“This lovely picture of “Die Hexe von Endor” [The Witch of Endor] is by Kunz Meyer-Waldeck, a German artist who lived to be almost one hundred (b.1859 in Mitau, d.1953 in Neuburg). The printer, Richard Bong, informs up ‘Vervielfäligung und Einzelverkauf dieses kunstblattes ist untersagt’ [duplication and single sale of this art leaf is prohibited].”
Figures de la Bible. Illustrated by Gerard Hoet, and others.
Published by P. de Hondt in The Hague (La Haye). 1728.
Wish I had time for the whole collection, the images are lovely.
The first painting ever that I have seen which tries to capture something about this experience….
The Orchestra Pit, Old Proctor’s Fifth Avenue Theatre,
Everett Shinn. American, ( 1876 – 1953 )
Salvador Dali painting Amanda Lear, Spain, 1971. Photograph by Yul Brynner.
Didn’t know that Yul Brynner was a photographer, the site contains extensive and good samples of his work.
Alain Chartier (c. 1385 – 1430) was a French poet and political writer.
Alain studied, as his elder brother had done, at the University of Paris. His earliest poem is the Livre des quatre dames (1416), written after the battle of Agincourt. This was followed by the Débat du reveille-matin (1422-26?), La Belle Dame sans mercy (1424), and others. None of these poems show any very patriotic feeling, though Chartier’s prose is evidence that he was not indifferent to the misfortunes of his country.
He followed the fortunes of the dauphin, afterwards Charles VII, acting in the triple capacity of clerk, notary, and financial secretary.
***In 1422 he wrote the famous Quadrilogue invectif. The interlocutors in this dialogue are France herself and the three orders of the state. Chartier lays bare the abuses of the feudal army and the sufferings of the peasants. He rendered an immense service to his country by maintaining that the cause of France, though desperate to all appearance, was not yet lost if the contending factions could lay aside their differences in the face of the common enemy.
Moche Indian skull buried with a gold mask, Chiclayo, Peru; photo by Bill Ballenberg
Hadza dance…Tanzania.
When a person dies he is immediately buried in a shallow grave. The men dig, and inter the corpse on its side. They dampen and stamp the clay soil, which hardens, preventing scavengers from digging up the corpse and eating it. During the interment the women cry and wail. Once the burial is accomplished those assembled resume their regular activities. There is no period of pollution and mourning. The deceased is, however, remembered in the near future in the performance of the epeme dance. The dance is performed at night once a month to promote general well-being, good health, and successful hunting. The dancer is believed to be epeme, a powerful sacred being. The Hadza do not believe that the dead are dangerous to the living or may affect them, and thus the dance dedicated to the deceased is merely an act of remembrance. The dance is an act intended neither to placate the spirit of the dead nor to remove it into the land of the dead. Valuable items such as gourds are broken and left on the grave. The site of the grave is neither marked nor visited.
Death and Afterlife: Perspectives of World Religions. Contributors: Hiroshi Obayashi - editor. Publisher: Praeger. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1992 (p.6)
Nabodinus, the last king of Babylonia, defeated by Cyrus in - 539.
Stone prism of Esarhaddon at British Museum.
What is a stone prism? What is it used for?
check first, blog later, says I (to myself):
This small stone monument records the restoration of the walls and the temples of the city of Babylon by King Esarhaddon (reigned 680-669 BC). The cuneiform inscription is written in archaic characters to suggest antiquity and authenticity. The top of the stone is covered with symbols of the gods, and other elements designed to protect and authorize the message. (from the Brit Museum page:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/me/s/stone_prism_of_esarhaddon.aspx
Bronze Alexander. British Museum. Don’t know the date.
New on 50 Watts: Easter at Pascua Village (2 posts in 2 days, and on the weekend no less…can you tell I bought a new scanner?)
Janelle and the Volume of Treasures, by Sir William Russell Flint, 1960
nice take on “women and books” (dare one say “bovaryism”…) Wikipedia mentions: “a perceived crassness in his eroticized treatment of the female figure” by the art critics….
Snow by Alice Neel (1935).
Aydin Aghdashloo born October 30, 1940 in Rasht, Iran) is an Iranian painter, author, art critic, art historian and graphic designer.[1]
He currently lives in Tehran, Iran and lectures in different Iranian Universities besides his professional work.
Chinese and UK companies have agreed a deal that will result in three high-resolution Earth observation spacecraft being built to map China’s extraordinary growth from orbit.
The deal was penned between Guildford satellite imagery provider DMCii and Beijing-based company 21AT.
It means DMCii can now roll out its new constellation of spacecraft that will picture details on the surface of the planet less than a metre wide.
They should be ready to launch in 2014.
For 21AT (Twenty First Century Aerospace Technology Company Ltd), it means it can have ready access to Earth imagery without the worry of having to launch and operate satellites in orbit.
The Chinese company will take 100% of the capacity of the three spacecraft over an initial contract period of seven years. Day-to-day use of the data will be handled by 21AT subsidiary, BLMIT.
It will use the pictures to monitor land use and land-cover changes. In particular, the data will enable regional governments to plan better the extraordinary rate of development in China’s cities.
The satellites for the DMC-3 constellation, as it is called, will be manufactured by DMCii’s parent company, Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL). It will cost some £110m to build, launch and insure these platforms.
Approval for the deal has come from the highest levels in government in both London and Beijing, and the satellite data package was actually part of the £1.4bn of trade agreements signed between premiers David Cameron and Wen Jiabao during their summit on Monday.
Read More: BBC News
