01 Contemporary Interpretations, Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion, with footnotes #7

Laurence Winram, United Kingdom

Nude - Mihaela as Cerynitis II

Photography: Color on Paper.

Size: 23.4 H x 16.5 W x 0 in

Private collection

In Greek mythology, the Ceryneian Hind (Greek: Ελαφος Κερυνῖτις Elaphos Kerynitis), also called Cerynitis or the Golden Hind, was an enormous hind, who lived in Keryneia, Greece. It was sacred to Artemis, the chaste goddess of the hunt, animals and unmarried women. It had golden antlers like a stag and hooves of bronze or brass, and it was said that it could outrun an arrow in flight. The capture of the hind was the third labour of Heracles.

Laurence Winram.  Now based in Edinburgh, Scotland. My main current ongoing project is Mythoslogos - The ancient Greeks made sense of their world not only by logic but by myth too. They saw it was necessary to view things in these opposite ways in order to have a balanced understanding of their lives. I feel we have moved out of that balance, unconsciously letting go of that mythic element to our lives. As a result we've lost touch with our own personal vision and creativity. We let a dogmatic scientific perspective rule everything, from our dreams to our notions of the spiritual. So in this series I try to reflect on this, creating images that sometimes imagine a world where logic has been usurped by the mythic, or images that mock our need to analyse and break down those parts of our life that we should truly respond to more intuitively. Recently I've been exploring studio nude photography. I'm not interested in glamour in these images, I'm much more drawn to echoing the beauty of the female form within the context of the framing of the shot to create an abstract graphic quality. I Also use creative lighting often with projectors to enhance this. Please view my personal work website or contact me if you would like to see more, or if you wish to purchase images you don't see here. More on Laurence Winram

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, and The Canals of Venice

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

01 Contemporary Interpretations, Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion, with footnotes #6

Cheryl Wilson, United States

Medusa

Acrylic, Ink, Gesso, Airbrush and Paper on Canvas

16 H x 20 W x 0.8 in

Private collection

In Greek mythology Medusa was a monster, a Gorgon, generally described as a winged human female with a hideous face and living venomous snakes in place of hair. Gazers on her face would turn to stone. She lived and died on an island named Sarpedon, somewhere near Cisthene. The 2nd-century BCE novelist Dionysios Skytobrachion puts her somewhere in Libya, where Herodotus had said the Berbers originated her myth, as part of their religion.

Medusa was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who thereafter used her head, which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield. In classical antiquity the image of the head of Medusa appeared in the evil-averting device known as the Gorgoneion. More on Medusa

Cheryl Wilson is a lifelong artist; however, she paused her art for the corporate world for a time. The life-changing event that turned the corporate pen into a paintbrush was the dark world of Alzheimer’s that struck her mother. She could not wait any longer to paint in the event that world captured her as well.  Leaving the the boardroom behind, what has emerged is a new language expressed on canvas.  This language expresses the freedom and unbound passion to create and let her art direct itself without fear or influences that has previously stifled her intuitive style. 


Constantly moving around the world, staying in one place no longer than three years at one time, living in the back of a musician’s studio, provided the opportunity to meet vast numbers of different people from all walks of life. She was the daughter of an Author and a United States, Air Force Protocol Musician.  She also joined the Air Force and traveled.  These experiences set the canvas for the style of abstracts she paints because she finds these people, locations, and experiences are represented in each painting in some way. More on Cheryl Wilson

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, and The Canals of Venice

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

01 Classic Works of Art, Marine Paintings of Mermaids, with Footnotes, 5d

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.

Gustave Wertheimer,  (Austrian, 1847–1904)

A nude woman on ship/ The enchanted sleeper

Oil on canvas

101.5 x 82.5 cm. (40 x 32.5 in.)

Private collection

Gustav Wertheimer (born January 28, 1847 in Vienna , † August 24, 1902 in Paris ) was an Austrian genre and portrait painter.

Wertheimer began his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under Joseph von Führich . Since May 10, 1870 he studied in the technical painting class of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich with Wilhelm von Diez .  After graduation, he worked in Munich. At the Vienna World Fair in 1873 he presented for the first time a larger work: Nero during the fire in Rome . This had previously been presented at the Vienna Kunstsalon. In 1881 he moved Wertheimer to Paris,  where he remained until his death.

