Interest in Leonardo has never diminished. The crowds still queue to see his most famous artworks, T-shirts bear his most famous drawing, and writers continue to marvel at his genius and speculate about his private life and, particularly, about what one so intelligent actually believed in.
Giorgio Vasari, in the enlarged edition of Lives of the Artists, 1568, introduced his chapter on Leonardo da Vinci with the following words:
In the normal course of events many men and women are born with remarkable talents; but occasionally, in a way that transcends nature, a single person is marvellously endowed by Heaven with beauty, grace and talent in such abundance that he leaves other men far behind, all his actions seem inspired and indeed everything he does clearly comes from God rather than from human skill. Everyone acknowledged that this was true of Leonardo da Vinci, an artist of outstanding physical beauty, who displayed infinite grace in everything that he did and who cultivated his genius so brilliantly that all problems he studied he solved with ease.
Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts
A French painter was highly acclaimed by art critics in 1964. What they didn't know is that the artist was actually a chimpanzee
In 1964 an art exhibition was held in the Swedish city of Göteborg. The work of previously unknown French painter, Pierre Brassau, attracted much attention. Art critic Rolf Anderberg wrote in the morning Posten: "Pierre Brassau paints with powerful strokes but also with clean determination. His brush strokes twist with a furious fastidiousness on the canvas ... Pierre is an artist who performs with the delicacy of a ballet dancer." One private collector bought Brassau's painting for $90 (equivalent to $500- $1000 in 2006).
Pierre Brassau turned out to be an ape.
Two pranksters, Åke "Dacke" Axelsson (a journalist) and Yngve Funkegård (an artist) gave a brush and paints to the chimp, named Peter, from local Borås zoo. The ape took to art like duck to water. The pranksters hung his work in a gallery under the brush name of Pierre Brassau.
When the hoax was revealed, art critic Anderberg still insisted that Pierre's work, was the best painting in the exhibition. Not everyone was fooled by the monkey work however. Another art critic wrote: "Only an ape could have done this." And what about you? Can you tell an immortal masterpiece of abstract art from monkey work?
A poet goes to jail 15 years for "offensive verse".
The poet Al-Ajami from Qatar received a 15 year prison sentence for a poem published online on 2010 where he gaive his opinion of what a good leader should be like.
During the last year, dozens of people have been arrested for insulting political leader through the social media in different Middle East countries.
During the last year, dozens of people have been arrested for insulting political leader through the social media in different Middle East countries.
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