Previously: two monks invent medieval art. MONK #1: hey how big are most eyes MONK #2: like on the human face? MONK #1: oh yes for sure the eyes people have on their faces MONK #2: oh man at least half the size of the face it's actually crazy how much of your face is just eyes definitely at least half MONK #1: thanks MONK #2: no problem…
MONK #1: what makes a woman beautiful MONK #2: nice eyes
long hair
red lips MONK #1: right definitely MONK #2: you know what's really hot though MONK #1: what MONK #2: women who don't have shoulders MONK #1: what
It was not until I found the "Waves in art" and "Paintings of nude females in the sea" categories on Wikimedia Commons that I realized how big a part of art was just women seeming sexually aroused by the ocean? Not even mermaids, it's a whole different thing.
You are presumably familiar enough with the story of Saul and David that I do not need to recount it for you here! The gist, for those of you unfamiliar, is that Saul was the big butch king of Israel in the long-ago, whose various misdeeds made him unfit for kingship, and God, via the prophet Samuel, selected the young and ruddy David son of Jesse to replace him.
Do you know what I am strongly not about? The entire motif of Memento mori in Western art history. You're familiar with the general premise, where supposedly Roman generals being fêted in the streets during a Triumph were followed about by servants whispering "Remember you will die", and then medieval artists picked up the theme and bunged a lot of skulls into their paintings.
Edmonia Lewis in her lifetime was an enigmatic, singular figure, a maker of art in pristine marble. Though highly educated, she allowed the contemporary press to portray her as a naïf savant; though black and female, she succeeded in exhibiting her sculpture alongside the upper crust on both sides of the Atlantic.
