It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"[Zeus] commanded that glorious Hermes should be lord over all birds of prey and grim-eyed lions, and boars with gleaming tusks, and over [herder's] dogs and all the herds and flocks that the wide earth nourishes, and over all sheep."
Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes 560
🏛 Hermes-Mercurius, marble relief made by Artus Quellinus in the 17th century CE.
A humourous oil painting of the love of #Mars and #Venus that was created when the artist was only 15 or 16 years old.
Mars ist struck by an arrow in his chest but it is a love arrow 😘
🏛️ Mars, Venus and #Vulcan, by John Singleton Copley. Oil on canvas, dated 1754 CE. Today in the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, USA.
Have a beautiful Day of Aphrodite aka Venus' Day aka Frigg's Day aka Friday 🌹
Neoclassical statue of #Aphrodite and her lover #Adonis. Adonis was loved not only by Aphrodite but also by Persephone, Apollon, Dionysos, and #Herakles. In fact, Herakles' death was orchastrated by Aphrodite in revenge for the hero stealing her man!
🏛️ Venus and Adonis by Antonio Canova, dated ca. 1794 CE
It's the Day of Zeus / Jupiter's Day / #Thursday! ⚡
Painting of the theft of Fire: #Zeus and his eagle and his lover #Ganymedes are all asleep. Meanwhile, #Prometheus steals fire from the thunderbolt in Zeus' hand.
🏛️ The Theft of Fire by Christian Griepenkerl, dated 1878 CE.
This is a videoclip of my latest work, "Bodegón" (Spanish for still-life)
The video is a "visit" into a Bodegón in Colonia del Sacramento, Departamento de Colonia, Uruguay, with thanks to the author of the nice photo, Elisa Giaccaglia (https://www.pexels.com/photo/bodegon-18297346/)
"Bodegón" is a piece for two pianos, marimba, double bass, and drums. I initially wrote the drums part, which alternates 11/8 and 9/8 measures at 150bpm. Then I wrote a marimba part atop the drums. This resulted in a rather fast jazzy piece. At this point I realized that the piece had two "natures": when slowed down, the marimba notes sounded very much "Bachianas". I decided to explore and develop this aspect further: I assigned the marimba line to piano, added a new piano, and turned the piece into a neoclassical prelude. Then I added double bass, and used it as a layer that I overlapped to realize a fugato of sorts. Surprisingly, the experiment worked out.
I had now two very different developments of a same idea. I decided to merge them in a A-B-A' structure, with the last part only hinted and fading out, played by double bass and drums.
All the above resulted in my "Bodegón". I hope you'll like it!
(P.S. In Spanish it means "still-life". It comes from "Bodega": storeroom, storehouse, wine-shop, or even tavern.)
This week's #MythologyMonday theme is artworks featuring mythology. There are, of course, countless depictions of mythological scenes from ancient times. Some myths, in fact, are ONLY known through artwork, for example the drinking contest between #Herakles and #Dionysos.
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In the European #Renaissance, the writings of ancient Greek and Roman authors were rediscovered and with them the myths. My favourite piece of #neoclassical Renaissance art is Benvenuto Cellini's #Perseus. He is shown right after having killed #Medusa, holding up her severed head. But to me, he doesn't look triumphant. He looks sad and tired. Cellini paid close attention and kept the tradition of the long tapered foreskin with his Perseus that is known from ancient art.