Temple's Longtails and Fur

  It shouldn't surprise anybody any more that I would make such a poor joke.       Still Life with Silver Ewer  Willem Kalf, 1660, oil on canvas          This work and much from this era was born from of the loosening of the grip of The Church resulting from the 30 Years War.  As more countries became their own sovereign, as scientific knowledge expanded and the merchant class grew increasing the purchasing power of people who weren't Nobility or Clergy the nature of the demand for art changed.  Art was no longer only for the educated wealthy Nobles or Church officials, it no longer needed the deep allegory only understood by the those classes of people.          In this piece, likely painted in Amsterdam between 1655 and 1660, we can see a display of scientific understanding.  Look at the peeled lemon.     In that lemon you can see the beginning of decay that starts when the sk...

         Giorgione, The Tempest  The Painting, and the Painter       For this assignment I chose Giorgione's oil painting The Tempest .  It's believed it was painted between 1505 and 1508 in Venice, Italy.  Sources were unclear if this was by commission,  but the first owner is supposed to have been Gabriele Vendramin, a wealthy soap merchant and nobleman from Venice. This painting, along with other works by Giorgione and other contemporary artists and various antiquities adorned Vendramin's palace, signs of his opulence and appreciation for art.  Giorgione's works, including this one, were catalytic in the use of landscapes during the Renaissance.  He bore much mimicry; some pieces can hardly be discerned from his own work.  He died of plague in 1510 at 33 years of age, young even for those times.          My Thoughts       This is an astounding piece o...

Spawning Grounds   artist Apayuq Moore, 2008, Dillingham, Alaska This is an acrylic painting on canvas that my cousin finished in 2008.  She is an artist living in SW Alaska, this and other works can be seen here.   Apayuq   My wife has a print of that painting in the dining area of our house.  Prior to this class, being the shallow person that I am, I never gave it much thought.  It to me just represented an event I have witnessed in person several times throughout my youth on Togiak Lake.  It's red salmon (referred to as sockeye by those making more money on them than I was commercial fishing) in their spawning attire, nearing the end of their long journey.  They're making the last dash to their intended spawning grounds where they will spill their roe and milt in a shuddering climax that culminates a years long cycle where they journeyed from that very spot as a smelt, down the river , dodging ravenous rainbows, carnivorous pike, to the ocean...