Aphrodite

Greek goddess of love, beauty and pleasure - her Roman equivalent, Venus
Birth of Venus (detail) - Sandro Botticelli

Three years ago we explored the remains from antiquity of a city called Aphrodisias lying in the fertile upper reaches of the Meander Valley, Turkey

Tetrapylon - the magnificent monumental gateway which led into the city

At its heart are the remains of a great pagan temple dedicated to Aphrodite. Once there were 40 Ionic columns surrounding the temples perimeter, now most lie where they fell during severe earthquake temors in the c4th and c7th.



Birth of Venus Sandro Botticelli - 1484 in Uffizi
But we seek antiquities new as soon we head off to an island where Greek Myths tell us Aphrodite was born 

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In the garden this week a large male Green Woodpecker

captured through the window - males have a red moustache, females black - his beak is caked in mud from digging in our lawn looking for grubs

Some garden corners taken this week - fulfilling a request from Catherine ♡
Botticell images via   

Nikolai Astrup

This is a republish of a post I did four years ago. I am showing it again to coincide with an exhibition of this renowned Norwegian artist being held at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London finishing this Sunday. It is the first ever major London exhibition of Astrup's work and indeed the world's, outside of Norway. More details can be found here - catch it if you can.

portrait of Nikolai Astrup (1880 - 1928) by Henrik Lund

Interior of Nikolai Astrup's Studio in Ålhus, Jølster 

courtesy Harald Oppedal via wikipedia

I was introduced to the work of Nikolai Astrup when I was visiting my son and his family in Norway. I admire the way his work conveys his love of Norway, and his family. In many ways I find parallels to his art with Carl Larsson. Both of them reveal a great passion and regard for their own country and their family. If his work is new to you, I hope that you will enjoy it.

Nikolai Astrup established himself as one of Norway's main painters during the first decade of the 20th C, and his woodcuts have especially earned him a central position in Norwegian art history. Along with Edvard Munch, Astrup is considered a pioneer of the new graphic technique. 

all images courtesy wikipedia

Nikolai Astrup was born in Bremanger, Nordfjord in 1880. His family moved shortly after to Ålhus in Jølster, where his father was a priest. The father-son relationship was at times conflicting, mainly because Astrup never felt comfortable with the strict Christian tradition practised in his home. Also, his wish to become an artist went against his family's traditional expectations. As an artist and a bohemian, Astrup stood out in the small and confined environment he grew up in. However, he chose to live in Jølster for most of his life, and this is the area where he found the scenery for nearly all of his paintings. Throughout his artistic work he focused on the same landscape, his garden, and his family. His paintings can in many ways be looked upon as a series of seasons, where Astrup portrays the constant and eternity in life; the little garden with fruit trees and a small field, the lake, the familiar mountains, the woods and fields - and constantly changing atmospheres - a rainy morning in Autumn, beginning of Spring, an icy cold Winter morning or the warm, light nights of the Summer.

He was educated in Norwegian and European contemporary art - Christian Krohg taught him at the Academie Colarossi in Paris. He travelled to Berlin, Dresden and Hamburg and visited the museums to be educated in old and contemporary art. He was especially keen on the work of the French primitive Henri Rousseau and the German symbolist Arnold Böcklin - the latter fascinated him so much that he named one of his sons after him.

In 1902 Astrup moved back to Jølster for good, and a few years later he married Engel, a young peasant girl from the area. They had eight children. Astrup continued his work as an artist along with his obligations towards his family and farm work. It wasn't easy; they had little money and he struggled with bad health.

In 1928, he sadly died of pneumonia at the young age of 47 years.

Durslade Farm

High flying Swiss couple Iwan Wirth, Manuela Hauser, and their four children have recently setup home in Somerset; a landscape steeped in Arthurian myths and site of the legendary 'Avalon'.

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Dealers in cutting edge art and design, they own contemporary art galleries in London, New York City, Zurich and Los Angeles. 

In 2012 they received planning permission to renovate a mid C18 century Somerset farmhouse and its outbuildings; the whole complex is now open to the public

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A version of the celebrated giant spider, Maman by the French-American Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) can be found lurking in one of the courtyards 

A giant stainless steel milk pail sculptured by Subodh Gupta is placed near the original 
 Granary which sits on staddle stones - is this Conceptual Art? 

Admission is free, but donations to their chosen charity the 'Somerset Wildlife Trust', are welcome. There is an ambitious arts centre with a gallery, bookshop, learning room, restaurant, farm shop and a 1.5 acre perennial meadow designed by the Dutch master landscape designer, Piet Oudolf.

Winter

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Summer

They have an artist in residence programme which encourages integration within the local community and the benefits accrued to them by living in idyllic surroundings. 

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The restaurant is in a former cowshed - in the dining area there is a vibrant neon central light by the late American Jason Rhoades (1965-2006) 

The 18th century farmhouse itself is used for visiting guests and artists, but can be rented for family holidays, wedding parties, etc.
White undergarments attached to cables light up the evening sky!!! 

