Mythology

01 Photograph, Contemporary Interpretations of Olympian deities, Nancy Ellison's mermaid, with footnotes #33

Nancy Ellison

VIPS: Maud Adams, c. 1982

Giclee print

Height: 26.25 inches / 66.67 cm, Width: 39.5 inches / 100.33 cm

For sale at 7,335 USD in Nov 2023

A mermaid is a marine creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. The first stories appeared in ancient Assyria. Mermaids can be benevolent or beneficent.

Nancy Ellison was born in 1936 and was largely influenced by the 1950s growing up. In the Post-War period the lens of modernism was focused, in terms of internationally, on developments in New York City. The Second World War had brought many important creatives to the city in exile from Europe, leading to a noteworthy pooling of talent and ideas. Influential Europeans that came to New York and provided inspiration for American artists included Piet Mondrian, Josef Albers and Hans Hoffmann, who between them set the basis of much of the United States’ explosive cultural growth in the subsequent decades. Important artists of the Abstract Expressionist Generation included Jackson Pollock (who innovated his famed drip, splatter and pour painting techniques), Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Frank Kline, Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still and Adolph Gottlieb. It was a male dominated environment, though necessary reassessment of this period has underlined the contributions of female artists such as Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, and Louise Bourgeois, amongst others. More on Nancy Ellison

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints, 365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest and my art stores at deviantart and Aaroko

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01 Work, RELIGIOUS ART - Franz von Stuck's The Dragon Slayer, With Footnotes - #135

Franz von Stuck, 1863 - 1928, GERMAN

The Dragon Slayer, c. 1913

Oil on panel

135 by 126cm., 53¼ by 49½in

Private collection

Sold for 605,000 GBP in May 2015

The Dragon Slayer is a particularly charged rendition of an age-old theme. Although most of Stuck's paintings depict scenes from the Antique or the Bible, neither the title The Dragon Slayer nor the iconography reveal the exact story behind the present work. Stuck's fascination with Greek legends suggests the subject to be Perseus and Andromeda, although Medusa's head and Perseus's winged shoes are missing. As early as 1900 Stuck’s contemporary, Lovis Corinth (lots 3, 4 & 5), had painted the hero as a medieval knight rather than a Greek half-god, and his Perseus and Andromeda may have been a possible source of inspiration for the present work. Another obvious influence would have been the biblical story of St. George, who kills the dragon to save a virgin. More on Thee Dragon Slayer

Franz Stuck (February 23, 1863 – August 30, 1928) was a German painter, sculptor, engraver, and architect. Born at Tettenweis near Passau, Stuck displayed an affinity for drawing and caricature from an early age. To begin his artistic education he relocated in 1878 to Munich, where he would settle for life. From 1881 to 1885 Stuck attended the Munich Academy.

In 1889 he exhibited his first paintings at the Munich Glass Palace, winning a gold medal for The Guardian of Paradise. In 1892 Stuck co-founded the Munich Secession, and also executed his first sculpture, Athlete. The next year he won further acclaim with the critical and public success of what is now his most famous work, the painting The Sin. Also during 1893, Stuck was awarded a gold medal for painting at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and was appointed to a royal professorship. In 1895 he began teaching painting at the Munich Academy.
Having attained much fame by this time, Stuck was ennobled on December 9, 1905 and would receive further public honours from around Europe during the remainder of his life. He continued to be well respected among young artists as professor at the Munich Academy, even after his artistic styles became unfashionable. More on Franz von Stuck

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01 Work, Interpretation of the bible, The Master of the Antwerp Adoration's The Holy Family in a garden, with Footnotes - #210

The Master of the Antwerp Adoration (active Antwerp c. 1505-1530)

The Holy Family in a garden

Oil on panel, circular

23 5/8 in. (60 cm.) diameter, an approximately 1/8 in. (0.4 cm.)

Private collection

Sold for USD 173,000 in Jun 2014

This roundel represents the Holy Family in the enclosed courtyard of a Renaissance palace. In the foreground, Saint Joseph is dressed in a striking red robe with a vibrant-blue chaperon, practicing his trade as a carpenter as he shapes a wooden plank with an ax. To the right sits the Virgin Mary, majestically draped in a brilliant white veil that covers her blue dress and flutters in the wind. Her attention is completely devoted to the white cloth on her lap which she is embroidering. The Virgin is attended by two angels, attired in ornate clerical robes which often appear in the Master of the Antwerp Adoration's paintings. One plays a lute, while the other proffers a silver dish of fruit, a reference to the Rest on the Flight into Egypt. Beside this angel, the Christ Child attends to his father's work, while watchful of his mother. More on this painting

The Master of the Antwerp Adoration (active 1500 – 1520) was a Flemish painter in the style of Antwerp Mannerism, whose compositions are typically filled with agitated figures in exotic, extravagant clothes. His notname is from a triptych showing the Adoration of the Magi, acquired by the Antwerp Museum of Fine Arts.

