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Dramatic North American Rockwell artist's concept from 1969, depicting docked & approaching/departing "DC-3" shuttles at an orbiting space station. The shuttle design was developed, patented and promoted by renowned NASA Engineer, Dr. Maxime Faget. Note the air-breathing engines visible atop the wings of the foreground shuttle.
Although there's no visible signature, I'm pretty sure it's by Henry Lozano Jr., North American Aviation/North American Rockwell artist/illustrator extraordinaire.
In fact, Mr. Lozano was 1970 President of the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles (SILA):
Credit: SILA website
See also:
Credit: John Sisson/Dreams of Space - Books and Ephemera blogspot
Additional information and low resolution version of the image:
forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/127839-maxi...
Credit: KERBAL SPACE PROGRAM website/LOTS of cool stuff at this website btw.
Also:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_DC-3
Credit Wikipedia
The vehicle appears to be a variant:
Credit: Space Exploration Stack Exchange website
The following exemplifies a golden nugget, i.e., "WIN", that keeps me going down rabbit hole after rabbit hole after rabbit hole:
kssunews.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/previously-unseen-space...
Credit: Sacramento State/Associated Students, Inc. blogsite
Lastly, I had no idea there were this many designs/proposals & variations, wow:
io9.gizmodo.com/early-design-specs-show-the-space-shuttle...
Credit: Gizmodo website
Finally:
www.gettyimages.no/detail/news-photo/giant-winged-shuttle...
Just like most of the two-dozen or so surviving Adonis sarcophagi, the sarcophagus relief contains three scenes showing Adonis’ farewell to Aphrodite, the boar injuring him, and Aphrodite tending the dying Adonis. However, the episodes are not illustrated in the order they have in the myth, because the ‘tending’ scene has been placed in the center of the frieze. It is only in this scene that Aphrodite and Adonis have been given portrait features; in the other scenes they have ‘ideal’ faces.
The upper frieze depicting the Oedipus’ myth is not pertinent to the Adonis’ sarcophagus.
Adonis’ Myth:
Adonis’ birth is the result of a terrible incest: Myrrha falls in love with her own father and is made pregnant by him. She is forced to flee and wanders despairing through the world until a god hears her entreaties and turns Myrrha into the tree that takes her name.
According to the myth, the name Adonis means “who sprang from a myrrh tree”. He was so handsome that he conquered even the goddess of love herself. In vain she warned her beloved, a passionate hunter, to take care: during a hunt Adonis was wounded by a boar and died (Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.301—559, 707—39).
Vatican Adonis’ Sarcophagus:
The central wound-tending scene has been drastically recast as a representative, almost ceremonial image: an enthroned Aphrodite and her mortal lover sit next to each other like a pair of statues, in a curtained-off inner room. Adonis sits there rigid and his posture makes the disaster appear rather minor. A cupid kneeling at the feet of the hero is washing his bloodied leg over a basin, while,. In addition, an old man with a beard is pressing a sponge onto the thigh-wound in a somewhat formal and uninvolved manner. The reason for this change to the wound-tending scene is plain: the heads of Adonis and his beloved have been given the portrait features of a Roman couple, who wanted to make clear their virtues and their deep bond. The youthful features of this ‘Adonis’ could suggest that—as in the myth—he died before his wife, from an accident or illness, and that she may well still have been alive when the sarcophagus was made.
The left third of the frieze shows Adonis bidding farewell to Aphrodite as he departs for the hunt, which we have seen before. Aphrodite holds out her right arm as if she is speaking, and at the same time touches the breast of her beloved; Adonis has his right hand, holding an ear of corn, resting on her knee. A servant leading the horse is already beginning to move off and has turned to look back at the couple; the head of another servant is visible in the background.
The tragic hunting accident is illustrated in the right-hand third of the frieze. Adonis, his left arm raised in defense and carrying his spear in his right hand, has collapsed wounded. Two hunting companions are trying in vain to fight off the boar with stones and spears. A cupid is beckoning to Aphrodite, who is rushing out of the gates of her palace, gesturing in horror as she realizes what has happened. She appears just in time to witness the disaster, but too late to prevent it. Even the mountain god sitting in the upper corner of the image has lifted his right arm in horror.
The portraits of the couple in the central scene belong to the middle-to-late Severan period, and date the sarcophagus to around the year 220; the portrait of the ‘Aphrodite’ is very comparable to the likeness of Iulia Maesa (sister-in-law of the emperor Septimus Severus).
The sarcophagus was found along with a Hippolytus sarcophagus made in the same Roman workshop, in the so-called Tomb of the Pancratii on the Via Latina in Rome. The sarcophagi were probably originally used for members of the same family.
Source: Zanker P. & Ewald BC., Living the Myths: The Imagery of Roman Sarcophagi
Marble sarcophagus
Ca. 220 AD
Vatican City State, Vatican Museums, Museo Gregoriano Profano
In the top register, five girls are engaged respectively in the wheel rotation (only the legs remain), the long jump with weights in hand, the discus throw, and the run.
In the lower register, two girls are playing ball; a girl is awarded the victory palm, and a girl with a wheel in her hand is about to be rewarded by a young girl wearing a gold cloak and holding a wreath and palm leaf.
Tulips are spring-blooming perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes (having bulbs as storage organs) in the Tulipa genus. Their flowers are usually large, showy, and brightly coloured, generally red, orange, pink, yellow, or white (usually in warm colours). They often have a different coloured blotch at the base of the tepals (petals and sepals, collectively), internally. Because of a degree of variability within the populations and a long history of cultivation, classification has been complex and controversial. The tulip is a member of the lily family, Liliaceae, along with 14 other genera, where it is most closely related to Amana, Erythronium, and Gagea in the tribe Lilieae.
There are about seventy-five species, and these are divided among four subgenera. The name "tulip" is thought to be derived from a Persian word for turban, which it may have been thought to resemble by those who discovered it. Tulips were originally found in a band stretching from Southern Europe to Central Asia, but since the seventeenth century have become widely naturalised and cultivated (see map). In their natural state, they are adapted to steppes and mountainous areas with temperate climates. Flowering in the spring, they become dormant in the summer once the flowers and leaves die back, emerging above ground as a shoot from the underground bulb in early spring.
Growing wild over much of the Near East and Central Asia, tulips had probably been cultivated in Persia from the 10th century. By the 15th century, tulips were among the most prized flowers; becoming the symbol of the later Ottomans. Tulips were cultivated in Byzantine Constantinople as early as 1055 but they did not come to the attention of Northern Europeans until the sixteenth century, when Northern European diplomats to the Ottoman court observed and reported on them. They were rapidly introduced into Northern Europe and became a much-sought-after commodity during tulip mania. Tulips were frequently depicted in Dutch Golden Age paintings, and have become associated with the Netherlands, the major producer for world markets, ever since. In the seventeenth-century Netherlands, during the time of the tulip mania, an infection of tulip bulbs by the tulip breaking virus created variegated patterns in the tulip flowers that were much admired and valued. While truly broken tulips are not cultivated anymore, the closest available specimens today are part of the group known as the Rembrandts – so named because Rembrandt painted some of the most admired breaks of his time.
Breeding programmes have produced thousands of hybrid and cultivars in addition to the original species (known in horticulture as botanical tulips). They are popular throughout the world, both as ornamental garden plants and as cut flowers.
Description
Tulip morphology
Collection of tulip bulbs, some sliced to show interior scales
Bulbs, showing tunic and scales
Flower of Tulipa orphanidea, showing cup shape
Cup-shaped flower of Tulipa orphanidea
Photograph of Tulipa clusiana, showing six identical tepals (petals and sepals)
Star-shaped flower of Tulipa clusiana with three sepals and three petals, forming six identical tepals
Tulips are perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes that bloom in spring and die back after flowering to an underground storage bulb. Depending on the species, tulip plants can be between 10 and 70 cm (4 and 28 inches) high.
Tulip stems have few leaves. Larger species tend to have multiple leaves. Plants typically have two to six leaves, some species up to 12. The tulip's leaf is cauline (born on a stem), strap-shaped, with a waxy coating, and the leaves are alternate (alternately arranged on the stem), diminishing in size the further up the stem. These fleshy blades are often bluish-green in colour. The bulbs are truncated basally and elongated towards the apex. They are covered by a protective tunic (tunicate) which can be glabrous or hairy inside.
