Two paintings by Caravaggio

Right: Judith beheading Holoferne, 1599.

Left: The conversion of Mary Magdalene, 1598.

I love Caravaggio but I never read too much about his life that was very difficult because of his temper.

At this site you can find good reproductions and his biography. I took this excerpt because it is important to understand his work:

"Caravaggio's three paintings for the Contarelli Chapel not only caused a sensation in Rome but also marked a radical change in his artistic preoccupation. Henceforth he would devote himself almost entirely to the painting of traditional religious themes, to which, however, he gave a whole new iconography and interpretation. He often chose subjects that are susceptible to a dramatic, violent, or macabre emphasis, and he proceeded to divest them of their idealized associations, taking his models from the streets. Caravaggio may have used a lantern hung to one side in his shuttered studio while painting from his models. The result in his paintings is a harsh, raking light that strikes across the composition, illuminating parts of it while plunging the rest into deep shadow. This dramatic illumination heightens the emotional tension, focuses the details, and isolates the figures, which are usually placed in the foreground of the picture in a deliberately casual grouping. This insistence on clarity and concentration, together with the firm and vigorous drawing of the figures, links Caravaggio's mature Roman works with the classical tradition of Italian painting during the Renaissance."

Caravaggio painted on the canvas without and previous drawing.

Rebekah Brooks was arrested: then what?

I'm following the Murdoch scandal but did not publish anything here but now Rebekak Brooks was arrested. According to the British Metropolitan police:

"At approximately 12.00 hrs a 43-year-old woman was arrested by appointment at a London police station by officers from Operation Weeting together with officers from Operation Elveden. She is currently in custody. She was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications, contrary to Section1 (1) [of the] Criminal Law Act 1977 and on suspicion of corruption allegations contrary to Section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906."

I still feel that nothing that is being reported has any relation to the truth.

A brief flying

I found this picture at Acidcow.com and found it amazing. I wonder how does it feel during these seconds while the body is apart from the bike and is almost flying.

Threatened snow leopards found in Afghanistan

By Denis D. Gray - Associated Press

"A healthy population of snow leopards, elusive big cats threatened across the mountain ranges of Central Asia, has been found in one of the few peaceful areas of Afghanistan, a wildlife group said.

Camera traps documented the secretive, usually solitary animals at 16 locations across the Wakhan Corridor, a long panhandle in northeastern Afghanistan free from the insurgency that plagues most of the country, the World Conservation Society said in a statement seen Friday.

Listed as globally threatened, only some 4,500 to 7,500 snow leopards exist, scattered across a dozen nations in the high mountain ranges of Central Asia. The cats are poached for their pelts and killed by shepherds guarding their flocks upon which the leopards sometimes prey.

The sleek, fuzzy-tailed leopards are also captured for the pet trade, while an increasing demand for their penises and bones in China, where some believe they enhance sexual performance, has also led to their decimation. (emphasis mine)

"This is a wonderful discovery. It shows that there is real hope for snow leopards in Afghanistan. Now our goal is to ensure that these magnificent animals have a secure future as part of Afghanistan's natural heritage," Peter Zahler, the World Conservation Society's deputy Asia director, said in the statement. (emphasis mine)

The New York-based group has been working in the Wakhan Corridor, which borders China, Pakistan and Tajikistan, since 2006 on protecting wildlife including the Marco Polo sheep and the ibex. George Schaller, a wildlife biologist with the society, has proposed creating a reserve in the region. (emphais mine)

The statement, released Wednesday, did not estimate the number of leopards in the corridor, but said they remained threatened. (emphasis mine)

The society, which works with the U.S. government's aid arm, USAID, is providing conservation education in every Wakhan school, has trained 59 rangers to monitor wildlife, constructed predator-proof livestock corrals and started an insurance scheme to compensate shepherds for livestock taken by predators, according to the statement."

Something is telling me that these leopards will not stay for too long in Afghanistan.

July, 14 French National Day

I just realized that today is July, 14. Since 1880 this date is celebrated in France remembering the storming of the Bastille prison that started the French revolution.

I lived in France but the France I knew doesn't exist anymore. I hope that the revolutions that are taking place today in some countries spread and people can have a better life because it is not being easy. No, it's not being easy. Time for a change. The picture is the Eiffel tower seen from below. I remember looking up exactly at this point.

Picture: Attribution: Rick Marin at en.wikipedia

David Hockney, Homage to Van Gogh and wisps

Left: Homage to Van Gogh, 1988.

Right: Moving wisps. 1995.

It is a party of colors. The right is at a private collection and I feel very sad that such a great painting, that makes our eyes move to one texture to another, is not available to the public.

