Photography of Statue ‘Tanagra’ (1890) by Jean-Léon Gérôme
Monday, June 7, 2010
Socrates seeking Alcibiades in the house of Aspasia
Image: Socrates seeking Alcibiades in the house of Aspasia (1861) by the French painter Jean-Leon Gerome (1824-1904)
Jean-Léon Gérôme, self-portrait
Image: Jean-Léon Gérôme, self-portrait (1886), oil on canvas, dimensions 40.6 cm x 30.5 cm, currently located at Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen, Scotland.
Jean-Léon Gérôme (May 11, 1824 to January 10, 1904) was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as Academicism. The range of his oeuvre included historical painting, Greek mythology, Orientalism, portraits and other subjects, bringing the Academic painting tradition to an artistic climax.
La Maja Vestida by Francisco de Goya
Image: La Maja Vestida (The Clothed Maja, painted between 1800-1805) by Spanish painter Francisco de Goya, oil on canvas, dimensions 97 cm x 190 cm, located in the Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain. It is a clothed version of La Maja Desnuda, exhibited next to it in the same room at the Prado Museum in Madrid. The painting was originally owned by Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy.
The Lament For Icarus, by Herbert Draper
The Lament For Icarus, painting by British painter Herbert Draper
The Kelpie by Herbert James Draper
The Kelpie (1913) painting by British painter Herbert James Draper (1863-1920)
Clyties of the Mist by Draper
Clyties of the Mist (1912) painting by British painter Herbert James Draper.
Flying Fish by Herbert James Draper
Image: Image: Flying Fish (1910) by Herbert James Draper, oil on canvas, 94 cm x 61 cm
The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci
During the Passover festival Jesus Christ came with his followers to Jerusalem where a large crowd came to meet him. Jesus cleansed the Herod's Temple by overturning the tables of the moneychangers who set up shop there. Following this, Jesus celebrated the Passover meal, the last meal Jesus shared with his disciples before his death. It is an event that was later known as The Last Supper, in which he prophesied that he would be betrayed by one of his disciples and he would then be executed. In this ritual supper, Jesus took bread and wine in hand saying, ‘This is my body which is given for you’ and ‘this cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood’, and instructed them to ‘do this in remembrance of me’ (Luke 22:7-20).
In The Last Supper, Jesus washes his disciples' feet and gives his farewell discourses, discussing the persecution of his followers, the coming of the Holy Spirit, etc. He says a long final prayer with his disciples before heading to a garden where he knows Judas will show up.
According to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus institutes a new covenant of his blood and body, the wine and bread. Some Christians describe this as the ‘Institution of the Eucharist’. Others view the Last Supper as later derived from first century Eucharistic practice.
The vessel which was used to serve the wine is sometimes called the Holy Chalice, and has been one of the supposed subjects of Holy Grail literature in Christian mythology. Also The Last Supper has been the subject of many literary works and paintings, of which the painting, The Last Supper, by Leonardo da Vinci is perhaps the best known.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Christ Driving the Moneychangers from the Temple
Image: Christ Driving the Moneychangers from the Temple (1626), oil painting on oak panel by Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), dimensions 43.1 cm x 32 cm, currently located at Pushkin Museum, Moscow.
The incident of ‘Cleansing of the Temple’ occurs in all four Gospels in the New Testament. It occurs near the end of the Synoptic Gospels (Mark 11:15-19, 11:27-33; Matthew 21:12-17, 21:23-27; Luke 19:45-48, 20:1-8; and John 2:13-16). Jesus visited the Temple in Jerusalem, Herod's Temple, where the courtyard was filled with livestock and the tables of the moneychangers, who changed the Greek and Roman money for Jewish and Tyrian money, which were the only coinage used in Temple ceremonies. Creating a whip from some cords, ‘he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables. But he said to those who sold doves, ‘Get these out of here! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!’ (John 2:13-16).
“And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves” - Matthew 21:12-13
The baptism of Christ by Francesco Trevisani
Image: John the Baptist baptizing Christ (1723), painting by Italian painter Francesco Trevisani (1656-1746)
According to Gospels the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist marked the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. Jesus came to the Jordan River where John the Baptist had been preaching and baptizing people. After Jesus was baptized, Mark states, “Jesus saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven saying, ‘You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’” (Mk. 1:10-11).
Matthew describes John as initially hesitant to comply with Jesus' request for John to baptize him, stating that it was Jesus who should baptize him. Jesus persisted, "It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness" (Mt. 3:15). In Matthew, God's public dedication informs the reader that Jesus has become God's anointed (‘Christ’).
