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An article published about my recent tour through Italy.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3680687/Crumbling-church...
Follow me here...
In my previous article, like many photographer, I was very excited about the release of the new R6 and R5 because they offered tremendous advances.
www.flickr.com/photos/garivalden/50209737163/in/dateposted/
I bought the R6, the Canon RF 100-500mm and sold everything to buy again a 5D mark III
Why? Because the Canon R6 is also that:
1) Delivery of the RF – EF Adapter Ring offered by Canon has arrived 60 days after purchase. Fortunately, my nice store went out of its way to lend me one.
Many customers have suffered this and it is scandalous on the part of Canon not to have integrated the ring in the original box.
2) Prepare to pay (and I'm not even talking about new RF lenses)
- a very fast and robust SD card to enjoy the burst like the Sony Tough SD
- Resistant, I used Lightroom 6 box. To read new raw CR3s, you need Lightroom Classic
- To make the photos look like a Canon Picture Style you need a quality color profile, thank you to Damien Bernal for your recommendations
The choice of an L Bracket is complicated with this screen, Tom Migot has devoted several videos to it.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA25FyekVKY
The R6 is with High ISO but if you want a very clean result, Denoise by Topaze is the best Tool , So, one question: Why have I never needed it before?
www.flickr.com/photos/garivalden/51296276233
This photo at 12800 iso will be almost unusable on 5D Mark III but never forget that the easiest and most beautiful thing is to take pictures when there is ... light
- The second battery is essential. It is difficult to say how many pictures you can take with one battery but I advise you to double your battery park as well as the charging time.
For years, I shot without ever thinking about the drums with a second in the bag never used.
3) The ergonomics of the R6 disappointed me and brought nothing
- The grip is worse than before. However, I have small hands and the handle seems too small to me. Those with large hands have their little finger in the air and some props even sell a base to add.
I wore for years a 5d Mark III with a 300mm 2.8mm IS II sometimes by the tips of two fingers to tell if the whole thing was balanced.
- The SD card door opens only by friction. There is still a small slot to slide a nail with difficulty, but the 5d Mark III and IV opened more easily with one hand.
The adjustable screen has never been useful to me because its tilt to the left of the device is not practical and even less with the L bracket
Touch has never been useful to me, in the field physical buttons are more practical
4 / A user experience that sometimes disappoints:
- Eye tracking stalls when it is too complicated in the foliage. Does the ultimate portrait of your dreams with a subject against a pretty background require this technology?
- In billebaude if you take your camera back, it will sometimes take a while before everything turns on again. Several times I had to turn off the R6 completely because the autofocus didn't know where it was.
- You see a beautiful sunset, you take your R6, you put your eye in the viewfinder and there… disappointment. Why not keep looking in our good old DSLR?
5) The rendering of R5 and R6 is often very different in appearance compared to DSLR.
More so if you mount a native RF lens.
Is it the technology or the level of detail that wants this? The shots often appear to be very artificially separated, and natural colors like grass are sometimes strange. I know you can change everything in PP, but all of this bothers me and takes me away from the pictorial and cinematographic universe.
My daughter came home from school with a drastically different school photo than I saw for a decade, I got it, the canon photographer (my daughter had asked a few years ago ;-) had bought an R6 or R5 and the schoolyard became a bit strange as « Gattaca ».... Advantage for Eye AF, it’s tea time for him ;-)
6) Let's talk about goals.
The photos of a Canon hybrid with an RF lens that I have seen in recent months made me want to buy a Canon EF 85mm f1.2 II 1 month after the R6. I'm not sure that was the goal. from Canon that we buy back the EF lenses that we had sold second-hand.
www.flickr.com/photos/garivalden/50806574161
Canon did not lose everything because, to get Canon cash back, I exchanged my Canon EF 300MM 2.8 is II before the summer of 2021 for an RF 100-500mm ...
Why did I do this?
Fear of obsolescence and maybe a follow-up helped by an abundant marketing hype which made me give in and go against my convictions of never buying a zoom because the rendering really has nothing to do with a focal length fixed premium… I sold it 1 month later.
The bottom line of this financially not very pleasant operation is that, as in many areas, if we have the feeling that things will not be in our best interest, it is better to abstain ;-)
What will I miss most about the Canon R6
Focusing in low light, your 85mm 1.2 will get a facelift
Staggering stabilization from 100-500mm net to 1/50 th to 500mm
The focus on the eye, clearly the majority of wedding, sports and animal photographers will never want to go back, I understand them, this is a decisive advantage over the competition
And especially the advantage of having the collimators close to the edge unlike the DSLR
The burst and the endless sorting it generates, the swiveling screen, the touchscreen, the wifi, the gps, I will miss less.
I don't think I’ll buy again this excellent 300mm 2.8 IS II.
I still got the magical 135 mm F2 and 85mm 1.2 , my next wildlife Canon Lens will be a prime EF, surely excellent, not too big (price too) because I take my equipment everywhere, repairable I don't know ...
www.flickr.com/photos/garivalden/47688762631
Every day, especially since the digital and the Internet, our so-called user-friendly world becomes unnecessarily more complicated and deliberately consumerist.
The R5 and R6 are good cameras and Canon has really caught up to the competition but it's not my direction.
The 5D Mark III is 2012, a century after 1912, my favorite year, in which I have been preparing a photo for a very long time.
What if Canon EF finally became a way of life.
Gari Valden
℗ © 2021 Copyright - All Rights reserved
🇫🇷 En français ici:
After my earlier posting of the knitting scene , as requested by some , here is a shot of the finished article .
To be more precise it is a " Polar Infinity Scarf " , as such there is no end and it is worn doubled round .
I last photographed the Thames Barrier a little over a year ago, but became inspired to revisit the location after coming across an article about the 1953 North Sea Flood, which overwhelmed British sea defences in the Thames Estuary and led to the deaths of more than 300 people across several counties. It was remarkable to read that the gates protect not only the immediate East London borough against tidal surges, but also the infratructure, underground network and power supplies stretching beyond the O2 Arena, the Docklands and Tower Bridge and all the way to Westminster. In addition to this, the barrier now also needs to contend with the impact of climate change and rising sea levels.
With all of this in mind, my aim with this image was a darker, moodier and altogether more sinister alternative to my last take on the location, capturing the formidable size and scale of the barrier's piers at dusk, but also contrasting the peaceful flow of the Thames and the reassuring glow of the piers' evening lights with the foreboding tones of the evening sky.
The final image is a blend of a dozen exposures captured over two hours, starting with a 90-second exposure as the sun was setting and continuing into the evening, at which point the shutter speed had extended to 12 minutes. My intention all along had been to weight the emphasis on the later exposures, but I knew I would also be using the earlier and brighter exposures to enhance the lighting across the roof of the piers and the tones along the Thames. Having created Pen Tool selections in Photoshop for the barrier's piers, the sky and the river, I blended in portions of each of these exposures using a combination of Soft Light, Lighten, Luminosity, Linear Dodge, Colour Dodge and Screen blend modes. The goal at this stage was to bring out the reflective finish and dimensionality along the tip of the piers, to emphasise the glow of the lights inside the barrier, to produce a clean finish in the concrete at the base of each pier, and to brighten the water and darken the sky. After blending the exposures,
I applied a gentle radial blur to the sky and used Silver Efex Pro to lower its midtone structure and soften its texture, creating a subtle contrast between the piers and their surroundings. I then used Colour Efex Pro to add some minor tonal contrast adjustments, with a gentle Detail Extractor to bring out the gritty nuance in the piers. The final touches were a combination of a Gradient Map to emphasise the chilly evening tones and a Colour Lookup set to Bleach Bypass to desaturate the tip of the piers, which helped to bring out their metallic texture and to add some definition to their background.
The end result involved more planning and attention to detail at both the shooting and editing stages than my previous take, but it hopefully brings out the immense feat of engineering behind the barrier's design, as well as the rock-steady industrial strength of the barrier against a sometimes menacing force of nature, which was the aspect that inspired me to revisit the location in the first place.
You can also connect with me on Facebook, 500px, Google+ and Instagram.
Here is the article in Wikipedia:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graptopetalum_paraguayense
Sedum Weinbergii, aka Mother of Pearl Plant, aka Porcelain Succulent
The plant has a spreading and creeping habit that reaches 20 cm high by 60 cm wide. Its appearance may vary depending on the soil and the exposure. The hanging rod can reach up to 2 m in length and a thickness of 2 cm. Green to light grey leaves can be up to 7 cm long and 3 cm wide. Thick and fleshy, they are arranged in a spiral around the stem and are very easily detached from the rosette, that is why this plant has been nicknamed "porcelain succulent".
Its flowers appearing in spring have five white petals spotted with red.
This hardy plant stands temperatures down to −10°C. If it is sheltered from rain and too much humidity, it is easy to grow in temperate climates. It is readily propagated by cutting leaves or stems. It supports both full sun and partial shade. Watering should be avoided in the event of excessive heat. It is often used as an ornamental plant in gardens.
The feature article in the January 1977 issue of Trains magazine was Jay Potter’s The Monsters of Mingo Junction, which highlighted Conrail’s assignment of its six-axle Alco Centuries to ore service centered around Mingo Junction, Ohio. Although Mingo Junction was well over 300 miles from my home turf, and a little out of my range at the time, it was immediately added to my bucket list. A year and a half later, a phone call from a college buddy who had already graduated ended up being a planning session for a long weekend in Mingo Junction. By August 1978, many of Conrail’s 32 C628’s, 27 C630’s, and 15 C636’s were retired and in dead lines at Collinwood or Altoona, but some still had a little life left. Here one of the largest, a C636, catches some morning sun, while an SD45 lays over two stalls away, Although the big EMD’s initially drew better assignments than the Alco’s, the fuel guzzlers didn’t last much longer than the Centuries.
www.santaynezvalleyjournal.com/archive/7/27/4701/
I like it!! But I didn't need everyone knowing how nervous I was! LOL
My first published photos! Printed for an article on artisans in the Eastern Cape, South Africa- in HAND/EYE Spring 2008, an Aid to Artisans Magazine. I went on an assessment of the craft sector in the area for Aid to Artisans and took a number of photos- these were used to illustrate the article.
Please view on large to read the article and see the photos. flickr.com/photos/14781202@N04/2248588547/sizes/o/
You can learn more about Aid to Artisans here: www.aidtoartisans.org
The article below originated from:
Traditional Building Magazine
Updated: Jan 6, 2020
Original: Feb 2, 2016
Originally built in 1916, the Palm Beach courthouse was a tour de force of Neoclassical architecture. The architect Wilber Burt Talley designed a granite base, brick and stone façades, soaring Indiana limestone columns and Corinthian capitals that held up triangle pediments, and a dentil molding below the cornice. The four-story, 40,000-sq.ft. the building housed the county government offices and records, as well as the jail.
Almost immediately the courthouse ran out of space, and 11 years later an addition was constructed 25 feet to the east. Talley again served as the courthouse architect, and the 1927 addition was similar in appearance and used many of the same materials as the original building. In 1955, the two buildings were connected with usable rooms to accommodate the growing county.
Yet another addition was required in the late ’60s; it was completed in 1969. The architecture firm Edge & Powell delivered a brick building that nearly doubled the square footage to 180,000 sq. ft. This time, the addition was less than sympathetic. In fact, the 1916 and 1927 buildings were lost in the center of the new construction, which wrapped around them completely.
The building was utilized for 36 years in this configuration, until 1995, when a new courthouse opened across the street. Expansions had plagued the 1916 courthouse almost as soon as it was built, and this was no exception. “After the new courthouse opened, the old one was slated for demolition,” says Rick Gonzales, Jr., AIA, CEO and principal at REG Architects. “Since I knew about the 1916 courthouse, I recognized the potential of the site and got in touch with preservation specialists in the area. It took some time, but a group of us eventually convinced the county to fund a feasibility study, which we conducted in 2002.”
