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First Maps of the World

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  MAPPI  MUNDI "The first surviving map of the world was etched around 600 BCE into a clay tablet rediscovered at Sippar in Iraq in the late nineteenth century. It is a tiny little thing, just eight centimetres across and twelve up. The map itself is oriented to the north and it depicts the world as a disc of land centred on Babylon and surrounded by a circular sea labelled marratu : the salty or bitter river. The city of Babylon itself is a rectangle stamped across the upper part of the central island and bisected like the land itself by the Euphrates river. Around the city circles denote other regions and cities in western Asia including Assyria and Elam; most are placed in approximately correct positions in relation to Babylon." (Josephine Quinn, 2024, How the World Made the West , Bloomsbury Publishing, London, p. 173) "This Babylonian map is still a work of the imagination. Across the 'bitter river' extend triangular islands, originally as many as eight; the...
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Guernica

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Cubism We see a rectangular table in perspective ―   that is, as a trapezium; our side of the table looks more important than the other side. But we know the table to be a pure rectangle. The camera sees only one side of our face, but we know it to be in profile and en face at the same time. Picasso and Braque quit visual reality and start to paint the environing objects as they know they are. The table top becomes a rectangle again, and the human face is rendered from the side and front again. This decisive act we call Cubism. About 1500 the artists of the Renaissance invented the perspective we are still accustomed to : the artist sat down on his chair, looked at the scene from one definite angle, and tried to fix it to his panel accordingly. Now after four hundred years the painter rises from his chair, starts moving around his object, and tries to render the totality. He changes his point of view [or to points of view]. (WJHB Sandberg, 1960, 'Picasso's Guernica ', Dædal...
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"Respect"

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  Portrait of an Old Woman Artist:   Hans Memling          Date:  c.1470     Artefact:  Oil on Panel   Dimensions:  10⅜ " X 7"   /  26.5 x 18 cm Location:  Museum of Fine Arts , Houston, Texas, USA      "In the 1460s Hans Memling (1430-1494) established himself in the Flemish city of Bruges, where his talent was rewarded with a stream of commissions. Many of these were for portraits, a genre in which the painter excelled. At a time when Italian portraitists were still producing profiles, Memling poses the sitter for a three-quarter view. Typically, the sitter's eyes do not engage with the viewer, looking down and to the side with an implication of piety. Memling habitually set his subjects in front of a landscape, whereas here the background is plain greenish-blue. This portrait exemplifies Memling's technical brilliance, especially the highlights that model the strong nose and the f...
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Rude Madonnas

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  The Melun Madonna Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels  (Right panel of The Melun Diptyche ) Oil on Oak panel, 94.5 X 85.5 cm, Koninklijk Museum, Antwerp, Belgium Painted by Jean Fouquet (French Renaissance), dated approximately 1452 "The Madonna is an arresting figure, with one breast bare, in front of a throne surrounded by blue and red angels representing night and day. She has the bulging shaved forehead fashionable at this period. The blanche-white skin, crown of stars, and pearls decorating the throne show Mary in her role as Queen of Heaven. The bare breast is abnormally placed and the waspish waste exaggerated, which separates the Virgin's image from more naturalised portrayals of nudity. This, along with the vivid colouring and her extreme beauty, gives the picture a strangely modern feel." (p. 92, Mary Cooch in 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die , Pier9, 2016) "She almost seems to be leaning against the throne. Although, if she were leaning, it w...
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