Tag: Art
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Wet dream
Wet dream The young man dreams of a good catch. Only when looking more closely at the painting we see what kind of fish he actually hopes to hook up with. Sweet dreams of youth. Photo of the week: “Rêves de jeunesse” (1894) by the Swiss painter Luigi Rossi, Musée d’Art et Histoire, Genève, Switzerland…
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Stigmata
Stigmata As the shopkeeper in the town of Deruta – which has been renowned for its high-quality majolica pottery since the Middle Ages – was arranging his shop window, he must have thought: there must be something for everyone. Photos of the week: Ceramics shop, Deruta, Italy 2018
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Gilded Buddhas
Gilded Buddhas These are just a few examples from a whole series of Buddha statues at Wat Mai Suwannaphumaham. The variety in their facial features is remarkable. It is likely that different people (local monks?) served as models for the sculptors, resulting in this vivid diversity. Photo of the week: Wat Mai Suwannaphumaham, Luang Prabang,…
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Cute couple
Cute couple Two lovers in a compromising embrace. The woman is on the alert for being caught in the act. Even though it’s almost 2000 years ago, the scene is timeless, and funny at that. Photo of the week: Roman mosaic, Villa Romana del casale, Piazza Armerina, Sicily, Italy 2000
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Spring
Spring A girl, naked, walking her dog, 2000 years ago. After my first surprise – a double surprise -, I saw that she doesn’t hold the leash. She has a flower in her hand. She is part of an enormous Roman mosaic (almost 25 m², late 2nd cent. CE), depicting in the middle the ‘Triumph…
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Beware pickpocket
Beware pickpocket Wat Pho is known for its reclining Buddha, an impressive statue measuring 46 meter in length from top to toe. The soles of his feet – 3 meter high and 4.5 meter long – are inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Photos of the week: Reclining Buddha, Wat Pho, Bangkok, Thailand 2019
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Wat Pho
Wat Pho The stone statue is clearly recognizable as Chinese; the way in which the tree’s branches have been trained as they grew betrays Japanese influences; and the Buddha statues in the background are clearly Thai. Three examples of three Asian aesthetic traditions that come together harmoniously in a corner of the Wat Pho temple…
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David
David In last week’s post we could find a tiny plastic David at the Trevi Fountain in Rome. Here he is a full-size bronze copy of the original marble sculpture, overlooking Florence from the elevated Piazzale Michelangelo. For a stone replica we have to descend into town to the Piazza della Signora. And if we…
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Fontana di Trevi
Fontana di Trevi Apart from Mary with her deceased son in her lap, Venus, David, the Sabine woman … I think they’d all quite like to splash about in the fountain under the watchful eye of Oceanus.I miss Anita Ekberg; she would have fitted in perfectly with them. Photo of the week: Souvenir stall, Trevi…
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Selinunte
Selinunte This photo tells a similar story as the one of last week, through its subject as well as its composition. Here we are in an ancient Greek city, not in western Turkey but on the south coast of Sicily, Italy. And the temple in the distance on the left is not of Ionic but…
καιρός remembered 