Gonzales talks about stimulating interest in the project: “We would go to the new courthouse to sell our idea and walk people up to the windows to look at the old site,” he says.
“‘Believe it or not, there’s a building inside that building,’ I’d say. That really piqued people’s interest.”
The county agreed to fund the project, and demolition of the additions began in January 2004 and was completed two years later. “It took a long time because it was a selective demolition,” says Gonzales. “We needed to be careful to salvage many of the materials from the 1927 building to use in the restoration of the 1916 structure. It resembled the original, so we took everything we could for reuse.” A number of materials were recovered, including limestone, granite, wood windows, doors, marble wainscot, mosaic floor tiles, wood flooring, trim, and hardware.
While a majority of the materials were the same from building to building, the detailing was not identical. “We were working from the drawings of the 1927 building because we couldn’t find drawings for the earlier structure,” says Gonzales. “We had thought the detailing was the same, but when we put our studies together we saw that the rhythm, proportion, and cornices were different.”
When REG Architects couldn’t apply the 1927 documentation to the restoration, the firm examined what was remaining of the building and the few images that had survived. “For a while, we had no cornice pieces, because all of the exterior ornamentations had been destroyed when the façades were smoothed for the addition,” says Gonzales. “Then a contractor found a 16-in. piece, which we used to re-create the cornice line.”
Other elements that needed to be re-created, such as the granite and limestone porticos on the north, south, and west façades, were designed using historic photographs. “We found limestone with the same vein from the same Indiana quarry that was originally used,” says Gonzales. “We were extremely lucky in that the quarry ran out of that vein right after our order.” REG Architects was also able to match the granite.
Many components of the building were salvaged and restored. The cornerstones were restored and placed in their original locations at the northwest corner. The 12 Corinthian capitals and the load-bearing limestone columns – each of which weighs 30,600 lbs. – were pieced back together and repaired. “Placement of the capitals was especially tedious,” says Gonzales, “because it needed to be precise. They were then secured with pegs and glue.”
On the north, south, and west elevations, the brick was restored and, when necessary, replaced. “We couldn’t locate replacement brick with the same hues as the existing brick hues,” says Gonzales, “so we hired artists to stain it so that it blended with the original brick.” On the east elevation, REG Architects specified new brick so the new façade clearly stood out from the old ones.
To the same point, new hurricane-proof wood windows were chosen for the east elevation, while REG Architects was careful to preserve as many old windows as possible on the other elevations. Hedrick Brothers repaired 76 original wood windows as well as the window hardware. “We found a local manufacturer, Coastal Millwork of Riviera Beach, FL, to get the original windows tested for hurricane-preparedness,” says Gonzales. “The company reinforced and laminated the windows, so we were able to reinstall them.”
The crowning achievement of the exterior work was the re-creation of an eagle crest on the west pediment.
Based on a small postcard and images of other eagle crests, Ontario, Canada-based Traditional Cut Stone designed the crest for Palm Beach. “They created a small scale model and then a full-scale model in clay,” says Gonzales. “The final piece, which took five months to produce, was hand-carved from five pieces of Indiana limestone.” Traditional Cut Stone was also responsible for all of the limestone work on the building. REG Architects based much of its interior design on the Desoto County Courthouse in Arcadia, FL, which was built by Talley in 1913.
“The dilemma about the interiors was that there was little archival material and few original photographs to give a precise vision for the interiors,” says Gonzales. “Emphasis was placed on trying to restore the character of the main courtroom and the main interior public spaces.” The main courtroom on the third and fourth floors was especially aided by the Desoto research. The millwork was re-created and the plaster ceiling and moldings, maple flooring, doors, and door hardware were restored. Replica lighting was fabricated.
Architectural elements in the corridors and staircases received similar treatment. Hendrick Brothers uncovered the original mosaic flooring and had it repaired. Only five percent of the tile needed to be replaced; in these cases, matching tile from the 1927 building was used. About 80 percent of the marble wainscoting was salvaged, while the other 20 percent was replaced with matching marble from the original quarry. Wood doors and door hardware were salvaged and reused.
All of the building code upgrades – including efficient HVAC, fire protection, and hurricane protection – were hidden as much as possible with historic finishes. The alley elevation provided an ADA-accessible entrance and space for elevators.
The newly restored Palm Beach County Court House now accommodates a museum for the historical society, as well as offices for the County’s Public Affairs Department and County Attorney. “People say this project was an alignment of the stars,” says Gonzales. “It was. We were lucky to have the opportunity to save this building, we worked with a lot of great people, and it turned out well. It was a great labor of love.” TB
Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:
www.traditionalbuilding.com/projects/courthouse-unwrapped
downtownwpb.com/things-to-do/history-museum-and-restored-...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_and_Pat_Johnson_Palm_Beach_...
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
My first story of 2020 is published on my website featuring an article, video and gallery! Read about how the sound of distant loons, serendipity, neighborly kindness and a paddle boat turned my land-locked north woods vacation into an epic adventure on Red Cedar Lake in Wisconsin’s north woods. Also included is a short video from my time at the lake and a full gallery of images. Read the full story at this link. And while you’re there, please sign up to my newsletter so you never miss another post!
The article below originated from:
Traditional Building Magazine
Updated: Jan 6, 2020
Original: Feb 2, 2016
Originally built in 1916, the Palm Beach courthouse was a tour de force of Neoclassical architecture. The architect Wilber Burt Talley designed a granite base, brick and stone façades, soaring Indiana limestone columns and Corinthian capitals that held up triangle pediments, and a dentil molding below the cornice. The four-story, 40,000-sq.ft. the building housed the county government offices and records, as well as the jail.
Almost immediately the courthouse ran out of space, and 11 years later an addition was constructed 25 feet to the east. Talley again served as the courthouse architect, and the 1927 addition was similar in appearance and used many of the same materials as the original building. In 1955, the two buildings were connected with usable rooms to accommodate the growing county.
Yet another addition was required in the late ’60s; it was completed in 1969. The architecture firm Edge & Powell delivered a brick building that nearly doubled the square footage to 180,000 sq. ft. This time, the addition was less than sympathetic. In fact, the 1916 and 1927 buildings were lost in the center of the new construction, which wrapped around them completely.
The building was utilized for 36 years in this configuration, until 1995, when a new courthouse opened across the street. Expansions had plagued the 1916 courthouse almost as soon as it was built, and this was no exception. “After the new courthouse opened, the old one was slated for demolition,” says Rick Gonzales, Jr., AIA, CEO and principal at REG Architects. “Since I knew about the 1916 courthouse, I recognized the potential of the site and got in touch with preservation specialists in the area. It took some time, but a group of us eventually convinced the county to fund a feasibility study, which we conducted in 2002.”
Gonzales talks about stimulating interest in the project: “We would go to the new courthouse to sell our idea and walk people up to the windows to look at the old site,” he says.
“‘Believe it or not, there’s a building inside that building,’ I’d say. That really piqued people’s interest.”
The county agreed to fund the project, and demolition of the additions began in January 2004 and was completed two years later. “It took a long time because it was a selective demolition,” says Gonzales. “We needed to be careful to salvage many of the materials from the 1927 building to use in the restoration of the 1916 structure. It resembled the original, so we took everything we could for reuse.” A number of materials were recovered, including limestone, granite, wood windows, doors, marble wainscot, mosaic floor tiles, wood flooring, trim, and hardware.
While a majority of the materials were the same from building to building, the detailing was not identical. “We were working from the drawings of the 1927 building because we couldn’t find drawings for the earlier structure,” says Gonzales. “We had thought the detailing was the same, but when we put our studies together we saw that the rhythm, proportion, and cornices were different.”
When REG Architects couldn’t apply the 1927 documentation to the restoration, the firm examined what was remaining of the building and the few images that had survived. “For a while, we had no cornice pieces, because all of the exterior ornamentations had been destroyed when the façades were smoothed for the addition,” says Gonzales. “Then a contractor found a 16-in. piece, which we used to re-create the cornice line.”
Other elements that needed to be re-created, such as the granite and limestone porticos on the north, south, and west façades, were designed using historic photographs. “We found limestone with the same vein from the same Indiana quarry that was originally used,” says Gonzales. “We were extremely lucky in that the quarry ran out of that vein right after our order.” REG Architects was also able to match the granite.
Many components of the building were salvaged and restored. The cornerstones were restored and placed in their original locations at the northwest corner. The 12 Corinthian capitals and the load-bearing limestone columns – each of which weighs 30,600 lbs. – were pieced back together and repaired. “Placement of the capitals was especially tedious,” says Gonzales, “because it needed to be precise. They were then secured with pegs and glue.”
On the north, south, and west elevations, the brick was restored and, when necessary, replaced. “We couldn’t locate replacement brick with the same hues as the existing brick hues,” says Gonzales, “so we hired artists to stain it so that it blended with the original brick.” On the east elevation, REG Architects specified new brick so the new façade clearly stood out from the old ones.
To the same point, new hurricane-proof wood windows were chosen for the east elevation, while REG Architects was careful to preserve as many old windows as possible on the other elevations. Hedrick Brothers repaired 76 original wood windows as well as the window hardware. “We found a local manufacturer, Coastal Millwork of Riviera Beach, FL, to get the original windows tested for hurricane-preparedness,” says Gonzales. “The company reinforced and laminated the windows, so we were able to reinstall them.”
The crowning achievement of the exterior work was the re-creation of an eagle crest on the west pediment.
Based on a small postcard and images of other eagle crests, Ontario, Canada-based Traditional Cut Stone designed the crest for Palm Beach. “They created a small scale model and then a full-scale model in clay,” says Gonzales. “The final piece, which took five months to produce, was hand-carved from five pieces of Indiana limestone.” Traditional Cut Stone was also responsible for all of the limestone work on the building. REG Architects based much of its interior design on the Desoto County Courthouse in Arcadia, FL, which was built by Talley in 1913.
“The dilemma about the interiors was that there was little archival material and few original photographs to give a precise vision for the interiors,” says Gonzales. “Emphasis was placed on trying to restore the character of the main courtroom and the main interior public spaces.” The main courtroom on the third and fourth floors was especially aided by the Desoto research. The millwork was re-created and the plaster ceiling and moldings, maple flooring, doors, and door hardware were restored. Replica lighting was fabricated.
Architectural elements in the corridors and staircases received similar treatment. Hendrick Brothers uncovered the original mosaic flooring and had it repaired. Only five percent of the tile needed to be replaced; in these cases, matching tile from the 1927 building was used. About 80 percent of the marble wainscoting was salvaged, while the other 20 percent was replaced with matching marble from the original quarry. Wood doors and door hardware were salvaged and reused.
All of the building code upgrades – including efficient HVAC, fire protection, and hurricane protection – were hidden as much as possible with historic finishes. The alley elevation provided an ADA-accessible entrance and space for elevators.
The newly restored Palm Beach County Court House now accommodates a museum for the historical society, as well as offices for the County’s Public Affairs Department and County Attorney. “People say this project was an alignment of the stars,” says Gonzales. “It was. We were lucky to have the opportunity to save this building, we worked with a lot of great people, and it turned out well. It was a great labor of love.” TB
Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:
www.traditionalbuilding.com/projects/courthouse-unwrapped
downtownwpb.com/things-to-do/history-museum-and-restored-...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_and_Pat_Johnson_Palm_Beach_...
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
Glossy Ibis
The Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) is a wading bird in the Ibis family Threskiornithidae.
For more info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossy_ibis
Rookery at Ocean City
OCEAN CITY – Bring your binoculars to the new Ocean City Welcome Center and see nature in action.
