i didn’t read anything today, so instead of that i chose my prompt from a song that i listened to--jewel of love by shahram nazeri. دل (reads dil) means heart.
in pursuit of the jewel of the sea of love,
hits wave after wave and wave, like a sea, like a sea my heart
many of nazeri’s songs are compositions over rumi’s poetry, as is this one. at one point in the song he laments for his heart, and this drawing speaks more to that: woe my heart, woe my heart.
today i read a little bit of ibsen’s the pretenders. earlier in the play was a bit boring, the story and characters seemed so flat, but it started to get interesting in the act four today, from where i picked ‘doubt’. it’s a nice construct that skule never stops questioning the legitimacy of his claim to kingship while both of his children have unwavering faith in their respective kings. his son peter is absolutely dedicated to skule, without even really knowing him; while the latter’s daughter margaret is ready to give up everything, including her father, for the cause of her husband, king haakon. both peter and margaret have an aspect to them worshipping authority. skule craves for the crown, but never with one moment of true faith in himself.
i was supposed not to work today, it being weekend. of course i found myself immersed in work again. i was reading something by a student of mine, who wrote on painful visa processes. it’s a moving story, but too personal to share, so let’s leave it here.
i was looking for an alternative to inktober, but didn’t like any of the prompt lists that i found. then lulu told me to open a book at random, and pick a word from there as a prompt. could call that booktober, she said. this made me think i could just pick a word from whatever i read on each day. i’m an art historian anyway, most of what i read will be about images, so lots of metapictures and all, how nice (also good motivation for reading carefully). now found out people already use the tag booktober for something else altogether, but let’s diligently ignore that.
so this one is from yesterday. i was reading what a sixteenth-century iranian poet called ‘abdi beg shirazi wrote on painting. he compares various traditions, then on european painting he says he doesn’t know how but their paintings almost speak words to the viewer. سخن (reads sokhan) means a word. this left quite an impression on us in my persian reading group. but then only in the next couplet he says one cannot access the words spoken by these paintings. for abdi beg, who was not familiar with the conventions of christian iconography, regardless of the striking lifelikeness of those paintings, the meanings they convey remain foreign and inaccessible. recently i have also been reading alexander nagel writing about the renaissance italian painter antonello da messina, and how some of his virgin mary images (meaning especially anunciation scenes like this one) leave the construction of iconography and meaning completely to the viewer. until the viewer sees the figure as mary anunciate, she is an ordinary girl. isn’t it a nice conjunction between abdi beg and antonello?
gardner museum deserves two dedicated posts, it’s one of my favorite places in boston. read below for short notes on each item.
1. the most famous spot of the museum is the garden in the middle courtyard. isabella steward gardner, the early 20th century founder of the museum, designed every bit herself, including this garden. most of the statuary here is i think roman, and she planted a lot of the seasonal flowers herself.
2. the scribe. this celebrated painting actually belongs to an album from the topkapı palace in istanbul, but probably in the 19th century was removed from its original context and ended up in isabella’s hands. a famous artifact of the period of collaboration between italian and ottoman artists during gentile bellini’s employment at topkapı in mehmed ii’s reign, it is probably by bellini himself, working in traditional persianate media. i didn’t know this piece was in boston, and it was breathtaking to see it in person.
3. spanish tiles. they are adorable, i don’t know much about them but they decorate the walls behind the garden in the first floor.
4. virgin and child. produced probably as a devotional object, the reason why this relief fascinates me is because of the amazing eye contact the figures establish with the viewer. it’s not difficult to imagine how it might affect a believer; the figures capture the viewer so deeply that you can’t take your eyes away.
5. during isabella’s lifetime, the building had an asian room which wasn’t quite a part of the museum, but afterwards the objects were dispersed. the existing japanese and chinese screen paintings are now exhibited in the liminal spaces in between various rooms. this one is from a japanese screen with seasonal themes. i love the flowers.
6. i just love windows in general haha
7. i don’t really know what this is, maybe a tile? it looks medieval to me, maybe a st george killing the dragon? at any rate, it’s one of my absolute favorites in the museum.
8. botticelli, madonna and child. i love early renaissance. gardner museum reminds me a little bit of uffizi gallery in florence, the exhibitions were established organically through large swathes of time in an institutional history. the exhibition style isabella established was kept quite intact in the last hundred or so years, and there is no description text by the objects, so it’s a much more personal display mode compared to large museums like the met or the louvre. under this botticelli is displayed a mamluk vase, for instance; which makes a lot of sense chronologically and regionally but such associations can hardly be found in the large modern museums.
9. isabella was also very much into collecting textile. the textile arrangement behind the relief in the fourth picture, as well as many others like it, are all examples of isabella’s personal, idiosyncratic display ideas. the cushion and fabrics here seem italian to me, these ones are among my favorites in the museum.
10. a lot of correspondence and prints are on display as well. i find this card really cute.
i made a long list of places to go before i left boston, and was able to see them all. the day we went to the institute of contemporary art with my roommates was particularly lovely. i rode the sea shuttle at watershed, and ate taiyaki for the first time. i absolutely love ica’s spatial and visual design...
meet the artist meme from three years ago. wish i posted it back then, now most of my stuff changed and i dont have that cute bag with the teddy bear anymore :(
and no more roller skate clumsiness :V
the last thing on my dislike list which goes mysogi is supposed to be misogyny, misspelled and incomplete lolol
another one that i made ages ago but not posted here. i had illustrated an african folk tale. there are other scenes too but i think i was planning to bring them together in a pdf with the text of the story and everything so i never got to post them. maybe i’ll one day, but let’s keep this one here for now.
dededos
andulkaphoto
origamiaround
germansingergirl
theartofmadeline
areudirty