UNESCO – La Citadelle (Québec City, Canada)

Fine fortress from the colonial past of the Americas

————————-

“Québec City may be the bastion of all things French in Canada (even the stop signs read Arrêt, whereas in France they read “Stop”), but the stunning cliff-top fortress of La Citadelle approximately 360 feet (120 m) above the St. Lawrence River atop Cap Diamant is a definite throwback to British Empire rule. The fortress still features guards sporting scarlet tunics and bearskin hats, and it remains the most important fortification built in Canada under British rule. Not surprisingly perhaps, it is referred to locally as the

“Gibraltar of America” and is said to be the largest North American fort still working as a military base.

La Citadelle (the French name is used both in English and French) was designed according to a defense system developed by the French military engineer Saint-Léger-Vauban, who refined these star-shaped fortresses to make them virtually impregnable to the assault weapons of the day. Not much of the original French fortress remains except for the redoubt of 1693 and the powder magazine of 1750 (now a museum). Today the Historic District of Old Québec, including the Citadelle, is a UNESCO World Heritage site representing an eminent example of a fortified colonial town and illustrates a major stage in the populating and growth of the Americas during the modern and contemporary period.

La Citadelle’s layout is in the shape of a four-pointed polygon, with each point forming a bastion.

Most of the twenty-five buildings on the 37-acre

(15-ha) site were erected by the British on the orders of the Duke of Wellington. He anticipated another U.S. attack after the war of 1812. It never happened; in fact there has never been an exchange of fire with an invader and therefore no chance to test the guns protecting the Bastion Prince de Galles, which can fire a shell almost 3 miles (5 km). “JH”#1001HistoricSitesRichardCavendish (#30theamericanscanada)

Green Gables House (Cavendish, Canada)

Victorian farmhouse that provided the inspiration for a literary classic

———————————————-

Situated in Prince Edward Island National Park, Canada, Green Gables House is one of the most visited historic sites in the country and where author Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942) set her best-selling novel Anne of Green Gables and its sequels.

They feature Montgomery’s memorable protagonist, Anne Shirley, an imaginative and outspoken redhead.

Built in the mid-nineteenth century, Green Gables House is a typical mid-Victorian farmhouse, deriving its name from the vibrant, dark green paint of the triangular gables on its roof. Montgomery was brought up mainly by her grandparents on rural Prince Edward Island. Their cousins, the Macneills, lived close by in Green Gables House, and Montgomery spent her isolated childhood playing in her cousins’ garden. In 1904, while leafing through an old notebook, Montgomery came across a story describing an elderly couple’s application for the adoption of an orphan boy,

but by mistake a girl was sent instead, This discovery gave the Canadian writer the idea for her literary heroine and Anne of Green Gables, the first book in her popular series, was published in 1908.

Prince Edward National Park was set up in the 1930s as a place of natural beauty and as a tourist attraction. A golf course designed by the architect Stanley Thompson runs beside Green Gables House.

Lover’s Lane and the Haunted Wood-both places Anne haunts in the novels—can also be visited. LaL (#1001historicsitesrichardcavendish)

“There’s a lot of different Annes

in me. I sometimes think that is why

I’m such a troublesome person.”

Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables (1908)

#TheAmericasCanada31

Source #1001beforeyoudiecollections #repo_sts Constanta-Liliana Dinescu

Sassestta, the most innovative and influential painter of Sienese quattrocento.

St. Anthony Beaten by Devils / Sassetta
Created 1423-26
Medium Oil on panel
Dimensions 9½ x 15 ¾ in / 24 x 39 cm
Location Italy 🇮🇹, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena

Stefano di Giovanni di Consolo (c.1400-50), known as Sassetta, may be the most innovative painter of the Sienese quattrocento. Alongside Florence, Siena was a leading cultural center in Tuscany. Sienese painting was characterized by decorative, mystical works, emphasizing the miraculous and divine.
Sassetta emerged within this flourishing tradition, but began to incorporate innovations from the more naturalistic Florentine School. The Altarpiece of the Eucharist is his earliest known work, commissioned in 1423 for the Church of the Carmelite Order. It is a triptych depicting scenes from the lives of St. Anthony and Thomas Aquinas, the central panel of which was lost when the altarpiece was disassembled in 1777. St. Anthony Beaten by Devils is one of the surviving panels. The hermit St. Anthony is being bludgeoned with clubs by three devils intent on breaking his faith. This terrible scene has an emotional resonance typical of later Renaissance works, as the old man lies helpless beside his abandoned walking stick. The muted gray light pervading the sparse, rocky landscape of St. Anthony’s isolation offsets the vivid glow of his halo and the fiery reds punctuating the devils. Sassetta’s fusion of Sienese art with Florentine innovation was instrumental in bringing Sienese painting from the International Gothic into the Renaissance style. Although Siena’s artistic progression would later be tempered by the city’s economic and political decline, Sassetta’s influence was widespread in Siena and beyond. SLF in 1001 Paintings

1001beforeyoudiecollectionpaintings70fifteenthcentury

📸 Look at this post on Facebook https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02NLqovzWiReVVyyLyySNwj6UR2wpwUpstbpA72w6sobJshvDAREJcBLJCv6CQRYK7l&id=100024325096915&mibextid=WC7FNe

Artist:,Ambrogio Lorenzetti

Artwork: Allegory of Good Government

Created: c. 1337-1340

Medium: Fresco (detail)

Dimensions: 296 x 1398cm (total size)

Top right: Allegorical personifications of Faith, Charity and Hope Left: Peace, Fortitude, Prudence

Middle: Good Government

Right: Magnanimity, Temperance, Justice Siena, Palazzo Pubblico, Sala dei Nove

———————————-

AMBROGIO LORENZETTI

C. 1290 – C. I348 (?)

We tend to see Gothic art as something reserved exclusively for churches, and there can be no doubt that the development of ne artistic techniques and media was primarily fuelled by ecclesiastical commissions. There nevertheless evidence that a large and impor ant body of secular art was also created between the 13th and 15th centuries. Historic sources document commissions for paintings almost none of which have survived into the present.

