Four Spaniards

First : Diego Velazquez's Las Meninas (1656). The original.

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Second : Francisco Goya's etching Las Meninas (c. 1778) after Velazquez. Note it is the only one here that kept the original's proportions.

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Third : Salvador Dali's Infanta Margarita from Velazquez's Las Meninas (1981, titled "The Pearl".

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Fourth : Pablo Picasso's Las Meninas (1957, Picasso did dozens of paintings after Velazquez's Las Meninas)

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shaft

Shaft : a word that could be used as a sexual euphemism for either men or women.

Stylistic plagarist : Claude Monet

A previous stylistic plagarist has been noted.


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Cattle Going to Work - Impression of Morning by Constant Troyon (1855)


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Haystack Morning Snow Effect by Claude Monet (1891)

Around 1859, at 19, Claude Monet, with a letter of introduction from the painter Eugène Boudin, met Troyon and supposedly asked to be his student but the self-taught Troyon declined.

Of course, calling it plagiarism is a stretch. One difference is the size. Troyon's painting is huge. 102.25 x157.5 inches. Monet also did large paintings but I think his larger paintings are the water lilies and his more conventional landscapes are of a more conventional size. I could be wrong. The other difference is that Troyon was never as impressionistic as Monet but my first reaction to Cattle Going to Work reproduced in a book was "Ah, a Monet?"

stylistic plagiarism

Sumerian head from c.2500 B.C. vs Random anime head from about 4500 years later

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I'm working on a theme.

bad at math?

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Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe and chief economy imploder, has a scheme to encourage economic empowerment. It could be education, skills training, equipment, computers, business skills, managerial skills, import/export knowledge, etc but none of that wasn't mentioned. Instead :

Under Zimbabwe's empowerment laws, black Zimbabweans should acquire 51% of foreign businesses.

"We can read the riot act and say this is 51% we are taking and if the sanctions persist we are taking over 100%," Mr Mugabe said

We all know math doesn't seem to be Mr. Mugabe's strong suit so I can't help but wonder if he means : "we are taking over : 100%," or if he means "we are taking : over 100%."

I wouldn't be surprised if he tried to seize 130%...

Dancer

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

It doesn't really need any commentary.