Lost For Art

Economist writes about Iraqi artists’ works at Qibab Art Gallery + the tiny art scene in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) + other viewpoints @ http://www.economist.com/daily/diary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10235761

Trypillian Threat

Olena Rusina writes about the state of the archeological treasures in Ukraine + the illegal excavations + black archeologists and their methodology + other viewpoints @ http://www.artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2389&current=True

The Road To Venice

(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:

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To appreciate all that Squarcione’s school at Padua did for Italian art, we must trace its influence into the second and third generation. In addition to the sons of Bellini—to whom we shall return—who were the real founders of Venetian painting, the old contractor had among his pupils Cosimo Tura (1420-95) who founded the School of Ferrara. Tura had a pupil named Bianci, who founded a school in Modena, and there had a pupil greater than any of his predecessors, Antonio Allegri, known as Correggio, from the place of his birth. Of the life of this great man singularly little is known, and apart from his art it does not seem to have been in any way eventful. Vasari tells us that Correggio ‘was of a very timid disposition and, at a great personal inconvenience, worked continually for the family which depended on him. In art he was very melancholy, enduring its labors, but he never allowed difficulties to deter him, as we see in the great tribune of the Duomo of Parma.’

It is with Parma that the name of Correggio is always associated, for his greatest works were executed there between 1518 and 1530, and the Cathedral of Parma is the monument of his genius. In its marvelous complexity and rich invention, his ‘Assumption of the Virgin’ there has no rival in the world. If his fluent and sure drawing was derived from Mantegna, his mastery of light and shade from Leonardo da Vinci, and his tremendous forms and designs borrowed from the storehouse of Michael Angelo, yet his marvelous coloring is entirely his own, and it is as a colorist, above all, that Correggio is supreme.

‘It is considered certain,’ wrote Vasari, ‘that there never was a better colorist, nor any artist who imparted more loveliness or relief to his things, so great was the soft beauty of his flesh tints and the grace of his finish.’ Nearly 400 years have passed since these lines were written, but no connoisseur of today would change a word in this appreciation. The work of Correggio appeals to every human being who is susceptible to the indefinable quality of charm. Whether his subject be frankly pagan, as in ‘The Education of Cupid’ at the National Gallery, or avowedly religious, as in his ‘St Catherine’ at Hampton Court, it is on the satisfaction of the eye, and through the eye of all the senses, that Correggio relies.

So modest was this great colorist, that portrait of himself by himself is known to exist. ‘He was content with little,’ says Vasari, ‘and lived as a good Christian should.’ A modern critic, Mr Berenson, has pronounced Correggio’s paintings to be ‘hymns to the charm of feminity the like of which have never been known before or since in Christian Europe,’ yet from all accounts this artist’s private life was singularly free from amours. Correggio was a model husband and father, and the only thing said against him by his Italian biographer is that ‘he was anxious to save, like everyone who is burdened with a family, and he thus became excessively miserly.’ This closeness is said to have brought about his premature death. ‘Payment of 60 crowns being made to him at Parma in farthings, which he wished to take to Correggio for his affairs, he set out with this burden on foot. Becoming overheated by the warmth of the sun, he took some water to refresh himself, and caught a severe fever, which terminated his life in the fortieth year of his age.’

The Road To Venice (continued)

Diamonds Of Fate

Louis Kornitzer's book, Gem Trader, is partly autobiographical and partly woven round the lore of pearls. It's educational + explains the distribution chain of gems, as they pass from hand to hand, from miner to cutter, from merchant to millionaire, from courtesan to receiver of stolen goods, shaping human lives as they go + the unique characters in the industry.

(via Gem Trader) Louis Kornitzer writes:

Much has been written about the Hope diamond, mainly with the intent to stress the fact that it has brought bad luck to all successive owners. But I do not wish to enlarge upon the aspect. I remember seeing a telegram forty two years ago addressed to my principal in Paris advising him that his father (my uncle) had purchased the Hope diamond at Christie’s sale rooms and that he had already received an offer for it from a New York firm of diamond merchants. It is true that my uncle died at a comparatively early age in the prime of his life and the New York merchant met with financial disaster, and also that another merchant into whose hands the stone had passed, an Armenian named Habib, was drowned in the ill-fated La Seine whilst on his way to Java. His wallet contained amongst other precious stones the Hope diamond. I myself narrowly missed traveling by the same steamer, having missed my connection at Singapore on my way from Australia, so the tragic event is still sharp on my memory. Subsequently an ex-naval deep sea diver whom I met on that occasion in Singapore was instrumental in recovering Habib’s wallet, and with it the Hope diamond.

The later history of the stone is well known can be found in many accounts. I may quote in passing a news item from the London Evening News of May 4th, 1938, which says: ‘Boston, Wednesday—May Yohe, international stage star of the ‘nineties, one-time wearer of the ill-fated Hope diamond, and friend of royalty, now rises at six every morning to do a job of relief work at £3 6s per week. She is working as a research clerk for the Works Progress Administration, and she is living in a four-room flat alongside the railway lines in Boston.’

