Art

This series is a groundbreaking moment in scientific and photographic history: the first color portrait of a living human embryo inside its mother’s womb!!!

Created using a specially designed wide-angle lens and a micro flash attached to a surgical scope, these images capture the 15-week-old embryo in remarkable clarity. The project documents the stages of prenatal life with unexpected beauty.

Samuel Colt (1814–1862) was one of the most famous and successful American inventors and entrepreneurs of the early industrial age. By patenting the first mass-produced multishot revolving firearms, Colt achieved worldwide fame and a vast personal fortune. His introduction of precise machine-made weapons and his promotion of the interchangeability of parts were innovations that transformed the arms industry. Colt actively promoted sales through advertising and displays at international fairs, and by presenting deluxe arms to men of influence. His precise and reliable standard-model revolvers were highly valued by soldiers and frontiersmen. His more elaborately embellished exhibition and presentation arms appealed as functional objects of beauty.

Early American arms usually were plain, serviceable weapons intended for hunting and self-defense. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, the increasing wealth and sophistication of the middle class created a new demand for decorated arms. English and German designs initially served as models for American arms decoration. A new era of creativity began with the arrival of German-born gun engravers and die-cutters, who joined Colt's engraving staff at the Hartford, Connecticut factory beginning in about 1853. In addition to embellishing standard models, these engravers created some of Colt's most lavish and ambitious gold-inlaid arms, which were intended for promotional display or for presentation to influential citizens, politicians, and heads of state. The finest decorated Colt revolvers typically have blued steel surfaces deeply engraved with dense foliate scrollwork, with motifs such as human figures, animals and birds, and invariably, Colt's name inlaid in gold set flush with the surface. On the most luxurious examples, some of the gold was modeled in relief, resembling sculpture in miniature.

This Dragoon model revolver and its mate (presented to the Czar of Russia) are considered among Colt's masterpieces. Apparently, they were created as part of a set of three pairs of gold-inlaid revolvers that Colt took with him to Europe in 1854. That year saw the outbreak of the Crimean War, which pitted Russia against Turkey and her allies, Great Britain and France. Colt aggressively marketed arms to both sides. In November 1854, he presented three gold-inlaid revolvers, one example from each pair, to Czar Nicholas I of Russia. Of these, the Third Model Dragoon serial number 12407 (now in The Hermitage, Saint Petersburg) is actually the mate to the Museum’s pistol, serial number 12406. The gift clearly demonstrated the technical and artistic aspects of Colt’s product, while its patriotic motifs proudly proclaimed its American origin. The museum's pistol features a portrait of George Washington and the Arms of the United States, while on the Czar's pistol there are a view of America's capitol building and a personification of American industry.

The met.

On the advice of the French painter Charles-François Daubigny, Claude Monet traveled to the Netherlands in 1871, where he painted this landscape of limpid waters and azure skies along the Achterzaan River in Zaandam. Writing to fellow Impressionist Camille Pissarro, Monet noted the pleasures of painting the picturesque Dutch landscape: "This is a superb place for painting. There are the most amusing things everywhere: hundreds of windmills and enchanting boats, extremely friendly Dutchmen…" Using a limited palette of varying shades of green, Monet has captured the hazy atmosphere and light-dappled water of this picturesque Dutch port. Monet's Dutch landscapes were widely admired by other contemporary artists, especially Daubigny, whose own studies of light and water share an affinity.

The met

The hull of this sailing ship comprises the names of the Seven Sleepers and their dog. The tale of the Seven Sleepers, found in pre-Islamic Christian sources, concerns a group of men who sleep for centuries within a cave, protected by God from religious persecution. Both hadith (sayings of the Prophet), and tafsir (commentaries on the Qur'an) suggest that these verses from the Qur'an have protective qualities.

The met

The Devi is in the centre and around it seem to be kings in Timurid dress. But i doubt they would have depicted Mughal Emperors alongside the Devi. Are the figures Marathas with a Chattra?

My take:

All the iconography outside the inner circle looks very Muslim to me. Maybe its an outlier in the artistic tradition?

