Art

Unfortunately don't have much more detail

The identification of the subject of this relief as the Gift of Anathapindada is by no means certain. The presence at the far left of the figure holding a waterpot suggests that a gift is about to be made, as a donor traditionally poured water over the hands of a recipient to seal a gift. However, determining the overall meaning depends on identification of the objects in the bowl being proffered to the Buddha. Sudatta, called Anathapindada (the Incomparable Almsgiver), was the richest merchant of the town of Sravasti (in Kosala). He met the Buddha at Rajagriha and proposed to donate money in order to buy land for a monastery in Sravasti. The amount of the payment exacted from Anathapindada was calculated by covering the grounds of the park to be purchased with gold coins. The identification of the objects in the bowl as coins is speculative, and the precise scene in the life of the Buddha that is represented is therefore unclear.

This dish from the ancient region of Gandhara dates from the second century B.C. to the first century A.D. International trade with the Hellenistic world and India as well as invasions into Gandhara by the Scythians, Parthians, and Kushans brought many new stylistic idioms that shaped the stylistic vocabulary of these objects. Similar dishes were found in the Gandharan city of Sirkap (Taxila) in contexts that suggest they were used for domestic rituals, perhaps to ensure a positive afterlife.

This kneeling figure is identified by the two columns of hieroglyphs in front of him as "the Osiris, the servant of the Place of Truth, Khonsu, justified." The image and its text are a graphic expression of Khonsu's hope that his spirit will pass successfully through the trial of judgment in the afterlife and become one with Osiris.

Period: New Kingdom, Ramesside
Dynasty: Dynasty 19
Reign: reign of Ramesses II
Date: ca. 1279–1213 B.C.
Geography: From Egypt, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Deir el-Medina, Tomb of Sennedjem (TT 1), Egyptian Antiquities Service/Maspero excavations, 1885–86
Medium: Gessoed and painted wood
Dimensions: H. of Khonsu: 15.3 cm (6 in.)

The critical spirit of feminism and the serial procedures of conceptualism collide to hilarious effect in Wilson’s Breast Forms Permutated. Permutation, from a branch of mathematics called set theory, was a favorite device of not only conceptual artists of the 1960s and 1970s, but also of novelist and playwright Samuel Beckett, who used it to create formal and linguistic patterns. Instead of applying it to intervals or words, however, Wilson applies it to one of the most fetishized aspects of female anatomy: breasts. Here the artist permutes the breast form, deriving nine iterations from a single variable. Mocking the tendency to police the female body and to establish universal standards of female beauty, Wilson places the "perfect set" in the center of her grid.

Here, the god of war is in his youthful manifestation, with a dagger secured at his waist. He holds a javelin and rooster, the latter associated with speed and aggression. The tail feathers of his peacock are visible behind his feet. The handsome, young god has a Shiva-like chignon and large elliptical earplugs in the Indian manner of the sixth-century Gupta period.

Stone sculpture.

This marble was once displayed alongside a companion sculpture of a reclining Venus (now lost) in the Sagredo family’s Venetian palace. Eighteenth-century inventories identify the subject as the mythological huntsman Adonis, beloved of the goddess Venus. Although he is often depicted with fatal wounds after being killed by a boar, this reclining figure appears to be in a peaceful slumber, instead seemingly recalling the related myth of the sleeping shepherd Endymion, whose youthful beauty seduced Diana. The body’s languid pose and highly polished flesh form a sensuous display of undulating marble whose fluid curves and tactile surfaces would have complemented the palace’s interior.

Although the number of Knights and Bishops on the chessboard is the same, more medieval chess pieces in the form of Knights survive. This example, perfectly poised on his fine horse, battles a dragon, a symbol of evil. But for the lack of a halo and a princess in need of rescue standing nearby, he might be mistaken for Saint George, who, according to legend, slayed a dragon.

Making this post just to mention the death of Daniel Naroditsky. Can't stop thinking about it. He seemed like an absolutely lovely person and was easily the person who helped my chess most. I'd watch a few games of his and .y rating would go up. Loved his style, he was a a very natural teacher and very well spoken.

The way he spoke was very similar to a cousin of mine I'm close to who's the same age (who is getting engaged tomorrow) so its all a bit freaky to me.

Honestly don't even know what I wanna say. Rest in peace you lovely man. ❤️

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/54764812

Ink and color on paper. 1981

https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/two-swallows/AwFg1zlk4qWocg?hl=en_GB

I'm sorry for a google link but the info there about the painting and artist are great.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/55091421

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/55616895

"Landscape" is typical of the large-scale woodland scenes that Blakelock painted before his confinement to a mental institution in 1899. An expansive landscape is framed by two copses of bushes and trees. Although ambitious in scale, the painting is not grandiose in effect--the panoramic vista does not show a natural wonder, dramatic weather, or even a recognizable locale. Instead, Blakelock represents a pure landscape at an indefinite time of day and explores the possibilities of color, texture, and pattern. In "Landscape," as in so many of his successful pictures, the artist transcends an observed subject to express his own personal vision.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/55093937

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/55337188

Father of modern Czech art. A very innovative thinker that made him the leader of the avant garde movement. This picture was made in the Netherlands, where he took refuge after the war came to France.

