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Minor White American (1908-1976)
Negative: 1939/Print: 1970
Gelatin silver print
Portland Art Museum
In the Beginning
Minor White’s Oregon Photographs
DEC 9, 2017 – OCT 21, 2018
Long before co-founding Aperture magazine or establishing the groundbreaking photography program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, renowned modernist photographer Minor White (American, 1908-1976) moved to Portland, where he sowed the seeds of what would become a forceful artistic vision. This exhibition of White’s rarely exhibited early works celebrates the artist’s influence on the region, and honors the Museum’s dedication to acquiring and exhibiting photography as the institution enters its 125th year.
In 1937, after traveling to Portland from Minnesota and taking up residence at the downtown YMCA, White joined the Oregon Camera Club, using its darkroom and library to hone his photography skills. He instituted a darkroom, education, and exhibition program at the YMCA, and in 1938 was hired as a “creative photographer” for the Oregon Art Project, a division of the federal government’s Works Progress Administration. Charged with documenting the Front Avenue buildings slated for demolition as well as the waterfront factories, he captured the beauty of iron-front facades, the distinct forms of industrial architecture, and the cultural undercurrents of a city under transition. These photographs, much more than straightforward government documents, mark a critical period in Portland’s history and hold clues to White’s mature modernist approach.
In 1942, after touring the nation, White’s WPA images returned to Portland and became the first photographs to be accessioned into the Museum’s permanent collection. That same year, the Museum gave White his first solo exhibition and commissioned him to photograph two historic Portland homes. White was drafted into the Army later that spring, and although he never returned to live in the city, his bonds to the community remained strong, resulting in multiple Oregon-based workshops in the 1950s and 1960s. To this day he remains a significant influence on photographic practice in the Northwest and beyond.
The first phase of In the Beginning (on view December 9, 2017, through May 6, 2018) presents approximately 60 photographs of waterfront industrial buildings, Portland Civic Theatre portraits, night scenes, and images of Minor White teaching workshops in Oregon during the late 1950s and early 1960s. The second phase of the exhibition (on view May 12 through October 21, 2018) will feature downtown and Front Street scenes, photographs of Eastern Oregon, and images of two historic houses that White photographed for the Museum in 1942.
Organized by the Portland Art Museum and curated by Julia Dolan, Ph.D., the Minor White Curator of Photography.
French postcard by G. Picard, Paris, no. WD 1/6. Image: Disney. Publicity still for Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973).
The twenty-first Disney animated feature film Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973) is an imaginative version of the Robin Hood legend. Fun and romance abound as the swashbuckling hero of Sherwood Forest and his valiant sidekick Little John plot one daring adventure after another to outwit the greedy prince John. Eatly on in the film, Robin and Little John happen upon the royal entourage which is taking Prince John and his counselor, Sir Hiss, to Nottingham in order to tax the people there. Disguised as female fortune-tellers, Robin and Little John effectively steal from Prince John all the gold they can carry and run off into the forest, leaving Prince John sucking his thumb in humiliation. In Nottingham, Robin uses Friar Tuck to smuggle the stolen gold back to the peasants. Later Robin sees Maid Marian, she and Robin had once been sweethearts as children, but were forced to part ways when she moved to London. But she is mistaken: Robin can't stop thinking about her. But since Robin is an outlaw he and Marian wait for marriage. Seething with rage, that Robin is winning, John triples the taxes, making the bleak situation in Nottingham even worse. One night, Robin Hood, disguised again as the beggar, learns that Friar Tuck is in jail and will rescue him, save Nottingham once and for all and give Prince John the justice that has been coming to him for a long time...
Robin Hood is generally considered to be one of the weakest Disney animated classics, but I totally disagree. Yes, this version of Robin Hood has animals in the roles of the characters, but it works superbly! Robin Hood as a clever fox is a natural choice. And naturally, Maid Marian is a vixen. Prince John and King Richard as lions are also logical choices. But John is a mane-less lion, who starts sucking his thumb whenever anyone mentions his mother. He is silly, but with a truly evil undercurrent. The Sheriff of Nottingham is also deliciously nasty ("Upsy-daisy"), Other hilarious characters are the vultures Trigger, and Nutsy, and Sir Hiss, the snake. They provide the delicious humour to the film. Sir Hiss is smarter than any of the other bad guys, but the humor with him is that Prince John never believes him until it's too late, and abuses him afterwards. Trigger's 'old Betsy' (a crossbow) provides plenty of laughs, especially when it goes off. And Nutsy is so stupid he says "One o'clock and all's well!" when it's three o'clock, and when told to set his brain ahead a couple hours, he doesn't know if he has to add or subtract two hours. Apart from the great characters and their witty and smart dialogues , the film has beautiful background artwork e especially in the love scene, and the music is also good, with the hard and gritty song 'Not in Nottingham' as a highlight. Robin Hood was a box office hit at the time and it was initially received with positive reviews from film critics who praised the voice cast, animation, and humor, but its critical reception became gradually mixed since its release and recycled scenes of animation have been noted. But despite these flaws, Robin Hood is still a very entertaining Disney classic.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
#89: As of 1/21/15, under Flickr's popularity rankings of my 400+ pics, this is rated #89 in "interestingness."
I love this combo: a cute and sexy dress, with a very pretty sweater. I remember being bold enough that day to wear this to an appt I had with the psychiatrist I was seeing occasionally back then, discussing my CD/TG issues. He hadn't seen me en femme til then, and said he was impressed with my sexy attire/style as I sat like this across from him. (I'm straight, and he's gay, so there was no flirty undercurrent to his observation.)
I was drawn to the quiet simplicity of this scene: an elderly man, seated on a park bench, his arms resting loosely on the backrest, gazing into what seemed like an endless void. The soft shade of the surrounding trees provided a sense of shelter, yet the vast emptiness of the pathway hinted at something deeper—a subtle undercurrent of solitude.
This image, at first glance, radiates calm and reflection, but upon closer examination, it opens a window into the complex reality of aging. Retirement, as embodied here, holds a duality: the liberation from the constraints of work and the freedom to enjoy life’s slower rhythms, contrasted with the inevitable questions of purpose and the use of unstructured time.
The bench becomes more than a resting place; it transforms into a metaphor for this stage of life—a moment to pause, reflect on the past, and grapple with the uncertainties of what lies ahead. The man’s contemplative posture speaks volumes, capturing the quieter struggles of aging: the slowing of life’s pace, the challenges of health, and the potential for social isolation. It is a portrait of a life in transition—peaceful yet profound.
Daniel Barter Photography on Facebook
This is definitely the weirdest explore I have ever been on. After randomly stumbling across this site whilst looking for a derelict college, we decide to take a look. We quickly gained entry and were pretty careful not to arouse the suspicions of nearby builders. When we started to search the first floor, we swiftly realised that this place was not entirely abandoned and that it still had residents -far eastern spices hung in the air and temporary beds were left unmade. The decision was taken to continue exploring with increased stealth.
When arriving in the second block it became perfectly clear that this had been a Islamic school for boys and there appeared to be subtle undercurrents of possible extremism....It was not till after returning to reality, that this was confirmed via lengthy internet searches.
French postcard in the Entr'acte series by Éditions Asphodèle. Mâcon, no. 001/29 Photo: Robert Taylor and director of photography Harry Stradling at the set of Song of Russia (Gregory Ratoff, 1944) in 1943. Caption: Famous photographer Harry Stradling submitted some rushes of the film to Robert Taylor shortly before he was drafted into the US Navy.
Robert Taylor (1911-1969) was called "The Man with the Perfect Profile". He won his first leading role in Magnificent Obsession (1935). His popularity increased during the late 1930s and 1940s with appearances in A Yank at Oxford (1938), Waterloo Bridge (1940), and Bataan (1943). He was the quintessential MGM company man until the demise of the studio system in the late 1950s.
Robert Taylor was born Spangler Arlington Brugh in 1911, in Filley, Nebraska. Taylor was the only child of Ruth Adaline (née Stanhope) and Spangler Andrew Brugh, a farmer turned doctor. During his early life, the family moved several times, and by September 1917, the Brughs had moved to Beatrice, Nebraska, where they remained for 16 years. As a teenager, Taylor was a track and field star and played the cello in his high school orchestra. Upon graduation, he enrolled at Doane College in Crete, Nebraska. While at Doane, he took cello lessons from Professor Herbert E. Gray, whom he admired and idolised. After Professor Gray announced he was accepting a new position at Pomona College in Claremont, California, Taylor moved to California and enrolled at Pomona. He joined the campus theater group and was eventually spotted by an MGM talent scout in 1932 after a production of Journey's End. He signed a seven-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The studio changed his name to Robert Taylor. He made his film debut on loan-out to Fox in the comedy Handy Andy (David Butler, 1934) starring Will Rogers. His first leading role came by accident. In 1934 Taylor was on the MGM payroll as "the test boy," a male juvenile who would be filmed opposite various young ingenues in screen tests. In late 1934, when MGM began production of its new short-subject series Crime Does Not Pay with the dramatic short Buried Loot (George B. Seitz, 1935), the actor who had been cast fell ill and could not appear. The director sent for the test boy to substitute for the missing actor. Taylor's dramatic performance, as an embezzler who deliberately disfigures himself to avoid detection, was so memorable that Taylor immediately was signed for feature films. In 1935, Irene Dunne requested him for her leading man in Magnificent Obsession (John M. Stahl, 1935), again on loan-out, this time to then struggling Universal Pictures. He played a happy-go-lucky party guy who inadvertently causes blindness to the young lady he wishes to impress and then becomes a doctor in order to cure her. The film was a big hit, and Taylor had a taste of instant box-office stardom. Along with his good looks, Taylor already showed solid dramatic skill in Camille (George Cukor, 1936) with Greta Garbo. Throughout the late 1930s, Taylor appeared in films of varying genres including the musicals Broadway Melody of 1936 (Roy Del Ruth, 1935) and Broadway Melody of 1938 (Roy Del Ruth, 1937), and the British comedy A Yank at Oxford (Jack Conway, 1938) with Lionel Barrymore and Vivien Leigh.
Throughout 1940 and 1941 Robert Taylor argued in favour of American entry into World War II and was sharply critical of the isolationist movement. During this time he said he was "100% pro-British". In 1940, he reteamed with Vivien Leigh in Mervyn LeRoy's drama Waterloo Bridge, a personal favorite by both Leigh and Taylor. After being given the nickname "The Man with the Perfect Profile", Taylor began breaking away from his perfect leading man image and began appearing in darker roles beginning in 1941. That year, he portrayed Billy Bonney (better known as Billy the Kid) in Billy the Kid (David Miller, 1941). The next year, he played the title role in the Film Noir Johnny Eager (Mervyn LeRoy, 1942) with Lana Turner. After playing a tough sergeant in the World War II drama Bataan (Tay Garnett, 1943), Taylor contributed to the war effort by becoming a flying instructor in the U.S. Naval Air Corps. During this time, he also starred in instructional films and narrated the documentary The Fighting Lady (Edward Steichen, 1944). After the war, he appeared in edgy roles in the Film Noirs Undercurrent (Vincente Minnelli, 1946) opposite Katharine Hepburn, and High Wall (Curtis Bernhardt, 1947). In 1949, he co-starred with Elizabeth Taylor in the Film Noir Conspirator (Victor Saville, 1949), which Hedda Hopper described as "another one of Taylor's pro-British films". Taylor responded to this by saying "And it won't be the last!" However, both Hopper and Taylor were members of the anticommunist organisation the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. Taylor landed the role of General Marcus Vinicius in Quo Vadis (Mervyn LeRoy, 1950) with Deborah Kerr. The epic film was a hit, grossing US$11 million in its first run. The following year, he starred in the film version of Walter Scott's classic Ivanhoe (Richard Thorpe, 1951), again with Elizabeth Taylor. It was followed by two more historical adventure films, Knights of the Round Table (Richard Thorpe, 1953) and The Adventures of Quentin Durward (Richard Thorpe, 1955), all filmed in England. Of the three only Ivanhoe was a critical and financial success. Taylor also filmed Valley of the Kings (Robert Pirosh, 1954) in Egypt.
By the mid-1950s, Robert Taylor began to concentrate on Westerns, his preferred genre. He starred in a comedy Western Many Rivers to Cross (Roy Rowland, 1955) co-starring Eleanor Parker. In 1958, he shared the lead with Richard Widmark in the edgy Western The Law and Jake Wade (John Sturges, 1958). William McPeak at IMDb: "That he usually comes across on screen as having a confident, commanding presence is more of a testimony to his acting talent than his actual personality. He held rigid right-wing political beliefs that he refused to question and, when confronted with an opposing viewpoint, would simply reject it outright. He rarely, if ever, felt the need to be introspective. Taylor simply felt blessed to be working behind the walls of MGM. His affection for the studio would blind him to the fact that boss Louis B. Mayer masterfully manipulated him for nearly two decades, keeping Taylor's salary the lowest of any major Hollywood star. But this is also indicative of how much trust he placed in the hands of the studio's leaders. Indeed, Taylor remained the quintessential MGM company man and would be rewarded by remaining employed there until the demise of the studio system in the late 1950s."In 1958, he left MGM and formed Robert Taylor Productions, and the following year, he starred in the television series The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor (1959–1962). Following the end of the series in 1962, Taylor continued to appear in films and television shows, including A House Is Not a Home and two episodes of Hondo. In 1963, NBC filmed but never aired, four episodes of what was to have been The Robert Taylor Show, a series based on case files from the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare. The project was suddenly dropped for lack of coordination with HEW. In the same year, he filmed Miracle of the White Stallions for Walt Disney Productions. In 1964, Taylor co-starred with his former wife Barbara Stanwyck in William Castle's psychological horror film The Night Walker. Taylor traveled to Europe to film the Western Savage Pampas (Hugo Fregonese, 1966), the adventure film The Glass Sphinx (Luigi Scattini, 1967), and the comedy spy-thriller The Day the Hot Line Got Hot (Etienne Périer, 1968) with Charles Boyer. In 1965, Taylor took over the role of narrator in the television series Death Valley Days when Ronald Reagan left to pursue a career in politics. Taylor would remain with the series until his death in 1969. Taylor married Barbara Stanwyck in 1939 and they divorced in 1951. Taylor met German actress Ursula Thiess in 1952. They married in 1954. The couple had two children, a son, Terrance, (1955), and a daughter, Tessa, (1959). Taylor was stepfather to Thiess' two children from her previous marriage, Manuela and Michael Thiess. On 26 May 1969, shortly before Taylor's death at only 57 from lung cancer, Ursula Thiess found the body of her son, Michael, in a West Los Angeles motel room. He died from a drug overdose. One month before his death, Michael had been released from a mental hospital. In 1964, he spent a year in a reformatory for attempting to poison his father with insecticide.
Sources: William McPeak (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Since the 1980s, Göran Hägg has explored a singular figurative imagery featuring different kinds of machinery. In a blend of engineering and artistic vision, his works form a unique universe. Strange replicas of aeroplanes, submarines and automobiles seem to come from a parallel universe that is similar but not identical to our own. Humour and seriousness are intertwined in fragmentary scenarios with dystopian undercurrents.
At Pilane Sculpture Park there is a hangar with three aeroplanes, each vessel accompanied by a fully-equipped pilot. Outside is a landing strip and an air traffic control tower. The total installation was built from scratch.
www.goran-hagg.com (website in Swedish)
When the British newspaper The Guardian appointed "10 of the best scupture parks in Europe", Pilane was one of them.
pilane.org (website also in English)
Oh it's floodin' down in Texas,
all of the telephone lines are down
i been tryin' to call my baby,
and i can't get a single sound...
I have a firm believe that everyone has their own photographic eye, that is the way of seeing things and photographing them. While it is, of course, built from the repertoires of visual culture, it is also your own personal way of translating the sceneries you encounter to images that also contain something of yourself as a photographer. Think of it, for example, as your own visual language that repeats in the undercurrents of your own photography. However, as interesting as it sounds it is also difficult to find – which you definitely know if you have tried to search it – and one of the biggest obstacle against finding your own photographic eye is to photograph routinely. It is so easy to fall into habit of using same visual motifs again and again (been there, done that and trying to escape it all the time) and so difficult to challenge them by daily basis.
Here is one simple way how to resist the 'routine photography'. This one often works brilliantly with prime lenses but I don't see why one couldn't use a zoom lens too if he just decides in advance what focal length he is going to use (creative limits are important here). So, what I sometimes do when I find a photographically interesting place is that I decide, in advance, what prime lens I'm going to use to shoot that place. The place might call, for example, for a 50 mm lens, but I might choose something else on purpose just to make things more interesting. Or some days I just feel like using some particular lens so I decide to go with that one. The focal length you choose will of course define your approach, but it will not be determined by it because this technique will force you to be creative.
Then I define the limits of that place. For example, if it is a train tunnel I decide that I will not leave tunnel in the search for better images, instead I give myself a time limit, an hour for example, in which I have to use on that particular place and try to come up with one interesting shot. What usually happens that within the first ten minutes I have already taken the shots that come to mind routinely and by a habit. Once I've taken them my mind will naturally open up for different kind of shots as it is no point in repeating the ones that I've already taken and which I had in my mind when I came that particular space in the first place. Now here is where the real photographic exploration begins as I've emptied my mind from any pre-thoughts and I actually have to face that sometimes an unpleasant feeling that I don't have an idea how to shoot the place interestingly. This kind of position forces you to try out different things and searching for different angles, ideas and interpretations. Maybe you find that framing the place with something from the scenery is actually more interesting than your first ideas. Or maybe you end up capturing just some interesting detail of the place rather than representing it as a whole. However you end up solving the problem (and it might turn out that you find the best picture only later on when sitting on a computer) it is pretty much guaranteed that your solution most likely exceeds the ideas you had in the first place – and by doing so it will also represent your own photographic eye better than any standard visual imagery which often kicks in when you enter into these photographically interesting places.
This is also the kind of exercise that will eventually be very enjoyable experience if you just give yourself that half an hour or an hour just to explore without any artistic pressure. Of course not every place turns out to be interesting after an hour, but once you find your own way of interpreting the place it will give you great pleasure to step out of that standard visual imagery. I often find that especially the Loxias are perfect for this kind of easygoing photography as manual focusing each shot individually kind of supports this kind of thoughtful exploration. No 'beep-and-click' like with autofocus, but taking your time for each shot and having important pauses after each shot giving room to new ideas which will emerge into your mind. Try it, highly recommended!
Days of Zeiss: www.daysofzeiss.com
Alte Pinakothek, Munich.
The Battle of Alexander at Issus (German: Alexanderschlacht) is a 1529 oil painting by the German artist Albrecht Altdorfer (c. 1480–1538), a pioneer of landscape art and a founding member of the Danube school.
It portrays the 333 BC Battle of Issus, in which Alexander the Great secured a decisive victory over Darius III of Persia and gained crucial leverage in his campaign against the Persian Empire.
The painting is widely regarded as Altdorfer's masterpiece, and is one of the most famous examples of the type of Renaissance landscape painting known as the world landscape, which here reaches an unprecedented grandeur.
Duke William IV of Bavaria commissioned The Battle of Alexander at Issus in 1528 as part of a set of historical pieces that was to hang in his Munich residence.
Modern commentators suggest that the painting, through its abundant use of anachronism, was intended to liken Alexander's heroic victory at Issus to the contemporary European conflict with the Ottoman Empire. In particular, the defeat of Suleiman the Magnificent at the Siege of Vienna may have been an inspiration for Altdorfer.
A religious undercurrent is detectable, especially in the extraordinary sky; this was probably inspired by the prophecies of Daniel and contemporary concern within the Church about an impending apocalypse.
The Battle of Alexander at Issus and four others that were part of William's initial set are in the Alte Pinakothek art museum in Munich.
Contents
Albrecht Altdorfer is regarded as one of the founders of Western landscape art.[29] He was a painter, etcher, architect, and engraver, and the leader of the Danube school of German art.
As evidenced by such paintings as Saint George and the Dragon (1510) and Allegory (1531), much of Altdorfer's work is characterised by an attachment to sprawling landscapes that dwarf the figures within them;[30]
The Battle of Alexander at Issus epitomises this facet of his style. With reference to St George and the Dragon in particular, art historian Mark W. Roskill comments that "The accessory material of landscape [in Altdorfer's work] is played with and ornamentally elaborated so that it reverberates with the sense of a sequestered and inhospitable environment".[31] Inspired by his travels around the Austrian Alps and the Danube River,[32]
Altdorfer painted a number of landscapes that contain no figures at all, including Landscape with a Footbridge (c. 1516) and Danube Landscape near Regensburg (c. 1522–25). These were the first "pure" landscapes since antiquity.[33]
Most of Altdorfer's landscapes were made with a vertical format, in contrast with the modern conception of the genre. The horizontal landscape was an innovation of Altdorfer's Flemish contemporary Joachim Patinir and his followers.[34]
Altdorfer also produced a great deal of religious artwork, in reflection of his devout Catholicism. His most frequent subjects were the Virgin Mary and the life and crucifixion of Christ.
As in The Battle of Alexander at Issus, these paintings often feature settings of great majesty and use the sky to convey symbolic meaning.
This meaning is not uniform throughout Altdorfer's corpus – for example, the visage of the setting sun connotes loss and tragedy in Agony in the Garden, but serves as "the emblem of power and glory" in The Battle of Alexander at Issus.[35]
Larry Silver of The Art Bulletin explains that The Battle of Alexander at Issus is both similar to and in direct contrast with Altdorfer's previous work: "Instead of the peaceful landscape of retreat for Christian events or holy figures, this panel offers just the opposite: a battleground for one of ancient history's principal epoch-making encounters ... Yet despite its global or cosmic dimensions, the Battle of Issus still looks like Altdorfer's earlier, contemplative liminal landscapes of retreat, complete with craggy peaks, bodies of water, and distant castles."[36]
Although the Battle of Alexander is atypical of Altdorfer in its size and in that it depicts war, his Triumphal Procession – a 1512–16 illuminated manuscript commissioned by Maximilian I of the Holy Roman Empire – has been described as a conceptual antecedent.[37]
The Procession was produced in parallel with the Triumph of Maximilian, a series of 137 woodcuts collaboratively executed by Altdorfer, Hans Springinklee, Albrecht Dürer, Leonhard Beck and Hans Schäufelein.[38]
Altdorfer's most significant contemporary influence was Matthias Grünewald (c. 1470–1528).
