Tag: VULCAN
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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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17 Works, January 2nd. is Piero di Cosimo’s day, her art, illustrated with footnotes #259
In the upper part is Moses kneeling on Mount Sinai, with a sleeping Joshua nearby: he receives the Tables of the Law from Yahweh, who appears in a luminescent cloud, surrounded by angels. In the foreground, on the left, Moses brings the Tables to the Israelites. In the background is camp of tents, with the…
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14 Works, November 26th. is Antonio Carneo’s day, his art, illustrated with footnotes #241
Depicting a young man who compresses his bowels in the presence of a group of bystanders who follow his spasms with apprehension or try to help him, it is described ab antiquo with the title with which it is still remembered today. However, since it is difficult to represent a generic poisoning scene (provoked or…
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19 Works, November 19th. is Louis de Boullogne’s day, his art, illustrated with footnotes #237
This painting illustrates an episode taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses (I, 464–577). Falling in love with the nymph Daphne, determined to remain chaste, Apollo pursues her in the woods. Begging her father, the river god Peneus, to deliver her, Daphne is then transformed into a laurel. Louis de Boullogne produced a first illustration of the theme,…
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12 Works, July 3rd. is John Singleton Copley’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #180
In 1749, 14–year–old Brook Watson had been attacked by a shark while swimming in Havana Harbor. Copley’s pictorial account of the traumatic ordeal shows nine seamen rushing to help the boy, while the bloody water proves he has just lost his right foot. To lend equal believability to the setting Copley, who had never visited…
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Sebastiano Ricci, BELLUNO 1659 – 1734 VENICE, VENUS IN THE FORGE OF VULCAN 01 Paintings, Olympian deities, by the Old Masters, with footnotes, #10a
Sebastiano Ricci, BELLUNO 1659 – 1734 VENICE VENUS IN THE FORGE OF VULCAN Venus going to Vulcan for the Arms of Aeneas Oil on canvas 73 1/8 by 102 1/2 in.; 185.7 by 260.2 cm. Private collection Venus, the goddess of love, looks down at Cupid. Venus went to her husband Vulcan’s forge and asked him…
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03 Paintings, scenes from Olympian Myth, by The Old Masters, with footnotes # 42
Mihail Aleksandrov Girl with swan Oil on canvas 22″ x 26″ Private collection Leda, in Greek legend, usually believed to be the daughter of Thestius, king of Aetolia, and wife of Tyndareus, king of Lacedaemon. She was also believed to have been the mother (by Zeus, who had approached and seduced her in the form…
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03 Paintings, Olympian deities, by the Old Masters, with footnotes # 13
George Frederick Watts, 1817 – 1904 UNDINE Oil on panel 24 1/4 by 23 3/4 in., 61.6 by 60.3 cm Private collection Undine is a fairy-tale novella by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué in which Undine, a water spirit, marries a knight named Huldebrand in order to gain a soul. It is an early German romance, which has…