Erasing the Past : Yale sculpture

Via the Yale Alumni Magazine :

If you were especially observant during your years on campus, you may have noticed a stone carving by the York Street entrance to Sterling Memorial Library that depict a hostile encounter: a Puritan pointing a musket at a Native American (top). When the library decided to reopen the long-disused entrance as the front door of the new Center for Teaching and Learning, says head librarian Susan Gibbons, she and the university’s Committee on Art in Public Spaces decided the carving’s “presence at a major entrance to Sterling was not appropriate.” The Puritan’s musket was covered over with a layer of stone (bottom) that Gibbons says can be removed in the future without damaging the original carving.

 The obvious point seems to be that "Puritan pointing a musket at a Native American" seems inaccurate. They are both looking in the same direction and one would expect the puritan to be looking towards the indian if the intent was to aim at the indian.

They do get one point of credit for making the censorship of the past both largely unobtrusive and reversible.

The only quote of the head librarian Susan Gibbons is "presence at a major entrance to Sterling was not appropriate" Unfortunately there isn't any explanation of why it is inappropriate although one might assume that the "Puritan pointing a musket at a Native American" canard might be why.

I'll note that the Committee on Art in Public Spaces self description is "The committee will hear from members of the community about art and other symbolic representations related to diversity and consider ways Yale might better reflect our campus and our history."

Erasing the Past - Mohammed Statue

(Erasing the past is a continuing series; see previously part 1 and part 2)

Sculpture of Mohammed in turban with curved sword in hand atop the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Department in Manhattan  Courthouse c 1903

from the nonsearchable, crookedly scanned PDF from NYCourts.gov

When the Courthouse opened [it opened in 1900 and with the statues in 1901], a statue of Mohammed (580-632AD, representing Islamic Law, by Charles Albert Lopez, stood on the westernmost point of the roof facing 25th Street, where Zoroster is now positioned. In 1955, ;at the request of the governments of Egypt Pakistan, and Indonesia, the statue of Mohammed was removed and destroyed, since images of him are prohibited under Muslim Law. The statues that previously had stood to his left were each moved over one place, leaving an empty pedestal on the easternmost point.

The statue was destroyed! What a terrible waste of taxpayer dollars. 

 New York Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Department in Manhattan after the removal and destruction.

 New York Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Department in Manhattan before the removal circa 1903 (image from the Library of Congress).

Added : the muslim's objection is generally iconoclastic, that depictions of gods leads to the worshiping of the idols rather than the deity, so one has to wonder if people were worshiping the statue from the sidewalk? 

satyr tripod

"A tripod with ithyphallic Pans; the sinuous and virile Pans balance a basin upon their heads as they gesture caution. This object was very influential and was used as a model by many neoclassical designers." from the book The Lost World of Pompeii (2002)

ithyphallic : the prefix ithy- means straight or erect

Perhaps the designer wanted to give people who approach the basin plenty of hooks for them to hang their purses or whatever while they wash their hands.


The elongation of the satyr's legs is a distotrtion that seems to work probably because they aren't human.

Temptation of Saint Anthony by Salvador Dali (1946)

word of the day : callipygian

The word of the day is callipygian : kallos means beauty, puge means buttocks. Aphrodite Kallipygos.

a Callipygian Venus (Naples)
1st or 2nd century BC

a Callipygian Venus (Naples)

1st or 2nd century BC

(second view)

Callipygian Venus by François Barois, 1683-1686 (2 views)

This is why modern men wear pants

That's not what he meant when he asked "Give me a hand…"

Hercules And Diomedes by Vincenzo de Rossi, 1550.

They're wrestling! Hercules is trying to throw King Diomedes of Thrace to his own man-eating mares and Diomedes is using a below the belt move to try to prevent it.

This is why modern men wear pants or as some people refer to jeans : tactical anti-wang grabber defensive armor.

While other people are almost certainly checking out Hercules' junk or Diomedes' balls, I'm noticing that Herc has stubby little legs.

nearly plagiarism

Supposedly, an Assyrian Battering Ram

A Dalek … or is it an Assyrian battering ram?

barely related :

puny

click to embiggen

Some Romans wars :
the Germanic War was against Germans
the Mithridatic War was against Mithridates
the Punic War must have been against the Punies

Simplification

Herma of Demosthenes, c. 280 BC
click to embiggen

wiki describes a herma as "a sculpture with a head, and perhaps a torso, above a plain, usually squared lower section, on which male genitals may also be carved at the appropriate height... and were placed at crossings, country borders and boundaries as protection (against evil)"

 (note to self: evil is afraid of penises)

The article doesn't really answer why a herma consists of a rectangular block with such a limited set of sculptural elements.

