The Qianlong Emperor was the sixth emperor of the
Manchu-led
Qing dynasty, and the fourth
Qing emperor to rule over China. The fourth son of the
Yongzheng Emperor, his reign officially began 11 October 1735, lasting for 60 years. Named Hongli, he chose the
era nameQianlong, meaning "heavenly prosperity". Although his early years saw the continuation of an era of prosperity and great military success in China, his final years saw troubles at home and abroad converge on the Qing Empire. Qianlong abdicated the throne at the age of 85, to his son, the
Jiaqing Emperor, fulfilling his promise not to reign longer than his grandfather, the
Kangxi Emperor.
Big (right) and Small (left) are the two main characters of Big & Small, a British puppet-based
children's television series aimed at
preschool children. Both characters are
voiced by comedian
Lenny Henry in the UK version. In total, over 40 channels worldwide feature the show.
A scene from the Ramayana, an ancient
Sanskritepic. Depicted here are several stages of the War of Lanka, with the monkey army of the protagonist
Rama (top left, blue figure) fighting the demon army of the king of Lanka,
Ravana, to save Rama's kidnapped wife
Sita. The three-headed figure of the demon general
Trisiras occurs in several places – most dramatically at the bottom left, where he is shown beheaded by
Hanuman.
A tinted
lithograph, titled "Embarkation of the sick at
Balaklava" 1855, shows injured and ill soldiers in the Crimean War boarding boats to take them from the siege lines down to the harbor to hospital facilities at Scutari. Modern
nursing had its roots in the war, as war correspondents for newspapers reported the scandalous treatment of wounded soldiers in the first desperate winter, prompting the pioneering work of women such as
Florence Nightingale,
Mary Seacole,
Frances Margaret Taylor and others.
U.S. SenatorHenry Clay gives a speech in the
Old Senate Chamber calling for compromise on the issues dividing the United States. The result was the Compromise of 1850, a package of five
bills, the first two of which were passed on September 9. Ironically, these led to a breakdown in the spirit of compromise in the years preceding the
Civil War, particularly after the deaths of Clay and
Daniel Webster.
Credit: Artist: Théodore Bray; Restoration:
Lise Broer
A colored
lithograph showing a funeral ceremony among enslaved people in Suriname in the mid-19th century. Attendees wear white as two men carry a wooden coffin. A small boy is blindfolded, which was a common practice during this time and place although the reason is unknown. Slavery was introduced with the English settlers in the 17th century and was not abolished until 200 years later.
An illustration depicting an ancient Mexican calendar. The
Maya and
Aztec calendars are the most common of the Mexican calendars, but similar ones were used by other cultures. Common to all
Mesoamerican cultures was the 260-day ritual calendar that had no confirmed correlation to astronomical or agricultural cycles. These were used in combination with a separate 365-day calendar to create a 52-year cycle known as a
calendar round.
A Kuna woman selling
molas, a
textile art form used to make the clothing typically worn by Kuna women. The Kuna are an
indigenous people of Panama and Colombia, with a total population of about 50,000. The greatest number of Kuna people live on small islands in the comarca of
Guna Yala.
The Hohenzollern Bridge crossing the
Rhine in
Cologne, Germany, with the
Cologne Cathedral in the background. The bridge is a
tied-arch railway bridge, as well as a
pedestrian bridge. Originally built in 1911, it survived numerous
Allied bombings in World War II, only to be destroyed by German engineers as the war drew to a close. Reconstruction began soon after and the bridge was opened to pedestrian traffic in 1948 then completely opened in 1959.
American
folk singersJoan Baez and Bob Dylan, performing a duet at the
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. Both were relatively new recording artists at the time, with Baez being at the forefront of American
roots revival and Dylan having just released his
second album. Baez was especially influential in introducing audiences to Dylan's music by recording several of his early songs and inviting him onstage during her own concerts.
A
self-portrait of Louis-Marie Autissier (1772–1830), a French-born Belgian
portrait miniature painter. He is considered the founder of the Belgian school of miniature painting in the nineteenth century. Born at
Vannes, in
Brittany, he joined the
French Revolutionary Army at
Rennes in 1791. On leaving the army in 1795, Autissier went to Paris and trained his art by studying paintings at the
Louvre. In 1796 he settled in
Brussels, but continued to divide his time between Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. Although he enjoyed great success in his career, serving as
court painter to
Louis Napoleon, French King of the Netherlands, and later to
Willem I, Autissier died penniless.
A portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni, the daughter in law of
Giovanni Tornabuoni. She was a member of the Albizzi family, who were rivals of the
Medici and
Alberti families, and were at the centre of
Florentine oligarchy starting from 1382 in the reaction that followed the
Ciompi revolt. However, after
Cosimo de' Medici returned from exile in 1434 (arranged by
Rinaldo degli Albizzi) and regained power, he in turn exiled all but one of the Albizzis from Florence. This painting was done around 1490, long after the Albizzis' fall from grace.
Credit: Photo: Ludwig Borutta; Restoration:
Lise Broer
Megaliths, some decorated, were a part of the culture of the island of Nias off the western coast of
Sumatra, Indonesia. Among the many uses of these large stones were statues, seats for the chieftains, and tables where justice was done. Additionally, some stones commemorated the deaths of important people. In this 1915 photo, such a stone is hauled upwards, reportedly taking 525 people three days to erect in the village of Bawemataloeo.
"After the war, a medal and maybe a job", an anti-World War Ieditorial cartoon showing a soldier who is missing the lower half of his body dragging himself along with his hands, with his
intestines trailing behind him. A fat
capitalist sitting in a chair offers him a medal for his service.
The cover to the June 1914 issue of Vanity Fair, an American
magazine published from 1913 to 1936 by
Condé Montrose Nast, the first of many published by his company
Condé Nast Publications. Nast purchased a men's fashion magazine titled Dress in 1913 and renamed it Dress and Vanity Fair. In 1914, the title was shortened to Vanity Fair. During its run, it competed with The New Yorker as the American establishment's top culture chronicle and featured writing by
Thomas Wolfe,
T. S. Eliot,
P. G. Wodehouse, and
Dorothy Parker. However, it became a casualty of the
Great Depression and declining advertising revenues, and it was folded into Vogue in 1936. In 1983, Condé Nast revived the title as a
new publication.
The Great Coat of Arms of the Russian Empire, as presented to Emperor
Paul I in October 1800. The use of the
double-headed eagle in the coat of arms (seen in multiple locations here) goes back to the 15th century. With the
fall of Constantinople and the end of the
Byzantine Empire in 1453, the Grand Dukes of
Muscovy came to see themselves as the successors of the Byzantine heritage, a notion reinforced by the marriage of
Ivan III to
Sophia Paleologue. Ivan adopted the golden Byzantine double-headed eagle in his seal, first documented in 1472, marking his direct claim to the Roman imperial heritage and his assertion as sovereign equal and rival to the
Holy Roman Empire.
A photographer's assistant uses a portable folding reflector to "
bounce" available sunlight onto the
model. Also known as a
bounce board, this type of reflector is useful when the
available light is insufficient for what the scene requires, and using a
flash would make the
lighting too harsh. Here, because of the mostly overcast day, the sun is positioned in the wrong location to illuminate both the model and desired background properly, so a reflector is used to accomplish the task.
An
ink-and-wash illustration of a
stuccorelief on a building in Palenque, a
Maya city in southern
Mexico that flourished in the 7th century, but was abandoned around 800. It was first discovered by European explorers in the 16th century, but remained mostly unexplored until 1773. This particular piece was likely constructed during the long reign of
K'inich Janaab' Pakal (mid-7th century), and is thought to depict Mayan ancestral rulers or the parents thereof. The standing figure holds a
sceptre in the left hand, and in the right, a length of material. The seated figures adopt a posture of submission or deference, with hands placed on opposite shoulders.
A 1925 photo of Wongudan, an altar site in
Seoul built in 1897 as a location for the performance of the
rite of heaven.
KingSeongjong of the
Goryeo Dynasty was the first to perform the rite, designed to ensure a bountiful harvest, in the
tenth century. The practice was discontinued by later Goryeo kings, revived briefly in the mid
fifteenth century by
Sejo of the
Joseon Dynasty, then reinstated with the founding of the
Korean Empire in 1897. Much of the altar complex was destroyed during the
Japanese occupation, and the gate and fountain seen here were also subsequently removed, leaving only the three-storey Hwangungu
pagoda remaining.
Gustave Doré's depiction of the
kiss given by Judas Iscariot to
Jesus, identifying him as the one whom the soldiers of the
high priestCaiaphas are to
arrest. The
Gospels states that Jesus foresaw and allowed the betrayal because it would allow
God's plan to be fulfilled, but most
Christians still consider Judas a traitor. Following this event, Caiaphas condemned Jesus for
blasphemy, and the
Sanhedrin trial concurred with a sentence of death. Jesus was handed over to the Roman governor
Pontius Pilate for execution, and he carried out the sentence against his own wishes.
