Der Fliegenfänger

I'm posting this image of an interesting sculpture if nothing more than because I like typing and saying its name, and interestingly enough seems to translate as 'The Flypaper'.

Karl Seffner — Der Fliegenfänger — circa 1898

Ol' Man Winter

Ol' Man Winter done got us in his grip 'round here tonight, but I'm laughin' at him. We're warm 'n' cozy and we jump ahead an hour tonight so that we'll be that much closer to when the lovely Spring Maiden will come flittin' 'round like a butterfly that's been hanging out at the WinterFest mulled wine booth.

Below, an accurate portrait sculpture of the ol' man hisself.

'Winter'

Tombstone

If ever I have a tombstone, this is probably what it will look like.*

* But I'm more likely to be downloaded into an external drive.

Or as Deb points out in the comments, 
maybe be uploaded to the cloud, 
depending on what kind of life I've lived.

Lovely Lalique

A lovely modern ad graphic for vintage art captured in glass.

 René Lalique – Bacchantes – 1927

Memorial Sculpture

Calais, France is a lovely ancient town that suffered WWII devastation. Shown below is a beautiful Art Deco memorial sculpture, one of a number of powerful sculptures scattered here-abouts.

Dancing Maenads

What a lovely effect to have a bas relief emerge from a sketch.

Claude Michel, called Clodion — Relief with Dancing Maenads

1765

The 27,000 Year Old Young Lady

Sculpture as science or art? Does it matter?

Reconstructed head of a girl thought to be 27,000 years old.

Update:

Okay, here's some information and a video link that sheds a little more light on this young lady of (yes) 27 Thousand Years Ago.

Quoting from this video post, these would be the remains of a Gravettian Cro-Magnon of Sungir/Russia. As an upper-paleolithic person, she was part of the base of the Cro-Magnoid element in the later Finno-Ugrians.

In this video you will see several individuals recreated, and even a full-color rendering of what this particular girl might have looked like in the flesh.

High or Low?

These are sculptures created with poly-resin something or other. They are delightful, but are they high art or low art? Does it matter?

Frank Gallo — Primavera — 1988

Frank Gallo — Awakening Beauty — 1987

Aesthetic Wavelength

I love trains. Is it a 'man thing' to get a kick out of bulky machinery like a train? I remember my old Lionel catalogue of the late '50s that had a pink train set available for the girls. How sexist was that? It's fascinating to see huge trains scaled down to a size one can pick up and look at from all angles. I gave up my boyhood train set many years ago . . . except I just had to keep the engine and coal car and a couple pieces of track, which makes a great objet d'art lined up on a book shelf—a piece of sculpture, if you will.

I know that a miniature model is not the same thing as a sculpture. Yet a model can be enjoyed on the same aesthetic wavelength as a sculpture, as one views the play of light and shadow revealing form and texture.

Photo by Detlef Schwarz

Not my boyhood train, believe me — above is a hand-finished model (1:32), made of brass by the German firm of Markscheffel & Lennartz of a class G12 engine originally built from 1917 to 1921. They ran until 1953 in West Germany and as late as 1968 in East Germany. The model's monetary value? Well, if you have to ask, it would max out your credit card and then some. But idn't it a beauty?

Courage and Vision

I would dearly love to have these sculpted figures as bookends, but I would need a massive crane to get them in my library. Ah well.

These two are entitled 'Courage' and 'Vision'. Without courage there is no vision, without vision there is no courage.

Walker Hancock — Courage — 1939

Walker Hancock — Vision — 1939

With these, there are two more fabulous sculptures of similar stature located at the Soldiers' Memorial in St. Louis, known as 'Sacrifice' and 'Loyalty'.

Beatific Essence

Radiating the very essence of bliss.

Head of Buddha — Gandharan-style — 4th-5th century

Up on the Roof

Sarah Brightman, "world's favorite soprano", flees to the rooftop of the Palais Garnier — Opéra national de Paris — as Christine in Phantom of the Opera—perched here under one of Eugène-Louis Lequesne's magnificent twin statues of Pegasus.

. . . Christine breathed freely over Paris, the whole valley of which was seen at work below . . .

— Gaston Leroux

Phantom of the Opera

A full view of the phantastique sculpture.

Time and the Elements

Paul Manship — Time & the Dancing Hours

If Earth is ever represented in a Galactic Exposition of Cultures, I hope that Paul Manship's timeless Art Deco work will be integrated into the architectural wonders that we will erect.

Above is a sublime bronze sun dial, and below we see the Four Elements, bas-relief bronze plaques, inspired by themes in the ancient Tower of the Winds.

Water

Air

Earth

Fire

Art Deco Goodness

At first glance, this low bas relief panel seems really busy, and of course it really is, but it's chock-full of Art Deco goodness from 1937.

It was a panel in the dining salon of the French ocean liner, Normandie — and to be specific, in case you're dying to know, the starboard side forward cabin-class. You can view it in person at the Museum of the City of New York.

Mmm. To be an affluent traveler in those days . . .

Tripping with St. George

Larry MacDougall is probably my favoritist illustrator of the contemporary faerie enchantment genre, and he and his wife are enjoying the posts of Wallace Tripp's work (as many of us are), and I dedicate past, present and future Tripp posts to them.

As indicated in his drawing, Tripp used Michel Colombe's 1508 bas relief of St. George and his dragon as a moment of parody. Ha! Baa relief indeed.

Colombe's work was the marble altarpiece for the high chapel in the Chateau de Gaillon, since removed to the Louvre in Paris.

Rocket Goddess

This is a fabulous sculpture, here set in intergalactic space, by the renowned and fabulous artist Audrey Flack.

Audrey Flack — Egyptian Rocket Goddess

A Favorite Bust

In France, for two centuries now, the revolution of 1789 and its goals of liberty, equality and fraternity have been summed up in one woman's name: Marianne, the mythical heroine who carried the flag at the storming of the Bastille.

But a 20th/21st century woman of France also embodies ideals of the nation: BB: Brigitte Bardot.

Put the two together and voilà! A nation's favorite bust!

Volunteers

An amazing bas relief 'illustration' of a battle regiment backed by the angels, entitled Departure of the Volunteers of 1792, created in 1820 by Francois Rude. Looks like a 'full-frontal' assault to me.