Theres certainly mughal kings around Hindu deities in other art. For example infamous painting of Somaprabha and a celestial nymph listening to music. From the Kathasaritsagara. In this piece the kings observe them from the sidelines.

They also seem to be creating a halo behind each figure which Muslims borrowed from the Christian tradition. And that seems to be the case for the devi too! The combination of the three makes me think it just has to be the mughals.

But i certainly can't recognise them as any of the famous mughals, perhaps some of the lesser depicted people? Perhaps fictional or historical characters. They loved the hamzanama for example. (Although I don't think these are characters from the hamzanama obviously.)

It seems to me to be squarely in the tradition of visual statements of syncretic legitimacy.

Maybe they aren’t portraits of specific emperors. By the 19th century, “Mughal-style noble” was a generic emblem of rulership — much like how European painters used “Roman togas” for abstract virtues.

The artist likely composed idealized “kings” paying homage to the Devi.

The more I think the more options I see with little certainty of what's right.

In this painting, attributed to the Mughal artist Payag, a demonic form of the Hindu goddess Bhairavi, female counterpart to Shiva, sits on the body of a decomposing corpse. Wearing jewelry and a skirt made of skulls, and horns in the form of spear heads, she is accompanied by Shiva who appears in the form of a devotee. Three of her hands carry symbols of destruction, while her fourth extends a gesture of blessing. The borders, executed in gold monochrome, form a continuation of the desolate landscape in the painting itself. The inscription above the image, written in Devanagari script, identifies the figure as Bhairavi.

The met

Based on a bet with Queen Marie Antoinette, King Louis XVI’s brother, the comte d’Artois, had a pleasure pavilion built on the outskirts of Paris in a mere sixty-four days through the labor of more than eight hundred craftsmen. Robert’s six paintings of Italian landscapes were installed in an elaborate bathing room, prompting their overarching theme of water. Having spent eleven years in Italy, where he befriended Jean Honoré Fragonard and other French artists abroad, Robert knew ancient architecture and sculpture deeply. In this series, however, instead of antiquarian exactitude, he combined sources freely.

The met

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/55012196

Iraq. 2017.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/55011606

Before 1790 Watercolor and gouache over graphite on medium, smooth white vellum.

My favourite bird and one of my favourite animals.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/54974619

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/54974618

This bronze sculpture depicts a horse from the Ferghana Valley, known for its hardiness and reputed to “sweat blood.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/54962441

A Egyptian bone panel of a ‘Pudica’ (modest) type Venus from the 4th-6th century.

She has similar features to more ancient counterparts, and adopts a symbolic pose with longstanding relevance. But in her squat body and stylised face, we can see the shifts that many art historians herald as the beginnings of “Early Medieval” art, as opposed to the high naturalism of “Classical” art.

Images like this one therefore remind us that the transition from the “pagan” to the “Christian” world was neither seamless, cohesive, nor immediate.

Late Antiquity marked a point where people experimented with form and function in art, in order to create new meanings and uses. But it also saw continuity and repetition; the preservation of ancient ways of life & being encoded in the preservation of artistic forms.

This is why studying the Late Antique world is so fascinating. It shows how change and tradition could exist alongside one another, and indeed influence one another.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/54962199

A 4th century coin pendant from Pakistan, which features a portrait that is supposedly derived from images of Constantine I !!!

This pendant hails from the central Asian region known in the ancient world as Bactria, encompassing modern-day Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

The relationship between the Mediterranean and Bactria is best known to the modern world through the campaigns of Alexander ‘The Great’ of Macedon. It was here he famously married Roxana, daughter of the Satrap of Bactria, Oxyartes. This story was popular for later Byzantines, often forming a central element of the “Alexander Romances” tradition.

Clearly, as both this pendant and the continued interest in the region into the late Byzantine period show, Bactria — which later included the famous Sogdian Empire within its territory — retained strong links with the Greco-Roman world. And, of course, Bactria was in close contact with its successive Persian and Arabic neighbours & conquerors, too.

How amazing to see tangible evidence of the power of the Silk Roads & the importance of historical cross-cultural communication and exchange.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/54961782

https://open.substack.com/pub/travelsofsamwise/p/the-emperor-and-the-dodo?r=1wlet9

I honestly want everyone to read this and subscribe to the incredible historian that is Sam Dalrymple. Son of the legendary historian William Dalrymple.