The poilu's holiday December 25 and 26, 1915, a
FrenchWorld War I poster depicting a poilu's Christmas leave from the war. "Poilu", literally meaning "hairy one", is a
nickname for French
infantrymen. The word carries the sense of the infantryman's typically rural, agricultural background.
Beards and bushy
moustaches were often worn. The image of the dogged, bearded French soldier was widely used in
propaganda and
war memorials.
Yumedono ("Hall of Dreams"), a building in the Hōryū-jiBuddhist temple complex in
Ikaruga,
Nara Prefecture,
Japan. The hall, which was built in 739, acquired its common name in the
Heian period, in keeping with a legend that says a
Buddha arrived as
Prince Shōtoku, who had originally commissioned the temple, and meditated in a hall that existed there.
A dancer from
Sanata Dharma University's Sekar Jepun troupe performing the baris tunggal dance. The baris family of
Balinesewar dances is accompanied by
gamelan and performed by one or more men, sometimes wielding a variety of weapons. The dance has been understood to depict the feelings of a young warrior prior to battle, glorify the manhood of the triumphant
Balinese warrior, and display the sublimity of his commanding presence.
The Admiralty Extension, built in the late 19th century, is the largest of Admiralty buildings built to house the authority responsible for the command of the
Royal Navy in the
United Kingdom. Redesigned while under construction to accommodate the extra offices needed due to the naval
arms race with the
German Empire, it served as the headquarters of the Admiralty until 1964 when it was subsumed into the
Ministry of Defence in nearby
Whitehall.
Rootabaga Stories is a children's book of interrelated short stories by
Carl Sandburg, written in 1922. The stories are whimsical and sometimes melancholy, making use of nonsense language. Rootabaga Stories was originally created for Sandburg's own daughters, Margaret, Janet and Helga—whom he nicknamed "Spink", "Skabootch", and "Swipes"—and those nicknames occur in some of the Rootabaga stories. The book was born of Sandburg's desire for fairy tales to which American children could relate, rather than the traditional European stories involving royalty and knights. He therefore set the book in a fictionalized
American Midwest called the "Rootabaga country", in which fairy-tale concepts were mixed with trains, sidewalks, and skyscrapers.
This picture shows the frontispiece of the 1922 edition of the book.
A collection of garments designed by the Japanese fashion label Comme des Garçons, on display at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Founded in 1969 by
Rei Kawakubo and established as a company in 1973, the brand's name is inspired by a line from
Françoise Hardy's song "
Tous les garçons et les filles". It gained popularity in Japan through the 1970s, before making its debut Paris show in 1981, where Kawakubo's heavy use of black, as well as distressed fabrics and unfinished seams, were viewed negatively by critics. Comme des Garçons produced many unusual styles through the 1980s and 1990s, many of which were disliked by experts, but nonetheless grew into a large commercially successful enterprise. The company has boutique stores in several countries, exhibits its main collections annually at the
Paris Fashion Week, and also runs a line of perfumes.
An
animated simulation of a phenakistoscope disc. The phenakistoscope is one of the first devices to create
moving images and a precursor of the
zoopraxiscope and, in turn,
cinematography. Conceived as a simple disc to be held vertically in front of a mirror and spun around its axis, the subjects appear to be in motion when viewed through the slits of the disc.
Vincent van Gogh (30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch
Post-Impressionist painter and one of the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860
oil paintings, most of which date from the last two years of his life. Van Gogh sold few paintings during his lifetime, and was contemporaneously considered a madman and a failure. However, he has attained widespread critical and popular acclaim since the early 20th century, and his works are among the world's
most expensive paintings. Van Gogh produced
this oil-on-canvas self-portrait in September 1889. One of
his several self-portraits, it may have been his last, produced shortly before he left
Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in southern France. The work is now in the collection of the
Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
How a Mosquito Operates (1912) is a
silent animated film by American cartoonist
Winsor McCay. The six-minute short, about a giant mosquito tormenting a dozing man who tries in vain to shoo it away, is one of the earliest works of animation. It is considered far ahead of its contemporaries in its technical quality. McCay had a reputation for his proficiency as a cartoonist, exemplified in the children's comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland. He delved into the infant art of animation with the 1911 film
Little Nemo, and followed its success by adapting an episode of his comic strip Dream of the Rarebit Fiend into How a Mosquito Operates. McCay gives the animation naturalistic timing, motion, and weight, and displays a more coherent story and developed character than in Little Nemo. The film was enthusiastically received when McCay first unveiled it during a
chalk talk (a
vaudeville act with drawings) and in a theatrical release that soon followed. In 1914 McCay further developed his
character animation style in his best-known animated work, Gertie the Dinosaur.
