Category Archives: Figures

The Bather

Posted on April 20, 2024 by Brian

The Bather, Albert Toft, 1915, Victoria and Albert Museum. Toft (1862-1949) was an apprentice at the Wedgewood factory where his father was the principal modeller.  He studied at the National Art Training School (later the Royal College of Art).  A … Continue reading →

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White Tara (Sitatara)

Posted on April 15, 2024 by Brian

White Tara (Sitatara), Malla Period, 1300-1400, Victoria and Albert Museum. Tara was widely worshipped in Nepal and Tibet.  She is referred to as the Wisdom Goddess, the Embodiment of Perfected Wisdom, the Goddess of Universal Compassion and the Mother of all … Continue reading →

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Durga as Mahisasuramardini

Posted on April 1, 2024 by Brian

Durga as Mahisasuramardini, Hoysala period, 1240-60, Victoria and Albert Museum. The goddess Durga represents the shakti or female energy of the god Shiva.  Here she is shown in her ferocious form as the slayer of the shape-shifting demon Mahishasura.  She … Continue reading →

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Water Nymph

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Brian

Water Nymph, Jean Goujon, 1547-49, Victoria and Albert Museum.  The original stone reliefs were part of the decoration of a public fountain in Paris.  Goujon’s style seems to take inspiration from Italian sculpture.

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Mercury and Psyche

Posted on March 11, 2024 by Brian

Mercury and Psyche, Adriaen de Vries, 1593 (V&A Museum).  The winged messenger of the gods, Mercury, carries Psyche to be reunited with her lover, Cupid.  The entwined figures create a sense of movement and demonstrate De Vries’s compositional skill.  The … Continue reading →

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Eve

Posted on February 28, 2024 by Brian

Eve Listening to the Voice of Adam, John Hedges Baily, 1842 (V&A Museum).  ‘This sculpture illustrates a scene from John Milton’s poem “Paradise Lost”.  Turning to Adam to describe “a shape within the watery gleam”, Eve is told it is … Continue reading →

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Crouching Venus

Posted on February 18, 2024 by Brian

The Crouching Venus, John Nost the Elder, 1702, Victoria and Albert Museum.  Flemish sculptor Nost the Elder came to Britain in the 1680s.  This work was inspired by an original Roman sculpture in the Royal Collection.  It is one of … Continue reading →

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Psyche

Posted on February 4, 2024 by Brian

Psyche by Francis Derwent Wood, 1908-19, in the V and A Museum.  Wood first displayed the figure as a plaster work at the royal Academy in 1908.  Its style is indebted to Italian Renaissance and contemporary French sculpture.  Psyche was … Continue reading →

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Lille

Posted on January 24, 2024 by Brian

Mining the Diaries 83: France Couvent des Minimes Alliance, Lille, France, 22nd March 2012 Impressions of an amble round historic Lille. The Vielle Bourse: The former building of the Lille Chamber of Commerce and Industry. A quadrangle with an inner … Continue reading →

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Figures – Agriculture

Posted on January 22, 2024 by Brian

Bronze of an African woman representing Agriculture, by Czech sculptor and designer Franta Anýž (1876 – 1934), at the entrance of the building on the Via Roma, Trieste built in 1914 by the Živnostenská banka of Prague, now the offices … Continue reading →

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Lot’s Wife

Posted on January 1, 2024 by Brian

‘The sculpture depicts the biblical story of Lot’s wife, who turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back at Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities which represented sinful ways.  Thornycroft was one of the leading figures of the New … Continue reading →

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Figures – Porserpina

Posted on December 23, 2023 by Brian

Figure from The Rape of Porserpina, which shows Pluto, the king of the underworld, carrying off Ceres’ daughter with whom he had fallen in love.  Statue in the V&A made around 1565; probably based on a model by Vincenzo de’ … Continue reading →

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Figures – Vertumnus and Pomona

Posted on December 15, 2023 by Brian

‘Vertumnus was the shape-shifting Roman god of seasons.  He tricked the nymph Pomona into talking to him by disguising himself as an old woman, but then removed his mask.’  Victoria and Albert Museum

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U3AC Photo Forum 2023-24 – Week 10

Posted on December 11, 2023 by Brian

The brief for today was have a look at some fun pictures – defined as anything members of the class thought entertaining, e.g. images creatively edited or amusing shots, the more Christmas themed, the better.  The only limitations was that … Continue reading →

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The Gaze

Posted on November 27, 2023 by Brian

Hercules and Galatea revisited, see post 14th April 2022.

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