Month: August 2018

Murders in the Zoo

Advertising Poster for “Murders in the Zoo”, 1933, Directed by A. Edward Sutherland, Paramount Pictures

“Roars, shrieks, and cackling of the wild animals on the screen at the Paramount yesterday were echoed to an amazing degree by the audience, at times driven to a mild state of hysteria by scenes in ‘Murders in the Zoo’.”         – John Scott, “’Murders in Zoo’ Opens on Screen”, Los Angeles Times, April 3, 1933

Claus Sluter

Claus Sluter, “Well of Moses”, 1395-1404, Cloister of the Chartreuse de Champmol, Dijon, France

Claus Sluter was an influential master of early Netherlandish sculpture, who moved beyond the dominant French taste of the time and into highly individual monumental, naturalistic forms. The works of Claus Sluter infuse realism with spirituality and monumental grandeur.Sluter’s influence was extensive among both painters and sculptors of 15th-century northern Europe.

The six-sided “Well of Moses”, now lacking its crowning Calvary group, which made the whole a symbol of the “fountain of life,” presents six life-sized prophets holding books, scrolls, or both. The figures, beginning with Moses, proceed counterclockwise to David, Jeremiah, Zechariah, Daniel, and Isaiah. Moses was placed directly below the face of Christ, and the location of Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, was at Jesus’ back, as befits a precursor.

Zechariah looks down sadly as Daniel vigorously points to his prophecy. On the other side of Daniel, and serving to balance Daniel’s passionate temperament, is the calm reflective Isaiah. This juxtaposition reveals Sluter’s use of alternating naturalistic balances. The head and torso fragment of Christ from the Calvary reveal a power and intensity of restrained expression that conveys overwhelming grandeur. Suffering and resignation are mingled, a result of the way the brow is knitted, though the lower part of the face, narrow and emaciated, is calm and without muscular stress.

The “Well of Moses” was originally painted in several colours by Jean Malouel, painter to the duke, and gilded by Hermann of Cologne. The figures of the composition dominate the architectural framework but also reinforce the feeling of support that the structure provides through their largeness of movement.

Calendar: August 22

A Year: Day to Day Men: 22nd of August

Sunlight Through Lace

On this day, August 22, 565, Saint Columba is said to have encountered the Loch Ness Monster.

Saint Columba was an Irish abbot, missionary and scholar who helped spread Christianity in Scotland. He was also a statesman, a diplomat, an historical scholar, an author and a poet. Among Saint Columba’s many  accomplishments is the founding of multiple abbeys and monasteries — including the Abbey at Iona, which remained an important spiritual, academic, social and political institution for many centuries. He is highly regarded by both Scots and the Irish, regardless of their religious persuasion.

Saint Columba’s monstrous encounter is contained in the seventh-century book “The Life of Saint Columba”, written by his contemporary biographer Abbot Adamnan of the Abbey at Iona. This is the first recorded account of the Loch Ness Monster:

“While standing upon the bank of the River Ness which flows out of Loch Ness, in northern Scotland, Columba contemplated the best way to cross to the other side. As he considered the problem before him, he came across a group of heathenish Picts who were busy burying a friend who had been attacked by an enormous “water beast” while swimming in the river.

When Columba heard the story from the assembled mourners, he laid his staff across the dead man’s chest and, miraculously, the man stood up, hale and hearty. Against common sense, Columba ordered Brother Lugne Mocumin, one of his fellow monks, to swim across the loch and bring back a small boat which was moored on the opposite shore. Without hesitation, Lugne stripped off his tunic and immediately jumped into the water.

The monster, alerted by Lugne’s splashing around, surfaced and raced towards the hapless monk, eager for a bite. The monster roared a might roar, darting towards the swimming monk with its mouth wide open, as Lugne was in the middle of the stream. Everyone on the shore cried out hoping to warn the monk of his impending doom. However, Columba was unmoved. Instead, the saint stepped forward boldly to the edge of the loch and, making the sign of the cross while invoking the Name of the Lord, spoke in a commanding voice. ‘You will go no further!’ he demanded of the monster. ‘Do not touch the man! Leave at once!’

Even though the monster was no more than a spear’s length away from the swimming monk, at the sound of the saint’s words, it stopped and immediately fled the scene terrified. The monster quickly absconded to the depths of the loch behind him, allowing Brother Lugne to paddled the boat back unharmed. Everyone was astonished. If the heathens at the funeral weren’t sufficiently impressed with Columba bringing their friend back to life, they were thoroughly impressed with how the monster obeyed the saint.”

François Schuiten

François Schuiten, “L’Ombre d’un Doute (Shadow of a Doubt)”, Lithograph, Edition of 1000

François Schuiten is a Belgian comic book illustrator. During his studies at Saint-Luc Institute in Brussels, he met Claude Renard, who led the comics department at the school, and together created several books.  Schuiten is best known for drawing the series “Les Cites Obscures” (Cities of the Fantastic), an evocation of fantastic, partly imaginary cities that he created with his friend Benoit Peeters from 1983 for the Belgian monthly comics magazine “A Suivre”.

Every story focuses on one city or building, and further explores a world where architects and urbanists are the leading powers and architecture is the driving force behind society. Styles explored int the series include stalinistic and fascist architecture as well as gothic cathedrals.