For more info: www.shorenewstoday.com/ocean_city/news/rookery-at-ocean-c...
Of course she's stirring up even more trouble.
Kaydence is a true Maneater and Homewrecker. She tries to get with any guy she can, especially if they're taken! She always wants what she can't have.
Will any of these guys give into her seductive ways, or turn her down?
These are my only taken guys, well Aiden is no longer taken at the moment but we'll see what happens next issue!
Anyway...
Iden is with Audrina,
Josh is with Juliette,
Eric is with Amora.
Once these girls find out, I think Kaydence is going to be ina lot more trouble than she can handle.
ARTICLE 16.3
from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(Déclaration universelle des droits de l'Homme)
(Declaracion Universal de Derechos Humanos)
The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
La famille est l'élément naturel et fondamental de la société et a droit à la protection de la société et de l'Etat.
La familia es el elemento natural y fundamental de la sociedad y tiene derecho a la protección de la sociedad y del Estado.
La famiglia è il nucleo naturale e fondamentale della società e ha diritto ad essere protetta dalla società e dallo Stato.
A família é o elemento natural e fundamental da sociedade e tem direito à proteção desta e do Estado.
Die Familie ist die natürliche Grundeinheit der Gesellschaft und hat Anspruch auf Schutz durch Gesellschaft und Staat.
Семья является естественной и основной ячейкой общества и имеет право на защиту со стороны общества и государства.
家 庭 是 天 然 的 和 基 本 的 社 会 单 元, 并 应 受 社 会 和 国 家 的 保 护。
. الأسرة هي الخلية الطبيعية والأساسية في المجتمع، ولها حق التمتع بحماية المجتمع والدولة.
David (Michelangelo)
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
David
Michelangelo's David -
ArtistMichelangelo
Yearc. 1501 – June 8, 1504
MediumMarble sculpture
SubjectBiblical David
Dimensions517 cm × 199 cm (17 ft × 6.5 ft)
LocationGalleria dell'Accademia, Florence, Italy
Preceded byPietà
Followed byMadonna of Bruges
David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture, created between 1501 and 1504 by the Italian artist Michelangelo. With a height of 5.17-metre (17 ft 0 in) the David was the first colossal marble statue after antiquity, a precedent for the 16th century and beyond. David was originally commissioned as one of a series of statues of prophets to be positioned along the roofline of the east end of Florence Cathedral, but was instead placed in the public square in front of the Palazzo della Signoria, the seat of civic government in Florence, where it was unveiled on 8 September 1504. In 1873, the statue was moved to the Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, and in 1910 replaced at the original location by a replica.
The biblical figure David was a favoured subject in the art of Florence.[1] Because of the nature of the figure it represented, the statue soon came to symbolize the defence of civil liberties embodied in the Republic of Florence, an independent city-state threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states and by the hegemony of the Medici family.
History
Commission
The history of the statue begins before Michelangelo's work on it from 1501 to 1504.[2] Prior to Michelangelo's involvement, the Overseers of the Office of Works of Florence Cathedral, consisting mostly of members of the influential woolen cloth guild, the Arte della Lana, had plans to commission a series of twelve large sculptures for the buttresses of the cathedral.[3] In 1410, Donatello made the first of the statues, a figure of Joshua in terracotta. A figure of Hercules, also in terracotta, was commissioned from the Florentine sculptor Agostino di Duccio in 1463 and was made perhaps under Donatello's direction.[4] Eager to continue their project, in 1464, the operai contracted Agostino[5] to create a sculpture of David.
A block of marble was provided from a quarry in Carrara, a town in the Apuan Alps in northern Tuscany. Agostino only got as far as beginning to shape the legs, feet, torso, roughing out some drapery, and probably gouging a hole between the legs. His association with the project ceased, for reasons unknown, with the death of Donatello in 1466, and ten years later Antonio Rossellino was commissioned to take up where Agostino had left off. Rossellino's contract was terminated soon thereafter, and the block of marble remained neglected for 26 years, all the while exposed to the elements in the yard of the cathedral workshop. This was of great concern to the opera authorities, as such a large piece of marble was not only costly, but represented a large amount of labour and difficulty in its transportation to Florence.
In 1500, an inventory of the cathedral workshops described the piece as "a certain figure of marble called David, badly blocked out and supine."[6] A year later, documents showed that the operai were determined to find an artist who could take this large piece of marble and turn it into a finished work of art. They ordered the block of stone, which they called 'the giant',[7] "raised on its feet" so that a master experienced in this kind of work might examine it and express an opinion. Though Leonardo da Vinci among others were consulted, and Andrea Sansovino was also keen to get the commission, it was Michelangelo, at 26 years of age, who convinced the operai that he deserved the commission.[8] On 16 August 1501, Michelangelo was given the official contract to undertake this challenging new task. It said:
"... the Consuls of the Arte della Lana and the Lords Overseers being met Overseers, have chosen as sculptor to the said Cathedral the worthy master, Michelangelo, the son of Lodovico Buonarrotti, a citizen of Florence, to the end that he may make, finish and bring to perfection the male figure known as the Giant, nine braccia in height, already blocked out in marble by Maestro Agostino grande, of Florence, and badly blocked; and now stored in the workshops of the Cathedral. The work shall be completed within the period and term of two years next ensuing, beginning from the first day of September..."[5]
Introduction This article is written to address "Everyone no matter your worth, how small or big you think you are?" You don’t really need to worry or succumb to uncertainty about life, no matter what you have experienced in the past Visit our blog: creativeartssolutionfoundation.blogspot.com.ng/2017/12/ev... for much more,
Flickr article is out here.. Not everyone's cup of tea ... but I am pleased my first Flickr article is out. (2 more on the way.)
This photograph was published in an online article in TREEHUGGER (Sustainability for all) on November 3rd 2021.
The article was titled:
'' Why the Dawn Chorus Is Getting Quieter and Less Diverse '' - Changes in bird populations are altering spring soundscapes, By Mary Jo DiLonard and Fact checked by Haley Mast.
©All photographs on this site are copyright: DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2020 & GETTY IMAGES ®
No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) ©
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I would like to say a huge and heartfelt 'THANK YOU' to GETTY IMAGES, and the 37.492+ Million visitors to my FLICKR site.
***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on November 4th 2020
CREATIVE RF gty.im/1283696347 MOMENT ROYALTY FREE COLLECTION**
This photograph became my 4,709th frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.
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Photograph taken at an altitude of Twenty metres at 09:15am on Monday 24th March 2020 off Ashbourne Avenue and Chessington Avenue in Bexleyheath, Kent, England.
A pair of nesting Red Robins are keeping me company in the garden, dive bombing the cats and sing at the tops of their lungs each day, which is always a pleasure to hear. Here we see the Male European robin (Erithacus rubecula), also known as the Robin, or Robin redbreast, a small insectivorous passerine bird, more specifically a Chat.
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Nikon D850. Focal length 600mm Shutter speed 1/160s. Aperture f/9.0 iso64 Image area FX (36 x 24) NEF RAW L (8256 x 5504). NEF RAW L (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L (8256 x 5504 FX). Focus mode AF-C focus. AF-C Priority Selection: Release. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. AF-S Priority selection: Focus. 3D Tracking watch area: Normal 55 Tracking points.AF-Area mode single point & 73 point switchable. Exposure mode: Shutter priority. Matrix metering. Auto ISO sensitivity control on (Max Iso 800/ Minimum shutter speed 125). White balance on: Auto1. Colour space: RGB. Active D-lighting: Normal. Vignette control: Normal. Nikon Distortion control: Enabled. Picture control: Auto (Sharpening A +1/Clarity A+1)
Sigma 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3DG OS HSM SPORTS. Lee SW150 MKI filter holder with MK2 light shield and custom made velcro fitting for the Sigma lens. Lee SW150 circular polariser glass filter. Lee SW150 Filters field pouch. Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960.Two Nikon EN-EL15a batteries (Priority to battery in Battery grip). Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.
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LATITUDE: N 51d 28m 28.17s
LONGITUDE: E 0d 8m 10.60s
ALTITUDE: 54.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 90.3MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 19.60MB
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PROCESSING POWER:
Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.018 (18/02/20) LF 1.00
HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit Version 1.4.1 (18/02/2020). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit Version 1.6.2 (18/02/2020). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 2.4.5 (18/02/2020). Nikon Transfer 2 Version 2.13.5. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.
This photo is of Canadian swimmer Barbara Richards or Lynda Adams diving at the North Sydney Olympic Pool, in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, 31 January 1938. The photo, by Ivan Ive, was for a Pix article about swimsuit regulations which Canadians weren’t adhering to. Film negative, Australian Consolidated Press Archive, State Library of New South Wales, ON 388/Box 030/Item 117, collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/n5lX5ye9/BBAqxqMv2Pdm
From an article in October 1939 Fortune magazine about Western Auto Supply Co.
"How a mail-order house copying Model T parts evolved into a $36,300,000 general store with 1,400 counters. Results: sales up 127 per cent since 1929."
More Dolly. She is rumoured to have a very carefully hidden collection of tattoos; you never see her with bare arms nowadays. It does look like she has something deep down in her cleavage though.
Recently I read an article in Bicycle Magazine listing Healdsburg as one of the U.S.’s six best places for a bicycling vacation. That’s great news. So why do I only explore this beautiful area by car? How much am I overlooking while driving at 45 miles per hour from Point A to Point B instead of discovering the undiscovered along the way? At that speed, I must be missing out on so much cool stuff to sketch. Something’s gotta change.
The truth is, I haven’t ridden my bike in years. It currently hangs where it’s been for as long as I can remember, on my garage wall collecting dust. It’s surrounded by a variety of items: partially inflated soccer balls, a dented croquet set, various brooms, a rusty space heater, and boxes full of, well, I don’t know what. Even the old toy robot that scared the crap out of me at four years old is among the clutter . . . somewhere.
My dad likes to tell the story of him giving me the toy. He set it down, flipped its switch on, and “The Ugly One” as we called it, lit up and began making mechanical grinding sounds as it marched toward me. Then the top of it whirled around (like Linda Blair in The Exorcist) while guns shot out of its chest (not like The Exorcist). I ran screaming from the room, “Turn it off, turn it off!” Fortunately, over the years I’ve come to terms with my fear of the little metal monster. It gets the garage, I get the house. It works out nicely for both of us. But I wonder if The Ugly One will let me have my bike back.
It was only later readers of Milton, says Appelbaum, who thought of "apple" as "apple" and not any seed-bearing fruit. For them, the forbidden fruit became synonymous with the malus pumila. As a widely read canonical work, Paradise Lost was influential in cementing the role of apple in the Fall story.
This month marks 350 years since John Milton sold his publisher the copyright of Paradise Lost for the sum of five pounds.
His great work dramatizes the oldest story in the Bible, whose principal characters we know only too well: God, Adam, Eve, Satan in the form of a talking snake — and an apple.
Except, of course, that Genesis never names the apple but simply refers to "the fruit." To quote from the King James Bible:
And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'"
"Fruit" is also the word Milton employs in the poem's sonorous opening lines:
Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe
But in the course of his over-10,000-line poem, Milton names the fruit twice, explicitly calling it an apple. So how did the apple become the guilty fruit that brought death into this world and all our woe?
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The short and unexpected answer is: a Latin pun.
In order to explain, we have to go all the way back to the fourth century A.D., when Pope Damasus ordered his leading scholar of scripture, Jerome, to translate the Hebrew Bible into Latin. Jerome's path-breaking, 15-year project, which resulted in the canonical Vulgate, used the Latin spoken by the common man. As it turned out, the Latin words for evil and apple are the same: malus.
In the Hebrew Bible, a generic term, peri, is used for the fruit hanging from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, explains Robert Appelbaum, who discusses the biblical provenance of the apple in his book Aguecheek's Beef, Belch's Hiccup, and Other Gastronomic Interjections.