He was identified by Max J. Friedlander as the same person as the Master of Linnich. Little else is known. Despite various attempts to match him to recorded names of artists of the time, a leading scholar described the question of his identity in 2007 as "still up in smoke"

Apart from the Antwerp triptych, another with the same main subject in the Oldmasters Museum in Brussels (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium) is by the master, and Peter Van Den Brink suggests a large triptych altarpiece on the basis of several fragments. Several other works have been attributed. More on The Master of the Antwerp Adoration

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01 Work, Interpretation of the bible, Marc Chagall's Anne Invoque l'Eternel, with Footnotes - #218

Marc Chagall

Anne Invoque l'Eternel, from La Bible (V. 256; C. 30), c. 1931-39

(Is she praying for Gaza?)

Etching with handcoloring printed on Arches paper

21 x 15 3/8in

Private collection

Anna (distinguished as Anna the Prophetess), is a woman mentioned in the Gospel of Luke. According to that Gospel, she was an elderly woman of the Tribe of Asher who prophesied about Jesus at the Temple of Jerusalem. She appears in Luke 2:36–38 during the presentation of Jesus at the Temple.

"There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. More on this Etching

Marc Zakharovich Chagall (1887 – 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernist, he was associated with several major artistic styles and created works in virtually every artistic medium, including painting, book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets, ceramic, tapestries and fine art prints.

Chagall saw his work as "not the dream of one people but of all humanity. According to art historian Michael J. Lewis, Chagall was considered to be "the last survivor of the first generation of European modernists". Using the medium of stained glass, he produced windows for the cathedrals of Reims and Metz, windows for the UN, and the Jerusalem Windows in Israel. He also did large-scale paintings, including part of the ceiling of the Paris Opéra.

Before World War I, he traveled between St. Petersburg, Paris, and Berlin. During this period he created his own mixture and style of modern art based on his idea of Eastern European Jewish folk culture. He spent the wartime years in Soviet Belarus, becoming one of the country's most distinguished artists and a member of the modernist avant-garde, founding the Vitebsk Arts College before leaving again for Paris in 1922.

He experienced modernism's "golden age" in Paris, where "he synthesized the art forms of Cubism, Symbolism, and Fauvism, and the influence of Fauvism gave rise to Surrealism". "When Matisse dies," Pablo Picasso remarked in the 1950s, "Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what colour really is" More on Marc Zakharovich Chagall

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01 Work, Interpretation of the bible, Queen Mary Psalter, Twelve year old Christ in the temple, with Footnotes - #206

Queen Mary Master, Mary Psalter

Twelve year old Christ in the temple

Fine Art Giclee on Canvas

32 inches x 24.5

Private collection

The Finding in the Temple, also called Christ among the Doctors or the Disputation (the usual names in art), was an episode in the early life of Jesus depicted in chapter 2 of the Gospel of Luke. It is the only event of the later childhood of Jesus mentioned in a gospel.

Jesus at the age of twelve accompanies Mary and Joseph, and a large group of their relatives and friends to Jerusalem on pilgrimage, "according to the custom" – that is, Passover. On the day of their return, Jesus "lingered", staying in the Temple, but Mary and Joseph thought that he was among their group when he wasn't. Mary and Joseph headed back home and after a day of travel realised Jesus was missing, so they returned to Jerusalem, finding Jesus three days later. He was found in The Temple in discussion with the elders. They were amazed at his learning, especially given his young age. When admonished by Mary, Jesus replied: "How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?"

The story was slightly elaborated in later literature, such as the apocryphal 2nd-century Infancy Gospel of Thomas (19:1–12). The losing of Jesus is the third of the Seven Sorrows of Mary, and the Finding in the Temple is the fifth Joyful Mystery of the Rosary. More on Christ in the temple

The Queen Mary Psalter is one of the most extensively illustrated biblical manuscripts ever produced, containing over 1000 images. Prefacing, commenting on and embellishing the Psalms, the illustrations are famous for their artistic sophistication in both coloured drawings and paintings. Extraordinarily, it appears that all of the Psalter’s illustrations were completed by the same person, an artist who is now known as the ‘Queen Mary Master’ after this book. More on The Queen Mary Psalter

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01 Work, Interpretation of the bible, Follower of Quentin Massys' The Virgin and Child with a still life on a ledge, with Footnotes - #204

Follower of Quentin Massys

The Virgin and Child with a still life on a ledge

Oil on oak panel

58 x 41.5 cm.; 22⅞ x 16⅜ in.

