The Pillar-Biter (1509-1517), seen on the lower part of the choir screen of St. Bavo Church, Haarlem, the Netherlands.
A common motif in late medieval and early modern Northern European art is the “pillar-biter.” Usually, the pillar-biter is depicted as a man who clings to a column while biting into it, but there are also representations of men and women who embrace or kiss columns. In the iconographic literature, the motif is usually linked to religious hypocrisy and the dissimulation of piety.
Divers exploring the submerged ruins near Alexandria, Egypt, have recently captured stunning photographs of a Greek statue from the ancient city of Heracleion, also known as Thonis.
CARBON COPY is a sculpture by Caitlind r.c. Brown and Wayne Garrett, installed in the Brewery District of Edmonton, Canada, in 2018. The lights of the 1988 Plymouth Caravelle glow, and a laser in the front seat scans the pavement every 20 seconds.
“CARBON COPY transforms an unremarkable suburban car into an illuminated obelisk, a monument to North America’s car-centric culture.”
[Update: Image is NOT Isabella Eugénie Boyer; see below.]
The face of the Statue of Liberty. Isabella Boyer’s life is like an exciting novel. She was born in Paris, the daughter of an African pastry chef and an English mother. Isabella had a special beauty and, at age 20, she married Isaac Singer, the sewing machine maker, who was 50 years old. After Singer’s death, Isabella became the richest woman in the country. It is not surprising that she was chosen as the model for the Statue of Liberty, as she embodied the American dream. Widowed, Isabella traveled the world and married the Dutch violinist Victor Robstett, becoming a countess. He became a prominent figure in America and Europe, and met the French sculptor Frédéric Bartholdi at a world event. Bartholdi, impressed by her beauty and history, used her face as a model for the Statue of Liberty. Isabella married a third time and died in Paris in 1904 at age 62, but her face lives on in the iconic statue in New York, symbolizing freedom and American pride.
UPDATE: The top image appears to be the work of Bas Uterwijk and is an A.I. generated image of Aphrodite, not Isabella Eugénie Boyer (who may or may not have been the model for the Statue of Liberty).
Isabella Eugénie Boyer (1841-1904)
More about the viral photo here, here and here.
[h/t Gabriel]
“By Antony Gormley, just some of the 40,000 clay figures from part of the ’Field for the British Isles’ on loan from Arts Council Collection, it’s being shown in three of the National Trust’s Barrington Court rooms currently in Ilminster, England.”
Tacky Raccoons 