In Paris, Wertheimer experienced his greatest successes. His participation in art exhibitions in Amsterdam ,  London , New Orleans and Paris earned him numerous medals and prizes. He also received honorary awards at the Paris World's Fair in 1889 and 1900. More on Gustav Wertheimer

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, and The Canals of Venice

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

6 works depicting the life and times of Nusaybah Bint ka'ab - The Woman Warrior of Arabia

Nusseibeh bint Ka’ab (also Umm Ammarah), a member of the Banu Najjar tribe living in Medina, was an early convert to Islam. She was one of two women  to personally pledge directly to the prophet Muhammad.

The Battle of Uhud

There were many virtues attributed to Nusaybah, yet she is most remembered for taking part in the Battle of Uhud (625). 

Abdullah bin Rowahah at the battle of Uhud

The Battle of Uhud was fought on Saturday, March 19, 625 at the valley located in front of Mount Uhud, in northwestern Arabia. It occurred between a force from the Muslim community of Medina led by the prophet Muhammad, and a force led by Abu Sufyan ibn Harb from Mecca. 

Whilst outnumbered, the Muslims gained the early initiative and forced the Meccan lines back. However, during the battle, a breach of orders by the Muslim archers allowed a surprise attack from the Meccan cavalry, which brought chaos to the Muslim ranks. Many Muslims were killed, and even the Prophet himself was badly injured. 

Nusayba b. Ka’b as depicted in the MBC TV Series ‘Umar'

At that point, Nusaybah, who was bringing water to the fighters and tending the wounded, went forward, with her sword unsheathed and her bow in her hand, to join the small group who were standing firm with the Prophet, acting as a human shield to protect him.

When a horse-mounted Meccan attacked her, she pulled on the horse's bridle and plunged her sword into its neck, toppling the horse on top of its rider. Witnessing this, the Prophet called to Abdullah to help his mother and the pair dispatched the struggling rider. Abdullah was wounded himself, as a Meccan cut across his left arm, and Nusaybah treated him, picking her sword back up, and advanced on her son's attacker, cuting his leg off with a blow of her sword. He fell to the ground where he was killed by other fighters.

But the battle was lost and the Muslims had to withdraw up the slopes of ‘Uḥud. The Meccans did not pursu, but marched back to Mecca declaring victory.

More: Wikipedia, Al Shindagah, Islamophobia Today, 

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 and 365 Days, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.

05 Works, Interpretation of the bible, Martyr Tatiana of Rome, with Footnotes

Saint Tatiana was a Christian martyr in 3rd-century Rome during the reign of Emperor Alexander Severuss (222-235). She was a deaconess of the early church. One day the jurist Ulpian captured Tatiana and attempted to force her to make a sacrifice to Apollo. She prayed, and miraculously, an earthquake destroyed the Apollo statue and part of the temple collapsed and fell down on the pagan priests and many pagans. The demon inhabiting the idol fled screeching from that place. Those present saw its shadow flying through the air.

Tatiana was then blinded, they tore her eyes out with hooks, and beaten for two days, before being brought to a circus and thrown into the pit with a hungry lion. But the lion did not touch her and lay at her feet. 

The next morning they took St Tatiana to the tribunal once more. The torturers beheld with astonishment that after such terrible torments she appeared completely healthy. They urged her to offer sacrifice to the goddess Diana. St Tatiana made the Sign of the Cross and began to pray. Suddenly, there was a crash of deafening thunder, and lightning struck the idol, the sacrificial offerings and the pagan priests. For this, the martyr was again fiercely tortured. She was hung up and scraped with iron claws, and her breasts were cut off.

 They threw Tatiana into a fire, but the fire did not harm the martyr. The pagans, thinking that she was a sorceress, cut her hair to take away her magical powers, then locked her up in the temple of Zeus.

On the third day, pagan priests came to the temple intending to offer sacrifice to Zeus. They beheld the idol on the floor, shattered to pieces, and the holy martyr Tatiana joyously praising the Lord Jesus Christ. The judge then condemned the valiant sufferer to be beheaded with a sword. Her father was also executed with her.

Tatiana is venerated as a saint, and her feast day is on January 12 (for those churches which follow the traditional Julian Calendar, January 12 currently falls on January 25 of the modern Gregorian Calendar). The miracles performed by Saint Tatiana are said to have converted many people to the fledgling religion. Saint Tatiana is patron saint of students. In Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, Tatiana Day, also known as "Students Day", is a public holiday.

For more information:  Wikipedia, The Orthodox Church in America, 

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 and 365 Days, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.