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Sunday, May 24, 2020
Nescit Persona
“once heard tell of a person
a mask of a lass, coercing
t'was so very nice
with 'er ignorant advice
a drama your life'll worsen”
Contributed by Patrick Webb
Lioness
"my mane is tame?
my roar is a bore?
expose me your heart
I'll rend it apart
a feline companion
of reckless abandon
if this you do ken,
dare enter my den
from this I'll ne'er hide
I live for my pride
take me as I am, render me smitten
I'll taste you completely and purr like a kitten"
my roar is a bore?
expose me your heart
I'll rend it apart
a feline companion
of reckless abandon
if this you do ken,
dare enter my den
from this I'll ne'er hide
I live for my pride
take me as I am, render me smitten
I'll taste you completely and purr like a kitten"
Contributed by Patrick Webb
A Fragment of a Lady's Destiny
John William Waterhouse - Destiny 1900 |
to break her quiet revelry.
Might that now she dare dream free,
and drink therewith her destiny?
A life of shadows not.
Within her bosom courage grew,
upon her lips the chalice blue,
beyond the arch her gaze doth flew.
The Lady of Shalott.”
Inspired by Tennyson
Contributed by Patrick Webb
Wednesday, May 13, 2020
The Muses: Mind, Memory, Music
John Singer Sargent - Apollo and the Muses
Boston Museum of Fine Arts
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Sir Frederic Leighton
Mnemosyne, Mother Of The Muses
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And so without further delay and for your amusement I present the nine Muses of Greek antiquity!
Mazzei Giuseppe - Urania |
Each one of the nine muses has their own bit of easily identifiable iconography. Urania is typically crowned with a tiara of stars. She is reckoned to be the eldest and the most intellectually oriented of the ladies. In hand you'll often find her celestial dividers which she uses upon a globe representing not the earth but the heavens on which she tracks the planets and marks off the constellations.
Auguste Alexandre Hirsch
Calliope teaches Music to the young Orpheus
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The greatest epic poet on Ancient Greece, Homer, is closely associated with Calliope who was purported to be his inspiration, being present at his deathbed to console him with sweet song. Her most consistent iconography is a golden tiara or ribbon, and a tablet or scroll of epic verse.
Calliope taught her son Orpheus the art of music. The Orphic mysteries became a refined interpretation of the older, savage cult of Dionysus. In turn, they served as inspiration for the increasingly rational Pythagorean brotherhood and finally the open philosophy of Plato.
Robert Aitken - Present
National Archives, D.C.
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Certainly the most studious of the gang, Clio is most often depicted with a book in one hand, sometimes a trumpet in the other, crowned with a wreath of laurel.
"What is Past is Prologue" is the inscription on the pedestal of the Present sculpture situated in front of the façade of the National Archives, where sculptor Robert Aiken chose Clio as the subject to convey the history yet to be recorded within for the country.
Roman circa 50 BC
Louvre Museum
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Originally the muse of chorus, she in time became intimately associated with Euripedes' The Bacchae and other tragedies held at the theatre of Dionysus in Athens.
Melponmene's depiction is appropriately brooding, her iconography includes a wreath of grapevine, a tragic masque, and a bloody dagger in hand. To lighten the mood she's often depicted with her upbeat sis Thalia, muse of Comedy. She's been a fan favourite amongst the French, with a number of fine sculptures of her to be found inside and out of the Palais du Luovre.
Thalia - Muse of Comedy
Paul Baudry - Thalie
Opéra Garnier
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Turn that frown upside down!
Thalia's name literally means blooming or flourishing. She is typically portrayed as youthful and smiling crowned with a wreath of flowers and myrtle leaves. Comedic masque in hand, Thalia's often paired with sourpuss sis Melpomene, doing her best to cheer her up.
All the girls can be found opulently depicted in the coved ceiling of
the breathtaking Grand Foyer of the Opéra Garnier, essentially a temple
of the muses.
Euterpe - Muse of Music
Mistress of the flute, giver of delights, Euterpe is the quintessential lovely young maiden with flowers in her hair.
An inspiration to musicians and particularly composers, she's often given a preeminent place of honour at theatres and concert halls.
Erato - Muse of Lyric Poetry
"Love, Love will keep us together" - Captain & Tennille
Polyhymnia - Muse of Eloquence
Also rhetoric, soliloquy, and prose. Polyhymnia had a way with words and while her name literally means "heaping praise" she had no hesitation in pointing fingers. If pearls are indication of wisdom, it's notable that Polyhymnia is crowned with a string of them.
Terpsichore - Muse of Dance
A muse with not much to say, she lets her body do the talking...a lot to be learned from that. I think she's my favourite!
We'll end our journey with a parting shot of all the bonnie lasses together on the Isle of Corfu:
Contributed by Patrick Webb
John Broad – Euterpe
Richmond Theatre, London
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Mistress of the flute, giver of delights, Euterpe is the quintessential lovely young maiden with flowers in her hair.
An inspiration to musicians and particularly composers, she's often given a preeminent place of honour at theatres and concert halls.
Edward John Poynter
Erato, Muse of Poetry
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"Love, Love will keep us together" - Captain & Tennille
The ancients took this quite literally. Eros was an innate force of
desire akin to gravity that initiated motion in bodies cosmic and
fleshly. Erato embodied that spirit the most of the muses, inscribing
her poetry and verse for the lyre with an arrow of Eros.
Simon Vouet
Polyhymnia, Muse Of Eloquence
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Also rhetoric, soliloquy, and prose. Polyhymnia had a way with words and while her name literally means "heaping praise" she had no hesitation in pointing fingers. If pearls are indication of wisdom, it's notable that Polyhymnia is crowned with a string of them.
Pierre Francois Berruer – Terpsichore
Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux
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A muse with not much to say, she lets her body do the talking...a lot to be learned from that. I think she's my favourite!
We'll end our journey with a parting shot of all the bonnie lasses together on the Isle of Corfu:
Ernst Herter - Achilleion Courtyard of the Muses |
Contributed by Patrick Webb