#1001beforeyoudiecollectionmasterpiecesofwesternart40ingofwalther

📸 Look at this post on Facebook https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid026rG5LyGt88vZjWUn1Tv9HWuwKo3tdVEDTTJ4MTuPCsiebdmmPN4fu5cuBHjL1L5rl&id=100024325096915&mibextid=WC7FNe

Alpha | Lancia

1908 • 155 cu in/2,543 cc, S4 • 56 bhp/41 kW • unknown • 56 mph/90 kph

#1001beforeyoudiecollection

The Lancia 12HP was the first production car made by the company’s founder, Vincenzo Lancia. In 1908 the car was unveiled at the Turin Motor Show.

Lancia was born in 1881 and began working at his first job as an accountant in a bicycle factory in Turin.

When Fiat bought the bicycle company in 1899, Lancia was named chief inspector. He worked with Fiat for eight years, during which he started test-driving the company’s cars, as well as driving Fiat’s racing models, winning in many events. When, in 1906, he created the Lancia company he was not concerned with comfort or practicality; he was thinking only of racing.

Lancia began with a 12-bhp (9-kW) engine that was available on a straight chassis. A variety of different body styles were dropped on later, including everything from closed landaulets to a sporting two-seater. The Lancia

Corsa was one example of that first car and was raced at Savannah, Georgia, in 1908. These early Lancia preproduction cars were known for being lightweight and were acknowledged as well-engineered vehicles.

Also in 1908, Lancia started work on production of his first automobile. Lancia’s first car, called the Alpha, had a 155-cubic-inch (2,543-cc) four-cylinder engine with a side-valve.

Lancia developed into a company unafraid of engineering innovations. It manufactured the first standard production V6, the first electrical system in a car, and the first five-speed standard transmission.

Perhaps Vincenzo Lancia’s most enduring legacy is found in the world of motorsports. Lancia can claim ten world rally championship titles, a record that exceeds that of any other car manufacturer. BK

#38188619441001carstodreamofdravingbeforeyoudie

https://1001beforeyoudiecollectiom.art.blog/

m.facebook.com/story.php

m.facebook.com/story.php

at.tumblr.com/lillynist/danse-des-b%C3%A2tons-par-les-n%C3%A8gres/ad8wmrral2kg

BABYLONIAN WARS

Fall of Jerusalem 587 BCE

REBELLING against foreign domination, King Zedekiah of Judah defied Nebuchadnezzar II, ruler of the newly dominant regional power Babylon. The rebellion ended in even worse disaster for the Jews than their earlier revolt against the Assyrians because they were subjected to an unprecedented mass exile, known as the “Babylonian Captivity.”

#1transcribedtextaftermk #1001andmore

“Jehoiakim, installed on Judah’s throne by Egyptian pharaoh Necho II after the Battle of Megiddo, had tried to stand out against the expansion of Babylonian power.

In 597 BCE, accordingly, Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon had taken Jerusalem after a short siege, and replaced Jehoiakim with a puppet of his own.

King Zedekiah, too, hankered after the authority of real king, however, and in 587 BCE he tried to break away.

Alone, his people could do nothing, but Zedekiah went behind Babylonian backs to make an alliance with Egypt’s Pharaoh Apries, who agreed to assist the Jews if they rebelled. Apries was as good 😊 as his word: unfortunately, however, the army he sent into Judah was quickly and easily dispatched by Nebuchadnezzar’s forces, who could now concentrate entirely on the errant kingdom of Judah land a desert . . . and reduce your cities to ruins,”lamented the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 4:7).

After about eighteen months, Jerusalem’s defenders were finally starved into submission. Zedekiah’s two sons were captured and executed before his eyes 👀 which were then put out. The king was led off to exile in Babylon, accompanied by up to 10,000 of his nation’s aristocratic, religious, and scholarly 🧐 elite: Nebuchadnezzar was determined to destroy not just the spirit but the very identity of the Jews, as well.” (MK, in 1001 Battles – page 30 – 2450 BCE-999 CE) History of World-Ideas-Important Days and Historic Sites 1001 Before You Die Collection My one regret in life is that I am not someone else

“Raise the signal to go Zion! Flee for safety without delay! For I am bringing disaster from the north, even terrible 😢 destruction.”

Jeremiah 4:6

#1001beforeyoudiecollections

⬇️This cuneiform tablet from Babylon records Nebuchadnezzar II’s capture of Jerusalem and campaign against the king 👑 of Egypt

#1001beforeyoudiecollection

——————————-

Losses: Many thousands dead 💀; 10,000 Jews deported to Babylon (30 | 2450 BCE-999 CE)

To see ⬇️⬆️Megiddo 609 BCE Opis 539 BCE ➡️⬆️⬇️

Artwork: The Virgin of the Rocks (Mary with Christ, the Infant – St John and an Angel)

Artist: Leonardo

Created: c. 1493-1495 and 1506-1508

Medium and Support: Oil on wood

Dimensions: 195.5 x 120 cm

Location: London, National Gallery

#1001beforeyoudiecollection #1friendsofmuseums

Photography credit 1️⃣ZebraPhotography

Beaumont des Crayères

Fleur de Prestige 1996

————————————

Origin: France, Champagne, Vallée de la Mame

Style: Sparkling dry white wine, 12% ABV

Grapes: Chardonnay 50%, P. Noir 40%, P. Meunier 10%

———————-

“Beaumont de Crayères is the sonorous brand name for the respected bijou Champagne cooperative of Mardeuil, near Epernay. The 247 members cultivate 235 acres (95 ha) of fine vineyards, mainly on the sunny slopes of Cumières and Mardeuil: These premieres crus are renowned for bright, fruit-laden Point Noir and refined Point Meunier.