Neo-Impressionism is a term coined by French art critic
Félix Fénéon in 1886 to describe an art movement founded by
Georges Seurat, whose most renowned masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, marked the beginning of this movement when it was first exhibited in Paris. Around this time, the peak of France's modern era emerged and many painters were in search of new methods. Followers of Neo-Impressionism, in particular, were drawn to modern urban scenes as well as landscapes and seashores. Science-based interpretation of lines and colors influenced Neo-Impressionists' characterization of their own contemporary art. The
Pointillist and
Divisionist techniques are often mentioned in this context, because it was the dominant technique in the beginning of the Neo-impressionist movement.
This picture is a oil-on-canvas portrait of Félix Fénéon in the Neo-Impressionist style by French painter
Paul Signac, dated 1890. The painting is now in the collection of the
Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
An example of contre-jour (
French for "against the day light")
photography, when the
camera is pointing towards the
light source. In this picture, the light reflecting off the ground within the tunnel gives depth to an otherwise two-dimensional image. Image taken in São Martinho do Porto, west coast of
Portugal, 1968.
Apollo and Daphne is a life-sized
Baroque marble sculpture by the Italian artist
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, created between 1622 and 1625. Housed in the
Galleria Borghese in Rome as part of the
Borghese Collection, the work depicts the climax of the story of
Apollo and Daphne in
Ovid's Metamorphoses. Apollo clutches Daphne's hip, pursuing her as she flees from him. Apollo wears a laurel crown, and Daphne is portrayed halfway through her metamorphosis from human form into the
laurel tree, with her arms already transforming into its branches as she flees and calls to her father to save her from Apollo.
La forza del destino (The Power of Fate or The Force of Destiny) is an Italian opera by
Giuseppe Verdi. The
libretto was written by
Francesco Maria Piave and is based on a Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino by
Ángel de Saavedra, 3rd Duke of Rivas. The complex plot revolves around whether it is possible for the protagonists to escape their destiny, and the opera concludes with most of the main characters dead. In this poster, illustrated by
Charles Lecocq, Leonora has just been fatally stabbed by her brother, Carlos, to whom she had run after he was mortally injured in a duel with Alvaro, the suitor from whom she had become separated after they had eloped together.
Apollo and Daphne is a life-sized
Baroque marble sculpture by the Italian artist
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, created between 1622 and 1625. Housed in the
Galleria Borghese in Rome as part of the
Borghese Collection, the work depicts the climax of the story of
Apollo and Daphne in
Ovid's Metamorphoses. Apollo clutches Daphne's hip, pursuing her as she flees from him. Apollo wears a laurel crown, and Daphne is portrayed halfway through her metamorphosis from human form into the
laurel tree, with her arms already transforming into its branches as she flees and calls to her father to save her from Apollo.
A still life is a work of art depicting inanimate subject matter, typically either natural things such as flowers, dead animals, food, rocks or shells, or man-made objects. As a genre, still-life painting began with
Netherlandish painting in the 16th and 17th centuries. The wealthy
Dutch Empire's trade enabled the importation of spices, sugar and exotic fruits into the country, and new ingredients such as dates, rice, cinnamon, ginger, nuts, and saffron became available. This oil-on-panel still life from the 1620s by the Flemish artist
Osias Beert is entitled Dishes with Oysters, Fruit, and Wine, and includes a rare early depiction of sugar in art. The painting now hangs in the
National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
A Negress is an 1884 oil-on-canvas painting by the Polish artist
Anna Bilińska-Bohdanowicz, depicting an unknown model. The subject is portrayed from the waist up and dressed in a white robe, but is part naked, with one breast exposed. The
Japanese hand fan and the source of light that illuminates the figure and is reflected by highlights in the gold
bijoux, create a warm and chamber-like atmosphere. Painted in Paris, the painting
was looted during World War II. It was returned to the collection of the
National Museum in Warsaw in 2012.
The phenakistiscope was the first widespread animation device that created a fluent illusion of motion. A series of pictures showing sequential phases of the animation are seen through small slots spaced evenly around the rim of a disc. The user would spin the disc and look through the moving slits at the images reflected in a mirror, seeing a rapid succession of images that appear to be a single moving picture. This animation shows one such phenakistiscope disc, entitled Running rats, created by
Thomas Mann Baynes in 1833.