In the left Hockney homages Van Gogh by recreating the artist famous chair "Chair and Pipe" done in 1888 a century ago. I will do a post about how this chair became part of Van Gogh's iconography.

I created a label for David Hockney because he has been coming here many times.

Botticelli's Madonna of the Pomegranate and Gregorian Chants

Gregorian Chants by Anonymous

This is a detail of Botticelli's Madonna of the Pomegranate, 1487. I added the Gregorian Chants because it helps quieting my mind and I wanted to share it with you. About the Madonna:

"Botticelli painted many images that include the Virgin, the Child and the angels. In this image, Mary is sitting holding the Holy Child with a heavenly light shining directly on her. Botticelli painted an oversized Mary to symbolize how her arms can support Christ. There is no visible architecture; the angels and Mary themselves become the supportive structure symbolizing that God can handle anything. 

 The elements of this image contain many symbolic items. Each figure wears a sad expression as if their mind is somewhere else thinking of Christ’s death. The seed of the pomegranate the infant is holding signifies that Christ will receive resurrection through rebirth just as the seed will cause the birth of a new plant. The angel in front is holding lilies and roses which are both symbols of the Virgin. That same angel is wearing sashes with the words AVE GRAZIA PLENA which mean “Hail [Mary] full of grace.”" (emphasis mine)

BE AT PEACE 

Gregorian Chants: here. 
Text about the painting: here.

Confession in WWW times

Copyright: Stan Eales. You can send E-greeting cards with cartoons at Cartoonstock.com. They have numerous great pieces. I just sent one to... no, no, no... I fear the priest.

As the priest is myopic I can confess that I sent one for my greatest enemy.

Image of the devil on the hair of the Queen: Pareidolia

Last month I published about pareidolia, when an illusory image is perceived, and the example was the Canadian dollar bill that was taken out of the market because people saw the devil at the Queen's hair. This picture shows in red what is seen.

Lemmings mass suicide is a Disney creation

I love Disney but, as many, I am feeling a fool after knowing that what is shown in this 1958 Oscar winning award documentary, "White Wilderness," is FAKE. Everything is edited and lemmings DO NOT commit mass suicide. The film was done in Bow River, Canada, and not in the Arctic ocean as the narrator says. Useless documentary showing lies wins Oscar. That sounds familiar! This is a harmless lie, but it is a lie. The problem is that everyday there are lots of stories at the news that are also edited in a way that we believe it is the truth. The myth inspired a game and is in the hearts and minds of many people. The only white truth about lemmings is that they turn white in winter, a very known tact animals have to avoid becoming a prey: camouflage.

The Four Dogs

Eleventh of The Four Dog series! Bonus: this time there are four dogs at the picture. 
Notice how each of them show it's character. The first one, right to left, wants attention,  the second is asking himself why he is different from his brothers, the third looks tired and... the last one is saying: 
"can't hardly wait to mess all your house up."
I want the black one!
Have a great Sunday!

Van Gogh's La Pietà after Eugene Delacroix

Right: La Pietà by Eugene Delacroix, 1850.

Left: Van Gogh's La Pietà after Delacroix, 1889.

While Van Gogh was at the hospital in Saint-Rémy he kept painting and he had a lithograph of Delacroix's painting that he used as model.

Van Gogh seldom used biblical themes thou he wanted to be a pastor during his youth following his father.

“I am not indifferent, and pious thoughts often console me in my suffering.” he wrote to Theo, his brother.

This is how he describes Delacroix's Pietà:

"The Delacroix is a "Pietà" that is to say the dead Christ with the Mater Dolorosa. The exhausted corpse lies on the ground in the entrance of a cave, the hands held before it on the left side, and the woman is behind it. It is in the evening after a thunderstorm, and that forlorn figure in blue clothes - the loose clothes are agitated by the wind - is sharply outlined against a sky in which violet clouds with golden edges are floating. She too stretches out her empty arms before her in a large gesture of despair, and one sees the good sturdy hands of a working woman. The shape of the figure with its streaming clothes is nearly as broad as it is high. And the face of the dead man is in the shadow - but the pale head of the woman stands out clearly against a cloud - a contrast which causes those two heads to seem like one somber-hued flower and one pale flower, arranged in such a way as mutually to intensify the effect."

Looking at the two paintings side by side is amazing.

The most insanely obvious signs

I found the site AcidCow.com and got these two of their "most insanely obvious signs" because they are at the same time funny and the photos are beautiful.
I decided to publish only one picture because they have to be in a certain scale in order to be seen properly. I'll publish the other in another post.
Have a great weekend!