Since 1987, Beaumont’s chef de cave, Jean-Paul Bertus, has created elegant, opulent Champagnes notably the Fleur de Prestige, the least expensive of Beaumont’s vintage range. The Fleur 1996 is the grand apéritif par excellence, combining exhilarating acidity and tender ripeness. The prestance of Chardonnay shows in the bright-green flashes among the deep-gold colors; the bubbles are lacelike, persistent yet gentle; aromas of spring flowers mingle with the hedgerow fragrances of hawthorn and honeysuckle. As the wine warms, the bouquet embraces pear, peach, and fresh hazelnut.

The finish has a splendid mass of lemony freshness.

For regular drinking, Beaumont’s non-vintage Grande Réserve is a fine example of how good Meunier-led Champagne can be.”(ME — 1001 WINES—24/Sparkling wines — 1001 Before You Die Collection)

💲💲💲 Drink: to 2020

————————————

#1001beforeyodiecollection #1transcribedtext #sourceourbookslibrary

#a1culturel

Artwork: Tiger in a Tropical Storm (Surprised!)

Artist: Henri Rousseau (Douanier)

Medium and Support: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 130 cm × 162 cm (51 1⁄8 in × 63 3⁄4 in)

Location: National Gallery, London, UK

“I had the misfortune to lose my two wives and six children, if I didn’t get up with my work, what would have been chosen by me so far.”

(The statement belongs to Henri Rousseau in 1907) “The naïve and primitive style of Henri Rousseau’s (1844-1910) work is instantly recognizable, yet in his time and for some years after his death, the artist was repeatedly ridiculed and his work deemed “childish.” He was born in Laval in the Loire Valley and raised within fairly impoverished circumstances. He spent four years in the army before moving to Paris in 1868and working as a clerk in a law office. Rousseau did not turn to art until late in his life:

his first known work, Landscape with a Watermill is dated 1879, and he did

not launch his public artistic career until 1885. Tiger in a Tropical Storm (or Surprised!) is the first of the series of jungle scenes that Rousseau painted, and was exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in 1891. The artist claimed that he had encountered such exotic jungle scenes while serving as a regimental bandsman in Mexico in 1860, but in fact, he had never left France. It is more likely that his inspiration came from the botanical gardens in Paris including the jardin des Plantes. Rousseau worked from the background to the foreground layering his paint meticulously, and using an enormous range of greens to express the verdant lushness of the jungle. To achieve the slashing rain he devised a method of training thin silver strands of paint diagonally across the canvas, adding to the unusual three-dimensional effect of the work. Though derided by critics of the period, Rousseau’s work was much admired by some of his fellow artists, including Matisse, Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Robert Delaunay. (TP 1001pbyd)

#1001beforeyoudiecollections #1001beforeyoudiecollection #henrirousseau #historyofart

Photography credit 1️⃣ZebraPhotography

Hopalong Cassidy

Western | USA | 1949-54

—————————-

A true Western pioneer

Cast | William Boyd, James Ellison, Russell Hayden, George Reeves, Rand Brooks, George Hayes, Britt Wood, Andy Clyde, Edgar Buchanan

Original broadcaster | NBC

For fans of . . . | The Lone Ranger (1949)

——————————-

Classic episode

Black Waters | Season 1, episode 21, Hoppy is asked to persuade an Indian chief to give up his land’s oil. Character actor Rick Vallin guests, as he also did on other Westerns such as The Gene Autry Show, Cowboy G-Men, and The Lone Ranger.

—————————

Source 24 Pre-1960s | #1transcribedtext

↕️William Boyd with Topper, after whose death the actor said he would never ride another horse.

#musttoseeandbuy

The Ed Sullivan Show

Variety | USA | 1948-71

————————————

Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy

“a really big shew”

—————————

Cast | Ed Sullivan

Original broadcaster | CBS

Awards | 1Emmy, 1 Golden Globe

For fans of . . . | The Tonight Show (1954), Late Show with David Letterman (1993)

——————————

#transcribedtext

↕️(L-R) Sullivan with The Beatles’ John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and Paul McCartney, during rehearsals for the show. (Source 22-Pre-1960s); #1001beforeyoudiecollections

Source: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0346MXgdk7B5Cez5f6gCYh3iFeeminYNryeq6xTWXUreLAPeP4Cdp7DHRQVoBf1pEPl&id=100063656044653

Artwork: Gian Galeazzo Sanvitale

Artist: Parmigianino

Created: 1524

Medium: Oil on panel

Dimensions: 109 x 81 cm

Location: Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy “Admired for his landscapes and Mannerist religious paintings, Parmigianino (Girolamo Mazzola, 1503-40)was also one of the great Italian Renaissance portraitists. The viewer is immediately struck here by the vitality and physical presence of Sanvitale, count Fontanellato. He sits in a fine chair wearing elaborate clothing, and stares directly and unflinchingly. He wears a sword, while an impressive pile of military equipment is heaped behind him. In his gloved right hand he holds a medal displaying what may be alchemical symbols. From the background, foliage crowds in one the sitter. In its way, this is a flattering portrait of a Renaissance nobleman. Yet it is hard to avoid the impression that the artist ha created an unfriendly, critical portrait. The sitter’s haughty expression seems close to petulance. But whether or not we warm to the count, the painting remains a masterpiece of representational art.” (RGbyd)

