Category: 365 Days
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15 Works, Today, May 13th. is Teodor Axentowicz’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #131
In Kolomyjka, Teodor Axentowicz’s fascination with rural traditions, which was very fashionable in his time, translates into a vivid, expressive picture in which dynamics and joyful mood are more important than realism or the traditional rules of composition. The Oberek is the second most popular Polish folk dance after the polka, and consists of a…
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24 Works, Today, May 12th. is Sir Frank William Brangwyn’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #130
Sir Frank William Brangwyn RA RWS RBA (12 May 1867–11 June 1956) was a Welsh artist, painter, watercolourist, printmaker, illustrator, and designer. He was born in Bruges, Belgium where his father, William Curtis Brangwyn, moved after winning a competition organised by the Belgian Guild of St Thomas and St Luke to design a parish church.…
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15 Works, Today, May 11th. is Ettore Roesler Franz’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #129
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican (Italian: Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), or simply Saint Peter’s Basilica (Latin: Basilica Sancti Petri), is a church built in the Renaissance style located in Vatican City, the papal enclave that is within the city of Rome. More on Saint Peter Basilica Ettore Roesler…
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15 Works, Today, May 10th. is Jean-Léon Gérôme’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #128
Julius Caesar was assassinated in Rome on the Ides of March (March 15), 44 BC. Characteristically, Gérôme has depicted not the incident itself, but its immediate aftermath. The illusion of reality that Gérôme imparted to his paintings with his smooth, polished technique led one critic to comment, “If photography had existed in Caesar’s day, one…
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09 Works, Today, May 8th. is Anton von Werner’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #127
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire (and later, the Third French Republic) and the German states of the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. France was to suffer the greatest humiliation since the defeat…
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23 Works, Today, May 7th. is artist Azim Aslan oglu Azimzade’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #126
Abul-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi, also Firdawsi (935–1026), was a Persian poet and the author of Shahnameh (“Book of Kings”), which is one of the world’s longest epic poems created by a single poet, and the national epic of Greater Iran. Ferdowsi is celebrated as one of the most influential figures of Persian literature. More on Firdousi…
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20 Works, Today, May 6th. is artist John Charles Dollman’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #125
In Norse mythology, a valkyrie (from Old Norse valkyrja “chooser of the slain”) is one of a host of female figures who choose those who may die in battle and those who may live. Selecting among half of those who die in battle, the valkyries bring their chosen to the afterlife hall of the slain,…
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15 Works, Today, May 5th. is artist Teofilo Patini’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #124
The parable of the Good Samaritan is a didactic story told by Jesus in Luke 10:25–37. It is about a traveler who is stripped of clothing, beaten, and left half dead alongside the road. First a priest and then a Levite comes by, but both avoid the man. Finally, a Samaritan comes by. Samaritans and…
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16 Works, Today, May 4th. is artist François Gérard’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #123
Ossian is the narrator and purported author of a cycle of epic poems published by the Scottish poet James Macpherson, under the title The Poems of Ossian. Ossian, a blind bard, sings of the life and battles of Fingal, a Scotch warrior. Characters and passages of Ossian are based on established Celtic and Scottish folklore.…
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27 Works, Today, May 3rd. is artist Viktor Vasnetsov’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #122
Sirin is a mythological creature of Russian legends, with the head and chest of a beautiful woman and the body of a bird (usually an owl). According to the myth, they lived “in Indian lands” near Eden or around the Euphrates River. These half-women half-birds are loosely based on the Greek stories about sirens. They…
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15 Works, Today, May 2nd. is artist Charles Gleyre’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #121
The Bacchae; also known as The Bacchantes is an ancient Greek tragedy. The tragedy is based on the Greek myth of King Pentheus of Thebes and his mother Agave, and their punishment by the god Dionysus. The god Dionysus appears at the beginning of the play and proclaims that he has arrived in Thebes to…
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24 Works, Today, May 1st. is artist Jules Breton’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #120
Since ancient times, peasants have celebrated the longest days of summer with festivities. This dance around a fire marks the feast of Saint John the Baptist on June 24, an important occasion in France. Jules Adolphe Aimé Louis Breton (1 May 1827–5 July 1906) was a 19th-century French Naturalist painter. His paintings are heavily influenced…
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30 Works, Today, April 30th. is artist Olaf Wieghorst’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #119
Olaf Wieghorst (April 30, 1899 — April 27, 1988) was a Danish-American painter who specialized in depictions of the American frontier. His art was in the vein of Frederic Remington and Charles Russell. In 1992, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum… Please follow link for full…
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09 Works, Today, April 29th. is artist Pedro Américo’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #118
The Battle of Acosta Ñu or Campo Grande was a battle during the Paraguayan War, fought on August 16, 1869, between the Triple Alliance and Paraguay. The 3,500 poorly armed Paraguayans, mostly boys between nine and 15 years old, many wearing false beards, old men and wounded combatants, confronted 20,000 Brazilian veteran soldiers. The Allied…
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30 Works, Today, April 28th. is artist Hugues Merle’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #117
The woman’s face is a mask of suffering while she cradles, not a sleeping baby, but a wooden log! The figure’s anguish is a hallmark of Romanticism, a style that emphasized images of suffering, madness, and death. These images were often thinly veiled allusions to broader social suffering or political upheavals. Merle painted The Lunatic…
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32 Works, Today, April 26th. is artist Eugène Delacroix’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #115
Stigmata, in Christianity, are the appearance of bodily wounds, scars and pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ, such as the hands, wrists and feet. An individual bearing the wounds of stigmata is a stigmatist or a stigmatic. More on Stigmatization Albert von Keller (27 April 1844–14 July 1920) was a…
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28 Works, Today, April 26th. is artist Eugène Delacroix’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #115
Liberty Leading the People commemorates the July Revolution of 1830, which toppled King Charles X of France. A woman of the people with a Phrygian cap personifying the concept of Liberty leads a varied group of people forward over a barricade and the bodies of the fallen, holding the flag of the French Revolution — the tricolour,…
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16 Works, Today, April 25th. is artist Gustave Clarence Rodolphe Boulanger’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #114
Hagar is a biblical person in the Book of Genesis Chapter 16. She was an Egyptian handmaid of Sarah, who gave her to Abraham “to wife” to bear a child. The product of the union was Abraham’s firstborn, Ishmael, the progenitor of the Ishmaelites. After Sarah gave birth to Isaac, and the tension between the…
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14 Works, Today, April 24th. is artist Viktor Oliva’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #113
Viktor Oliva (24 April 1861–5 April 1928) was a Czech painter and illustrator. Please follow link for full post
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15 Works, Today, April 23rd. is artist Alfred Dehodencq’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #112
Dehodencq’s large and lavish rendition of the annual Hajj (pilgrimage) en route to Mecca is an especially magnificent and wonderfully detailed painting of the subject by a Western artist. The landscape is not specific, but the shoreline might suggest a location on the Red Sea, south of Aqaba. At the centre of the enfilade of…
Zaidan Gallery 