Delacroix's Women of Algier

"The Women of Algiers in their apartment", done in 1834, is another of the most 
famous of Delacroix's painting.
The right photography (Reuters) depicts the painting in an exhibition and a woman looking 
at the version Picasso did.
Picasso did versions, reinterpretations of 
other artists like Velazquez's Las Meninas, and works of Monet and El Greco. I will publish them.

Funny Fail: order a snowman now

Why do it yourself when you can have it delivered?

David Hockney lobbying for "Amend the Tobacco Smoke Ban"

The right picture, depicting artist David Hockney with the Rt Hon Greg Knight MP at the House of Commons, I received by e-mail from Save our Pubs and Clubs.

According to the Tobacco Reporter Magazine:

Hockney decries UK’s busy-bodies and “curtain sniffers” Jun 30, 2011—

"About 250 people gathered at the UK’s House of Commons for a reception aimed at building a groundswell of support for amending the public-places smoking ban cheered loudly when the artist, David Hockney, told them he was fed up with the “curtain sniffers”. Yesterday’s reception, at the Terrace Pavilion, was organized by Forest under the Save Our Pubs & Clubs, Amend the Tobacco Ban banner. Hockney, who has been a smoker for 56 years, told an appreciative audience that he didn’t like busy-body politicians; that he didn’t like the meanness that had entered the anti-tobacco debate; and that he was concerned about the end of the essential Bohemian spirit. He sounded angry but spoke with a twinkle in his eye, and Simon Clark, the director of Forest, described Hockney as the happiest angry man he’d ever heard." (keep reading)

David Hackney has already created his art on a Apple iPhone and recently, above, on the iPad. Revolutionary as always.

Conspiracy theorist sheep

Sometimes don't you feel like Trevor?

Erin McGuire's adventures in blue

Last May I did a post about Erin Mcguire's work at the moment I found her blog and was spelled by her art. I went back and was enchanted again and as it's always hard to chose two in a good collection I decided for these because I love blue. At least there is a criterion not very orthodox but a criterion. But notice that the "action" is not in blue. The cat and the boy with a book in his hand as a shadow and the light that comes from inside is amazing.

Blue sky of Malaysia

Let's end the month with shades of blue of Malaysian sky. Photo by kymioflario.

Miami Beach police caught on tape killing Afro-American and threatening eyewitness

After watching this video I keep hearing Narces Benoit, the eyewitness who taped on his cell-phone and put the smart card in his mouth, saying:

"They're gonna kill this man, Oh my God"/ "They're gonna kill this man."/ "Oh My God, He gotta be dead." "He's dead?" ..."He's dead... bro.' "They killed this man...Oh My God!"/... "he is dead."

Miami Beach police celebrating memorial day. The "nigga", that was the most important crime of all in this story: they are all "niggas", and we know that "niggas" are not citizens in the eyes of many people, who was killed with the immunity of the badge was Raymond Herisse. No trial, no "you have the right to remain in silence, the right to an attorney". This man was executed. Narces Benoit narration in his tape predicting and witnessing the murder shows that he is used to this kind of crime and he feels the pain for this murder and all the others that he has heard of. Why would he put the smart card in his mouth if he was confident in the scrupulousness of the policemen? These are the Americans cops? According to many comments at sites where the video is exposed yes, this is the way American cops behave in many states in America, the democratic America. This is an example:

Matt Wilemon 2 days ago in reply to alvaro

"Police kill people with immunity in the US. It is sad but way too common in this country, Even though there is video evidence to prove those cops were out of their mind by shooting that many bullets into a suspects car nothing will happen to those cops. Look at the guy who executed Oscar Grant in Oakland for no reason other than he is a rabid, bloodthirsty murderer with a badge. He is already out of prison. And that guy is one of the few to actually get convicted even if it wasn't for murder. That's how "innocent until proven guilty" works in the "land of the free" Cops dump hundred of bullets into somebody they even have yet to apprehend and charge with a crime (for our protection, of course) and worry about it later. Police brutality is a serious problem everywhere and it only gets worse. Cops are tasing old people who get attitudes with them, little kids, shooting at minorities they think are suspicious. They are the ones who are out of control and now we are the ones who go to jail when we catch them committing crimes? NWA was right. F@#$ the police!""

We want justice, not executions. It's hard to be fair when the president of the country invades another nation and executes a terrorist. Yes, Osama was a terrorist but this is not how justice is done and being applauded and considered a hero for that is a bad example that induces authorities keep abusing their power. There is a lot to be changed also in about human rights in America.

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