#1001beforeyoudiecollection #1001beforeyoudiecollections #1transcribedtext #historyofart #fineart

Artwork: The Battle of San Romano (I)

Artist: Paolo Uccello

Created: Begun c. 1440

Medium: Tempera on panel

Dimensions: 180 x 320 cm

Location: National Gallery, London, UK

Movement: Early Renaissance

Picture credit: @art_love_enjoy_life (CL)

Paolo Uccello (c. 1397 – 1475), also known as Paolo di Dono was an Italian painter, born in Florence, Italy. He is the great early master of Renaissance perspective, and he was a trained in the workshop of the master Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378 – 1455).

The battle of San Romano took place in 1432 and ended, with the victory of the Florentines, over the inhabitants of Siena.

The London panel shows the Florentine commander Niccolo da Tolentino (in the center of the panel), he sits on a white horse, raised on its hind legs,

and with the scepter in his hand he gives the attack signal.

Uccello presents at the same time, different moments of the battle: on the left side of the picture, the trumpeters call to battle, while on the right side of the picture, we see the riders fighting.

About technique of this painting: The round motifs of the harness on Niccolo da Tolentino’s horse were made, at first, of pressed gold. In addition to dyes, Uccello used a wide variety of materials, and rarely used in painting.

#1001beforeyoudiecollections #1001beforeyoudiecollection

Artwork: Les Grandes Baigneuses

Artist: Paul Cézanne

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 127 x 196 cm

Location: National Gallery, London, UK

Photography credit: @art_love_enjoy_life During his career Paul Cézanne (1839 – 1906) repeatedly returned to certain subjects. Mont Saint- Victoire, the mountain that bordered the artist’s hometown of Aix-en-Provence was one such subject, and the sheer volume on canvases based upon this particular mountain are testimony on the lengths the artist was prepared to go in order to render explicable some aspect of the external, recognizable world. From the early 1850s, the bather became another recurring subject within Cézanne’s oeuvre. In 1895, he began work on series of large canvases based around the theme of bathers that he continued to work on until his death in 1906. Today three large canvases, each depicting a group of female bathers, represent the culmination, if not necessarily the resolution of a theme that, like his studies of Mont Sainte – Victoire, afforded the means by which the underlying structure of the sensate world might be rendered visible. Organised around a grouping of eleven bathers, Cézanne depicts the figures in such a way that they appear to visually interlock and can be read as a visual continuum from left to right a cross the picture plane. This sense of formal continuity is further conveyed trough the artist’s brushstrokes carrying equal weight, or “touch,” both in their depiction of the figure and its immediate surroundings. Although the subject, on one level, remained indebted to classical precedent, Cézanne applied what were a set of radical techniques to create a thoroughly “modern” conception of the human form.(CSpbyd)

#1001beforeyoudiecollections #1001beforeyoudiecollection #arthistory #1essco

BLIND

—————-

PAUL STRAND

Genre: Portrait

Date: 1916

Format: Large-format

Location: New York, New York, USA

“In 1909, American photographer Paul Strand (1890-1976) completed his studies Andre the social reformer and photographer Lewis Hine at the Ethical Cultural Fieldston School in New York. Hine introduced Strand to Alfred Stieglitz, founder of the Photo-Secession group and publisher of the influential magazine Camera Work.

Strand began producing abstract photographs in 1915 that were notable for their use of shadow, rhythmic shapes, simplified forms and artful composition. The last double edition of Camera Work in 1917 was dedicated to Strand’s work, and included this image of a blind street beggar on the street of New York. Blind is one of series of street photographs that Strand took with a handheld camera fitted with a prismatic lens, which allowed him to point his camera in one direction while taking a photograph at a ninety-degree angle. The decoy lens that he was able to take photographs without his subjects being aware, because they thought he was photographing something else – an act that has promoted ethical debate on the role of photographers and their relationships with their subjects. In this case, the subject is also blind, further calling into question the morality of capturing images of people unaware. At the time, the photograph was hailed for its modernism; today, it functions well as provocative and poignant piece of social documentation. Blind serves to reveal the dehumanization of the partially sighed in the early 20th century, as this woman has to beg for a living and wears a placard akin to a dog collar to advertise her plight. (CKpbyd)

#1001beforeyoudiecollection #1001beforeyoudiecollections #1transcribedtext #blind

Artwork: Venus of Urbino

Artist: Titian

Created: 1538

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 119 x 165 cm

Location: Uffizi, Florence, Italy “Inspired by Italian masters of the High Renaissance, such as Michelangelo, Titian (Tiziano Vecellio, c. 1485-1576)was considered a master within the accomplished artistic circles of sixteenth-century Venice. He has also been cited as the first Venetian painter to earn international standing. He painted anonymous “courtesan” portraits, as well as altarpieces and mythological painting. As a prolific portraitist, he produced flattering yet recognizably human likenesses of such prominent figures as the Pope, the Emperor, the Doge, and the Marquis of Mantua, yet despite the range of his prestigious commissions, Venus of Urbino is arguably his masterpiece. In his 1880 travel diary, A Tramp Abroad, American author Mark Twain described the painting as “the foulest, the vilest, the most obscene picture the world possesses.” Allegorical touches, such as the clothed female figures in the background and the puppy asleep at Venus’s feet, have led to through iconographic readings of the painting but perhaps Twain’s atavistic, and prudish, reaction was closer to Titian’s real intentions. The unselfconscious desire in the model’s direct, lascivious expression might have offended Twain but her lovely, lustful gaze has also seduced countless viewers. Titian’s breathtaking talent and his bold depiction of female sexuality is why this painting is often cited as the grandmother of many of Western art’s most controversial images including Manet’s Olympia and considered a model of empowered female sexuality, as well as precursor to the pinup.”(AH, 1001pbyd)