Infant Jesus offering a drink of water to John the Baptist
Image: Infant Jesus offering a drink of water to John the Baptist, a painting of 1600's by Spanish painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-1682).
Jesus: Adoration of the shepherds
Image: Adoration of the shepherds (of newborn Jesus), details from a painting of 1600's by Guido Reni (1575-1642), an Italian painter, draughtsman and etcher of high-Baroque style.
According to the gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea to Mary, a virgin, by a miracle of the Holy Spirit. The angel Gabriel visits Mary to tell her that she was chosen to bear the Son of God (Luke 1:26-38). An order of Caesar Augustus forced Mary and Joseph to leave their home in Nazareth and come to the house of David, the home of Joseph's ancestors, for the Census of Quirinius (Luke 2:1-5). After Jesus' birth, Mary and Joseph were forced to use a manger in place of a crib because of shortage of accommodation (Luke 2:1-7). In the meanwhile, an angel had announced Jesus' birth to shepherds who left their flocks to see the newborn Jesus. The shepherds went back and publicized what they had witnessed throughout the area (Luke 2:8-18).
According to Matthew, the ‘Wise Men’ or ‘Magi’ brought gifts to the nascent Jesus after following a star, which they believed, was a sign that the ‘King of the Jews’ was born (Mt. 2:1-12). Subsequently, King Herod heard of Jesus' birth from the Wise Men and tried to kill Jesus by massacring all the male children in Bethlehem under the age of two (Mt. 2:16-17). Joseph and Mary, along with the infant Jesus, fled to Egypt and remained there until Herod's death, whereupon they returned to Nazareth to avoid living under the authority of Herod's son and successor Archelaus (Mt. 2:19-23).
Insects mating on liatris flower
Insects make up more than two-thirds of all extant animal species, and most insect species use sex for reproduction. Many species have sexual dimorphism. Insects have diverse mating strategies. Some of them make dance-like movements, while others may use sounds and chemical substances to attract their mating partners. The photo shows insects, probably beetles mating on a liatris flower head. Liatris (common names: Blazing-star, Gay-feather or Button snakeroot) is a genus of flowering perennial plants in the Asteraceae family, found in North America and the Bahamas. Their flowers are used as a popular summer flowers for bouquets.
Romeo and Juliet, painting by Frank Dicksee
Photo: ‘Romeo and Juliet’, 1884 painting depicting love, by English Victorian painter and illustrator Sir Frank Bernard Dicksee.
English Victorian painter and illustrator Sir Frank Bernard Dicksee (1853-1928), best known for his pictures of dramatic, historical and legendary scenes, also was a noted painter of portraits of fashionable women. Many of Dicksee's paintings are considered Pre-Raphaelite in style.
Bhaktivedanta Manor - ISKCON Temple
Bhaktivedanta Manor, a Gaudiya Vaishnava temple in the Hertfordshire countryside of England in the village of Aldenham near Watford, is owned and run by ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness or the Hare Krishna movement). Standing in 70 acres (280,000 squire meters), it is one of the most visited Radha-Krishna temples in Europe. The late Beatles musician George Harrison gave the Manor as an offering of devotion to the founder of the Hare Krishna movement, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Prabhupada renamed the property as Bhaktivedanta Manor.
Sunset over River Ganges in Mayapur, West Bengal
Mayapur, located on the banks of the River Ganges, at the point of its confluence with the Jalangi, near Navadvip, West Bengal, India, has the Head Quarters of ISKCON. Though Mayapur is considered a holy place by a number of other Hindu traditions, it is of special significance to the followers of Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition as the birthplace of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, regarded as a special incarnation of Krishna. Mayapur is visited by over a million pilgrims annually.
Rasputin among his admirers in 1914
The Tsar referred to Rasputin as ‘our friend’ and a ‘holy man’, and Rasputin had a considerable personal and political influence on Tsarina Alexandra, who believed that God spoke to her through Rasputin. Rasputin used to speak of salvation as depending less on the clergy and the church than on seeking the spirit of God within. He claimed that yielding to temptation (for him this meant sex and alcohol) was needed to proceed to repentance and salvation. During the years of World War I, Rasputin's drunkenness, sexual promiscuity and willingness to accept bribes in return for helping petitioners who flocked to his apartment, as well as his efforts to have his critics dismissed from their posts, made him cynical. Attaining divine grace through sin was one of the central secret doctrines which Rasputin preached to and practiced with his inner circle of high society ladies.
