Tag: Art
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Tashilhunpo Thanka
Tashilhunpo in Shigatse is the largest monastery in Tibet and the seat of the Panchen Lamas. The complex contains several golden roofed monuments and a multitude of chapels filled with statues and adorned with murals, thankas and other treasures. For 362 days of the year the view of this monastic city is not exactly like…
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Massive arcades
Such is the abundance of granite rock at Hampi that massive projects could easily be envisaged. Like constructing two lengthy arcades for the entranceway to a temple complex. Hundreds of massive pillars, heavy but simple, for a massive project indeed. In contrast, inside the complex, reliefs of love and tenderness that clearly betray how much…
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Stonecutters’ paradise
Elegant camels, mounted horsemen. and of course, as always, the graceful women … it’s as if we can appreciate these scenes from daily life even more when depicted in stone. Maybe it is because we can feel the pleasure the sculptors of Hampi must have had in cutting these reliefs. The non-sculptured walls are impressive…
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Globed breasts adorned with pearls
Globed breasts adorned with pearls sandal-misted, wide curving hips with girdles strung with bells, precious anklets making music on their lotus feet, lit with happiness deep within women now enhance their beauty. In strophes like this Kālidāsa sings of the feminine ideal in his long poem Ṛtusaṃhāram (The Gathering of the Seasons, translation from the…
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Béla Tarr and the seventh art
His last and maybe final film: The Turin Horse (black and white, 146′, 2011). There is inside and outside. Outside: a deafening storm rages over the barren land. The gale blows clouds of sand and dead leaves in the air. A desolate bare tree stands on the hill in front of the farm. Inside: the…
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Art with a wink
The one girl looks intently at the other, and vice versa. Each one utterly intrigued by the sight of the other. I remember I had a funnily-meant little book long ago, called ‘Kunst met een knipoog’ (‘Art with a wink’), with a winking Mona Lisa on the cover. Here it is not the girls that…
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Aegina – Paleochora
The old town of Aegina had always been at the coast of the island, next to the harbour where it is situated now again. But in the 9th century the town was shifted inland where it could be defended better against the attacks of the Saracens. In the 18th century there were still 400 houses…
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Café Kafka
Several cafés in Prague where Kafka liked to come a century ago with his friend Max Brod do not exist anymore. Instead we now find cafés named after him. If Brod had followed Kafka’s wish and had destroyed his friend’s unpublished manuscripts after his untimely death in 1924, the world would not have known the…
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Gorazdova Heaven
This heaven seems badly in need of a lick of paint. But even if it was less run down, it would still be a rather strange impression of a heavenly abode, at least from the outside. Good that it is clearly indicated so we know where to report after our death. Photo of the week:…
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Gorazdova 13
Again no.13, my lucky number, this time in Prague! The lady’s head above the door and the delicate pattern of leafy twigs and fruits all around is nicely done. It’s a fine example of the decorated façades in Art Nouveau style for which this city is known. When walking the streets of Prague do not…
καιρός remembered 