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"2 A. M. in the Subway is a one shot, 53 second-long comedy filmed, and probably directed, by Billy Bitzer on 5 June 1905 at the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company's (AM&B;) studio on 14th Street (Manhattan) in New York City. Likely intended as a slightly racy, and therefore rather typical, subject for AM&B;'s peepshow machine, The Mutoscope, 2 A. M. in the Subway is a vignette of New York City's night life that still resonates with New Yorkers more than a century later. Plot summary A tired cop and a subway conductor are seen waiting at a subway platform, late at night. The conductor opens the doors to the train at left, and out steps an obviously drunk man, played by Sidney Olcott,http://www.sidneyolcott.com/Bio2.htm carried between two women in fancy dress. The cop begins to mix it up with the three of them, and they are interrupted by another man in a bowler hat; he is carrying a large package and steps onto the train to the right after greeting the two women and the drunk man. One of the women steps forward into the frame and lifts up her skirt so that the drunk man can tie her shoe. This gets the attention of the cop, who hustles the three of them onto the train; meanwhile what appears to be a pair of bare legs stick out from a window of a train car and are quickly withdrawn. The cop just manages to notice this, and calls all parties back out to the platform where it is revealed that the man in the bowler hat has a pair of department store mannequin's legs with him. Historical background On May 21, 1905, Billy Bitzer had made his film Interior N.Y. subway, 14th St. to 42nd St. from the front of a New York City Subway car; at that point the Subway itself had been open only seven months. The very day that subject was submitted for copyright, this one was made at the Biograph studio; it was copyrighted on 20 June. Although the six actors involved are unidentified, aside from Sidney Olcott, the action is obviously tightly coordinated in order to get all of the action into such a short subject. AM&B; sent two paper prints of this film for copyright, and the better of the two copies was rephotographed for preservation.http://memory.loc.gov/mbrs/varsmp/0896.mov References External links * Category:American silent short films Category:American films Category:1905 films Category:American black-and-white films Category:American comedy films Category:1905 comedy films Category:1900s short films "
"The Taddei Tondo or The Virgin and Child with the Infant St John is a marble relief tondo (circular composition) of the Madonna and Child and the infant Saint John the Baptist, by the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti. It is in the permanent collection of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, it is the only marble sculpture by Michelangelo in Great Britain. A "perfect demonstration" of his carving technique, the work delivers a "powerful emotional and narrative punch". Physical history The tondo dates to Michelangelo's time in Florence before his move to Rome in 1505. According to Vasari, while working on his David, "also at this time he blocked out but did not finish two marble tondi, one for Taddeo Taddei, today in his house, and for Bartolomeo Pitti he began another... which works were considered outstanding and marvellous"."et ancora in questo tempo abbozzò e non finì due tondi di marmo, uno a Taddeo Taddei, oggi in casa sua, et a Bartolomeo Pitti ne cominciò un altro... le quali opere furono tenute egregie e mirabili" To the lower right of the back of the relief is a ligature combining the letters L and A, probably the mark of another carver or dealer, and most likely the initials of Lapo d'Antonio di Lapo, active at the Opera del Duomo and for a short period in 1506/7 one of Michelangelo's assistants. A chisel blow on the reverse seemingly from this earlier phase resulted in a hairline crack in the face of the Virgin that may only have become apparent as carving progressed. It is uncertain whether Michelangelo, known for his concern for his materials, was constrained by a shortage of ready alternatives or more accepting of flaws and confident in his ability to work round them after his success with the damaged block for David. The missing segment to the bottom right may be a result of an excess of his celebrated "direct attack", while the five holes in the outer rim are variously dated and were intended for fixings. In 1568 the tondo was still in the Palazzo Taddei, but by 1678 the family had moved to a new address near San Remigio. At an unknown date the tondo was taken to Rome, where it was acquired from Jean-Baptiste Wicar by Sir George Beaumont in 1822. Initially hung at Beaumont's house in Grosvenor Square, it was bequeathed