Flowers
The tulip's flowers are usually large and are actinomorphic (radially symmetric) and hermaphrodite (contain both male (androecium) and female (gynoecium) characteristics), generally erect, or more rarely pendulous, and are arranged more usually as a single terminal flower, or when pluriflor as two to three (e.g. Tulipa turkestanica), but up to four, flowers on the end of a floriferous stem (scape), which is single arising from amongst the basal leaf rosette. In structure, the flower is generally cup or star-shaped. As with other members of Liliaceae the perianth is undifferentiated (perigonium) and biseriate (two whorled), formed from six free (i.e. apotepalous) caducous tepals arranged into two separate whorls of three parts (trimerous) each. The two whorls represent three petals and three sepals, but are termed tepals because they are nearly identical. The tepals are usually petaloid (petal-like), being brightly coloured, but each whorl may be different, or have different coloured blotches at their bases, forming darker colouration on the interior surface. The inner petals have a small, delicate cleft at the top, while the sturdier outer ones form uninterrupted ovals.
The flowers have six distinct, basifixed introrse stamens arranged in two whorls of three, which vary in length and may be glabrous or hairy. The filaments are shorter than the tepals and dilated towards their base. The style is short or absent and each stigma has three distinct lobes, and the ovaries are superior, with three chambers.
Colours
The "Semper Augustus" was the most expensive tulip during the 17th-century tulip mania. “The colour is white, with Carmine on a blue base, and with an unbroken flame right to the top” – wrote Nicolas van Wassenaer in 1624 after seeing the tulip in the garden of one Dr Adriaen Pauw, a director of the new East India Company. With limited specimens in existence at the time and most owned by Pauw, his refusal to sell any flowers, despite wildly escalating offers, is believed by some to have sparked the mania.
Tulip flowers come in a wide variety of colours, except pure blue (several tulips with "blue" in the name have a faint violet hue), and have absent nectaries. Tulip flowers are generally bereft of scent and are the coolest of floral characters. The Dutch regarded this lack of scent as a virtue, as it demonstrates the flower's chasteness.
While tulips can be bred to display a wide variety of colours, black tulips have historically been difficult to achieve. The Queen of the Night tulip is as close to black as a flower gets, though it is, in fact, a dark and glossy maroonish purple - nonetheless, an effect prized by the Dutch. The first truly black tulip was bred in 1986 by a Dutch flower grower in Bovenkarspel, Netherlands. The specimen was created by cross-breeding two deep purple tulips, the Queen of the Night and Wienerwald tulips.
Fruit
The tulip's fruit is a globose or ellipsoid capsule with a leathery covering and an ellipsoid to globe shape. Each capsule contains numerous flat, disc-shaped seeds in two rows per chamber These light to dark brown seeds have very thin seed coats and endosperm that do not normally fill the entire seed.
Phytochemistry
Tulipanin is an anthocyanin found in tulips. It is the 3-rutinoside of delphinidin. The chemical compounds named tuliposides and tulipalins can also be found in tulips and are responsible for allergies. Tulipalin A, or α-methylene-γ-butyrolactone, is a common allergen, generated by hydrolysis of the glucoside tuliposide A. It induces a dermatitis that is mostly occupational and affects tulip bulb sorters and florists who cut the stems and leaves. Tulipanin A and B are toxic to horses, cats and dogs. The colour of a tulip is formed from two pigments working in concert; a base colour that is always yellow or white, and a second laid-on anthocyanin colour. The mix of these two hues determines the visible unitary colour. The breaking of flowers occurs when a virus suppresses anthocyanin and the base colour is exposed as a streak.
Fragrance
The great majority of tulips, both species and cultivars, have no discernable scent, but a few of both are scented to a degree, and Anna Pavord describes T. Hungarica as "strongly scented", and among cultivars, some such as "Monte Carlo" and "Brown Sugar" are "scented", and "Creme Upstar" "fragrant".
Taxonomy
Main article: Taxonomy of Tulipa
Tulipa is a genus of the lily family, Liliaceae, once one of the largest families of monocots, but which molecular phylogenetics has reduced to a monophyletic grouping with only 15 genera. Within Liliaceae, Tulipa is placed within Lilioideae, one of three subfamilies, with two tribes. Tribe Lilieae includes seven other genera in addition to Tulipa.
Subdivision
The genus, which includes about 75 species, is divided into four subgenera.
Clusianae (4 species)
Orithyia (4 species)
Tulipa (52 species)
Eriostemones (16 species)
Etymology
The word tulip, first mentioned in western Europe in or around 1554 and seemingly derived from the "Turkish Letters" of diplomat Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, first appeared in English as tulipa or tulipant, entering the language by way of French: tulipe and its obsolete form tulipan or by way of Modern Latin tulipa, from Ottoman Turkish tülbend ("muslin" or "gauze"), and may be ultimately derived from the Persian: دلبند delband ("Turban"), this name being applied because of a perceived resemblance of the shape of a tulip flower to that of a turban. This may have been due to a translation error in early times when it was fashionable in the Ottoman Empire to wear tulips on turbans. The translator possibly confused the flower for the turban.
Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq stated that the "Turks" used the word tulipan to describe the flower. Extensive speculation has tried to understand why he would state this, given that the Turkish word for tulip is lale. It is from this speculation that tulipan being a translation error referring to turbans is derived. This etymology has been challenged and makes no assumptions about possible errors. At no point does Busbecq state this was the word used in Turkey, he simply states it was used by the "Turks". On his way to Constantinople Busbecq states he travelled through Hungary and used Hungarian guides. Until recent times "Turk" was a common term when referring to Hungarians. The word tulipan is in fact the Hungarian word for tulip. As long as one recognizes "Turk" as a reference to Hungarians, no amount of speculation is required to reconcile the word's origin or form. Busbecq may have been simply repeating the word used by his "Turk/Hungarian" guides.
The Hungarian word tulipan may be adopted from an Indo-Aryan reference to the tulip as a symbol of resurrection, tala meaning "bottom or underworld" and pAna meaning "defence". Prior to arriving in Europe the Hungarians, and other Finno-Ugrians, embraced the Indo-Iranian cult of the dead, Yima/Yama, and would have been familiar with all of its symbols including the tulip.
Distribution and habitat
Map from Turkmenistan to Tien-Shan
Eastern end of the tulip range from Turkmenistan on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea to the Pamir-Alai and Tien-Shan mountains
Tulips are mainly distributed along a band corresponding to latitude 40° north, from southeast of Europe (Greece, Albania, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Southern Serbia, Bulgaria, most part of Romania, Ukraine, Russia) and Turkey in the west, through the Levant (Syria, Israel, Palestinian Territories, Lebanon and Jordan) and the Sinai Peninsula. From there it extends eastwards through Jerevan (Armenia), and Baku (Azerbaijan) and on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea through Turkmenistan, Bukhara, Samarkand and Tashkent (Uzbekistan), to the eastern end of the range in the Pamir-Alai and Tien-Shan mountains in Central Asia, which form the centre of diversity. Further to the east, Tulipa is found in the western Himalayas, southern Siberia, Inner Mongolia, and as far as the northwest of China. While authorities have stated that no tulips west of the Balkans are native, subsequent identification of Tulipa sylvestris subsp. australis as a native of the Iberian peninsula and adjacent North Africa shows that this may be a simplification. In addition to these regions in the west tulips have been identified in Greece, Cyprus and the Balkans. In the south, Iran marks its furthest extent, while the northern limit is Ukraine. Although tulips are also throughout most of the Mediterranean and Europe, these regions do not form part of the natural distribution. Tulips were brought to Europe by travellers and merchants from Anatolia and Central Asia for cultivation, from where they escaped and naturalised (see map). For instance, less than half of those species found in Turkey are actually native. These have been referred to as neo-tulipae.
Tulips are indigenous to mountainous areas with temperate climates, where they are a common element of steppe and winter-rain Mediterranean vegetation. They thrive in climates with long, cool springs and dry summers. Tulips are most commonly found in meadows, steppes and chaparral, but also introduced in fields, orchards, roadsides and abandoned gardens.
Ecology
Variegation produced by the tulip breaking virus
Botrytis tulipae is a major fungal disease affecting tulips, causing cell death and eventually the rotting of the plant. Other pathogens include anthracnose, bacterial soft rot, blight caused by Sclerotium rolfsii, bulb nematodes, other rots including blue molds, black molds and mushy rot.
