Canopic Jars were part of the mummification process used by Ancient Egyptians to preserve the organs of their owner for the afterlife. There are four jars for each mummy. The stomach, lungs, liver and intestines were saved in canopic jars, the same ingredients found in cat food.
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Cupid and Psyche had to fight for their love to exist, amidst obstacles of jealousy, and in-law disapproval! This sculpture of Cupid and Psyche, by Antonio Canova in 1793, is one of the most famous depictions. Cupid was responsible for shooting golden arrows to all creatures, including cats, to ensure that they fall in love and procreate!
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The Death of Marat, by Jacques-Louis David in 1793, is an icon of the French Revolution. In the painting, David depicts his friend Marat as a martyr, though many considered him a blood-hungry radical. The painting was forced into hiding until the mid-nineteenth century, when the admiration for David’s formalistic prowess outweighed the controversy of his political leanings. Today, the painting seems as harmless as a snow monkey.
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The Tondo Pitti is a high relief carved in marble by Michelangelo in 1504. A relief sculpture is generally hung on a wall, and meant to be viewed from the front like a picture. The depth of a relief is often described as high or low. For example, the relief of a coin is shallow, or very low. What makes this sculpture special for students are the chisel marks left by Michelangelo. They are the very clues of how he worked the forms of his sculpture. In this case, evidence of his chisel marks are less apparent on the Madonna, where there is more finish devoted to her portrait - a clue to the viewer about the actual focal point of the composition.
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Camille Claudel (1864 – 1943) was a French sculptor who made profound contributions to the world of art, for which the sculptor Rodin owes a debt of gratitude. She started working in Rodin's studio in 1884, as his muse, confidante and sculptor. Her vision and influence on Rodin is probably represented best in his Burgers of Calais, a commission on which she worked, for what is likely the first truly modernist monument.
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From Wikipedia: In 1918, Isamu Noguchi (1904 – 1988) was sent back to the U.S. for schooling in Rolling Prairie, Indiana. After graduation, he left with Dr. Edward Rumely to LaPorte, Indiana. Noguchi began attending LaPorte High School, graduating in 1922. During this period of his life, he was known by the name "Sam Gilmour." Pictured is the Sunken Garden for Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. A GIANT of the 20th Century, and a graduate from our high school, LaPorteans!
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The Barberini Faun, or Drunken Satyr, was either carved by an unknown Hellenistic sculptor in the late third or early second century BC or is a Roman copy of high quality. Its present form was given it by a series of restorers in Rome after its discovery in the 1620s. These restorations, commissioned by Pope Urban VIII’s nephew Cardinal Francesco Barberini, may have enhanced the sexual aspect of the statue. But, what’s the dog’s excuse?
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The Farewell (1892), by Auguste Rodin, is an assemblage that utilizes his portrait of sculptor Camille Claudel, his confidante, assistant and protégée. Claudel had just left the studio she shared with Rodin when he made this piece. Rodin says goodbye to his dear friend by depicting her as the one that says goodbye. This is authentic, a historical document, not some posthumously contrived narrative that describes the artist’s inner turmoil. You’d have to work hard to find a more personal work that was created before this one.
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Little Dancer of Fourteen Years (1881) by painter Edgar Degas was originally exhibited in wax in Paris at the Sixth Impressionist Exhibition of 1881, where it received mixed reviews. The majority of critics were shocked by the piece. They thought it looked like a medical specimen, in part because Degas exhibited it inside a glass case. They also objected to the use of a real tutu. It is the only sculpture Degas exhibited in his lifetime, and it is arguably the most talked about single work by him. To me, he was an excellent sculptor – a better sculptor than he was a painter.
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SAIGON EXECUTION, photographed February 1968, won Eddie Adams (1933 – 2004) the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography and a World Press Photo award for the photograph (captioned 'General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner in Saigon'). Adams wrote in Time Magazine, “What the photograph didn't say was, 'What would you do if you were the general at that time and place on that hot day, and you caught the so-called bad guy after he blew away one, two or three American people?’” In 2009, a print of SAIGON EXECUTION made by Adams in the 1980s sold for $43,200.
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The Rolling Stone cover from 1980 by Annie Liebovitz featuring John Lennon and Yoko Ono was John’s last photo. He was shot five hours later. On January 13, 2012, Rolling Stone Magazine reported that the website Mental Floss had put together an exhaustive list of all of John Lennon's cats, from his childhood on through his career with the Beatles and up to his final days living in Manhattan with his wife, Yoko Ono. The Beatle's first cat as a boy was named Elvis Presley.