to the Academy in 1830 and installed at Somerset House, before moving with the Academy to the east wing of the new National Gallery building in 1836, where it remained until the Academy relocated to Burlington House in 1868. It has been housed and displayed in various locations there ever since, except for an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1960. The discovery of the hairline crack running through the upper half of the marble contributed to the decision in 1989 to provide a permanent home for the tondo. Subsequently the tondo was cleaned with dichloromethane swabs and clay poultices to remove residues of nineteenth-century plaster casts and their oil-based release agents, packing materials, traces of beeswax and pine resin adhesives, and other surface accretions. The tondo was left unwaxed and no other coating applied, as the work is not "finished" and was not originally polished. Since the opening of the Sackler Wing of Galleries in 1991, the tondo has been on free public display in a purpose-built area on the top floor, positioned for reasons of preventive conservation behind protective glass, to combat the effects of air pollution and the possibility of vandalism. Description The tondo as a format for painting and relief sculpture was a quintessential product of the Florentine Renaissance. For a century from around 1430 all the leading artists, including Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Luca Signorelli, Piero di Cosimo, Fra Bartolomeo, Andrea del Sarto, Leonardo da Vinci (in a lost work), and Raphael, painted tondi. In the same few years that Michelangelo executed his only panel painting documented in contemporary sources, the Doni tondo, he sculpted the Pitti and Taddei tondi - but he did not return to the form. The tondo depicts a seated Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus dynamically sprawled across her lap, turning and looking back over his right shoulder towards the infant Saint John the Baptist, who stands before him looking down and holding a fluttering bird. Compositionally, the eye of the viewer is drawn diagonally along Christ's body, back up that of his mother, with her gaze across to John, and from his face back to Christ. John, patron saint of Florence, with his attribute of a baptismal bowl, crosses his arms, perhaps in allusion to the cross. Most likely it is a goldfinch not a dove that he holds - Christian symbolism sees in this bird a representation of the Passion \- the piece of marble below might then have been intended as a crown of thorns. Executed with only a point and claw chisel, often driven hard and with great energy, the combination helps create a sense of "surface unity" unbroken by the use of the drill. The Christ child in full relief is highly finished, the shallower relief of the Virgin finished to a lesser degree, St. John more so again, while the background is roughly executed. These marked variations in texture help establish the relative status of the three figures while creating a sense of compositional depth all the greater for not being more conventionally "finished". Many of Michelangelo's works are unfinished. According to nineteenth-century French sculptor and critic Eugène Guillaume, Michelangelo's "non finito" was "one of the master's expressive devices in his quest for infinite suggestiveness". Reception and influence Taddeo Taddei was patron and friend of Raphael, who studied and reworked the tondo in two drawings, the versi of The Storming of Perugia in the Louvre and of compositional studies for the Madonna del Prato at Chatsworth House. Raphael returned to the twisting body of the Christ child stretching across his mother's lap in the Bridgewater Madonna. Shortly after its arrival in England, the tondo was sketched by Wilkie, who wrote to Beaumont "your important acquisition of the basso-relievo of Michael Angelo is still the chief talk of all our artists. It is indeed a great addition to our stock of art, and is the only work that has appeared in this northern latitude to justify the great reputation of its author". Cockerell noted in his diary how "the subject seems growing from the marble & emerging into life. It assumes by degrees its shape, features from an unformed mass, as it were you trace & watch its birth from the sculptor's mind". Shortly after its arrival at the Royal Academy, the tondo was sketched by Constable, who published a letter in the Athenaeum of 3 July 1830 praising the way it was lit, "showing the more finished parts to advantage, and causing those less perfect to become masses of shadow, having at a distance all the effect of a rich picture in chiaroscuro". With its differing degrees of finish the tondo is an outstanding technical study piece; plaster casts may be found at the Victoria and Albert Museum and Fitzwilliam Museum. Gallery File:Wilkie Sketch of Michelangelo Taddei Tondo.jpgSketch by Sir David Wilkie (c.1823) File:Constable Sketch of Michelangelo's Taddei Tondo.jpgSketch by John Constable (1830) See also * Pitti Tondo * Doni Tondo Notes References External links * Taddei Tondo (Royal Academy of Arts Collections) Category:1506 works Category:Sculptures by Michelangelo Category:Sculptures in London Category:Nude art Category:Marble sculptures in the United Kingdom Category:Royal Academy Category:16th-century sculptures Category:Statues of the Madonna and Child Category:Sculptures depicting John the Baptist Category:Nude sculptures Category:Sculptures of children in the United Kingdom "
