Breathe in Some More Art

I said I was going to do a follow-up art post and by golly, I meant it. Now that I have all of my images in front of me I don't know how I shall choose my favorites! Perhaps this will just have to become more of a regular feature. Anyhoodle, let's look at some art!




Don't you just love Roman sculpture? I can never get enough of this guy (Augustus). His breastplate! His left leg! That drapery! And don't you just love how his ears stick out a bit? A good bit of sculpture just blows my mind all to pieces.










Desolation, by Thomas Cole as part of his "Course of the Empire" series (all of which are good). I have a lot of love for a good landscape and Thomas Cole is brilliant. I just love American art, don't you? It's probably my favorite American thing, besides hot dogs. Just kidding.





The Incredulity of St. Thomas. I'm partly including this because one can never look at too much Caravaggio and partly as a treat for you LOST fans.
I really wish we had some Caravaggio in LDS churches.








Light of the World, by Holman Hunt. I don't care much for Hunt on the whole, but this may be my very favorite painting of Christ in the whole of this world. Isn't the lighting just so soft and lovely? (Side note: I spotted this in a parlor in Jeeves and Wooster episode)











St. Sebastian Attended by St. Irene, by de la Tour. For some reason I never got into de la Tour while in school. Maybe I just didn't see the right painting or maybe I was too distracted by Caravaggio's and Bernini's in-your-face drama. At any rate, I ran into this one in a journal* recently and it's just gorgeous, isn't it? It's so still and so well lit. It looks so real and yet not at the same time. Oh, and there's an arrow in St. Sebastian.





Ah, the Colosseum. Can I even say how much I love this building? Just look at it! This was in fact the picture I was referring to in my last post. I'm a sucker for a blue and yellow color scheme, but also it's just a fantastic picture. This is my favorite piece (piece?) of architecture for so many reasons, but suffice it to say if there were no Colosseum, I may not have a degree in art history now. Such is my love and such is its draw for me.

I decided in the course of picking pictures for this post that the next art post will be devoted to illustrators. It was just too impossible to pick one or two this time. There is so much beautiful art in the world! How can one blog ever contain it?!

* I wish I could say I subscribe to the leading art journals, but really I just get my hands on them occasionally at work. Then I flip around and write down all the names of paintings that catch my eye. Such is my continuing art education.

PS: Vote in the poll! Let your voice be heard! Anonymously!

This is a messed up country

Did I make you think this was going to be a blog ranting about the government and politics? Well, it's not. I was actually just quoting The Mummy because that's what came to mind. And, just for the record, I'm going to see the third one even though 1) I think it's an unnecessary sequel 2) No Imoteph? Sad. 3) No Rachel Weisz? More sad. 4) Mario Bello? Most sad. Luckily it still has Brendan Fraser and John Hannah and I'm sure it will be over the top and fun. Or it SHOULD be.

Wow, I was not planning to say any of that. Back to the subject! An hour and 46 minutes ago it was still Independence Day, which I love. Early American history is my favorite American history, which is why I watched Last of the Mohicans...twice. And while part of me wishes (just a tiny bit!) that England had won the war, thus making us all British citizens, I am quite content with my American citizenship.

Now of course we have hot dogs, fireworks and blockbuster movies to celebrate this momentous occasion, but I decided we all need something extra this year. And that something extra is...Hugh Laurie.



(You're welcome.)