Language & Grammar discussion

Thanks to Rattle for posting this today on Facebook! Do click on the image and then click on that image. That way you can see what this is really like, and read a bit about it.

https://www.facebook.com/rbavetta/pos... Claesz

Or just look this.

Link said "Content is currently unavailable." This is Adam and Eve, yes? And the painter is...?

Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Heaven by Massacio.

Looked him up. Renaissance! What's odd to the modern eye is a woman covering up and a man not. In the movies these days, it's the opposite. Full nude shots are more the woman's purview. Cultural mores (is that it?) are always interesting the way they turn over time....

Yeah! She has to cover up and he can expose himself with no problems?

One thing I know about the Renaissance is that they brought nudity back to art -- lost since Classical times. This would have been shocking in the Middle Ages, but the Renaissance was a new era and proud of it.

Hi, Ruth,

Thanks for naming that painting. I wonder if they could make a quiz show with that.

I thought I would add for those who are wondering about the nudity: "Expulsion from the Garden of Eden" was painted c. 1425 in Florence Italy for the Brancacci Chapel. It was correctly depicted by the contemporary scriptures but at some three centuries later to conform to cultural pressure fig leaves were added to cover the genetalia. It was more recently restored around the 1980s to its original and correct depiction. What this masterpiece evokes is Eve tries to cover herself because she first became aware of her (add what you wish) sin. It looks like Adam concernedly follows her not yet quite aware and still "naked". Clothes were later needed as a symbol and hiding of guilt and shame. Adding the leaves destroys the entire meaning. You can not really compare a 600 year old religious lesson fresco with current films (DVD) or fashion and evolving moral cultures of today anyway.

I'm ashamed. I used to reach college Art History, and I'd forgotten those fig leaves. When I was a student, they were there, but not later.

Thanks for the background info, Doug. When I searched the painting, I saw both versions -- with and without the fig leaves (which looked horrendously tacked on).

Like I said, the times keep cycling back and forth. And I see how the covering fits the story. With the Fall comes the Shame. Their long line of descendants will (and still do) have much to be ashamed aBOUT, too.

I'm pretty sure I was not born in a pink body suit, a tie-dyed sweatband and sandals so my Mother believed I was a perfect creation. :) :)

Micaelangelo's David had a fig leaf way back in the day. He wasn't happy about it. It may have been the work of the mad monk Savonarola.

Oh, yeah. He was burned with the steak, right? No. At the stake, I mean...

Cloth was a major commodity and not to be wasted in bonfires, lions pits, and the such.

I'm told steak is a big deal in Florence. They raise special cows for it. They serve it two inches thick and damn near purple.

I read that Donatello's David was the first nude sculpture since the ancients. Can I like this and be straight?
https://www.oneonta.edu/faculty/farbe...

https://www.oneonta.edu/faculty/farbe...

I'm told the same thing re: Donatello the Trailblazer. And people of both genders and all preferences are allowed to appreciate the beauty of the human body -- male or female.

What a difference, though, between Donatello's David and Michelangelo's!

Newengland wrote: ".What a difference, though, between Donatello's David and Michelangelo's! ."

In 1974, when I was an undergrad, I wrote a paper comparing these three Davids. Now I find the same subject on the net. You might find it interesting.
http://www.italian-renaissance-art.co...

It's very interesting Ruth. Thank you. I'd forgotten about the Verrocchio piece.

When having a suit of armour made, don't pay the tailor before taking delivery.

Heh.

I've never set eyes on the Verrocchio. At first glance, no regrets.