"Khafre Enthroned Khafre Enthroned is a funerary statue of the Pharaoh Khafre, who reigned during the Fourth dynasty of ancient Egypt (c. 2570 BC). It is now located in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The construction is made of anorthosite gneiss, (related to diorite) a valuable, extremely hard, and dark stone brought 400 miles down the Nile River from royal quarries. This highlights Khafre's importance and power as a ruler. The statue was carved for the Pharaoh's valley temple near the Great Sphinx, a part of the necropolis (a funerary city) used in funeral rituals. This Old Kingdom statue has an important function in Egyptian tombs as substitute abodes for the Pharaoh's ka—the life force that accompanied a person with a kind of other self. After death, the ka leaves the body into the afterlife, but still needs a place to rest: the statue. This sculpture, depicted in-the-round (versus relief sculpture) shows Khafre seated, one of the basic formulaic types used during the Old Kingdom to show the human figure.Van Keuren, Dr. Frances. "ARHI 3000: Ancient Art." MyWeb. Office, Visual Arts Building, East Campus, N324, n.d. Web. 14 Nov 2010. <> Mummification played a huge role in the Egyptian culture, a 70-day process to ensure immortality for the pharaoh. Starting in the 3rd millennium BCE, if the pharaoh's mummy was damaged, a ka statue was created to "ensure immortality and permanence of the deceased’s identity by providing a substitute dwelling place for the ka".Kleiner, Fred S. Gardner's Art Through the Ages Western Edition. Thirteenth. 1. Cengage Learning, 2008. 62-63. Print. Khafre rigidly sits in his royal throne, gazing off into the distance. The pharaoh wears a linen nemes headdress, which cover most of his forehead and folds over his broad shoulders. This royal headdress depicts the uraeus, or cobra emblem, on the front along with the royal false beard attached at the end of his chiseled chin, all symbols which exemplify his royalty and divinity. Khafre wears a kilt covering his waist, revealing his idealized upper body and muscle definition. This depiction is not a portrait, but a symbol of Khafre's power through using the artistic conventions of Egypt—a flawless body, perfectly un-aged face, and ideal body proportions. The Egyptian idealized portraiture is not meant to record individualized features, but instead proclaim the divine nature of Egyptian kingship. Two stylized lions’ bodies form the throne Khafre sits on, creating a sturdy base. Lotus plants (symbolic of Upper Egypt) and papyrus plants (symbolic of Lower Egypt) grow between the legs of the throne, referring to the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt which ended the Egyptian Pre-Dynastic period. The god Horus, depicted as a falcon, protects the backside of Khafre's head with his wings, another reference to the united Egypt.Davies, Penelope J.E. (2007). Janson's history of art: western tradition, 7/e . Pearson. Besides the striking view of the falcon (unseen from the front) resting behind Khafre's head, Khafre's feet are emplaced upon a flat platform, engraved with 9-archery bows, representing the king's and kingdom's dominance over foreign/domestic enemy tribes, the nine bows. The symmetrical pharaoh shows no movement or change, suppressing all motion and time to create an eternal stillness; his strong build and permanent stance demonstrate no notion of time—Khafre is timeless, and his power will exist even in the afterlife. The pharaoh has an emotionless and ageless face, alluding to his non-chaotic, controlled empire and powerful leadership; the pharaoh has control over his domain. The statue is based upon compactness and solidity with few projecting parts; Khafre's block-like body is attached to the throne to last for eternity, creating one single structure. His arms rest on his thighs, directly facing the viewer in a rigid, frontal pose. The bilaterally symmetric statue, symbolizing order and control in the pharaoh, is the same on either side of the vertical axis of the statue, only differing in Khafre's clenched right fist. The tight profile