The Batavia was a merchant ship which set sail on its maiden voyage in 1628 from the Netherlands to Java under the command of Dutch East Asia Company official, Francisco Pelsaert. The ship, for its […]
Tag: art history
One Long Masturbation: Reply to the Belief that Things Were Better When
In 1818 the population of England was near twenty million, 80 percent of whom were functionally illiterate. The literate field, then, was approximately four hundred thousand. This was not only the maximum poetry audience, it […]
(Art) SHUNGA! The Japanese Art of the Woodblock Money Shot (NSFW)
A couple years ago, my buddy and I went to see an exhibit on shunga, traditional Japanese erotic art, mostly dating to the Edo and Meiji eras. The term shunga translates as “pictures of spring”, […]
(Art & Faith) The Sorrow of Radha
The Gita Govinda, or “song” of Govinda, is a 12th century piece by the Indian poet Jayadeva which was later illustrated in a series of small paintings (circa 1775-1780) at Tehri Garhwal, Uttarakhand, India. “The […]
Adrift
In every medium, there’s at least one motif that is repeated compulsively. With writers — in the West at least — it’s a story based on Greek mythology, often produced in the adolescence of their […]
(Art) The Trances of Hilma af Klint
The Guggenheim in New York is running a major retrospective on Hilma af Klint through early 2019. I discovered her only recently as I was doing research for my forthcoming occult mystery, FEAST OF SHADOWS. […]
Women for sale
Jean-Léon Gérôme’s second painting titled “The Slave Market” showcases classical depictions of women: the madonna with child, the harlot on her passion-red cloth, the crone, the wastrel, etc. A fantastic statement on the presentation of […]
(Art) The Mystery of the Arnolfini Portrait
Contemporary artist Theo Vandor has painstakingly removed the figures from Jan Van Eyck’s 1434 masterpiece, commonly known as “The Arnolfini Portrait,” which depicts a wealthy Italian merchant and his (eventual) wife in their home. Painted […]
(Art) The Worst Artist Who Ever Lived
Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912) was a Dutch-born British artist who became one of the wealthiest painters of the 19th century. A talented marketer as well as painter, he anglicized his name from Laurens to Lawrence so […]
(Cursioity) Sex, Lies, and Oil Paint
Georges-Antoine Rochegrosse’s 1916 depiction of the death of Messalina is a study in male power. Note the anger of the soldier as he grips her hair, the patrician’s condescending douchebro smirk, the gaze of the […]
