Sunday, January 22, 2006

Vasari, Giorgio -16th Century Italy


As I was reading this famous book on the lives of painters by the Florentine painter and architect Giorgio VASARI, Italian Mannerist Writer and Painter, 1511-1574, who studied under Michelangelo Buonarroti, I thought I would summarize and add pictures... however: A great site was already done here:

  • One day someone will write a treatise on those dinner parties whose fortunate conjunction of guests and ideas has changed the course of civilisation.
  • Cited no doubt would be that famous gathering in Rome in 1546 during which Cardinal Farnese asked Giorgio Vasari to assemble "a catalogue of artists and their works, listed in chronological order".
  • The result was 'The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects', first published in 1550 in Florence, and revised and extended for a second edition in 1568.

Click on pictures to enlarge, then use back arrow)


The "known as":

RAPHAEL:
Raffaello SANZIO, called RAPHAEL (1483-1520) Italian High Renaissance Painter, 1483-1520

Virgin and St. John- Louvre

La Vierge à l'Enfant avec le petit saint Jean, diteLa Vierge au voile ou La Vierge au diadème bleu

La Vierge à l'Enfant avec le petit saint Jean-Baptiste, dite La Belle Jardinière

See other entries on Raphael:

Raphael's Madonna of the Chair
Raphael's Madonna of the meadows

http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=rs_liste (Louvre)

http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/giorgio.vasari/raphael/raphael.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raffaello_Santi

CORREGGIO :

Allegri, known as Correggio (Correggio, Italy, c. 1489-1534)Eve Offering the Apple c. 1526-28R.M.N.

Eve emerging from the turbulence as she offers the apple to the Virgin.

The two Eves: The religious link between the two women has its roots in canonical exegesis: as the new Eve, Mary expiates the sin of her predecessor. The Louvre drawing already contains the elements characterizing the guilty woman of the finished composition: the chromatic impact of the red chalk strokes increases the figure's seductiveness, while the use of white highlighting both reinforces the contrast between light and dark areas and heightens the refinement of the overall rosy tint.

VERONESE
Antonio Paolo Caliari, known as Veronese (Rome, 1528 - Venice, 1588)

A woman turned towards the left stands upon the fallen figure of a man. In her hands she holds a clock that she seems to consider attentively, heedless of the human carpet beneath her feet. On either side are two smoking urns: fire blazes from the one on the left, while a putto closes a lid upon the other.

Veronese Temperance Triumphing over Vice 1581-1582
A life of chiaroscuro

CARAVAGGIO:

Polidoro Caldara, known as Polidoro da Caravaggio

Vasari says of Polidoro "...veramente lavoro i paesi e macchie d'alberi e sassi meglio d'ogni pittore" (an excellent landscape artist, better able than any other painter to render trees and rocks by patches of color).

Landscape with Classical Architecture c. 1530-1534

IL VOLTERRANO

Baldassare FRANCESCHINI, known as IL VOLTERRANO (Volterra, 1611 - Florence, 1689)

Full-length Portrait of the Hunchback Trafedi 1636

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_Vasari

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Basket weaving


Debbie Blauvelt-
Basket Workshop January 21,2006
Click on pictures to enlarge, then use back arrow.














The bottom reeds are called stakes.

Soak stakes 5-10 minutes.

Find the right side (wrong side is more "fuzzy" or hairy)

Mark the center with pencil.

Lay down 4 stakes on each side of center for a total of 9 stakes.

Each side measure about 7"

12" inside.
















Arrange the stakes so they are even (forming even squares).

The weavers go around. Start on one side, go around until you pass starting stake...go past 4 stakes and cut weaver.

Start new weaver row on opposite side.
Hold in place with clothespins.

























Bend all the outside reeds /stakes.(Every 2)
Measure the length of a finger and cut.
Tuck the cut end under on the inside of basket.

Cut the inner stakes even with the edge.



Put edge around the top and hold with clothes pins, one inside, one outside. Wedge rope between inner and outer edge.











Wrap reed around the top and fasten under edge.