and block-like aspect represent Khafre as a permanent being and part of the stone to keep his ka safe. Khafre will always exist, on earth and in the afterlife. The pharaoh's sculpture can be described as absolutely frontal, utterly immobile, and perfectly calm: the characteristics of Egyptian block statue.Dobbins, John. "Egyptian Art." Intro to Art History. University of Virginia. Charlottesville, VA. 13 Sept 2010 - 24 Nov 2010. Lecture. Creating Khafre Enthroned In order to create this sculpture in-the-round, the sculptor used the subtractive method. He began with a cube-shaped stone block of diorite. First, the sculptor drew the front, back, and two profile views of Khafre on the four vertical faces of the stone. After the sketched plans were made, the sculptor chiseled away the excess stone on all four sides until the plans came together, meeting at right angles. The last step was sculpting specific details of Khafre's body and face, carving the falcon god Horus, and other designs on the throne. The subtractive method allows the sculptor to create a block-like look for Khafre's ka statue, a standard for Egyptian sculpture during this time period. In addition to the subtractive method, abrasion, rubbing or grinding the surface was used to finish the product off. The diorite statue stands at a final height of five foot six. Khafre Enthroned in Context with the Funeral Procession Funerary Complex Khafre's ka statue, which would have been located in the Valley temple of Khafre, was only one part of an extremely intricate system used in Egyptian funerary rituals. Located at the Pyramids of Gizeh, the necropolis included the Valley Temple of Khafre, a mortuary temple, the Great Sphinx, and a causeway leading to the pyramid of Khafre. The Great Pyramids of Gizeh (Pyramids of Giza), located on the outskirts of present-day Cairo, are three enormous pyramids for three Egyptian pharaohs with multiple smaller ones, housing the mummies of the royal family and nobles. From largest to smallest, the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure are the most famous and dedicated to each god, respectively. Khafre's pyramid and tomb were designed as an eternal home for his mummy, where the serdab (chamber room) in the Valley Temple was meant to keep his ka statue. Unlike previous pyramids, such as the Stepped Pyramid of Djoser designed by the first known architect Imhotep, the Great Pyramids of Gizeh were not based upon the mastaba structure, a rectangular structure. The new, smoothly inclined surface of the tomb derives from a rectangular base, which is aligned by the four cardinal directions of the compass. The four sides finish at a pointed tip, referring to the emblem of the sun Re (Ra), called the ben-ben. These symbolic pyramids allowed the pharaoh's spirit to ascend to the heavens using the rays of the sun. The funeral procession carrying the pharaoh's mummy began east of the Nile River, where the sun is reborn every morning and where the Egyptian citizens live. Khafre's mummy would have crossed the Nile River, which was the ribbon of life separating the east from the west. The Nile was extremely important in Egyptian culture, for it provided fertility of the land and represented life for the people who used it. Because of its importance and symbol of life, it was used as part of the procession to bury the pharaoh. Khafre's body would then meet at the west side of the Nile, or the land of the dead. Every night, the sun sets and dies, which is why the western section of the city was dedicated to burying the dead. The horizontal axis of east to west was symbolic to the Egyptians, representing the cycle of life and eternalness of their leaders; every day the sun is born in the east and dies at night in the west, yet is again reborn in the east the next morning. The rhythm of the horizontal axis used in the funeral procession parallels with eternalness of the pharaoh. Once on the west bank of the Nile, Khafre's mummy would travel along the causeway, or pathway, passing by the Valley Temple of Khafre where the Khafre Enthroned statue would be located. Next along the causeway is the Great Sphinx, a creature with a Pharaoh head and cat body carved out of the living/natural rock of the area. Many believe that the face of the sphinx is actually Khafre, further honoring the Pharaoh in the funeral procession. Continuing along the causeway, the mummy and procession enter the Mortuary Temple of Khafre adjoining the pharaoh's pyramid. This is where offerings were made to the deceased pharaoh and further ceremonies performed. Sealing the mummy in the tomb of Khafre's pyramid, where his body and ka would peacefully rest for eternity, completed the funeral ritual. References Category:Sculptures of ancient Egypt Category:Egyptian Museum Category:Khafra "