Author: ultrawolvesunderthefullmoon

https://www.instagram.com/wolvesofgray This blog is a refugee and a survivor of the Great Tumblr Inquisition of December 17th, 2018. I am gay artist, who received training at the Rhode Island School of Design, and now, a retired high-end fine art framer living in Maryland, USA. My interests and studies in life run a wide gamut from art to history and from the scientific to the esoteric. I have been building this blog of images and texts for the last eight years. My wish is that my posts pique the interest of viewers and encourage them to experience more.

Achilles Vaslielou

Achilles Vaslielou, War Memorial of the Battle of Salamis, Greece, Bronze

This war memorial monument is the work of sculptor Achilles Vasileiou, in honor of the Greeks who fought in the naval battle of Salamis in 480 BC. The monument is located on the Kynosoura peninsula, Salamis Island of Greece.

The Battle of Salamis marked the turning point in the Greco-Persian wars. After Salamis, the Peloponnesus, and by extension Greece as an entity, was safe from conquest; and the Persians suffered a major blow to their prestige and morale (as well as severe material losses). At the following battles of Plataea and Mycale, the threat of conquest was removed, and the Allies were able to go on the counter-offensive.

The Greek victory allowed Macedon to revolt against Persian rule; and over the next 30 years, Thrace, the Aegean Islands and finally Ionia would be removed from Persian control by the Allies, or by the Athenian-dominated successor, the Delian League. Salamis started a decisive swing in the balance of power toward the Greeks, which would culminate in an eventual Greek victory, severely reducing Persian power in the Aegean.

Thanks to http://hadrian6.tumblr.com

Andrea Mantegna

Andrea Mantegna, “Parnassus (Mars and Venus)”. Detail, 1496-1497, Tempera and Gold on Canvas, Musee du Louvre, Paris

Born in Isola di Carturo in the Venetian Republic, Andrea Mantegna was an Italian painter, a student of Roman Archeology, and the son-in-law of Jacopo Bellinin, one of the founders of the Renaissance style of painting. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective in his works, lowering the horizon in order to create a sense of greater monumentality. His flinty, metallic landscapes and somewhat stony figures give evidence of his fundamentally sculptural approach to painting. Mantegna also led a workshop that was the leading producer of Venetinan prints before 1500.

In terms of Classical taste, Mantegna distanced all contemporary competition. Though substantially related to the 15th century, his influence on the style and trends of his age was very marked over Italian art generally. Giovanni Bellini, in his early works, and Albrecht Durer, in his engravings, were influenced by Mantegna’s style.

Mantegna’s main legacy in considered the introduction of spatial illusionism, both in frescoes and in paintings of the Virgin Mary and child in informal group setttings. Mantegna’s tradition of ceiling decoration was followed for almost three centuries. Starting from the faint cupola of the Camera deli Sposi, Antonio da Correggio, a student of Mantegna, built perspective constructions based on the research of his master, eventually producing a masterwork like the dome of Cathedral of Parma, in Majorca, Spain.

Richard Lindner

Richard Lindner, “Profile”, from Lindner’s “After Noon” Portfolio, Edition 250

Richard Lindner was born in Hamburg, Germany to an American mother and German father. He enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in 1925. Fleeing Nazi Germany, Lindner moved to the USA, and worked as a magazine illustrator for Vogue, Fortune and Harper’s Bazaar.

In 1952 he began his career as a painter. Critiques have call Lindner’s work “mechanistic cubism.” Streetwalkers, continental circus women, and men in uniforms are Linder’s primary subject matter. Richard Lindner taught at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and Yale University.

Lindner’s work was influential to an entire generation, and he was honored by the Beatles, who included him in the second row of people depicted on the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band LP cover. He died in 1978.

Brave New World: 1984

Image Design for Book Cover by Leslie Holland, Dust Jacket, 1932, Chatto & Windus, London

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy.

As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business