#1001beforeyoudiecollection #1001beforeyoudiecollections #repostlillynisth #1transcribedtext #arthistory #titian

www.facebook.com/1001beforeyoudie/photos/a.156621555822214/161201172030919/

https://www.facebook.com/1001beforeyoudie/

Artwork: Portrait of Dora Maar

Artist: Pablo Picasso

Created: 1942

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 65 x 46 cm

Location: Private collection

“Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Dora Maar were together for a decade through the 1939s and 40s.

Raised in Argentina, Maar was the daughter of a Yugoslavian father and a French mother. Though initially trained as a painter, she became one of the foremost Surrealist photographers of the 1930s. Their relationship was tumultuous but yielded more interesting work than the periods Picasso spent with less challenging partners. For the better part of a decade, Maar was Picasso’s muse, his model, his composition, and his intellectual sparring partner. Maar is beloved to have helped Picasso paint Guernica, his masterpiece, and though she was quoted by her biographer James Lord as saying, “All his portraits of me are lies. They’re all Picassos. Not one is Dora Maar,” the series of portraits he painted of her are among his most revered.” (A. H.)

#1transcribedtext #1001beforeyoudiecollection

Artwork: Man in a Red Turban

Artist: Jan van Eyck

Created: 1433

Medium: Oil on wood

Dimensions: 26 x19 cm

Location: National Gallery, London, UK

Photography credit @art_love_enjoy_life

“In 1550, Giorgio Vasari named Jan van Eyck (c. 1385-1441) as the inventor of oil painting, a legend perpetuated until recent time. While Vasari’s claim is now discounted, Van Eyck was undoubtedly instrumental in the explosion of oil painting on panel that occurred in the Netherlands in the fifteenth century. Van Eyck’s meticulous technique using thin layers of transparent pigment, his extraordinary facility to create the illusion of reality and his erudite use of detail earned him his fame and his place; along with Rogier van set Weyden; as one of the founders of Western European oil painting. Man in a Red Turban has long been believed to be a self-portrait. The exotic red headgear appears in the reflections of objects in other works by Van Eyck, such as The Arnolfini Portrait. An inscription, composed of letter made to look as if they are carved, has been painted onto the original, marbleized frame. The top line reads Als ich kan, which is trough to be a pun on Van Eyck’s surname (“As I/Eyck can”). The name of the painter and the date (“Jan van Eyck made me on October 21,1433”) appear on the bottom of the frame. Whether or not this is a self-portrait, the painting is extraordinary powerful. Set against a plain, dark blackboard, the sitter’s features are picked out in a clear light that falls from the left. Tiny dots of light from the studio windows appear in the his irises. The figure looks directly at the viewer. Nothing detracts from the concentration on this distinctive face, from the laugh lines around the eyes to the slight stubble of a beard. (EG 1001pbyd)

#1001beforeyoudiecollections #1001beforeyoudiecollection

#arthistory #historian #janvaneyck #nationalgallerylondon #repostlillynisth #historyofart #artwork

LUSHA NELSON

Genre: Portrait

Date: 1935

Location: Unknown

Format: 35mm

“In this theatrical image, actor Peter Lorre poses against a wall in the film adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment (1935), directed by Josef von Sternberg. Cornered by six accusing fingers, Lorre, who plays the role of protagonist Raskolnikov, wears a mask of dismay as he realises he has been captured for his crimes.

Lorre was an Austro Hungarian who fled the Nazis in 1933, and in London landed a major role in Alfred Hitchcock’s first version of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934).

Latvian American Lusha Nelson (1907-38) photographed commercially, but was also well known for his documentation of social issues.” (E.C.)

#1001beforeyoudiecollection #1001beforeyoudiecollections #Repostlillynisth #1essco

Artwork: Robert Burns
Artist: Alexander Nasmyth
Created: 1787
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 38 x32 cm
Location: Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh,, Uk “Alexander Nasmyth (1758-1840) has been dubbed the “father of Scottish landscape painting,” but no other work he painted is as well known as this portrait of Scotland’s most famous poet. It was commissioned by Edinburgh publisher William Creech to adorn a new edition of Burns’s poems in 1787, but Burns Nasmyth were already good friends before the sittings. A half-length portrait framed in an oval, the picture shows Burns confident and well dressed, a trace of amusement around his eyes and lips. The landscape background, suggestive of Burns’s native Ayrshire, supplies a note of melancholy. It is Romantic portrait, identifying the poet with nature and self-will, but tempered by a flavour of Enlightenment rationalism. The picture he’s been left partially unfinished because Nasmyth stopped painting once he was satisfied with what he had achieved. (RG)
#1001beforeyoudiecollections #1001beforeyoudiecollection #repostlillynisth #1transcribedtext #arthistorian

Artwork: The Swing

Artist: Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Created: 1767

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 83 x 66 cm

Location: Wallace Collection, London, UK

“This Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s (1732-1806) most celebrated painting, as well as one of the best-known images in eighteenth-century art. It is illustrates the elegance and playfulness of the Rococo style, which dominated French art during this period. The risqué subject was chosen by the Baron de Saint-Julien, who wanted a portrait of himself with his young mistress.