Art historian Horst W. Janson remarked that their paintings "show the same 'unruly' imagination".[39] Elements of The Battle of Alexander at Issus – particularly the sky – have been compared to Grünewald's Heavenly Host above the Virgin and Child, which forms part of his masterpiece, the Isenheim Altarpiece. Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553), also associated with the Danube school, was another important influence for Altdorfer.
According to Roskill, works by Cranach from about 1500 "give a prominent role to landscape settings, using them as mood-enhancing backgrounds for portraits, and for images of hermits and visionary saints", and seem to play a "preparatory role" for the onset of pure landscape.[40]
Altdorfer owed much of his style, particularly in his religious artwork, to Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528);[41] Larry Silver writes that Altdorfer's "use of convincing German landscapes in combination with celestial phenomena for his religious narrative" is "firmly tied" to a tradition "modeled by Albrecht Dürer."[42]
William IV, Duke of Bavaria commissioned The Battle of Alexander at Issus in 1528.[43] Altdorfer was approximately 50 at the time, and was living in the Free Imperial City of Regensburg.[44]
As a result of over a decade of involvement with the Regensburg city council, Altdorfer was offered the position of Burgomaster on 18 September 1528.
He declined; the council annals reported his reasoning as such: "He much desires to execute a special work in Bavaria for my Serene Highness and gracious Lord, Duke [William]."[44] William probably wanted the painting for his newly built summer Lusthaus ("pleasure house") in the grounds of his palace in Munich, approximately 60 miles (97 km) south of Regensburg.[43][44][45]
There, it was to hang alongside seven other paintings with a similar format and subject matter, including Ludwig Refinger's The Matyrdom of Marcus Curtius, Melchior Feselen's The Siege of Alesia by Caesar, and the painting of Battle of Cannae by Hans Burgkmair (1473–1531).[46][47]
Another eight, each portraying a famous woman from history, were later added to the set, probably at the behest of the Duke's wife, Jacobaea of Baden.[47] Altdorfer's Susanna and the Elders (1526) was among these.[48]
The Battle of Alexander at Issus is painted on a limewood panel measuring 158.4 cm × 120.3 cm (62.4 in × 47.4 in),[56] and portrays the moment of Alexander the Great's victory. The vertical format was dictated by the space available in the room for which the painting was commissioned – each in William's set of eight was made to be the same size.
At an unknown date, the panel was cut down on all sides, particularly at the top, so the sky was originally larger and the moon further from the corner of the scene.[57] The scene is approached from an impossible viewpoint – at first only feet from the fray, the perspective gradually ascends to encompass the seas and continents in the background and eventually the curvature of the Earth itself.[58][59]
Thousands of horse and foot soldiers immersed in a sea of spears and lances populate the foreground. The two armies are distinguished by their dress, anachronistic though it is: whereas Alexander's men clad themselves and their horses in full suits of heavy armour, many of Darius' wear turbans and ride naked mounts.[60]
The bodies of the many fallen soldiers lie underfoot. A front of Macedonian warriors in the centre pushes against the crumbling enemy force, who flee the battlefield on the far left.
The Persian king joins his army on his chariot of three horses, and is narrowly pursued by Alexander and his uniformly attired Companion cavalry.[47] The tract of soldiers continues down the gently sloped battlefield to the campsite and cityscape by the water, gravitating toward the mountainous rise at the scene's centre.
Beyond is the Mediterranean Sea and the island of Cyprus.[61] Here, a transition in hue is made, from the browns that prevail in the lower half of the painting to the aquas that saturate the upper half.
The Nile River meanders in the far distance, emptying its seven arms into the Mediterranean at the Nile Delta.[61] South of Cyprus is the Sinai Peninsula, which forms a land bridge between Africa and Southwest Asia. The Red Sea lies beyond,[61] eventually merging – as the mountain ranges to its left and right do – with the curved horizon.
A fierce sky caught in the dichotomy between the setting sun and the crescent moon dominates more than a third of the painting.[57] The rain-heavy clouds swirling ominously around each celestial entity are separated by a gulf of calmness, intensifying the contrast and infusing the heavens with an unearthly glow.[62]
Light from the sky spills onto the landscape: while the western continent and the Nile are bathed in the sun's light, the east and the Tower of Babel are cloaked in shadow.
The painting's subject is explained in the tablet suspended from the heavens. The wording, probably supplied by William's court historian Johannes Aventinus,[63] was originally in German but was later replaced by a Latin inscription.
It translates:
"Alexander the Great defeating the last Darius, after 100,000 infantry and more than 10,000 cavalrymen had been killed amongst the ranks of the Persians. Whilst King Darius was able to flee with no more than 1,000 horsemen, his mother, wife, and children were taken prisoner."
No date is provided for the battle alongside these casualty figures. The lower left-hand corner features Altdorfer's monogram – an 'A' within an 'A' – and the lower edge of the tablet is inscribed with "ALBRECHT ALTORFER ZU REGENSPVRG FECIT" ("Albrecht Altdorfer from Regensburg made [this]").
Tiny inscriptions on their chariot and harness identify Darius and Alexander, respectively.[64] Each army bears a banner that reports both its total strength and its future casualties.[43][60]
Analysis and interpretation
Detail of soldiers from both armies. Reinhart Koselleck comments that the Persians resemble the 16th-century Turks "from their feet to their turbans."
Anachronism is a major component of The Battle of Alexander at Issus. By dressing Alexander's men in 16th-century steel armour and Darius' men in Turkish battle dress, Altdorfer draws deliberate parallels between the Macedonian campaign and the contemporary European–Ottoman conflict.[44][59][64]
In 1529 – the year of the painting's commissioning – the Ottoman forces under Suleiman the Magnificent laid siege to the Austrian city of Vienna[64], then also the capital of the Holy Roman Empire and called 'the golden apple' by the Sultans. Although far inferior in number, the Austrian, German, Czech, and Spanish soldiers marshalled to defend Vienna were able to force the enemy into a retreat and stall the Ottoman advance on central Europe.
It is probable the painting's underlying allegory was inspired by the siege of Vienna, given its similarities to Alexander's victory at Issus. Some critics go further, suggesting that the inclusion of anachronism may have been an element of Altdorfer's commission.[47][59]
Featured alongside the anachronism in The Battle of Alexander at Issus is a genuine lack of historicity. Altdorfer demonstrates minimal hesitance in neglecting the painting's historical integrity for the sake of its heroic style, in spite of the pains he took to research the battle.
That the Persian army was up to twice the size of the Macedonian army is not clear, and the relative positioning of the soldiers as reported by ancient sources has been disregarded.
According to art critic Rose-Marie Hagen, "The artist was faithful to the historical truth only when it suited him, when historical facts were compatible with the demands of his composition."[60] Hagen also notes the placement of women on the battlefield, attributing it to Altdorfer's "passion for invention",[60] since the wife of Darius, his mother and his daughters were waiting for Darius back at the camp, not in the thick of battle.[66] True to form, however, Altdorfer made the aristocratic ladies "look like German courtly ladies, dressed for a hunting party" in their feathered toques:[60]
Altdorfer's primary point of reference in his research was probably Hartmann Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle (Schedelsche Weltchronik), an illustrated world history published in Nuremberg in 1493. Schedel was a physician, humanist, historian and cartographer, and his Chronicle was one of the first books produced on the printing press. With a heavy reliance on the Bible, it recounts the seven ages of human history,[67] from Creation to the birth of Christ and ending with the Apocalypse.[68] Altdorfer's statistics for the battle of Issus mirror those of Schedel.
Furthermore, the errors in Schedel's maps of the Mediterranean and Northern Africa are also present in The Battle of Alexander at Issus: the island of Cyprus is noticeably oversized, and both the mountain rise in the painting's centre and the range adjacent to the Nile do not exist.[61]
Since the Chronicle describes Alexander's victory over the Persians in terms of its proximity to Tarsus and omits mention of Issus, it is likely that the cityscape by the sea is intended to be the former city rather than the latter. Issus in the 16th century was minor and relatively unknown, whereas Tarsus was renowned for its having been a major centre of learning and philosophy in Roman times. Tarsus was also said to be the birthplace of the Apostle Paul, which may explain the presence of the church towers in Altdorfer's portrayal.[61] Another source may have been the writings of Quintus Curtius Rufus, a 1st-century Roman historian who presents inflated figures for the number of killed and taken prisoner and the sizes of the armies.[60]
The sky bears overt metaphorical significance and is the centrepiece of the painting's symbolism. Alexander, identified by the Egyptians and others as a god of the sun, finds his victory in the sun's rays; and the Persians are routed into the darkness beneath the crescent moon, a symbol of the Near East.[69]
Considered in terms of the painting's contemporary context, the sun's triumph over the moon represents Christendom's victory over the Islamism of the Ottomans.[35] Eschatological meaning, probably inspired by prophecies in the Book of Daniel, is imbued in the heavenly setting. In particular, Daniel 7 predicts the rise and fall of four kingdoms before the Second Coming; these were thought to be Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome at the time of the painting's creation. Altdorfer saw the Battle of Issus as a principal indicator of the transition of power from Persia to Greece, and thus as an event of cosmic significance.[35][57]
The battle also marked a progression toward the end of the world – an important theological concern in the 16th century, given that the last traces of Rome were diminishing with the papacy. As a member of the Regensburg council and a practising Catholic, Altdorfer frequently interacted with the Church and was surely aware of this trend of eschatological thought. Schedel, too, had calculated that the final age of the seven he identified was nigh.[67] It may therefore be inferred that the sky's expression of the momentous event at Issus was intended to be of contemporary relevance as well.[57]
The Battle of Alexander at Issus remained part of the royal collection of the Dukes of Bavaria for centuries. By the late 18th century, it was regularly featured in public galleries at the Schleissheim Palace.
The painting was one of 72 taken to Paris in 1800 by the invading armies of Napoleon I (1769–1821),[70] who was a noted admirer of Alexander the Great.[60][71]
The Louvre held it until 1804, when Napoleon declared himself Emperor of France and took it for his own use.
When the Prussians captured the Château de Saint-Cloud in 1814 as part of the War of the Sixth Coalition, they supposedly found the painting hanging in Napoleon's bathroom.[72]
The Battle of Alexander at Issus and 26 others taken in the 1800 invasion were subsequently restored to the
King of Bavaria in 1815.[70] Five of the paintings in William IV's original set of eight – including The Battle of Alexander at Issus – later passed from the royal collection to the Alte Pinakothek art museum in Munich, Germany, where they remain; the other three are in the National Museum of Fine Arts in Stockholm, having been looted by the Swedish army in the Thirty Years War of 1618–1648.[73] Susannah and the Elders is the only other work by Altdorfer in the Alte Pinakothek.
Horatius Cocles Stopping King Porsenna's Army outside Rome, by Ludwig Refinger. From the same historical cycle that The Battle of Alexander at Issus originally belonged to.
Contextually, the painting forms part of the Northern Renaissance, a resurgence of classical humanism and culture in northern Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries.
The Renaissance induced a new kind of social individualism which Altdorfer expressed through the heroic emphasis on Alexander and Darius, and which is reflected in the specifics of the painting's commission and by the subjects of its companion pieces: "During the Renaissance people no longer saw themselves solely as members of a social group, as the citizens of a town, or as sinners before God in whose eyes all were equal. They had become aware of the unique qualities that distinguished one person from another.
Unlike the Middle Ages, the Renaissance celebrated the individual. Altdorfer may have painted row after row of apparently identical warriors, but the spectators themselves would identify with Alexander and Darius, figures who had names, whose significance was indicated by the cord which hung down from the tablet above them."[47]
Altdorfer was not only a pioneer of landscape, but also a practitioner of early incarnations of the Romanticism and expressionism which impacted the arts so greatly in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Kenneth Clark writes of Altdorfer and contemporaries Grünewald and Bosch, "They are what we now call 'expressionist' artists, a term which is not as worthless as it sounds, because, in fact, the symbols of expressionism are remarkably consistent, and we find in the work of these early 16th-century landscape painters not only the same spirit but the same shapes and iconographical motives which recur in the work of such recent expressionists as van Gogh, Max Ernst, Graham Sutherland and Walt Disney."[74]
According to art critic Pia F. Cuneo, "Altdorfer's construction of landscape on a cosmic scale" in the Battle of Alexander at Issus, and his "spiritual and aesthetic affinities with Romanticism and Modern art (in particular, German Expressionism)", "have been especially singled out for praise".[75]
The Battle of Alexander at Issus is typically considered to be Altdorfer's masterpiece. Cuneo states that the painting is usually "considered in splendid isolation from its fifteen other companion pieces, based on the assumption that it either metonymically stands in for the entire cycle, or that its perceived aesthetic predominance merits exclusive focus."[75] German writer Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel (1772–1829) was one of many who saw the painting in the Louvre and marvelled, calling it a "small painted Iliad".[72] Reinhart Koselleck comments that Altdorfer's depiction of the thousands of soldiers was executed with "a mastery previously unknown",[65] and Kathleen Davis describes the painting as "epochal in every sense".[65]
For a fee, they will take you out beyond the
third reef to surf, and then bring you back in.
Hurricane Sandy - Pompano Beach, Florida U.S.A.
Taken during a dress rehearsal on Tues 7th May 2019.
Adapted for the stage by Shaun McKenna. Based on the film written and directed by Charles Dance, from a short story by William J. Locke.
Ladies in Lavender takes us to Cornwall just prior to the Second World War, where we meet two single sisters, Ursula and Janet Wittington living a genteel life in their seaside cottage. Things change when Andrea, a Polish violinist is mysteriously found washed up on their beach. Andrea develops genuine affection for the sisters who rescue him. But, his presence provokes rivalry between the siblings. Ursula and Janet show how the years roll away with the young man's presence. Janet, is the obvious leader of the two whilst Ursula is comparatively naive. The sisters convey undercurrents of emotion in subtle ways despite nursing Andrea to health and teaching him some English. Then Olga, a Russian appears, and she, too, casts her spell. The local doctor however has designs on her. Add Dorcus, the housekeeper to the mix with her straight talking and comic genius and you have a Cornish cream tea of a play, but will the cream be clotted or curdled?
Cast:
JANET – HILARY WISEMAN
URSULA – GWEN COWAN
ANDREA – AXEL JAYMES
DORCAS – MANDY TAYLOR
OLGA – KATIE DEYES
DR MEAD - JOHN LINDOP
Production Team:
Director: Phil Edwards
For more information + Tickets see:
Thank you all my dears Flickr friends for your sweet comments! I do appreciate them very, very much
Lullaby Loreena McKennitt
My Books:
My book "Discover GUIMERÀ" (preview)
My book "Discover SANTA PAU" (preview)
O for a voice like thunder, and a tongue
To drown the throat of war! - When the senses
Are shaken, and the soul is driven to madness,
Who can stand? When the souls of the oppressed
Fight in the troubled air that rages, who can stand?
When the whirlwind of fury comes from the
Throne of god, when the frowns of his countenance
Drive the nations together, who can stand?
When Sin claps his broad wings over the battle,
And sails rejoicing in the flood of Death;
When souls are torn to everlasting fire,
And fiends of Hell rejoice upon the slain.
O who can stand? O who hath caused this?
O who can answer at the throne of God?
The Kings and Nobles of the Land have done it!
Hear it not, Heaven, thy Ministers have done it!
William Blake
William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognized during his lifetime, Blake's work is now considered seminal in the history of both poetry and the visual arts. Blake's prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". His visual artistry has led one modern critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced". Although he only once travelled any farther than a day's walk outside London over the course of his life, his creative vision engendered a diverse and symbolically rich corpus, which embraced 'imagination' as "the body of God", or "Human existence itself".
Considered mad for his idiosyncratic views by contemporaries, later criticism regards Blake highly for his expressiveness and creativity, as well as the philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his work. His paintings and poetry have been characterized as part of both the Romantic movement and "Pre-Romantic", for its largely having appeared in the 18th century. Reverent of the Bible but hostile to the Church of England, Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American revolutions, as well as by such thinkers as Jacob Boehme and Emanuel Swedenborg.
Despite these known influences, the originality and singularity of Blake's work make him difficult to classify. The 19th century scholar William Rossetti characterised Blake as a "glorious luminary," and "a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors."
In Wordpress In Blogger photo.net/photos/Reinante/ In Onexposure
View Large on Black at www.thewindypixel.com!
Leave it up to Mr.-meticulously-plan-the-shoot-ahead-of-time-and-never-fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants over here to decide that the one time he makes it to Holy Name Cathedral for a bit of HDR photography is 10 minutes before Sunday Mass. Oops. I think one of the undercurrents of photography that keeps me coming back to the hobby is the connection you get with the atmosphere and architecture of a space when you are behind the camera. Be it the glacial cathedrals of granite, the academic ivory tower of Rockefeller or the Holy Name Cathedral, there is a harmony of angle and space that unifies them, yet the difference in atmosphere and emotion is substantive. I think I prefer the rough-hewn and wind-swept temples of nature, but these holy places have their charm as well. The idea behind the cathedral is inspiring and silly all at once. A symbol of reverence for the divine, yet inherently opposed in its luxury to the symbol of Christ, it seems to me an interesting juxtaposition of wealth, religion and history. I admit, however, that I am grateful for the largess of the major churches in building these spaces. It reminds me of the Postal Service - they could get away with issuing blank stamps with little more adornment than a number indicating their value, yet they spend great effort in creating a seemingly endless variety of unique designs.
The nice folks over there (it's the seat of the Archdiocese of Chicago by the by) let me poke around with my tripod for a minute or two before services started, and I snapped off a frame or two I liked. I will definitely be making my way back here soon.
French postcard in the Les Dessins de Walt Disney series by MD, no. D 430. Image: Disney. Publicity still for Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973).
The twenty-first Disney animated feature film Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973) is an imaginative version of the Robin Hood legend. Fun and romance abound as the swashbuckling hero of Sherwood Forest and his valiant sidekick Little John plot one daring adventure after another to outwit the greedy prince John. Early on in the film, Robin and Little John happen upon the royal entourage which is taking Prince John and his counselor, Sir Hiss, to Nottingham in order to tax the people there. Disguised as female fortune-tellers, Robin and Little John effectively steal from Prince John all the gold they can carry and run off into the forest, leaving Prince John sucking his thumb in humiliation. In Nottingham, Robin uses Friar Tuck to smuggle the stolen gold back to the peasants. Later Robin sees Maid Marian, she and Robin had once been sweethearts as children, but were forced to part ways when she moved to London. But she is mistaken: Robin can't stop thinking about her. But since Robin is an outlaw he and Marian wait for marriage. Seething with rage, that Robin is winning, John triples the taxes, making the bleak situation in Nottingham even worse. One night, Robin Hood, disguised again as the beggar, learns that Friar Tuck is in jail and will rescue him, save Nottingham once and for all and give Prince John the justice that has been coming to him for a long time...
Robin Hood is generally considered to be one of the weakest Disney animated classics, but I totally disagree. Yes, this version of Robin Hood has animals in the roles of the characters, but it works superbly! Robin Hood as a clever fox is a natural choice. And naturally, Maid Marian is a vixen. Prince John and King Richard as lions are also logical choices. But John is a mane-less lion, who starts sucking his thumb whenever anyone mentions his mother. He is silly, but with a truly evil undercurrent. The Sheriff of Nottingham is also deliciously nasty ("Upsy-daisy"), Other hilarious characters are the vultures Trigger, and Nutsy, and Sir Hiss, the snake. They provide the delicious humour to the film. Sir Hiss is smarter than any of the other bad guys, but the humor with him is that Prince John never believes him until it's too late, and abuses him afterwards. Trigger's 'old Betsy' (a crossbow) provides plenty of laughs, especially when it goes off. And Nutsy is so stupid he says "One o'clock and all's well!" when it's three o'clock, and when told to set his brain ahead a couple hours, he doesn't know if he has to add or subtract two hours. Apart from the great characters and their witty and smart dialogues , the film has beautiful background artwork e especially in the love scene, and the music is also good, with the hard and gritty song 'Not in Nottingham' as a highlight. Robin Hood was a box office hit at the time and it was initially received with positive reviews from film critics who praised the voice cast, animation, and humor, but its critical reception became gradually mixed since its release and recycled scenes of animation have been noted. But despite these flaws, Robin Hood is still a very entertaining Disney classic.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Borgarfjörður is a fjord in the west of Iceland near the town of Borgarnes. Although the waters of Borgarfjörður appear calm, the fjord has significant undercurrents and shallows. The many flat islands lying in the fjord are for the most part uninhabited.
Near Borgarnes, the hringvegur (road no.1 or "ring road") passes over Borgarfjarðarbrú, a bridge of 0.5 km in length at the inland portion of the fjord.
The land around the fjord has been inhabited since the time of Icelandic settlement. Events in the Icelandic sagas such as that of Egill Skallagrímsson are situated here.
The name of the fjord seems to have come from the farm Borg, which according to the sagas was founded by Egill's father Skallagrímur, who took the land around the fjord and accordingly gave the fjord the name of Borgarfjörður.
While serving as a synonym for the various townships, farms, natural attractions and areas in the region, the various parts of Borgarfjörður are now generally referred to as Borgarbyggð, a name that in Icelandic denotes residential areas, populated places, such as Borgarnes, tourist resorts and attractions, and less populated farms and more remote natural areas. The name Borgafjorður refers to the actual fjord and surrounding beaches as a natural habitat.