The Qianlong Emperor was the sixth emperor of the
Manchu-led
Qing dynasty, and the fourth
Qing emperor to rule over China. The fourth son of the
Yongzheng Emperor, his reign officially began 11 October 1735, lasting for 60 years. Named Hongli, he chose the
era nameQianlong, meaning "heavenly prosperity". Although his early years saw the continuation of an era of prosperity and great military success in China, his final years saw troubles at home and abroad converge on the Qing Empire. Qianlong abdicated the throne at the age of 85, to his son, the
Jiaqing Emperor, fulfilling his promise not to reign longer than his grandfather, the
Kangxi Emperor.
Big (right) and Small (left) are the two main characters of Big & Small, a British puppet-based
children's television series aimed at
preschool children. Both characters are
voiced by comedian
Lenny Henry in the UK version. In total, over 40 channels worldwide feature the show.
A scene from the Ramayana, an ancient
Sanskritepic. Depicted here are several stages of the War of Lanka, with the monkey army of the protagonist
Rama (top left, blue figure) fighting the demon army of the king of Lanka,
Ravana, to save Rama's kidnapped wife
Sita. The three-headed figure of the demon general
Trisiras occurs in several places – most dramatically at the bottom left, where he is shown beheaded by
Hanuman.
A tinted
lithograph, titled "Embarkation of the sick at
Balaklava" 1855, shows injured and ill soldiers in the Crimean War boarding boats to take them from the siege lines down to the harbor to hospital facilities at Scutari. Modern
nursing had its roots in the war, as war correspondents for newspapers reported the scandalous treatment of wounded soldiers in the first desperate winter, prompting the pioneering work of women such as
Florence Nightingale,
Mary Seacole,
Frances Margaret Taylor and others.
U.S. SenatorHenry Clay gives a speech in the
Old Senate Chamber calling for compromise on the issues dividing the United States. The result was the Compromise of 1850, a package of five
bills, the first two of which were passed on September 9. Ironically, these led to a breakdown in the spirit of compromise in the years preceding the
Civil War, particularly after the deaths of Clay and
Daniel Webster.
Credit: Artist: Théodore Bray; Restoration:
Lise Broer
A colored
lithograph showing a funeral ceremony among enslaved people in Suriname in the mid-19th century. Attendees wear white as two men carry a wooden coffin. A small boy is blindfolded, which was a common practice during this time and place although the reason is unknown. Slavery was introduced with the English settlers in the 17th century and was not abolished until 200 years later.
An illustration depicting an ancient Mexican calendar. The
Maya and
Aztec calendars are the most common of the Mexican calendars, but similar ones were used by other cultures. Common to all
Mesoamerican cultures was the 260-day ritual calendar that had no confirmed correlation to astronomical or agricultural cycles. These were used in combination with a separate 365-day calendar to create a 52-year cycle known as a
calendar round.
A Kuna woman selling
molas, a
textile art form used to make the clothing typically worn by Kuna women. The Kuna are an
indigenous people of Panama and Colombia, with a total population of about 50,000. The greatest number of Kuna people live on small islands in the comarca of
Guna Yala.
The Hohenzollern Bridge crossing the
Rhine in
Cologne, Germany, with the
Cologne Cathedral in the background. The bridge is a
tied-arch railway bridge, as well as a
pedestrian bridge. Originally built in 1911, it survived numerous
Allied bombings in World War II, only to be destroyed by German engineers as the war drew to a close. Reconstruction began soon after and the bridge was opened to pedestrian traffic in 1948 then completely opened in 1959.
American
folk singersJoan Baez and Bob Dylan, performing a duet at the
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. Both were relatively new recording artists at the time, with Baez being at the forefront of American
roots revival and Dylan having just released his
second album. Baez was especially influential in introducing audiences to Dylan's music by recording several of his early songs and inviting him onstage during her own concerts.
A
self-portrait of Louis-Marie Autissier (1772–1830), a French-born Belgian
portrait miniature painter. He is considered the founder of the Belgian school of miniature painting in the nineteenth century. Born at
Vannes, in
Brittany, he joined the
French Revolutionary Army at
Rennes in 1791. On leaving the army in 1795, Autissier went to Paris and trained his art by studying paintings at the
Louvre. In 1796 he settled in
Brussels, but continued to divide his time between Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. Although he enjoyed great success in his career, serving as
court painter to
Louis Napoleon, French King of the Netherlands, and later to
Willem I, Autissier died penniless.
A portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni, the daughter in law of
Giovanni Tornabuoni. She was a member of the Albizzi family, who were rivals of the
Medici and
Alberti families, and were at the centre of
Florentine oligarchy starting from 1382 in the reaction that followed the
Ciompi revolt. However, after
Cosimo de' Medici returned from exile in 1434 (arranged by
Rinaldo degli Albizzi) and regained power, he in turn exiled all but one of the Albizzis from Florence. This painting was done around 1490, long after the Albizzis' fall from grace.
Credit: Photo: Ludwig Borutta; Restoration:
Lise Broer
Megaliths, some decorated, were a part of the culture of the island of Nias off the western coast of
Sumatra, Indonesia. Among the many uses of these large stones were statues, seats for the chieftains, and tables where justice was done. Additionally, some stones commemorated the deaths of important people. In this 1915 photo, such a stone is hauled upwards, reportedly taking 525 people three days to erect in the village of Bawemataloeo.
"After the war, a medal and maybe a job", an anti-World War Ieditorial cartoon showing a soldier who is missing the lower half of his body dragging himself along with his hands, with his
intestines trailing behind him. A fat
capitalist sitting in a chair offers him a medal for his service.
The cover to the June 1914 issue of Vanity Fair, an American
magazine published from 1913 to 1936 by
Condé Montrose Nast, the first of many published by his company
Condé Nast Publications. Nast purchased a men's fashion magazine titled Dress in 1913 and renamed it Dress and Vanity Fair. In 1914, the title was shortened to Vanity Fair. During its run, it competed with The New Yorker as the American establishment's top culture chronicle and featured writing by
Thomas Wolfe,
T. S. Eliot,
P. G. Wodehouse, and
Dorothy Parker. However, it became a casualty of the
Great Depression and declining advertising revenues, and it was folded into Vogue in 1936. In 1983, Condé Nast revived the title as a
new publication.
The Great Coat of Arms of the Russian Empire, as presented to Emperor
Paul I in October 1800. The use of the
double-headed eagle in the coat of arms (seen in multiple locations here) goes back to the 15th century. With the
fall of Constantinople and the end of the
Byzantine Empire in 1453, the Grand Dukes of
Muscovy came to see themselves as the successors of the Byzantine heritage, a notion reinforced by the marriage of
Ivan III to
Sophia Paleologue. Ivan adopted the golden Byzantine double-headed eagle in his seal, first documented in 1472, marking his direct claim to the Roman imperial heritage and his assertion as sovereign equal and rival to the
Holy Roman Empire.
A photographer's assistant uses a portable folding reflector to "
bounce" available sunlight onto the
model. Also known as a
bounce board, this type of reflector is useful when the
available light is insufficient for what the scene requires, and using a
flash would make the
lighting too harsh. Here, because of the mostly overcast day, the sun is positioned in the wrong location to illuminate both the model and desired background properly, so a reflector is used to accomplish the task.
An
ink-and-wash illustration of a
stuccorelief on a building in Palenque, a
Maya city in southern
Mexico that flourished in the 7th century, but was abandoned around 800. It was first discovered by European explorers in the 16th century, but remained mostly unexplored until 1773. This particular piece was likely constructed during the long reign of
K'inich Janaab' Pakal (mid-7th century), and is thought to depict Mayan ancestral rulers or the parents thereof. The standing figure holds a
sceptre in the left hand, and in the right, a length of material. The seated figures adopt a posture of submission or deference, with hands placed on opposite shoulders.
A 1925 photo of Wongudan, an altar site in
Seoul built in 1897 as a location for the performance of the
rite of heaven.
KingSeongjong of the
Goryeo Dynasty was the first to perform the rite, designed to ensure a bountiful harvest, in the
tenth century. The practice was discontinued by later Goryeo kings, revived briefly in the mid
fifteenth century by
Sejo of the
Joseon Dynasty, then reinstated with the founding of the
Korean Empire in 1897. Much of the altar complex was destroyed during the
Japanese occupation, and the gate and fountain seen here were also subsequently removed, leaving only the three-storey Hwangungu
pagoda remaining.
Gustave Doré's depiction of the
kiss given by Judas Iscariot to
Jesus, identifying him as the one whom the soldiers of the
high priestCaiaphas are to
arrest. The
Gospels states that Jesus foresaw and allowed the betrayal because it would allow
God's plan to be fulfilled, but most
Christians still consider Judas a traitor. Following this event, Caiaphas condemned Jesus for
blasphemy, and the
Sanhedrin trial concurred with a sentence of death. Jesus was handed over to the Roman governor
Pontius Pilate for execution, and he carried out the sentence against his own wishes.
