Monthly Archives: July 2010

LORDLY & LADY PLEASURES : DUELING ABOUT COURTESIES OF CULTURE

Posted on July 26, 2010 by Dave

It was called killing with courtesy and involved all the passions that could raise blood pressure: family, race, wealth, sex, social class , honor and identity. ”On 15 November 1712, two leading scions of the British aristocracy met in a … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Miscellaneous, Visual Art/Sculpture/etc. | Tagged Aaron Burr, Adam Buck, Alexander Hamilton, Angelica kauffman, Angelica Kauffmann, Benjamin West, Boulton and Watt, C.J. Rawson, Charles Third Earl Stanhope, Coke Clifton, Duke of Hamilton, Frank McLynn, Heather Carroll, Henry Fielding, Hester Santlow, James Boswell, John Ellys, Kirsten Olsen, Kubrick Barry Lyndon, Lord Barrymore, Mary Anne Clarke, Matthew Darly, Mrs. William Mosely, Pistol Dueling, Ralph Earl, Samuel Johnson, Stanley Kubrick, Thackeray, Thomas Gainsborough, Victor Stater, Whig Lord Mohun, William Godwin, William Pitt, Zoffany | 4 Comments

A SALTY DOG FLOATS ON

Posted on July 26, 2010 by Dave

‘All hands on deck, we’ve run afloat!’ I heard the captain cry ‘Explore the ship, replace the cook: let no one leave alive!’ Across the straits, around the Horn: how far can sailors fly? A twisted path, our tortured course, … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Miscellaneous, Visual Art/Sculpture/etc. | Tagged Abbe Gregoire, Albert Alhadeff, Alexander Correard, Alexandre Dumas, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Bernardino Fergioni, Bonaventura Peeters, Caravaggio, Charles Darwin, Claude Joseph Vernet, Danby, Douglas Kellner, Ernst Bloch, Eugene Delacroix, Eugene Isabey, Flaubert, Francis Danby, George P. Landow, Gericault, Henri Savigny, Ivan Aivazovsky, JMW Turner, Joseph Mallord William Turner, Keith Reid, Lorenz Eitner, Michelangelo, Robin Spencer, Tennyson, The Raft of the Medusa, Theodore Gericault, Willard Spiegelman, William Falconer | Leave a comment

THE HOPE PRINCIPLE

Posted on July 26, 2010 by Dave

The Medusa, a naval frigate, ran aground off Mauritania in July 1816. Only about 250 of the 400 people on board could fit into the lifeboats. On a jerry-built raft about 150 of the others were set adrift. By the … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Miscellaneous, Visual Art/Sculpture/etc. | Tagged Albert Alhadeff, Alexander Correard, Berlioz, Charles Darwin, Chaumariex Medusa, De Musset, Ernst Bloch, Frederic Chopin, French Romantic Art, Gericault, Henri Savigny, Jacques-Louis David, Nicolas Poussin, Peter Paul Rubens, Robin Spencer, Romanticism Painting, The Raft of the Medusa, Theodore Gericault, Willard Spiegelman | Leave a comment

A WAGER ON THE FUTURE: FECKLESS ABANDON

Posted on July 25, 2010 by Dave

The British eighteenth century used to be presented as the serene aftermath of the spectacular disruptions of the seventeenth century or as the quietly corrupt old regime against which a modernizing nineteenth century set itself. Both interpretations seriously underplayed the eighteenth century’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Cinema/Visual/Audio, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Literature/poetry/spoken word, Miscellaneous, Visual Art/Sculpture/etc. | Tagged Angela Rosenthal, Caleb Williams, Cricket, Cricket gambling, Cricket history, Edmond Hoyle, Edmund Burke, George Stubbs, Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire, Henry Bunbury, Holcroft, Inchbald, Jean Jacques Rousseau, John Wooton, John Zoffany, Joseph Wright, Lady Letitia Lade, Richard Holmes, Sir Brooke Boothby, Thomas Rowlandson, Tommy Onslow, Vincent Lunardi, William Godwin, William Hogarth, Zoffany | Leave a comment