Possible reasons :

• Importance. Sculptors sought to simplify man to only the most important elements.
• A solid rectangular block would be more resilient than a full figure but then the point of adding fragile genitals (see the broken bits in the photo above) brings that theory into question.
• Identification. If someone doesn't recognize the face maybe they'd recognize another part.
• Vandals. Who has never seen a dumpster or wall that a vandal has drawn a penis on to it? I imagine industrious sculpting vandals with chisel in hand sneaking out to the herma in the dark of night and chipping away until they've added a phallus.
• the rectangular block below the head could serve a sign space – like a modern sandwich board.
• many phalluses have, over the years, been broken. Perhaps they pointed a direction
• for those hermas erected erect, they could serve as a way to protect Greek towns from roving bands of nymphomaniacs (this assumes there were actually roving bands of nymphos who could be distracted by the herma just outside of town)

Bodhidharma

click to embiggen

A Japanese figure of Bodhidharma (aka Daruma), a Buddhist mystic, apparently called the The Blue-Eyed Barbarian. He meditated for 9 years and it was said that afterwards the only thing left of him was his head which his disciples would carry around.

If I remember correctly this little sculpture was a netsuke.

Dancer

click to embiggen

"Dancer Looking at the Sole of Her Foot" sculpture by Edgar Degas.

It doesn't really need any commentary.

Don't touch my muffin

click to enlarge

Although some of his arms have broken off, Dancing Ganesh (c.10-11th century) can still flash gang signs, hold an axe, wear an uncommon amount of jewelry (for a guy with an axe), and nibble on a giant cupcake/muffin. Surrounding Ganesh is several half-sized people.

Ganesh's forward facing eyes looks a little odd but better stereoscopic vision would be advantageous for someone with a bunch of arms and an articulated trunk.

And um... that's, uh, that's probably the end of his belt hanging down between his legs. Yeah, that's it. A belt.

the post in which I indirectly confess to being a dork

I've been buying these little superhero figures for my nephews and they, as kids, keep a mental list of which characters have been made and which characters they'd like to be made.

Interestingly, considerably less supervillains have been made than superheroes (I suppose, so as to not encourage the little ones into becoming world conquering supervillains). My nephews mentioned that there was no Modok figure in the series so I told them I could probably make one.

below is Modok as he first appeared in the comic books.

Gigantic head, a fashionable headband, sits in a comfy flying chair with his hand on his joystick, has a plan for world domination : what's not to like...

The story behind his big head is that he was working for a group of evil scientists who used him as a guinea pig in an attempt to create a "Mental Organism Designed Only for Computing" which mutated him into a guy with a ginormous head and an atrophied body who proceeded to take over the scientists organization. He also christened himself "Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing" (M.O.D.O.K.) If only he'd been a more well-adjusted person he might have called himself M.O.D.O.D. - Mental Organism Designed Only for Dancing or maybe chosen a less career limiting name that would acknowledge his ability to multitask.

Modok, in a way, was a sympathetic character. Between his stark lack of a sense of humor and his gigantic head Modok probably had a hard time getting a date. And he isn't what you'd call traditionally handsome.

Some draw him as a guy with an enormous head with his arms carelessly added sticking out from the side of his head. That bothers me.


sketch of how distorted Modok's skeletal structure would have to be.

I wasn't completely faithful to the design. I'm afraid I didn't distort it enough.

It is only about 3.5 inches tall so it could fit in with the other figures, but I imagine a larger sculpture would be easier.

While not that great it I'd say it isn't bad considering I don't know what I'm doing. My only other experience in sculpture was mediocre relief in wax a decade ago. I've learned a lot about what not to do.

It still needs work.

Valentine's Day

Hercules and Omphale (getting frisky) by François Boucher circa 1724. How frisky? Two cupid frisky.

Here is a statue of Omphale dressed in a lion skin holding a club at her side and it is not Omphale sitting while standing erect and happy to see you.

I also learned from wiki that "Hercule et Omphale" is a short pornographic poem by Guillaume Apollinaire from a book called "Les onze mille verges" (The eleven thousand penises). That is one hell of a book title (assuming it isn't a sequel) but the poem doesn't impress me.

Popular with the ladies

While Kuntz's is the place where all the guys want to get into this place draws the attention of the ladies.

click to enlarge

click to enlarge
Lousy picture i took while driving past at 40mph

Carl's Bakery, Cafe and Catering.
Examine the pictures for yourself and I think it is safe to say that Carl probably has the biggest cock in town. It is already wearing a hat and is ready for action. Nothing says you have baked goods for sale like erecting a big cock.