The poilu's holiday December 25 and 26, 1915, a
FrenchWorld War I poster depicting a poilu's Christmas leave from the war. "Poilu", literally meaning "hairy one", is a
nickname for French
infantrymen. The word carries the sense of the infantryman's typically rural, agricultural background.
Beards and bushy
moustaches were often worn. The image of the dogged, bearded French soldier was widely used in
propaganda and
war memorials.
Yumedono ("Hall of Dreams"), a building in the Hōryū-jiBuddhist temple complex in
Ikaruga,
Nara Prefecture,
Japan. The hall, which was built in 739, acquired its common name in the
Heian period, in keeping with a legend that says a
Buddha arrived as
Prince Shōtoku, who had originally commissioned the temple, and meditated in a hall that existed there.
A dancer from
Sanata Dharma University's Sekar Jepun troupe performing the baris tunggal dance. The baris family of
Balinesewar dances is accompanied by
gamelan and performed by one or more men, sometimes wielding a variety of weapons. The dance has been understood to depict the feelings of a young warrior prior to battle, glorify the manhood of the triumphant
Balinese warrior, and display the sublimity of his commanding presence.
The Admiralty Extension, built in the late 19th century, is the largest of Admiralty buildings built to house the authority responsible for the command of the
Royal Navy in the
United Kingdom. Redesigned while under construction to accommodate the extra offices needed due to the naval
arms race with the
German Empire, it served as the headquarters of the Admiralty until 1964 when it was subsumed into the
Ministry of Defence in nearby
Whitehall.
Rootabaga Stories is a children's book of interrelated short stories by
Carl Sandburg, written in 1922. The stories are whimsical and sometimes melancholy, making use of nonsense language. Rootabaga Stories was originally created for Sandburg's own daughters, Margaret, Janet and Helga—whom he nicknamed "Spink", "Skabootch", and "Swipes"—and those nicknames occur in some of the Rootabaga stories. The book was born of Sandburg's desire for fairy tales to which American children could relate, rather than the traditional European stories involving royalty and knights. He therefore set the book in a fictionalized
American Midwest called the "Rootabaga country", in which fairy-tale concepts were mixed with trains, sidewalks, and skyscrapers.
This picture shows the frontispiece of the 1922 edition of the book.
A collection of garments designed by the Japanese fashion label Comme des Garçons, on display at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Founded in 1969 by
Rei Kawakubo and established as a company in 1973, the brand's name is inspired by a line from
Françoise Hardy's song "
Tous les garçons et les filles". It gained popularity in Japan through the 1970s, before making its debut Paris show in 1981, where Kawakubo's heavy use of black, as well as distressed fabrics and unfinished seams, were viewed negatively by critics. Comme des Garçons produced many unusual styles through the 1980s and 1990s, many of which were disliked by experts, but nonetheless grew into a large commercially successful enterprise. The company has boutique stores in several countries, exhibits its main collections annually at the
Paris Fashion Week, and also runs a line of perfumes.
An
animated simulation of a phenakistoscope disc. The phenakistoscope is one of the first devices to create
moving images and a precursor of the
zoopraxiscope and, in turn,
cinematography. Conceived as a simple disc to be held vertically in front of a mirror and spun around its axis, the subjects appear to be in motion when viewed through the slits of the disc.
Vincent van Gogh (30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch
Post-Impressionist painter and one of the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860
oil paintings, most of which date from the last two years of his life. Van Gogh sold few paintings during his lifetime, and was contemporaneously considered a madman and a failure. However, he has attained widespread critical and popular acclaim since the early 20th century, and his works are among the world's
most expensive paintings. Van Gogh produced
this oil-on-canvas self-portrait in September 1889. One of
his several self-portraits, it may have been his last, produced shortly before he left
Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in southern France. The work is now in the collection of the
Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
How a Mosquito Operates (1912) is a
silent animated film by American cartoonist
Winsor McCay. The six-minute short, about a giant mosquito tormenting a dozing man who tries in vain to shoo it away, is one of the earliest works of animation. It is considered far ahead of its contemporaries in its technical quality. McCay had a reputation for his proficiency as a cartoonist, exemplified in the children's comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland. He delved into the infant art of animation with the 1911 film
Little Nemo, and followed its success by adapting an episode of his comic strip Dream of the Rarebit Fiend into How a Mosquito Operates. McCay gives the animation naturalistic timing, motion, and weight, and displays a more coherent story and developed character than in Little Nemo. The film was enthusiastically received when McCay first unveiled it during a
chalk talk (a
vaudeville act with drawings) and in a theatrical release that soon followed. In 1914 McCay further developed his
character animation style in his best-known animated work, Gertie the Dinosaur.