But although within my own ken the several persons who have had anything to do with that noble gem ended their days in a manner different from that which they might have chosen for themselves, I should be lacking in sincerity if for the sake of playing up to the reader’s desire for a spot of goose-flesh I were to refrain from saying bluntly: ‘Bosh!’ A piece of crystallized pure carbon cannot in itself have baneful influence upon man.’

Before I mention the other stone, the green diamond noted above, you may like to know something about Tavernier, whose name has been given several times already in these pages. This intrepid traveler, gem expert, trader and adventurer in the best sense of the word, Jean Baptiste Tavernier, was born in 1605 at Antwerp. His father, Gabriel Tavernier, was by profession a geographer—a maker of maps and an engraver. Perhaps it was this paternal factor which in some way created in the young Jean Baptiste a desire to travel. Having journeyed much in Europe, Tavernier seized an opportunity which presented itself to travel in the company of two French priests, possibly missionaries, to Constantinople and thence to Persia. That was in 1631. In 1638 he made a second journey, this time visiting Persia and India, trading in jewels and precious stones wherever he went. He must have been what nowadays is called a good mixer, for he seems to have experienced no great difficulty in bringing himself and his wares to the notice of the most eminent persons. Then he made a third journey, which took him to Java, whence he returned to Europe via the Cape. During so much traveling and trading he must have acquired an immense fund of practical knowledge on matters connected with precious stones, and aided by a natural flair, he became a foremost authority on all that concerned gems. At any rate, the splendor-loving Louis XIV became one of his patrons, and it was said that by the sale of jewels to the King alone Tavernier made a profit of £100000. To wealth was added, in 1669, a title of nobility, and he purchased in 1670 the Barony of Aubanne near Geneva. But like many another man, he had a son who could get rid of money faster than the old man had made it, and the young man brought about his father’s financial ruin. After selling his estates to discharge his debts, Tavernier again, at the great age of 84, went in search of fortune. But he did not reach India, the object of his journey. In 1689, while on the way to Persia, he met his end at Moscow. Amongst other writings he left a work in two volumes, Les Six Voyages de J.B.Tavernier, which was published in Paris in 1676.

The green brilliant has a history like a mere postscript to the story of the great blue stone. But it, too, was of unique color, though not in the first rank for size, being only 160 grains (forty carats). It was worn by the King of Saxony when in Court dress. Brilliant cut, it was set ájour, in a plume to be worn as a hat ornament.

45 Social Entrepreneurs

(via Fastcompany): Make a profit + Make a difference = Social Capitalist. I liked the concept. http://www.fastcompany.com/social/2008

Connecting The Dots

(via Fastcompany): Mark Dziersk writes about design + its impact on indusry/commerce if properly delivered + other viewpoints @ http://www.fastcompany.com/resources/design/dziersk/connecting-the-dots-112807.html

Useful links:
www.sirkenrobinson.com
www.fitch.com

Children of Paradise

Children of Paradise (1945)
Directed by: Marcel Carné
Screenplay: Jacques Prévert
Cast: Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault

(via YouTube): Children Of Paradise - Trailer (1945)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpmADgSQaxM

Children of Paradise (1945)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUIFRtvUU2A

One-of-a-kind story from a different period + its artistic angle + the love story--I enjoyed it.

The Evolution Of The Taille en Seize

(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:

The Taille en Seize can be seen in early seventeenth-century drawings of jewels by Arnold Lulls, Thomas Cletscher and occasionally others. Designers were still using it a hundred years later, but only in a restricted form—that is, as far as one can ascertain, with never more than sixteen facets, whereas Legare, with his special liking for this design, often used thirty-two.

It seems that the Taille en Seize and the Rose Cut had an influence on each other. Drop-shaped, flat-bottomed diamonds are clearly hybrids. Two such cuts can still be seen in the Imperial Austrian Sceptre, and three in the shoulder knot commissioned by Augustus the Strong. Jeffries depicts this as a standard for Rose Cut Pendeloques. Only a few of them are known actually to have carried—most of the illustrations represent ‘patterns’ of the kind widely distributed among jewelers all over Europe. All they indicate now is the period during which this particular cut was available. The drawings are so numerous that it seems incredible that no actual diamonds of this kind should have survived. All we know is that it was extremely simple to refashion a large Taille en Seize into a Brilliant Cut, and that it involved even less labor to transform a small one into a sixteen-facet cut with a square table facet. Was the Taille en Seize perhaps a premature cut which fascinated the professional but not the consumer?

Ecce Homo
This medallion contains thirty four variously faceted diamonds: ten of them are Tailles en Seize, and the remaining twenty-four are normal Rose Cuts.