Belgian postcard. Image: Walt Disney Productions, 1975. Publicity still for Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973). Sent by mail in 1976.
The twenty-first Disney animated feature film Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973) is an imaginative version of the Robin Hood legend. Fun and romance abound as the swashbuckling hero of Sherwood Forest and his valiant sidekick Little John plot one daring adventure after another to outwit the greedy Prince John. Early on in the film, Robin and Little John happen upon the royal entourage which is taking Prince John and his counselor, Sir Hiss, to Nottingham in order to tax the people there. Disguised as female fortune-tellers, Robin and Little John effectively steal from Prince John all the gold they can carry and run off into the forest, leaving Prince John sucking his thumb in humiliation. In Nottingham, Robin uses Friar Tuck to smuggle the stolen gold back to the peasants. Later Robin sees Maid Marian, she and Robin had once been sweethearts as children but were forced to part ways when she moved to London. But she is mistaken: Robin can't stop thinking about her. But since Robin is an outlaw he and Marian wait for marriage. Seething with rage, that Robin is winning, John triples the taxes, making the bleak situation in Nottingham even worse. One night, Robin Hood, disguised again as the beggar, learns that Friar Tuck is in jail and will rescue him, save Nottingham once and for all and give Prince John the justice that has been coming to him for a long time...
Robin Hood is generally considered to be one of the weakest Disney animated classics, but I totally disagree. Yes, this version of Robin Hood has animals in the roles of the characters, but it works superbly! Robin Hood as a clever fox is a natural choice. And naturally, Maid Marian is a vixen. Prince John and King Richard as lions are also logical choices. But John is a mane-less lion, who starts sucking his thumb whenever anyone mentions his mother. He is silly, but with a truly evil undercurrent. The Sheriff of Nottingham is also deliciously nasty ("Upsy-daisy"), Other hilarious characters are the vultures Trigger, and Nutsy, and Sir Hiss, the snake. They provide delicious humour to the film. Sir Hiss is smarter than any of the other bad guys, but the humor with him is that Prince John never believes him until it's too late, and abuses him afterward. Trigger's 'old Betsy' (a crossbow) provides plenty of laughs, especially when it goes off. And Nutsy is so stupid he says "One o'clock and all's well!" when it's three o'clock, and when told to set his brain ahead a couple of hours, he doesn't know if he has to add or subtract two hours. Apart from the great characters and their witty and smart dialogues, the film has beautiful background artwork e especially in the love scene, and the music is also good, with the hard and gritty song 'Not in Nottingham' as a highlight. Robin Hood was a box office hit at the time and it was initially received with positive reviews from film critics who praised the voice cast, animation, and humor, but its critical reception became gradually mixed since its release and recycled scenes of animation have been noted. But despite these flaws, Robin Hood is still a very entertaining Disney classic.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
the second of my prairie short stories published on amzn.com/B009B15QCQ
excerpt: What can I do? Swim! Out into the sunshine. Swim alone. If I call Barb, she’ll start in on her Ronny this, Ronny that… “I worry about you, Ronny. You’d feel so much better if you talked to someone. Even your doctor. You shouldn’t be having so much trouble with your memory, Ronny. And sometimes you drift, and I wonder where you’ve gone in your mind.” Ronny this, Ronny that. If only she knew how beautiful the Drifting is… swimming alone… alone. I have to keep swimming—up and out. I see the fresh air just above the surface. The undercurrent is terrific. It would be so easy, easy to give in to it. Must keep little...
I'm not sure if it seems apparent with the finished piece but I was a bit giddy when I started painting this, as it was the first wall we've tackled this year, and just started chucking paint at the wall with no ongoing plan whatsoever. Before I knew it I'd managed to cover the entire wall with a garish bubblegum bright patchwork of colour.
I do wonder what I was listening to at that point and after a bit of a sit down decided that it was all a bit bright and fancy so I needed to take it a little darker. I finally struck upon the idea of having a lady who, on the face of it is all bright and sparkly but, in fact, harbours some dark desires. With some snippets of text in between the bright patches, some black stencils to indicate the darker undercurrents and a quote from Macbeth over the whole thing it was time to step back and call it done. As this is in the basement of our local pub i'm hoping it should remain in place for a good while to come. Right, what's next?
Cheers
id-iom
Out of chaos there emerged emotional coherence; the power of her turbulent desire was transformed into a passion to care; a commitment to truth became a driving force; beneath her intellectual and emotional vitality she found an undercurrent of wisdom; and in the secrecy of an untidy bathroom her heart’s deepest longing was met in the practice of adoration.
-Etty Hillesum: A Life Transformed
Patrick Woodhouse
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 503, 1954. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Robert Taylor in Ambush (Sam Wood, 1950).
Robert Taylor (1911- 1969) was called "The Man with the Perfect Profile". He won his first leading role in Magnificent Obsession (1935). His popularity increased during the late 1930s and 1940s with appearances in A Yank at Oxford (1938), Waterloo Bridge (1940), and Bataan (1943). He was the quintessential MGM company man until the demise of the studio system in the late 1950s.
Robert Taylor was born Spangler Arlington Brugh in 1911, in Filley, Nebraska. Taylor was the only child of Ruth Adaline (née Stanhope) and Spangler Andrew Brugh, a farmer turned doctor. During his early life, the family moved several times, and by September 1917, the Brughs had moved to Beatrice, Nebraska, where they remained for 16 years. As a teenager, Taylor was a track and field star and played the cello in his high school orchestra. Upon graduation, he enrolled at Doane College in Crete, Nebraska. While at Doane, he took cello lessons from Professor Herbert E. Gray, whom he admired and idolised. After Professor Gray announced he was accepting a new position at Pomona College in Claremont, California, Taylor moved to California and enrolled at Pomona. He joined the campus theater group and was eventually spotted by an MGM talent scout in 1932 after a production of Journey's End. He signed a seven-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The studio changed his name to Robert Taylor. He made his film debut on loan-out to Fox in the comedy Handy Andy (David Butler, 1934) starring Will Rogers. His first leading role came by accident. In 1934 Taylor was on the MGM payroll as "the test boy," a male juvenile who would be filmed opposite various young ingenues in screen tests. In late 1934, when MGM began production of its new short-subject series Crime Does Not Pay with the dramatic short Buried Loot (George B. Seitz, 1935), the actor who had been cast fell ill and could not appear. The director sent for the test boy to substitute for the missing actor. Taylor's dramatic performance, as an embezzler who deliberately disfigures himself to avoid detection, was so memorable that Taylor immediately was signed for feature films. In 1935, Irene Dunne requested him for her leading man in Magnificent Obsession (John M. Stahl, 1935), again on loan-out, this time to then struggling Universal Pictures. He played a happy-go-lucky party guy who inadvertently causes blindness to the young lady he wishes to impress and then becomes a doctor in order to cure her. The film was a big hit, and Taylor had a taste of instant box-office stardom. Along with his good looks, Taylor already showed solid dramatic skill in Camille (George Cukor, 1936) with Greta Garbo. Throughout the late 1930s, Taylor appeared in films of varying genres including the musicals Broadway Melody of 1936 (Roy Del Ruth, 1935) and Broadway Melody of 1938 (Roy Del Ruth, 1937), and the British comedy A Yank at Oxford (Jack Conway, 1938) with Lionel Barrymore and Vivien Leigh.
Throughout 1940 and 1941 Robert Taylor argued in favour of American entry into World War II and was sharply critical of the isolationist movement. During this time he said he was "100% pro-British". In 1940, he reteamed with Vivien Leigh in Mervyn LeRoy's drama Waterloo Bridge, a personal favorite by both Leigh and Taylor. After being given the nickname "The Man with the Perfect Profile", Taylor began breaking away from his perfect leading man image and began appearing in darker roles beginning in 1941. That year, he portrayed Billy Bonney (better known as Billy the Kid) in Billy the Kid (David Miller, 1941). The next year, he played the title role in the Film Noir Johnny Eager (Mervyn LeRoy, 1942) with Lana Turner. After playing a tough sergeant in the World War II drama Bataan (Tay Garnett, 1943), Taylor contributed to the war effort by becoming a flying instructor in the U.S. Naval Air Corps. During this time, he also starred in instructional films and narrated the documentary The Fighting Lady (Edward Steichen, 1944). After the war, he appeared in edgy roles in the Film Noirs Undercurrent (Vincente Minnelli, 1946) opposite Katharine Hepburn, and High Wall (Curtis Bernhardt, 1947). In 1949, he co-starred with Elizabeth Taylor in the Film Noir Conspirator (Victor Saville, 1949), which Hedda Hopper described as "another one of Taylor's pro-British films". Taylor responded to this by saying "And it won't be the last!" However, both Hopper and Taylor were members of the anticommunist organisation the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. Taylor landed the role of General Marcus Vinicius in Quo Vadis (Mervyn LeRoy, 1950) with Deborah Kerr. The epic film was a hit, grossing US$11 million in its first run. The following year, he starred in the film version of Walter Scott's classic Ivanhoe (Richard Thorpe, 1951), again with Elizabeth Taylor. It was followed by two more historical adventure films, Knights of the Round Table (Richard Thorpe, 1953) and The Adventures of Quentin Durward (Richard Thorpe, 1955), all filmed in England. Of the three only Ivanhoe was a critical and financial success. Taylor also filmed Valley of the Kings (Robert Pirosh, 1954) in Egypt.
By the mid-1950s, Robert Taylor began to concentrate on Westerns, his preferred genre. He starred in a comedy Western Many Rivers to Cross (Roy Rowland, 1955) co-starring Eleanor Parker. In 1958, he shared the lead with Richard Widmark in the edgy Western The Law and Jake Wade (John Sturges, 1958). William McPeak at IMDb: "That he usually comes across on screen as having a confident, commanding presence is more of a testimony to his acting talent than his actual personality. He held rigid right-wing political beliefs that he refused to question and, when confronted with an opposing viewpoint, would simply reject it outright. He rarely, if ever, felt the need to be introspective. Taylor simply felt blessed to be working behind the walls of MGM. His affection for the studio would blind him to the fact that boss Louis B. Mayer masterfully manipulated him for nearly two decades, keeping Taylor's salary the lowest of any major Hollywood star. But this is also indicative of how much trust he placed in the hands of the studio's leaders. Indeed, Taylor remained the quintessential MGM company man and would be rewarded by remaining employed there until the demise of the studio system in the late 1950s."In 1958, he left MGM and formed Robert Taylor Productions, and the following year, he starred in the television series The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor (1959–1962). Following the end of the series in 1962, Taylor continued to appear in films and television shows, including A House Is Not a Home and two episodes of Hondo. In 1963, NBC filmed but never aired, four episodes of what was to have been The Robert Taylor Show, a series based on case files from the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare. The project was suddenly dropped for lack of coordination with HEW. In the same year, he filmed Miracle of the White Stallions for Walt Disney Productions. In 1964, Taylor co-starred with his former wife Barbara Stanwyck in William Castle's psychological horror film The Night Walker. Taylor traveled to Europe to film the Western Savage Pampas (Hugo Fregonese, 1966), the adventure film The Glass Sphinx (Luigi Scattini, 1967), and the comedy spy-thriller The Day the Hot Line Got Hot (Etienne Périer, 1968) with Charles Boyer. In 1965, Taylor took over the role of narrator in the television series Death Valley Days when Ronald Reagan left to pursue a career in politics. Taylor would remain with the series until his death in 1969. Taylor married Barbara Stanwyck in 1939 and they divorced in 1951. Taylor met German actress Ursula Thiess in 1952. They married in 1954. The couple had two children, a son, Terrance, (1955), and a daughter, Tessa, (1959). Taylor was stepfather to Thiess' two children from her previous marriage, Manuela and Michael Thiess. On 26 May 1969, shortly before Taylor's death at only 57 from lung cancer, Ursula Thiess found the body of her son, Michael, in a West Los Angeles motel room. He died from a drug overdose. One month before his death, Michael had been released from a mental hospital. In 1964, he spent a year in a reformatory for attempting to poison his father with insecticide.
Sources: William McPeak (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
The Alexander Column also known as Alexandrian Column is the focal point of Palace Square in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The monument was raised after the Russian victory in the war with Napoleon's France. The column is named for Emperor Alexander I of Russia, who reigned from 1801 to 1825.
Column
The Alexander Column was designed by the French-born architect Auguste de Montferrand, built between 1830 and 1834 with Swiss-born architect Antonio Adamini, and unveiled on 30 August 1834 (St. Alexander of Constantinople's Day). The monument is claimed to be the tallest of its kind in the world at 47.5 m (155 ft 8 in) tall and is topped with a statue of an angel holding a cross, as a triumphal column it may be the highest but the Monument to the Great Fire of London is a freestanding column 62 m high. As a monolith that has been quarried, moved and erected it is the heaviest recorded. The statue of the angel was designed by the Russian sculptor Boris Orlovsky. The face of the angel bears great similarity to the face of Emperor Alexander I.
The column is a single piece of red granite, 25.45 m (83 ft 6 in) long and about 3.5 m (11 ft 5 in) in diameter. The granite monolith was obtained from Virolahti, Finland and in 1832 transported by sea to Saint Petersburg, on a barge specially designed for this purpose, where it underwent further working. Without the aid of modern cranes and engineering machines, the column, weighing 600 tonnes (661 tons) on 30 August 1832 was erected by 3,000 men under the guidance of William Handyside in less than 2 hours. It is set so neatly that no attachment to the base is needed and it is fixed in position by its own weight alone.
Pedestal
The pedestal of the Alexander Column is decorated with symbols of military glory, sculpted by Giovanni Battista Scotti.
On the side of the pedestal facing the Winter Palace is a bas-relief depicting winged figures holding up a plaque bearing the words "To Alexander I from a grateful Russia". The composition includes figures representing the Neman and Vistula rivers that were associated with the events of the Patriotic War. Flanking these figures are depictions of old Russian armour – the shield of Prince Oleg of Novgorod, the helmet of Alexander Nevsky, the breastplate of Emperor Alexander I, the chainmail of Yermak Timofeyevich and other pieces recalling heroes whose martial feats brought glory to Russia.
The other three sides are decorated with bas-reliefs featuring allegorical figures of Wisdom and Abundance, Justice and Mercy, Peace and Victory, the last holding a shield bearing the dates 1812, 1813 and 1814. These compositions are enhanced by depictions of Ancient Roman military symbols and Russian armour.
The sketches for the bas-reliefs were produced by Auguste de Montferrand. He coordinated the scale of their compositions with the monumental forms of the monument. The panels were designed to the planned size by the artist Giovanni Battista Scotti. The models were produced by the sculptors Piotr Svintsov and Ivan Lepee, the ornamental embellishments by sculptor Yevgeny Balin. The casting of the bronze was done at Charles Baird's works in Saint Petersburg.
A commemorative silver rouble designed by N. Gube was struck in 1834 and it is rumoured that a chest of these coins was placed in the foundations.
Later years
In 1952, according to some recent reports, the authorities of the Soviet Union demanded the replacement of the statue of the angel with a statue of Joseph Stalin. A historic cast-iron railing around the column was removed during the Soviet period. The railing was restored in 2002.
Boris Ivanovich Orlovsky (Russian: Борис Иванович Орловский; 1790s – 28 December 1837) was a Russian Neoclassical sculptor.
Biography
Born into a serf peasant family in Tula, Russia, his artistic talent led to him being freed by his master and sent to the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. After studying for six years in Italy under Bertel Thorvaldsen, he returned to teach at the Academy where he later became a Professor. At the same time, he improved his skill in the studios of Santino Campioni and Agostino Triscorni. Boris Orlovsky died in 1837 in Saint Petersburg.
Orlovsky's statues of Kutuzov and Barclay de Tolly in front of the Kazan Cathedral reveal a realistic undercurrent in his otherwise Neoclassical work, typified by the Angel on top of the Alexander Column at the Palace Square.
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991; see below), is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of roughly 5.6 million residents as of 2021, with more than 6.4 million people living in the metropolitan area. Saint Petersburg is the fourth-most populous city in Europe, the most populous city on the Baltic Sea, and the world's northernmost city of more than 1 million residents. As Russia's Imperial capital, and a historically strategic port, it is governed as a federal city.
The city was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on 27 May 1703 on the site of a captured Swedish fortress, and was named after the apostle Saint Peter. In Russia, Saint Petersburg is historically and culturally associated with the birth of the Russian Empire and Russia's entry into modern history as a European great power. It served as a capital of the Tsardom of Russia, and the subsequent Russian Empire, from 1712 to 1918 (being replaced by Moscow for a short period of time between 1728 and 1730). After the October Revolution in 1917, the Bolsheviks moved their government to Moscow. The city was renamed Leningrad after Lenin's death in 1924. In June 1991, only a few months before the Belovezha Accords and the dissolution of the USSR, voters supported restoring the city's original appellation in a city-wide referendum.
As Russia's cultural centre, Saint Petersburg received over 15 million tourists in 2018. It is considered an important economic, scientific, and tourism centre of Russia and Europe. In modern times, the city has the nickname of being "the Northern Capital of Russia" and is home to notable federal government bodies such as the Constitutional Court of Russia and the Heraldic Council of the President of the Russian Federation. It is also a seat for the National Library of Russia and a planned location for the Supreme Court of Russia, as well as the home to the headquarters of the Russian Navy, and the Western Military District of the Russian Armed Forces. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Saint Petersburg is home to the Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world, the Lakhta Center, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and was one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro 2020.
The city of Saint Petersburg was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on 27 May 1703. It became the capital of the Russian Empire and remained as such for more than two hundred years (1712–1728, 1732–1918). Saint Petersburg ceased being the capital in 1918 after the October Coup.
The new capital
On 1 May 1703, Peter the Great took both the Swedish fortress of Nyenschantz and the city of Nyen, on the Neva river. Tsar Peter the Great founded the city on 27 May 1703 (in the Gregorian calendar, 16 May in the Julian calendar) after he reconquered the Ingrian land from Sweden, in the Great Northern War. He named the city after his patron saint, the apostle Saint Peter. The original spelling in three words Sankt-Piter-burkh (Санкт-Питер-Бурх) uses Latin: Sankt, as in Sankt Goar and some other European cities (it is a common misconception about the "Dutch cultural origin"; for local versions, there are Sant or Sint in modern Dutch. Besides Netherlands, Peter the Great also spent three months in Great Britain so it is preferable to speak about the general European experience which influenced the tsar.)
St. Petersburg is actually used as an English equivalent to three variant forms of the name: originally Санкт-Питер-Бурх (Sankt Piter-Burkh), later Санкт-Петерсбурх (Sankt Petersburkh), and then Санкт-Петербург (Sankt Peterburg). The full name is often substituted by the abbreviation SPb (СПб). Sankt was usually confined to writing; people usually called it Петербург (Peterburg) or the common nickname Питер (Piter). Petrograd (Петроград), the name given in 1914 on the outbreak of World War I to avoid the German sound of Petersburg, was a Slavic translation of the previous name. The name was changed to Leningrad (Ленинград) in 1924.
The city was built under adverse weather and geographical conditions. The high mortality rate required a constant supply of workers. Peter ordered a yearly conscription of 40,000 serfs, one conscript for every nine to sixteen households. Conscripts had to provide their own tools and food for the journey of hundreds of kilometres, on foot, in gangs, often escorted by military guards and shackled to prevent desertion, but many escaped; others died from disease and exposure under the harsh conditions.
The new city's first building was the Peter and Paul Fortress, which originally also bore the name of Sankt Petersburg. It was laid down on Zayachy (Hare's) Island, just off the right bank of the Neva, three miles inland from the Gulf. The marshland was drained and the city spread outward from the fortress under the supervision of German and Dutch engineers whom Peter had invited to Russia. Peter restricted the construction of stone buildings in all of Russia outside St Petersburg so that all stonemasons would come to help build the new city.
At the same time Peter hired a large number of engineers, architects, shipbuilders, scientists and businessmen from all countries of Europe. Substantial immigration of educated professionals eventually turned St. Petersburg into a much more cosmopolitan city than Moscow and the rest of Russia. Peter's efforts to push for modernization in Moscow and the rest of Russia were completely misunderstood by the old-fashioned Russian nobility and eventually failed, causing him much trouble with opposition, including several attempts on his life and the treason involving his own son.
Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712, nine years before the Treaty of Nystad. Called the "window to Europe", it was a seaport and also a base for Peter's navy, protected by the fortress of Kronstadt. The first person to build a home in Saint Petersburg was Cornelis Cruys, commander of the Baltic Fleet. Inspired by Venice and Amsterdam, Peter the Great proposed boats and coracles as means of transport in his city of canals. Initially there were only 12 permanent bridges over smaller waterways, while the Great Neva was crossed by boats in the summertime and by foot or horse carriages during winter. A pontoon bridge over Neva was built every summer.
Peter was impressed by the Versailles and other palaces in Europe. His official palace of a comparable importance in Peterhof was the first suburban palace permanently used by the Tsar as the primary official residence and the place for official receptions and state balls. The waterfront palace, Monplaisir, and the Great Peterhof Palace were built between 1714 and 1725. In 1716, Prussia's King presented a gift to Tsar Peter: the Amber Room.
Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov, Peter's best friend, was the first Governor General of Saint Petersburg Governorate in 1703–1727. In 1724 St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences was established in the city. After the death of Peter the Great, Menshikov was arrested and exiled to Siberia. In 1728 Peter II of Russia moved the capital back to Moscow, but four years later, in 1732, St. Petersburg again became the capital of Russia and remained the seat of the government for about two centuries.
Revolutions
Several revolutions, uprisings, assassinations of tsars, and power takeovers in St. Peterburg had shaped the course of history in Russia and influenced the world. In 1801, after the assassination of the Emperor Paul I, his son became the Emperor Alexander I. Alexander I ruled Russia during the Napoleonic Wars and expanded his Empire by acquisitions of Finland and part of Poland. His mysterious death in 1825 was marked by the Decembrist revolt, which was suppressed by the Emperor Nicholas I, who ordered execution of leaders and exiled hundreds of their followers to Siberia. Nicholas I then pushed for Russian nationalism by suppressing non-Russian nationalities and religions.
