Unknown Flemish Artist, Ecce Homo. Late 16th c.
Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, “Behold the Man!”
- John, 19:5. New King James Version.
(Source: artinconnu.com)
Lorenzo Monaco (Piero di Giovanni), Initial C with the Last Judgment. ca. 1406-7. From an antiphonary created for the Camaldolese monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Florence. Tempera, gold, and ink on parchment, 12 3/8 x 10 3/8 in. (31.3 x 26.4 cm).
(Source: metmuseum.org)
Salvador Dalí, Gala. Miniature. Oil and collage on cardboard, 13.9 x 9.2 cm (5.51 x 3.54 in). Signed and dated lower center: pour loliveta (for the little olive-skinned one) Salvador Dalí 1931.
(Source: salvador-dali.org)
Albrecht Dürer, Male Nude with a Glass and Snake, so-called Asclepius. c. 1500. Drawing, pen and ink. 325 mm x 205 mm.
(Source: wikipaintings.org)
In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter—bitter,” he answered;
“But I like it
“Because it is bitter,
“And because it is my heart.”
— Stephen Crane, In the Desert
(Source: poetryfoundation.org)
Bartolomeu Velho, Figure of the heavenly bodies. 1568. An illuminated illustration of the Ptolemaic geocentric conception of the universe.
The ninth sphere — the Primum Mobile — was contained only by the mind of God, and constituted all of physical creation and space. Unchanging, it is the structure in which all change is framed. It is the outermost limit of the universe, and the beginning of creation. The spiritual motion of intention or love creates physical motion.
Light and love enclose it in one circle
As it does all the rest, and this enclosing
He alone who circles it can comprehend.Its motion is not measured by another’s,
But this sphere sets the others into motion,
As ten is factored into five and two.
— Dante Alighieri, Paradiso, Canto XXVII, l. 112-117.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Remedios Varo, Naturaleza muerta resucitando (Still Life Reviving). 1963. Oil on canvas, 110 x 80 cm.
Henri Matisse, Le silence habité des maisons (The silence that lives in houses). 1947. Oil on canvas, 61 x 51 cm.
John Singer Sargent in his studio in Paris, with the painting of Madame X. Sargent faces his painting The Breakfast Table, 1884, in progress. Photographic print, 21 x 28 cm. Unidentified photographer.
The “X” was Mme Pierre Gautreau. The portrait was poorly received and considered salacious. In the original painting, one strap of the dress was shown hanging from Gautreau’s shoulder. Sargent later repainted the strap to make it look more secure. Gautreau was humiliated by the affair. Soon after the exhibition, Sargent left Paris for London permanently.
(Source: aaa.si.edu)
Franz Kafka’s signature in a letter to Milena Jesenská. It reads:
Franzwrong,Fwrong,Yourswrong/ nothing more, calm, deep forest.
Prague, July 29, 1920.
Letters to Milena. Franz Kafka, trans. Philip Boehm. New York: Schocken Books, 1990.
