Nigel Bruce - Two Miles High (Page 20)

Two Miles High

Nigel Bruce

Goethe and 'The Rape of Ganymede'

The Judgment of Paris

Goethe and 'The Rape of Ganymede'

It is difficult to miss the homosexual theme in the painting below, The Rape of Ganymede by Rubens (1611), where the eagle is Zeus, but most major painters and writers treated the theme at some point in their career. So what, then, was on Goethe's mind when he

Rubens' 'The Virgin as the Woman of the Apocalypse'

A Tale of Two Women

Rubens' 'The Virgin as the Woman of the Apocalypse'

Rubens' The Virgin as the Woman of the Apocalypse (1623-24): a new Virgin Mary for the Counter-Reformation era. She is accompanied by the warrior Archangel Saint Michael, along with two other warrior women, and God is at the top. She is a Virgo Bellatrix who doesn't need

Sacred Geometry

Dreaming of the Virgin Mary

Sacred Geometry

Sacred Geometry is the notion that the divine can be found in art, music, landscapes, pretty much anything. In architecture and astronomy, the metaphors are usually horizontal or numerical in nature, often reflecting the idea that the earth below could reflect the heavens above, such as pagan circles (like the

'Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam'

'Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam'

Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam is set in Calcutta (now Kolkata) and it is Bollywood's Citizen Kane. It traces a historical arc, from the turn of the 20th century, when the British Raj was at its tipping point, through 1962 when the film came out, when India was suffering

'Sailing to Byzantium'

Dreaming of the Virgin Mary

'Sailing to Byzantium'

Arguably the most brilliant poem ever written about aging, W.B. Yeats' Sailing to Byzantium (written 1926-27) is about sailing off into eternity. Yeats died in 1939. I deliberately chose the image below not from Byzantium itself, because Byzantium is a state of mind. To attempt to identify its

Saint Catherine of Alexandria

Voices and Saints

Saint Catherine of Alexandria

Saint Catherine is the original patron saint of philosophers and students, anorexics and bulimics, who still struggle with that wheel. She developed a popular following during the Crusades, prior to her encounter with Joan of Arc and she merits a revival today. However, many paintings and altarpieces of Saint Catherine

Saint Margaret of Antioch

Voices and Saints

Saint Margaret of Antioch

I have included a selection of paintings of St. Margaret and in none of them does she have a hair out of place, let alone blood on her dress. Below is Raphael's version from around 1518. Supposedly she has just survived being eaten alive by Satan in the

Voices and Saints

Saint-Denis

Saint-Denis on Notre Dame holding his head... This image is circa 1475-1500 by miniature painter Jean Bourdichon.

Sacred Prostitute

Sainte-Baume

The sacred grotto of Sainte-Baume (Grotte Sanctuaire de la Sainte-Baume) is at the foot of a massif a little southeast of the small town of Plan-d'Aups-Sainte-Baume and it's not easy to visit. The grotto or cave is a 45-minute drive southwest of the town of St.

Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer

Sacred Prostitute

Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer

This small town on the Camargue coast of southern France has an official population of less than 3,000 people for much of the year, but it swells to almost 80,000 in May and through the summer holidays. The Gypsy (Romani) tradition is important here: if the Romani first

Salome and Judith - and David

Sacred Prostitute

Salome and Judith - and David

Above is a painting of Salome holding the severed head of John the Baptist, by Titian early in his career, around 1515. Or at least that is the popular view. She appears in a sensual madonna-like pose. An alternative view argues that it is in fact Judith with the Head

Caravaggio and decapitation

Sacred Prostitute

Caravaggio and decapitation

Caravaggio's Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist was painted at the end of his career, around 1610 and there is a similar one in Madrid. He had explored much the same idea in many of his earlier paintings like Judith Beheading Holofernes (the sad fate

Salome in modern paintings

Salome in modern paintings

Early Christian accounts of Salome do not feature any erotic dances, but by medieval times she has most of her clothes off and she is a dangerous temptress. That reputation stayed with her through the centuries, and it's fair to say she was always very popular. Gustave Flaubert,

Salvador Dalí and Hitchcock's 'Spellbound'

Dreaming of the Virgin Mary

Salvador Dalí and Hitchcock's 'Spellbound'

Dalí was surely the greatest painter of dreams. The image below was one of his studies for Hitchcock's Spellbound in 1944. Is blue the color of dreams? To see how it was used in the film, click here and look at the back of the image. Up top

'Salvator Mundi'

Angel Incarnate

'Salvator Mundi'

This small painting has been the subject of much debate: is it by Leonardo or not? It was restored and revealed in 2011 and it has many of his trademarks - the focusing gaze directly back at the painter and the viewer, the soft and gentle hues of the face,

Samuel Butler's Erewhon

Splendour in the Grass

Samuel Butler's Erewhon

Erewhon in Samuel Butler’s satiric fantasy of 1872 bears no resemblance to high country New Zealand really, for all the rapt descriptions of thundering rivers, glaciers and rugged peaks on the way there. For one thing, there are many people in Erewhon: "Both the girls and the men

Voices and Saints

Sanssouci

Voltaire wrote the bawdy poem The Maid of Orleans (La Pucelle d'Orléans) initially in 1730 and it was instantly popular. But, by 1740, there were hundreds of varying versions in circulation. Maybe it appealed to Frederick the Great? Voltaire spent a lot of his time after that in

Sappho

Below is Sappho by French painter Charles Mengin in 1877. It pretty much captures her racy reputation throughout the 19th century. Although it was said that Sappho wrote love poems to her female students, this painting chooses to illustrate a story that said she threw herself into the sea when

Scandalous 16th Century Italian Murders

Precious Bodily Fluids

Scandalous 16th Century Italian Murders

Desdemona was not the only celebrated woman murdered by her husband in 16th century Italy. There were many others and here are some of them. A few have stayed around as ghosts. First, there was Laura Lanza, Baroness of Carini (in Sicily), and her lover Ludovico, who were murdered in

Second Vatican Council

Second Vatican Council

From the Second Vatican Council declaration: "True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ; still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today. Although the Church is

Seiðr and Force Fields

Loki's Children

Seiðr and Force Fields

Seiðr was magic associated with women in pre-Christian Scandinavia. In the Norse myths the dwarves and elves understood it, as did the hero Sigurd after he killed the dragon Fafnir and bathed in its blood, and so too did the goddess Freyja. It involved trances and prophecy and the potential

Select illustrations for other 'Beauty and the Beast' versions

Beauty & the Beast

Select illustrations for other 'Beauty and the Beast' versions

Who were the greatest illustrators of children's books during the golden age of the late 19th century/early 20th century? Below is a selection of English illustrators: Walter Crane Arthur Rackham Randolph Caldecot, after whom the Caldecot Medal is named John Tenniel of Alice in Wonderland fame Charles

Yaoi and Danmei: now it can get you arrested in China

Women in Trousers

Yaoi and Danmei: now it can get you arrested in China

China has been arresting young women in their Twenties who write gay erotica - danmei. It's been around for years in Japan as yaoi (BL) without incident. As BBC writers put it (here): Haitang and danmei have flourished as uniquely female spaces, although they centre male protagonists. In