The cultural revolution that followed after the Napoleonic wars further opened St. Petersburg up, in spite of repression. The city's wealth and rapid growth had always attracted prominent intellectuals, scientists, writers and artists. St. Petersburg eventually gained international recognition as a gateway for trade and business, as well as a cosmopolitan cultural hub. The works of Aleksandr Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and numerous others brought Russian literature to the world. Music, theatre and ballet became firmly established and gained international stature.
The son of Emperor Nicholas I, Emperor Alexander II, implemented the most challenging reforms undertaken in Russia since the reign of Peter the Great. The emancipation of the serfs (1861) caused the influx of large numbers of poor into the capital. Tenements were erected on the outskirts, and nascent industry sprang up, surpassing Moscow in population and industrial growth. By 1900, St. Petersburg had grown into one of the largest industrial hubs in Europe, an important international center of power, business and politics, and the fourth largest city in Europe.
With the growth of industry, radical movements were also astir. Socialist organizations were responsible for the assassinations of many public figures, government officials, members of the royal family, and the tsar himself. Tsar Alexander II was killed by suicide bomber Ignacy Hryniewiecki in 1881, in a plot with connections to the family of Lenin and other revolutionaries. The Revolution of 1905 initiated here and spread rapidly into the provinces. During World War I, the name Sankt Peterburg was seen to be too German, so the city was renamed Petrograd.
1917 saw the next stages of the Russian Revolution and the re-emergence of the Communist party led by Lenin, who declared "guns give us the power" and "all power to the Soviets!" After the February Revolution, Tsar Nicholas II was arrested and the Tsar's government was replaced by two opposing centers of political power: the "pro-democracy" Provisional government and the "pro-communist" Petrograd Soviet. Then the Provisional government was overthrown by the communists in the October Revolution, causing the Russian Civil War.
The city's proximity to anti-Soviet armies forced communist leader Vladimir Lenin to move his government to Moscow on 5 March 1918. The move was disguised as temporary, but Moscow has remained the capital ever since. On 24 January 1924, three days after Lenin's death, Petrograd was renamed Leningrad. The Communist party's reason for renaming the city again was that Lenin had led the revolution. After the Civil War, and murder of the Tsar Nicholas II and his family, as well as millions of anti-Soviet people, the renaming to Leningrad was designed to destroy last hopes among the resistance, and show strong dictatorship of Lenin's communist party and the Soviet regime.
St. Petersburg was devastated by Lenin's Red Terror then by Stalin's Great Purge in addition to crime and vandalism in the series of revolutions and wars. Between 1917 and 1930s, about two million people fled the city, including hundreds of thousands of educated intellectuals and aristocracy, who emigrated to Europe and America. At the same time many political, social and paramilitary groups had followed the communist government in their move to Moscow, as the benefits of capital status had left the city. In 1931 Leningrad administratively separated from Leningrad Oblast.
In 1934 the popular governor of Leningrad, Kirov, was assassinated, because Stalin apparently became increasingly paranoid about Kirov's the growth of his popularity. The death of Kirov was used to ignite the Great Purge where supporters of Trotsky and other suspected "enemies of the Soviet state" were arrested. Then a series of "criminal" cases, known as the Leningrad Centre and Leningrad Affair, were fabricated and resulted in death sentences for many top leaders of Leningrad, and severe repressions of thousands of top officials and intellectuals.
Siege of Leningrad
During World War II, Leningrad was surrounded and besieged by the German Wehrmacht from 8 September 1941 to 27 January 1944, a total of 29 months. By Hitler's order the Wehrmacht constantly shelled and bombed the city and systematically isolated it from any supplies, causing death of more than 1 million civilians in three years; 650,000 died in 1942 alone. The secret instruction from 23 September 1941 said: "the Führer is determined to eliminate the city of Petersburg from the face of earth. There is no reason whatsoever for subsequent existence of this large-scale city after the neutralization of the Soviet Russia." Starting in early 1942, Ingria was included into the Generalplan Ost annexation plans as the "German settlement area". This implied the genocide of 3 million Leningrad residents, who had no place in Hitler's "New East European Order".
Hitler ordered preparations for victory celebrations at the tsar's palaces. The Germans looted art from museums and palaces, as well as from private homes. All looted treasures, such as the Amber Room, gold statues of the Peterhof Palace, paintings and other valuable art were taken to Germany. Hitler also prepared a party to celebrate his victory at the hotel Astoria. A printed invitation to Hitler's reception ball at the Hotel Astoria is now on display at the City Museum of St. Petersburg.
During the siege of 1941–1944, the only ways to supply the city and suburbs, inhabited by several millions, were by aircraft or by cars crossing the frozen Lake Ladoga. The German military systematically shelled this route, called the Road of Life, so thousands of cars with people and food supplies had sunk in the lake. The situation in the city was especially horrible in the winter of 1941–1942. The German bombing raids destroyed most of the food reserves. The daily food ration was cut in October to 400 grams of bread for a worker and 200 grams for a woman or child. On 20 November 1941, the rations were reduced to 250 and 125 grams respectively. Those grams of bread were the bulk of a daily meal for a person in the city. The water supply was destroyed. The situation further worsened in winter due to lack of heating fuel. In December 1941 alone some 53,000 people in Leningrad died of starvation, many corpses were scattered in the streets all over the city.
"Savichevs died. Everyone died. Only Tanya is left," wrote 11-year-old Leningrad girl Tanya Savicheva in her diary. It became one of the symbols of the blockade tragedy and was shown as one of many documents at the Nuremberg trials.
The city suffered severe destruction – the Wehrmacht fired about 150,000 shells at Leningrad and the Luftwaffe dropped about 100,000 air bombs. Many houses, schools, hospitals and other buildings were leveled, and those in the occupied territory were plundered by German troops.
As a result of the siege, about 1.2 million of 3 million Leningrad civilians lost their lives because of bombardment, starvation, infections and stress. Hundreds of thousands of unregistered civilians, who lived in Leningrad prior to WWII, had perished in the siege without any record at all. About 1 million civilians escaped with evacuation, mainly by foot. After two years of the siege, Leningrad became an empty ghost town with thousands of ruined and abandoned homes.
For the heroic resistance of the city and tenacity of the survivors of the siege, Leningrad became the first to receive the Hero City title, as awarded in 1945.
Postwar reconstruction
The war damaged the city and killed many old Petersburgers who had not fled after the revolution and did not perish in the mass purges before the war. Nonetheless, Leningrad and many of its suburbs were rebuilt over the post-war decades, partially according to the pre-war plans. In 1950 the Kirov Stadium was opened and soon set a record when 110,000 fans attended a football match. In 1955 the Leningrad Metro, the second underground rapid transit system in the country, was opened with its first six stations decorated with marble and bronze.
Timeline of post-war recovery
1945–1970s
Re-building and restoration of thousands of buildings, industries, schools, transport, energy supplies and infrastructure.
Restoration of destroyed suburban museums, palaces, and other historic and cultural landmarks and treasures.
Explosions of left behind land mines caused numerous deaths among citizens.
1946
January – December: some schools, universities, and colleges reopened.
January – December: some theatres and movies were opened to the public.
1947
May: The fountains of Peterhof park were opened to the public again, but the palaces were in ruins for the next several decades.
1949
Stalin set up a plot to have the leaders of the city government arrested and killed. Aleksei Kuznetsov, Nikolai Voznesensky, P. Popkov, Ya. Kapustin, P. Lazutin, and several more, who were heroic and efficient in defending Leningrad, became very popular figures. They were arrested on false accusations. Stalin's plot to kill the leaders of Leningrad was kept top-secret in the former Soviet Union. It is now known as the Leningrad Affair.
1955
Leningrad Metro, which was designed before the war in the 1930s to serve as an underground shelter, was completed after the war and opened in 1955 with its first seven stations decorated with marble and bronze. It became the second underground rapid transit system in the country.
The population of Leningrad, including suburbs, increased in the 10 post-war years from under 0.8 million to about 4 million.
1960s
The Ilya Repin House Museum is restored in the northern suburb of Repino, and open to the public. However, most of the artist's original paintings and personal items remain missing since the Finnish army was there during WWII.
1970s
The Memorial to Defenders and Survivors of the Siege of Leningrad is erected at the former defence lines on Moskovsky Prospekt near Pulkovo Airport.
2003
May: the Amber Room was re-created with the sponsorship of Germany. It is open to the public in the completely restored Catherine Palace.
27–31 May marked the 300-year anniversary of the city.
2004
January: the 60th anniversary of the Lifting of the Siege of Leningrad in 1944 was officially celebrated in St. Petersburg on 27 January 2004. About twelve thousand survivors of the siege who were children at the time of WWII, are now living on a state pension in St. Petersburg and suburbs. Tens of thousands of other survivors, who were evacuated from besieged Leningrad as children, are still living in Russia and other countries across the world.
Postwar history
During the late 1940s and 1950s the political and cultural elite of Leningrad suffered from more harsh repression under the dictatorship of Stalin – hundreds were executed and thousands were imprisoned in what became known as the Leningrad Affair. Independent thinkers, writers, artists and other intellectuals were attacked, the magazines Zvezda and Leningrad were banned, Akhmatova and Zoshchenko were repressed, and tens of thousands of Leningraders were exiled to Siberia. More crackdowns on Leningrad's intellectual elite, known as the Second Leningrad affair, were part of the unfair economic policies of the Soviet state. Leningrad's economy was producing about 6% of the USSR GNP, despite having less than 2% of the country's population, but the Soviet Communist Party negated such economic efficiency and diverted the earned income from the people of Leningrad to other Soviet places and programs. As a result, during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the city of Leningrad was seriously underfunded in favor of Moscow. Leningrad suffered from the unfair distribution of wealth because the Soviet leadership drained the city's resources to subsidise higher standards of living in Moscow and in some under-performing parts of the Soviet Union and beyond. Such unfair redistribution of wealth caused struggles within the Soviet government and communist party, which led to their fragmentation and played a role in the eventual collapse of the USSR.
On 12 June 1991, the day of the first Russian presidential election, in a referendum 54% of Leningrad voters chose to restore "the original name, Saint Petersburg", on 6 September 1991. In the same election Anatoly Sobchak became the first democratically elected mayor of the city. Among his first initiatives, Sobchak attempted to minimise Moscow's federal control to keep the income from St. Petersburg's economy in the city.
Original names were returned to 39 streets, six bridges, three Saint Petersburg Metro stations and six parks. Older people sometimes use old names and old mailing addresses. The media heavily promoted the name Leningrad, mainly in connection with the siege, so even authorities may refer to Saint Petersburg as the "Hero city Leningrad". Young people may use Leningrad as a vague protest against social and economic changes. A popular ska punk band from Saint Petersburg is called Leningrad.
Leningrad Oblast retained its name after a popular vote. It is a separate federal subject of Russia of which the city of St. Petersburg is the capital.
In 1996, Vladimir Yakovlev was elected the head of the Saint Petersburg City Administration, and changed his title from mayor to governor. In 2003 Yakovlev resigned a year before his second term expired. Valentina Matviyenko was elected governor. In 2006 the city legislature re-appointed her as governor.
The Constitutional Court of Russia completed its move from Moscow to Senate Square in St. Petersburg in 2008. The move partially restored Saint Petersburg's historic status, making the city Russia's second judicial capital.
Taken during a dress rehearsal on Tues 7th May 2019.
Adapted for the stage by Shaun McKenna. Based on the film written and directed by Charles Dance, from a short story by William J. Locke.
Ladies in Lavender takes us to Cornwall just prior to the Second World War, where we meet two single sisters, Ursula and Janet Wittington living a genteel life in their seaside cottage. Things change when Andrea, a Polish violinist is mysteriously found washed up on their beach. Andrea develops genuine affection for the sisters who rescue him. But, his presence provokes rivalry between the siblings. Ursula and Janet show how the years roll away with the young man's presence. Janet, is the obvious leader of the two whilst Ursula is comparatively naive. The sisters convey undercurrents of emotion in subtle ways despite nursing Andrea to health and teaching him some English. Then Olga, a Russian appears, and she, too, casts her spell. The local doctor however has designs on her. Add Dorcus, the housekeeper to the mix with her straight talking and comic genius and you have a Cornish cream tea of a play, but will the cream be clotted or curdled?
Cast:
JANET – HILARY WISEMAN
URSULA – GWEN COWAN
ANDREA – AXEL JAYMES
DORCAS – MANDY TAYLOR
OLGA – KATIE DEYES
DR MEAD - JOHN LINDOP
Production Team:
Director: Phil Edwards
For more information + Tickets see:
French postcard in the series Le Monde merveilleux de Walt Disney by Editions Kroma, Caissargues, no. 233. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973).
The twenty-first Disney animated feature film Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973) is an imaginative version of the Robin Hood legend. Fun and romance abound as the swashbuckling hero of Sherwood Forest and his valiant sidekick Little John plot one daring adventure after another to outwit the greedy Prince John. Early on in the film, Robin and Little John happen upon the royal entourage which is taking Prince John and his counsellor, Sir Hiss, to Nottingham to tax the people there. Disguised as female fortune-tellers, Robin and Little John effectively steal from Prince John all the gold they can carry and run off into the forest, leaving Prince John sucking his thumb in humiliation. In Nottingham, Robin uses Friar Tuck to smuggle the stolen gold back to the peasants. Later Robin sees Maid Marian, she and Robin had once been sweethearts as children but were forced to part ways when she moved to London. But she is mistaken: Robin can't stop thinking about her. But since Robin is an outlaw he and Marian wait for marriage. Seething with rage, that Robin is winning, John triples the taxes, making the bleak situation in Nottingham even worse. One night, Robin Hood, disguised again as the beggar, learns that Friar Tuck is in jail and will rescue him, save Nottingham once and for all and give Prince John the justice that has been coming to him for a long time...
Robin Hood is generally considered to be one of the weakest Disney animated classics, but I disagree. Yes, this version of Robin Hood has animals in the roles of the characters, but it works superbly! Robin Hood as a clever fox is a natural choice. And naturally, Maid Marian is a vixen. Prince John and King Richard as lions are also logical choices. But John is a mane-less lion, who starts sucking his thumb whenever anyone mentions his mother. He is silly but with a truly evil undercurrent. The Sheriff of Nottingham is also deliciously nasty ("Upsy-daisy"), Other hilarious characters are the vultures Trigger, and Nutsy, and Sir Hiss, the snake. They provide delicious humour to the film. Sir Hiss is smarter than any of the other bad guys, but the humour with him is that Prince John never believes him until it's too late, and abuses him afterwards. Trigger's 'old Betsy' (a crossbow) provides plenty of laughs, especially when it goes off. And Nutsy is so stupid he says "One o'clock and all's well!" when it's three o'clock, and when told to set his brain ahead a couple of hours, he doesn't know if he has to add or subtract two hours. Apart from the great characters and their witty and smart dialogues, the film has beautiful background artwork e especially in the love scene, and the music is also good, with the hard and gritty song 'Not in Nottingham' as a highlight. Robin Hood was a box office hit at the time and it was initially received with positive reviews from film critics who praised the voice cast, animation, and humour, but its critical reception became gradually mixed since its release and recycled scenes of animation have been noted. But despite these flaws, Robin Hood is still a very entertaining Disney classic.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Vital stats: Single malt, unchill-filtered malts and bottled at 46.3 percent alcohol by volume. Sold in a darkly tinted 750-milliliter bottle.
Appearance: It’s almost impossible to tell the color of the whisky in the exceptionally tinted glass bottle. In a glass, this Scotch is substantially darker than the average whisky, taking on a rich, reddish-amber hue in the light.
Nose: Hits the nose with a tropical scent that I’ve found a lot of in Islay and nearby whiskies. This 12-year-old’s nose is more forward with orange, citrusy notes but then quickly taking on an earthier, smokier oak scent with a touch of sea air. That more gradually transitions to a sweeter, earthy vanilla aroma with touches of sandalwood, pepper, and allspice.
Palate: Eases onto the tongue with a creamy, malty, yet earthy vanilla flavor with just a touch of slightly bitter spices, almost like drinking rich, high-fat-milk latte with a shot of whisky in it and expertly seasoned with cloves. Meanwhile, it has a very gentle, but earthy undercurrent of peat that is easy to miss for its subtlety. That gentle, creamy flavor then swings in a much spicier direction and starts to tickle the tongue with notes of clove, allspice, pepper, and just a hint of cinnamon. ~ thewhiskeywash.com/reviews/whiskey-review-bunnahabhain-is...
Cheers to Friday and the weekend ahead!
Whisky Day, 8/4/2019, Sunnyside, NY
Leica Camera AG M Monochrom
7Artisans 50mm ƒ/1.1
ƒ/1.7 50.0 mm 1/180 1600
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yet what are you supposed to give when the best you have isn't good enough? I'm tired of fighting against a brick wall, of feeling my energy drain with each conversation and each moment as it passes. When you can't compete do you give in or stand up? Because I've been fighting back for so long now that I'm losing something. It isn't dignity, it isn't pride, maybe it's just happiness. Alright, I'll admit, I'm jealous. It's unnatural, it isn't me, but when I've put everything into such a fruitless venture I feel like I'd give anything to have it handed to me on a plate, the way she has, the way you do. I want to rant forever about two-faced morals and double standards because I'm sick of it, you should know. I hate it and the moment I strongly dislike you. I think you'll read this and I think you'll question because at surface value you'd assume that I could never say that but fact it, I'm laying it out pure and simple, no hidden meaning, which is ironic; I'm sick of your games. You can't act like a friend at face value but be a cohort of my enemies as an undercurrent, it doesn't work like that.
There are so many things, so many stupid little things all accumulating and overspilling into the tears on my cheeks and this is everything I promised it wouldn't be again but I don't care, this is me and you can think what you like. I am so angry at you, friend. You're two people or maybe more and nowadays I don't like even one of them but I'm the one who's weak, here, because I just can't say it to your face. I want to scream and kick my heels like a small child and that's what this is reduced to- temper tantrums and backstabbing and bitching and I'm going to shut up now before I drive myself insane.
I hate that my 365's have gone about as downhill as my mood recently.
Ahhh this is just another photo of my face :(
Beneath the veneer of day to day life, feelings, thoughts and emotions swirl around.
When the channel is clear, the flow is smooth from the surface to the riverbed. When the channel twists and turns, or when it is chocked with boulders and obstacles, the swirl becomes greater, moving in every which directions.
Loss of harmony, slowing of speed, discord can take over to the point that no forward progress is made.
Cleaning and clearing the channel is a constant process, one that we all need to practice on a daily basis.
Disturbing undercurrents within your typical (?) sleepy village environs. UK 2020.( Said Barbie doll belonging to a local reclusive gentleman in his 60s... ).
Abstract
This dissertation seeks to define the importance of John Dee’s interpretation of mediaeval and Renaissance esoterica regarding the contacting of daemons and its evolution into a body of astrological and terrestrial correspondences and intelligences that included a Biblical primordial language, or a lingua adamica. The intention and transmission of John Dee’s angel magic is linked to the philosophy outlined in his earlier works, most notably the Monas Hieroglyphica, and so this dissertation also provides a philosophical background to Dee’s angel magic. The aim of this dissertation is to establish Dee’s conversations with angels as a magic system that is a direct descendant of Solomonic and Ficinian magic with unique Kabbalistic elements. It is primarily by the Neoplatonic, Hermetic, Kabbalistic, and alchemical philosophy presented in the Monas Hieroglyphica that interest in Dee’s angel magic was transmitted through the Rosicrucian movement. Through Johann Valentin Andreae’s Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz anno 1459, the emphasis on a spiritual, inner alchemy became attached to Dee’s philosophy. Figures such as Elias Ashmole, Ebenezer Sibley, Francis Barret, and Frederick Hockley were crucial in the transmission of interest in Dee’s practical angel magic and Hermetic philosophy to the founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The rituals of the Golden Dawn utilized Dee’s angel magic, in addition to creative Kabbalistic elements, to form a singular practice that has influenced Western esoterica of the modern age. This study utilizes a careful analysis of primary sources including the original manuscripts of the Sloane archives, the most recent scholarly editions of Dee’s works, authoritative editions of original documents linked to Rosicrucianism, and Israel Regardie’s texts on Golden Dawn practices.
Introduction
John Dee’s (1527-1609) conversations with angels have been the subject of scrutiny of various parties since their inception. Nobles were divided in their opinions of the supernatural. Dee and his notorious scryer, Edward Kelly, were praised, supported, threatened, or betrayed for their experiments in super-celestial magic; a kind of magic especially noted amongst detractors for its risk in contacting chthonic spirits. The traditional Christian perspective regarding the summoning of angels has been suspect since the Middle Ages due to the biblical assertion that, whatever the entity’s own claims, a ‘demon’ may appear in the guise of an ‘angel’, especially those bearing non-traditional names (II Corinthians 11. 13-14). What made Dee capable of accepting this risk while expecting positive results?