The baron is the lover concealed in the shrubbery and, in his original brief, he specified that the swing should be pushed by a bishop. This was meant as a harmless, private joke, as Saint-Julien held an important post in the Church, as Receiver General of the French clergy. Even so, the suggestion shocked the first artist that the baron approached. Fragonard was more accommodating, although he did insist on replacing the bishop with the more traditional figure of a cuckolded husband. Fragonard made the subject of the swing, a conventional symbol of inconstancy, his own by adding a host of witty details. In the foreground, a tiny lapdog – a symbol of fidelity – raises the alarm by yapping loudly, but the husband takes no notice. The statues, which seem half alive, share in the conspiracy. The putti – traditional attendants of Venus, the goddess of love – gaze up adoringly at the girl, while Cupid raises a finger to his lips. The girl is caught in a shaft of sunlight, while the frills and flounces of her dress echo the luxuriant foliage in the trees. Her two admirers, meanwhile, are bathed in shadows, and the outstretched arm of the baron has on obvious, phallic significance. (IZbyd)

#1001beforeyoudiecollection #1001beforeyoudiecollections #1transcribedtext #fineart #webgalleryofvisualart

Artwork: Self-Portrait

Artist: Angelica Kauffmann

Created: 1787

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 128 x 93.5 cm

Location: Uffizi, Florence, Italy “Angelica Kauffmann (1741-1807) enjoyed greater status than was usual for eighteenth-century female artists. She was well versed in Classical and Renaissance art and architecture having lived in Italy. Women artists were restricted to still life and portraiture but Kauffmann refused to be confined to these areas. She was interested in the women of myth and history such as Helen, Venus and Cleopatra. Her history paintings were criticized at the time, and have been since, for their disregard for the heroism of Neoclassicism. Kauffmann produced many self-portraits to engage the attention of prospective patrons. In this portrait she looks away from the viewer, a green ribbon in her loose hair. The white robe suggests Roman dress, but in the Neoclassical style caught above the waist with a belt. Seated between pillars with open views to mountains, she holds the tools of her trade.” (WO)

#1001beforeyoudiecollection #1001beforeyoudiecollections #1transcribedtext #repostlillynisth #arthistorian #fineart

Artwork: Marie Antoinette

Artist: Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun

Created: 1788

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 271 x 195 cm

Location: Palace of Versailles, Versailles, France

“This is one of many portraits that the Rococo artist (Marie-Louise) Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842) painted of French queen Marie Antoinette. In 1779, the artist was summoned to paint the queen, and the two women became good friends. Vigée Le Brun painted Antoinette in a variety of costumes and poses, many of which are displayed at the Palace of Versailles. In an extremely male-dominated art world, Vigée Le Brun’s powerful patron gave her freedom to paint.

While the clichéd propos of marbled pillar and heavy drapes are in evidence, Marie Antoinette is shown in a very open and flattering pose – about as casual and relaxes as one could get for that strait-laced, corsetted time, when reputations were built and destroyed on the flimsiest of ridicules. In the wake of Revolution, Vigée Le Brun fled France and became one of the most famed portrait artists of her time. (JHbyd)

#webgalleryofvisualart

🍿 🎥 MOVIE 🎥 🍿 ——————————————

CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS ——————————————-

Victor Fleming, 1937

——————————————

“Rudyard Kipling, who died in 1936, did not live long enough to see three of his books adapted for the screen the following year, including Victor Fleming’s rousing childhood epic Captains Courageous. Freddie Bartholomew stars as Harvey Cheyne, a spoiled rich kid who, after drinking six ice cream sodas, falls off the ocean liner on which he and his father (Melvyn Douglas) are traveling. He has the good fortune to be piked up by a fishing boat out of Gloucester, whose crew, including the good-natured Manuel Fidello (Spencer Tracy), is unimpressed by his wealth and “position.” Humiliated, Harvey is left to his own resources, but under Manuel’s careful tutelage he learns the value of hard work and real accomplishment. Before they can return to port, however, Manuel dies in an accident. In port, Harvey is met by his father yet wants to stay with the fishermen, but after a moving memorial for his dead friend, father and son are reconciled. Child star Bartholomew is excellent in a role that requires him to be both obnoxious and irresistible. And Spencer Tracy, his hair curled and face brown with makeup, does an excellent imitation of a Portuguese sailor. With humor pathos, and an interesting moral, this is one of the best children’s movies Hollywood ever produced.” (RBPbyd)

#1001beforeyoudiecollection #1001beforeyoudiecollections #1transcribedtext #musttobuyandsee #movies

🍿 🎥 MOVIE 🎥 🍿 —————————————

MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN

Frank Capra, 1936 “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is the film that invented the screwball comedy and solidified director Frank Capra’s vision of American life, with a support of small-town, traditional values against self-serving City sophistication. Longfellow deeds (Gary Cooper) is a Poet from the rural Vermont whose life changes, and not for the better, when he suddenly inherits the estate of his multimillionaire uncle, whose New York lawyers (used to skimming funds for their own use) try to convince him to keep them on the payroll. But after several misadventures and a trip to Manhattan, Deeds is convinced that the money will do him no good and tries to give it away, intending to endow a rural commune for displaced farmers. The lawyers immediately take him to court, claiming he is insane, for no one in their right mind would give away so much money. Crucial to Deeds’s eventual deliverance is Babe Bennett (Jean Arthur), a wisecracking reporter who first exploits the hick’s naïveté in order to write scathing exclusives about the “Cinderella Man.” Babe is transformed by Deeds’s idealism, however, and her testimony sways the court in the poor man’s favor. Filled with bright comic moments (Deeds playing the tuba to clear his mind, feeding donuts to hordes), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is a hymn to antimaterialism and the simple country life in the best manner of HenryDavid Thoreau.” (RBPbyd)