The fungus Trichoderma viride can infect tulips, producing dried leaf tips and reduced growth, although symptoms are usually mild and only present on bulbs growing in glasshouses.[citation needed]
Variegated tulips admired during the Dutch tulipomania gained their delicately feathered patterns from an infection with the tulip breaking virus, a mosaic virus that was carried by the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae. While the virus produces fantastically streaked flowers, it also weakens plants and reduces the number of offsets produced. Dutch growers would go to extraordinary lengths during tulipomania to make tulips break, borrowing alchemists’ techniques and resorting to sprinkling paint powders of the desired hue or pigeon droppings onto flower roots.
Tulips affected by the mosaic virus are called "broken"; while such plants can occasionally revert to a plain or solid colouring, they will remain infected and have to be destroyed. Today the virus is almost eradicated from tulip growers' fields. The multicoloured patterns of modern varieties result from breeding; they normally have solid, un-feathered borders between the colours.
Tulip growth is also dependent on temperature conditions. Slightly germinated plants show greater growth if subjected to a period of cool dormancy, known as vernalisation. Furthermore, although flower development is induced at warmer temperatures (20–25 °C or 68–77 °F), elongation of the flower stalk and proper flowering is dependent on an extended period of low temperature (< 10 °C or 50 °F). Tulip bulbs imported to warm-winter areas are often planted in autumn to be treated as annuals.
The colour of tulip flowers also varies with growing conditions.
Cultivation
History
Islamic World
Tulipa sylvestris subsp. australis[a] with seedpod by Sydenham Edwards (1804)
Cultivation of the tulip began in Iran (Persia), probably in the 10th century. Early cultivars must have emerged from hybridisation in gardens from wild collected plants, which were then favoured, possibly due to flower size or growth vigour. The tulip is not mentioned by any writer from antiquity, therefore it seems probable that tulips were introduced into Anatolia only with the advance of the Seljuks. In the Ottoman Empire, numerous types of tulips were cultivated and bred, and today, 14 species can still be found in Turkey. Tulips are mentioned by Omar Kayam and Jalāl ad-Dīn Rûmi. Species of tulips in Turkey typically come in red, less commonly in white or yellow. The Ottoman Turks had discovered that these wild tulips were great changelings, freely hybridizing (though it takes 7 years to show colour) but also subject to mutations that produced spontaneous changes in form and colour.
A paper by Arthur Baker[31] reports that in 1574, Sultan Selim II ordered the Kadi of A‘azāz in Syria to send him 50,000 tulip bulbs. However, John Harvey points out several problems with this source, and there is also the possibility that tulips and hyacinth (sümbüll), originally Indian spikenard (Nardostachys jatamansi) have been confused. Sultan Selim also imported 300,000 bulbs of Kefe Lale (also known as Cafe-Lale, from the medieval name Kaffa, probably Tulipa schrenkii) from Kefe in Crimea, for his gardens in the Topkapı Sarayı in Istanbul.
It is also reported that shortly after arriving in Constantinople in 1554, Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq, ambassador of the Austrian Habsburgs to the court of Suleyman the Magnificent, claimed to have introduced the tulip to Europe by sending a consignment of bulbs west. The fact that the tulip's first official trip west took it from one court to the other could have contributed to its ascendency.
Sultan Ahmet III maintained famous tulip gardens in the summer highland pastures (Yayla) at Spil Dağı above the town of Manisa. They seem to have consisted of wild tulips. However, of the 14 tulip species known from Turkey, only four are considered to be of local origin, so wild tulips from Iran and Central Asia may have been brought into Turkey during the Seljuk and especially Ottoman periods. Also, Sultan Ahmet imported domestic tulip bulbs from the Netherlands.
The gardening book Revnak'ı Bostan (Beauty of the Garden) by Sahibül Reis ülhaç Ibrahim Ibn ülhaç Mehmet, written in 1660 does not mention the tulip at all, but contains advice on growing hyacinths and lilies. However, there is considerable confusion of terminology, and tulips may have been subsumed under hyacinth, a mistake several European botanists were to perpetuate. In 1515, the scholar Qasim from Herat in contrast had identified both wild and garden tulips (lale) as anemones (shaqayq al-nu'man), but described the crown imperial as laleh kakli.
In a Turkic text written before 1495, the Chagatay Husayn Bayqarah mentions tulips (lale). Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire, also names tulips in the Baburnama. He may actually have introduced them from Afghanistan to the plains of India, as he did with other plants like melons and grapes. The tulip represents the official symbol of Turkey.
In Moorish Andalus, a "Makedonian bulb" (basal al-maqdunis) or "bucket-Narcissus" (naryis qadusi) was cultivated as an ornamental plant in gardens. It was supposed to have come from Alexandria and may have been Tulipa sylvestris, but the identification is not wholly secure.
Introduction to Western Europe
Tulip cultivation in the Netherlands
The Keukenhof in Lisse, Netherlands
Although it is unknown who first brought the tulip to Northwestern Europe, the most widely accepted story is that it was Oghier Ghislain de Busbecq, an ambassador for Emperor Ferdinand I to Suleyman the Magnificent. According to a letter, he saw "an abundance of flowers everywhere; Narcissus, hyacinths and those in Turkish called Lale, much to our astonishment because it was almost midwinter, a season unfriendly to flowers." However, in 1559, an account by Conrad Gessner describes tulips flowering in Augsburg, Swabia in the garden of Councillor Heinrich Herwart. In Central and Northern Europe, tulip bulbs are generally removed from the ground in June and must be replanted by September for the winter.[citation needed] It is doubtful that Busbecq could have had the tulip bulbs harvested, shipped to Germany and replanted between March 1558 and Gessner's description the following year. Pietro Andrea Mattioli illustrated a tulip in 1565 but identified it as a narcissus.
Carolus Clusius is largely responsible for the spread of tulip bulbs in the final years of the 16th century; he planted tulips at the Vienna Imperial Botanical Gardens in 1573. He finished the first major work on tulips in 1592 and made note of the colour variations. After he was appointed the director of the Leiden University's newly established Hortus Botanicus, he planted both a teaching garden and his private garden with tulips in late 1593. Thus, 1594 is considered the date of the tulip's first flowering in the Netherlands, despite reports of the cultivation of tulips in private gardens in Antwerp and Amsterdam two or three decades earlier. These tulips at Leiden would eventually lead to both the tulip mania and the tulip industry in the Netherlands. Over two raids, in 1596 and in 1598, more than one hundred bulbs were stolen from his garden.
Tulips spread rapidly across Europe, and more opulent varieties such as double tulips were already known in Europe by the early 17th century. These curiosities fitted well in an age when natural oddities were cherished especially in the Netherlands, France, Germany and England, where the spice trade with the East Indies had made many people wealthy. Nouveaux riches seeking wealthy displays embraced the exotic plant market, especially in the Low Countries where gardens had become fashionable. A craze for bulbs soon grew in France, where in the early 17th century, entire properties were exchanged as payment for a single tulip bulb. The value of the flower gave it an aura of mystique, and numerous publications describing varieties in lavish garden manuals were published, cashing in on the value of the flower. An export business was built up in France, supplying Dutch, Flemish, German and English buyers. The trade drifted slowly from the French to the Dutch.
Between 1634 and 1637, the enthusiasm for the new flowers in Holland triggered a speculative frenzy now known as the tulip mania that eventually led to the collapse of the market three years later. Tulip bulbs had become so expensive that they were treated as a form of currency, or rather, as futures, forcing the Dutch government to introduce trading restrictions on the bulbs. Around this time, the ceramic tulipiere was devised for the display of cut flowers stem by stem. Vases and bouquets, usually including tulips, often appeared in Dutch still-life painting. To this day, tulips are associated with the Netherlands, and the cultivated forms of the tulip are often called "Dutch tulips". The Netherlands has the world's largest permanent display of tulips at the Keukenhof.
The majority of tulip cultivars are classified in the taxon Tulipa ×gesneriana. They have usually several species in their direct background, but most have been derived from Tulipa suaveolens (today often regarded as a synonym with Tulipa schrenkii). Tulipa ×gesneriana is in itself an early hybrid of complex origin and is probably not the same taxon as was described by Conrad Gessner in the 16th century.
The UK's National Collection of English florists' tulips and Dutch historic tulips, dating from the early 17th century to c. 1960, is held by Polly Nicholson at Blackland House, near Calne in Wiltshire.