Prior to his conversations with angels, Dee’s reputation was that of a learned man of the highest caliber. He had been offered the position of Court Mathematician by the kings and emperors of various countries after his lectures on Euclid at the University of Paris in 1550.2 His personal library’s vastness was well marked as the largest in all of England. 3 His comprehensive mastery of its contents and its ramshackle organization made his presence necessary in order to even navigate it.4 The quality of the library and its learned archivist were such that it was frequented by the leading lights of the day, including Queen Elizabeth herself.5 Why would such a man of such great erudition seemingly eschew reason, turn his back on his higher learning, instead attempting to receive the answers to his life’s scholarly inquiries from a crystal ball? In Dee’s final years and those following his death, the dangerous reputation of a magus dealing in super-celestial magic caught up with him. Despite Dee’s low reputation after his death, Johann Valentin Andreae (1586-1654) published his Rosicrucian work, Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz anno 1459 (or the Chemical Wedding; 1616),6 which featured Dee’s Monas Hieroglyphica on the invitation to an allegorical wedding that described the process of the inner alchemy of the human spirit (which will be further discussed later in this dissertation).7 Elias Ashmole (1617-1692) also made it his mission to collect Dee’s writings and corresponded with his son, Arthur Dee (1579-1651), with the intention of writing a biography on Arthur’s father, which was never completed. Méric Casaubon (1599-1671) used Dee’s journals to write the True & Faithful Relation (1659) that, at the time, seemed to seal Dee’s fate (despite Casaubon’s noting of and respect for his pious and fervent Christianity) as a deluded diabolist who had clearly overstepped the station of man in the spiritual hierarchy by attempting to directly contact and hold conversation with angels.
Frederick Hockley is thought to have been a member of the possibly spurious Society of Eight and possessed a great interest in Dee’s use of crystals to contact angels.10 Hockley and MacKenzie’s works and reputations were highly regarded by William Wynn Westcott who, alongside Samuel Liddel MacGregor Mathers and Robert Woodman, founded the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1888.11 The Golden Dawn’s Second Order introduced its members to Dee’s Enochian tables and angel magic in the form of Book H12 and Enochian Chess.13
This dissertation shall attempt to treat the following questions: How did Dee’s philosophy and angel magic prove resilient enough to survive Casaubon’s damning persecution and persist into the modern era? What was the importance of Enochian angel magic to the Western esoteric traditions?
The first chapter, in two sections, will examine the sources of influence on John Dee’s angel magic. The first section will present the sources of Dee’s Hermetic philosophy that served as his rationale for his capability to perform theological magic; namely Marsilio Ficino, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, and the Corpus Hermeticum and their reflections in Dee’s works. The second section will investigate the sources of practical magic that Dee used as inspiration for his own practice (directly or indirectly); namely Peter de Abano, Johannes Trithemius, Heinrich Agrippa Cornelius von Nettesheim, and the various pseudoepigraphic or authorless grimoires such as the Liber Juratus Honorii, Ars Paulina, Ars Almadel, Ars Notoria, and Arbatel de Magia Veterum, and others. The second chapter, in two sections, will examine the transmission of John Dee’s Hermetic philosophy after his death. The first section will present John Dee’s Hermetic and Apocalyptic philosophies as transmitted through the Rosicrucian writings of the Fama Fraternitatis, Confessio Fraternitatis, and the Chemical Wedding. The second section will investigate the transmission and revival of Dee’s practical magic through the fringe-Masonic societies; especially through Frederick Hockley. The third chapter will examine the transmission of Enochian angel magic within the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and its direct descendent order, the Stella Matutina. The examination will include Book H, Enochian Chess, the connection of Enochian angel magic to spiritual alchemy, Robert Felkin’s usage of Dee’s angel magic within the Stella Matutina, and the reformation of the Stella Matutina into the Order of Smaragdum Thalasses; the Order of Smaragdum Thalasses being the last known Golden Dawn organization to have made use of Enochian angel magic.
Overall, this dissertation intends to illustrate the resilience and importance of John Dee’s philosophy and its transmission from his angelic conversations to the highly influential Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and thus to the modern era.
Chapter 1: The Philosophy and Practice of John Dee’s Angel Magic
It might be so if madness were simply an evil; but there is also a madness which is a divine gift, and the source of the chiefest blessings granted to men. For prophecy is a madness, and the prophetess at Delphi and the priestesses at Dodona when out of their senses have conferred great benefits on Hellas, both in public and private life, but when in their senses few or none.1
In his outline of the history of magic and exaltation to the divine, Szönyi highlights the furies of Plato’s Phaedrus.2 In Phaedrus, Socrates praised the madness that comes as a gift from the Muses, which Szönyi equates to an occult knowledge only available to the ‘hypersensitive elect’. As mentioned before, Méric Casaubon praised John Dee’s Christian piety and goodness (though he also regarded Dee as deluded and a bit gullible) throughout the preface to his True & Faithful Relation.4 French neatly illustrated the fall of Dee’s reputation in the centuries after his death and illustrated how Casaubon’s perception of pious delusion was further degraded into ‘execrable insanity’ by Thomas Smith in his Vita Joannis Dee (1707).5 By the nineteenth century, the character of Dee had devolved from Casaubon’s misled, pious scholar to an immoral conjuror of spirits6 and a necromancer fit for sensationalist fiction.7 Calder aptly noted that the nineteenth century likely viewed all sixteenth century science as ‘devil-ridden superstition’ and quoted a treatment of Dee by an anonymous writer in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine (1842): The majority of them were in all probability half mad and those who were whole mad of course set the fashion and were followed as the shining lights of the day. Regarding Dee in comparison to his assistant, Kelly, the article stated, ‘Dee was more respectable, because he was only half a rogue; the other half was made up of craziness.’9 Dee seemed to be possessed by this Platonic, divine madness and eschewed the orthodox Aristotelian assertion that science was to be the deduction of causal demonstrations on the basis of self-evident principles that could only be intuited and not demonstrated within a given discipline.11 The undercurrents of Neoplatonism that accepted magical practice within Arabic Aristotelianism provided a framework through which Neoplatonic philosophy, and thus Hermetic philosophy, could be combined to form a perspective that allowed the practice of magic to be considered a viable applied science. John Dee’s angelic conversations were not the casting off of his high learning, but the very application of it in a context of divine madness. The next section will examine the Hermetic background of Dee’s angel magic. Ficino and Pico: The Hermetic Roots of Dee
This dissertation cannot effectively present Dee’s Hermetic philosophy without addressing Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), the translator of the Corpus Hermeticum, and the author of De religione Christiana, De Triplici Vita, Libri Tres, Theologica Platonica, and Epistolae,13 and a densely annotated Omni Divini Platonis opera (1532), all of whose books sat on Dee’s shelves.14 In a time when the age of a work lent it greater authority,15 Ficino, and all other scholars of the Renaissance, believed Hermes Trismegistus to have been a very real figure and a pre-cursor to all Greek wisdom: Of the sources for his magic to which Ficino himself refers the most are the Asclepius and, of course, Plotinus. The Asclepius, like the Orphica, had great authority for Ficino because it was a work of Hermes Trismegistus, a priscus theologus even more ancient than Orpheus, indeed contemporary with Moses; Plotinus was merely a late interpreter of this antique Egyptian wisdom. Ficino applied the Hermetic writings as the basis of Neoplatonic philosophy. He believed the Plotinian lemma ‘De Favore Coelitus Hauriendo’ to be an expansion on the ability of man to create gods in the making of statues as described by Hermes in Asclepius 24 and 37.17 The similarities to Christianity present in Platonic and Neoplatonic texts assisted in their assimilation into Ficino’s theology18 and provided a fine vehicle for his Hermetic Christianity.19 While this section deals with the philosophy behind Dee’s angel magic, Ficino’s own theological magic is deeply rooted in his theological philosophy and must be examined. Ficino’s Hermetic-Christian magic was transmitted through the Stoic and Aristotelian elements of the stellar influences on man,20 a philosophical framing of magic that Dee shared.21 Like the Greek sources it drew on, Ficino’s Christian super-
celestial magic was ‘daemonic’ (not to be confused with the Christian invective ‘demonic’). As Ficino states: [...] every person has at birth one certain daemon, the guardian of his life, assigned by his own personal star which helps him to that very task to which the celestials summoned him when he was born. Therefore anyone having thoroughly scrutinized his own natural bent [...] by the aforesaid indicators will so discover his natural work as to discover at the same time his own star and daemon. Following the beginnings laid down by them, he will act successfully, he will live prosperously; if not, he will find fortune adverse and will sense that the heavens are his enemy.23
Furthermore: Now remember that you receive daemons or, if you will, angels, more and more worthy by degrees in accordance with the dignity of the professions, and still worthier ones in public government; but even if you proceed to these more excellent [levels], you can receive from your Genius and natural bent an art and a course of life neither contrary to, nor very unlike, themselves. Ficino’s cosmos are composed of a hierarchy of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ daemons assigned to the planets and the houses of the zodiac whom are responsible for communicating the will of the Anima Mundi to the inferior spheres. Ficino believed that through astrological interaction with nature, ‘celestial goods’ can descend to the pious magus’ ‘rightly prepared spirit’ to receive fuller gifts from beneficial daemons.26 Interestingly, Ficino outlines a talismanic imagery in order to connect with his astral daemons that is clearly influenced by the Picatrix.27 We shall use the planet Mercury as our example: For example, if anyone looks for a special benefit from Mercury, he ought to locate him in Virgo, or at least locate the Moon there in an aspect with Mercury, and then make an image out of tin or silver; he should put on it the whole sign of Virgo and its character and the character of Mercury. [...] The form of Mercury: a man sitting on a throne in a crested cap, with eagle's feet, holding a cock or fire with his left hand, winged, sometimes on a peacock, holding a reed with his right hand, in a multicolored garment. The Picatrix states the following of the stones proper to each planet and the formation of figures:
Of the metals, Mercury has quicksilver and part of tin and glass, and of stones it has emerald and all stones of this type has part of azumbedich. [...] The image of Mercury according to Hermes is the image of a man with a rooster on his head, sitting in a throne; his feet look like those of an eagle and in the palm of his left hand he has fire and under his feet are the signs stated before. This is its form. Dee’s magical practice likewise exhibited angels that corresponded to the planets through the metals associated with them30 and the respective days of the week.31 However, Dee owes much of the structure of his seals and talismans to Giovanni Pico, discussed later in this section.
Supplied with the basis of ancient, newly unearthed lore anterior to the Neoplatonists and Arabic astrological magic, Ficino’s theology was drawn from this long-forgotten, secret wisdom worthy of the title prisca theologia (Ficino’s idea of a primordial faith from which all faiths stem).32 33 The next section of this chapter will address in detail just how influential the quest for a singular, united faith was to Dee. In 1614, a mere six years after Dee’s death, a long debate on the authenticity of Corpus Hermeticum’s antiquity came to an end. Isaac Casaubon (1559-1614), Méric Casaubon’s father, correctly identified the Corpus Hermeticum as having been written in the second and third centuries C.E.34 Still the Hermetic (and intrinsically Platonic and Neoplatonic)35 influences on the culture and science of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment —while controversial36— are arguably visible. The importance of the blend of Neoplatonic and Aristotelian philosophy that amalgamated the Great Chain of Being as represented by Ficino (further supported by
Johannes Trithemius and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, discussed later) cannot be overlooked. The Great Chain of Being as a concept predates Greek thought and was vitally important in the forging of cosmologies. As Lovejoy and Szönyi both
pointed out, Proclus used Cicero to succinctly summarize the idea and metaphor of the Great Chain of Being connecting all things to God: Since, from the Supreme God Mind arises, and from Mind, Soul, and since this in turn creates all subsequent things and fills them all with life, and since this single radiance illumines all and is reflected in each, as a single face might be reflected in many mirrors placed in a series; and since all things follow in continuous succession, degenerating in sequence to the very bottom of the series, the attentive observer will discover a connection of parts, from the Supreme God down to the last dregs of things, mutually linked together without a break. And this is Homer’s golden chain, which God, he says, bade hang down from heaven to earth. The Hermetica alone supplies no means through which to interact with the entities above Man in this Great Chain, and so Ficino developed his methods from Arabic and mediaeval medicine, matter theory, physics, and metaphysics all based upon his studies in Neoplatonism.43 Copenhaver gives special attention to Proclus in the formation of Ficino’s magic, an idea and further acknowledged and corroborated by Clulee and Szönyi.The most significant connection in regards to the connection of Neoplatonism
to the Hermetica is Proclus’ statement Thus all things are full of gods [...]. The authorities on the priestly art have thus discovered how to gain the favor of powers above, mixing some things together and setting others apart in due order. Ficino thought this to be Hermes Trismegistus’ understanding of the cosmos as relayed by Proclus, as exemplified in Asclepius in Hermes’ discourse on the ensouled gods created by man in the forms of statues. Thus, man can form a way to interact with intermediary entities by creating the images of gods. Proclus suggested the practice of a ceremonial magic in mentioning that through consecrations and divine services practitioners could achieve ‘association with the [daemons], from whom they returned forthwith to actual works of the gods’. Ficino derived the natural ingredients of his magic from Proclus’ De Sacrificio,50
which he included in his De Vita:
Under the Solar star, that is Sirius, they set the Sun first of all, and then Phoebean daemons, which sometimes have encountered people under the form of lions or cocks, as Proclus testifies, then similar men and Solar beasts, Phoebean plants then, similarly metals and gems and vapor and hot air. By a similar system they think a chain of beings descends by levels from any star of the firmament through any planet under its dominion. If, therefore, as I said, you combine at the right time all the Solar things through any level of that order, i.e., men of Solar nature or something belonging to such a man, likewise animals, plants, metals, gems, and whatever pertains to these, you will drink in unconditionally the power of the Sun and to some extent the natural power of the Solar daemons.51
Ficino clearly felt the weight of what he perceived as a monumental discovery of a tradition of theology and philosophy that had remained unbroken from Hermes to Plato.52 The assertions of a world full of gods by Hermes, the Stoics,53 Plato, and the Neoplatonists clearly impressed themselves on Ficino, but, with the further connection of Arabic medicine and Hermes’ fortunate student being none other than Asclepius (the Greek god of medicine of healing), it seems a matter of course that so pious and learned a theologian would craft a magical system when it was so neatly assembled before him. One question remained: how does one make this daemonic, astrological magic compliant with Christianity? Dee faced a similar question in his conversations with angels, though Ficino chose a much different solution.
Where Ficino drew on nature to connect with the planetary daemons, Dee drew on the planetary daemons to connect with nature.54 All of Dee’s sigils, talismans, and orations came from the angels themselves in compliance, rather than reliance, with esoteric literature available to him.55 It seemed Dee believed he had found a path that reconciled celestial magic with Christianity more aptly than Ficino’s daemonic astrology; a path less ‘daemonic’ and more ‘angelic’.
Ficino relied on the ancient Christian authority of Lactantius (c. 240-320). Lactantius, a Christian apologist, utilized Hermes Trismegistus’ Asclepius in reconciliation with Christianity as the ‘original faith of mankind’ in his work Divinae Institutiones (304-313).56 While this text is not a directly supportive work of Hermeticism,57 it shows a precedent for Hermetic philosophy to be used as a method of reconciling differing patterns of belief. Ficino found this argument a viable counter- balance to St. Augustine of Hippo’s (354-430) objection to Asclepius in Book VIII of De civitate Dei (415-417).58 Ficino also found Lactantius’ argument in support of his idea of the prisca theologia.59 These arguments linking Christianity to Hermeticism are certainly felt in Dee’s reworking of grimoire magic into a profoundly Christian, prayer- based practice at its inception.60
Plato’s key role in Ficino’s cosmology also necessitated a Christian sanitization. Here again, we find Plato’s four furies, the ‘divine madnesses’, but combined with the theology of the Christian Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, wherein each madness (prophetic, religious-mystical, poetical, and love) brings the aspirant closer to unity with God.61
In the Propaedeumata Aphoristica (1558), Dee seems to have agreed with Ficino on the stars indeed having powers that mankind can benefit from, but through the use of mirrors rather than the agency of daemons.62 Clulee compares the Propaedeumata to Dee’s Monas Hieroglyphica (1564) stating that where the Propaedeumata presents man’s interaction with the cosmos as a mechanically physical fact, the Monas sought to illustrate the power of symbols over that which the symbols represent.63
Thus, Dee more clearly illustrates his acceptance of Ficino’s Neoplatonic-
Hermetic theological philosophy within the Monas.64 In the Neoplatonic paradigm,
Calder underlines Proclus (and ancient mathematicians such as Theon and Nicomachus)
as a figure of important influence on Dee’s philosophy in the Monas Hieroglyphica in
terms of the notion of One, or Unity.65 Proclus posed a problem wherein the One, or
God, can only be approached by analogy or negation and supplies the analogy that
‘[t]he One is like the sun’s light which illuminates the world and radiates far and wide
while it remains undiminished at its source’.66 Dee seems supremely confident of his
attempt to communicate the One in a single symbol rife with countless analogies:
Though I call it hieroglyphic. he who has examined its inner structure will grant that all the same there is [in it] an underlying clarity and strength almost mathematical, such as is rarely applied in [writings on] matters so rare. Or is it not rare, I ask, that the common astronomical symbols of the planets (instead of being dead, dumb, or, up to the present hour at least, quasi-barbaric signs) should have become characters imbued with immortal life and should now be able to express their especial meanings most eloquently in any tongue and to any nation?67
The recent scholarly opinion regarding the Hermetic element of Dee’s philosophy
as illustrated in the Monas is unified and agreed upon by Walton, Clulee, Szönyi, and
Harkness68 in the following:
Since the Creator made the whole cosmos, not with hands but by the Word, understand that he is present and always is, creating all things, being one alone, and by his will producing all beings.69
Ficino’s reconciliation of his philosophy, magic, and Christianity were highly formative to Dee’s justifications for his questionably heretical angelic conversations. However, Dee also incorporated Kabbalistic elements Ficino eschewed. Ficino’s friend, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, artfully reconciled Kabbalah with Platonic and Hermetic philosophy, as well as Christianity.70 The connection of the divinity of the cosmos and man’s ability to connect with them through images is granted new depths when combined with the power of names presented in practical Kabbalah, as written by Johannes Reuchlin (1455-1522), and further linked with Hermeticism and Christianity through Pico. Pico’s contribution to the Hermetic-Kabbalistic philosophy most certainly piqued Dee’s interests, as exemplified in his Hermetic-Christian definition of the ‘real Cabbala’ in his Monas Hieroglyphica.
It is fascinating and highly relevant to this essay that Pico proclaimed Ramon Llull’s works, or the Ars Raymundi, to be Kabbalistic.72 Ramón Llull (1232/3-1316) channeled the idea of the Great Chain of Being in his assertion of the capacity of man to ascend the scala naturae, or the ladder of nature, through intellectual contemplation.73 Llull used the combination of a series of nine letters (B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and K) representing ‘absolute attributes’, to which nine relations, nine questions, nine subjects, nine virtues, and nine vices were added.74 75 The resulting number of binary combinations was calculated to be 17,804,320,388,674,561, which Llull explored with the use of geometrical figures meant to enumerate the terms and generate combinatorial pairings of the aspects of reality.76 The acceptance of pseudo-Llullian alchemical and Kabbalistic works as authentic in conjunction with his mystic, mathematical diagrams only served to make the Ars Raymundi all the more appealing to Dee.77 Pico argues that Llull’s usage of combining letters of the Hebrew alphabet was not unlike Kabbalistic techniques78 and relied on Llull’s Ars Combinatoria for his own system.79
Regarding Pico’s own system, in his Nine Hundred Theses (1486), he succinctly states his thoughts on Kabbalah and Platonism: That which among the Cabalists is called <[...] Metatron> is without doubt that which is called Pallas by Orpheus, the paternal mind by Zoroaster, the son of God by Mercury, wisdom by Pythagoras, the intelligible sphere by Parmenides.80
He then addresses Kabbalah and Christianity:
11>7. No Hebrew Cabalist can deny that the name Jesus, if we interpret it following the method and principles of the Cabala, signifies precisely all this and nothing else, that is: God the Son of God and the Wisdom of the Father, united to human nature in the unity of assumption through the third Person of God, who is the most ardent fire of love.81
Pico’s clear devotion to Hermetic philosophy was illustrated in the dedication of ten theses to ‘Mercury Trismegistus’ that explicated man’s connection to a living nature, and thus to a God who is present in that life.82 Pico clearly believed in not merely the syncretism of faiths, but the reconciliation of seemingly disparate religious, philosophical, and cultural paradigms.
Johannes Reuchlin boldly deepened the connections between Kabbalah and Christianity in a time when Judaism was defined as a form of Satanism, perhaps even if unwitting.83 Pico’s Theses inspired Reuchlin to write De Verbo Mirifico (1494) in defense of Pico, and the central work on Christian Kabbalah, De Arte Cabalistica (1517).84 In De Verbo Mirifico, Reuchlin presented what he believed to be the reality and name of the Christian God made known through the Son in the pentagrammaton, the five lettered name he believed to signify Jesus Christ.85 De Verbo Mirifico was listed in Dee’s catalogue and it is quite likely Dee was familiar with its material based on the tone of his magical practices86 and some of the aphorisms in the Propaedeumata Aphoristica.87 Through Pico and Reuchlin, the idea that the presence of God existed in images was expanded to include names of power.88 This presentation of the Kabbalah in a Christian, magical context was a crucial element to Dee’s practice.89
The encoding of the Sigillum Dei Aemeth,90 the Kings and Princes of the Heptarchia Mystica, and the divine names of the nations of the world and the angels overseeing them in the Liber Scientiae Auxilii all go to great lengths to identify the names of the angels.91 Dee presumably considered the use of these names crucial to contacting the angels in order to achieve divine understanding related to their offices, though there are no existing records of Dee ever using the names and orations described in the aforementioned books in such a way.
The significant link between Pico and Dee was the transmission of the combined Hermetic, Kabbalistic, and Platonic ideas through Agrippa’s De Occulta Philosophia Libri Tres (1533), especially in regards to the threefold world (elementary, celestial, and intellectual/supercelestial)92 93 that Dee presents in his Mathematicall Praeface to the Elements of Geometrie of Euclid of Megara (1570). Dee utilized this threefold world as the basis of his supercelestial magic dealing with ‘intelligences’ or angels.94 His
treatment of the threefold world in the Mathematical Preface follows:
All thinges which are, & haue beyng, are found vnder a triple diuersitie generall. For, either, they are demed Supernaturall, Naturall, or, of a third being [...] which, by a peculier name also, are called Thynges Mathematicall.95
The linkage between the emanations of God in Neoplatonism influencing
Kabbalistic works has been conjectured, but regardless of such a connection,96 the
theological philosophies seemed to have been more separated by the cultures that
espoused them rather than the actual contents of their literature.97 The inclusion of
Kabbalah into the Neoplatonic and Hermetic philosophy under the auspices of a deeper
Christianity influenced Dee’s thought, and eventually his magical practice. This will be
evidenced and examined in greater depth in the following section treating his angelic
conversations.
www.academia.edu/921740/Enochian_Angel_Magic_From_John_De...
British postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. P 185. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Robert Taylor and June Knight in Broadway Melody (Roy Del Ruth, 1936).
Robert Taylor (1911-1969) was called "The Man with the Perfect Profile". He won his first leading role in Magnificent Obsession (1935). His popularity increased during the late 1930s and 1940s with appearances in A Yank at Oxford (1938), Waterloo Bridge (1940), and Bataan (1943). He was the quintessential MGM company man until the demise of the studio system in the late 1950s.
Robert Taylor was born Spangler Arlington Brugh in 1911, in Filley, Nebraska. Taylor was the only child of Ruth Adaline (née Stanhope) and Spangler Andrew Brugh, a farmer turned doctor. During his early life, the family moved several times, and by September 1917, the Brughs had moved to Beatrice, Nebraska, where they remained for 16 years. As a teenager, Taylor was a track and field star and played the cello in his high school orchestra. Upon graduation, he enrolled at Doane College in Crete, Nebraska. While at Doane, he took cello lessons from Professor Herbert E. Gray, whom he admired and idolised. After Professor Gray announced he was accepting a new position at Pomona College in Claremont, California, Taylor moved to California and enrolled at Pomona. He joined the campus theater group and was eventually spotted by an MGM talent scout in 1932 after a production of 'Journey's End'. He signed a seven-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The studio changed his name to Robert Taylor. He made his film debut on loan-out to Fox in the comedy Handy Andy (David Butler, 1934) starring Will Rogers. His first leading role came by accident. In 1934 Taylor was on the MGM payroll as "the test boy," a male juvenile who would be filmed opposite various young ingenues in screen tests. In late 1934, when MGM began production of its new short-subject series Crime Does Not Pay with the dramatic short Buried Loot (George B. Seitz, 1935), the actor who had been cast fell ill and could not appear. The director sent for the test boy to substitute for the missing actor. Taylor's dramatic performance, as an embezzler who deliberately disfigures himself to avoid detection, was so memorable that Taylor immediately was signed for feature films. In 1935, Irene Dunne requested him for her leading man in Magnificent Obsession (John M. Stahl, 1935), again on loan-out, this time to then struggling Universal Pictures. He played a happy-go-lucky party guy who inadvertently causes blindness to the young lady he wishes to impress and then becomes a doctor in order to cure her. The film was a big hit, and Taylor had a taste of instant box-office stardom. Along with his good looks, Taylor already showed solid dramatic skill in Camille (George Cukor, 1936) with Greta Garbo. Throughout the late 1930s, Taylor appeared in films of varying genres including the musicals Broadway Melody of 1936 (Roy Del Ruth, 1935) and Broadway Melody of 1938 (Roy Del Ruth, 1937), and the British comedy A Yank at Oxford (Jack Conway, 1938) with Lionel Barrymore and Vivien Leigh.
Throughout 1940 and 1941 Robert Taylor argued in favour of American entry into World War II and was sharply critical of the isolationist movement. During this time he said he was "100% pro-British". In 1940, he reteamed with Vivien Leigh in Mervyn LeRoy's drama Waterloo Bridge, a personal favorite by both Leigh and Taylor. After being given the nickname "The Man with the Perfect Profile", Taylor began breaking away from his perfect leading man image and began appearing in darker roles beginning in 1941. That year, he portrayed Billy Bonney (better known as Billy the Kid) in Billy the Kid (David Miller, 1941). The next year, he played the title role in the Film Noir Johnny Eager (Mervyn LeRoy, 1942) with Lana Turner. After playing a tough sergeant in the World War II drama Bataan (Tay Garnett, 1943), Taylor contributed to the war effort by becoming a flying instructor in the U.S. Naval Air Corps. During this time, he also starred in instructional films and narrated the documentary The Fighting Lady (Edward Steichen, 1944). After the war, he appeared in edgy roles in the Film Noirs Undercurrent (Vincente Minnelli, 1946) opposite Katharine Hepburn, and High Wall (Curtis Bernhardt, 1947). In 1949, he co-starred with Elizabeth Taylor in the Film Noir Conspirator (Victor Saville, 1949), which Hedda Hopper described as "another one of Taylor's pro-British films". Taylor responded to this by saying "And it won't be the last!" However, both Hopper and Taylor were members of the anticommunist organisation the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. Taylor landed the role of General Marcus Vinicius in Quo Vadis (Mervyn LeRoy, 1950) with Deborah Kerr. The epic film was a hit, grossing US$11 million in its first run. The following year, he starred in the film version of Walter Scott's classic Ivanhoe (Richard Thorpe, 1951), again with Elizabeth Taylor. It was followed by two more historical adventure films, Knights of the Round Table (Richard Thorpe, 1953) and The Adventures of Quentin Durward (Richard Thorpe, 1955), all filmed in England. Of the three only Ivanhoe was a critical and financial success. Taylor also filmed Valley of the Kings (Robert Pirosh, 1954) in Egypt.
By the mid-1950s, Robert Taylor began to concentrate on Westerns, his preferred genre. He starred in a comedy Western Many Rivers to Cross (Roy Rowland, 1955) co-starring Eleanor Parker. In 1958, he shared the lead with Richard Widmark in the edgy Western The Law and Jake Wade (John Sturges, 1958). William McPeak at IMDb: "That he usually comes across on screen as having a confident, commanding presence is more of a testimony to his acting talent than his actual personality. He held rigid right-wing political beliefs that he refused to question and, when confronted with an opposing viewpoint, would simply reject it outright. He rarely, if ever, felt the need to be introspective. Taylor simply felt blessed to be working behind the walls of MGM. His affection for the studio would blind him to the fact that boss Louis B. Mayer masterfully manipulated him for nearly two decades, keeping Taylor's salary the lowest of any major Hollywood star. But this is also indicative of how much trust he placed in the hands of the studio's leaders. Indeed, Taylor remained the quintessential MGM company man and would be rewarded by remaining employed there until the demise of the studio system in the late 1950s."In 1958, he left MGM and formed Robert Taylor Productions, and the following year, he starred in the television series The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor (1959–1962). Following the end of the series in 1962, Taylor continued to appear in films and television shows, including A House Is Not a Home and two episodes of Hondo. In 1963, NBC filmed but never aired, four episodes of what was to have been The Robert Taylor Show, a series based on case files from the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare. The project was suddenly dropped for lack of coordination with HEW. In the same year, he filmed Miracle of the White Stallions for Walt Disney Productions. In 1964, Taylor co-starred with his former wife Barbara Stanwyck in William Castle's psychological horror film The Night Walker. Taylor traveled to Europe to film the Western Savage Pampas (Hugo Fregonese, 1966), the adventure film The Glass Sphinx (Luigi Scattini, 1967), and the comedy spy-thriller The Day the Hot Line Got Hot (Etienne Périer, 1968) with Charles Boyer. In 1965, Taylor took over the role of narrator in the television series Death Valley Days when Ronald Reagan left to pursue a career in politics. Taylor would remain with the series until his death in 1969. Taylor married Barbara Stanwyck in 1939 and they divorced in 1951. Taylor met German actress Ursula Thiess in 1952. They married in 1954. The couple had two children, a son, Terrance, (1955), and a daughter, Tessa, (1959). Taylor was stepfather to Thiess' two children from her previous marriage, Manuela and Michael Thiess. On 26 May 1969, shortly before Taylor's death at only 57 from lung cancer, Ursula Thiess found the body of her son, Michael, in a West Los Angeles motel room. He died from a drug overdose. One month before his death, Michael had been released from a mental hospital. In 1964, he spent a year in a reformatory for attempting to poison his father with insecticide.
Sources: William McPeak (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
With the release of the BrickArms Coreburner, I thought I'd take this opportunity to mention two of my personal favorite post-apocalyptic films: John Carpenter's Escape from New York and Escape from LA starring Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken.
What's it about?
Call him Snake. Former war hero turned criminal, there's only one thing Snake Plissken wants: to survive. But with the world in chaos and major cities turned to walled-off prisons, Snake just might be the only one who can save the day . . . assuming he wants to . . .
Why it's great
Easily one of the greatest post-apoc films ever made, Escape from New York is stripped down and rugged fun with great action and gritty atmosphere. There's also a strong undercurrent of nihilism and skepticism that fits both the scene and the Snake character; everyone in this world is willing to betray anyone and everyone to get what they want, from the lowest sewer mutant to the President of the United States. Add in some great character acting from Ernest Borgnine, Harry Dean Stanton, Issac Hayes, and Adrienne Barbeau, and it's a must-see . . .
. . . and so is the follow-up! Escape from LA hits many of the same beats but has great fun with the aging Snake being confronted with his own (fading) legend at each turn. Pushing the anti-authoritarian themes of the first film to the front, Snake against makes it clear, Snake again proves he's more adapt at survival than anyone can imagine . . .
Will you get in trouble if your parents catch you watching it?
Not really. There's tons of action but not too much blood and no nudity or sex.
Late Nite Double-Feature Picture Show
Complete the end of the world Carpenter "fun" with his "Apocalypse Trilogy": The Thing, Prince of Darkness, and In the Mouth of Madness. All are good-to-great films with moody atmosphere and dread. Alternatively, you can chase the comedic tones of Escape from LA with Used Cars, Kurt Russell's first mature starring role that's hysterical, profanity-filled fun.
It's kind of crazy how a wall of dust under a layer of clouds can look like an undercurrent beneath a storm.
It's doubtful the checklanes received much of an update this go 'round, seeing how the last go 'round wasn't all that long ago at all! And as of writing this, I'm now 3 lists behind on posting my flac conversions (I was going to do two lists with this set of photos, but think I'll spread them out for more dramatic effect :P):
Nirvana (347) - Nevermind
Steve Miller Band - Fly Like an Eagle
Jive Mother Mary (348) - 8 Tracks
Matisyahu - Undercurrent
The The (349) - Infected
Saint Asonia - Flawed Design
Foghat (350) - Fool for the City
Love and Death - Perfectly Preserved
Weezer (351) - Weezer (Blue Album)
Jack Johnson - From Here to Now to You
Uriah Heep (352) - Easy Livin' (replaces the sort-of similar compilation .mp3 "Best of, pt. 1")
Jackson Browne - Standing in the Breach
Ziggy Marley (353) - More Family Time
Enya - Dark Sky Island (Deluxe Edition)
Cream (354) - Disraeli Gears
This pretty little park is right on the banks of the Yukon River in Dawson City. Just behind the woman walking her dog on the embankment - there is a drop right down to the river. It was 87 F. degrees when I captured this image, and just beyond the little open building - people were seen lying in the grass under the trees in an attempt to cool off. You might wonder why they just don't jump in the river to cool down, but that would spell death, not enjoyment. The river is swift and deep, with many eddies and undercurrents to pull you down. Even boats have quite a time fighting the currents. So just beware should you find yourself beside the Yukon River on a hot summer day.
Alte Pinakothek, Munich.
The Battle of Alexander at Issus (German: Alexanderschlacht) is a 1529 oil painting by the German artist Albrecht Altdorfer (c. 1480–1538), a pioneer of landscape art and a founding member of the Danube school.
It portrays the 333 BC Battle of Issus, in which Alexander the Great secured a decisive victory over Darius III of Persia and gained crucial leverage in his campaign against the Persian Empire.
The painting is widely regarded as Altdorfer's masterpiece, and is one of the most famous examples of the type of Renaissance landscape painting known as the world landscape, which here reaches an unprecedented grandeur.
Duke William IV of Bavaria commissioned The Battle of Alexander at Issus in 1528 as part of a set of historical pieces that was to hang in his Munich residence.
Modern commentators suggest that the painting, through its abundant use of anachronism, was intended to liken Alexander's heroic victory at Issus to the contemporary European conflict with the Ottoman Empire. In particular, the defeat of Suleiman the Magnificent at the Siege of Vienna may have been an inspiration for Altdorfer.
A religious undercurrent is detectable, especially in the extraordinary sky; this was probably inspired by the prophecies of Daniel and contemporary concern within the Church about an impending apocalypse.
The Battle of Alexander at Issus and four others that were part of William's initial set are in the Alte Pinakothek art museum in Munich.
Contents
Albrecht Altdorfer is regarded as one of the founders of Western landscape art.[29] He was a painter, etcher, architect, and engraver, and the leader of the Danube school of German art.
As evidenced by such paintings as Saint George and the Dragon (1510) and Allegory (1531), much of Altdorfer's work is characterised by an attachment to sprawling landscapes that dwarf the figures within them;[30]
The Battle of Alexander at Issus epitomises this facet of his style. With reference to St George and the Dragon in particular, art historian Mark W. Roskill comments that "The accessory material of landscape [in Altdorfer's work] is played with and ornamentally elaborated so that it reverberates with the sense of a sequestered and inhospitable environment".[31] Inspired by his travels around the Austrian Alps and the Danube River,[32]
Altdorfer painted a number of landscapes that contain no figures at all, including Landscape with a Footbridge (c. 1516) and Danube Landscape near Regensburg (c. 1522–25). These were the first "pure" landscapes since antiquity.[33]
Most of Altdorfer's landscapes were made with a vertical format, in contrast with the modern conception of the genre. The horizontal landscape was an innovation of Altdorfer's Flemish contemporary Joachim Patinir and his followers.[34]
Altdorfer also produced a great deal of religious artwork, in reflection of his devout Catholicism. His most frequent subjects were the Virgin Mary and the life and crucifixion of Christ.
As in The Battle of Alexander at Issus, these paintings often feature settings of great majesty and use the sky to convey symbolic meaning.
This meaning is not uniform throughout Altdorfer's corpus – for example, the visage of the setting sun connotes loss and tragedy in Agony in the Garden, but serves as "the emblem of power and glory" in The Battle of Alexander at Issus.[35]
Larry Silver of The Art Bulletin explains that The Battle of Alexander at Issus is both similar to and in direct contrast with Altdorfer's previous work: "Instead of the peaceful landscape of retreat for Christian events or holy figures, this panel offers just the opposite: a battleground for one of ancient history's principal epoch-making encounters ... Yet despite its global or cosmic dimensions, the Battle of Issus still looks like Altdorfer's earlier, contemplative liminal landscapes of retreat, complete with craggy peaks, bodies of water, and distant castles."[36]
Although the Battle of Alexander is atypical of Altdorfer in its size and in that it depicts war, his Triumphal Procession – a 1512–16 illuminated manuscript commissioned by Maximilian I of the Holy Roman Empire – has been described as a conceptual antecedent.[37]
The Procession was produced in parallel with the Triumph of Maximilian, a series of 137 woodcuts collaboratively executed by Altdorfer, Hans Springinklee, Albrecht Dürer, Leonhard Beck and Hans Schäufelein.[38]
Altdorfer's most significant contemporary influence was Matthias Grünewald (c. 1470–1528).
Art historian Horst W. Janson remarked that their paintings "show the same 'unruly' imagination".[39] Elements of The Battle of Alexander at Issus – particularly the sky – have been compared to Grünewald's Heavenly Host above the Virgin and Child, which forms part of his masterpiece, the Isenheim Altarpiece. Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553), also associated with the Danube school, was another important influence for Altdorfer.
According to Roskill, works by Cranach from about 1500 "give a prominent role to landscape settings, using them as mood-enhancing backgrounds for portraits, and for images of hermits and visionary saints", and seem to play a "preparatory role" for the onset of pure landscape.[40]
Altdorfer owed much of his style, particularly in his religious artwork, to Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528);[41] Larry Silver writes that Altdorfer's "use of convincing German landscapes in combination with celestial phenomena for his religious narrative" is "firmly tied" to a tradition "modeled by Albrecht Dürer."[42]
William IV, Duke of Bavaria commissioned The Battle of Alexander at Issus in 1528.[43] Altdorfer was approximately 50 at the time, and was living in the Free Imperial City of Regensburg.[44]
As a result of over a decade of involvement with the Regensburg city council, Altdorfer was offered the position of Burgomaster on 18 September 1528.
He declined; the council annals reported his reasoning as such: "He much desires to execute a special work in Bavaria for my Serene Highness and gracious Lord, Duke [William]."[44] William probably wanted the painting for his newly built summer Lusthaus ("pleasure house") in the grounds of his palace in Munich, approximately 60 miles (97 km) south of Regensburg.[43][44][45]
There, it was to hang alongside seven other paintings with a similar format and subject matter, including Ludwig Refinger's The Matyrdom of Marcus Curtius, Melchior Feselen's The Siege of Alesia by Caesar, and the painting of Battle of Cannae by Hans Burgkmair (1473–1531).[46][47]
Another eight, each portraying a famous woman from history, were later added to the set, probably at the behest of the Duke's wife, Jacobaea of Baden.[47] Altdorfer's Susanna and the Elders (1526) was among these.[48]
The Battle of Alexander at Issus is painted on a limewood panel measuring 158.4 cm × 120.3 cm (62.4 in × 47.4 in),[56] and portrays the moment of Alexander the Great's victory. The vertical format was dictated by the space available in the room for which the painting was commissioned – each in William's set of eight was made to be the same size.
At an unknown date, the panel was cut down on all sides, particularly at the top, so the sky was originally larger and the moon further from the corner of the scene.[57] The scene is approached from an impossible viewpoint – at first only feet from the fray, the perspective gradually ascends to encompass the seas and continents in the background and eventually the curvature of the Earth itself.[58][59]
Thousands of horse and foot soldiers immersed in a sea of spears and lances populate the foreground. The two armies are distinguished by their dress, anachronistic though it is: whereas Alexander's men clad themselves and their horses in full suits of heavy armour, many of Darius' wear turbans and ride naked mounts.[60]
The bodies of the many fallen soldiers lie underfoot. A front of Macedonian warriors in the centre pushes against the crumbling enemy force, who flee the battlefield on the far left.
The Persian king joins his army on his chariot of three horses, and is narrowly pursued by Alexander and his uniformly attired Companion cavalry.[47] The tract of soldiers continues down the gently sloped battlefield to the campsite and cityscape by the water, gravitating toward the mountainous rise at the scene's centre.
Beyond is the Mediterranean Sea and the island of Cyprus.[61] Here, a transition in hue is made, from the browns that prevail in the lower half of the painting to the aquas that saturate the upper half.
The Nile River meanders in the far distance, emptying its seven arms into the Mediterranean at the Nile Delta.[61] South of Cyprus is the Sinai Peninsula, which forms a land bridge between Africa and Southwest Asia. The Red Sea lies beyond,[61] eventually merging – as the mountain ranges to its left and right do – with the curved horizon.
A fierce sky caught in the dichotomy between the setting sun and the crescent moon dominates more than a third of the painting.[57] The rain-heavy clouds swirling ominously around each celestial entity are separated by a gulf of calmness, intensifying the contrast and infusing the heavens with an unearthly glow.[62]
Light from the sky spills onto the landscape: while the western continent and the Nile are bathed in the sun's light, the east and the Tower of Babel are cloaked in shadow.
The painting's subject is explained in the tablet suspended from the heavens. The wording, probably supplied by William's court historian Johannes Aventinus,[63] was originally in German but was later replaced by a Latin inscription.
It translates:
"Alexander the Great defeating the last Darius, after 100,000 infantry and more than 10,000 cavalrymen had been killed amongst the ranks of the Persians. Whilst King Darius was able to flee with no more than 1,000 horsemen, his mother, wife, and children were taken prisoner."
No date is provided for the battle alongside these casualty figures. The lower left-hand corner features Altdorfer's monogram – an 'A' within an 'A' – and the lower edge of the tablet is inscribed with "ALBRECHT ALTORFER ZU REGENSPVRG FECIT" ("Albrecht Altdorfer from Regensburg made [this]").
Tiny inscriptions on their chariot and harness identify Darius and Alexander, respectively.[64] Each army bears a banner that reports both its total strength and its future casualties.[43][60]
Analysis and interpretation
Detail of soldiers from both armies. Reinhart Koselleck comments that the Persians resemble the 16th-century Turks "from their feet to their turbans."
Anachronism is a major component of The Battle of Alexander at Issus. By dressing Alexander's men in 16th-century steel armour and Darius' men in Turkish battle dress, Altdorfer draws deliberate parallels between the Macedonian campaign and the contemporary European–Ottoman conflict.[44][59][64]
In 1529 – the year of the painting's commissioning – the Ottoman forces under Suleiman the Magnificent laid siege to the Austrian city of Vienna[64], then also the capital of the Holy Roman Empire and called 'the golden apple' by the Sultans. Although far inferior in number, the Austrian, German, Czech, and Spanish soldiers marshalled to defend Vienna were able to force the enemy into a retreat and stall the Ottoman advance on central Europe.
It is probable the painting's underlying allegory was inspired by the siege of Vienna, given its similarities to Alexander's victory at Issus. Some critics go further, suggesting that the inclusion of anachronism may have been an element of Altdorfer's commission.[47][59]
Featured alongside the anachronism in The Battle of Alexander at Issus is a genuine lack of historicity. Altdorfer demonstrates minimal hesitance in neglecting the painting's historical integrity for the sake of its heroic style, in spite of the pains he took to research the battle.
That the Persian army was up to twice the size of the Macedonian army is not clear, and the relative positioning of the soldiers as reported by ancient sources has been disregarded.