Moai with pukao and replica eyes
Moai with pukao (the hats or topknots placed on top of some moai statues) and replica eyes on Ahu Ko Te Riku in Hanga Roa, with Chilean Navy training ship Esmeralda, off Easter Island, in the background (September 2004).
Moai at the hillside in Rano Raraku, Easter Island
Moai are huge monolithic human figures carved from rock on the Polynesian island of Easter Island, Chile. These sculptures are believed to be carved between 1250 AD and 1500 AD. Nearly moai half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds of such rock sculptures were transported and set on stone platforms around the island's perimeter. Moai have very large heads measuring three-fifths of their bodies. The moai are the faces of deified ancestors. The statues still gazed inland across their clan lands when Europeans first reached the island, but most moai were cast down during later conflicts between clans.
The statues' production and transportation is considered a remarkable creative, intellectual and physical feat. The tallest moai Paro was about 10 meters high and weighed 75 tons, and the heaviest erected moai was a shorter, squatter moai at Ahu Tongariki weighing 86 tons.
Rano Raraku, located on the lower slopes of Terevaka in the Rapa Nui National Park on Easter Island, is a volcanic crater. It was a quarry for about 500 years until the early eighteenth century, and supplied the stone from which about 95 per cent of the island's rock sculptures (moai) were carved. Rano Raraku, where 397 moai still remain, is a visual record of moai design vocabulary and technological innovation. Rano Raraku is in the World Heritage Site of Rapa Nui National Park and gives its name to one of the seven sections of the park.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Church of All Saints, Yekaterinburg
Photo: Church on Blood in Honor of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian Land in Yekaterinburg.
The Church on Blood in Honour of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian Land is a Russian Orthodox Church in Yekaterinburg constructed in 2000-2003 on the site where the former Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Tsarina Alexandra, their children and other members of the household were all executed following the Bolshevik Revolution.
After the February Revolution, Tsar Nicholas II and his family were taken prisoners. The Tsar and his family were initially kept at the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoe Selo outside St. Petersburg. Kerensky, leader of the provisional government, moved them to the former Governor's mansion in Tobolsk, and later they were transferred to the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg.
As suspicion of a potential attempt to liberate the Royal family grew, the revolutionaries holding them captive, decided to execute them. On July 17, 1918 the entire imperial family consisting of Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia were taken to the cellar of the Ipatiev House and executed.
The Ipatiev House was owned by a man named Nicholas Ipatiev. The Ural Soviet evacuated him and built high walls around the house, where on April 30, the imperial family was moved. In 1974, Ipatiev House was declared a National Monument, but three years later the Soviet government demolished the house, probably to prevent its attracting foreign visitors.
On September 20, 1990 the Sverdlovsk Soviet handed over the plot to the Russian Orthodox Church for construction of a memorial chapel. After the last Tsar's canonization, the Church planned to build a memorial dedicated to the Tsar family. Construction began in 2000, and the main church was consecrated by patriarchs from all over Russia on 16 June 2003, 85 years after the execution of the Tsar and his family.
The completed complex has two churches, a belfry, a patriarchal annex, and a museum dedicated to the Tsar’s family, covering 29,700 square feet area.
Engagement photo of Alexandra and Nicholas II
Official engagement photo of Alexandra and Nicholas II, April 1894
Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna
Image: Portrait of Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna by Nikolai Kornilievich Bodarevsky, Tsarskoe Selo, Russia, 1907
Born Alix von Hessen und bei Rhein (6 June 1872 - 17 July 1918), was Empress Consort of Russia as the spouse of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of the Russian Empire. She was born a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and later given the name Alexandra Feodorovna on admission into the Russian Orthodox Church, which canonized her as Saint Alexandra the Passion Bearer in 2000.
Alexandra, the last Tsarina of Russia, was best-known as one of the most famous royal carriers of the haemophilia disease, as well as for her notorious friendship with the Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin, who was an important factor in her life.
The Provisional Government formed after the Russian revolution kept Alexandra, Nicholas II and their children confined in their primary residence, the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo, until they were moved to Tobolsk in Siberia in August 1917. On 30 April 1918 they were transferred to the town of Yekaterinburg, where they were imprisoned in the two-story Ipatiev House. Alexandra and her family, including the seriously ill son Alexei, along with several family servants, were executed by firing and bayonets in the basement of the Ipatiev House early in the morning of 17 July 1918, by a detachment of Bolsheviks led by Yakov Yurovsky.
Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin
Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin, often called the ‘Mad Monk’, is perceived as having influenced the latter days of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II, his wife the czarina Alexandra. He attracted the admiration and enmity of the Russian aristocracy and nobility in equal measures. Believed to be a psychic and faith healer by many Russians, it has been claimed that Rasputin caused to discredit the tsarist government of Russia, leading to the fall of the Romanov dynasty in 1917. But contemporary views saw Rasputin in various hues: as a saintly mystic, visionary, holistic healer and prophet, or contrarily, as a debauched religious charlatan. His life and death has been the subject of much speculation and conspiracy theories, mostly based on dubious memoirs, hearsay and legend, including the theory that Rasputin died of a bullet fired by a British secret service agent, who was present at the scene of his murder, stage-managed by his Russian opponents. Popular culture is also much influenced by Rasputin, including various books, films, television episodes, music, etc. The music group Boney M released the semi-biographical song ‘Rasputin’ in 1978, which was a huge hit.
Shilpa Shetty in PETA campaign ad
In March 2006 various sources reported that Indian actress and businesswoman Shilpa Shetty has joined PETA for an advertising campaign against the use of wild animals in circuses. Shetty is a long-time PETA supporter and has assisted the campaign by posing for photographs in a tiger costume.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Iraqi singer Dalli Hadad performing on stage
Photo: Dalli Hadad performing on stage in Jordan
Iraqi singer Dalli Hadad, known for her singling of genres Iraqi music, Arabic pop music, Arabic music and pop music, became famous when she sang the official Iraqi football anthem on winning the 2007 AFC Asian Cup. The 28-year-old Hadad’s first name is also spelled as Dally, Daly and Dali.
In 2002, Dalli Hadad began performing as a singer with an Iraqi folk music band in Baghdad at Festival Babel, and since then she has been performing in Jordan and Syria for the large Iraqi communities present in these countries. Because of moving to Jordan, where she is currently settled (in the Jordanian capital Amman), she had to leave her old band. However, it helped her progress in her career with a change in musical direction. Her debut album ‘Mashtaka Athamk’ and her singles ‘Salam Allah’ and ‘Yemshy Habebe Dala’ (the first song on the album) were well-received.
The basic ingredients of a vegetarian diet
Photo: Fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains; some of the basic ingredients of a vegetarian diet.
Well-planned vegetarian diets are healthy and satisfy all nutritional needs, may offer protection against heart disease, cancer and other diseases, according to some studies.
Pamela Anderson promotes vegetarianism
Cobble encrusted with halite from the shore of Dead Sea
Cobble encrusted with halite evaporated from the western shore of the Dead Sea near Ein Gedi.
Halite, commonly known as rock salt, is the mineral form of sodium chloride (common salt or kitchen salt of chemical formula NaCl). Halite forms isometric crystals, typically colorless or white, but may also be light blue, dark blue, purple, pink, red, orange, yellow or gray depending on the amount and type of impurities contained in it. It commonly occurs with other evaporate deposit minerals such as many sulfates, halides, and borates.
Waterfront houses in Istanbul
Photo: The traditional waterfront houses (2007) in the Yeniköy neighborhood lining up the shores on the European side of the Bosphorus in Istanbul.
The Bosphorus (Bosporus or the Istanbul Strait) is a strait that forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia. It is one of the Turkish Straits along with the Dardanelles. The world's narrowest strait used for international navigation and about 30 km long, it connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara, which is connected by the Dardanelles to the Aegean Sea, and thereby to the Mediterranean Sea. The shores of the Bosphorus are thickly populated, with Istanbul alone, with a metropolitan area in excess of 11 million inhabitants, straddles it.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938) was a statesman, writer and founder of the Republic of Turkey as well as its first president. Atatürk became famous as a capable military officer during World War I. After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, he led the Turkish National Movement in the Turkish War of Independence. After establishing a provisional government in Ankara, he defeated the forces sent by the Allies - the initial Allies countries in WWI were the United Kingdom, France and the Russian Empire, though many others joined them later. With his able leadership, the successful Turkish National Movement campaigns led to the liberation of Turkey. During his presidency, Atatürk introduced many progressive programs aimed at political, economic and cultural reforms of modern Turkey. He sought to transform the former Ottoman Empire into a modern and secular country.
A pair of white-throated kingfishers
The white-throated kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis), also known as the white-breasted kingfisher or Smyrna kingfisher, is a tree kingfisher. The birds are widely distributed in Eurasia from Bulgaria, Turkey, South Asian countries to the Philippines. Though mostly found near water bodies, it can also be found away from water where it feeds on a wide range of prey including small reptiles, amphibians, crabs, small rodents and even other small birds. During the breeding season they call loudly in the mornings from prominent perches, and even the tops of buildings in urban areas.