Private collection

Estimate for 10,000 - 15,000 GBP in Dec 2022

The composition for this painting is taken from Quentin Massys's Virgin and Child outdoors dated to about 1526 and preserved in the Detroit Institute of Arts.1 In this particular version, a landscape has been substituted for a warm golden-brown background which pigment analysis has shown to be original to this work. The still life on the ledge too has been expanded in this painting to include a cut peach and knife on a pewter plate, and a pair of plums with a bunch of grapes. Silver had suggested that the grapes in the prime version are symbolic of redemption through Christ. More on this work

Quentin Massys (1466–1530) was a Flemish painter in the Early Netherlandish tradition. He was born in Leuven. There is a tradition alleging that he was trained as an ironsmith before becoming a painter. Matsys was active in Antwerp for over 20 years, creating numerous works with religious roots and satirical tendencies. He is regarded as the founder of the Antwerp school of painting, which became the leading school of painting in Flanders in the 16th century. He introduced new techniques and motifs as well as moralising subjects without completely breaking with the tradition. More on Quentin Massys

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01 Work, CONTEMPORARY Interpretation of the Bible! Bettina Rheims's Nouvelle Eve/New Eve, With Footnotes - #43

Bettina Rheims

Nouvelle Eve/New Eve, c. 1997

Vintage C-print

9.4 x 7.5 in. / cm 24 x 19,2

Private collection

Eve is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, she was the first woman. In Islamic tradition, Eve is known as Adam's wife and the first woman although she is not specifically named in the Quran.

According to the second chapter of Genesis, Eve was created by God by taking her from the rib of Adam, to be Adam's companion. She succumbs to the serpent's temptation to eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She shares the fruit with Adam, and as a result the first humans are expelled from the Garden of Eden. Christian churches differ on how they view both Adam and Eve's disobedience to God, and to the consequences that those actions had on the rest of humanity. Christian and Jewish teachings sometimes hold Adam and Eve to a different level of responsibility for the fall, although Islamic teaching holds both equally responsible. More on Eve

Bettina (Caroline Germaine) Rheims is a French photographer born in Neuilly-sur-Seine on 18 December 1952. Bettina's photographic career began in 1978, when she took a series of photos of a group of strip-tease artists and acrobats, which would lead to her first exhibitions. This work would unveil Bettina Rheims’ favourite subject, the female model, to which she would frequently return during her career.

At the beginning of the 1990s, Bettina Rheims worked on one of her major series, entitled Chambre Close (1990-1992). This was her first in colour and marked the start of her collaboration with the novelist Serge Bramly, in a work which saw her photographs coupled with the writer’s fiction.

In 1995, the Presidency of the French Republic commissioned Bettina Rheims to take the official portrait of Jacques Chirac.

The 1999 publication of the book I.N.R.I. and its eponymous exhibitio, once again united the gaze of Bettina Rheims with the prose of Serge Bramly. I.N.R.I. builds a philosophical dialogue on the history of the crucifixion through photographs of scenes of the life of Christ. In France, the publication of this work was highly controversial.

In 2002, Bettina Rheims created a series on Shanghai during two long stays in the city. In 2005, at the Galerie De Noirmont, Bettina exhibited Héroïnes, a work that was primarily a homage to sculpture.

At the end of the 2000s, Bettina worked with Serge Bramly again and exhibited Rose, c’est Paris in 2010 at the National Library of France. The photographic tale was again built on a thread of fiction that Bettina Rheims and Serge Bramly created from autobiographical elements. More on Bettina Rheims

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01 Work, Interpretation of the bible, Giuseppe Bonito's Immaculate Conception, with Footnotes - #202

Giuseppe Bonito, 1707 - 1789,

The Immaculate Conception

Oil on canvas

110.6 x 76.1 cm.; 43½ x 30 in.

Private collection

Sold for 15,240 GBP in May 2023

In Catholic teaching, the Immaculate Conception refers to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Because she was the vessel that would bear the Son of God, she had to be without sin. Her conception was "immaculate" in the sense that her soul never had the stain of original sin that everyone else is born with.