According to art critic Rose-Marie Hagen, "The artist was faithful to the historical truth only when it suited him, when historical facts were compatible with the demands of his composition."[60] Hagen also notes the placement of women on the battlefield, attributing it to Altdorfer's "passion for invention",[60] since the wife of Darius, his mother and his daughters were waiting for Darius back at the camp, not in the thick of battle.[66] True to form, however, Altdorfer made the aristocratic ladies "look like German courtly ladies, dressed for a hunting party" in their feathered toques:[60]
Altdorfer's primary point of reference in his research was probably Hartmann Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle (Schedelsche Weltchronik), an illustrated world history published in Nuremberg in 1493. Schedel was a physician, humanist, historian and cartographer, and his Chronicle was one of the first books produced on the printing press. With a heavy reliance on the Bible, it recounts the seven ages of human history,[67] from Creation to the birth of Christ and ending with the Apocalypse.[68] Altdorfer's statistics for the battle of Issus mirror those of Schedel.
Furthermore, the errors in Schedel's maps of the Mediterranean and Northern Africa are also present in The Battle of Alexander at Issus: the island of Cyprus is noticeably oversized, and both the mountain rise in the painting's centre and the range adjacent to the Nile do not exist.[61]
Since the Chronicle describes Alexander's victory over the Persians in terms of its proximity to Tarsus and omits mention of Issus, it is likely that the cityscape by the sea is intended to be the former city rather than the latter. Issus in the 16th century was minor and relatively unknown, whereas Tarsus was renowned for its having been a major centre of learning and philosophy in Roman times. Tarsus was also said to be the birthplace of the Apostle Paul, which may explain the presence of the church towers in Altdorfer's portrayal.[61] Another source may have been the writings of Quintus Curtius Rufus, a 1st-century Roman historian who presents inflated figures for the number of killed and taken prisoner and the sizes of the armies.[60]
The sky bears overt metaphorical significance and is the centrepiece of the painting's symbolism. Alexander, identified by the Egyptians and others as a god of the sun, finds his victory in the sun's rays; and the Persians are routed into the darkness beneath the crescent moon, a symbol of the Near East.[69]
Considered in terms of the painting's contemporary context, the sun's triumph over the moon represents Christendom's victory over the Islamism of the Ottomans.[35] Eschatological meaning, probably inspired by prophecies in the Book of Daniel, is imbued in the heavenly setting. In particular, Daniel 7 predicts the rise and fall of four kingdoms before the Second Coming; these were thought to be Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome at the time of the painting's creation. Altdorfer saw the Battle of Issus as a principal indicator of the transition of power from Persia to Greece, and thus as an event of cosmic significance.[35][57]
The battle also marked a progression toward the end of the world – an important theological concern in the 16th century, given that the last traces of Rome were diminishing with the papacy. As a member of the Regensburg council and a practising Catholic, Altdorfer frequently interacted with the Church and was surely aware of this trend of eschatological thought. Schedel, too, had calculated that the final age of the seven he identified was nigh.[67] It may therefore be inferred that the sky's expression of the momentous event at Issus was intended to be of contemporary relevance as well.[57]
The Battle of Alexander at Issus remained part of the royal collection of the Dukes of Bavaria for centuries. By the late 18th century, it was regularly featured in public galleries at the Schleissheim Palace.
The painting was one of 72 taken to Paris in 1800 by the invading armies of Napoleon I (1769–1821),[70] who was a noted admirer of Alexander the Great.[60][71]
The Louvre held it until 1804, when Napoleon declared himself Emperor of France and took it for his own use.
When the Prussians captured the Château de Saint-Cloud in 1814 as part of the War of the Sixth Coalition, they supposedly found the painting hanging in Napoleon's bathroom.[72]
The Battle of Alexander at Issus and 26 others taken in the 1800 invasion were subsequently restored to the
King of Bavaria in 1815.[70] Five of the paintings in William IV's original set of eight – including The Battle of Alexander at Issus – later passed from the royal collection to the Alte Pinakothek art museum in Munich, Germany, where they remain; the other three are in the National Museum of Fine Arts in Stockholm, having been looted by the Swedish army in the Thirty Years War of 1618–1648.[73] Susannah and the Elders is the only other work by Altdorfer in the Alte Pinakothek.
Horatius Cocles Stopping King Porsenna's Army outside Rome, by Ludwig Refinger. From the same historical cycle that The Battle of Alexander at Issus originally belonged to.
Contextually, the painting forms part of the Northern Renaissance, a resurgence of classical humanism and culture in northern Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries.
The Renaissance induced a new kind of social individualism which Altdorfer expressed through the heroic emphasis on Alexander and Darius, and which is reflected in the specifics of the painting's commission and by the subjects of its companion pieces: "During the Renaissance people no longer saw themselves solely as members of a social group, as the citizens of a town, or as sinners before God in whose eyes all were equal. They had become aware of the unique qualities that distinguished one person from another.
Unlike the Middle Ages, the Renaissance celebrated the individual. Altdorfer may have painted row after row of apparently identical warriors, but the spectators themselves would identify with Alexander and Darius, figures who had names, whose significance was indicated by the cord which hung down from the tablet above them."[47]
Altdorfer was not only a pioneer of landscape, but also a practitioner of early incarnations of the Romanticism and expressionism which impacted the arts so greatly in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Kenneth Clark writes of Altdorfer and contemporaries Grünewald and Bosch, "They are what we now call 'expressionist' artists, a term which is not as worthless as it sounds, because, in fact, the symbols of expressionism are remarkably consistent, and we find in the work of these early 16th-century landscape painters not only the same spirit but the same shapes and iconographical motives which recur in the work of such recent expressionists as van Gogh, Max Ernst, Graham Sutherland and Walt Disney."[74]
According to art critic Pia F. Cuneo, "Altdorfer's construction of landscape on a cosmic scale" in the Battle of Alexander at Issus, and his "spiritual and aesthetic affinities with Romanticism and Modern art (in particular, German Expressionism)", "have been especially singled out for praise".[75]
The Battle of Alexander at Issus is typically considered to be Altdorfer's masterpiece. Cuneo states that the painting is usually "considered in splendid isolation from its fifteen other companion pieces, based on the assumption that it either metonymically stands in for the entire cycle, or that its perceived aesthetic predominance merits exclusive focus."[75] German writer Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel (1772–1829) was one of many who saw the painting in the Louvre and marvelled, calling it a "small painted Iliad".[72] Reinhart Koselleck comments that Altdorfer's depiction of the thousands of soldiers was executed with "a mastery previously unknown",[65] and Kathleen Davis describes the painting as "epochal in every sense".[65]
Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti S.R.L., Verona, no. 121. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973).
The twenty-first Disney animated feature film Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973) is an imaginative version of the Robin Hood legend. Fun and romance abound as the swashbuckling hero of Sherwood Forest and his valiant sidekick Little John plot one daring adventure after another to outwit the greedy Prince John. Early on in the film, Robin and Little John happen upon the royal entourage which is taking Prince John and his counselor, Sir Hiss, to Nottingham in order to tax the people there. Disguised as female fortune-tellers, Robin and Little John effectively steal from Prince John all the gold they can carry and run off into the forest, leaving Prince John sucking his thumb in humiliation. In Nottingham, Robin uses Friar Tuck to smuggle the stolen gold back to the peasants. Later Robin sees Maid Marian, she and Robin had once been sweethearts as children but were forced to part ways when she moved to London. But she is mistaken: Robin can't stop thinking about her. But since Robin is an outlaw he and Marian wait for marriage. Seething with rage, that Robin is winning, John triples the taxes, making the bleak situation in Nottingham even worse. One night, Robin Hood, disguised again as the beggar, learns that Friar Tuck is in jail and will rescue him, save Nottingham once and for all and give Prince John the justice that has been coming to him for a long time...
Robin Hood is generally considered to be one of the weakest Disney animated classics, but I totally disagree. Yes, this version of Robin Hood has animals in the roles of the characters, but it works superbly! Robin Hood as a clever fox is a natural choice. And naturally, Maid Marian is a vixen. Prince John and King Richard as lions are also logical choices. But John is a mane-less lion, who starts sucking his thumb whenever anyone mentions his mother. He is silly, but with a truly evil undercurrent. The Sheriff of Nottingham is also deliciously nasty ("Upsy-daisy"), Other hilarious characters are the vultures Trigger, and Nutsy, and Sir Hiss, the snake. They provide delicious humour to the film. Sir Hiss is smarter than any of the other bad guys, but the humor with him is that Prince John never believes him until it's too late, and abuses him afterward. Trigger's 'old Betsy' (a crossbow) provides plenty of laughs, especially when it goes off. And Nutsy is so stupid he says "One o'clock and all's well!" when it's three o'clock, and when told to set his brain ahead a couple of hours, he doesn't know if he has to add or subtract two hours. Apart from the great characters and their witty and smart dialogues, the film has beautiful background artwork e especially in the love scene, and the music is also good, with the hard and gritty song 'Not in Nottingham' as a highlight. Robin Hood was a box office hit at the time and it was initially received with positive reviews from film critics who praised the voice cast, animation, and humor, but its critical reception became gradually mixed since its release and recycled scenes of animation have been noted. But despite these flaws, Robin Hood is still a very entertaining Disney classic.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Vernal Fall is a 96.6m waterfall on the Merced River just downstream of Nevada Fall in Yosemite National Park, California. Vernal Fall, as well as Nevada Fall, is clearly visible from Glacier Point. The waterfall runs all year long, although by the end of summer it is substantially reduced in volume and can split into multiple strands, rather than the single curtain of water seen here.
Yan-o-pah (little cloud) was the local name of the fall before it was named "Vernal" by Lafayette Bunnell, a member of the Mariposa Battalion in 1851.
Atop the falls there is a pool of water called the Emerald Pool around which hikers lounge and rest. There is also a 20˚ slope of rock with water flowing into the pool called the Silver Apron.
Swimming above Vernal Fall can carry with it a great deal of risk: rocks are slippery, and strong undercurrents exist that may not be visible from the surface. Tourists have been swept over Yosemite Valley's Vernal Fall to their deaths. Though warnings are clearly posted to stay out of the water, more than a dozen people have died in the last decade by entering the water above Vernal Fall, including the Silver Apron and Emerald Pool. In the past decade a number of deaths have occurred at other waterfalls in Yosemite, but the park continues to permit swimming in these area with signs advising against swimming.
One person died in May 2007 after hopping from rock to rock around Vernal Fall. Three people died after being swept over the falls in the same manner on 19 July 2011.
The fall is shown in error on a 1932 American colonial-era Philippines stamp. Although the stamp indicates that it depicts Pagsanjan Falls in the Philippines, it in fact shows Vernal Fall. - from Wikipedia.
Seen here in spring 2002. Scanned from a negative.
Finally, I have got as far as Manzanilla Beach! It feels so good to get out of the green rain forest for a while and edit photos that are a different colour! It felt so good to once again be at a beach, even if only for a lunch stop - we had loved the ocean at the Blue Waters Inn on the island of Tobago. This is where we stopped and had our lunch, brought along by our guide, Dave. On a previous day trip, our lunch had been sandwiches, so that was what we were expecting on Day 6, too. To our surprise, out came a tablecloth and hot food from the Asa Wright Nature Centre (including Macaroni and Cheese!). It was such a great lunch, thoroughly enjoyed by us all.
"The word manzanilla is the diminutive form of the Spanish word for apple, manzana. The beach was so named by early Spanish settlers, who encountered what they thought were apple trees with small fruit. They were in fact the manchineel tree, bearing toxic fruit that closely resembles apples. The name of the area was still maintained even after the arrival of the British in 1797.
As a result of an agreement between Sir Winston Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt, Manzanilla village served as a base of operations in the Caribbean for American soldiers in World War II in 1942. The area was established as a training camp for the army, where American soldiers trained in jungle warfare before being deployed in the region.
As one of the most sparsely populated areas on the island, Manzanilla has become a choice tourism destination for visitors seeking a quieter and less commercial beach experience. There are a few resorts, such as the Coconut Cove, that cater to tourists visiting the region for leisure. Despite its appeal as an attraction, Manzanilla is infamous for its consistently rough waters and dangerous undercurrents during high tide.
The beach is also known as a hatching site of the local leatherback sea turtle. Due to the abundance of these nests, Manzanilla beach has caught the attention of eco-tourists as a destination for turtle-watching." From Wikipedia.
The Dardanelles, formerly known as Hellespont, literally "Sea of Helle", is a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with its counterpart, the Bosphorus. Like the Bosphorus, it separates Europe (the Gallipoli peninsula) from the mainland of Asia. The strait is an international waterway, and together with the Bosphorus, the Dardanelles connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.The strait has often played a strategic role in history. The Dardanelles is unique in many respects. The very narrow and winding shape of the strait is more akin to that of a river. It is considered one of the most hazardous, crowded, difficult and potentially dangerous waterways in the world. Water flows in both directions along the strait, from the Sea of Marmara to the Aegean via a surface current and in the opposite direction via an undercurrent.The currents produced by the tidal action in the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara are such that ships under sail must await at anchorage for the right conditions before entering the Dardanelles...
...taken at the Balikci 286...
Canakkale,Turkey...
Italian postcard by Edizioni Beatrice D'Este, no. 20240. Photo: Ernest Bachrach, 1948.
American film star Robert Mitchum (1917–1997) is one of the icons of Hollywood thanks to his roles as tough guys, loners and drifters in many War films, Westerns and such classic Film Noirs as Out of the Past (1947) and His Kind of Woman (1952). His facade of cool, sleepy-eyed indifference proved highly attractive to both men and women. Mitchum portrayed two of the scariest screen villains ever: the psychotic evangelist Reverend Harry Powell in Night of the Hunter (1955) and cruel rapist Max Cady in the original Cape Fear (1962). During his notable 55-year acting career, he appeared in more than 125 films.
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was born in 1917 in Bridgeport, Connecticut into a Methodist family. His parents were James Mitchum, a railroad worker of Irish descent, and Anne Mitchum, the daughter of a Norwegian ship captain. He had an elder sister, Annette (known as actress Julie Mitchum). In 1919, James Mitchum was crushed to death in a railyard accident, when his son was less than two years old. Anne remarried to a former Royal Naval Reserve officer, Major Hugh Cunningham Morris. Robert grew up as a trouble-making, wayward boy and was sent to live with his grandparents when he was 12 years old. There he was expelled from his middle school for scuffling with a principal. A year later, in 1930, he moved in with his older sister, in New York's Hell's Kitchen. After being expelled from Haaren High School, he left his sister and travelled throughout the country on railroad cars, taking a number of jobs including professional boxing. At age 14 in Savannah, Georgia, he was arrested for vagrancy and put on a local chain gang. By Mitchum's own account, he escaped and returned to his family in Delaware. During this time, while recovering from injuries that nearly cost him a leg, he met the girl he would marry, Dorothy Spence. In 1936, he went back on the road, eventually riding the rails to California. In Long Beach, he worked as a ghost-writer for astrologer Carroll Righter. His sister Julie convinced him to join the local theatre guild with her. In his years with the Players Guild of Long Beach, he made a living as a stagehand and occasional bit-player in company productions. He also wrote several short pieces which were performed by the guild. In 1940, he returned East to marry Dorothy Spence, taking her back to California. He remained a footloose character until the birth of their first child, James, nicknamed Josh (two more children followed, Chris and Petrine). Mitchum then got a steady job as a machine operator with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. A nervous breakdown (which resulted in temporary blindness), apparently from job-related stress, led Mitchum to look for work as an actor or extra in films. An agent got him an interview with the producer of the series of B-Westerns starring William Boyd as flawless good guy Hopalong Cassidy. Mitchum's broad build, deep voice and insolent expression made him a perfect villain in several films in the series during 1942 and 1943. He found further work as an extra and supporting actor in numerous productions for various studios. After playing a heroic co-pilot in Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (Mervyn LeRoy 1943), Mitchum signed a seven-year contract with RKO Radio Pictures. He found himself groomed for B-Western stardom in a series of Zane Grey adaptations.
Following the moderately successful Western Nevada, Robert Mitchum was lent from RKO to United Artists for The Story of G.I. Joe (William Wellman, 1945). In the film, he portrayed war-weary officer Bill Walker, who remains resolute despite the troubles he faces. The film, which followed the life of an ordinary soldier through the eyes of journalist Ernie Pyle (Burgess Meredith), became an instant critical and commercial success. Shortly after making the film, Mitchum was drafted into the United States Army, serving at Fort MacArthur, California. At the 1946 Academy Awards, The Story of G.I. Joe was nominated for four Oscars, including Mitchum's only nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He finished the year off with the Western West of the Pecos and a story of returning Marine veterans, Till the End of Time. The genre that came to define Mitchum's career and screen persona was Film Noir. His unique blend of strength, slow-burning sexuality and devil-may-care attitude helped to make him the personification of the Noir hero. His first foray into the genre was a supporting role opposite Kim Hunter in the B-movie When Strangers Marry (William Castle, 1944), as a woman's former lover who may or may not have killed her new husband. Undercurrent (Vincente Minnelli, 1946) featured him playing against type as a troubled, sensitive man entangled in the affairs of his brother (Robert Taylor) and his brother's suspicious wife (Katharine Hepburn). The Locket (John Brahm, 1946) featured Mitchum as bitter ex-boyfriend to Laraine Day's femme fatale. Pursued (Raoul Walsh, 1947) combined Western and Noir styles, with Mitchum's character attempting to recall his past and find those responsible for killing his family. Crossfire (Edward Dmytryk, 1947) featured Mitchum as a member of a group of soldiers, one of whom kills a Jewish man in an act of anti-Jewish hatred. It featured themes of anti-Semitism and the failings of military training. The film earned five Academy Award nominations. Following Crossfire, Mitchum starred in Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947). Mitchum played Jeff Markham, a small-town gas-station owner and former investigator, whose unfinished business with gambler Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas) and femme fatale Kathie Moffett (Jane Greer), comes back to haunt him. In 1948, after a string of successful films for RKO, Mitchum and actress Lila Leeds were arrested for possession of marijuana. The arrest was the result of a sting operation designed to capture other Hollywood partiers, as well, but Mitchum and Leeds did not receive the tipoff. After serving a week at the county jail, Mitchum spent 43 days at a Castaic, California, prison farm, with Life photographers right there taking photos of him mopping up in his prison uniform. The arrest became the inspiration for the exploitation film She Shoulda Said No! (Sam Newfield, 1949), which starred Leeds. Mitchum claimed he was framed and in 1951 his case was overturned and his record cleared. However, the case enhanced his image as a rebel. The films released immediately after his arrest were box-office hits. The Western Rachel and the Stranger (Norman Foster, 1948) featured Mitchum in a supporting role as a mountain man competing for the hand of Loretta Young, the indentured servant and wife of William Holden, while he appeared in the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's novella The Red Pony (Lewis Milestone, 1949) as a trusted cowhand to a ranching family. He returned to true Film Noir in The Big Steal (Don Siegel, 1949), where he again joined Jane Greer.
Robert Mitchum played a doctor who comes between a mentally unbalanced Faith Domergue and cuckolded millionaire Claude Rains in Where Danger Lives (John Farrow, 1950). The Racket (John Cromwell, Nicholas Ray, 1951) was a Noir remake of the early crime drama of the same name and featured Mitchum as a police captain fighting corruption in his precinct. The Josef von Sternberg film Macao (1952) had Mitchum as a victim of mistaken identity at an exotic resort casino, playing opposite Jane Russell. They co-starred again in the steamy crime comedy-drama His Kind of Woman (John Farrow, 1952). Craig Butler at AllMovie: “Mitchum, by the way, is perfectly cast here, using his laconic, interior style to very good effect. Even Jane Russell, attired in outfits that emphasize her cleavage at every opportunity, turns in a more than decent performance. Woman is weird but wonderful.” Otto Preminger's Angel Face (1953) was the first of three collaborations between Mitchum and British actress Jean Simmons, in which she plays an insane heiress who plans to use young ambulance driver Mitchum to kill for her. Mitchum was expelled from Blood Alley (1955), purportedly due to his conduct, especially his reportedly having thrown the film's transportation manager into San Francisco Bay. Producer John Wayne took over the role himself. Following the Marilyn Monroe Western River of No Return (Otto Preminger, 1954), he appeared in Charles Laughton's only film as director, The Night of the Hunter (1955). Adapted by James Agee from a novel by Davis Grubb, the thriller starred Mitchum as a terrifying killer who had the words Love and Hate tattooed on his hands and who poses as a preacher to find money hidden in his cellmate's home. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “Combining stark realism with Germanic expressionism, the movie is a brilliant good-and-evil parable, with ‘good’ represented by a couple of farm kids and a pious old lady, and ‘evil’ literally in the hands of a posturing psychopath.” Mitchum’s performance as Reverend Harry Powell is considered by many to be one of the best of his career. Stanley Kramer's melodrama Not as a Stranger (1955), was a box-office hit. The film starred Mitchum against type, as an idealistic young doctor, who marries an older nurse (Olivia de Havilland), only to question his morality many years later. However, the film was not well received, with most critics pointing out that Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, and Lee Marvin were all too old for their characters. Olivia de Havilland received top billing over Mitchum and Sinatra. In 1955 Mitchum formed DRM (Dorothy and Robert Mitchum) Productions to produce five films for United Artists though only four films were produced. The first film was Bandido (Richard Fleischer, 1956). Following a succession of average Westerns and the poorly received Foreign Intrigue (Sheldon Reynolds, 1956), Mitchum starred in the first of three films with Deborah Kerr. The war drama Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (John Huston, 1957), starred Mitchum as a Marine corporal shipwrecked on a Pacific Island with a nun, Sister Angela (Deborah Kerr), being his sole companion. In this character-study, they struggle to resist the elements and the invading Japanese army. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, including Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay. For his role, Mitchum was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor. In the WWII submarine classic The Enemy Below (Dick Powell, 1957), Mitchum gave a strong performance as U.S. Naval Lieutenant Commander Murrell, the captain of a U.S. Navy destroyer. He matches wits with a German U-boat captain Curd Jürgens, who starred with Mitchum again in The Longest Day (Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki, 1962). Thunder Road (Arthur Ripley, 1958), the second DRM Production, was loosely based on an incident in which a driver transporting moonshine was said to have fatally crashed on Kingston Pike in Knoxville, Tennessee. Mitchum not only starred in the film, but also produced it, co-wrote the screenplay, and allegedly directed much of the film himself. He returned to Mexico for The Wonderful Country (Robert Parrish, 1959) and Ireland for A Terrible Beauty/The Night Fighters (Tay Garnett, 1960) for the last of his DRM Productions.
Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr reunited for The Sundowners (Fred Zinnemann, 1960), where they played husband and wife struggling in Depression-era Australia. Opposite Mitchum, Kerr was nominated for yet another Academy Award for Best Actress, while the film was nominated for a total of five Oscars. Robert Mitchum was awarded that year's National Board of Review award for Best Actor for his performance. The award also recognised his superior performance in the Western drama Home from the Hill (Vincente Minnelli, 1960). He was teamed with former leading ladies Kerr and Simmons, as well as Cary Grant, for the comedy The Grass Is Greener (Stanley Donen, 1960). Mitchum's performance as the menacingly vengeful rapist Max Cady who terrorizes lawyer Gregory Peck and his family in Cape Fear (J. Lee Thompson, 1962) brought him even more attention and furthered his renown for playing cool, predatory characters. The 1960s were marked by a number of lesser films and missed opportunities. Among the films Mitchum passed on during the decade were John Huston's The Misfits, the Academy Award–winning Patton, and Dirty Harry. The most notable of his films in the decade included the war epics The Longest Day (John Huston, 1962) and Anzio (Edward Dmytryk, 1968), the Shirley MacLaine comedy-musical What a Way to Go! (J. Lee Thompson, 1964), and the Western El Dorado (Howard Hawks, 1967), a remake of Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959), in which Mitchum took over Dean Martin's role of a drunken sheriff who helps John Wayne defend a town against unscrupulous cattlemen. He then teamed with Martin for the Western 5 Card Stud (Henry Hathaway, 1968), playing a homicidal preacher. One of the lesser-known aspects of Mitchum's career was his forays into music, both as singer and composer. Mitchum's deep, commanding, yet lively voice was often used instead of that of a professional singer when his character sang in his films. After hearing traditional calypso music and meeting artists such as Mighty Sparrow and Lord Invader while filming Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison in the Caribbean islands of Tobago, he recorded Calypso — is like so ... in March 1957. A year later, he recorded a song he had written for Thunder Road, titled The Ballad of Thunder Road. The country-style song became a modest hit. Although Mitchum continued to use his singing voice in his film work, he waited until 1967 to record his follow-up record, That Man, Robert Mitchum, Sings. Little Old Wine Drinker Me, the first single, was a top-10 hit at country radio, and crossed over onto mainstream radio, where it peaked at number 96. Its follow-up, You Deserve Each Other, also charted on the Billboard Country Singles chart. He also sang the title song to the Western Young Billy Young (Burt Kennedy, 1969).
Robert Mitchum seriously considered retiring from acting in 1968 due to concerns over the quality of his recent films. After a year's absence, during which he spent much of the time driving around America visiting old friends and staying in motels, he was lured back to star in Ryan's Daughter (David Lean, 1970). He made a departure from his typical screen persona with his role as Charles Shaughnessy, a mild-mannered schoolmaster in World War I-era Ireland. Though the film was nominated for four Academy Awards (winning two) and Mitchum was much publicised as a contender for a Best Actor nomination, he was not nominated. George C. Scott won the award for his performance in Patton. The 1970s featured Mitchum in several well-received crime dramas. He was a low-rent Boston crook who finds himself on the wrong end of the mob's attentions in The Friends of Eddie Coyle (Peter Yates, 1973). He played a retired detective sent to Japan to rescue a client's daughter from gangsters in The Yakuza (Sydney Pollack, 1974), which transplanted the typical Film Noir story arc to the Japanese underworld. He also appeared in Midway (Jack Smight, 1976) about an epic 1942 World War II battle, and opposite Robert De Niro in The Last Tycoon (Elia Kazan, 1976). Mitchum's stint as Raymond Chandler's noble private eye Philip Marlowe in Farewell, My Lovely (Dick Richards, 1975) was sufficiently well received by audiences and critics for him to reprise the role in The Big Sleep (Michael Winner, 1978). His last interesting role in this late-career revival came with the film version of Jason Miller's play That Championship Season (Jason Miller, 1982), with Mitchum as the coach of a quartet of former high school basketball teammates who struggle to adjust to middle age and maturity. He expanded to TV work with the big-budget miniseries The Winds of War (Dan Curtis, 1983) as navy man Victor ‘Pug’ Henry, whose family is deeply involved in the events leading up to America's involvement in the war. He also played George Hazard's father-in-law on the Civil War miniseries North and South (Richard T. Heffron, 1985). He followed it with the sequel War and Remembrance (Dan Curtis, 1988). Mitchum replaced old friend John Huston in his son Danny's largely ignored comedy Mr. North (Danny Huston, 1988). He also was in Bill Murray's comedy film, Scrooged (Richard Donner, 1988). In 1991, Mitchum was given a lifetime achievement award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures and the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Golden Globe Awards in 1992. Mitchum continued to act in films until the mid-1990s. He appeared, in contrast to his role as the antagonist in the original, as a protagonist police detective in Martin Scorsese's remake of Cape Fear (1991). He also gave a lively performance as a robber baron of sorts who drives Johnny Depp's character into the wilderness in Jim Jarmusch's eccentric Western, Dead Man (1995). His last film appearance was a small but pivotal role in the television biopic, James Dean: Race with Destiny (Mardi Rustam, 1997), playing Giant director George Stevens opposite Casper Van Dien as Dean. His last starring role was in the Norwegian film Pakten/Waiting for Sunset (Leidulv Risan, 1995) with Cliff Robertson and Erland Josephson. A lifelong heavy smoker, Mitchum died in 1997, in Santa Barbara, California, due to complications of lung cancer and emphysema. Mitchum was 79. He was survived by his wife of 57 years, Dorothy Mitchum and actor sons, James Mitchum, Christopher Mitchum, and writer-daughter, Petrine Day Mitchum. His grandchildren, Bentley Mitchum and Carrie Mitchum, are actors, as was his younger brother, John, who died in 2001. His ashes were scattered by wife Dorothy and longtime friend Jane Russell.
Sources: Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), Hal Erickson (AllMovie)<,Craig Butler (AllMovie), Jim Beaver (IMDb), William Bjornstad (Find A Grave), The New York Times, TCM, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 758. Photo: R.K.O. Radio.
American film star Robert Mitchum (1917–1997) is one of the icons of Hollywood thanks to his roles as tough guys, loners and drifters in many War films, Westerns and such classic Film Noirs as Out of the Past (1947) and His Kind of Woman (1952). His facade of cool, sleepy-eyed indifference proved highly attractive to both men and women. Mitchum portrayed two of the scariest screen villains ever: the psychotic evangelist Reverend Harry Powell in Night of the Hunter (1955) and cruel rapist Max Cady in the original Cape Fear (1962). During his notable 55-year acting career, he appeared in more than 125 films.
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was born in 1917 in Bridgeport, Connecticut into a Methodist family. His parents were James Mitchum, a railroad worker of Irish descent, and Anne Mitchum, the daughter of a Norwegian ship captain. He had an elder sister, Annette (known as actress Julie Mitchum). In 1919, James Mitchum was crushed to death in a railyard accident, when his son was less than two years old. Anne remarried to a former Royal Naval Reserve officer, Major Hugh Cunningham Morris. Robert grew up as a trouble-making, wayward boy and was sent to live with his grandparents when he was 12 years old. There he was expelled from his middle school for scuffling with a principal. A year later, in 1930, he moved in with his older sister, in New York's Hell's Kitchen. After being expelled from Haaren High School, he left his sister and travelled throughout the country on railroad cars, taking a number of jobs including professional boxing. At age 14 in Savannah, Georgia, he was arrested for vagrancy and put on a local chain gang. By Mitchum's own account, he escaped and returned to his family in Delaware. During this time, while recovering from injuries that nearly cost him a leg, he met the girl he would marry, Dorothy Spence. In 1936, he went back on the road, eventually riding the rails to California. In Long Beach, he worked as a ghost-writer for astrologer Carroll Righter. His sister Julie convinced him to join the local theatre guild with her. In his years with the Players Guild of Long Beach, he made a living as a stagehand and occasional bit-player in company productions. He also wrote several short pieces which were performed by the guild. In 1940, he returned East to marry Dorothy Spence, taking her back to California. He remained a footloose character until the birth of their first child, James, nicknamed Josh (two more children followed, Chris and Petrine). Mitchum then got a steady job as a machine operator with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. A nervous breakdown (which resulted in temporary blindness), apparently from job-related stress, led Mitchum to look for work as an actor or extra in films. An agent got him an interview with the producer of the series of B-Westerns starring William Boyd as flawless good guy Hopalong Cassidy. Mitchum's broad build, deep voice and insolent expression made him a perfect villain in several films in the series during 1942 and 1943. He found further work as an extra and supporting actor in numerous productions for various studios. After playing a heroic co-pilot in Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (Mervyn LeRoy 1943), Mitchum signed a seven-year contract with RKO Radio Pictures. He found himself groomed for B-Western stardom in a series of Zane Grey adaptations.
Following the moderately successful Western Nevada, Robert Mitchum was lent from RKO to United Artists for The Story of G.I. Joe (William Wellman, 1945). In the film, he portrayed war-weary officer Bill Walker, who remains resolute despite the troubles he faces. The film, which followed the life of an ordinary soldier through the eyes of journalist Ernie Pyle (Burgess Meredith), became an instant critical and commercial success. Shortly after making the film, Mitchum was drafted into the United States Army, serving at Fort MacArthur, California. At the 1946 Academy Awards, The Story of G.I. Joe was nominated for four Oscars, including Mitchum's only nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He finished the year off with the Western West of the Pecos and a story of returning Marine veterans, Till the End of Time. The genre that came to define Mitchum's career and screen persona was Film Noir. His unique blend of strength, slow-burning sexuality and devil-may-care attitude helped to make him the personification of the Noir hero. His first foray into the genre was a supporting role opposite Kim Hunter in the B-movie When Strangers Marry (William Castle, 1944), as a woman's former lover who may or may not have killed her new husband. Undercurrent (Vincente Minnelli, 1946) featured him playing against type as a troubled, sensitive man entangled in the affairs of his brother (Robert Taylor) and his brother's suspicious wife (Katharine Hepburn). The Locket (John Brahm, 1946) featured Mitchum as bitter ex-boyfriend to Laraine Day's femme fatale. Pursued (Raoul Walsh, 1947) combined Western and Noir styles, with Mitchum's character attempting to recall his past and find those responsible for killing his family. Crossfire (Edward Dmytryk, 1947) featured Mitchum as a member of a group of soldiers, one of whom kills a Jewish man in an act of anti-Jewish hatred. It featured themes of anti-Semitism and the failings of military training. The film earned five Academy Award nominations. Following Crossfire, Mitchum starred in Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947). Mitchum played Jeff Markham, a small-town gas-station owner and former investigator, whose unfinished business with gambler Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas) and femme fatale Kathie Moffett (Jane Greer), comes back to haunt him. In 1948, after a string of successful films for RKO, Mitchum and actress Lila Leeds were arrested for possession of marijuana. The arrest was the result of a sting operation designed to capture other Hollywood partiers, as well, but Mitchum and Leeds did not receive the tipoff. After serving a week at the county jail, Mitchum spent 43 days at a Castaic, California, prison farm, with Life photographers right there taking photos of him mopping up in his prison uniform. The arrest became the inspiration for the exploitation film She Shoulda Said No! (Sam Newfield, 1949), which starred Leeds. Mitchum claimed he was framed and in 1951 his case was overturned and his record cleared. However, the case enhanced his image as a rebel. The films released immediately after his arrest were box-office hits. The Western Rachel and the Stranger (Norman Foster, 1948) featured Mitchum in a supporting role as a mountain man competing for the hand of Loretta Young, the indentured servant and wife of William Holden, while he appeared in the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's novella The Red Pony (Lewis Milestone, 1949) as a trusted cowhand to a ranching family. He returned to true Film Noir in The Big Steal (Don Siegel, 1949), where he again joined Jane Greer.
Robert Mitchum played a doctor who comes between a mentally unbalanced Faith Domergue and cuckolded millionaire Claude Rains in Where Danger Lives (John Farrow, 1950). The Racket (John Cromwell, Nicholas Ray, 1951) was a Noir remake of the early crime drama of the same name and featured Mitchum as a police captain fighting corruption in his precinct. The Josef von Sternberg film Macao (1952) had Mitchum as a victim of mistaken identity at an exotic resort casino, playing opposite Jane Russell. They co-starred again in the steamy crime comedy-drama His Kind of Woman (John Farrow, 1952). Craig Butler at AllMovie: “Mitchum, by the way, is perfectly cast here, using his laconic, interior style to very good effect. Even Jane Russell, attired in outfits that emphasize her cleavage at every opportunity, turns in a more than decent performance. Woman is weird but wonderful.” Otto Preminger's Angel Face (1953) was the first of three collaborations between Mitchum and British actress Jean Simmons, in which she plays an insane heiress who plans to use young ambulance driver Mitchum to kill for her. Mitchum was expelled from Blood Alley (1955), purportedly due to his conduct, especially his reportedly having thrown the film's transportation manager into San Francisco Bay. Producer John Wayne took over the role himself. Following the Marilyn Monroe Western River of No Return (Otto Preminger, 1954), he appeared in Charles Laughton's only film as director, The Night of the Hunter (1955). Adapted by James Agee from a novel by Davis Grubb, the thriller starred Mitchum as a terrifying killer who had the words Love and Hate tattooed on his hands and who poses as a preacher to find money hidden in his cellmate's home. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “Combining stark realism with Germanic expressionism, the movie is a brilliant good-and-evil parable, with ‘good’ represented by a couple of farm kids and a pious old lady, and ‘evil’ literally in the hands of a posturing psychopath.” Mitchum’s performance as Reverend Harry Powell is considered by many to be one of the best of his career. Stanley Kramer's melodrama Not as a Stranger (1955), was a box-office hit. The film starred Mitchum against type, as an idealistic young doctor, who marries an older nurse (Olivia de Havilland), only to question his morality many years later. However, the film was not well received, with most critics pointing out that Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, and Lee Marvin were all too old for their characters. Olivia de Havilland received top billing over Mitchum and Sinatra. In 1955 Mitchum formed DRM (Dorothy and Robert Mitchum) Productions to produce five films for United Artists though only four films were produced. The first film was Bandido (Richard Fleischer, 1956). Following a succession of average Westerns and the poorly received Foreign Intrigue (Sheldon Reynolds, 1956), Mitchum starred in the first of three films with Deborah Kerr. The war drama Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (John Huston, 1957), starred Mitchum as a Marine corporal shipwrecked on a Pacific Island with a nun, Sister Angela (Deborah Kerr), being his sole companion. In this character-study, they struggle to resist the elements and the invading Japanese army. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, including Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay. For his role, Mitchum was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor. In the WWII submarine classic The Enemy Below (Dick Powell, 1957), Mitchum gave a strong performance as U.S. Naval Lieutenant Commander Murrell, the captain of a U.S. Navy destroyer. He matches wits with a German U-boat captain Curd Jürgens, who starred with Mitchum again in The Longest Day (Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki, 1962). Thunder Road (Arthur Ripley, 1958), the second DRM Production, was loosely based on an incident in which a driver transporting moonshine was said to have fatally crashed on Kingston Pike in Knoxville, Tennessee. Mitchum not only starred in the film, but also produced it, co-wrote the screenplay, and allegedly directed much of the film himself. He returned to Mexico for The Wonderful Country (Robert Parrish, 1959) and Ireland for A Terrible Beauty/The Night Fighters (Tay Garnett, 1960) for the last of his DRM Productions.
Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr reunited for The Sundowners (Fred Zinnemann, 1960), where they played husband and wife struggling in Depression-era Australia. Opposite Mitchum, Kerr was nominated for yet another Academy Award for Best Actress, while the film was nominated for a total of five Oscars. Robert Mitchum was awarded that year's National Board of Review award for Best Actor for his performance. The award also recognised his superior performance in the Western drama Home from the Hill (Vincente Minnelli, 1960). He was teamed with former leading ladies Kerr and Simmons, as well as Cary Grant, for the comedy The Grass Is Greener (Stanley Donen, 1960). Mitchum's performance as the menacingly vengeful rapist Max Cady who terrorizes lawyer Gregory Peck and his family in Cape Fear (J. Lee Thompson, 1962) brought him even more attention and furthered his renown for playing cool, predatory characters. The 1960s were marked by a number of lesser films and missed opportunities. Among the films Mitchum passed on during the decade were John Huston's The Misfits, the Academy Award–winning Patton, and Dirty Harry. The most notable of his films in the decade included the war epics The Longest Day (John Huston, 1962) and Anzio (Edward Dmytryk, 1968), the Shirley MacLaine comedy-musical What a Way to Go! (J. Lee Thompson, 1964), and the Western El Dorado (Howard Hawks, 1967), a remake of Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959), in which Mitchum took over Dean Martin's role of a drunken sheriff who helps John Wayne defend a town against unscrupulous cattlemen. He then teamed with Martin for the Western 5 Card Stud (Henry Hathaway, 1968), playing a homicidal preacher. One of the lesser-known aspects of Mitchum's career was his forays into music, both as singer and composer. Mitchum's deep, commanding, yet lively voice was often used instead of that of a professional singer when his character sang in his films. After hearing traditional calypso music and meeting artists such as Mighty Sparrow and Lord Invader while filming Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison in the Caribbean islands of Tobago, he recorded Calypso — is like so ... in March 1957. A year later, he recorded a song he had written for Thunder Road, titled The Ballad of Thunder Road. The country-style song became a modest hit. Although Mitchum continued to use his singing voice in his film work, he waited until 1967 to record his follow-up record, That Man, Robert Mitchum, Sings. Little Old Wine Drinker Me, the first single, was a top-10 hit at country radio, and crossed over onto mainstream radio, where it peaked at number 96. Its follow-up, You Deserve Each Other, also charted on the Billboard Country Singles chart. He also sang the title song to the Western Young Billy Young (Burt Kennedy, 1969).
Robert Mitchum seriously considered retiring from acting in 1968 due to concerns over the quality of his recent films. After a year's absence, during which he spent much of the time driving around America visiting old friends and staying in motels, he was lured back to star in Ryan's Daughter (David Lean, 1970). He made a departure from his typical screen persona with his role as Charles Shaughnessy, a mild-mannered schoolmaster in World War I-era Ireland. Though the film was nominated for four Academy Awards (winning two) and Mitchum was much publicised as a contender for a Best Actor nomination, he was not nominated. George C. Scott won the award for his performance in Patton. The 1970s featured Mitchum in several well-received crime dramas. He was a low-rent Boston crook who finds himself on the wrong end of the mob's attentions in The Friends of Eddie Coyle (Peter Yates, 1973). He played a retired detective sent to Japan to rescue a client's daughter from gangsters in The Yakuza (Sydney Pollack, 1974), which transplanted the typical Film Noir story arc to the Japanese underworld. He also appeared in Midway (Jack Smight, 1976) about an epic 1942 World War II battle, and opposite Robert De Niro in The Last Tycoon (Elia Kazan, 1976). Mitchum's stint as Raymond Chandler's noble private eye Philip Marlowe in Farewell, My Lovely (Dick Richards, 1975) was sufficiently well received by audiences and critics for him to reprise the role in The Big Sleep (Michael Winner, 1978). His last interesting role in this late-career revival came with the film version of Jason Miller's play That Championship Season (Jason Miller, 1982), with Mitchum as the coach of a quartet of former high school basketball teammates who struggle to adjust to middle age and maturity. He expanded to TV work with the big-budget miniseries The Winds of War (Dan Curtis, 1983) as navy man Victor ‘Pug’ Henry, whose family is deeply involved in the events leading up to America's involvement in the war. He also played George Hazard's father-in-law on the Civil War miniseries North and South (Richard T. Heffron, 1985). He followed it with the sequel War and Remembrance (Dan Curtis, 1988). Mitchum replaced old friend John Huston in his son Danny's largely ignored comedy Mr. North (Danny Huston, 1988). He also was in Bill Murray's comedy film, Scrooged (Richard Donner, 1988). In 1991, Mitchum was given a lifetime achievement award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures and the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Golden Globe Awards in 1992. Mitchum continued to act in films until the mid-1990s. He appeared, in contrast to his role as the antagonist in the original, as a protagonist police detective in Martin Scorsese's remake of Cape Fear (1991). He also gave a lively performance as a robber baron of sorts who drives Johnny Depp's character into the wilderness in Jim Jarmusch's eccentric Western, Dead Man (1995). His last film appearance was a small but pivotal role in the television biopic, James Dean: Race with Destiny (Mardi Rustam, 1997), playing Giant director George Stevens opposite Casper Van Dien as Dean. His last starring role was in the Norwegian film Pakten/Waiting for Sunset (Leidulv Risan, 1995) with Cliff Robertson and Erland Josephson. A lifelong heavy smoker, Mitchum died in 1997, in Santa Barbara, California, due to complications of lung cancer and emphysema. Mitchum was 79. He was survived by his wife of 57 years, Dorothy Mitchum and actor sons, James Mitchum, Christopher Mitchum, and writer-daughter, Petrine Day Mitchum. His grandchildren, Bentley Mitchum and Carrie Mitchum, are actors, as was his younger brother, John, who died in 2001. His ashes were scattered by wife Dorothy and longtime friend Jane Russell.
Sources: Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), Hal Erickson (AllMovie)<,Craig Butler (AllMovie), Jim Beaver (IMDb), William Bjornstad (Find A Grave), The New York Times, TCM, Wikipedia, and IMDb.