I'm going to have to revamp this blog. So many pictures are missing! :-( It's upsetting. I will probably do it this weekend.

- Shronda

Delvaux: Venus Asleep

Ever wished that you were the Goddess of Love? Artist sculpt, paint, and immortalize the goddess and have been for centuries.

 

Paul Delvaux, born in 1897 in the Belgian province of Liege, gave the world another look at the goddess as she sleeps. A surrealist who is famous for painting female nudes, Delvaux studied Greek and Latin at a young age and was influenced by Jules Verne and Homer.

Delvaux studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels in architecture but took painting classes. His first solo exhibition was in 1925.

Delvaux is famous for his female nudes and their surreal surroundings which include skeletons, night scenes, and odd characters in the background. Venus Asleep is no different.

 

Painted in 1944, the painting depicts Venus asleep in an open air courtyard, being watched over by a skeleton and a dress mannequin and being mourned, as if dead, by four nude women. Venus, herself, is nude as she lays on an gold ornate chassis. Her pose shows exhaustion as she seems tired from spreading love around the world.

 

Her surroundings are that of a Roman square with columns, marble and tile work as this square or deserted town is surrounded by a large mountain range in a dark night with a sliver of moon in the sky. The light shown down on the scene shows the calm but fearful seen as death is present (the skeleton) in a peaceful night with the goddess sleeping. The women present, possibly servants, have looks of despair as they cry to the sky or cry in their hands. They wish not to wake Venus but they still cry in despair over love lost or the presence of death in the form of the skeleton.

 

The sleeping form of Venus is an art subject has been interpreted through many movements and by many artists. The view of the goddess as always been on of beauty and serenity but love is never so serene or calm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s been so long since I’ve done a post! A little rusty but I’ll get back to it.

I'm Back!!!

Hi guys!

Wow! It's been too long. The time has just flew by but now I'm back! I've graduated from college and I'm not in grad school but I have sometime now to get back to you all.

I hope everyone has been fine and I'm just surprised that people actually still come to this site and comment on the post even if I've been gone long.

Starting today, I'll get back into the groove of posting one post a week and see where it goes from there. Maybe even most post will come.

Please keep visiting and keep commenting. I really appreciate it.

Thank you!

Shronda

School & Mess....

So sorry for not update for MONTHS! School has really taken over and I am graduating next year(hopefully) with my Bachelor's! I hope to update again soon during Thanksgiving break but I will have to see. The 2 yr anniversary of this blog has come and gone. I didn't do anything special. Ididn't know it had passed until yesterday. =_= Just to make up for not updating for you guys, I wanted to post this video that I found on YT. It's "Women in Art" and the morphing in the video is awesome and if you might recognize some of the artists from this blog featured in the video by looking at their style. <---that might have been confusing. Just enjoy the video and hope for updates soon!

Shronda

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUDIoN-_Hxs&NR=1

Sorry for the lack of updates Y_Y…

I really am sorry for the lack of updates. The procrastination monster just grabbed hold of me and told me to go off and do other things. I will try and get back on track(which might not be possible…) but I am truly sorry. OTL<---죄송합니다, I’m sorry!

Cranach: Venus

A subject matter that never is tiring and has been a muse for artists since the ancient Greeks, the Goddess of Love has been depicted on an seashell, a sleeping beauty, a temptress, and a thing of beauty in marble. She has attracted much praise and criticism and even the possibility of being banned.

Lucas the Elder Cranach’s Venus is no different. Being one of the first painted versions of the Love goddess, Cranach’s Venus is beautiful seductress that stands in dark surroundings, full frontally nude and smiling innocently toward the audience. Painted in 1532, Cranach was part of the Northern Renaissance movement, painting subjects of religion and a figures of the time including Martin Luther. Cranach did a few Venus paints, by herself and with her son Cupid. This is possible one his well known paintings of the Love Goddess.

Venus stands in a dark background with a delicate transparent gauze that she holds open to the audience to see how body for all that it is. Her only other accessories are golden necklace and choker, a headdress piece and a seductress glance. Cranach depicted Venus, Goddess of Love, as a proprietor of "love", a courtesan.

She is to look erotic, seductive, and sexy. The curves of her body, not seen as beautiful to today standards, are there for all to see. A hair-fine brush picks out the rosebud points of her nipples as her skin has a rosy pink color that glows in the darkness. Her facial features are small from her thin eyebrows to her pursed lips as she smiles. She seems to be in a dance for the audience, enticing them to watch her peepshow.

Cranach was one of the richest men in Wittenberg during his time, show that he was very successful as he could easily and quickly make his paintings. His son, Lucas the Younger, carried on his tradition.

