09_019 YOUR COMMENTS 2005 1st half
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First British Euro advances? Gibraltar, in memory of the first Anniversary of the inauguration of the Euro, minted in 2003 a two-Crowns coin with Europa riding the bull, placed in a star with smaller stars around it like the European flag.
09_01
The coin is bimetallic silver/cupper. The mintage consists of 3,500 pieces
Gibraltar,january,2005 From a British/European subject . _______________________
OPERA:
Europa Riconosciuta at the reopening of the Scala in Milano on 7 dec.
2004.
This opera of Antonio Salieri, with a libretto of Mattia
Verazi was written and performed for the opening of the teatro alla Scala di
Milano on 3 aug; 1778. It was built under the auspices of the empress
Maria-Theresia.of Austria-Hungary . It is only fitting to bring this opera
again by the reopening of the Scala in remembrance of its first opening 206
years ago. .
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The libretto starts with the boatwreckage for Tyre. On the boat are Asterios, king of Crete with his wife the Phoenician princess Europa claiming the town Tyre after the death of king Agenor. Agenor's sons, looking for their sister Europa, after her disappearance, did not come back. Semele, a niece of Europa, has been appointed successor to the throne by Agenor. Isseos, the former fiancé of Europa, is designed to marry Semele. Europa and Asterios become embroilled in the amorous problems of semele and Isseos. Asterios is emprisionned and conducted to the temple to be killed. After an infight Europa gives up her rights to the throne and returns with her husband to Crete Performances continue up to 15 january, 2005.
FRENCH LITERATURE.
Anacréon, Sapho, Bion et Moschus, traduction nouvelle en prose par M. J.J. Moutonnet de Clairfonds, chez Le Boucher, Paris, 1773.
His translation of ODE XXXV Sur un tableau d'Europe, has probably been derived from the Latin version of the French humanist and printer Henri Estienne II, 1531-1598, who translated the poem from a Greek poem in a 10th century manuscript of a pseudo Anacréon of an earlier period In modern english the poem would read about as follows:
"This bull must be Jupiter: he carries upon his back a young Sidonian maiden; crosses the wide ocean & his feet cleave the waves. Another bull would hardly leave his meadows in order to swim through the billows: only Jupiter could have attempted it."
09_02
An engraving by Jean Massard, 1740-1822, accompanies his translation of the long poem Europa of Moschus of the 2nd century BC. The engraving is made after a drawing of Charles Eisen, 1720-1778, who also illustrated Ovid's Metamorphoses
Chinon, 4 february 2005. Catalogue France Antiques, France
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The French painter of the symbolic school Emile René Menard, 1862-1930, Paris is mentioned by name in my book, p.189, but only with a pencil drawing and a pastel. At the Foire des Antiquaires de Belgique of January, 2005, the Antwerp antiquaire Victor Werner showed a painting in a neo-classical style with symbolic overtones
09_03
The oil is H. 81 - L.117 cm Brussels, 4 february, 2005 .
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American colonial rug hooking. The art of hand-made hooked rugs started a 200 years ago in the New England states and the maritime provinces of Canada. Originally the house made rugs were used for warm bed-covers and sturdy floor coverings. Around the beginning of the 20th century the handcraft almost died out, but in the 1930's there was a rivival and the craft, which started as an economic necessity, became an artform for the now more affluent households. One of the foremost handcraft artists is Jule Marie Smith from Ballston Spa, New york. Her work can be found at artgalleries and museums in the US, Canada and London
09_04
Jule Marie Smith, The Rape of Europe 1995 .The rush of the moment is rendered by the tossed flowers and a lost shoe. .
American Traditional Hooking Associa. March, 2005, Endicott NY 13760
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Franz von Bayros captured the Europa-myth in his Götterliebschaften. It is a publication of ten drawings of the loves of gods and halfgods, facsimile-phototypes numbered from 1 to 550. The first 40 being signed by the artist and issued by Arthur Wolf Verlag, Wien, 1913.
09_05
Marquis Franz von Bayros was born in Zagreb, Croatia in 1868 and died in Wien in 1924. He became known as a graphic artist and illustrator, following in the foodsteps of Aubrey Beardsly, a generation earlier, and the school of Decadents. He was married to Alice, daughter of Anton Strauss. He also used the pseudonyme Choisy le Conin.
Wien 2 april, Hanz Brückstein.
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Michael Parker,1944- , Silkeston, Kansas. He is a painter, illustrator, sculptor, working since 1975 in Spain. His work is called magic- realism;
09_06
Europa blindfolded in a magical world. The bull is not swimming but flying.
Oil on wood, 1980.
Mai, 2005 Internet reader
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The Dutch referendum on the EU-constitution inspired Jana Beranova, a Czech /Dutch writer to a poem of Europa in the Dutch language. She starts out with the European myth.
"Keep the reigns tight, Europa, maiden. - On the earthly divine bull -Your Zeus with Tsycho Brahe's nose 1). - Who looses himself in the stars.- Also back than, no easy going ."
.In the end she hopes, idealistically, that we can live without laws or constitution peaceful together
"To force a constitution in between, where? - Between the cliffs? Between the sparrows? - A dragonfly trapped in a hand is lame. - Give us the sceptre to be ourselves - where all your countries can live, thanks. "
1)Tsycho Brahe, 16th c. Danish astronomer with an ugly nose.
Jana Beranova, 1935- , was born in Czechia, fled to France in 1948, and in the fifties to Holland. She translated Czechian literature, like Kundera, and since the eighties she issued novels and poetry in Dutch.
De Volkskrant 21 May, 2005
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A Terracotta statuette of Europe snuggling on the back of a lying bull came recently into the possession of the Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, South Caroline, US.
09_07
This statuette in the romantic style of the 19th century is from the French sculptor ................. Hubert-Noël Louis, 1839-1925. It measures 13,5 -16,5-6,5 inches. This seize of terracotta statuettes were often used as a model for bronze or marble statues. So far such a statue has not come to the fore. So if anybody can give more information on such a statue plse do.
Columbia,US, june 2005 Museum of Art