domingo, 26 de dezembro de 2010

Penrose staircase


"Relativity" (1953) from M.C. Escher, the main motive of Nolan's movie "Inception" (2010).
Try to climb a Penrose stairs...

And now Inception...
"SPOILER WARNING: What follows should only be viewed by people who have already seen Inception. It contains heavy, critical spoilers which will impact your viewing of the film. If you haven’t seen Inception yet, stop reading and don’t come back until you do." (Cinema Blend)

Click it

quinta-feira, 23 de dezembro de 2010

segunda-feira, 6 de dezembro de 2010

Van Dog


Click it (in Portuguese).
Cartoon from Van Dog.

sábado, 4 de dezembro de 2010

Parsifal


Quadro do pintor belga, Jean Delville: "Parsifal"

quarta-feira, 3 de novembro de 2010

The Fool


The Fool, Tarot card from Rider-Waite (Smith)'s deck

terça-feira, 2 de novembro de 2010

Sphynx


Click the painting to see it better.
Gustave Moreau, Oedipus and the Sphynx (1864)

segunda-feira, 1 de novembro de 2010

Time


Titian (Tiziano), The Allegory of Age Governed by Prudence (c. 1565–1570)

domingo, 31 de outubro de 2010

sábado, 30 de outubro de 2010

Nabucodonosor


"Nabucodonosor" de William Blake

terça-feira, 26 de outubro de 2010

Daigo


Photo shot by webshots of a Shingon Temple in Japan (Kyoto).

domingo, 12 de setembro de 2010

sexta-feira, 10 de setembro de 2010

sábado, 28 de agosto de 2010

Cores

segunda-feira, 16 de agosto de 2010

Kyoto

domingo, 15 de agosto de 2010

sábado, 14 de agosto de 2010

The Masks of Sichuan




Sanxingdui is situated in Southwest China in the province of Sichuan. In the times of late Shang Dynasty a mysterious culture was developed in China. There strange rituals were made with these masks and statues. To know more, click HERE and HERE.

domingo, 8 de agosto de 2010

Crops


Click to enlarge it. This picture was taken in Pewsey, Wiltshire (UK).

quinta-feira, 29 de julho de 2010

Wuji-Taiji


Click the picture to enlarge it.
Wuji (Wu-chi) Taiji (T'ai-chi)

"1. Wuji: The open circle at the center has no divisions. It represents the great limitlessness that is our origin.
2. Yin and Yang: The solid line represents yang, and the broken line represents yin. Yin and yang are the first separation after limitlessness.
3. The Four Images: Yin and yang take on their first pairings with one another, forming four combinations.
4. The Early Heaven Eight Trigrams: This is Fu Xi's arrangement of the Eight Trigrams. The arrangement is read counter clockwise. Opposite trigrams are arranged across from one another.
5. The Early Heaven Sixty-Four Hexagrams: This arrangement is read from the top and center outward on either side. One begins from heaven (at the "top" of the circle) and meets the other side at the "bottom" on earth. One can begin from heaven, only to find all lines reversing themselves after passing the point marked by earth. A blank band between the fifth and sixth circle marks King Wen's revolutionary rearrangement of the Eight Trigrams and the Sixty-Four Hexagrams.
6. The Later Heaven Eight Trigrams: King Wen's Eight Trigrams pattern, expressing the cyclical, seasonal, and directional nature of change. This pattern unites the Five Phases and the Eight Trigrams. It is read clockwise.
7. The Later Heaven Sixty-Four Hexagrams: The sequence is read clockwise. Odd-numbered hexagrams generate the following evennumbered hexagram by reversing their lines in a yin-yang exchange. Thus, every other hexagram is the inverse of the preceding one. In turn, even-numbered hexagrams are linked to subsequent hexagrams. Each hexagram is built from six lines, and these lines symbolize time and position. The lowest line is early in a situation and subordinate in position. The highest line is late in a situation and retiring in position. By the logic of the Changes, that which is late in a cycle changes to its opposite, and generates a new cycle. Thus, each hexagram represents a cycle."
Deng Ming-Dao

quarta-feira, 28 de julho de 2010

Camel in a White Shade


Click the picture to enlarge it.
Photo by Sergei Reautov. You can find it alt National Geographic:
http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/

terça-feira, 27 de julho de 2010

Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove


Click the picture to enlarge it

"The Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove were a group of Chinese learned men from the third century CE. During a time of political upheaval, the group distanced themselves from governmental service, choosing instead to spend time engaged in Daoist-inspired discussions, poetry, and music, sometimes while inebriated. At least one member of the group abandoned his government position after becoming disheartened by corruption, and the group as a whole became associated with retreat from public life.