Introduction to the United States
The Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden
It is believed the first tulips in the United States were grown near Spring Pond at the Fay Estate in Lynn and Salem, Massachusetts. From 1847 to 1865, Richard Sullivan Fay, Esq., one of Lynn's wealthiest men, settled on 500 acres (2 km2; 202 ha) located partly in present-day Lynn and partly in present-day Salem. Mr. Fay imported many different trees and plants from all parts of the world and planted them among the meadows of the Fay Estate.
Propagation
Tulip pistil surrounded by stamens
Tulip stamen with pollen grains
The reproductive organs of a tulip
The Netherlands is the world's main producer of commercial tulip plants, producing as many as 3 billion bulbs annually, the majority for export.
"Unlike many flower species, tulips do not produce nectar to entice insect pollination. Instead, tulips rely on wind and land animals to move their pollen between reproductive organs. Because they are self-pollinating, they do not need the pollen to move several feet to another plant but only within their blossoms."
Tulips can be propagated through bulb offsets, seeds or micropropagation. Offsets and tissue culture methods are means of asexual propagation for producing genetic clones of the parent plant, which maintains cultivar genetic integrity. Seeds are most often used to propagate species and subspecies or to create new hybrids. Many tulip species can cross-pollinate with each other, and when wild tulip populations overlap geographically with other tulip species or subspecies, they often hybridise and create mixed populations. Most commercial tulip cultivars are complex hybrids, and often sterile.
Offsets require a year or more of growth before plants are large enough to flower. Tulips grown from seeds often need five to eight years before plants are of flowering size. To prevent cross-pollination, increase the growth rate of bulbs and increase the vigour and size of offsets, the flower and stems of a field of commercial tulips are usually topped using large tractor-mounted mowing heads. The same goals can be achieved by a private gardener by clipping the stem and flower of an individual specimen. Commercial growers usually harvest the tulip bulbs in late summer and grade them into sizes; bulbs large enough to flower are sorted and sold, while smaller bulbs are sorted into sizes and replanted for sale in the future.
Because tulip bulbs don't reliably come back every year, tulip varieties that fall out of favour with present aesthetic values have traditionally gone extinct. Unlike other flowers that do not suffer this same limitation, the Tulip's historical forms do not survive alongside their modern incarnations.
Horticultural classification
'Gavota', a division 3 cultivar
'Yonina', a division 6 cultivar
'Texas Flame', a division 10 cultivar
In horticulture, tulips are divided into fifteen groups (Divisions) mostly based on flower morphology and plant size.
Div. 1: Single early – with cup-shaped single flowers, no larger than 8 cm (3 inches) across. They bloom early to mid-season. Growing 15 to 45 cm (6 to 18 inches) tall.
Div. 2: Double early – with fully double flowers, bowl shaped to 8 cm (3 inches) across. Plants typically grow from 30–40 cm (12–16 inches) tall.
Div. 3: Triumph – single, cup shaped flowers up to 6 cm (2.5 inches) wide. Plants grow 35–60 cm (14–24 inches) tall and bloom mid to late season.
Div. 4: Darwin hybrid – single flowers are ovoid in shape and up to 6 cm (2.5 inches) wide. Plants grow 50–70 cm (20–28 inches) tall and bloom mid to late season. This group should not be confused with older Darwin tulips, which belong in the Single Late Group below.
Div. 5: Single late – cup or goblet-shaped flowers up to 8 cm (3 inches) wide, some plants produce multi-flowering stems. Plants grow 45–75 cm (18–30 inches) tall and bloom late season.
Div. 6: Lily-flowered – the flowers possess a distinct narrow 'waist' with pointed and reflexed petals. Previously included with the old Darwins, only became a group in their own right in 1958.
Div. 7: Fringed (Crispa) – cup or goblet-shaped blossoms edged with spiked or crystal-like fringes, sometimes called “tulips for touch” because of the temptation to “test” the fringes to see if they are real or made of glass. Perennials with a tendency to naturalize in woodland areas, growing 45–65 cm (18–26 inches) tall and blooming in late season.
Div. 8: Viridiflora
Div. 9: Rembrandt
Div. 10: Parrot
Div. 11: Double late – Large, heavy blooms. They range from 46 to 56 cm (18 to 22 inches) tall.
Div. 12: Kaufmanniana – Waterlily tulip. Medium-large creamy yellow flowers marked red on the outside and yellow at the centre. Stems 15 cm (6 inches) tall.
Div. 13: Fosteriana (Emperor)
Div. 14: Greigii – Scarlet flowers 15 cm (6 inches) across, on 15-centimetre (6 in) stems. Foliage mottled with brown.
Div. 15: Species or Botanical – The terms "species tulips" and "botanical tulips" refer to wild species in contrast to hybridised varieties. As a group they have been described as being less ostentatious but more reliably vigorous as they age.
Div. 16: Multiflowering – not an official division, these tulips belong in the first 15 divisions but are often listed separately because they have multiple blooms per bulb.
They may also be classified by their flowering season:
Early flowering: Single Early Tulips, Double Early Tulips, Greigii Tulips, Kaufmanniana Tulips, Fosteriana Tulips, § Species tulips
Mid-season flowering: Darwin Hybrid Tulips, Triumph Tulips, Parrot Tulips
Late season flowering: Single Late Tulips, Double Late Tulips, Viridiflora Tulips, Lily-flowering Tulips, Fringed (Crispa) Tulips, Rembrandt Tulips
Neo-tulipae
Tulip Bulb Depth
Tulip bulb planting depth 15 cm (6 inches)
A number of names are based on naturalised garden tulips and are usually referred to as neo-tulipae. These are often difficult to trace back to their original cultivar, and in some cases have been occurring in the wild for many centuries. The history of naturalisation is unknown, but populations are usually associated with agricultural practices and are possibly linked to saffron cultivation[clarification needed]. Some neo-tulipae have been brought into cultivation, and are often offered as botanical tulips. These cultivated plants can be classified into two Cultivar Groups: 'Grengiolensis Group', with picotee tepals, and the 'Didieri Group' with unicolourous tepals.
Horticulture
Tulip bulbs are typically planted around late summer and fall, in well-drained soils. Tulips should be planted 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 inches) apart from each other. The recommended hole depth is 10 to 20 cm (4 to 8 inches) deep and is measured from the top of the bulb to the surface. Therefore, larger tulip bulbs would require deeper holes. Species tulips are normally planted deeper.
Culture and politics
Iran
The celebration of Persian New Year, or Nowruz, dating back over 3,000 years, marks the advent of spring, and tulips are used as a decorative feature during the festivities.
A sixth-century legend, similar to the tale of Romeo and Juliet, tells of tulips sprouting where the blood of the young prince Farhad spilt after he killed himself upon hearing the (deliberately false) story that his true love had died.
The tulip was a topic for Persian poets from the thirteenth century. The poem Gulistan by Musharrifu'd-din Saadi, described a visionary garden paradise with "The murmur of a cool stream / bird song, ripe fruit in plenty / bright multicoloured tulips and fragrant roses...". In recent times, tulips have featured in the poems of Simin Behbahani.
The tulip is the national symbol for martyrdom in Iran[62] (and Shi'ite Islam generally), and has been used on postage stamps and coins. It was common as a symbol used in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and a red tulip adorns the flag redesigned in 1980. The sword in the centre, with four crescent-shaped petals around it, create the word "Allah" as well as symbolising the five pillars of Islam. The tomb of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini is decorated with 72 stained glass tulips, representing 72 martyrs who died at the Battle of Karbala in 680CE. It was also used as a symbol on billboards celebrating casualties of the 1980–1988 war with Iraq.[60]
The tulip also became a symbol of protest against the Iranian government after the presidential election in June 2009, when millions turned out on the streets to protest the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. After the protests were harshly suppressed, the Iranian Green Movement adopted the tulip as a symbol of their struggle.
The word for tulip in Persian is "laleh" (لاله), and this has become popular as a girl's name. The name has been used for commercial enterprises, such as the Laleh International Hotel, as well as public facilities, such as Laleh Park and Laleh Hospital, and the tulip motif remains common in Iranian culture.
