“Detail of the ceiling of the Venus salon, this spandrel depicts the Roman Emperor Anthony and Queen Cleopatra, recognisable from the asp that she holds in her right hand. The couple is chained by garlands of flowers held by Venus, the goddess of love, shown in the central part of the ceiling. This spandrel, with the three others of the room, forms part of a series depicting couples who experienced the force of love, thus showing the power of the goddess.”
You might wonder what to put on your next job application, or resume, but here is the application of Leonardo da Vinci to the court of Ludovico Sforza sometime between 1483 -1484. In it he outlines some of his various skills.
“My Most Illustrious Lord,
Having now sufficiently seen and considered the achievements of all those who count themselves masters and artificers of instruments of war, and having noted that the invention and performance of the said instruments is in no way different from that in common usage, I shall endeavour, while intending no discredit to anyone else, to make myself understood to Your Excellency for the purpose of unfolding to you my secrets, and thereafter offering them at your complete disposal, and when the time is right bringing into effective operation all those things which are in part briefly listed below:”
Read more over on “Letters of Note“.
I’m going through some old bookmarks that I meant to look at and I found one linking to the work of Malika Favre. She works in a style that is reminiscent of the 1960s and 70′s. I am a fan of abstract poster styles such as futurism, constructivism and that which minimalizes the forms to create interesting compositional plays.
I love these little line figures (below) and their freshness as they move about the page and interact with eachother. The bridge the gap between art and illustration.
The project to organize the artworks of the world online under the Google Art Project is a grand one. Think of the great libraries of antiquity that people traveled to see. They came for The Pyramids, Saint Peters Basilica, the treasures of kings, The Vatican and the ruins of Greece, to name a spare few that contain pieces of our artistic history.
Above: Giovanni Paolo Panini – Interior of St. Peter’s, Rome – (PD-US)
Now, think about the difference in architecture between then and this great museum of Google. There is no grand architecture to be seen but the world within the digital window. It seemed amazing how historical rulers had the immense resources at their hands built such spectacular architecture. People came to see their cultural history enshrined in these gigantic buildings. Of course all of this is only possible because Google has become as colossal as it is now. They are now as powerful as the kings of former times and a new secular version of the Vatican to our new day of information.
It is a blessing of access but also a powerful position as fewer institutions and individuals are controlling access to the works of the world.
“The word calavera, Spanish for “skull”, can refer to a number of cultural phenomena associated with the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead and the Roman Catholic holiday All Souls Day.
-Wikipedia”
Nicola De Jager makes embroidered skulls that celebrate such things. Her site is www.calavera.co.za
Just take a look at these fabulous things:
“Calavera has evolved from a passionate love affair with art, bright colours and tattoos. Each piece begins once I have stitched up the eyes. I like to see it as a birthing process, there is no clear idea of what I would like each one to look like, once the eyes are in place they form a personality and so I choose the remaining colours, mouth and nose elements, etc. I use a combination of hand embroidery and beading. Every item is unique and produced entirely by hand. I am not a fan of mass production so time is not of the essence when producing each skull.”
Found via: streetanatomy.com