The term does not refer to the conception or birth of Jesus. That is a misunderstanding you might come across in popular culture. More on the immaculate conception

Giuseppe Bonito (b. 1707, Castellamare di Stabia, d. 1789, Napoli) was an Italian painter. A student of Francesco Solimena, Bonito became one of the most influential artists of the Neapolitan school in the 18th century. Throughout his career, but most notably during the latter part of the century when Rome was the arbiter of Neo-classicism, his style remained firmly within the rich painterly traditions of Naples. His earliest works, for example the Archangel Raphael and Tobias (1730; Santa Maria Maggiore, Naples), show an assimilation of elements derived from late Baroque artists working in Naples and a hesitant affinity to the tenebrism of Solimena. In other pictures of sacred subjects from c. 1730 onwards, however, he developed a personal neo-Baroque style characterized by sweeping movement, bold chiaroscuro and a saturated palette reminiscent of both Solimena and Luca Giordano. Paintings in this style, such as St Vincent Ferrer (1737; San Domenico, Barletta), St Lazarus (early 1740s; San Ciro, Portici) and Charity (1742; Palazzo Monte di Pietà, Naples), show that Bonito's maturity was also characterized by delicacy and grace. More on Giuseppe Bonito

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01 Work, Interpretation of the bible, Florentine School's the Virgin's Annunciate, with Footnotes - #197

Florentine School, late 16th Century

The Virgin Annunciate

Oil and gold ground on panel

86.6 x 67.2cm (34 1/8 x 26 7/16in).

Private collection

Sold for £9,562.50 in 2022

The composition of the present panel is based on the figure of the Virgin from the famous Annunciation of the mid 13th century in the church of Santissima Annunziata, Florence. Painted by a follower of Giotto, it is said that it was completed by a monk called Bartolomeo with the help of an angel. The composition of the Annunciation served as a model for numerous Florentine artists of the 16th and 17th centuries. More on this painting

The Annunciation, also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the biblical history of the announcement by the archangel Gabriel to Mary that she would conceive and bear a son through a virgin birth and become the mother of Jesus Christ, the Christian Messiah and Son of God, marking the Incarnation. Gabriel told Mary to name her son Immanuel, meaning "God is with us again". More on Madonna Annunciate

Florentine School was a major Italian school of art that flourished between the 13th and 16th centuries, extending from the Early Renaissance to the crisis of Renaissance culture.

The founder of the Florentine school was Giotto, whose work placed Florence in the foreground of pre-Renaissance art. The work of his successors, who included Taddeo Gaddi and Maso di Banco, developed along the lines he had originated. However, toward the middle of the 14th century conciseness and clarity of form (as seen in the work of A. di Bonaiuti) disappeared, and a tendency toward linear and flat form became prevalent (Nardo di Cione and, occasionally, Orcagna). In the last 30 years of the 14th century a trend toward the international Gothic style prevailed (Agnolo Gaddi and Lorenzo Monaco). More on Florentine School

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01 Work, RELIGIOUS ART, Interpretation of the bible, Adriaen van der Werff's Entombment, With Footnotes - #138

Adriaen van der Werff

The entombment of Christ, c. 1600-1700

Oil on canvas

Width: 54,5, Height: 81,5

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

After Christ’s crucifixion, Matthew writes: ‘As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. Pilate ordered that it be given to him. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.’ (Matthew 27:57-60)

Van ded Werff depicted the dead Christ as an ideal nude. He is laying in the arms of Joseph of Arimathea and surrounded by a number of women including Mary Magdalene, the woman holding Jesus’ arm. Left in the background is the entrance to the tomb. Two figures are approaching on the right. More on this painting

Adriaen van der Werff (21 January 1659 – 12 November 1722) was an accomplished Dutch painter of portraits and erotic, devotional and mythological scenes. His brother, Pieter van der Werff (1661–1722), was his principal pupil and assistant.

At the age of ten he started to take lessons, two years later moving in with Eglon van der Neer, specializing in clothes and draperie. At the age of seventeen he founded his own studio in Rotterdam where he later became the head of guild of Saint Luc. In 1696, he was paid a visit by Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine and his wife, Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici. The couple ordered two paintings to be sent to Cosimo III of Tuscany, Anna Maria Luisa's father, in Florence. During the next years Van der Werff traveled regularly between Düsseldorf and his home town. In 1703, he became the official court painter and a knight, when his former teacher and predecessor Van der Neer died. Van der Werff, with a perfect technique, was paid extremely well by the Elector for his biblical or classical (erotic) paintings. In 1705, he painted a portrait of Gian Gastone de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. In 1716, he lost his job when the Elector died because the treasury was empty.

Van der Werff became one of the most lauded Dutch painters of his day, gaining a European reputation and an enormous fortune. Arnold Houbraken, writing in 1718, considered him the greatest of the Dutch painters and this was the prevailing critical opinion throughout the 18th century: however, his reputation suffered in the 19th century, when he was alleged to have betrayed the Dutch naturalistic tradition. In the Victorian Age people could not appreciate his art, so most of his work went into the cellars of the Alte Pinakothek.

Van der Werff also practised as an architect in Rotterdam, where he designed a few houses. More on Adriaen van der Werff

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