"Peri could be absolutely any fruit," he says. "Rabbinic commentators variously characterized it as a fig, a pomegranate, a grape, an apricot, a citron, or even wheat. Some commentators even thought of the forbidden fruit as a kind of wine, intoxicating to drink."
A detail of Michelangelo's fresco in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel depicting the Fall of Man and expulsion from the Garden of Eden
Wikipedia
When Jerome was translating the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil," the word malus snaked in. A brilliant but controversial theologian, Jerome was known for his hot temper, but he obviously also had a rather cool sense of humor.
"Jerome had several options," says Appelbaum, a professor of English literature at Sweden's Uppsala University. "But he hit upon the idea of translating peri as malus, which in Latin has two very different meanings. As an adjective, malus means bad or evil. As a noun it seems to mean an apple, in our own sense of the word, coming from the very common tree now known officially as the Malus pumila. So Jerome came up with a very good pun."
The story doesn't end there. "To complicate things even more," says Appelbaum, "the word malus in Jerome's time, and for a long time after, could refer to any fleshy seed-bearing fruit. A pear was a kind of malus. So was the fig, the peach, and so forth."
Which explains why Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel fresco features a serpent coiled around a fig tree. But the apple began to dominate Fall artworks in Europe after the German artist Albrecht Dürer's famous 1504 engraving depicted the First Couple counterpoised beside an apple tree. It became a template for future artists such as Lucas Cranach the Elder, whose luminous Adam and Eve painting is hung with apples that glow like rubies.
Enlarge this image
Eve giving Adam the forbidden fruit, by Lucas Cranach the Elder.
Wikipedia
Milton, then, was only following cultural tradition. But he was a renowned Cambridge intellectual fluent in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, who served as secretary for foreign tongues to Oliver Cromwell during the Commonwealth. If anyone was aware of the malus pun, it would be him. And yet he chose to run it with it. Why?
Appelbaum says that Milton's use of the term "apple" was ambiguous. "Even in Milton's time the word had two meanings: either what was our common apple, or, again, any fleshy seed-bearing fruit. Milton probably had in mind an ambiguously named object with a variety of connotations as well as denotations, most but not all of them associating the idea of the apple with a kind of innocence, though also with a kind of intoxication, since hard apple cider was a common English drink."
It was only later readers of Milton, says Appelbaum, who thought of "apple" as "apple" and not any seed-bearing fruit. For them, the forbidden fruit became synonymous with the malus pumila. As a widely read canonical work, Paradise Lost was influential in cementing the role of apple in the Fall story.
But whether the forbidden fruit was an apple, fig, peach, pomegranate or something completely different, it is worth revisiting the temptation scene in Book 9 of Paradise Lost, both as an homage to Milton (who composed his masterpiece when he was blind, impoverished and in the doghouse for his regicidal politics) and simply to savor the sublime beauty of the language. Thomas Jefferson loved this poem. With its superfood dietary advice, celebration of the 'self-help is the best help' ideal, and presence of a snake-oil salesman, Paradise Lost is a quintessentially American story, although composed more than a century before the United States was founded.
What makes the temptation scene so absorbing and enjoyable is that, although written in archaic English, it is speckled with mundane details that make the reader stop in surprise.
Take, for instance, the serpent's impeccably timed gustatory seduction. It takes place not at any old time of the day but at lunchtime:
"Mean while the hour of Noon drew on, and wak'd/ An eager appetite."
What a canny and charmingly human detail. Milton builds on it by lingeringly conjuring the aroma of apples, knowing full well that an "ambrosial smell" can madden an empty stomach to action. The fruit's "savorie odour," rhapsodizes the snake, is more pleasing to the senses than the scent of the teats of an ewe or goat dropping with unsuckled milk at evening. Today's Food Network impresarios, with their overblown praise and frantic similes, couldn't dream up anything close to that peculiarly sensuous comparison.
It is easy to imagine the scene. Eve, curious, credulous and peckish, gazes longingly at the contraband "Ruddie and Gold" fruit while the unctuous snake-oil salesman murmurs his encouragement. Initially, she hangs back, suspicious of his "overpraising." But soon she begins to cave: How can a fruit so "Fair to the Eye, inviting to the Taste," be evil? Surely it is the opposite, its "sciental sap" must be the source of divine knowledge. The serpent must speak true.
So saying, her rash hand in evil hour
Forth reaching to the Fruit, she pluck'd, she eat:
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat
Sighing through all her Works gave signs of woe,
That all was lost.
But Eve is insensible to the cosmic disappointment her lunch has caused. Sated and intoxicated as if with wine, she bows low before "O Sovran, vertuous, precious of all Trees," and hurries forth with "a bough of fairest fruit" to her beloved Adam, that he too might eat and aspire to godhead. Their shared meal, foreshadowed as it is by expulsion and doom, is a moving and poignant tableau of marital bliss.
Meanwhile, the serpent, its mission accomplished, slinks into the gloom. Satan heads eagerly toward a gathering of fellow devils, where he boasts that the Fall of Man has been wrought by something as ridiculous as "an apple."
Except that it was a fig or a peach or a pear. An ancient Roman punned – and the apple myth was born.
The first tale in the Bible tells of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden. This was in consequence for having tasted the “forbidden fruit” of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Christian iconography and popular culture represent the fruit as an apple. But a careful reading of the passage leads one to the conclusion that, in fact, the actual fruit is never mentioned in the book. How, then, did the apple become this symbol of temptation and sin?
A standard version of Genesis 3:3-5 says:
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
According to Robert Appelbaum’s book Aguecheek’s Beef, Belch’s Hiccup, and Other Gastronomic Interjections, the confusion may be due to a sort of joke of St. Jerome, who first translated the Bible into the vulgar Latin. (This version is still known as “The Vulgate” even today.) It turns out that the Latin words for apple, and for evil, are the same: malus. According to Appelbaum, the Hebrew word, peri, which was used to refer to the fruit in the Bible, can refer to any type of fruit, a fig, a pomegranate, a grape, or even a peach or a lemon. Some Bible commentators even believe that the forbidden fruit may have been a drink that produced an intoxication in those who drank it. Hence they gained “knowledge of good and evil.”
St. Jerome translated “peri” with the word “malus.” It’s an adjective meaning “evil,” though as a noun, it means “apple,” from trees known even today as Malus pumila. However, as Appelbaum points out, malus may refer not only to the apple, but to any fruit with seeds: pears are a species of malus, as are figs, peaches, and others.In religious iconography, there was no clear consensus for several centuries on exactly what type of fruit it was from this tree of which humanity’s first parents couldn’t eat. Michelangelo painted a fig tree in the Sistine Chapel. Durer depicted an apple tree, as did Lucas Cranach, the Elder. But another Appelbaum hypothesis in explaining the apple’s preeminence over other seeded fruits comes from the English poet, John Milton. His Paradise Lost was published in 1667. For Milton, the semantic ambiguity of the malus should not have been a mystery, versed as he was in ancient languages like Latin and Hebrew. Appelbaum notes that it’s possible Milton appreciated St. Jerome’s joke as a reference to intoxication or drunkenness from apple cider, popular in his own time. Paradise Lost refers on a couple of occasions to the fruit of this problematic tree and refers to it as an apple.
Another possible explanation may come from the Golden Apple of Discord. In Greek mythology, this was the work of the goddess Eris, (a temptress, as Satan had been for the Hebrews). According to the myth, Eris was angry at having not been invited to the wedding of Peleus and Tetis (parents of the great warrior Achilles). She presented the wedding guests with a golden apple which would reveal who among them was “the most beautiful of all.” Three goddesses fought amongst themselves: Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty; Hera, the guardian of the home and childbearing and wife of the great Zeus; and Aphrodite, daughter of Zeus and goddess of wisdom. To settle the dispute, Zeus consulted a Trojan shepherd and mortal, Paris, to choose from among the three goddesses which was the most beautiful. The three goddesses tried to bribe him in turn with new gifts. Finally, Paris decided for Aphrodite, who had promised him the love of the most beautiful woman of all. This was none other than Helena. Helena’s abduction by Paris is the mythical origin of the Trojan War. And thus the apple is also at the center of the most epic dispute in Greek civilization.
The Apple and the Heart
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Romanesque iconography more frequently used the apple as the forbidden fruit. The lengthy list of images in the three studied countries represents a significant part of our corpus. Among them, one can cite in Spain, Amandi, Añes, Avilés, the Bible of Burgos, the Bible of San Isidoro, Covet, Estany, Estibaliz, Frómista, Loarre, Mahamud, Peralada (figure 6), Porqueras, Rebolledo de la Torre, San Pablo del Campo, Sangüesa, Santillana del Mar, and Uncastillo. In France, Airvault, Andlau, Arles, Aulnay, the Bible of Corbie, the Bible of Marchiennes, the Bible of Souvigny, Cahors, Chalon-sur-Saône, Chauvigny (Figure 3), Cluny, Courpiac, Esclottes, Guarbecque, Hastingues-Arthous, the Hortus Deliciarum, Lescure, Mauriac (in the Auvergne), Melay, Moirax, Montpezat, Neuilly-en-Donjon, Nîmes, Poitiers (Sainte-Radegonde Church), Provins, Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire, Saint-Gaudens, the Sauve-Majeure, Targon, Tavant, Thuret, Toirac, Varax, Verdun, and Vézelay. In Italy, Galliano, Modena (figure 4), Parma, Pisa, Sant’Angelo in Formis, and Sovana.