Local names of the white-throated kingfisher include: Aspi Chidok (Baluchistan), Dalel (Sindhi), Dao Natu Gophu (Cachar), Kalkaliyo or Safedchati Kalkaliyo (Gujarati), Khandya (Marathi), Kilkila or Kourilla (Hindi), Lakmuka or Buchegadu (Telugu), Masroka (Assamese), Neela Machhrala (Himachal Pradesh), Pilihuduwa (Sinhalese), Ponman (Malayalam), Rajamatsi (Kannada), Sandabuk Machhranga (Bengali), Vichuli (Tamil), Wadda Machhera (Punjabi).
Ursula Andress celebrating her 70th birthday
Photo: Ursula Andress, surrounded by TV crews, on board the Royal Yacht Britannia celebrating her 70th birthday in 2006 in Edinburgh.
Ursula Andress as Bond girl Honey Ryder in Dr. No
The Swiss actress Ursula Andress was voted top film siren by men according to a poll by Radio Times, famous as the Bond girl Honey Ryder in the James Bond movie ‘Dr. No’. A poll of 2,000 people voted for their favorite and the top 50 film sirens, spanning over 75 years of cinema, was conducted by Radio Times, the result of which was declared on 6 April 2010. Interestingly, women voted in favor of Audrey Hepburn, famous for her role as the sophisticated Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Andress became world famous as the shell diver Honey Ryder, the center of desire of James Bond (Sean Connery) in Dr. No (1962), the first Bond movie, based on the 1958 Ian Fleming novel of the same name. In a memorable scene, she rises out of the Caribbean Sea in a white bikini (see photo above). The scene made Andress the ‘quintessential’ Bond girl.
"My entrance in the film wearing the bikini on that beautiful beach made me world famous as the Bond girl", she said. The bikini from this ‘classic moment in cinema and Bond history’ was sold for £35,000 at auction in 2001. In 2003, in a UK Survey by Channel 4, her entrance in Dr. No was voted #1 in ‘the 100 Greatest Sexy Moments’. In 2007, Australian series 20 to 1 ranked her entrance in Dr. No as the #2 Sexiest Movie Moment.
Also, Andress won a 1964 Golden Globe award for New Star of the Year for her performance in Dr. No.
Barry Norman, the film reviewer, said, “You seem to have a penchant for naughty girls, women who play hookers: Catherine Deneuve in Belle de Jour, Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman and, of course – top of the heap – Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, although in the demure age in which it was made, just before the Swinging Sixties got under way, the nature of her profession couldn’t be specified… In fact there could easily have been a fourth – the Oscar-winning Jane Fonda in Klute, but instead you chose her for Barbarella and, as an impressionable young man who interviewed her in Rome in 1967 when she was actually wearing that erotic costume, I can well understand why. It was an unnerving experience, as you can imagine. I didn’t know where to look never mind what to say. As interviews go, it was a washout. Memorable, though.”
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Vasco da Gama lands at Calicut on May 20, 1498
Photo: Portuguese sailor Vasco da Gama lands at Calicut (in Kerala, India) on May 20, 1498; photographic reproduction of painting (1880-01) by Ernesto Casanova (born 1845, year of death unknown). Source: US Library of Congress; Illustration for ‘Os Lusíadas by Luís de Camões’, 1880 edition).
Flower-covered Beetle in Montreal Botanical Gardens
Photo: A flower-covered VW Beetle in the greenhouse of Montreal Botanical Gardens
The Genius of Liberty topping the July Column in Paris
Photo: The Genius of Liberty (1833) by French sculptor Augustin-Alexandre Dumont (1801-1884), topping the July Column at the Place de la Bastille in Paris, sculpted of gilt bronze, height 4 m (13 ft 1 ¼ in). A bronze draft of the same work is also exhibited in the Louvre Museum, Paris.
L'Etoile Perdue by William Bouguereau
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Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Josephine Baker dancing The Charleston
Photo: Josephine Baker dancing The Charleston at the Folies Bergère, Paris in 1926.
The Charleston, a dance named for the city of Charleston, South Carolina, was popularized in mainstream dance music in the United States by composer/pianist James P. Johnson. It originated in the Broadway show Runnin' Wild and became one of the most popular hits of the decade.
Josephine Baker draped in her banana costume
Josephine Baker draped in her most famous banana costume for the Danse Banane from the Folies Bergère production Un Vent de Folie in Paris in 1927.
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