Skeletons and Madonnas Lead Mexico’s Graphic Arts Revolution
"Art has many purposes. But for the first 50,000 years of its life, it was meant to make you fertile, to ward off demons, to speak to the dead, to guide you through the afterlife, to protect cities, to make it rain, etc" - Jerry Saltz
A Sculpture Gallery in Rome at the Time of Augustus, 1867…
This painting is a painting of time travel. Made in 1867, it depicts an Ancient Roman sculpture gallery during the time of Augustus; the weird thing to me is how the central statue-the Roman God, Vulcan-seems so three-dimensional. He's made of bronze, but his lighting is hyper-realistic, an
... See moreThe snapshot is meant to preserve not just an image but the moment of its taking; its intention is not documentary so much as memorial, and when we look at it we are remembering more than we are actually seeing.
Adam Kirsch • Emblems of the Passing World
Ruiz's images shake our security.
Dave Kehr • When Movies Mattered: Reviews from a Transformative Decade
the Modern West has bred new strains of iconoclasm. It did, after all, give rise to the museum, which arguably attenuates images’ political force. Pivotal in this history was the transformation of the Louvre Palace into a museum for housing political and religious artifacts of the old regime as objects of formal value.8 Just so, the museum both pro
... See moreNatalie Carnes • Image and Presence: A Christological Reflection on Iconoclasm and Iconophilia (Encountering Traditions)
Standout paintings from 90 minutes at the MET:
The Conversion of St. Paul (1456)
The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence (1465)
The Transformation of the Holy House of Loreto (1490)
The Adoration of the Christ Child (1515)
Aeneas and the Sibyl in the Underword (1630s)
Pilate Washing His Hands (1663)
Capriccio with St. Paul's and Old London Bridge (1745)
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