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Over subsequent centuries, the apple was continually present in the iconography of the original sin. [45] For illustrative purposes, note that in the Gothic...[45] It was frequently used as the forbidden fruit in literature, particularly in the twelfth century by Marie de France, [46] Marie de France, Yonec, v. 152, in Les Lais de Marie...[46] in the thirteenth century by Robert de Boron, [47] Le Roman du Graal: manuscrit de Modène, ed. Bernard...[47] and in the fifteenth century by Sebastian Brandt. [48] Sebastian Brandt, La Nef des fous [Das Narrenschiff],...[48] In paroemiology, this seems to be the meaning of a proverb from the beginning of the thirteenth century: “mieux vaut pomme donnée que mangée” (better an apple given than eaten). [49] Joseph Morawski, ed., Proverbes français antérieurs...[49] In hagiography, the apple is the forbidden fruit in, for example, the Cantigas de Santa María. [50] Alfonso X of Castile, Cantigas de Santa María, 353,...[50] An interesting case also appears in the breviary: the Hail Mary—appearing in the twelfth century from a passage in the New Testament [51] Luke, I, 28, 42. Henri Leclercq, “Marie, mère de Dieu,”...[51]—refers only to a “fruit,” but an anonymous commentator from Northern France specifies at the end of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century that it concerns the “fruit of the apple tree.” [52] Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod. Gall. 34,...[52] Anchored in Western imaginations ever since, the apple has even replaced the fig among modern scholars, in parallel to the cultural process that saw the heart where previously there had been the liver. [53] See Hasenohr, Prier au Moyen Âge: n. 38. Regarding...[53]
Figure 3. - Capital at the entranceway to the choir of the church
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The reasons behind this almost unanimous choice are unclear, however. We may allude to the more or less widespread presence of the apple throughout all of Western Europe. We may observe the old Celtic symbolism of the apple as the fruit of knowledge. We may recall its symbolic capital as a sign of power, wealth, lies, lust, discord, and transgression. [54] Michel Pastoureau, “Bonum, malum, pomum. Une histoire...[54] We may suppose that just as the garden of Hesperides recalls the Garden of Eden (both sheltering a snake that defends the sacred tree), the apple tree “with fruits of gold” in the Greek myth influenced the medieval interpretation of the biblical account. We may thus argue the ancient association between this tree and Eden, which led to naming the carob the “apple of Paradise” in Hebrew. [55] L. Ginzberg, Les Légendes des juifs, 219, n. 70.[55] We may also consider the authority of Saint Augustine, who hesitantly accepted the possibility of the apple being the fruit of sin, perhaps influenced by the existence of thirty different varieties of apples in the Roman world at the time. [56] Augustine, La Genèse au sens littéral en douze livres...[56] We may wonder especially whether in popular medieval etymology there was not certain confusion between the words malum “badly” and malum “apple” as well as between malus “malicious” and malus “apple tree;” these phonetic identities may have had semantic implications indicating the evil character of the fruit. [57] Among the transformations affecting the Roman world...[57]
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The increasing popularity of the apple in this role was perhaps also related to its round shape and red color, which drew it closer to the heart, being the organ that was linked to the blood of Christ and that Christianity and its doctrine perceived as the center of the human being. In this sense, the precedents were strong; the doubt surrounding the identity of the forbidden fruit reflected another, more ancient doubt regarding the central organ of the body in the diverse cultures that, in a more or less direct way, provided the foundations for medieval Christian culture. Whereas the Egyptians perceived the heart as the center of the human being, [58] The Book of the Dead, ed. and trans. E. A. Wallis Budge,...[58] the Hebrews attributed sacred powers to the liver, while regarding the heart as the seat of feelings and wisdom, and the source of life. [59] See, for example, Genesis, 20:5; Job, 9:4; Proverbs,...[59] The two organs fought for the role of the principle of life among the Babylonians [60] Alexandre Piankoff, Le “Cœur” dans les textes égyptiens...[60] and Greeks. [61] In mythology, the liver is the central element in the...[61]
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In the third century BC, the medical school in Alexandria established the physiological model that went on to prevail throughout the following two millennia: the brain was attributed with neurological sensitivity, movement, and functions, the heart with enthusiasm and the vital spirit. [62] Mary J. Carruthers, The Book of Memory: A Study of...[62]
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Isidore of Seville affirmed that in the heart “lies all concern and the source of knowledge, [as] with the heart we understand, and with the liver we love.” [63] Isidore of Seville, Seville’s Etymologies: The complete...[63] Sharing his opinion, more than five centuries later, Hildegard of Bingen considered the attribute of the heart to be knowledge and that of the liver to be sensitivity. [64] Hildegard of Bingen, Causae et curae, II, 1–12, ed....[64] For her, the heart was the point of contact between the body and the soul, the terrestrial and the divine; it was “almost the essence of the body [since it] governs it,” being the residence of the soul. [65] Hildegard of Bingen, Scivias, I, 4, 16, ed. A. Führkötten...[65] It is thus not by chance that she imagined the forbidden fruit to be an apple. [66] Hildegard of Bingen, Scivias, III, 2, 21, ed. Führkötten...[66] For Saint Bernard, the heart was the seat of faith. [67] Bernard of Clairvaux, In Nativitate Beatae Mariae,...[67] For his adversary, Pierre Abélard, when God wants to examine the feelings of men, he probes their hearts. [68] Pierre Abélard, Ethics, ed. and trans. D. E. Luscombe...[68] Chrétien de Troyes considered the heart to be the place where mystical union occurs with our purest self, [69] Chrétien de Troyes, Cligès, vv. 708–716, trans. Micha,...[69] since this organ is the seat of love, [70] Chrétien de Troyes, vv. 4302–4306, trans. Micha, 1...[70] memory, [71] Chrétien de Troyes, Le Conte du Graal ou le Roman de...[71] and life. [72] Chrétien de Troyes, Cligès, vv. 3668–3673, trans. Micha,...[72] Vincent of Beauvais regarded the heart as the principal “spiritual organ.” [73] Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum historiale, I, 32 (Graz:...[73] The evolution in the hierarchy of meanings did not affect the importance attributed to the heart: while troubadours and courtly love previously spoke of “the hearing of the heart,” the eye and the heart were later associated. [74] Guy Paoli, “La relation œil-cœur. Recherches sur la...[74] At the start of the thirteenth century, a poem established the relationship between the heart and the phallus, between feeling and sexuality, by telling the story of a character killed by the husbands of his mistresses, who tore off these two organs and gave them to their adulterous wives to eat. [75] Lai d’Ignauré, trans. Danielle Régnier-Bohler, in Le...[75]
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The new collective feeling in relation to the heart was present in the idioms that were forming. From the Classical Latin cor, synonymous with “memory” (also with “thought,” “intelligence,” and “heart” [76] This is still the meaning of the word for Saint Augustine...[76]) were derived “recorder” in French, ricordari in Italian, and recordar in Castilian and Portuguese. Although the heart as the center of memory appears in the root of the Castilian and Portuguese words decorar, this link is even more explicit in the phrases par cœur in French (appearing in around 1200), de cor in Portuguese (dating to the thirteenth century), and by heart in English (attested around 1374 and based on the acceptance of herte as “memory,” which existed from the start of the twelfth century [77] Rey, Dictionnaire historique, 1:442; José Pedro Machado,...[77]). However, the heart was not only regarded as the seat of memory. In English, it was associated with courage (towards 825), emotions (1050), love (about 1175), and character (1225). [78] The Oxford English Dictionary, 5:159.[78] In medieval Italian, the heart (core prior to 1250, then cuore) was reputed as being the center of feelings, emotions, and thoughts. [79] Manlio Cortelazzo and Paolo Zolli, Dizionario etimologico...[79]
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Most often, the association occurred between the organ and a feeling, thought to derive from it directly, as attested in various Western languages: curage in French (appearing in 1080, then written as courage and used as a synonym of cœur “heart” until the seventeenth century), coraggio (prior to 1257) in Italian, coraje in Castilian and coragem in Portuguese (both from the fourteenth century), herzhaftigleit in German (from the fifteenth century derived from herz “heart,” written herza in the eighth century), and courage in English (around 1500, written as corage in around 1300). English presents an interesting case, showing the psychocultural hesitation between the liver and heart as the seat of positive feelings: the compound liver-heartedness, literally “without liver or heart,” designates the idea of “cowardly.” Further evidence of the moral importance attached to this organ is found in the word cordial, which initially carried the neutral meaning of “relative to the heart” and later acquired the positive sense of “nice” and “pleasant,” not only in French, English, Castilian, and Portuguese, but also in Italian (cordial) and in German (herzlich).
24
The symbolic value of the heart in the twelfth century was also seen in Jewish culture. Whereas the Pirkei Rabbi Nathan, a text predating the tenth century, establishes several comparisons between the parts of the universe and parts of the human body without even citing the heart, in the second half of the twelfth century, Maimonides considered it the center of the human body. [80] Samuel S. Kottek, “Microcosm and Macrocosm According...[80] He was probably influenced by Aristotle, for whom the human body developed from the heart, which was a very influential idea after the Christian rediscovery of the Stagirite. Thus, some Romanesque representations of the creation of Adam depict him coming to life not by a “breath on the face” (in faciem eius spiraculum vitae) as the Bible states, [81] Genesis, 2:7.[81] but by the hand of God touching his heart. This is the case, for example, in a manuscript from the abbey of Saint-Martial de Limoges, [82] Breviarium ad usum S. Martialis Lemovicensis (Paris:...[82] which was illuminated in around the year 1100, as well as in a relief carved a few years later on the northern facade of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
25
The importance of the heart in Romanesque culture also transpires in its growing metaphorical use. On the political level, it became the “king” of the human body in the same way as the king is the “heart” of the social body. [83] Jacques Le Goff, “Head or Heart? The Political Use...[83] On the literary level, the rhetorical figure of the heart spread like a book in which an ordinary individual, saint, or even Christ could write their amorous (including erotic) and spiritual emotions. [84] On the evolution of this metaphor, see Ernst Robert...[84] On the architectural level, the cruciform design of churches situated the altar—the place where the mystery of the incarnation was reproduced—in the position occupied by the heart. [85] It is no coincidence that in Medieval French, the same...[85] On the liturgical level, the Christianization of the Holy Grail rendered it the receptacle holding the blood of Christ, symbolically transforming it into a heart. [86] Begoña Aguiriano, “Le cœur dans Chrétien,” Senefiance...[86] On the geographical level, in the same way as the heart was the center of the human body, the sepulcher of the Lord was the heart of the world, according to a sermon by Peter the Venerable. [87] Peter the Venerable, In laudem sepulcri Domini, PL,...[87] On the linguistic level, from the thirteenth century, the word designated the center of something in French and Italian, as it did later in English (beginning of the fourteenth century) and Castilian (sixteenth century). [88] This meaning was applied to the city by Aristotle in...[88] In this cultural context, when the Abbess of Bingen declared that Adam made of clay was merely an empty body before being filled with a heart, liver, lungs, stomach, and internal organs by God, [89] Hildegard of Bingen, Causae et curae, II, 20, ed. Kaiser,...[89] she seemingly established a hierarchy of organs. Thus, the growing importance of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in spirituality from the twelfth century seems to have been the conclusion of a long process in which this organ gained in medical and symbolic value. [90] Jean-Vincent Bainvel, “Cœur sacré de Jésus (dévotion...[90]
Exegetical Doubt
26
An interesting example of the rivalry between the fig and the apple in terms of the symbolic function of forbidden fruit is seen in the sculptures on the western facade of the small rural Castilian church of San Quirce, close to Burgos, which was completed in 1147. Here, eleven modillions illustrate several episodes of the myth of Adam, from the creation of protoplasm to the judgment of Cain, while in between them, ten metopes depict scenes that are sometimes difficult to relate to those of the modillions, although each stage of the cycle is identified by inscriptions. [91] These inscriptions are now almost illegible, but they...[91] The ensemble forms an iconographic discourse with two aspects: the subject is evil, as much at its origin (original sin) as in some of its manifestations (sex, death, and bodily impurity).
27
This latter topic is visible on the two metopes at each end, where the artist depicts a man defecating. This was not a simple curiosity or obscenity, as the placement of these scenes is significant: the first being compared with the sin of Adam and the second with that of Cain. In fact, an inscription close to the representation of the original sin illuminates the link between the events depicted on the metope and modillion: MALA CAGO. No doubt, the man who speaks and acts in this way is both the paradisiacal Adam who has just eaten the forbidden fruits as well as the symbol of all human beings, his “posthumous sons,” as defined in a contemporaneous sermon. [92] Julien of Vézelay, Sermons, XV, ed. and trans. Damien...[92] However, the exact interpretation of the inscription poses an important problem.
28
A few decades ago, historiography considered this a pun, as the individual excretes both “apples” and “evils.” [93] Pérez de Urbel and Whitehill, “La iglesia románica...[93] This interpretation is based on three elements: the facade’s inscription, a capital inside the church on the same subject that undoubtedly depicts an apple, and finally, the ancient roots of the tradition perceiving the forbidden food of Paradise in this fruit. However, on the modillion’s scene, the forbidden fruits rather resemble figs, an impression reinforced by a nonformalistic reasoning. Indeed, the fig traditionally had an explicitly sexual character, while the apple, though related to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, had a more sensual, rather than explicitly sexual connotation. This is shown, for example, in an Icelandic saga from the thirteenth century in which the love philter is an apple, or even in some mythologies, where the rejuvenating and beautifying virtues attributed to the fruit remain in the etymology of “pomade,” a scented, cosmetic, and curative substance with apple. [94] See Pastoureau, “Bonum, malum, pomum;” Rey, Dictionnaire...[94]
29
The fig’s association with sexuality is seemingly expressed during the third quarter of the twelfth century in the iconographic design of the doorway of Barret Church in Poitou. Here, the three capitals on each side establish a spatial and symbolic relationship, which was very common in the Romanesque imagination. Looking at them, starting with the capital closest to the entry on the left-hand side, the first represents the original sin with the fig as the fruit, the second depicts a character in a very obscene pose, and the third, which is double, shows an eagle on one side and a monster devouring a sheep on the other. Symmetrically, on the right-hand side, the first capital depicts lions leaning against each other, the second, two doves embracing, and the final one, a centaur and a dove. The message seems rather evident: sin (that is to say, the fig and sex) leads to unnatural and erotic acts, thus to the death of the soul, which is devoured by the demon (eagle and monster); on the other hand, those who join Christ (the lion) will be innocent (doves), embracing peace and purity, thus calming the animal that exists in every human being (centaurs).
