The great wave off Kanagawa
Watanabe (1832), The great wave off Kanagawa.
Archive for Art
Invictus
William Ernest Henley
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Travelers amid Streams and Mountains
Fan Kuan’s (范寬) Travelers Amid Streams and Mountains (溪山行旅圖)
The Cove
A film about Ric O’Barry’s quest to document dolphin killing in Taiji, Wakayama, Japan.
Target with four Faces
Jasper Johns (1955) Target with four faces
Four identical faces cut off from the eyes upwards. Unanimity. I hold this piece to wield tremendous force.
Woman Holding a Balance
Jan Vermeer (1664) Woman holding a balance
But what is she balancing? (The scales in the painting are empty). Note painting of Final Judgment in background.
Apollo and Daphne
Gianlorenzo Bernini (1622-’24) Apollo and Daphne
To my knowledge this level of technical proficiency has never been exceeded in marble.
Becoming
St. Matthew, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (unfinished, 1506)
[my favoured Michelangelo sculpture]