His pictures play precociously on the brink of taboo. Spiritual subjects are painted with sensual glee. Flattened surfaces are embroidered with glittering colour. Subjects are taken in context to the point of being place high above others. Cranach's paintings are his signature and keep him in the history books.

Canova: Cupid & Psyche

Psyche, the most beautiful woman on Earth, has angered one of the vengeful Roman goddess Venus. Venus, jealous and angry over competition for her beauty title, sets in motion the plan to destroy Psyche. Cupid, Venus' son, was put on the duty to do so, shooting her with an arrow so that when she awakes to a vile creature(placed by her side by Venus) she will fall in love with it, but something happened. While invisible and in Psyche's room, Psyche awakens before Cupid can scratch her with his arrow and startles him. Cupid scratches himself and falls deeply in love with her. He became enamored with the beautiful Psyche. Cupid became Psyche anonymous lover, which angers Venus. She curses Psyche that she will not meet her a suitable husband or any husband. This upsets Cupid, vowing to shoot any arrows, which will cause no creature to fall in love, mate or marry and in turn cause Venus' temple to fall to ruins. After months of this, Venus gives in to Cupid's desires for Psyche. Cupid goes back to work shooting his arrows, restoring everything as it should be. Every creature mates and fall in love and the Earth is becomes young.

Though as all this is happening, no one desires Psyche as their wife. Psyche's parents consult an oracle who tell them to leave Psyche on the nearest mountain, saying her beauty is so great it is not meant for mortal man. The West Wind comes and carries Psyche to a far away palace where she is attended by invisible servants until nightfall, where her promised bridegroom comes and consummates their marriage. Cupid visits her every night to sleep with her but demands that she never light any lamps. Psyche is convinced by her spiteful sisters that she has married a serpent who will devour her and her then unborn child at the right time. They tell her to conceal a knife and lamp so that once her husband is asleep she is to light the lamp and slay him. She does this. As she lights the lamp, Psyche sees not a serpent but the fair Cupid himself, however she accidentally pricks herself with one of his arrows and falls madly in love with him. She begins to kiss him but a drop of oil falls onto Cupid's shoulder and wakes him. He flies away quickly, leaving Psyche to fall from the palace, sick at heart.

Psyche searches for her love, even asking Venus for help. Venus decides to trick Psyche by sending her on dangerous and life-threatening quest, where she gets help from creatures to succeed. Venus is angered by this and decides to send Venus to the Underworld to as the Queen of the Underworld to give her a box with a bit of beauty in it, since Venus' beauty is waning from carrying for her distraught son, who is upset over Psyche's distrust.

Psyche thinks the quickest way to the Underworld is to kill herself by jumping off a tower. The tower stops her and tells her of a way to get into the underworld, get past Ceres(the three headed dog) and to return alive. She is to do as she told and not eat anything but coarse bread will there. She does this and returns to the Living World alive with the box but becomes curious and greedy. She opens the box to take some of the beauty but finds not beauty but sleep that engulf her.

Cupid, who has forgive Psyche, flies to her and awakes her with a kiss. He flies her to Mount Olympus, after begging Jupiter - king of the Gods - to help him. Psyche becomes immortal and stays forever with Cupid, giving birth to Delight, goddess of pleasure.

This is the story of Psyche and Cupid that is instilled in the sculpture by Antonio Canova. The story was told within the 4th, 5th, and 6th book of Apuleius' "The Golden Ass", the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety. A mix of an allegory, myth, and fairytale, Cupid and Psyche's love is one that has enamored the world for ages.

Created in 1796, this is the first of two statutes Canova sculpted of the couple. With his wings outstretched, Cupid is seen swooping down to his sleeping lover, Psyche. The focus of the sculpture is created by their interlocking arms and Cupid's loving gaze. The life-like feel of the sculpture similar to that of Bernini and Rodin. Canova's execution of Neo-Classical is an example of perfect form and finish. The flesh of Cupid and Psyche is almost real in the marble as Psyche reaches up to her love and gazes undying into his eyes.

Born in Venice, Italy, Canova was very famous for his marble sculptures that rendered the delicate nude flesh.His father and grandfather were bother stone-cutters which influenced Canova very much. Canova had a very successful career in Rome, sculpting for the Pope, and in France and England. His two sculptures of Cupid and Psyche are his greatest works, launching his fame, Canova's last work was to be a statue of Kind Ferdinand VII but he died before finishing from a illness he had suffered from throughout his life. His remains were deposited at a temple in Possagno, his home village in Venice, while his heart was interred in a mausoleum intended for Titian, the painter, in the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari.

Psyche Revived by Love's Kiss is located at the Louvre in Paris, France.