I have previously told stories of and posted pictures of other animal paintings from Jahangirs court. (Mughal emperor)

In 1958, a group of Soviet ornithologists stumbled across something extraordinary in the vaults of the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg: a Mughal painting of a dodo.

The painting, dated to around 1610 was swiftly attributed to the master painter Ustad Mansur, and when it was unveiled.

The stories are amazing. Do give it a read, I cannot recommend it enough.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/54831308

MANSUR WHAT A MAN.

The artist Mansur was able to capture not only the physical texture of living, breathing birds and animals, but also a sense of their inherent nature. However, concepts of naturalism and realism, so revered in Western art of the period, were by no means the primary concern of Mughal painting.

The Mughal Emperors Akbar and Jahangir (r. 1605–27) commissioned their artists to paint likenesses of birds and animals, particularly those which they found striking or unusual, primarily for documentary purposes. Jahangir noted in his memoirs that the chameleon ‘constantly changes colour’, a peculiarity which is perhaps hinted at in this painting of the small, slow-moving reptile with the turquoise-green tones of its skin used again in the leaves of the branch where they merge with yellowing hues.

The specific species recorded in the painting is the Chamaeleo zeylanicus, native to southern India and Sri Lanka, and this is likely to be the earliest instance of its being documented pictorially. Mansur accurately depicts the precise details of its anatomy: the crested head, abdominal ribs and scaled contours, even capturing the white stripe that runs along its throat and belly. Its face is in profile but its protruding eye is swivelled back, gaze firmly fixed on the insect hovering nearby. It clings to the branch with its clenched feet and the tip of its coiled tail, perfectly poised to project its sticky tongue towards its prey.

Mansur’s painting positions the chameleon in an appropriately arboreal context, yet this setting may not derive purely from scientific observation. The earliest Mughal natural history paintings closely relate to Chinese bird and flower paintings on silk, the standard configurations of which may have influenced Mansur’s choice of composition.

Mansur was Jahangir’s leading natural history painter. The Emperor bestowed on him the honorific Nadir al-Asr, ‘Wonder of the Age’, recording in his memoirs that ‘in the art of painting [Mansur] is unique in his time’. In addition to his acute powers of observation, Mansur is still celebrated for his extraordinary handling of paint, here demonstrated in particular by the tiny impasto dots simulating the surface of the chameleon’s skin. On very close inspection a gold crescent is visible, creating a glint in the reptile’s eye. Jahangir often inscribed Mansur’s name onto the master’s paintings himself and a note, now largely erased, written close to the right edge of the painting, may be in the Emperor’s hand.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/54830045

Another of the mughal court painters. During Akbar's era. Around 1600.

Beautiful colours.

Alluding to his wisdom, this white-clad Jain monk carries a manuscript under his left arm, bound with a red cover. Otherwise he carries a Jain monk’s basic accouterments: whisk broom, staff, and pot.

This sensitively painted portrait was made for the collection of the Mughal emperor Akbar who was curious about the tenets of Jainism. He admired the explanations of the Jain monks who regularly attended the emperor’s weekly discussion sessions among members of different religious groups.

Inscriptions: This inscription has been partially erased. It may have been written by the Mughal emperor Jahangir, since it appears to be in his distinctively large hand. Four Jain monks whose name end in -chandra were prominent participants in the Mughal court: Shantichandra, his disciple Bhanuchandra, Jinachandra, and Siddhichandra. This portrait probably depicts one of them. Bhanuchandra was close to Akbar's sons, Salim (who became the emperor Jahangir) and Daniyal. Siddhichandra received the Persian appellation "Jahangir Pasand" (Jahangir's Favorite).

Btw calligraphy in eastern and particularly Muslim art is just as important an artform as the painting itself.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/54829459

I mentioned fauvism to a fellow lemming and hence had to post smth by Matisse.

https://www.henrimatisse.org/bathers-by-a-river.jsp

Here's some words about the painting itself. Good read.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/54773197

Lithograph. 1991.