sunny !

art-architecture-history-fashion-love

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every time i think about Borromini my heart aches he was truly a genius with his architecture but obviously he had some sort of bipolar disorder and even years after his death every article about him calls him "unhappy" or "mad"

also i know how depressed constantly being compared to someone who is more charismatic / outgoing when youre an introverted outsider can make you.. i cry at the thought of him mostly being mentioned now when put against Bernini when it was likely one of the major causes behind his death

he is genuinely my roman empire of architecture history...

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PERSPECTIVE = BRUNELLESCHI !!!

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also on that note here's the famous Brunelleschi's dome of Santa Maria della Fiore (1420-1436);

built without typical wooden scaffolding, instead adopting an innovative double-shell design, herringbone brickwork, and a self-supporting structure, is the largest masonry vault built to this day !

story time!

Brunelleschi made the dome for a competition held by the Republic of Florence and had this brilliant idea to make a self-supporting, double-shelled dome but didn't want to share his blueprint with the judges, fearing that his design might get stolen.

so in order to get the committee to hire him WITHOUT showing his plans he apparently came up with a challenge: asking people to balance an egg perfectly upright on a flat surface.

no one succeeded in doing so and the man himself took the egg and gently smashed its bottom onto the surface which flattened it and allowed the egg to stand upright. the others argued that they could have done the same thing while Brunelleschi responded "that they could have also built the dome had they seen his plans." and won the commission!

thats the level of confidence and genius i strive to have lol

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PERSPECTIVE = BRUNELLESCHI !!!

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i had to watch a volleyball match from an Italian channel and i think somewhere along the line of art history and architecture study i became partially receptive to Italian because i understood quite well. forza!!! i guess!!!

although credit where credit is due i learned forza from Jannik Sinner but the rest is... history (pun intended)

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this is "abstract watercolor" (from the inscription in the back of it) or "untitled" (1910) by Wassily Kandinsky, long considered to be the first abstract piece of art!

some believe it was just a draft for an oil painting, and that it actually dates back to 1913 instead.

in my honest opinion i believe abstract art's roots run way deeper and Kandinsky just advertised himself really well lol! apparently he claimed: "Indeed, it’s the world’s first ever abstract picture, because back then not one single painter was painting in an abstract style."

i found a related article that was enjoyable to read!

Everything is Finished Nothing is Dead: An Article About Abstract Painting | The Brooklyn Rail

I remember driving on the New Jersey Turnpike arguing with Phong Bui about who made the first abstract painting. I said that Kandinsky had g

this quote from it sums up my thoughts on the subject:

"I remember driving on the New Jersey Turnpike arguing with Phong Bui about who made the first abstract painting. I said that Kandinsky had gradually camouflaged his imagery and made abstractions by 1911. Phong said Kupka made completely abstract paintings in 1909 and that Arthur Dove first showed abstract oil studies to Steiglitz in 1910. I said what about Serusier and his Talisan painting from 1888 and Phong said that was just one painting and it’s still a landscape. I said Victor Hugo made drawings in the 1850s like abstract Redons. We argued about Annie Besant and Charles Leadbetter who made their Thought Forms in 1905, and Phong said those weren’t really paintings. I said maybe the first abstract paintings came from Hilma Af Klint in her 1906 Paintings From The Temple series. Just then Alfred Jensen woke up in the back seat and told us we were both fools and asked what about the Mayans and the Tantra painters and the Peruvian carpet makers and the American Indian rock painters and the Aboriginal dream-time bark painters and he told us that we had just missed the exit for the Holland Tunnel right there in 2002."

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Ancient Egytian pharaohs were buried in mastabas —flat roofed rectangular tombs— during predynastic and old kingdom periods.

around 2700 BC, 3rd dynasty of old kingdom, architect Imhotep stacked 5 more progressively smaller mastabas on top of pharaoh Djoser's tomb creating the Step-Pyramid of Djoser: the first pyramid!

the Step-Pyramid is located in Saqqara and it was also the world's first large-scale stone building.

fun fact one of the theories about the origins of the word "pyramid" is that Greek soldiers likened these structures to a pointy-topped wheat cake called "pyramis" and named them after it. haha ^^

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Jan van Eyck - Arnolfini Portrait (1432)

in this painting there's such great detail that the convex mirror in the background reflects Van Eyck himself!

i would love to view this painting close up (,:

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the milkmaid by Vermeer

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if i were a famous person about to name my baby some made-up atrocious name i would instead name them something like Vitruvius so my child would be named after both a historical legend AND a character from the lego movie WIN-WIN !!!

fun fact: early this year a 2000-year-old basilica's remains were discovered in Fano, Rome, and was the first ever confirmed building by Vitruvius himself. the structure matches the description in his De Architectura (Book V), featuring a rectangular layout with massive columns !

what a cool thing to have witnessed during my lifetime !!! ^^ here are some photos of the site, a floor plan, and a rendering of the basilica:

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The Basilica of Maxentius/Constantine (construction began under Maxentius, later completed under Constantine's rule after Maxentius was defeated in the Battle of the Milvian Bridge) has these stunning coffered vaults that i cannot stop thinking about.

Piranesi got it. look at these etchings he made of the basilica:

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humanist city planning!

"Sforzinda" is one of the first ideal city designed in the 15th century by renaissance architect Filarete (aka Antonio Averlino) as part of his "Trattato di Architettura"

allegedly Filarete was inspired to by Leon Battista Alberti's architectural treatise "De Re Aedificatoria"

note: each tip of the 8-point star had a defense tower!

we can also clearly see the renaissance fascination (and perhaps obsession) with geometry. its quite cool

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Madonna with the Long Neck (1534–1540) by Parmigianino, located in the Uffizi Gallery.

so many of the features including the elongated shapes (giant baby jesus), "serpentine" body (figura serpentinata), anti-naturalism of crowded and off-balance composition.. screams Mannerism!