30
Indeed, the sexual meaning of the fig was accepted within traditional culture and did not disappear with its Christianization. Throughout the centuries, the fig tree was associated with Dionysus, and, at least in its Roman version, Bacchus. The image of the god was always carved in the wood of the fig tree, with a basket of figs being the most sacred object at the festivals that celebrated him, the Bacchanalia. As the protector of orchards, particularly of the fig tree, Dionysus was confused with his son, Priapus, born of Aphrodite. In the processions paying homage to this god of fertility, who was endowed with a disproportionately large penis, there was a large phallus carved in the wood of the fig tree, the leaves of which were also seen as an ithyphallic symbol. [95] Brosse, Mythologie des arbres, 290–291. The fig’s sexual...[95] This notion of sexual exuberance is also found in a version of an episode of the Dionysus myth by the Christian apologist Clement of Alexandria (around 150–250). [96] Clement of Alexandria, Protreptique, II, 34, 3–4, ed....[96] In a similar manner, although he calls the liver iecur and not ficatum, Isidore of Seville implicitly makes this link by affirming that in this organ “lies pleasure and concupiscence. [97] Isidore of Seville, Seville’s Etymologies, XI, I, 125,...[97]
31
The popular gesture of “making the fig” should also be mentioned here, associated with the fruit through its name and shape. This association is observed in Castilian, in which two words (higo/higa) appeared at the same time, in around 1140. [98] Joan Corominas, Diccionario critico etimológico de...[98] This gesture assumed “an obvious sexual connotation” [99] Jean-Claude Schmitt, La Raison des gestes dans l’Occident...[99] in the popular tradition of several societies, and even in the medieval West, where it can either denote the female sex organ (predominant meaning), its state of excitation (in this case, the tip of the thumb between the index and middle fingers imitates a swollen clitoris), copulation (the thumb is the penis between the vaginal lips), or a phallus (rarer meaning). [100] Desmond Morris et al., Os gestos: suas origens e significado...[100] It is probably with this latter meaning that formerly, in Bavaria, a young man confirmed his intention to marry by sending a silver or gold fig to his lover, who could refuse the demand by returning the gift or accept it by returning a silver heart. [101] José Leite de Vasconcelos, A figa (Porto: Araújo e...[101] The far la fica was an aggressive and derogatory gesture frequently used by Italians in the Middle Ages, not only on a daily basis, but also in emotionally charged situations. In 1162, angry with the Milanese who had forced his wife to mount a mule backwards, thus facing the tail of the animal—a very ancient position signifying contempt—Frederick I Barbarossa seized the city and, on penalty of death, forced the prisoners to remove a fig from the anus of a mule with their teeth. [102] Quoted by Leite de Vasconcelos, A figa, 80; by Jerome...[102] The inhabitants of Pistoia had carved into their castle of Carmignano two large arms with hands making the sign of the fig towards the enemy city of Florence—which, humiliated, went on to conquer the place in 1228. [103] Giovanni Villani, Cronica, VI, 5, ed. Ignazio Moutier...[103] In Dante, a robber condemned to Hell makes the sign of the fig against God Himself. [104] Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia, Inferno, XXV, 1–3,...[104] The gesture and expression ficha facere are found, with the same derisory meaning, in all Romanesque cultures, and even outside of them. [105] Leite de Vasconcelos, A figa, 42–56, 72, 76–81, and...[105] Although this gesture has a talismanic function, that of casting off the evil eye and other dangers, this seems to be precisely due to its sexual connotation, that of warding off sterility in life. [106] Leite de Vasconcelos, A figa, 27–41, 57–59, and 91...[106]
32
In this sense, the scene of the paramount sin depicted on the third modillion at San Quirce, in addition to adopting the ancient interpretation of the original sin as a sexual sin, [107] See Martin Elze, Tatian und seine Theologie (Göttingen:...[107] prepared the observer to encounter, three metopes along and just after the expulsion from Paradise, a representation of the carnal relationship of protoplasm. [108] Pérez de Urbel and Whitehill (“La iglesia románica...[108] Thus, according to our hypothesis, the word malum would not have been used here with its specific meaning of “apple,” but rather in the broader sense of “fruit with pulp” (as opposed to nux, “fruit with hard skin”), [109] Although the former meaning was eventually enforced...[109] so that the pun of the inscription would signify “to expel evils and fruits.” Whether conscious or not of the inscription’s ambiguity, the sculptor at San Quirce thus revealed the interesting coexistence of two exegetical traditions, that of the apple, present in the representation of the original sin inside the church, and that of the fig, visible on its facade. An even more meaningful coexistence if it is accepted that a single artist carved both the capital and the modillion. [110] A situation that de Lojendio (Castilla 1) regards as...[110]
33
This exegetical doubt is not an isolated case appearing in a monastic community in the center of Castile. The formation of the French word “pomme” provides an interesting indication in this context. Although, from the beginning of the fifth century, the Latin word pomum (“fruit” in a generic sense) gained the specific meaning of “fruit of the apple tree” in Northern Italy and the majority of the Ibero-Romance area—a meaning preserved in the Provençal and Catalan poma—Italian, Castilian, Portuguese, and Galician eventually favored the traditional form malum, from which they derived mela, manzana, maçã and mazá, respectively. [111] Both the Spanish word manzana (attested in 1112 as...[111] Pomum preserved its broad sense in these four languages in the form pomo (poma in the case of Galician). By the same evolution, the collective forms pomario in Italian and pomar in Castilian, Portuguese, Provençal, and Galician derived from the Classical Latin pomarium.
34
In contrast, the medieval Latin of Gaul had used, from the end of the eighth century, the word pomarius to denote the apple tree, from which derived the vernacular name of this specific fruit (pume) from the generic term (pomum) in 1080. [112] The word appeared in the Chanson de Roland as pume;...[112] At the same date appeared the French word verger (orchard), denoting land planted with various fruit trees, taken from the Latin viridiarum (from viridis, “green”). Faced with these facts, it is not absurd to assume that the French linguistic evolution unconsciously avoided the supposedly negative character of this fruit, as expressed through the word malum. Furthermore, the apple is a positive symbol in Celtic culture, [113] Françoise Le Roux and Christian-Joseph Guyonvarc’h,...[113] which was heavily present in the territory of the future France, particularly in the context of the “folkloric reaction” of the twelfth century. [114] Jacques Le Goff, “Culture cléricale et traditions folkloriques...[114]
35
In accordance with its archetypical character as the fruit par excellence, the word was used in the formation of many syntagms, and even, around 1256, in the curious expression “pomme de paradis” (apple of paradise) denoting the banana. [115] Rey, Dictionnaire historique. It is interesting to...[115] Although in terms of vocabulary, we note a French resistance to the association of the apple with the fruit of sin, in terms of iconography, as seen above, such identification was established without problem. This was also the case in popular literary works, such as the first French theatrical text from the middle of the twelfth century or a sermon from the same time. [116] Respectively Le Mystère Adam: Ordo representationis...[116] Similarly, in this and the subsequent century, there were various love stories generally beginning with a betrayal (hearts metaphorically devoured) and ending with the death of the two protagonists (one of them literally devouring the other’s heart without realizing it [117] Accounts collected in Régnier-Bohler, ed., Le Cœur...[117]). To a certain extent, these stories consciously or unconsciously rewrote the drama of the original demise: betraying the confidence of the Creator (“from the tree . . . you will not eat”) by eating the apple/heart (“the knowledge of good and evil”), the human being was the cause of his own perdition (“the day you eat of it, you will surely die”), as Adam and Eve had hearts full of arrogance (“you will be like gods” [118] Genesis, 2:17; 3:5. On the close relationship between...[118]).
The Tree and Androgyny
36
This search for the identity of the Romanesque forbidden fruit must still consider the tree in relation to the primordial couple. The position of these three elements provides some important information. One of the symbolic and physical solutions used was to portray the primi parentes on the same side of the tree, with Eve always being closer to it (figure 4). The most common composition placed the tree between Adam and Eve, as already found on the sarcophagus of San Justo de la Vega in Leon, dated to the end of third century or the beginning of the fourth century and currently held in the archaeological museum of Madrid. It would be simplistic to think that this position on both sides of the tree simply responded to the desire for symmetry in Romanesque art, [119] As considered Guerra, Simbología románica, 107.[119] because the form is almost always a fragment of the contents that emerged. [120] Gerardus Van Der Leeuw, La Religion dans son essence...[120] In the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, this scheme probably referred to two very pressing questions related to the contemporary phenomenon of the sacralization of marriage.
Figure 4. - Relief on the western façade of Modena Cathedral (Emilia-Romagna), circa 1100.
37
On the one hand, by placing Adam and Eve at an equal distance from the tree, the iconography referred to a certain social egalitarianism and moral leveling between man and woman, even if the snake is almost always turned towards the woman. The side occupied by each character varied. We have already considered the position of Eve on the right-hand side of the tree as an “iconographic tradition,” a scheme with only three exceptions, in Saint-Antonin, Bruniquel, and Lescure. [121] Jean-Claude Fau, “Découverte à Saint-Antonin (Tarn-et-Garonne)...[121] In fact, the woman appears on the left in several other cases: for example on the sculptures in Anzy-le-Duc, Airvault, Butrera, Cergy, Cervatos, Covet, Embrun, Gémil, Girona, Lavaudieu, Lescar, Loarre, Luc-de-Béarn, Mahamud, Manresa, Moirax, Montcaret, Peralada (figure 6), Saint-Étienne-de-Grès, Saint-Gaudens, Sangüesa, San Juan de la Peña, Toirac, Verona, and Vézelay. Similarly, on the frescos in Aimé, Fossa, and San Justo in Segovia, on the illuminations of the Bible of Burgos, the Exultet 3 of Troia, and the Hortus Deliciarum, on a metal medallion from the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, and on the mosaics in Monreale and Trani.
38
In addition, the central position of the tree, separating Adam and Eve, insinuated a rupture of the initial unity, at least on the psychological level. The tree, that is to say knowledge, revealed the existence of contradictory traits in human beings, made in the image and resemblance of God, the androgyne par excellence. “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female created he them:” [122] Genesis, 1:27.[122] this is why the human being was initially double, and thus, inherently complete and microcosmic. [123] There were several types of microcosmic man in the...[123] Removing Eve from the rib of Adam was a surgery of separation, because they were formed from the same bones, they were “one flesh.” [124] Genesis, 2:23–24.[124] In this manner, the sacred text was interpreted from first half of the first century, initially by the Jew, Philo of Alexandria, and subsequently by Ambroise, Augustine, Gregory the Great, Isidore, the pseudo-Remigius of Auxerre, Guibert of Nogent, Pierre Lombard, Bernard, and others, who all regarded Eve as the image of the woman from within man. [125] Michel Planque, “Ève,” in Dictionnaire de spiritualité...[125]
39
Augustine, in particular, implicitly recognized the androgyny of the first man when he said that the devil “cannot tempt us only by the means of this animal part, which appears in a single man as an image or a model of woman.” [126] Augustine, Del Genesis contra los maniqueos [De Genesi...[126] Following a reasoning based on that of Saint Paul, he saw Adam-Eve as the complementarity of spirit and flesh, a comparison that was adopted by many thinkers in the Romanesque period. Since in the Bible, “Adam” was originally the generic name denoting a human being (Genesis, 1:19) and only later became the name of a person (Genesis, 3:17), Augustine interpreted the word “man” (Genesis, 1:26) as “human nature.” [127] Augustine, De Trinitate, I, 7, PL, vol. 42, col. 8...[127] Saint Anselme, who was very influential in the twelfth century, agreed that “Adam” should initially include Adam and Eve. [128] Anselm of Canterbury, La Conception virginale et le...[128] While trying to explain how Adam’s prohibition of the fruit also implied Eve, Petrus Comestor stated that it was transmitted to the woman through man; [129] Petrus Comestor, Historia scholastica, 15, PL, vol....[129] thus implicitly suggesting the unity of the two individuals, and the androgyny of the being to whom it was forbidden to eat the fruit.