Iranian 20 rial coin
Obverse with 22 tulips
Obverse with 22 tulips
Reverse with three tulips
Reverse with three tulips
In other countries and cultures
Turkish Airlines uses a grey tulip emblem on its aircraft
Tulips are called lale in Turkish (from the Persian: لاله, romanized: laleh from لال lal 'red'). When written in Arabic letters, lale has the same letters as Allah, which is why the flower became a holy symbol. It was also associated with the House of Osman, resulting in tulips being widely used in decorative motifs on tiles, mosques, fabrics, crockery, etc. in the Ottoman Empire.[6] The tulip was seen as a symbol of abundance and indulgence. The era during which the Ottoman Empire was wealthiest is often called the Tulip era or Lale Devri in Turkish.
Tulips became popular garden plants in the east and west, but, whereas the tulip in Turkish culture was a symbol of paradise on earth and had almost a divine status, in the Netherlands it represented the briefness of life.
In Christianity, tulips symbolise passion, belief and love. White tulips represent forgiveness while purple tulips represent royalty, both important aspects of Easter.[citation needed] In Calvinism, the five points of the doctrines of grace have been summarized under the acrostic TULIP.
By contrast to other flowers such as the coneflower or lotus flower, tulips have historically been capable of genetically reinventing themselves to suit changes in aesthetic values. In his 1597 herbal, John Gerard says of the tulip that "nature seems to play more with this flower than with any other that I do know". When in the Netherlands, beauty was defined by marbled swirls of vivid contrasting colours, the petals of tulips were able to become "feathered" and "flamed". However, in the 19th century, when the English desired tulips for carpet bedding and massing, the tulips were able to once again accommodate this by evolving into "paint-filled boxes with the brightest, fattest dabs of pure pigment". This inherent mutability of the tulip even led the Ottoman Turks to believe that nature cherished this flower above all others.
The Black Tulip (1850) is a historical romance by Alexandre Dumas, père. The story takes place in the Dutch city of Haarlem, where a reward is offered to the first grower who can produce a truly black tulip.[citation needed]
The tulip occurs on a number of the Major Arcana cards of occultist Oswald Wirth's deck of Tarot cards, specifically the Magician, Emperor, Temperance and the Fool, described in his 1927 work Le Tarot, des Imagiers du Moyen Âge.
Find sources: "Tulip" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Tulip festivals are held around the world, for example in the Netherlands and Spalding, England. There is also a popular festival in Morges, Switzerland. Every spring, there are tulip festivals in North America, including the Tulip Time Festival in Holland, Michigan, the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in Skagit Valley, Washington, the Tulip Time Festival in Orange City and Pella, Iowa, and the Canadian Tulip Festival in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Tulips are also popular in Australia and several festivals are held in September and October, during the Southern Hemisphere's spring. The Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden hosts an annual tulip festival which draws huge attention and has an attendance of over 200,000.
Consumption
Tulip petals are edible. The taste varies by variety and season, and is roughly similar to lettuce or other salad greens. Some people are allergic to tulips.
Tulip bulbs look similar to onions, but should not generally be considered food. The toxicity of bulbs is not well understood, nor is there an agreed-upon method of safely preparing them for human consumption. There have been reports of illness when eaten, depending on quantity. During the Dutch famine of 1944–45, tulip bulbs were eaten out of desperation, and Dutch doctors provided recipes.
Animals
As with other plants of the lily family, tulips are poisonous to domestic animals including horses, cats and dogs. In cats, ingestion of small amounts of tulips can include vomiting, depression, diarrhoea, hypersalivation, and irritation of the mouth and throat, and larger amounts can cause abdominal pain, tremors, tachycardia, convulsions, tachypnea, difficulty breathing, cardiac arrhythmia, and coma. All parts of the tulip plant are poisonous to cats, while the bulb is especially dangerous. A veterinarian should be contacted immediately if a cat has ingested tulip. In the American East, White-tailed Deer eat tulip flowers ravenously, with no apparent ill effects.
This is my entry for the Outlaws LC IX: on the move. (Build a MOC depicting your Outlaw clan traveling to one of the faction controlled locations)
Business was booming for the Wolfgang gang. The raiding of the unprotected new trade routes in southern Garheim was quite profitable: the loot itself was great, but the bonus from the local tailors was also a great addition to the profit.
As the so-called king of Roawia decided that it is time to finally cleanse the world of the "vile and dangerous practics of sorcery", the SEAL unit was called back to defend the magic islands. The outcome of the battle was as expected: the joined forces of Garheim, Lenfald and Loreos retreated defeated and ashamed.
After the fulfillment of their duties, the gang returned to Garheim to continue the good old robbing business. To their very suprise, the Garhims set up an outpost to protect the travellers and merchants with regular patrols.
As the gang was about to investigate the weaknesses of the outpost, they recognized a familiar face: Yursuff, the used camel dealer. Yursuff has a history with the gang. Wolfgang is rather happy how things turned out: an outlaw could not wish more as the revenge on Garhims and Yursuff (the alleged twin brother of the Loreesi Mark of Falworth)...
... does not depict the great or god-like but the ordinary. It shows a boy sitting with one leg resting on his other as he try to pull out a thorn from the sole of his foot.
'
There are many versions of this work, and this version, the Spinario Medici', a 1st Century AD marble version, was on loan from the Uffizi Museum.
Visible in the background is Luca Signorelli's 'St Sebastian’s Martyrdom'.
Capitoline Museum, Rome; July 2019
From Sääksmäki Church
Oil
"The painting depicts 14 members of the Speitz family. Commissioned by Hartwig Speitz (1591-1651) in memory of his father, Iagman Henrik Jacobsson (d. 1606) from Liuttula in Sääksmäki, W Finland. The male members of the family are wearing knee-length cloaks and wide breaches. The women are in long black cloaks and white hooded fur collars."
National Museum of Finland, Helsinki.
Piety and prestige nicely wrapped up in a single painting.
Colossal statue depicting Augustus as a divinity. The emperor, semi-naked, is represented in idealistic nudity showing the same kind of musculature and geometric features as Polykleitos’ Diadoumenos. A Greek-style chlamys is wound across the lower part of his body. This sort of image, known in iconographical studies as the “Hüftmantel Typus” (“hip-manyel type”), was commonly used for representations of divinities and for godlike images of leaders of the Roman State.
This representation of Augustus belongs to the type of Prima Porta. It is a posthumous portrait; it may have been sculpted in the years of the emperor Tiberius (14 – 37 AD).
Thasos marble statue
14 - 37 AD
Found in Thessaloniki Sarapeion
Thessaloniki, National Archaeological Museum
The Madghacen is a mausoleum (also spelled Medracen or Imedghassen) derived from the ancient Numidian type of the bazina, composed of a cylindrical base with a stepped conical covering. It is surrounded by sixty columns of the Doric building order and has a diameter of 59 metres. It is about 19 meters high. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the mausoleum was constructed in the 3rd century BC.
Mixing bowl (calyx krater) depicting dueling scenes from the Trojan war
Side B
the Tyszkiewicz Painter
about 490–480 BCE
Place of Manufacture: Greece, Attica, Athens
Said to be from Vulci and to have been found at Canino in 1889
Boston MFA 97.368 from the former Tyszkiewicz Collection
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Side B: The fight on this side is an episode also descibed in Book V of Homer's Iliad: the wounding of the Trojan prince Aeneas by Diomedes. As in the other scene, Athena favors the Greek hero, who has wounded Aeneas with a spear. Aphrodite rushes up to save her wounded son, an act that so infuriated Diomedes that he wounded the goddess herself, as well as her lover Ares, the god of war. The Tyszkiewicz Painter is named after this vase, which once belonged to a collector of that name.
Figures labeled: Side B: ATHENAIA, DIOMEDES, AINEAS, APHRODITE (in retrograde)
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Source: Boston MFA
Synchronicity was in a great way for this picture between couple sun ☀️ and moonlight 🌙 , throned son, cristal light’s heals all the soul under nymphs...( thanks to Nymphaea by Claude Monet ) Cristal healing and echoes of consciousness.
