Art as a Creative Endeavor : Edward Burne-Jones

Phyllis and Demophoon by Edward Burne-Jones, 1870
watercolor on paper,  93.8 x 47.5 cm (36.9 x 18.7 in)

The Tree of Forgiveness by Edward Burne-Jones, 1882
oil on canvas, 190.5 × 106.7 cm (75 × 42 in)

In 1870, Edward Burne-Jones exhibited Phyllis and Demophoon

Phyllis, Queen of Thrace, falls in love with Demophoon, son of Theseus. He departs but promises to return in six months' time. When he fails to keep his promise, Phyllis hangs herself, and is turned by the gods into an almond tree. On his eventual return, Demophoon remorsefully embraces the tree, which blooms, as Phyllis emerges to forgive and reclaim her faithless lover.
Both Phyllis and Demophoon are modelled on Maria Zambaco, with whom Burne-Jones had been having an affair since June 1868 (a host of studies exist for both figures, in various locales). And for this reason, in conjunction with Demophoon's nudity, a controversy ensued when it was exhibited at the Old Watercolour Society for the Summer Exhibition of 1870. Within two weeks of the exhibition's opening, Burne-Jones withdrew the painting due to complaints, and two works by other artists were exhibited in its place. In August 1870, Burne-Jones resigned from the Society, over artistic integrity.
In the catalogue for the Summer Exhibition at the Old Watercolour Society, Burne-Jones included the following caption, a quote from Ovid: 'Dic mihi quid feci? Nisi non sapienter amavi' [Tell me what I have done? I loved unwisely.] Burne-Jones later reworked the painting entirely in oils, transforming the bodies of both Phyllis and Demophoon into an homage to Michelangelo, calling it 'The Tree of Forgiveness' (1882, Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight), where Zambaco's face remains only on Phyllis.

The Tree of Forgiveness, 12 years later,  is about life sized. The figures are not identical to the previous version but they are remarkably similar and the concept is the identical. The colors are different. in the 1870 painting Demophoon looks slight and ashen.

The drapery in Phyllis and Demophoon covered Phyllis' body along with her arm covering her breast and the magical drapery wrapped itself around Demophoon's leg without providing him any modesty (modesty in the sense of avoiding impropriety or indecency but modest in the sense of "a small amount" could be used to describe him). In contrast, in The Tree of Forgiveness magical drapery covers his manhood and flowingly wraps around his leg and only his leg while she is exposed fully nude.

It is interesting that Michelangelo depicted women by drawing men and the "feminizing" them and Burne-Jones in Phyllis and Demophoon drew a woman and then "masculinized" the figure.

An attempt to show the scale of the pictures.

below the fold is an animated gif contrasting the two.

Happy Nude Year!

click to embiggen

A Study in Curves (Reclining Nude) by William Merritt Chase, c1890
Oil on Canvas
22" x 40" (55.9 x 101.6cm)

an attempt to show the scale of the painting

Goya's Maja

click to embiggen

A comparison of Francisco Goya's Maja nude (La maja desnuda) and his Maja clothed (La maja vestida). I had thought that they were the same figure with clothes painted on one but they are not an exact match.

And although the canvases are the same size (38 x 75 inches) the nude figure is smaller (the clothed figure had to be scaled down to make the comparison)

photo of Las Majas side by side at the Prado, Spain

French postcard

Here's a french postcard :

click to embiggen

You can tell it is a French postcard because it stays "Carte Postale" on it which is French for "post card".

