Tag: Hellenic
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01 Work, Interpretations of Olympian deities, THE ART OF WAR, Arturo Michelena’s Penthesilea, with footnotes #50
Penthesilea, daughter of Ares and Otrera, was an Amazon queen who fought and died in the Trojan War. After Hector, the leader of the Trojan army, was killed in the final year of the war, Penthesilea arrived with a small but highly skilled troop of Amazon warriors to help the doomed city against the Greeks.…
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01 Work, The art of War, Pieter Paul Rubens’ The Battle of the Amazons, with Footnotes
For sale for 36 000 € in Jan 2024 The tangle of naked bodies, some mutilated, gives the idea of the extreme violence used in battle and the terrified expressions of the horses are of rare intensity. Their anguished gazes are the most exciting moment of the spectacular composition. The author of this great work…
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01 Work, The Art of War, Georges Rochegrosse’s Andromaque, with footnotes
This is a distinctly surprising work, where the atrocities of war are depicted with raw violence – severed heads, pools of blood, lifeless bodies stretched out on the ground or hanging from the wall – at the same time as candid eroticism, such as Andromache’s swelling bosom: an appealing show of female nudity placed well…
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02 Works, The Art of War, Bernardo Strozzi’s Allegorical Figure, Minerva, with footnotes
During the 1630s, Strozzi painted a number of female figures representing various intellectual and artistic pursuits, reflecting the appeal of such allegories among learned patrons in northern Italy. Recent scholarship has convincingly identified the subject of this painting as Minerva. The Roman goddess of war has put aside her armor for more contemplative pursuits; her…
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01 Work, The Art of War, Maximilian Pirner’s The End of All Things, with footnotes
Maximilian Pirner’s “The End of All Things” is a haunting and thought-provoking work of art that expertly combines technical skill with emotional depth. It is a testament to the power of art to explore the human condition and to challenge our perceptions of the world around us. More on this painting Maximilian Pirner (13 February 1853…
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01 Work, The Art of War, Charles Meynier’s Allegory of war, with footnotes
Sold for €20,625 EUR in June 2022 This door top comes from Madame Mère’s Palazzo Rinuccini in Rome. Charles Meynier (1763 or 1768, Paris – 1832, Paris) was a French painter of historical subjects in the late 18th and early 19th century. He was a contemporary of Antoine-Jean Gros und Jacques-Louis David. Already at a young…
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02 Works, The Art of War, Hercules and Minerva Fighting Mars by Peter Paul Rubens and Victor Wolfvoet the Younger, with footnotes
Minerva, protector of peace, assisted by Hercules, does not hesitate to throw herself against Mars, the god of war ready to massacre a woman with her child… Please follow link for full post
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01 Work, The Art of War, Louis Masreliez’s An Allegory of War, with footnotes
Sold for USD 62,500 in Apr 2021 The present Allegory of War depicts a furious Minerva, Roman goddess of War, dismounting her horse-drawn chariot, shield in one hand, thunderbolt in the other, charging toward a distant battle. Above her flies the winged, bearded, bare-chested Boreas, ancient god of the cold North Wind, accompanied by winged zephyrs,…
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1 Painting, The art of War, Tony Robert-Fleurys The Last Day of Corinth, with footnotes
In 146 BC, the Greek city of Corinth fell to Rome. Robert-Fleury depicts the moment when the Roman army enters the sacked city. The women of Corinth, fearing the fate reserved for them, took refuge at the foot of the statue of Athena. The work of the young artist, who took three years to complete…
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01 Painting, Peter Paul Rubens, Consequences of War, 1638-1639, with footnotes
Consequences of War, also known as Horror of war, serves as a commentary on a European continent ravaged by the Thirty Years’ War, and the artist employed numerous symbols, both contemporary and ancient, to deplore the state of the continent. Mars the Roman god of war charges with shield and sword as well as breastplate…
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06 Paintings, Olympian deities, William Etty’s Venus, with footnotes # 47
Venus is the Roman goddess whose functions encompassed love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity and victory. In Roman mythology, she was the mother of the Roman people through her son, Aeneas… Please follow link for full post
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01 Painting, Olympian deities, Arthur Rackham’s Andromeda, with footnotes # 46
Sold for £88,500 in September 2022 Rackham has applied his unique imagery and style to the myth of Andromeda. The princess has been chained to a rock as a sacrifice to sate the sea monster, Cetus, sent by Poseidon as punishment for Andromeda’s mother’s claim to be of greater beauty than the sea dwelling Nereids. Andromeda…
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01 Painting, Olympian deities, North Italian School’s Pan and Syrinx, with footnotes # 45
In classical Greek mythology, Syrinx was a nymph and a follower of Artemis, known for her chastity. Pursued by the amorous god Pan, she ran to a river’s edge and asked for assistance from the river nymphs. In answer, she was transformed into hollow water reeds that made a haunting sound when the god’s frustrated…
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22 Works, The story of The world’s first supermodel, Phryne by Henryk Siemiradzki, Paul Delaroche, Ippolito Buzzi, Angelica Kauffmann, James McNeill Whistler, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Jose Frappa, Franz von Stuck, Salvator Rosa, Joseph Mallord William Turner, and others, with footnotes
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01 Painting, Olympian deities, François Boucher’s Hunting nymphs, with footnotes # 44
Sold for 150,000 EUR in June 2017 These two attendants of Diana, isolated in their verdant forest with their hunting spoils at their side, occupy today the main subject of a painting, which was certainly part of an overdoor panel transformed into an easel painting during the early 19th century. The attribution to François Boucher is…
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4 Works, Contemporary interpretations of Olympian Deities, Thomas Saliot’s Mermaids, with Footnotes #7
In Greek mythology, the Naiads are a type of female spirit, or nymph, presiding over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water. They are distinct from river gods, who embodied rivers, and the very ancient spirits that inhabited the still waters of marshes, ponds and lagoon-lakes, such as pre-Mycenaean Lerna in…
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15 Paintings, Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion, with footnotes #2
Artists include: Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, French School, Charles Joseph Natoire, FRANCKEN, FRANS II, School of Cornelis van Poelenburgh, Titian, Peter Paul Rubens, Pierre-Paul Prud’hon, Giorgione, Adriaen Pietersz van de Venne and Carl von Marr. Please follow link for full post
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01 Work, Interpretations of Roman tradition, The Master of the Holy Blood’s Death of Lucretia, with footnotes #40
Sold for 5,000 GBP in April 2016 Lucretia, legendary heroine of ancient Rome. According to tradition, she was the beautiful and virtuous wife of the nobleman Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus. Her tragedy began when she was raped by Sextus Tarquinius, son of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the tyrannical Etruscan king of Rome. After exacting an oath of vengeance against…
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01 Work, Contemporary Interpretations of Olympian deities, William Mortensen’s Venus and Vulcan, with footnotes #30
A uniquely funny and strange take on a standard from classical antiquity. Vucan is the god of fire and the forge. Here he is old and bent over, nearly crushed by the weight of his enormous box camera. He holds the hand of his cupid progeny. Cupid has a Leica strapped to his shoulder rather…
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11 Paintings, Olympian Myths as recounted by the Old Masters, with footnotes #8
The stories of the ancient Greeks about their gods, heroes, and explanations of the nature and history of the universe are known as Greek mythology. These stories, or myths, have survived for more than 2,000 years. Greek mythology has had an extensive influence on the arts and literature of Western civilization, which inherited much of…