Ben Robinson, “Steven di Costa”

Ben Robinson, Photo Shoot of Steven di Costa

“I’ll tell you what kind of red hair he had. I started playing golf when I was only ten years old. I remember once, the summer I was around twelve, teeing off and all, and having a hunch that if I turned around all of a sudden, I’d see Allie. So I did, and sure enough, he was sitting on his bike outside the fence–there was this fence that went all around the course–and he was sitting there, about a hundred and fifty yards behind me, watching me tee off. That’s the kind of red hair he had.”
―J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

Reblogged with thanks to http://3leapfrogs.com

Source: londfoto

The Funicular

Chas, “The Funicular”, Zagreb, Croatia

This is one of the shortest; but also one of the steepest funiculars in the world. The track length is only 217 feet; but the height is 100 feet with an inclination of 52 degrees. The funicular started operation in 1890 powered by a steam engine, which was replaced withan electric engine in 1934. The cars reach the top in 64 seconds.

Jean-Baptiste Huong

Jean-Baptiste Huong

Born in Saigon, Vietnam, Jean-Baptiste Huong is a director, editor and image designer based in Paris. His work has always been heavily influenced by cinematography – a subject he studied for several years at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University.

Beause of his background in cinematography, Jean-Baptiste Huong is precise in staging his photographs. He sets a scene, usually in a natural decor, with his models as true characters and with their poses showing movements.

“Secret Places” was his first art book, published by Bruno Gmuender.
The artist’s site: https://jeanbaptistehuong.com

Enki Bilal

The Artwork of Enki Bilal

Enik Bilal is a French comic book creator, comics artist and film director. At the age of fourteen, he met Rene Goscinny, a French comics editor and writer known for the comic book “Asterix”. With Goscinny’s encouragement Bilal applied his talent to the field of comics. He produced work for Goscinny’s comics magazine “Pilote” in the 1970s.

Enik Bilal is best know for the “Nikopol” trilogy which took more than a decade to complete. He wrote the script and id the artwork. The final chapter “Froid Equateur” was chosen Book of the Year by the magazine “Lire”. The third chapter of his “Quatre?” trilogy, entitled “Rendezvous a Paris” was the fifth best selling comic of 2006.

Calendar: August 21

A Year: Day to Day Men: 21st of August

Dressed in White Cotton

August 21, 1906 was the birthdate of Isadore “Friz” Freleng, the American animator, cartoonist and composer.

Friz Freleng began his career in animation at United Film Ad Service in Kansas City, Missouri. There, he made the acquaintance of fellow animators Hugh Harman and Ubi Iwerks. In 1923, Iwerk’s friend, Walt Disney, moved to Hollywood and asked his Kansas City colleagues to join him. Freleng joined the Walt Disney studio in 1927 and worked on the “Oswald the Lucky Rabbit” cartoons and the “Alice Comedies”, a series with a live action little girl named Alice and her animated cat.

Freleng teamed up with animators Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising to try to create their own studio. They produced a pilot film with a new character named Bosko. While trying to sell the Bosko film, Freleng moved to New York City to work on the “Krazy Kat” cartoons. The Bosko character was finally sold to producer Leon Schlesinger, who would produce the series for Warner Brothers. Freleng moved back to California and worked on the “Looney Tunes” cartoons for Warner Brothers. While there, he introduced the studio’s first true star, Porky Pig, in the 1935 film “I Haven’t Got a Hat”.

The Warner Brothers Studio’s hands-off attitude toward its animators allowed Freleng and his fellow directors almost complete creative control and room to experiment with cartoon comedy styles, which allowed the studio to keep pace with the Disney studio’s technical superiority. Freleng’s style quickly matured, and he became a master of comic timing. Often working alongside layout artist Hawley Pratt, he also introduced or redesigned a number of famous Warner characters, including Yosemite Sam in 1945, the cat-and-bird duo, Sylvester and Tweety in 1947, and Speedy Gonzales in 1955.

Freleng and Chusck Jones would dominate the Warner Bros. studio in the years after World War II, with Freleng largely concentrating on the above-mentioned characters, as well as Bugs Bunny. He won four Oscars during his time at Warner Brothers, for the films “Tweetie Pie” in 1947, “Speedy Gonzales” in 1955, “Birds Anonymous” with Tweetie and Sylvester in 1957, and “Knighty Knight Bugs” in 1958. Six of Freleng’s other films were Oscar nominees.

Besides animating and producing the cartoon films, Freleng also was a talented director. He directed all three of the vintage Warner Brothers cartoon in which the drinking of Dr. Jekyll’s portion induces a series of monstrous transformations; “Dr. Jekyl’s Hide” with Sylvester the Cat  in 1954, “Hyde and Hare” with Bugs Bunny in 1955, and “Hyde and Go Tweet” with Sylvester and Tweety in 1960.

Henrique Alvim Corrêa

Henrique Alvim Corrêa, “Martian Viewing Drunken Crowd”, 1906, Pencil and Ink, Illustration for H. G. Well’s “War of the Worlds”, Brussels, Belgium

Henrique Alvim Corrêa was a Brazilian artist working in Belgium at the end of the 19th century, specialising in military and science fiction illustration. His best-known work is this illustrated French translation of H G Well’s “War of the Worlds”, for which only 500 copies were produced.

Unfortunately, Corrêa’s tuberculosis killed him four years later in 1910 at the age of thirty-four. His “War of the Worlds” drawings did not bring him fame in his lifetime or after, but his work has been cherished since by a devoted cult following. The original prints remained with the artist’s family until the sale of thirty-one prints were made in 1990.