#1001beforeyoudiecollection #1001beforeyoudiecollections #1transcribedtext #musttobuyandsee #movies

Artwork: Winter Landscape

Artist: Sesshū

Created: 1470

Medium: Ink on paper scroll

Dimensions: 46.5 x 29.5 cm

Location: Tokyo National Museum, Japan “Many consider the Zen Buddhist priest Sesshū (c. 1420-1506) as the greatest master of Japanese ink painting. Travelling around the country as an itinerate priest, Sesshū devoted his life to art. As a youth, he entered Shikoku-ji Temple in Kyoto, where he received training in Zen and painting under the guidance Shūbun. Winter Landscape was created in his personal version of the Xia Gui style, marked by its use of hatsuboku (splattered ink). The poetic legacy of his Japanese teachers is also recalled here. Sesshū depicted mountains, cliffs, and rocks in a technique known as shumpu, which combines bold outlines with more delicate lines to create a feeling of three-dimensionally. Long before the early modern period, he had already established his reputation as artistic genius – the sheer number of disciples he had in his lifetime testifies to his influence and popularity.” (FNbyd)

#1001beforeyoudiecollections #1001beforeyoudiecollection #1transcribedtext #japan #arthistory #historyofart

Artwork: St. George and the Dragon (detail)

Artist: Sano di Pietro

Created: c. 1440-70

Medium: Tempera on panel

Location: Museo Diocesano, Siena, Italy “Sano di Piero (c. 1405-81) was a successful artist in fifteenth-century Siena. St. George and the Dragon is typical of his approach – it has simplicity, clarity, and decorative quality that he turned into a winning formula. Here England’s patron saint is shown as a medieval knight slaying a dragon to save a king’s daughter in return for a promise that the king’s subjects would be baptized. This picture makes little attempt at showing realistic three-dimensional space, and harks back to a simple, medieval style of art. The composition is well-balanced, with each element well-placed in an overall design that creates an attractive pattern rather than a convincing scene. The work has a flat, decorative quality – the dragon, wound artfully around the legs of the horse, almost disappears because it is painted as a decorative element and not a frightening, naturalistic beast.” (AKbyd)

#1001beforeyoudiecollection #1001beforeyoudiecollections #1transcribedtext #historyofart

‘I AM JUST GOING OUTSIDE AND MAY BE SOME TIME.’ ————————————————————————

PORTRAIT OF CAPTAIN OATES ———————————————————————— HERBERT PONTING

Genre: Portrait

Date: 1911

Location: SS Terra Nova, Antarctica

Format: Unknown “Herbert Ponting (1870-1935) is a pioneer of modern polar photography. He accompanied Robert Falcon Scott’s expedition to Antarctica and set up a darkroom in the base hut at Cape Evans. He took more than 1,000 photographs of Antarctica landscape and wildlife. He did not, however, accompany the expedition on its trek inland to the South Pole. This portrait shows Capitan Lawrence Oates with some of the nineteen horses he cared for on the expedition ship Terra Nova. The animals were intended to haul food and supplies, but Oates, a former cavalry officer, wrote that they were ‘very old for this sort of job’ and ‘a wretched load of crocks’. Oates was right; the ponies could not cope with the freezing conditions. Scott’s team struggled to reach the Pole, and there discovered that Roald Amundsen’s Norwegian expedition had got there first. Oates was the tragic hero of the doomed return trip from the South Pole. Suffering from appalling frostbite to his feet, and convinced that he was slowing the group’s progress, he walked out to his death in a blizzard, uttering his famous last words: ‘I am just going outside and may be some time.’”(CJbyd)

#1001beforeyoudiecollection #1001beforeyoudiecollections #1transcribedtext #terranova #photography #portraitphotographer #fineart #repostlillynisth

HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC PAINTING LA DANSE AU MOULIN ROUGE ——————————————————————

MAURICE JOYANT

Genre: Documentary

Date: 1890

Location: France

Format: Large format “Maurice Joyant (1864-1930) was an art dealer and amateur photographer who took numerous images of his friend, the artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, who apparently never took a single photograph himself.

Yet Toulouse-Lautrec very much relied on posters and photographs for inspiration., using them as templates to suggest the compositional ratios, lighting ad scenery of his paintings. Many of his paintings derived directly from photographs taken by his friends. Uniquely for his time, Toulouse-Lautrec operated between the two mediums when painted portraiture was being replaced by by that of silver plates. What he depicted, and how he did so, would have been inconceivable without photography, because the moments he painted clearly reflect the immediacy of camera’s shutter. From its inception photography was seen as a fundamental challenge to painting, with some even declaring the invention of photography to be the death knell of art. But Toulouse-Lautrec’s use of photography as a source of his art was an early sign of the productive co-existence of the two mediums. Just as photographers look to art as inspiration, so do painters look to photographs for unrepeatable situations.”(ZGbyd)

#1001beforeyoudiecollection #1001beforeyoudiecollections #1transcribedtext #1essco #fineart

NEWSBOYS SMOKING (DETAIL)

