I’ll spare you the corny puns on overplayed lyrics and get straight to the point: a Roman acroterion (decoration on the side corners of a sarcophagus or tomb) was recently put up for auction that looks weirdly like… Elvis.
Image from the UK Daily Mail
The picture speaks for itself. Personally, having seen some of the crazy hairstyles Roman women wore (seriously, you will want to click on that link. Just as funny as Roman Elvis up there), I’m a little hesitant to go shouting about Elvis’s long-lost great-great-great-etc. grandfather walking around the Forum… but well, on the other hand, the resemblance certainly is there…
Either way, perhaps the most astounding fact of all this is that Bonham’s, a pretty reputable auction house, is indeed auctioning it off, and it is expected to sell for one million pounds. See the article in the UK Daily Mail here. Thanks to Gabrielle for this bizarre but entertaining news story!
Continuing with our theme of art infiltrating everyday culture, spotted on Fifth Avenue in New York City earlier this week was this display. Henri Bendell’s jewelry window features Renaissance beauties decked out in necklaces and earrings… but not painted ones. Rather, the jewelry poked into the “canvases” of the Lady with an Erimine and Maddalena Doni are, naturally, for sale in the high-end department store. Clever or tacky? I wonder if Leonardo and Raphael would approve…
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| Photo of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival (left) and Jan Van Eyck’s “Arnolfini Wedding Portrait,” 1434, National Gallery, London (right). Image originally posted at PerezHilton.com |
Who says art history and celebrity gossip don’t mix?
Just over a month ago at the Cannes Film Festival, this picture of Brad Pitt and the expecting Angelina Jolie was taken as the happy couple made their way down the carpet. Someone at PerezHilton.com thought that their pose, Angelina’s green dress, and most importantly, her swelling stomach, were reminiscent of Jan Van Eyck’s masterpiece “The Arnolfini Wedding Portrait” (1434).
While this comparison is entertaining, it actually brings up a few key points about the painting. This painting is commonly accepted as a document of sorts, acting as a witness to the marriage of this couple. There is some scholarly debate over who is actually depicted in this bed chamber, but it is agreed upon that this is a marriage scene. Interestingly, Brad and Angelina are not married, and have vowed not to wed until everyone is entitled to an official and legal marriage to whomever they choose.
Another interesting point of comparison is the “baby bump” seen in both images. While it is widely known that Angelina’s is due to pregnancy, it is mainly agreed upon that the lady in the painting was not pregnant. She is most likely just demonstrating what the ideal of female beauty was at the time. In contemporary paintings, a more rounded and fertile-looking woman was the ideal, especially as a new wife whose job it was to provide heirs. She is also leaning back and thrusting her stomach out to display the bunched up fabric she is wearing, which served as a clear indication of her wealth and status.
Like many Northern paintings of this time period, the Van Eyck piece is full of miniscule details that really deepen the understanding of this piece as a “wedding certificate” of sorts, and I highly suggest looking into it further. The level of intricacy is astounding, and truly makes this piece a masterpiece.
My favorite part of this unlikely comparison is the discussions on the website. Literally hundreds of posts respond to this juxtaposition, many of which use Art Historical backgrounds to discuss the points I mentioned above, in addition to many others. It’s nice (and a bit surprising) to see an Art Historical debate running rampant on a celebrity gossip website.
After a bit of delving, it seems that the picture of this super celebrity couple and the painting of a respectable Netherlandish husband and wife have less in common than is apparent at first glance. But it is interesting that Brangelina triggered someone to make this connection, proving that art really can serve as a medium for discussion of daily life, even 600 years later.
Picture and full comments originally posted on PerezHilton.com
OK, not really. But seriously:
Caspar David Friedrich, Winter Landscape, 1811
National Gallery London
Does that not look exactly like Narnia to you? The snow, the pine tree, the mist-shrouded castle looming in the background, the White Witch about to careen out of the fog in her carriage and offer our weary wanderer a piece of Turkish Delight? This happens to be what I could not stop imagining today in my 19th century art class instead of actually taking diligent notes on Friedrich’s mystically-religious landscapes.
And why, yes, this is about as unscholarly a post as you could ever hope to read.