40
While the medieval Church did not formally accept the divine and the androgyny of Adam, it was still familiar with it. It is thus found in a text from the New Testament: “There is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Jesus Christ.” [130] Galatians, 3:28.[130] This appeared in an apocryphal text: “When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor female . . . then will you enter the kingdom [of God].” [131] Il Vangelo di Tommaso, 22, trans. Mario Erbetta (Casale...[131] This was a noncontemptible part of the thought of Clement of Alexandria [132] In a piece of literature that is today lost, Hypotyposes,...[132] (around 150–215), Origen [133] According to him, based on Luke, 20:36, there will...[133] (185–254), Gregory of Nyssa [134] Gregory of Nyssa, La Création de l’homme [De opificio...[134] (around 330–390) and, through them, of Johannes Scotus Eriugena [135] Johannes Scotus Eriugena, Periphyseon, IV, PL, vol....[135] (around 810–870). It undoubtedly belonged to the cultural and psychological milieu of the first Christian centuries. [136] Wayne A. Meeks, “The Image of the Androgyne: Some Uses...[136]
41
While the androgyne of Eden had disappeared, it was because of sin. For some thinkers, the human being henceforth became aware of its duplicity, since that time it was broken and characterized by the genitals, which was visible proof of the original sin: sexus comes from sectio (“cut,” “separation”), a term derived from secare “to cross,” which only assumed a specifically sexual meaning in the Middle Ages. [137] Du Cange, Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis,...[137] It is thus not by chance that Adam said “me” for the first time after the sin. [138] “Mulier, quam dedisti mihi sociam, dedit mihi de ligno,...[138] Although, undeniably, the original sin and sex were closely linked, the way in which events had transpired was the subject of debate. [139] Emmanuele Testa, Il peccato di Adamo nella Patristica...[139] One stream of thought interpreted the sin as a sexual offence: for example, the Jew Philon and some Church fathers, including Clement of Alexandria and Saint Ambrose. [140] Philo of Alexandria, De opificio mundi, 151–152, trans....[140] In the Romance period, the majority of theologists from the school of William of Champeaux (1070–1121) also considered that this sin involved concupiscence, although Guillaume himself saw it as an act of disobedience in which sensualitas managed to dominate ratio. [141] Odon Lottin, “Les théories du péché originel au XIIe...[141]
42
Another group reversed the question, seeing sex rather as a consequence of the sin. The Physiologus, an influential allegorical, zoological treatise translated into Latin in the fifth century, stated that the elephant and its partner, which “personified” Adam and Eve, were unaware of intercourse until the female had eaten the fruit of the Mandragora officinarum and given it to the male: “because of that, they had to leave Paradise.” [142] El Fisiólogo: bestiário medieval, 20, ed. Francis J....[142] The main proponent of this train of thought was Saint Augustine, according to whom the human being before the sin practiced sex without concupiscence. [143] Augustine, La Genèse au sens littéral [De Genesi ad...[143] The error of the first couple would then have been one of pride, which led to the error of disobedience and then to carnal error. [144] In the first part of his interpretation, Augustine...[144] Another proponent of this idea was Johannes Scotus Eriugena in the eighth century, who considered that before the sin, the human being was only one, and that the resulting division of the sexes would cease in the eternal life. [145] Johannes Scotus Eriugena, Periphyseon, V, 20, PL, vol....[145] His thought continued to exert a certain influence; in the fourteenth century, it led Meister Eckhart to regard “any division” to be “bad as such,” thus perceiving the number two as the sign of the fall. [146] Meister Eckhart, Commentaire de la Genèse, 88 and 90,...[146] The Romanesque representations of the initial sin hesitated in choosing between these theological positions. Showing a preference for the second, several images accorded sexual attributes to Adam and Eve just after the ingestion of the fruit: for Adam, generally a beard [147] For Hildegard of Bingen, Causae et curae, II, 5–7,...[147] (figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), seldom a penis (figure 5), and for Eve, usually breasts (figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6). A minority of images seem to attribute the initial sin to a sexual act, an iconographic and theological concept that was perhaps expressed for the first time on the bronze door of Hildesheim Cathedral in Germany between 1011 and 1015. [148] William Tronzo, “The Hildesheim Doors: An Iconographic...[148] Here, Adam appears to the left of the tree and behind him is another tree on which a small dragon is standing. Eve is to the right, close to another tree with the snake. The fruit is the apple, one in right hand of Adam and the other in the right hand of Eve, being stretched out towards Adam. There is another apple in the left hand of Eve, whose folded arm merges with her vagina. A similar illustration was used in Rebolledo de la Torre in 1186. In the Alardus Bible, the snake that gives the fruit to Eve is at the height of her vagina, recalling a male sexual organ about to penetrate her. The southernmost façade of the Church of Santa María in Sangüesa in Navarre, which dates from the second half of the twelfth century, seems to portray the same design. Here, the scene of sin is situated immediately below the personification of Lust, showing a woman whose naked breasts are attacked by toads and snakes. [149] Despite the great diversity of iconographical material...[149] This association between lust and the original sin was not uncommon; as Sangüesa was on St. James’s Way, the most travelled road by Occitans and Italians, we may hypothesize that its iconographic message expressed the opinion of many pilgrims on the subject. In this sense, this image from Navarre ratified at least two other images known to these pilgrims.
43
The first image from Provence, dated to the second quarter of the twelfth century, is located a few kilometers from Tarascon in Saint-Etienne-du-Grès, on the tympanum of Saint-Gabriel’s chapel, where Daniel appears next to the original sin (prefiguration of Christ, the new Adam) with lions (a common symbol of lust): an opposition of scenes suggesting the sexual signification of the sin. As already mentioned, it is true that the contrast between the two scenes did not necessarily mean that the artist interpreted the sin “as a vulgar sin of lust, but its consequence was to introduce turmoil and even shame into a domain that had emerged wholly pure from the hands of the Creator.” [150] Gérard de Champeaux and Sébastien Sterckx, Introduction...[150] However, the authors of this comment—a longstanding phenomenon in medieval art studies—seem inclined towards adapting the intentions of the Romanesque artist to the theologically correct reading, rather than considering other interpretative possibilities beyond the domain of ecclesiastical culture. It is significant, for example, that on the same area of the tympanum, the two scenes are chronologically inversed, first portraying Daniel and then the sin.
44
The second image from Italy figures on the mosaic of Otranto (1163–1165). The branches of the forbidden tree pass between the legs of the characters, insinuating the sexual nature of the sin. This seems all the more evident given that Adam and Eve are each situated in a circle, rendering the characters isolated, separated, and autonomous entities in their respective domains, domains most certainly resulting from the primordial androgyne being cut in two. This assumption is reinforced by the fact that the forbidden fruit is represented as the fig (with its strong sexual connotation, as already seen) and illustrated in a suggestive way by the mosaic artist, the priest Pantaleon: the thinner part of the fig held by Eve is facing downwards and placed between her breasts, as though forming a third breast; the fig in Adam’s hand is in the inverse position, reminding us of the male genitals. [151] The same sexual presentation appeared towards the end...[151]
Figure 5. - Illumination from the in Troia (Puglia), Archivio Capitulario, middle of the eleventh century.
Figure 6. - Capital in the western gallery of the monastery cloister
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Taking the geographical distribution of the Romanesque images into account, we see that the function attributed to the fig as the forbidden fruit was mainly expressed in the cultural milieu related to the Greco-Judaic world, while the apple appeared in association with the Romano-Christian world. This is perhaps due the specific links established in these cultural areas between each fruit and a bodily organ. In the images where the fig is used, Eve is often portrayed with the fruit on the right-hand side of the tree, like the liver in the human body. [152] In this regard, I evidently mean a statistical trend,...[152] In the images with the apple, the tendency is for Eve and the fruit to appear on the left-hand side, just like the heart in the body (figures 3 and 6). In both instances, the forbidden fruit was the symbol of the rupture of the unity of Eden and the birth of the disjointed humanity that characterizes history.
Notes
[1]
On the methodological issues affecting the construction and analysis of an iconographic corpus, some good comments have been made by Jérôme Baschet in “Inventivité et sérialité des images médiévales. Pour une approche iconographique élargie,” Annales HSS 51 (1996): 93–133.
[2]
Genesis, 2:16–17; 3:1–12.
[3]
Jeremiah, 1:14. Jerome, Expositio quattuor Evangeliorum, Patrologia Latina (PL), vol. 30, col. 549d–550a.
[4]
Midrash Rabbah, Genesis, XV, 7, trans. Bernard Maruani and Albert Cohen-Arazi (Paris: Verdier, 1987), 1:183 [Midrash Rabbah, Genesis trans. Harry Freedman and Maurice Simon, 2 vols. (London: Soncino Press, 1939)]; Genesis Rabbah I (Genesis 1–11), trans. Luis Vegas Montaner (Estella: Verbo Divino, 1994), 188–189 [Genesis Rabbah I, trans. Samuel Rapaport (London: Routledge, 1907)].
[5]
Following the interpretation of Marcel Durliat, Pyrénées romanes (La-Pierre-Qui-Vire: Zodiaque, 1978), 42.
[6]
Vita Adae, 36–42: “The ‘Vita Adae’,” ed. J. H. Mozley, The Journal of Theological Studies (1929): 121–149 (English manuscripts); “La Vie latine d’Adam et Ève,” ed. Jean-Pierre Pettorelli, Archivum latinitatis Medii Aevi (1998): 5–104 (German manuscripts); 2 Henoc 22:8: Slavonic Apocalypse of Enoch, trans. Francis I. Andersen, in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. James H. Charlesworth, 2 vols. (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1983–1985), 1:92–221; L’Évangile de Nicodème, 19, ed. André Vaillant (Geneva, Paris: Droz, 1968), 59–61.
[7]
In this instance, the capital over the door of Miègeville, dated to around 1100–1118, does not depict the scene of the sin, but rather that of the expulsion from Paradise, where the fruit behind Adam and Eve (the couple being situated between God on one side and an angel on the other) is the grapevine.
[8]
Midrash Rabbah, Genesis, XV, 7 and XIX, 5, trans. Maruani and Cohen-Arazi, [trans. Freedman and Simon], 184 and 217; Genesis Rabbah I, trans. Vegas Montaner, 190–225. Ethiopic Apocalypse of Enoch, XXXII, 3–6, trans. Ephraim Isaac, in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 1:28. Greek Apocalypse of Baruch, 4–8, trans. Harry E. Gaylord, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 1:667; Apocalypse of Abraham, XXXIII, 7, trans. Ryszard Rubinkiewicz and Horace G. Lunt, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 1:700. In the first century AD, Eliezer ben Hurcanus’s Chapters only specifies that “Noah found a grapevine coming from the Garden of Eden:” Los Capítulos de Rabbí Eliezer, XXIII, 4, trans. Miguel Pérez Fernandez, (Valencia: Institución San Jerónimo, 1984), 174. Louis Ginzberg nevertheless believes that this text probably alludes to a fragment from the tree of knowledge: Les Légendes des juifs [1909], trans. Gabrielle Sed-Rajna (Paris: Éd. du Cerf, 1997), 1:302, n. 59. According to the same author (Les Légendes des juifs, 219, n. 70), “the oldest and widespread opinion identifies the forbidden fruit with the grape, which traces back to an ancient mythological idea considering wine to be the beverage of the gods.”