Liberation of darkness is possible way with your pineal glands and you can compare them with a crystal light and follow the guidance through your dream.Other significant work for linking the throne to nymphaea could be a Jungian interpretation for Alchemist (following old Egyptian science)
It’s amazing how crystal light is a healing process for testing your body to sitting on a throne.However, it has only recently become clear that apomorphine can be utilized, with excellent results, to treat erectile dysfunction. It is a centrally acting, selective D1/D2 dopamine agonist, and activation of dopaminergic receptors in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus initiates a cascade of events, ultimately resulting in smooth muscle relaxation and vasodilatation within the corpora cavernosa, leading to penile erection. Crystal river and albedo was whiteness day for a throne of consciousness enlightenment
This discovery provides a likely explanation for the appearance of Nymphaea in the Luxor frescoes and in erotic cartoons ... The fact that temple drawings only depict use by the higher castes, such as priests and royalty, suggests that the masses did not benefit from this discovery. The Nymphaea story serves as a further illustration of how the effects of substances of plant origin were known even though the discoverers lacked the technology to explain them. The water lily was also used for other medicinal purposes, according to Lise Manniche in An Ancient Egyptian Herbal, including liver disease, poultices for the head, constipation and as an enema (1989, p. 134). She also notes that it was used in a magical spell to cause a "hated woman"'s hair to fall out. In Greco-Roman times, it was thought of as a cooling herb, and was thus used to bring down a fever.
Original article: www.thekeep.org/~kunoichi/kunoichi/themestream/egypt_wate...
© Caroline Seawright
The source is one: male and female are united. In alchemical images we see a throne from which streams of water flow into one flashback to primordial life’s hermaphrodite.
The Syrian love goddess who the Egyptians married off to Min, was depicted as a naked woman who stood on the back of a lion, carrying snakes and water lily buds. The buds are likely linked with her role as a goddess of sexuality and fertility. Votive offerings to Hathor included bowls with water lily motifs, again alluding to fertility, the renewal of life and rebirth. (A water bowl was also the hieroglyph for a woman, which A.H. Gardiner in Egyptian Grammar believes to represent the vagina, linking the fertility sign of the water lily in the bowl to female fertility in this case.) The Egyptian idea of sexuality was identified with creation. Being a flower of creation, the flower became linked to human fertility and sexuality. The images of women holding the flower may be hinting at her ability to bear children or that she was sexually desirable, and images of men holding the flower may hint at their potency. It could also be a way to ensure that the person painted would be fertile - and sexy - in the afterlife.
Contemporary reference to the role of water lilies and mandrakes (Nymphaea and Mandragora, respectively) in ancient Egyptian healing ... suggest the possible importance of these plants as adjuncts to shamanistic healing in dynastic Egypt. Although the usual interpretation of the water lily and the mandrake has been that of a part of ritual mourning ... it is argued that the dynastic Egyptians had developed a form of shamanistic trance induced by these two plants and used it in medicine as well as healing rituals. Analysis of the ritual and sacred iconography of dynastic Egypt, as seen on stelae, in magical papyri, and on vessels, indicates that these people possessed a profound knowledge of plant lore and altered states of consciousness. The abundant data indicate that the shamanistic priest, who was highly placed in the stratified society, guided the souls of the living and dead, provided for the transmutation of souls into other bodies and the personification of plants as possessed by human spirits, as well as performing other shamanistic activities. test was carried out to see if there were any narcotic effects of the blue water lily. There were no known psychotropic substance found in the flower itself. In The Mystery of the Cocaine Mummies Rosalie David ('Keeper of Egyptology, Manchester Museum') says that "we see many scenes of individuals holding a cup and dropping a water lily flower into the cup which contained wine". The assertion by Dr Andrew Sherratt, based on these depictions, is that he believes that when the flower was infused with wine, that the chemical content might change and become the ancient Egyptian party drug or a shamanistic aid. The lilies were flown from Cairo to England, and nineteen of them opened after the sun came out. The flowers were soaked in the wine, and after a few days, two volunteers - who claimed to know nothing about ancient Egypt - drank the lily-wine:Unfortunately the test was not up to scientific standards - there was no control group (where another set of volunteers would drink wine not infused with the lily, but told that it had been) - so it is rather difficult to know how much of the effects on the two were just from the alcohol and if any were from the lily infusion itself.The blue water lily was possibly also a symbol of sexuality - Dr Liz Williamson says that the flower "has a sort of Viagra effect". Women were wooed with the blue water lily. In certain erotic scenes from the Turin Papyrus, women are shown wearing very little apart from the white lily as a headdress.The blue water lily was possibly also a symbol of sexuality - Dr Liz Williamson says that the flower "has a sort of Viagra effect". Women were wooed with the blue water lily. In certain erotic scenes from the Turin Papyrus, women are shown wearing very little apart from the white lily as a headdress.
The blue water lily was possibly also a symbol of sexuality - Dr Liz Williamson says that the flower "has a sort of Viagra effect". Women were wooed with the blue water lily. In certain erotic scenes from the Turin Papyrus, women are shown wearing very little apart from the white lily as a headdress.
More recently, it has been discovered that this plant could have been used by the ancient Egyptians to help with erectile dysfunction. This would help explain why the plant was so intimately connected with sex and sexuality:
Nymphaea caerulea (blue lotus) and N. ampla, which has a white flower but a similar alkaloid content, grow along lakes and rivers, thrive in wet soil, and bloom in the spring. They belong to the water-lily family ... The isolation of the psychoactive apomorphine from Nymphaea species has offered chemical support to speculation that Nymphaea species may have been employed as hallucinogens in both the Old and the New World. The use of N. caerulea and of N. lotos in rites and rituals is depicted in the frescoes within the tombs, and in very early papyrus scrolls. The most important of these was the scroll of Ani (Book of the Dead). Nymphaea is mentioned and represented in several chapters of the book, always tied to magical-religious rites.
The water lily was also used for other medicinal purposes, according to Lise Manniche in An Ancient Egyptian Herbal, including liver disease, poultices for the head, constipation and as an enema (1989, p. 134). She also notes that it was used in a magical spell to cause a "hated woman"'s hair to fall out. In Greco-Roman times, it was thought of as a cooling herb, and was thus used to bring down a fever.The flower wasn't just used at parties, but it was used at funerals. As with many symbols of fertility, the blue water lily was also symbolic of rebirth after death. Tutankhamen's innermost gold coffin had blue water lily petals scattered over it along with a few other floral tributes. The Egyptians looked forward to their souls coming to life "like a water lily reopening", thinking that the deceased died as the water lily closed awaiting opening with the morning sun. The Book of the Dead has a spell to allow the deceased to transform into one of these flowers:
The goddess Qedeshet, standing on a lion, holding water lilies and a snake, the Syrian love goddess who the Egyptians married off to Min, was depicted as a naked woman who stood on the back of a lion, carrying snakes and water lily buds. The buds are likely linked with her role as a goddess of sexuality and fertility. Votive offerings to Hathor included bowls with water lily motifs, again alluding to fertility, the renewal of life and rebirth. (A water bowl was also the hieroglyph for a woman, which A.H. Gardiner in Egyptian Grammar believes to represent the vagina, linking the fertility sign of the water lily in the bowl to female fertility in this case.) The Egyptian idea of sexuality was identified with creation. Being a flower of creation, the flower became linked to human fertility and sexuality. The images of women holding the flower may be hinting at her ability to bear children or that she was sexually desirable, and images of men holding the flower may hint at their potency. It could also be a way to ensure that the person painted would be fertile - and sexy - in the afterlife.As we mentioned above, Aphrodite/Venus as the morning star is a central image for the albedo phase of the Great Work. Aphrodite was born from the foam that arose when the genitals of Uranus (cut of by Chronos, out of hate and jealousy) fell into the sea. The cutting of the genitals represents repressed and tormented love. The sea, symbol of the soul, however will bring forth the love goddess. Liberation will happen when we become conscious again of the contents of the soul. As Aphrodite is born from the sea, she is the guide through the fearful world of the unconscious (the sea, or the underworld). The alchemist descends into these depths to find the ‘prima materia’, also called the ‘green lion’. The color green refers to the primal life forces. Venus also has the green color. An important characteristic of Aphrodite is that she helps us in our human shortcomings. She gives ideals and dreams to fulfill. But she also gives frightening images in order to make man aware of his lower nature. "By her beauty Venus attracts the imperfect metals and gives rise to desire, and pushes them to perfection and ripeness." (Basilius Valentinus, 1679) Liberation can only happen by becoming conscious of the lower nature and how we transmute it.
In Jungian psychology Venus/Aphrodite is the archetype of the anima (in alchemy also the ‘soror’ or ‘wife’ of the alchemist). The anima is the collective image of the woman in a man. It is an image especially tainted by his first contact with his mother. The anima represents all the female tendencies in the psyche of a man, such as feelings, emotions, moods, intuition, receptivity for the irrational, personal love and a feeling for nature. She is the bearer for the spiritual. Depending on the development of the man she can also be the seductress who lures him away to love, hopelessness, demise, and even destruction.