One of the first Czech artists to take cubism seriously. Became a pioneer. There is still the visible influence of Dutch still life and 17th century landscape here.

He also includes dramatic chiaroscuro lighting throughout the painting.

This deserves to be zoomed in and seen in high quality. Please open it on a website to view.

One of my favourite cubist paintings.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/55479406

Renaldi obtained permission from the British East India Company to travel to Calcutta in 1786. Over the next decade, he produced sensitive portraits that revel in the sumptuous textiles and rich jewels that provided much of the impetus for European colonialism in South Asia. Renaldi almost certainly sent this painting back to London for display at the prestigious Royal Academy under the title "Portrait of a Mogul [Mughal] Lady." However, nothing of the sitter’s identity is known. Given the seclusion of elite Muslim women in India at the time, she may have been a hired model or a so-called bibi, an Indian woman who became the wife or concubine of a European man.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/54848856

John Gould FRS was an English ornithologist. He published a number of monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists.

His identification of the birds now nicknamed "Darwin's finches" played a role in the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Gould's work is referenced in Charles Darwin's book, On the Origin of Species.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/55192537

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/54849311

One of the leading French artists of the naturalist school.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/54831308

MANSUR WHAT A MAN.

The artist Mansur was able to capture not only the physical texture of living, breathing birds and animals, but also a sense of their inherent nature. However, concepts of naturalism and realism, so revered in Western art of the period, were by no means the primary concern of Mughal painting.

The Mughal Emperors Akbar and Jahangir (r. 1605–27) commissioned their artists to paint likenesses of birds and animals, particularly those which they found striking or unusual, primarily for documentary purposes. Jahangir noted in his memoirs that the chameleon ‘constantly changes colour’, a peculiarity which is perhaps hinted at in this painting of the small, slow-moving reptile with the turquoise-green tones of its skin used again in the leaves of the branch where they merge with yellowing hues.

The specific species recorded in the painting is the Chamaeleo zeylanicus, native to southern India and Sri Lanka, and this is likely to be the earliest instance of its being documented pictorially. Mansur accurately depicts the precise details of its anatomy: the crested head, abdominal ribs and scaled contours, even capturing the white stripe that runs along its throat and belly. Its face is in profile but its protruding eye is swivelled back, gaze firmly fixed on the insect hovering nearby. It clings to the branch with its clenched feet and the tip of its coiled tail, perfectly poised to project its sticky tongue towards its prey.

Mansur’s painting positions the chameleon in an appropriately arboreal context, yet this setting may not derive purely from scientific observation. The earliest Mughal natural history paintings closely relate to Chinese bird and flower paintings on silk, the standard configurations of which may have influenced Mansur’s choice of composition.

Mansur was Jahangir’s leading natural history painter. The Emperor bestowed on him the honorific Nadir al-Asr, ‘Wonder of the Age’, recording in his memoirs that ‘in the art of painting [Mansur] is unique in his time’. In addition to his acute powers of observation, Mansur is still celebrated for his extraordinary handling of paint, here demonstrated in particular by the tiny impasto dots simulating the surface of the chameleon’s skin. On very close inspection a gold crescent is visible, creating a glint in the reptile’s eye. Jahangir often inscribed Mansur’s name onto the master’s paintings himself and a note, now largely erased, written close to the right edge of the painting, may be in the Emperor’s hand.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/54771311

The greatest painter of loneliness ever.

Oil on canvas. 1808.

Much has been written about this. I can add nothing of value here. A single google search will get you a lot more

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/55393609

In the autumn 1886 Claude Monet sought out rugged and barren terrain on the island of Belle-Île-en-Mer off the coast of Brittany. Centering his activity in the village of Kervilahouen on the Atlantic side of the island, he wrote to fellow Impressionist Gustave Caillebotte, “I’ve been here a month, and I’m grinding away; I’m in a magnificent region of wilderness, a tremendous heap of rocks and sea unbelievable for its colors; well, I’m very enthusiastic.” Still, Monet confessed to having trouble painting the wild ocean because he was used to painting the calmer channel waters.

In "Rocks at Belle-Île, Port-Domois," Monet depicted the grim sea beating away at the barren rocks, a theme he repeated and varied numerous times. He was sensitive to the topography of his surroundings and the need to alter his manner of looking accordingly. He wrote to his companion Alice Hoschedé, “I must make great efforts to make them [the rocks] somber, to render this sinister, tragic aspect.” He added that he felt “powerless to render the intensity” of the ocean crashing upon the rocky sentinels of the island. Yet he also recognized that he placed great demands on himself: “I’m chasing the merest sliver of color. It’s my own fault, I want to grasp the intangible.” The colors, forms, and atmosphere of this magnificent painting reveal that Monet was concerned as much with conveying turbulent emotion as with recording the appearance of a particular site.