AGREEABLE NEGLIGENCE: PLEASURE REGARDLESS OF CONSEQUENCE

Posted on July 25, 2010 by Dave

There was a time when landed gentry were able to lead a life of extraordinary privilege and freedom. It was the era of the lordly pleasures. Secure in their wealth, confident of their position, indulged by their countrymen, the aristocrats … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Cinema/Visual/Audio, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Miscellaneous, Visual Art/Sculpture/etc. | Tagged Capability Brown, Earl Bathurst, Earl of Burlington, Earl of Orford, George Walpole, Georgian England, Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire, Horace Walpole, John Zoffany, Joseph Addison, Lord Bathurst, Lord Rokeby, Pompeo Batoni, Sir Robert Walpole, Thomas Gainsborough, William Kent | Leave a comment

YE OLDE LORDLY PLEASURES: HOW SWEET IT IS

Posted on July 24, 2010 by Dave

And did those feet in ancient time Walk upon England’s mountains green And was the holy lamb of God On England’s pleasant pastures seen And did the countenance divine Shine forth upon our clouded hills And was Jerusalem builded here … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Miscellaneous, Visual Art/Sculpture/etc. | Tagged Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, Earl of Burlington, George Stubbs, John Zoffany, Joseph Wright, Neo-Classical art, Palladio, Spitting Image, Thomas Coltman, Thomas Gainsborough, William Blake, William Kent | Leave a comment

MAN-EATERS: MASTERPIECE OF THE RAW & UNCOOKED

Posted on July 24, 2010 by Dave

The cannibal in written records was originally a story about what existed beyond the boundaries of the known. It kept the wild and the civic state apart. Sometimes, however, it brought them together: Othello seduced Desdemona with his tales of … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Cinema/Visual/Audio, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Literature/poetry/spoken word, Miscellaneous, Modern Arts/Craft, Visual Art/Sculpture/etc. | Tagged Alhadeff, Bill Casselman, Christopher Columbus, Dali, Eugene Delacroix, Father Labat, Gericault, Hannibal Lecter, Ingres, Jacques-Louis David, Jean Jacques Rousseau, John Locke, Jonathan Swift, Lenin, Marco Polo, Marquis de Sade, Maurice Sendak, Michel de Montaigne, Michelangelo, Montaigne, Nicolas Poussin, Osamu Fukutani, Othello and Desdemona, Restoration France, Robinson Crusoe, Salvador dali, Sigmund Freud, Theodore Gericault, Thomas Hobbes, Tim White Cannibalism, Voltaire, William Dafoe, William Shakespeare | Leave a comment

ADRIFT ON THE RAFT OF THE MEDUSA: APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION

Posted on July 23, 2010 by Dave

“The Raft of the Medusa,” while maintaining the symmetry of Poussin, changes painting once and for all. It is sculptural and architectural, but depicts no architecture. Two great overlapping triangles, suggesting both a ship’s sails and the ocean’s waves, define … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Cinema/Visual/Audio, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Miscellaneous, Modern Arts/Craft, Visual Art/Sculpture/etc. | Tagged Adad Hannah, Alexander Correard, Berlioz, Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, Eugene Delacroix, French Romantic Painting, George P. Landow, Gericault, Henri Savigny, Hu Jieming art, Lorenz Eitner, Robin Spencer, Romanticism, Victor Hugo, Willard Spiegelman | 2 Comments

BEAUTY & THE BEAST DEPENDING ON THE PHYSIQUE

Posted on July 23, 2010 by Dave

”Every human face is a hieroglyph which can be deciphered, indeed whose key we bear ready-made within us” ( Schopenhauer ) From the ancients onward, Europeans in particular have puzzled over the face, devising methods for interpreting its secret language. … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Miscellaneous, Visual Art/Sculpture/etc. | Tagged Antoine Coysevox, Aristotle, Arthur Schopenhauer, Charles Darwin, Charles Le Brun, Charles White, Francis Galton, Giovanni Battista della Porta, Haeckel, Lucy Hartley, Michael Foster, Monsieur Nivelon, Nick Hopwood, Patricia Magli, Physiognomy, The Kinks, Therese Davis, Thierry Poncelet | Leave a comment

AT THE ZOO

Posted on July 22, 2010 by Dave

Someone told me It’s all happening at the zoo. I do believe it, I do believe it’s true. Mmmmm. Mmmmm. Whoooa. Mmmmm. The monkeys stand for honesty, Giraffes are insincere, And the elephants are kindly but They’re dumb. Orangutans are … Continue reading →