Neo-Impressionism is a term coined by French art critic
Félix Fénéon in 1886 to describe an art movement founded by
Georges Seurat, whose most renowned masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, marked the beginning of this movement when it was first exhibited in Paris. Around this time, the peak of France's modern era emerged and many painters were in search of new methods. Followers of Neo-Impressionism, in particular, were drawn to modern urban scenes as well as landscapes and seashores. Science-based interpretation of lines and colors influenced Neo-Impressionists' characterization of their own contemporary art. The
Pointillist and
Divisionist techniques are often mentioned in this context, because it was the dominant technique in the beginning of the Neo-impressionist movement.
This picture is a oil-on-canvas portrait of Félix Fénéon in the Neo-Impressionist style by French painter
Paul Signac, dated 1890. The painting is now in the collection of the
Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
An example of contre-jour (
French for "against the day light")
photography, when the
camera is pointing towards the
light source. In this picture, the light reflecting off the ground within the tunnel gives depth to an otherwise two-dimensional image. Image taken in São Martinho do Porto, west coast of
Portugal, 1968.
Apollo and Daphne is a life-sized
Baroque marble sculpture by the Italian artist
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, created between 1622 and 1625. Housed in the
Galleria Borghese in Rome as part of the
Borghese Collection, the work depicts the climax of the story of
Apollo and Daphne in
Ovid's Metamorphoses. Apollo clutches Daphne's hip, pursuing her as she flees from him. Apollo wears a laurel crown, and Daphne is portrayed halfway through her metamorphosis from human form into the
laurel tree, with her arms already transforming into its branches as she flees and calls to her father to save her from Apollo.
La forza del destino (The Power of Fate or The Force of Destiny) is an Italian opera by
Giuseppe Verdi. The
libretto was written by
Francesco Maria Piave and is based on a Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino by
Ángel de Saavedra, 3rd Duke of Rivas. The complex plot revolves around whether it is possible for the protagonists to escape their destiny, and the opera concludes with most of the main characters dead. In this poster, illustrated by
Charles Lecocq, Leonora has just been fatally stabbed by her brother, Carlos, to whom she had run after he was mortally injured in a duel with Alvaro, the suitor from whom she had become separated after they had eloped together.
Apollo and Daphne is a life-sized
Baroque marble sculpture by the Italian artist
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, created between 1622 and 1625. Housed in the
Galleria Borghese in Rome as part of the
Borghese Collection, the work depicts the climax of the story of
Apollo and Daphne in
Ovid's Metamorphoses. Apollo clutches Daphne's hip, pursuing her as she flees from him. Apollo wears a laurel crown, and Daphne is portrayed halfway through her metamorphosis from human form into the
laurel tree, with her arms already transforming into its branches as she flees and calls to her father to save her from Apollo.
A still life is a work of art depicting inanimate subject matter, typically either natural things such as flowers, dead animals, food, rocks or shells, or man-made objects. As a genre, still-life painting began with
Netherlandish painting in the 16th and 17th centuries. The wealthy
Dutch Empire's trade enabled the importation of spices, sugar and exotic fruits into the country, and new ingredients such as dates, rice, cinnamon, ginger, nuts, and saffron became available. This oil-on-panel still life from the 1620s by the Flemish artist
Osias Beert is entitled Dishes with Oysters, Fruit, and Wine, and includes a rare early depiction of sugar in art. The painting now hangs in the
National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
A Negress is an 1884 oil-on-canvas painting by the Polish artist
Anna Bilińska-Bohdanowicz, depicting an unknown model. The subject is portrayed from the waist up and dressed in a white robe, but is part naked, with one breast exposed. The
Japanese hand fan and the source of light that illuminates the figure and is reflected by highlights in the gold
bijoux, create a warm and chamber-like atmosphere. Painted in Paris, the painting
was looted during World War II. It was returned to the collection of the
National Museum in Warsaw in 2012.
The phenakistiscope was the first widespread animation device that created a fluent illusion of motion. A series of pictures showing sequential phases of the animation are seen through small slots spaced evenly around the rim of a disc. The user would spin the disc and look through the moving slits at the images reflected in a mirror, seeing a rapid succession of images that appear to be a single moving picture. This animation shows one such phenakistiscope disc, entitled Running rats, created by
Thomas Mann Baynes in 1833.