References to the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove are abundant in Chinese and Japanese art and literature. The earliest extant visual representations of the group date to the fifth century CE. Over time the theme gained popularity in Chinese painting and decorative arts, particularly from the late Ming (1368–1644) through the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). In Japan, the motif of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove was known as early as the ninth century. It was widely represented in Japanese art from the sixteenth century to the Edo period (1615–1868).

Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, featuring traditional works of art from China and Japan, has been organized to accompany and provide some cultural context for Asia Society’s exhibition of Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest, the contemporary video work by Chinese artist Yang Fudong.

Who Were the Seven Sages?

Xi Kang (Ji Kang; 223–262) is identified through historical references and tomb inscriptions as a poet and musician, author, and Daoist philosopher and alchemist. His oeuvre includes compositions for a stringed instrument called the qin and writings on music theory, politics, ethics, and longevity. A critic of Confucianism, he is recorded as having challenged many of the social conventions. At a young age he retired from official life and a desire for fame and success, removing himself from the political corruption that he felt he could not endure, and became a proponent of wuwei (inaction). We know he was executed by the military general Zhong Hui, although the circumstances leading to this action remain unclear.

Shan Tao (205–285) was a good friend of Xi Kang. Shan Tao was an official who ultimately reached the rank of Director of Instruction (situ), one of the three highest offices in China. At one point Shan Tao put Xi Kang’s name forward as his successor. This recommendation only alienated the latter and irrevocably damaged their friendship, because the act suggested that Shan Tao did not fully understand Xi Kang’s character and his rejection of governmental service.

Xiang Xiu (228–281) was also a good friend of Xi Kang. He wrote a memoir of Xi Kang, as well as a refutation of Xi Kang’s essay Yangsheng lun (Essay on Nourishing Life). He is also said to have written a commentary on the major third-century BCE Daoist philosophical text the Zhuangzi.

Ruan Ji (210–263), the son of an official, was a member of a famous literary group and a talented writer and poet himself. He held the official position of Infantry Colonel (bubing xiaowei), but has gone down in history as being unrestrained and reckless, perhaps because of his excessive drinking habit. Correspondence also relates that he was an acquaintance of Xi Kang.

Ruan Xian (230–281) held office as Junior Chamberlain (sanji shilang) and Grand Warden (taishou), and is said to have possessed musical skill.

Liu Ling (ca. 221–ca. 300) wrote the poem Ode to the Virtues of Wine. There are a few anecdotes about him published after the fifth century. One of these notes:

On many occasions Liu Ling, under the influence of wine, would be completely free and uninhibited, sometimes taking off his clothes and sitting naked in his room. Once when some persons saw him and chided him for it, Ling retorted, “I take heaven and earth for my pillars and roof, and the rooms of my house for my pants and coat. What are you gentlemen doing in my pants?”

Wang Rong (234–305) remains largely an enigma, though we know that like Shan Tao he held the high ranking post of Director of Instruction."
Asia Society
©2009 Asia Society | 725 Park Avenue at 70th Street New York, NY 10021

sábado, 24 de julho de 2010

Mu



On the lost continent of Mû, you can read something if you click the word HERE
The twelve books of Corto:
1. 1904-1905: La Jeunesse (1983); 2. 1913-1915: La Ballade de la mer salée (1975); 1916-1917: 3. Sous le signe du Capricorne (1979); 4. 1917: Corto toujours un peu plus loin (1979); 5. 1917-1918: Les Celtiques (1980); 6. 1918: Les Éthiopiques (1978); 7. 1918-1920: Corto Maltese en Sibérie (1979); 8. 1921: Fable de Venise (Sirat al Bunduqyyiah) (1981); 9. 1921-1922: La Maison dorée de Samarkand (1986); 10. 1923: Tango (1987); 11. 1924: Les Helvétiques (1988); 12. 1925: Mû (1992).
We can also find books with short stories: 1. Suite Carïbéenne; 2. Sous le drapeau des pirates; 3. Lointaines îles du vent; 4. La Lagune des mystères.