Other alchemical images for albedo are baptism and the white dove, both derived from Christianity. Baptism symbolizes the purification of both body and soul by ‘living water’. ‘Living water’ was regarded as the creative force of the divine. It allowed the soul to be received into the community of the holy spirit. Thus baptism allows the purified soul to bring forth the resurrection of Christ in oneself. This is the ‘hieros gamos’, the ‘sacred marriage’ between the soul and Christ. Christ here represent our own inner divine essence.
There are many other symbols in alchemy for the second phase, or albedo: the white swan, the rose, the white queen, and so on. As lead is the metal of nigredo, silver is the metal of albedo, transmuted from lead. As silver is the metal of the moon, the moon was also a symbol for albedo. Alchemists also talk about the white stone or white tincture. They all means basically the same thing, although one has to understand them in the context in which they were written.
The union of Hermes and Aphrodite. The moon is above the retort, indicating this is the stage of Albedo. The sun above is the next stage of Rubedo. At the same time sun and moon are again the opposites to be united. Aphrodite has two torches. One pointing down, representing the lower passions to be transmuted. The upside down torch is the purified energies. Aphrodite is standing on a tetrahedron, the perfect three dimensional body, as all corners are equally distant from each other, resulting in a lack of tension.
Albedo, symbolized by Aurora, by the dawn, the morning star (Venus-Aphrodite), and by the sun rising up from the Philosopher's Sea.
Albedo is also represented by Aurora, the Roman goddess of the dawn. Her brother is Helios, the Sun. With a play of words aurora was connected with aurea hora, ‘the hour of gold’. It is a supreme state of conscious. Pernety (1758): "When the Artist (=Alchemist) sees the perfect whiteness, the Philosophers say that one has to destroy the books, because they have become superfluous."
Albedo is also symbolized by the morning star Venus/Aphrodite. Venus has a special place in the Great Work. In ancient times Lucifer was identified with the planet Venus. Originally Lucifer has a very positive meaning. In the Bible we find 2Petrus 1:19 "…till the day arrives and the morning star rises in your hearts". In Revelation 12:16 Christ says: "I am the shining morning star". Here Christ identifies himself with the Lucifer! We find the same in mystic literature. In ancient times Lucifer was a positive light being. It was just one man who changed all that: when a certain Hieronymous read a phrase from Jesaja 14:12 (Jesaja talking to a sinful king of Babylon): " How did you fall from heaven, you morning star, you son of the dawn; how did you fall to earth, conqueror of people". Hieronymous used this phrase to identify Lucifer with the dragon thrown out of heaven by Michael. By the interpretation of this one man, Lucifer was tuned from a shining light being into the darkest devilish being in the world.
We find Lucifer in alchemy associated with impure metals polluted by rough sulfur. It means that the light being Lucifer in ourselves is polluted by what the alchemists call ‘superfluities’, ‘dross’, caused by man himself.
Mercury and Lucifer are one and the same. One talks about Mercury when he is pure, it is the white sulphur, the fire in heaven. As ‘spiritus’ he gives life. As ‘spiritus sapiens’ he teaches the alchemist the Great Work. Lucifer is the impure Mercury. Lucifer is the morning star fallen from (the golden) heaven. He descended into the earth and is now present in all humans. Lucifer is Mercury mixed with impure elements. He dissolved ‘in sulfur and salt’, ‘is wrapped with strings’, ‘darkened with black mud’. Keep in mind we are always talking about our consciousness. Lucifer represents our everyday consciousness, all the (psychological and other) complexes have clouded our pure consciousness, Mercury.
The light of Mercury that appears to us as Lucifer, because of the distortion caused by the impurities, gives the impression of what the alchemists called ‘red sulfur’. The red sulfur of Lucifer, as traditional devil, is actually an illusion. It does not exist by itself because it is only an image, a distorted image of Mercury. We ourselves caused the impurities, the blackness that veils our true light being.
Red sulfur is the same as what is called Maya in eastern philosophies. Maya is the world of illusions, or the veil that prevents us from seeing and experiencing true reality, where the eternal light is. By the impurities of Maya, man has become ignorant. He has forgotten his origin and thinks he is in a world which in actuality is an illusion.Albedo - Whiteness
Je ne craignais pas de mourir
mais de mourir sans etre illumine.
(I was not afraid to die,
but to die without having been enlightened)
Comte de Saint-Germain, La Tres Sainte Trinisophie
The herald of the light
is the morning star.
This way man and woman approach
the dawn of knowledge,
because in it is the germ of life,
being a blessing of the eternal.
Haji Ibrahim of Kerbala
Lucifer, Lucifer stretch your tail,
and lead me away, full speed through the narrow passage,
the valley of the death,
to the brilliant light, the palace of the gods.
Isanatha Muni
Being deep in nigredo, a white light appears. We have arrived at the second stage of the Great Work: albedo, or whiteness. The alchemist has discovered within himself the source from which his life comes forth. The fountain of life from which the water of life flows forth giving eternal youth.
The source is one: male and female are united. In alchemical images we see a fountain from which two streams of water flow into one basin. Albedo is the discovery of the hermaphroditic nature of man. In the spiritual sense each man is a hermaphrodite. We can also see this in the first embryonic phase of the fetus. There is no sex until a certain number of weeks after conception. When man descended into the physical world his body entered a world of duality. On the bodily level this is expressed by the sexes. But his spirit is still androgen, it contains duality in unity. Its unity is not bound to space, time or matter. Duality is an expression of unity in our physical world. It is temporal and will eventually cease to exist. When male and female are united again, one will experience his true self. Conscious and unconscious are totally united.
Albedo happens when the Sun rises at midnight. It is a symbolic expression for the rising of the light at the depth of darkness. It is the birth of Christ in the middle of the winter. In the depth of a psychological crises, a positive change happens.
This sculpture group probably belonged to a funerary monument and portrays a couple depicted as Venus and Mars. It was inspired by a model created to celebrate the emperor and his wife, which was arranged by joining two well-known statues, the Ares Borghese and the Aphrodite of Capua, from originals of the 5th and 4th centuries BCE.
The figure of Mars alludes to virtus and the military valour of man, while Venus refers to beauty and sensuality. The group's reworked portraits were commissioned by wealthy members of society to celebrate their successful union.
Found in Ostia, near the so-called Basilica Cristiana
ca. 170 AD
Baths of Diocletian, Michelangelo Cloister, Rome
Bizarre and a little disturbing, I really don't know what's going on here...surely subliminal & maybe even apocalyptic...idk.
Where to start? Plenty to choose from:
Obviously, the age-old Man-Monkey-Machine Interface conundrum. 😉 Why is the monkey/chimp - in a space suit btw - centrally featured, and NOT the human astronaut? The structures along the steep slope going up to the right look like the test stands at the Santa Susana Test Facility/Laboratory. If so, what's the connection? And, is that the moon? Or an alien world? Whichever it is, if either, why is there a dark swath across/splitting it? Is it a tortured planetary system, with the angry looking sun/star about to go nova? And take a closer look at the eyes of the monkey/chimp...kinda creepy, alien-looking, even a little demonic...or just stern & determined, maybe even mildly constipated? Is it a simian-alien-human hybrid? And how about those ears...maybe a Vulcan monkey? Pre-dating the original television series would seem to preclude that. The trajectory path/vector thing is going all over the place too. Why? That is, if that's what it depicts. It does however graze right by/over the "planet", simian & astronaut - some sort of symbolism there? I'm even looking for images in the chaotic color-splashed areas. And there is/are something(s) unidentified in front of/to the left of the astronaut's right shin/knee...hmmm. There’s also something going on in the upper left-hand corner. And what the hell is that thing at the 10:00 position from the sun/star??? It looks like it might be a face, with eyes, nose & mouth discernible. And the astronaut, for the most part, is merely an outline...minimally ‘filled in’. What's up with that?
His pressure suit appears to be a Mercury Program variant, so I'm guessing this is ca. 1961-63? If so, this work is exceedingly avant-garde & provocative for the time period.
or:
An abstract & coded warning, even prophecy, of what the future portends...if we don't change our wicked wicked ways. Unfortunately, although very few know, the Santa Susana site suffered a partial nuclear meltdown in 1959:
www.nrdc.org/bio/caroline-reiser/questions-and-answers-ab...