——————————————-

LEWIS HINE

Genre: Documentary

Date: 1910

Location: St. Louis, Missouri, USA

Format: Large format ‘At the end of the 19th century and into the 20th, child labour was common across the United States. Children worked in factories and mines and on farms, fields and the streets – a consequence of the country’s burgeoning industry. Meagre pay, coupled with poor treatment and substandard working conditions, put child labor, many felt, on a par with slavery. The National Child Labour Committee (NCLC) was founded in 1904 and pushed for reform, with Lewis Hine (1874-1940), a teacher who had a background in sociology, joining its ranks four years later. Driven by the belief that photographs could be used as tools for social change, Hine created around 5,000 images documenting children at work. Many of his photographs portray working and living conditions where little or no consideration is given to the children’s safety or well-being. The widespread dissemination of images such as this, of pre-adolescents taking a break from work outside a pool hall, persuaded the American public to reconsider its attitudes to child labour. Hine’s work helped to inspire the Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916, which sought to restrict the exploitation of young people.’ (GPbyd)

#1001beforeyoudiecollections #1transcribedtext #1001beforeyoudiecollection #repostlillynisth

Artwork: Napoleon Crossing the Alps

Artist: Jacques-Louis David

Created: 1801

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 272 x 230 cm

Location: Louvre, Paris, France “Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) was the ultimate political artist. He was a fervent advocate of the French Revolution (1789-99), almost losing his life on the guillotine. Then, in the next wave of political events, he became an equally enthusiastic supporter of Napoleon Bonaparte, using this talent to glorify the new emperor. This painting commemorates Napoleon’s journey across the Alps in 1800, leading his army an the invasion of northern Italy. The scene was chosen by Bonaparte himself, and instructed the artist to show him “calm, mounted on a fiery steed.” The emperor’s features are idealized, largely because he refused to attend any sittings. As a result, David had to ask his son to sit on the top of ladder in order to capture the pose. The costume was more accurate, however, as the artist was able to borrow the uniform that Napoleon had worn at the Battle of Marengo (1800). First and foremost, David’s painting serves as an icon of imperial majesty. The horse’s mane and the emperor’s cloak, billowing wildly in a howling gale, lend a sense of grandeur to the composition while, carved on the rocks below, are the names of Hannibal and Charlemagne (Karolus Magnus) – two other victorious generals who had led their armies across the Alps. As with all the best propaganda, the truth was rather more prosaic. Napoleon had in actuality made the journey in fine weather conditions. Similarly, although David based the rearing horse on an equestrian statue of Peter the Great, in reality, Napoleon had ridden across the Alps on a mule.” (IZbyd)

#1001beforeyoudiecollection #1001beforeyoudiecollections #1transcribedtext #napoleon #fineart

Artwork: The School of Love (detail)

Artist: Correggio

Created: c.1525

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 155.6 x 91.4 cm

Location: National Gallery, London, UK

“Antonio Allegri da Correggio (c. 1449-1534) is perhaps one of the least-known master of the Italian Renaissance. The School of Love was painted for Federigo II Gonzaga, Lord of Mantua, and was one of six erotic works based on mythological themes. The figures are softly modeled in rosy tones of pure clear color, while his details of the foliage, for example, and the figures’ shining hair are exquisite. The painting itself does not represent a specific mythological event, but rather alludes to the themes of love and schooling. Venus and Mercury are seen with Cupid, instructing him in the way of love, but also appear as a tight family unit. The sensuous Venus combines the exotic and the demure, carefully looking away fro the viewer. Correggio’s work foresaw the delicate romantic appeal of eighteenth century Rococo art, and was greatly admired by artists touring Italy during the nineteenth century.” (TPbyd)

#1transcribedtext #1001beforeyoudiecollection

#1001beforeyoudiecollections

#historyofart

Artwork: Portrait of an Old Woman (detail)

Artist: Hans Memling

Created: c. 1470

Medium: Oil on panel

Dimensions: 26.5 x 18 cm

Location: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, USA

“In the 1460s Hans Memling (c. 1430-94) established himself in the Flemish city of Bruges, where his talent was rewarded with a stream of commissions. Many of these were for portraits, a genre in which the painter excelled. At a time when Italian portraitists we’re still producing profiles, Memling poses the sitter for a three-quarter view. Typically, the sitter’s eyes do not engage with the viewer, looking down and to the side with an implication of piety. Memling habitually set his subjects in front of landscape, whereas here the background is plain greenish-blue. This portrait exemplifies Memling’s technical brilliance, especially in the highlights that model the strong nose and the folds of cloth. The composure that characterizes Memling’s art presumably sûtes his subjects’ view of themselves. There is a firm self-satisfaction in these features, as the confident awareness of virtue.” (RGbyd)

#1001beforeyoudiecollections #1001beforeyoudiecollection #1transcribedtext #historyofart #1essco

www.facebook.com/1001beforeyoudie/photos/a.156621555822214/175471383937231/

Artwork: Battle of Mailberg

Artist: Hans Part

Created: 1489-92

Medium: Oil on wood (detail)

Location: Klosterneuburg Monastery, Austria “The extraordinary beauty and detail in Hans Part’s work makes it surprising that the artist has remained so obscure – even his birth and death dates are unknown. He produced an exquisite triptych known as the Family Tree of the House of Babenberg. The Babenbergs ruled Australia from 976 to 1248, when they were ousted by the Hapsburgs. The detail from the triptych depicts Leopold II of Babenberg (c. 1055-1102), also known as Leopold “the Handsome,” at the Battle of Mailberg in 1082. The battle was part of the Investiture Dispute – the most significant struggle for power between state and church in the Middle Ages. In this painting, the elegant Abbey of Melk, which was founded in 1089 when Leopold donated one of his castles to the monks, can be seen shimmering in the distance, while to the right of the picture is Leopold’s home, the castle Thunau.” (TP)

#1001beforeyoudiecollection #1001beforeyoudiecollections #1transcribedtext #1essco Continue reading “Battle of Mailberg” →