terça-feira, 20 de julho de 2010

China - 中国

Last Painting

Van Dog


Click to read it (in Portuguese)

quinta-feira, 15 de julho de 2010

Blake & Mortimer


If you love the work of Blake & Mortimer and you know how to read French, you'll love this site. Please click HERE.

quinta-feira, 8 de julho de 2010

Van Dog


Click to read it (in Portuguese)

terça-feira, 6 de julho de 2010

Beckett


"Directed by Charles Sturridge, Ohio Impromptu, written in 1980,by Samuel Beckett opens with a figure clad in black with long white hair hiding his face and sitting on a white chair at a white table. There are two characters, the Reader and the Listener."

domingo, 27 de junho de 2010

sábado, 26 de junho de 2010

segunda-feira, 21 de junho de 2010

Van Dog


Click to read it (in Portuguese)

domingo, 20 de junho de 2010

Amazing Fox!



Amazing archaeological discovery! In Turkey, German archeologists found what looks like a "sanctuary", the first sanctuary built by men, thousands years before Stonehenge or Newgrange... It was built 11.500 years ago and it is known by the weird name of Göbekli Tepe (it means "Hill with a potbelly"). It's amazing because it was established by hunter-gatherers, nomadic people, before the advent of sedentarism, long before the first cities.
And you can predict by the following image that they like foxes.
It is really an old fox! :)



To know more about the subject click HERE (Smithsonian mag) or in Wikepedia.

sábado, 19 de junho de 2010

Oriental Studies/Estudos Orientais


For more information (in Portuguese), click HERE.

sexta-feira, 18 de junho de 2010

Van Dog


Click to read it (in Portuguese)

quinta-feira, 17 de junho de 2010

Charm




I'm thrilled because this blog received the Charm Prize. Thanks to the blog Through the Window.
An now the prize goes to:

Azul Porcelana
blog@conceição
Folhas Perdidas
Imagens com Texto
Traços e Cores
Van Dog

and last, but not the least:
Through the Window

sexta-feira, 11 de junho de 2010

Van Dog


Click to read it (in Portuguese)

sábado, 5 de junho de 2010

sexta-feira, 4 de junho de 2010

Macedonia





St. George's Island in Macedonia (Republica of Macedonia). As you can see, this beautiful island is the real motive of the painting "Isle of the Dead" from Arnold Böcklin. See my last post on Böcklin (May 31th)

An Idea...

quinta-feira, 3 de junho de 2010

USA vs UK

Nirvana



"There is a realm, where there is neither the solid (earth), nor the fluid (water), neither heat (fire), nor motion (wind), neither this world, nor any other world, neither sun, nor moon. This I call neither arising, nor passing away, neither standing still nor being born, nor dying. There is neither foothold, nor development, nor any basis. This is the end of suffering.
There is an Unborn, Unoriginated, Uncreated, Unformed. If there were not this Unborn, this Unoriginated, this Uncreated, this Unformed, escape from the world of the born, the originated, the created, the formed, would not be possible.
But since there is an Unborn, Unoriginated, Uncreated, Unformed, therefore is escape possible from the world of the born, the
originated, the created, the formed."
The Buddha (Udana)

terça-feira, 1 de junho de 2010

The Power of our Imagination


Click it!

The German painter Stephan Lochner (1440-1451) never had seen a lion in his life. But as a mediaeval painter (school of Cologne, gothic art) he was familiar with the topic, Saint Jerome and the Lion. So he decided to paint one with his own imagination... This story is narrated by Tom Regan to exemplify the difference between our knowledge of animals in the past and in the present. And how this knowledge matters...

Van Dog


Click it (the comic strip is in Portuguese).

segunda-feira, 31 de maio de 2010

Isle of the Dead



When I saw for the first time these two paintings, I thought to myself: "it is impossible to know by the Internet how a painting really looks". But then I realise that there are five versions of this famous symbolist painting, and we're seeing in this post the first (1880) and the fifth (1888). Arnold Böcklin is also the author of the painting: Isle of the Living (Die Lebensinsel, 1888), but it is not so beautiful as "Isle of the Dead" (Die Toteninsel). Lost fans, please be aware of the driver from Oceanic (last episode) with the name "Bocklin".