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There is a great buzz and a lively party atmosphere down on the farm

British Treasures No 3 - Wallpainting

In 2011 a couple living in a 16th century house in Somerset were removing wooden panelling from their drawing room wall with a view to restoring and painting the walls behind. As the panelling was removed they saw eyes appearing from beneath the flaking plaster, and restoration experts were called in to remove the layers of ancient plaster. Underneath the plaster was discovered an enormous 20 foot high mural dating to around 1530. The Somerset home had once been the summer residence of Thomas Cranmer and what is now the large drawing room had been his Great Hall. Cranmer was the Arch Deacon of Taunton, Somerset who eventually became the Archbishop of Canterbury. Thomas Cranmer was the man who set up the structure of the Church of England after helping Henry Vlll break away from the Catholic Church.

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Thomas Cranmer - Portrait by Gerlach Flicke 1545 - National Portrait Gallery

As the mortar was carefully removed their shock deepened when a perfect vision of Henry Vlll complete with golden crown, a long-handled orb, and a sceptre stared back at them. The once hidden wall painting is now considered to be of great national importance.

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King Henry Vlll

By chance they recently discovered that the mural has a hidden message. A postcard the couple had commissioned of the mural fell to the floor falling with the king's head pointing towards them, thus revealing the portraits more sinister side. As they looked more closely, they realised that the devil was in the detail!

When viewed upside down or through a wine/ale glass, as it would have been in medieval days, the portrait of the king on his throne is transformed into a vision of Satan with goat's eyes and horns.

Whilst the portrait would have been an overt expression of loyalty, the hidden message suggests it was commissioned by someone with quite another view of the monarch who had made himself head of the Church of England in place of the Pope.

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During the 15th and 16th century there was a great fascination with optical illusion and secret messages hidden within paintings. 

If you squint whilst looking at the bottom image Satan is clear to see.

British Treasure No.2 here 

British treasurers No.2

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King Alfred 'The Great'

A line engraving c.1750 by George Vertue

In the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford there is a very special Anglo Saxon treasure approximately 1150 years old - the Alfred Jewel. It was discovered in 1693 by a labourer digging for peat at Newton Park in North Petherton, Somerset. North Petherton is near Athelney, where in 878 King Alfred the Great took refuge from the Vikings and later founded a monastery.

Sir Thomas Wrothe, owner of Newton Park, became the owner of the jewel. He later presented it to his uncle, Colonel Nathaniel Palmer, a former member of Trinity College, Oxford, who bequeathed it to the university in 1717. He intended that it should go to the Bodleian Library, but a year later his son Thomas, decided that it should be deposited in the Ashmolean Museum.

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The Alfred Jewel

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The Alfred jewel is made of polished rock crystal. Below the crystal and crafted in cloisonné is a figure thought to represent one of the five senses 'sight'. The crystal is set in pure filigree gold, and has cut out lettering around the edge inscribed AELFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN - Alfred ordered me made.

Recent opinions have decided that it is an aestel or pointer used for following the text in a manuscript or gospel. The pointer would have been held within the mouth of the mythical dragon probably made of ivory, and kept in place by a rivet which is still in situ. 

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King Alfred and his daughter Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians depicted on a 13th century genealogical chronicle in the British Library, London

British Treasure No.1 can be found here.

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Footnote

Over the Christmas period a group of amateur treasure hunters found

a hoard of more than 5,000 rare Anglo Saxon coins showing the heads of

King Ethelred 'The Unready' and King Canute. They are thought to have a

value of over one million pounds. The coins have been described as being in

mint condition with a 'mirror like' finish. They were found buried in a lead

container in a field in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. This is one of several 

large and exciting treasure trove finds that have been made during 2014.

Eye Glasses

A pair of French gilded scissor glasses in the Empire style c. 1805 

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I was surprised to discover that the earliest historical reference to magnification for the eyes dates back to 500 BC where Egyptian hieroglyphs depict a simple concave glass lens. The earliest written record of magnification was during the 1st century AD, when Seneca the Younger, a tutor to Emperor Nero of Rome, wrote: "Letters, however small and indistinct, are seen enlarged and more clearly through a globe or glass filled with water." Nero is apparently said to have watched gladiatorial games using an emerald as a corrective lens.

Has it ever crossed your mind how devastating it must have been in the past to cope with failing eyesight without any means of restoring it? For the common man and women no aids were available. Imagine being a skilled workman - jeweller, stonemason, carpenter, a needlewomen, or an artist relying on your eyesight to earn a living. We, on the other hand, can just pop into an Opticians on any high street and be examined for a pair of prescription glasses or even buy a pair of cheap everyday reading glasses straight over the counter. 

detail from a portrait of Hugh de Provence 1352

One of the panels from an altarpiece in Bad Wildungen Church, Germany showing an apostle using lenses to read - he is in the bottom panel on the left hand side.

Known as the "Glasses Apostle" and painted by Conrad von Soest in 1404. It is considered to be one of the oldest depictions of eyeglasses north of the Alps.

St. Peter reading - Friedrich Herlin - 1466

Seated apostle holding lenses in position whilst reading. Detail from Death of the Virgin by the Master of Heiligenkreuz 1400-30

Portrait of Cardinal Fernando Niño de Guevara by El Greco circa 1600 - the glasses are hooked over the top and bottom of his ears

Portrait of Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas circa 1580 - 1645

Today it is possible to wear contact lenses and have laser corrective eye surgery. However, glasses tend to remain the norm for most people, particularly as technology has improved. Modern glasses can be a fashion statement by familiar names e.g. Calvin Klein and Gucci frames. Frames can be made from memory metal alloys that return to their correct shape after being bent, and most are now made of light weight materials such as titanium and high tech plastics.

all images via