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A bona fide Masterpiece of the 19th Century is Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux’s Ugolino and His Sons from 1861, based on a story of greed from Dante’s Inferno. The original marble version is permanently displayed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and placed greedily in a corner, right next to the coffee stand to boost the museum’s sales of cappuccinos and scones! The cute kittens photo recalls the familiar pyramidical, multi-figure composition that Carpeaux used so well. By the way, F**k you, Met.
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Saturn Devouring His Son (1821-23) by Spanish artist Francisco Goya depicts Saturn eating his son in an attempt to avoid being overthrown by his children. Some consider it an allegory of Spain destroying her own people, based on the massacres and violence committed by both the French and Spanish armies during the Napoleonic occupation. But no one knows for sure, because Goya painted it for himself and left no records of his thoughts about the work. His personal imaginative visions, like this painting, defied the traditional academicism and conventionality of his time, sparking the development of modern aesthetic sensibility. In other words, Goya didn’t give a f**k about what was expected! He painted what he wanted to paint, the way he wanted to paint, because he was the king of his own jungle, and the world is better for it.
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The Dead Toreador by Edouard Manet, originally seen at the Salon of 1864, is truly a modern work of art. It is a fragment of a larger painting called Incident in a Bullfight, which brilliantly accounts for its unusual composition. Critics panned the painting, so, Manet took a knife to the canvas and cut out The Dead Toreador from the painting, turning the painting into two works. The sculptor Rodin gets credit for introducing fragmentation to the art world – a birth of Modernism moment. Rodin would sculpt a whole figure, and then dismember it, using the fragments as works of art in their own right. But Manet’s fragmenting pre-dates Rodin’s by a decade.
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The Dying Gaul is an ancient Roman marble copy of a lost Hellenistic sculpture from 230 BC and 220 BC. The statue depicts a dying Celt, represented as a Gallic warrior with a typically Gallic hairstyle and moustache, which gives the figure a very contemporary appearance. An icon for the vanquished, it is the symbolic reminder that civilization marches forward by conquering territories and eliminating other peoples, and other species…
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The Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth Regiment is a bronze relief sculpture by Augustus Saint Gaudens located in Boston Common, unveiled on May 31, 1897. The Shaw Memorial inspired the 1989 movie GLORY, which starred Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes and Morgan Freeman, after screenwriter Kevin Jarre viewed the monument to Shaw and the 54th. The sculpture depicts the African-American 54th Regiment marching down Beacon Street on May 28, 1863.
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From Wikipedia: The Creation of Adam is a section of Michelangelo's fresco Sistine Chapel ceiling painted circa 1511. It illustrates the Biblical story from the Book of Genesis in which God the Father breathes life into Adam, the first man. Editorial: The Creation of Adam is Michelangelo’s only truly iconic image from the Sistine Chapel. It is one of the greatest icons of all time and, looking at it, it is easy to understand why. If that image hadn’t been created yet and was introduced by a contemporary artist, it would still become an instant icon. The Creation of Adam is iconic because it is a great image, not just because Michelangelo did it.
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Frederic Remington (1861 – 1909) was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in depictions of the Old American West of cowboys, American Indians, and the U. S. Cavalry, all of which he witnessed firsthand. Every great western movie owes heaps to Remington. The success of Remington’s imagery overshadows his brilliance as an artist, unfortunately. Fine arts programs generally have a bias against Illustrators and genre artists. In all of my years in art school as a student and as a teacher, I don’t recall hearing his name once – but I promise you, he was probably only a couple thoughts away in everyone’s minds.
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The Old Guitarist (1903) by Pablo Picasso is currently on display in the Art Institute of Chicago. It is an iconic image that probably represents Picasso’s Blue Period better than his other works of that time. The question for me would be when did Picasso’s work from this period start being referred to as the Blue Period? It seems to pre-date usage of the term The Blues, the name for American roots music, which is traced back to 1912. Wikipedia suggests that El Greco, Picasso’s poor standard of living, and the suicide of a dear friend influenced Picasso’s style at the time. I believe the El Greco part.
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Acrobat (1928) by Gaston Lachaise is at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Lachaise's interest in unconventional poses and distortion of forms links him to the Modernist Movement. Born in Paris to a father who made fine furniture, his talent was recognized at an early age and he began to sculpt works that reflected his interest in Auguste Rodin. Lachaise found inspiration in the circus and its performers, but his principal drive as a sculptor was to glorify the sexual and procreative powers of women. The dog is from Tom Borris’s calendar of Yoga Dogs.