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Christmas in Applied Arts: Tampa Textiles Tapestries

And It Came to Pass

 

No Room at the Inn

I came across the lovely creations by Tampa Textiles group. Each tapestry, or a wall hanging, has the size of 36″ by 26″, and is usually made of fiber-optic material. You can view all Christmas galleries at TT’s website. And if you prefer something Santa-Claus-ey or snowy, there is something for you, too.

A Long Winter Nap

 

Christmas in Painting: Titian

Titian, The Adoration of the Shepherds, 1533, Galleria Palatina, Florence, Italy

A rather sombre interpretation of the subject of Adoration by Titian directs the viewer to the bottom right corner of the painting where the cloth and the baby Jesus emit light on the hands and face of Mary. Joseph is making a silencing gesture to the visitors, indicating that the newborn is asleep.

 

See How They Run…

Do you remember a famous cartoon of a few years ago when a single pencil was drawing a woman in real time on a small screen? It was starting with a sceleton, later dressing the woman up in human skin. “A woman from inside out” was quite a chiller, so I joked and said that this is how the thriller films of the future would look like. They would start with a blood-chilling skeleton, carry on with a sheet-burning romance, and end all buttoned-up.

What Pelourinho.com gave us was practically a 3D film, and everyone is quite mad about this new possibility. So much so that in France, le pays d’amour par excellence, there is now a video-on-demand 3D porn service, pushed forward by Marc Dorcel.

I remember attending a workshop at the BBC once in 2005 where the speaker was talking about smartphones and pocket PCs, how they’d be used regularly by around 2008. The gap seemed immense in 2005, but these devices began their onslaught on a traditional way of communicating even before 2008. Those who were watching “A Woman Inside Out” in 2006 could be thinking how good it could be to always be seeing a woman from this angle, almost in 3D. Flip forward to 2010, and there you have it.

What else is there that have we been waiting for?

Christmas in Sculpture: The Vatican Magi

Adoration of the Magi, 3rd c. A.D., Vatican, Rome

And we’re starting with the carved scene of the Adoration of the Magi (top). It can be found in Rome, in Vatican, so those of you who are Italian or regularly visit Italy can find this carving on a 3rd century sarcophagus. In Vatican, as well, there will be two 4th c. sarcophagi with the same theme, so we can actually see how the depiction evolved in just a hundred years. If anything, it became more elaborate, compared to the earlier carving where figures are crowded around enthroned Our Lady. The carvings from the 4th c. sarcophagus from St Agnes cemetery at the Museo Pio Christiano in Vatican demonstrate original imagination and impressive skill of the carvers: the scene now includes camels on which the Magi rode, following the Star of Bethlehem. One of the depictions (below) also contains the scene of the Massacre of the Innocents.

Adoration of the Magi, 4th c. A.D., Vatican, Rome

Another curious point is the headgear of the wise men: the commissioners and carvers of the 3rd c. and one of the 4th c. sarcophagi were clearly of the opinion that the Magi came from Persia, thus adorning their heads with a Phrygian cap. However, on another 4th c. sarcophagus the headgear is more ambiguous, and looks similar to the later depiction of the Magi wearing Arabic head scarves. Where all depictions seem to agree is the way the gifts followed one another: the first is myrrh oil, followed by frankinsence, followed by gold.

Adoration of the Magi, 4th c. A.D., Museo Pio Christiano, Vatican, Rome, St Agnes cemetery

 

Christmas in Arts Label Is Coming Back

It is the first Sunday of Advent today, which means that Christmas is just around the corner, and that Los Cuadernos is opening its annual season of daily December posting. I spontaneously decided four years ago that I would be posting every day in December, if only to provide those who run around with Xmas errands with something lovely to read and to look at. For a couple of years it’s been merely daily posting, however, in 2009 I’ve opened a Christmas in Arts label, and I was delighted to see that throughout the year the posts I wrote in December 2009 have been attracting a lot of interest. Which certainly means that I’ve started something unique and worthwhile.

Well, well, my dear friends, the season is back, and we will be celebrating upcoming festivities in paintings, poetry, some prose, opera, and even film. Along the way there will be a presentation of something I’ve been working on recently, so gather round and see.

This year, as well, the topic will embrace both Western and Eastern winter holidays traditions, if only because I want to tell you about a couple of Russian films that I won’t be able to do unless I include Orthodox Christmas in the picture.

Also, over the years Los Cuadernos de Julia has established a very good relationship with Santa Claus, so you can send us your Santa pictures and letters, and they will come up on this blog.

The Funny Soviet Zodiac Postcards

Happy Thanksgiving to all American readers, and happy birthday to Billy Connolly!

As the end of the year nears, I thought I’d share with you a family collection of Zodiac signs postal cards. They must be over 20 years old as the publisher’s data on the back of the card references the USSR, so it’s definitely a pre-August 1991 creation. I wanted to use them in a project that I’m still thinking about but as I haven’t got up to get it off the ground, there is no point in letting this homeland treasure gather dust on my hard drive. In all years I’ve been reading different horoscopes and looking at various Zodiac signs depictions, these have remained the most original ones. Together, perhaps, with the one on the left.

