With Footnotes – 41
Virginmartyr Valentina of Palestine was from Caesarea in Palestine. She was small and known for wearing old, worn out clothing. One day, when she was with her friend Thea, they joined a group of Christians gathered to hear the Holy Scriptures. Local officials broke up the meeting, grabbed Thea and tortured her… Please follow link…
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In Iraq, Where Beauty Was Long Suppressed, Art Flowers Amid Protests – The New York Times
Painters, sculptors and musicians are rallying to Baghdad’s protests, and the capital is overflowing with political art.
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‘I Am Not Part of Some Propaganda Machine’: Artists Defend Their Participation in the Saudi-Backed Show Desert X
Curator Neville Wakefield and participating artists in the inaugural Desert X AlUla hope that Saudi controversies don’t overshadow the art. Source: ‘I Am Not Part of Some Propaganda Machine’: Artists Defend Their Participation in the Saudi-Backed Show Desert X
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Vik Muniz, NYMPHEAS, AFTER CLAUDE MONET 01 Painting, Middle East Artists, with Footnotes, #6
“With photographs you can see history through your own eyes and you can make your own judgments and interpretations… When people look at one of my pictures, I don’t want them to actually see something represented. I prefer for them to see how something gets to represent something else.” Vik Muniz Ali Banisadr is an Iranian-born…
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Frederick James Elliott, Tall Ship in Stormy Seas 01 Work of Art, Marine Painting – With Footnotes, #245
Frederick James ‘Fred’ Elliott, 1864-1949, was a prolific watercolour painter and lithographer, active in Sydney from the 1890s to the 1920s, specialising in marine subjects. Frederick James ‘Fred’ Elliott was born in Paignton near Brixham, Devon, UK, son of Alfred Elliott. Fred Elliott immigrated to Queensland in 1876 when his father was appointed teacher at…
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Alfred Stieglitz, Portrait of Marie Rapp 01 work, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, with Footnotes. #78
Marie Rapp was Alfred Stieglitz’s secretary at his 291 Gallery, and a lifelong friend. She not only helped run the gallery but assisted with the publication of Camera Work. He photographed her many times. A close friend and confidante, she was an excellent subject, her natural grace and beauty resulting in a touching image. More on this…
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