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Frisco's Fine Art Favorites...
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Here are some of my favorite Art pictures. Most of them I've scanned
myself while others I have collected surfing the Net. As you
might notice - most of the pictures have a mythical background.
Myths, legends and fairytales have always been a passion of mine...
BTW - Since I've taken the freedom to retell a lot of the myths
bellow, I'd realy appreciate it if you mail me in case I've made
some major errors. Some of the things I write about here I read
or heard about such a long time ago that i might have forgotten the
correct facts or gotten them mixed up with other tales/myths.
Thanx in advance and Enjoy!
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"Bogatiri" (1881-1898) by V. M. Vasnetzov
Three heroes from russian fairytale-tradition.
As the painter described his most important work:
The bogatirs - Dobrinja, Ilja and Alesha Popovich are out on
a bogatir ride and are scanning the wide lands wondering: "Is there any enemy
there, Is someone being threatened?".
You can probably see the likness
between these bogatirs and the norse vikings. The reason for this has its
explination in history. Today it's generaly accepted that the "Rus" (ancient
Russia) was a viking outpost at the begining.
"Demon" (1890) by M. A. Vrubelj (Vrubel)
He is tired of evil but good is unknown to him. Immortal as he is there's no future
for him, allknowing as he is there are no equals, unchanging as he is he is deprived of choice...
He is siting in a cold vast desert. He is not an evil spirit but rather a sad one, a disapointed
soul, hurting in a powerful gently cut out of the cliffs body.
The dilema of deamons has been haunting my brain for a while now. If given the choice
between being a deamon who is powerful, immensly full of knowledge, immortal but
unable to affect you own destiny... or being a far less powerfull and wise
human but free!!!... What would I choose?.. I'm still not sure.
"Chronos" by Goya.
Chronos was the father of Zeus and he had gotten a prediction from
the Earth and the Starsprangled sky that however strong Chronos
was he would be overthrown by his own son just as Chronos once overthrew
and slew his own father. So Chronos ambushed all his newborn children
and devoured them. Rhea however (his whife) managed to hide Zeus away
in a cavern and later he killed and castrated his father and freed his
brothers and sisters from Chronoses belly. The myth is here pictured by
the spanish painter Goya in one of his strongest and most gruesom paintings.
The myths of Chronos and Oidipus are the most fundamental ideas around which
modern psychoanalysis was built by its founder Sigmund Freud.
"Oidipus meets the sphinx" by Ingres
Before reaching Thebe Oidipus encountered the Sfinx - a beast
part lion part woman, which was terrorising the local area and
could only be stoped if someone could give an answer to it's
riddle. Oidipus succeded and thus won the throne and the hand of the
local queen Iokaste not knowing it was his own mother he was marrying.
When the true became known he stuck out his own eyes and Iokaste
commited suicide... A classical tragedy later developed into yet
another psycologial theory by Sigmund Freud.
"Venus de Milo" (Aphrodite)
Aphrodite, the godess of love, was concieved when Zeus threw Cronoses castrated
genitalia into the sea. She evolved from the foam that formed and floated out
on the shore. Aphrodite and Hermes were for many generations considered
to be the enbodied ideals of female and male beauty.
Once when the statue was unharmed she held a blank shield
to behold her own beauty reflecting in it.
"Athena Parthenos"
The godess Athena was born from Zeuses head in full armour
and she was one of the most important olympian gods right next to Zeus.
The fact that she popped out of Zeuses head had the symbolic meaning
of Athena being one of the wisest among the Olympians. Athena was
of course the protector of the city of Athena around wich Greece eventualy evolved.
One of the most beautyful renderings of Athena is this statue
made of bronse and was found as late as in 1959 in Piraeus.
"Aphrodite" & "Discusthrower"
The breaking from the arkaian style shows mainly in two ways:
the mastering in the shaping of the naked body and the perfection
in the picturing ot the draperies.
Many of the statues from ancient Greece are only known to us
as roman copies of the originals. As for example "The
discus thrower" originaly by Myron and "Aphrodite from
Knidos" originaly by Praxiteles.
"Godess of Victory" by Pythokritos
With outstreched wings and her clothes waving in the wind
the godess of victory Nike is descending... It has been said that
in the entire Hellinistic art Pythokritos was the only one
who could be compred to the Master of the Parthenon and Michelangelo.
"La Gioconda (Mona Lisa)" by Leonardo da Vinci
And of course the one and only: The misterious La Gioconda or Mona Lisa by
the master Leonardo da Vinci... Leonardo was a "multi genious" who besides of being
an exellent painter was a pioneer anathomist and what we today call engineer.
Of course he exceled in those fields too. Further comments are needless.
"Pyrenees" by René Magritte
Thank you Artman for giving me the name of this artist... Well I guess the
picture speaks for itself... I have liked this painting a long
time without knowing the name of the artist but now several people
have answered to my "cry for help" and now I know the name of the artist
and I have even found some sites
containig more paintings. Surrealism has always hit a very special
string in my heart. This summer (1999) I took a trip to the Louisiana museum
in Denmark where they had a Magritte exibition. Easily the highlight of the
summer!
"Tristan and Isolde" by Salvador Dali
While we are talking surrealism... Why don't we take a look at the
godfather of surrealism himself: Salvador Dali.
Please do visit my own Dali page where I have
some rare scans not easily found on the web.
This here is my favorite painting due to the soft feeling of pain, passion and
helplessness. The myth of Tristan and Isolde is one of the oldest
myths of Europe. The story tells us about the beautyfull Isolde
who is married with the master of the knight Tristan. They fall in
love during a journey where Tristan is her bodyguard. This myth being
an European(christian) one means of course they have to be punished for
this, so they eventualy die.
"Satan" by H.R. Giger
This one is painted using airbrush by H.R. Giger - the man who
designed Aliens. As a Giger fan so well put in a comment at the
official Giger site: "No signature is ever needed to know where
your hand has been.". After Dali Giger is the artist who has made the gratest impact on me.
The paintings are frightening, moist, dark and yet peacefull and often full of harmony.
Giger uses freely a combination of religious and erotic symbols while melting together
the living flesh with cold metal.
One of few high-res online galleries of Gigers art.
"Fog's kiss" by Luis Royo
Royo is a master of the static pictures. Stills are never better
looking, cleaner or more detailed than when Royo creates them.
The cold eyes of the vampire are empty and if possible somewhat
sad. Is she thinking of her previous life when she was able to cry
tears instead of blood? Or might it be that she is thinking about
the poor human she just had to kill to be able to ensure her own
survival? Does she even care at all? Maybe her mind is occupied
by something totaly ununderstandable for us humans? Go
here
to find more of Royo's work...
"Lilith" by Boris Vallejo
Boris Vallejo is, next to Varga,
Gimenes and Royo, one of my absolute favorite iberoamerican ilustrators (he is from Peru).
His paintings are surprisingly vivid and on the countrary to Royo
he can capture the movement of a character.
Here to the left is Lilith. According to an antient myth Lilith was
the first woman that God created after Adam, but since she wouldn't accept
a lower rank than Adam she was banned from the garden of Eden and Eve was created.
This part of the Bible is said to have been censored a long time ago.
Last modified 1999-09-03 by silver_p
