Monthly Archives: February 2019
Ordinary Magic Glass
The expression “Venetian glass” has become a household word. It is used in the appreciation of the artistic merit of glass. And it is not by chance that the largest museums of the world are proud of the works of the nameless glassmakers of Venice, along with the paintings of famous painters – their contemporaries: Titian, Carpaccio, Veronese, Giorgione. Particularly remarkable are the products of the XVI century – the truly “golden age” of Venetian glass. They all the more benefit when compared with the European glass of the preceding one and a half millennia: thick-walled, dull-green bottles, rough goblets in the form of a horn or a stalk with unwise ornaments. Continue reading
Mexican painting of the first half of the 20th century
In the 20th century, the art of Latin America, primarily Mexico, unexpectedly became one of the most significant phenomena of world culture. The dramatic history of this country is replete with brutal conquests, murders, merciless oppression of the masses – starting from the invasion of the Aztec warrior people, who later created a formidable state later in Central Mexico, in the XII century.
In the first half of the 16th century, Spanish conquerors conquered Mexico, seized the ancient civilization that had developed here, spread Christianity with fire and sword, and turned the Indians into slaves. Continue reading
Kanoplasta from Tanagra
The Greek words “tanagra”, “tanagryanka” about a hundred years ago entered the Russian language. They are now used to denote everything fragile, feminine and plastic. The artist V. Serov invented the term “tanagretika” on their basis, meaning beneath it artless, elegant, opposite to the cold and rational in art.
The ancient city of Tanagra in Boeotia, in the northeast of the Balkan Peninsula, has gained wide popularity in recent times thanks to an archaeological sensation – finds of Tanagrian figurines. Continue reading