 

 

A Name That Starts With X, or a Pet Name Copywriter

In case you’re a fan of Malevich, this post is not about how a dog can paint with its tail or ears. Malevich had a donkey paint with its tail for one of the exhibitions, but the story is very different here.

A family acquaintance is planning to take in a puppy. Before “she” was born, it was assumed her name would have to start with “A”. A prospective owner wanted to give a name of a Greek goddess, and I instantly came up with Arthemis, which she thoroughly liked. We added two extra names, Chiara and Maxima, so Arthemis Chiara Maxima was waiting to come to this world to embrace her beautiful, if extraordinary, name.

The story has just taken a different turn because the puppy has to assume a name that starts with “x”. The owner still loves Chiara and Maxima for second names, but the first name has to be dealt with quickly, and the owner still wants a Greek name. I suggested Xenobia, Xanthe, Xanthippe. She was kind of mesmerised by the name Harita, as it starts with the sound [kh] in Russian, yet sadly in English the name begins with “H”. She came up with the name [khrisia], but I suspect it will begin with “ch”, not “x” in Latin spelling.

There are names like Xaviera, Ximena, and Xiang that could suit the dog. Just so you know, it is a Rodesian Ridgeback. As a matter of fact, there’s a wonderful blog dedicated to a Ridgeback called Rufus who lives in Luxembourg, and the photo in the post was found there.

As to the point of this post… As I understand now, after naming two cats and two dogs, I am almost a professional pet name giver. A special kind of copywriter, if you like, trading in churning out intricate sobriquets for the man’s best friends. Still, though, if you know any names that start with “X” and that could suit Chiara and Maxima, the future Ridgeback owner would be over the Moon. Needless to say, so would I.

Playing in Scarborough Paradise

A South Coast beach
A view on the North Coast

I already told you how I came to love the seaside, and in early July when the weather was nice and hot I longed to travel to the east coast. In nearly six years in the UK I’ve travelled a lot along the west coast and in Wales, but the east and south of England remain largely unvisited. So on that lovely Saturday in early July I took a train to Scarborough where I did the following three things for the first time in my life: 1) hired a beach chair and sat idly in the sun amidst the screaming kids and sunbathing adults; 2) entertained myself with digging my feet deep inside the warm soft sand; and 3) took a one-hour boat cruise along “the picturesque route” into the North Sea. Before you ask, the boat rocked mercilessly, and my side of the boat was splashed generously with waves. I licked a drop of sea water off my shoulder; it was bitterly salty. It was my first time in a boat in the open sea, and considering that I had fish&chips a little less than half an hour before I went on the cruise, it must be saying loads about my seasickness. Or maybe it only means that I need to go on a longer cruise to test myself properly.

I didn’t get to visit the Scarborough Castle. As with some of the landmarks in Llandudno, the castle sits atop of the hill and can be seen from the town, but the route up there isn’t half as steep as in Llandudno. It’s not even as steep as in Llandeilo. Walking up the hill reminded me of the Mediterranean; while the trees and herbs along the route almost smelt Russian. It was a mystical experience which climaxed in seeing the North Bay. The South Coast is spectacular, when seen from the hill, but when I saw the North Bay upon entering the castle’s “arch” I was spellbound. Comparing to the busy and wavy waters on the opposite side, the North Bay was serene and regal in presence of the castle overlooking it.

Anne Bronte grave
Ashes to Oils: an old cemetery  and a parking

This was followed by the two or three weird observations. The burial ground of St Mary’s church is divided in two: the part closest to the castle “houses” the grave of Ann Bronte, while the part closest to the town is occupied by a small car park. Just a short walk from there is a playground called “Paradise”. I was curious to see if anyone was using it. I wasn’t disappointed although I didn’t expect to see the scene: young man and woman were frolicking on the grass. This gave a whole new meaning both to “playground” and to “paradise”.

Scarborough Paradise

Memento Sarcophagi

Cofani Funebri 2011 (Italy)

Last year I contemplated the appropriateness of publishing the photos of dead people. And in the last two days I’ve come across something that I find culturally disturbing, so to speak. Although I realise that funeral industry IS the industry, to view a report from a funeral fair in Moscow took me by surprise, if only because I’ve never heard about or seen anything similar in England.

Lindner 2010 (Poland)

Turns out, this wasn’t yet the biggest shock I was to experience. This report has kind of shook me up, there are a couple of lines of text in Russian, while the rest is, well, an introduction to the contemporary coffin advertising. Now, there was a time when I was bemused by the Russian nude photography (I still am sometimes). Imagine a buxom blond “sex bomb” with her hair down posing against the sunset next to a thin birch tree, a Russian symbol of femininity and ritual chastity. When you look at the photos produced by the Polish and Italian funeral services advertisers, you will see why I recalled that rather disturbing dissociation between the idea and how it is channeled into an image.

We should, by all means, look at the bright side of life and death, and what can be a better way of breaking away from the stereotypes than putting a model in naughty tartan bikini next to a coffin? But is this game of advertising really worth the candles (excuse the pun)?

You tell me.

Lindner 2011 (Poland)
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