Monday, January 09, 2006

Fire in the Borgo-Sketches

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Raphael:Fire in the Borgo

Hugo van der Goes



Triptyque Portinary-1475

Raphael's Madonna of the Chair










Thursday, January 05, 2006

Raphael's Madonna of the meadows

Click to enlarge, then use back arrow:



















Raphael - http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/raphael.html

Monday, January 02, 2006

Da Vinci's Last Supper

The Last Supper
Click to enlarge, then use back arrow:

The Last Supper after cleaning
1498 Tempera on plaster
Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie (Refectory), Milan
460 x 880 cm (15 x 29 ft.)
( 11 apostles and Mary Magdalene)

I think that if there were no more newspapers, books or writings of any kind except the Inquirer, in 300 years it would become a Testament, a Gospel and a Bible.

We choose what we want to believe.
These passages from pages 231-235 In The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown are views that I can share:

"Jesus Christ was a historical figure of staggering influence, perhaps the most enigmatic and inspirational leader the world has ever seen....As a descendant of the lines of King Solomon and King David, Jesus possessed a rightful claim to the throne of the King of the Jews. ..His life was recorded by thousands of followers across the land.... More than eighty gospels were considered of the New Testament, and yet Holy a relative few were chosen for inclusion..."
"The Bible, as we know it today, was collated by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine the Great...who was baptized on his death bed....
Rome's official religion was sun worship...Three centuries after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Christ's followers had multiplied exponentially. Christian and Pagans began warring, and the conflict grew to such proportions that it threatened to rend Rome in two. In 325 A.D., he decided to unify Rome under a single religion. Christianity....By fusing pagan symbols, dates, and rituals into the growing Christian tradition he created a kind of hybrid religion that was acceptable to both parties."

Raphael: The Baptism of Constantine-1508
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael%E2%80%99s_Room#The_Baptism_of_Constantine



"Egyptian sun disks became the halos of Catholic saints.* Pictograms of Isis nursing her miraculously conceived son Horus became the blueprint of our modern images of the Virgin Mary nursing Baby Jesus."

"Nothing in Christianity is original. The pre-Christian God Mithras--called the Son of God and the Light of the World--was born on December 25, died, was buried in a rock tomb and was resurrected in three days. ...[It] it also the birthday of Osiris Adonis, and Dionysus. The newborn Krishna was presented with gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

"Jesus' establishment as 'the Son of God' was officially proposed and and voted on by the Council of Nicaea." ..."By officially endorsing Hesus as the Son of God, Constantine turned Jesus into a deity who existed beyond the scope of the human world, and entity whose power was unchallengeable."

"Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ's human traits and embellished those gospels that made Him godlike. The earlier gospels were outlawed, gathered up and burned... Anyone who chose the forbidden gospels over Constantine;s version was deemed a heretic... The Latin word Haereticus means 'choice.' Those who 'chose' the original history of Christ were the world's first heretics."

"Fortunately for historians... some of the gospels that Constantine attempted to eradicate managed to survive. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the 1950s in a cave near Qumran in the Judean desert. And... the Coptic Scrolls in 1945 at Nag Hammadi."

P.238

"The Grail is literally the ancient symbol for womanhood, and the Holy Grail represents the sacred feminine and the goddess.... virtually eliminated by the Church. The power of the female and her ability to produce life was once very sacred, but it posed a threat to the rise of the predominantly male Church and so the sacred feminine was demonized and called unclean. It was man not God, who created the concept of 'original sin,' whereby Eve tasted of the apple and caused the downfall of the human race. Woman, once the sacred giver of life, was now the enemy."..."Christian philosophy decided to embezzle the female's creative power by ignoring biological ruth and making man the Creator.

P. 244

The church needed to defame Mary Magdalene in order to cover up her dangerous secret--her role as the Holy Grail.....[and] her marriage to Jesus.."


/\ icon for male known as the blade

\/ icon for female known as the chalice

together:

[This is a harsher symbol than the Ying Yang where both forces mingle easily: ]

"The problems arise when we begin to believe literally in our own metaphors." P. 342



_______

The sacrifice of the Spring lambs (they ate the male lambs) gives us the lamb of god idea prior to the crucifiction mythology. (Previously celebrated with the calves of Egypt in the age of Taurus.)

They burned the fat wrapped on the bones to make a good smell that went up to god. The ritual of the new season of growth/material increase. (The burning insence)

Personal diary entries


Monday January 2, 2006