Credit: NRDC website
However, this being a vintage print, i.e., early 1960’s, the severity of the incident & radiation leak/release was still being hidden, I therefore wouldn’t expect it to have been artistically alluded to. Then again, it’s freaky enough that maybe…???
Per usual, the NASA/NASA-contracted artist/illustrator is anonymous & will likely remain so forever...unfortunate.
The baptismal font, hidden behind the rounded apse at the eastern end, still has traces of the original mosaics. The Vandal church is named after one of their kings.
MUZEU ONUFRI BERAT.
Berat Onufri Museum (great painter of Albanian icons), Albania
Durrës, Albania.
CATALÀ
Autor: Onufri
Sant Teodor Tironi i Stratilati (Segle XVI)
Tremp a la fusta.
ENGLISH
Autor: Onufri
Saints Teodor Tironi and Teodor Stratilati (16th Century)
Tempera on wood
Saints Teodor Tironi and Teodor Stratilati were soldier saints of the early Cristian period. Converted to Christianity, they immediately became martyrs. St. Teodor Tironi fell victim of the persecutions of Julian the Apostate during the 4th century, while St. Teodoro Stratilati was a general in the army of the Emperor Licinius. The two martyrs are particularly worshipped in Greece and Russia. A large number of churches are dedicated to them and the iconography always presents them as twins. In this artwork, Onofrio with an intelligent and precise composition represents them facing each other in a way that the believers can see three quarters of their profile. Their heads are turned upwards with their hands towards Jesus, who in dominant position is blessing them. Both saints have shields and short tunics, which distinguishes them as warriors, their weapons are laid on the ground and their staffs form the cross of Christ, from where underneath can be seen their cloaks. To better comprehend the depiction of the theme, the symmetrical composition that the painter has given to the scene must be taken into account. Their diagonal heads respect to the same icon, give an idea that the two saints are detached from the golden background, rendering grandeur and honour to the scene.
The beauty of the icon is given by the variety of colours used for the two saints’ clothes. The greatness of the scene presents the devotion of this characters towards the presence of a strong Ottoman domination in Albania. For this reason the icon has a symbolic role because the characters are personified at the same time as saints. The shields and staffs laid on the ground, testify a moment of prayer to God. The reflection of the details in the scene has been rendered in a way to be understood by the faithful. The icon represents an important example of the past, that has become a model for the present. At first glance, the icon appears to be symmetrical, this impression is given by the legs and the folds of the cloaks. The icon’s composition is divided in two parts, one with a vertical direction where every part is reserved to the strategist. Jesus is depicted in the centre of the top part of the icon, while the inclined bodies of the two saints form a pyramid, on which base there are still saints.
The three deities depicted in this triad amulet are some of the main protagonists in the Osiride myth that tells the murder and revival of the god Osiris and the birth and triumphal avenge of his son Horus.
Faience
Late Period
Egypt of Glory exhibition, Amos Rex Art Museum, Helsinki
From the collection of Museo Egizio, Turin, Italy
9.10.2020-21.3.2021
The Temple was a monumental structure; it measured 120 m in length and 50 m across. The sixty massive columns surrounding the cella were well over 2 m in diameter and more than 21 m high. The Temple was topped with the largest Corinthian capitals ever sculpted, one of which, 2.5 metres in height, 1.9 metres in diameter and 20 tons in weight, was unearthed in 2013.
In AD 124, the city of Cyzicus was granted the role of neokoros, temple warden of the imperial cult. The people of Cyzicus declared Hadrian the 13th Olympian god.
The Byzantine chronicler John Malalas called the Temple of Hadrian at Cyzicus “a very large temple, one of the wonders" with a very large bust of Hadrian on the roof and a marble stele inscribed "of Divine Hadrian". (Malalas, Chronography Bks 1-7, 10-18)
Cassius Dio called it “the largest and most beautiful of all temples, writing that “its columns were four cubits in thickness and fifty cubits in height" writing that "in general, the details were more to be wondered at than praised.” (epit. 70.4.1–2).
Tokyo Kogaku Topcor-S 5cm f/2 LTM chrome (V2, 1950s)
One of the design goals of this Topcor-S lens was “3D depiction”, similar to Nikon’s later "3D Hi-Fi" concept. The optical designers at Tokyo Kogaku wanted to create a smooth and slow transition from the foreground to the focus plane and then again to the background by leaving similar amount of contrast in the out-of-focus area (bokeh) as on the focus plane. This focus falloff behavior helps creating a sensation of 3-dimensionality in the space around the subject. In addition, the lens also depicts the subject in a 3D way thanks to the delicate gray tonality (shades of gray). This picture is another great example of this lens' ability to render the subject and the surrounding space in a 3D way. I forgot if it was wide open or slightly stopped down to f/2.8.
Jewellery Depicted by Maisie Broadhead
A collection of photographic prints and accompanying jewellery (photography by Jack Cole). Each photograph is a modern day re-interpretation of a historical painting where jewellery is at the centre of the image’s meaning. The photographs have accompanying jewellery that act as key props within each of the images. Seen in the photograph the jewellery appears quite traditional, yet when the pieces are experienced physically we see there is much illusion at work...
Reference painting - www.tepatoken.com/blog/uploaded_images/gabrielle-d'estree...
Maisie Broadhead's website - www.maisiebroadhead.com
North aisle window depicting the Wedding at Cana by Hardman's, 1906.
Mappleborough Green stands on the western fringe of Warwickshire, so close to the Worcestershire border and the edge of Redditch that it is doubtless often assumed to be part of the suburban sprawl, but it remains defiantly separate thanks to the county boundaries. Living in Redditch for so many years I'd often seen this church's tower standing proud from the road, but had never been able to have a proper look inside before, and with my time in Redditch coming to an imminent end I thought it best to make the effort to arrange a visit before I move away from the area.
The church of the Holy Ascension dates back to 1888 and was built to the designs of J.A.Chatwin. It is thus all of a piece late Victorian, its external walls given that roughcast texture so popular at the time (perhaps a reaction to the mechanical neatness and lake of patina of so many church builds from the preceding decades). The design is a fairly scholarly interpretation of early medieval, the tower from a distance could be mistaken for that of an older building.
Inside the walls are finished in stone (but with a smooth finish) and there is glass in several windows of different dates, all by Hardman's. There are a couple of rather unusual features of note: the south chapel has a low vaulted ceiling (sadly too dark to fully appreciate on this occasion), the space being dedicated to the memory of Mabel Augusta Jaffray (d.1886), wife of the church's builder William Jaffray (the windows are memorials to further members of the family). The other remarkable feature is the font, an elegant kneeling lifesize figure of an angel in alabaster supporting the bowl. She kneels at the west end under the tower and watches over the interior.
I enjoyed finally getting to know this church after all these years living nearby. It is of course normally kept locked outside of services so it will be necessary to either attend a service or get in touch with the churchwarden if anyone wishes to see inside (and I am very grateful to her for arranging to be at the church to give me access at fairly short notice, very much appreciated).
www.mg-pc.uk/Contents/ContentItems/4dee98fd1h1wky62tz952k...
Boys and dogs: culturally depicted as tireless, restless, hyperactive, messy, loud, and chaotic. This photo is the opposite, and that's why I like it.
Nikon D500
AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G
"Dali's depiction of Lenin in this work seriously offended the other Surrealists when it was shown in 1934 at the Salon des Independants in Paris.
Given their Marxist convictions, it is not difficult to see why a group of Surrealists even tried to damage it at the exhibition: fortunately, according to Dali, they were unable to reach it.
The painting represents Lenin stripped from the waist downwards with an enormous bare buttock, which Dali described as 'shaped like a breakfast roll with its end held up by a forked crutch'.
The irreverence of this image is aggravated by Dali's additional statement that the 'buttock, of course, was the symbol of the Revolution of October 1917.'
The motif of the soft watch, first developed in The Persistence of Memory, reappears on a marble plinth; its limpness is visibly reflected in the enormous peak of Dali's cap, which, like Lenin's buttock, also requires artificial support.
Why Lenin should have been selected for such unenviable treatment is not entirely clear, nor is it meant to be. However, the meaning of the painting is suggested by the title inscribed on the plinth: Lenin is identified with William Tell, who, according to Dali, represented the oppressive father-figure against whom Dali was himself rebelling at that time."