From rq: Before we get to the chapel, I have to walk you through the map tapestries and the odd creatures found therein. Amazing, so beautiful. Click for full size!
© rq, all rights reserved.
Affinity
Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
From rq: Before we get to the chapel, I have to walk you through the map tapestries and the odd creatures found therein. Amazing, so beautiful. Click for full size!
© rq, all rights reserved.
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I was working in low light with a bad camera, so apologies for the colour-shift in the first few. I am rather proud of my relatively steady hands, though. ;)
It’s the calligraphy bee that captured my attention in the last one.
It has always fascinated me how often the old gods showed up all over the vatican environs, like Poseidon in the 4th shot.
They’re in much of the artwork everywhere. There’s a whole room, dominated by a Roman era (one of them, at any rate) bronze statue of Hercules, dedicated to the whole pantheon (or, like, the main gods, at least, and all the horoscope signs). You can definitely see the pagan roots and connections, before it was all christianity.
I really do love that, that in the midst of all of the catholic stuff, the old gods still ruled.
Interesting labels I can’t read. Someone light the cartomancer signal!
Considering the scale of the map they certainly had humungous ships back then.
The maps are huge! They’re about 2m by 3m (bad estimate, probably larger) and they each depict only a small portion of Italy. And woven tapestries -- the detail was mind-boggling. So many artist-hours behind the work.
Those are amazing. I regularily drive past the Cloisters where the Unicorn Tapestries are housed. I have not seen them for 30+ years. But I reminds me that I must get back to the Cloisters and then see Sistine for the first time.
Fascinating. And you should indeed be proud of your steady hands, these are remarkably sharp. :)
These are wonderful.