[9]
David Romano, “Jueus a la Catalunya carolingia i dels primers comtes (876–1100),” in Exposiciò dins la formació de l’Europa medieval (Girona: Ajuntament de Girona, 1985), 113–119. Hilário Franco Júnior, “Le pouvoir de la parole: Adam et les animaux dans la tapisserie de Gérone,” Médiévales 25 (1993): 113–128.
[10]
Arturo Graf, Il Mito del Paradiso terrestre (1892; reprint, Rome: Edizioni del Graal, 1982), 65; Gioacchino Volpe, Movimenti religiosi e sette ereticali nella società medievale italiana: secoli XI–XIV fourth ed. (Florence: Sansoni, 1972), 17–40; Cinzio Violante, La Società milanese nell’età precomunale (Bari: Laterza, 1974), 220–231. Priests in Spain in the seventh century offered a bunch of grapes to believers during the Eucharist, which could also be a reaction against the idea of the grapevine as the forbidden fruit (third Council of Braga [675], prologue and canon 1: Concílios visigóticos e hispano-romanos, ed. and trans. José Vives (Barcelona and Madrid: CSIC, Instituto Enrique Florez, 1963), 371–373).
[11]
Michel Tardieu, Trois Mythes gnostiques: Adam, Éros et les animaux d’Égypte dans un écrit de Nag Hammadi (II, 5) (Paris: Études augustiniennes, 1974), particularly 88–89, 142–144, and 166–169.
[12]
Paul Deschamps, “Notes sur la sculpture romane en Bourgogne,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts (1922): 61–80.
[13]
Deschamps, “Notes sur la sculpture.”
[14]
Joseph de Ghellinck, “L’eucharistie au XIIe siècle en Occident,” in Dictionnaire de théologie catholique (Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1913), vol. 5, col. 1233–1302. Iconography was also influenced by the phenomenon in which the Crucified was depicted as a bunch of grapes, as seen on the thirteenth-century metal relief on the door of the Church of Sion in Switzerland. This was reproduced by Erich Neumann, The Great Mother: An Analysis of the Archetype, trans. Ralph Mannheim (1955; reprint, Princeton (N. J.): Princeton University Press, 1972), pl. 114.
[15]
Roger Dion, Histoire de la vigne et du vin en France des origines au XIXe siècle (Paris: author publication, 1959), 245–247.
[16]
Auguste Gaudel, “Péché originel,” in Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, vol. XII-1, col. 441 [quotation back-translated from the French].
[17]
Jacques Brosse, Mythologie des arbres (Paris: Plon, 1989), 299–300. The purity attributed to the olive rendered the olive tree the tree of life par excellence, as seen above, n.5.
[18]
Robert Saint-Jean and Jean Nougaret, Vivarais-Gévaudan romans (La Pierre-Qui-Vire: Zodiaque, 1991), 157–158. La Nuit des temps, 75.
[19]
Genesis, 3:7.
[20]
John, 1:48. This relationship between the fig and knowledge can be traced back to classical paganism: Plato, for example, called this fruit “the friend of philosophers,” according to Éloïse Mozzani, Le Livre des superstitions: mythes, croyances et légendes (Paris: Robert Laffont, 1995), 746.
[21]
Matthew, 21:19. Paul Sébillot, Le Folklore de France, vol. 6, La Flore (1906; reprint, Paris: Imago, 1985), 21; Mozzani, Le Livre des superstitions, 746.
[22]
Stuttgart Psalter, around 810 (Stuttgart: Württembergische Landes-bibliothek, Cod. Bibl. 172o 23, fol. 8).
[23]
Midrash Rabbah, Genesis XV, 7, trans. Maruani and Cohen-Arazi, 185; Génesis Rabbah I, trans. Vegas Montaner, 190–191.
[24]
Life of Adam and Eve (Apocalypse), xx, 4–5, trans. M. D. Johnson, in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 2:281; Apocalisse di Mosè, trans. Liliana Rosso Ubigli, in Apocrifi dell’Antico Testa-mento, ed. Paolo Sacchi (Turin: UTET, 1989), 2:429; Vida de Adán y Eva (Apocalipsis de Moises), trans. Natalio Fernández Marcos, in Apocrifos del Antiguo Testamento, ed. Alejandro Diez Macho (Madrid: Cristiandad, 1982), 2:330.
[25]
Testament of Adam 3c, trans. Stephen E. Robinson, in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 1:994; Testamento de Adán III, 4 (R II), trans. F. J. Martínez Fernández, in Apocrifos del Antiguo Testamento, 5:433.
[26]
Il Combattimento di Adamo, 40, ed. and trans. A. Battista and B. Bagatti (Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1982), 110.
[27]
Theodoret of Cyrus, Quaestiones in Genesim, II, 28, Patrologia Graeca (PG), vol. LXXX, col. 125 c.
[28]
Tertullian, Adversus Marcionem, I, 2, 2, ed. Ernst Kroymann (Turnhout: Brepols, 1954), 443. Corpus christianorum. Series latina, 1; Hugh of Saint Victor, Adnotationes elucidatoriae in Pentateuchon, Patrologia Latina (PL), vol. CLXXV, col. 42 a-b; Pierre Comestor, Historia scholastica, 23, PL, vol. CXCVIII, col. 1073 b-c. Even at the end of the Middles Ages, several authors still thought in this manner: Meister Eckhart, Commentaire de la Genèse, 97 and 205, ed. and trans. Fernand Brunner et al. (Paris: Éd. du Cerf, 1984), 360 and 518. L’Œuvre latine de Maître Eckhart, 1.
[29]
Das Tristan-Epos Gottfrieds von Strassburg, v. 17944, ed. Wolfgang Spiewok (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1989), 251. Deutsche Texte des Mittelalters, 75.
[30]
Beryl Smalley, “Andrew of Saint-Victor, Abbot of Wigmore: A Twelfth-Century Hebraist,” Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 10 (1938): 358–373; Beryl Smalley, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983), 149–172 and 179–180; Esra Shereshevsky, “Hebrew Traditions in Peter Comestor’s Historia Scholastica,” The Jewish Quarterly Review 59 (1968–1969): 268–289.
[31]
Brosse, Mythologie des arbres, 285–286.
[32]
Jean Beleth, Summa de ecclesiasticis officiis, 125, ed. Herbert Douteil (Turnhout: Brepols, 1976), 239–241; Gervase of Tilbury, Otia Imperialia: Recreation for an Emperor, trans. S. E. Banks and J. W. Binns (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002). In the thirteenth century, the theme appeared in several well-known texts, such as La Queste del Saint Graal, ed. Albert Pauphilet (Paris: Honoré Champion, 1980), 210ff. and Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend: Legenda aurea, vulgo Historia Lombardica dicta, LXVIII, ed. Theodor Graesse (1846; reprint, Osnabrück: Otto Zeller, 1969), 303–304.
[33]
Exodus, 29:13, 22; Leviticus, 3:4, 10, 15; 4:9; 7:4; 8:16, 25; 9:10, 19.
[34]
Tobit, VI, 7.
[35]
Hesiod, Théogonie, v. 524, ed. and trans. Paul Mazon, thirteenth reprint (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1996), 51. Coll. des Universités de France [Theogony, trans Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Cambridge, MA: Loeb Classics, 1914)].
[36]
Anacreon, “Fragment 33,” vv. 28, 32, in Carmina Anacreontea, ed. Martin L. West (Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1984), 25.
[37]
Horace, Odes, IV, 1, 12, ed. and trans. François Villeneuve (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1927), 152 [The Complete Odes and Satires of Horace, trans. Sidney Alexander (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999)].
[38]
Plato, Timée, 71 a, d, ed. and trans. Albert Rivaud (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1985), 198 [Timaeus and Critias, ed. Thomas K. Johansen, trans. Desmond Lee (London: Penguin, 1977)].
[39]
In the Romanesque period, there was at least one allusion to the Latin Cupid (called only Amores) sending an arrow to the heart: Chrétien de Troyes, Cligès, v. 455, trans. Alexandre Micha (Paris: Honoré Champion, 1982) [Cliges, trans. W. W. Comfort (London: Everyman’s Library, 1914)]. A medieval collection of classical mythology, written between 875 and 1075, says that the gods sent an eagle to punish Prometheus by attacking his heart (not the liver, as Hesiod declared): Premier Mythographe du Vatican, I, 1, 3, ed. Nevio Zorzetti, trans. Jacques Berlioz (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1995), 2. The transposition of the symbolic role of the liver to the heart became so ingrained that modern scholars have more than once taken one for the other, as, for example, the translator of Horace, Odes, ed. and trans. Villeneuve, n.36 or that of Anacreon, Odes, trans. Frédéric Matthews (Paris: Presses Universitaires, 1927), 91.
[40]
Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda aurea, XXV, ed. Graesse, 120. Eve
I had the honor of writing an article for my favorite Lego blog on my recent experiences at various cons and why you should go to one. Give it a read and join the discussion if you're so inclined.
And if you haven't read the Manifesto before, you really should. It's some of the best-written commentary (present company excluded) on the Lego community you're likely to find anywhere.
Article link: keithlug.com/2017/09/15/convoluted/
I swear I will actually post a MOC one of these months.
I read an article in the Saturday Telegraph that stated that around 4% of cow elephants are born tuskless. In areas where poaching is a problem this percentage rises as the tuskless elephants are ignored by poachers allowing their genes to dominate.
Some have used this to verify Darwin's theory of evolution but I think that this is more likely an event driven by the intervention of man.
The Telegraph article is here:
www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2019/01/11/elephants-evolving...
Mopani camp
Kruger National Park
Limpopo
South Africa
According to a Wikipedia article, the Chinese dragon is a legendary creature in Chinese mythology, folklore, and culture at large. They traditionally symbolise potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, typhoons, and floods. The dragon is also a symbol of power, strength, and good luck for people who are worthy of it in East Asian culture.
In contrast, in European cultures the dragon is a fire-breathing creature with aggressive connotations. It was reported that the Chinese government decided against using the dragon as its official 2008 Summer Olympics mascot because of the aggressive connotations that dragons have outside of China, and chose more "friendly" symbols instead.
Today it's Chinese New Year so this dragon was out and about at Trentham Gardens. No flames were produced.
Today the Hereios of the We’re Here! Group are shooting Villains.
PS I now think this is probably a lion rather than a dragon. Oops.
Interior of our Sherman home in 1980. I remember watching a lot of A-Team downstairs by that fireplace.
Photos by Dean Caple
My article this week is all about Beverage Photography. So here are 3 LIGHTING SETUPS (AND 2 TIPS) FOR TASTY BEVERAGE LIGHTING.
Check out the whole article here:
www.diyphotography.net/3-lighting-setups-2-tips-tasty-bev...
Strobist info:
Beer
Studiostrobe thru softbox and between scrim subject left @ 1/16
Studiostrobe thru softbox subject back and right for kick @ 1/8
Studiostrobe with yellow gel pointed at background @ 1/4
silver reflector subject right
Pepsi
Studiostrobe thru softbox subject left and right @ 1/8
Bare studiostrobe back of subject pointing at white seamless paper @ 1/2
Scrim camera right
Coke
Studiostrobe thru softbox subject back left and right @ 1/4
YN-470 speedlight with snoot top of subject @ 1/4