Kufa mosque Iraq Najaf مسجد الكوفة العراق النجف on Flickr.
Kufa mosque
Iraq Najaf
مسجد الكوفة
العراق النجف
Inspirations from the past and the present, and other mundane things. This blog is a compilation of things I enjoy, and some occassional ramblings of discontent.
I'm an uncool 22 year old living in Southern California.
Michelangelo, The Sistine Chapel ceiling, 1508-12
The Belvedere Torso, Adam, The Delphic Sybil, Jonah
It all began when Pope Julius II discovered a crack in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and decided to have the whole thing repainted. Michelangelo was chosen after much resistance. He objected and cried out ‘Painting is not my trade!’ …for Michelangelo felt himself a sculptor, not a fresco painter. And this meant abandoning his beloved work on the sculptural programme for the monumental tomb of Julius II. He had no choice.
For four years he worked hard on the ceiling. After the first year, in 1509, he wrote to his father…’I myself am quite concerned, for this Pope hasn’t given me a single grosso for a whole year, and I am not asking for any, for my work is not progressing in such a way as to make me think that I deserve anything. This is due to the difficulty of the work, and also to the fact that this is not my profession. I am wasting my time fruitlessly. God help me.’
Michelangelo had been looking at the classical sculptures in the Belvedere courtyard of the Vatican. Look at the Belvedere Torso…now look at Adam. Turn it on its side and reverse it. He is the Belvedere Torso.
Look how the Delphic Sybil twists and turns in a complex new pose full of dynamism and movement. This is new. Look at the foreshortening of Jonah. A monumental new figure type. To name but a few innovations…
He triumphed. He created a grandiose pictorial scheme unprecedented. It was complex. It was genius. A new heroic language. A radical new vision. It takes one’s breath away again and again…
(via caravaggista)
"I’ve been quite fascinated by the relative insignificance of human existence, the shortness of life. We might as well be a letter in a word in a sentence on a page in a book in a library in a city in one country in this enormous universe! And that kind of fear and insignificance has kept me awake at night. I feel like it must be universal. Everybody must know that somewhere."
On Death, Laura Marling
01st
June
June
© Gökşin Sipahioğlu, 1962, Havana / Cuba
“During the missile crisis, Castro ordered all Cubans to defend the capital. Dressed as usual in skirt, high heels and with hair curlers anticipating an evening out, this young woman with gun guards a bank.”
Gökşin Sipahioğlu, the celebrated Turkish photojournalist has died today at the age of 84. He made his name in October 1962 when he was the only western photographer in Havana during the Cuban missile crisis. In 1973, he co-founded, with his partner Phyllis Springer, the Sipa Press agency, which specialised - and still does today - in international news. (via BJP)
Rolos & Rifles.