(for anyone searching for "french postcard" wanting to see erotic naked photographs of women then here is the front of the card).

labeled "J. Mandel 273 A-N"

(as a reminder of the inevitable human mortality I'll point out the model is probably dead. If she isn't then by now she is, to be kind, vintage – to be unkind she is ancient, decrepit, creased, wrinkled, robbed of many of her charms by age and gravity and probably looks like a she was made of wax and kept too close to a flame with her bounce and jiggle replaced with a sagging waddle.)

nude

the Pioneer Plaque

Since a simple star map would become distorted over time by gravity and expansion, the Pioneer plaque used distance from pulsars and the pulsars frequency to note its origin.

wiki notes that the arrow denoting the Pioneer spacecraft's origin received criticism because "arrows are an artifact of hunter-gatherer societies like those on Earth; finders with a different cultural heritage may find the arrow symbol meaningless"

Similarly , one could criticize the drawing of humans drawn in a simplified way that the vast majority of people can understand but may not translate to an alien that would have drawn in a topographic way or drawn heat or sees in another alien way.

But should aliens expect some other aliens' (Earthlings') spacecraft to not use their own language and their own symbols?

Morbo: Hmmm… judging by this the puny humans are nearly as tall as this spacecraft and the spacecraft is several times larger than their planet!

Kang : you have to admit that their planets are evenly spaced in a manner that is pleasing to the eye.

Morbo : The puny humans, don't realize that will only make it easier for Morbo's people to conquer their solar system!

Kang : It's a shame they haven't figured out a phonetic written language.

Morbo : Yes, for these puny humans to have spent so much effort to send a craft so far without asking how we are or describing how they taste is the height of rudeness!

Kang : Yes, yes, their message mostly seems to be about having us looking at them naked and they have drawn some disembodied boobs in the upper left...

Kang : I'm not sure if that is a frontal view or a top view or both.

Morbo : Puny humans only draw 2 bosoms! Pathetic!

Morbo : but these tasty circuits boards have all sorts of cryptic markings on them.

Kang : it must be a secret message. Perhaps it is a clue to a hidden treasure like in that Nicholas Cage movie.

Why not engrave a text explanation on the back or to the side? When dealing with aliens advanced enough for space travel, more information would be more useful. I think if we were to receive a message from aliens the more information received would be better.

(btw, I've always been annoyed at the fact that the 2 people are superimposed over the Pioneer craft – floating in front of it – instead of standing on the same plane as the spacecraft and standing in front of it.)

Thoughts from the Phallocracy

Mary Daly, feminist formerly of Boston College and currently dead, once said "If life is to survive on this planet, there must be a decontamination of the Earth. I think this will be accompanied by an evolutionary process that will result in a drastic reduction of the population of males."

So, like me – a member of the Phallocracy in good standing – Mary Daly envisioned and yearned for a future very much like a harem.

I suppose the only difference would be the eternal question of whether the dress code would be more like I Dream of Jeannie or more like J.A.D. Ingres' Turkish Baths.

p.s. "decontamination" is an interesting choice of words. I'm sure the problem of what would be the best and most proper term to use led her to consider her words carefully before she chose her final solution.

Peek a boo

click to embiggen


A Nymph and a Satyr attributed to Pierre-Charles Trémolières (1703-1739).

Note the difference between a Nymph and a nympho : a nympho would stay awake for the debauchery.

Unlike this painting by François Boucher, this just seems pervy. And not pervy in the good, just doing my part to continue the survival of the species way but the creepy kind of pervy. The voyeuristic eagle on the left doesn't help.

I imagine clothes that cling to you with no visible means of support like the satyr's outfit wouldn't be that comfortable.

because even babies like choice

Enfamil baby food/formula has "Two nipple options" to make it as similar to the real thing as possible. Because even babies like choice.

grapefruits

click to enlarge

Jean Fouquet's Virgin and Child, right half of Melun Diptych, a painting from circa 1450

I don't think Fouquet quite had a complete grasp of foreshortening as the Child appears to be floating.

I would call this an example of a Gilligan's Island boob job : a boob job that appears to have been done by the Professor from Gilligan's Island by inserting a coconut under the skin.

It seems the model was King Louis VII's mistress Agnès Sorel. I would have guessed that Jean Fouquet couldn't find a single female model in all of France so he substituted a pair of grapefruits. He included a large enough space between the breasts to add a third if he had so wished.

Angels painted bright devil red and dark blue? Um, okay then.