New Vases, Silhouette d’Art
11 September 2023
‘-Klimt: Stoclet Frieze, the Tree of Life (1905). The symbolic tree of life is part of the decorative mosaic design in the dining room frieze of the 'Palais Stoclet' in Brussels. – Botticelli: the Birth of Venus (approx. 1486). The story has it that Botticelli was in love with Simonetta, Nobleman Marco Vespucci’s wife, his entire life. It is her that Venus was based on. She died ten years before Botticelli who, at his own request, was buried at her feet in the church of Ognissanti. – Escher: Sky and Water (1938). After 1936, Eschers realistic style and subject matter changed profoundly, when he drew the first of his famous ‘impossible realities’. Fascinated by the majolica tiling in the Alhambra, he became obsessed by the ideas that form the basis of the regular division of the plane, such as the crystallographic principles of shifting, glide- reflection and rotation. – Beardsley: "Lady in long dress". At the age of seven Beardsley was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which many see as a possible explanation for his unbridled urge to express himself. Without any education in arts he developed his passionate style of drawing, averse to the social and political equalization, and not being socially engaged as many of his contemporaries. (SDA46 Klimt – h. 28 cm. / Ø 12 cm., SDA47 Botticelli – h. 23.5 cm. / Ø 10 cm., SDA48 Escher – h. 27 cm. / Ø 10 cm., SDA49 Beardsley – h. 25.5 cm. / Ø 10 cm.)