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Chad
In: Ramsbottom
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Hatty wrote: | I had the exact opposite reaction, thinking 'it looks like the cherub was added later'. |
Maybe... but the crab is so crappy... if I was adding the cherub I would paint over the crab!
Either way, they don't look like they belong to the same hand.
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Ishtar
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Hatty wrote: | Almost looks as if the crab was added later... by an inferior artist. |
I had the exact opposite reaction, thinking 'it looks like the cherub was added later'. If canvas or wood or whatever was hard to come by, would artists paint over earlier works like scribes did with vellum? |
I'm not an art expert, but I think it's more likely they were painted at the same time or that there had to be something beneath the feet because of the body position. Maybe the symbol of the crab was more important than getting the perspective correct? Is it indicating a month? I'm afraid I'm lacking here in knowledge.
This painting is actually pretty small..
And its colors are balanced with the column next to it, possibly balanced in theme as well, too bad the other picture is so damaged.
Strange that the bottom pictures don't have as good composition as the cupid. I wonder if they are portraits.
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Chad
In: Ramsbottom
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From the body position of the cherub, I would say he was originally on water skis.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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Hatty wrote: | Almost looks as if the crab was added later... by an inferior artist. |
I had the exact opposite reaction, thinking 'it looks like the cherub was added later'. If canvas or wood or whatever was hard to come by, would artists paint over earlier works like scribes did with vellum? |
Here is one possible solution.
The child was painted using a living model, the image of which was projected onto the pillar using a concave mirror and traced over with paint brushes.
The crab was painted from memory.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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Chad wrote: | From the body position of the cherub, I would say he was originally on water skis. |
He was seated in a chair in front of the concave mirror while the artist's assistant held his arm aloft.
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Ishtar wrote: | But it's pretty strange that the Roman style was just 'forgotten' when it was common enough to have been painted on walls as decoration. |
No, it's not strange at all to forget things for a long time. The Almagest was forgotten about for 1500 years.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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Rocky wrote: | The Almagest was forgotten about for 1500 years. |
How strange!
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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The crab was painted from memory. |
There's something fishy about the crab. I agree that it's been stuck in there for a symbolic reason. A creature that hides in the sand protected by a shell and scuttles sideways not straight would symbolise secrecy?
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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Have to be wary of interpreting symbolism goes without saying. It occurred to me the other week when the memorial to the victims of the July 7th bombings was unveiled that future archaeologists would be delighted to find the island tradition of erecting standing stones (or stainless steel menhirs) was being carried on even in the 21st century. Fifty-two of them. Must have been for 'calendrical' purposes.
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Ishtar
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Rocky wrote: | No, it's not strange at all to forget things for a long time. The Almagest was forgotten about for 1500 years. |
How many copies of the Almagest laid around the brothels?
That is the most common of areas where everyday people would have seen the paintings. But not everyone could read books. The paintings are more likely to be remembered.
Porn often drives computer imaging technology, I wonder if it was the same in Pompeii? heh heh.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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Ishtar wrote: | Porn often drives computer imaging technology, I wonder if it was the same in Pompeii? heh heh. |
Hmmm... That is interesting. Why was Italy home to the original great painters? Perhaps they honed their technique in the booming Italian porn industry, centered in Pompeii.
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Ishtar
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Ishmael wrote: | Hmmm... That is interesting. Why was Italy home to the original great painters? Perhaps they honed their technique in the booming Italian porn industry, centered in Pompeii. |
Is Pompeii really that unique? Or is it more of a typical example? I'd lean more to it being a typical city at least for the area.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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Ishtar wrote: | Is Pompeii really that unique? Or is it more of a typical example? I'd lean more to it being a typical city at least for the area. |
I don't know what the experts say but my impression is that the city is utterly unique in the Italian peninsula. It and a few other communities surounding Vesuvius seem to share an idiosyncratic attitude toward sex. That is my impression.
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This is of course, an example of somebody telling a story, through a comic strip, years before they were invented. Puzzling isnt it?
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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How did a cherub become a Cupid from a winged/antlered moose or reindeer? Thinking about the Archangel Michael and Michaelangelo makes you wonder if Michaelangelo wasn't the painterly equivalent of Ishmael's 'Shakespeare', the pinnacle of achievement by a cast of contributors under one collective name meaning 'the greatest'.
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