“Like a Classical Sculpture”

Notes the website The Art Story about Frédéric Bazille's 1868 painting “Fisherman with a Net.”

Bazille was eager to demonstrate his capability as a figure painter and, in keeping with the efforts of the Realists and early Impressionists to situate the figure in an outdoor setting and to accurately depict the effect of light and other atmospheric phenomena, he chose this very unusual subject of a naked fisherman.

Depicting nudes in landscape settings was not new; in fact, the motif dates back at least to the Renaissance. What was novel was, as art historian Gary Tinterow explains, “making the relationship between the naked body and its setting as accurate as possible in terms of proportion, depth and light.”

The results of Bazille's efforts are two expertly constructed male nudes that conform to the exacting principles of the academy in terms of construction of the human figure. The contours of their bodies are sharply defined, unlike an Impressionist work and, while Bazille locates them in the outdoors, he places them in the shade while still demonstrating his prowess at depicting natural light as the sun pierces the canopy of the woods here and there.

The male figure in the foreground stands with his back to the viewer, looking for all the world like a classical sculpture. He holds a net, which is preparing to cast into the river, a practice that was evidently common along the Lez River outside of Montpellier.

Bazille wrote to his parents about this work, telling them how his friends complimented him on this painting. He submitted it as well as another painting, A View of the Village (1868), to the 1869 Salon but it was refused.

Years later, at the 1910 Paris Salon, the painter Suzanne Valadon saw Fisherman with a Net and produced a similar version of the painting [right].

See also the previous posts:
• “A Painting of a Desired, and Desiring, Subject”
• Yesteryear
• Beauty

Summer Herbs and Hare

Image: The Leveret.

Bel Homme

Image: Subject and photographer unknown.

Familiar

Few animals can have been given as many different names as the hare. Some are very localised and often the hare's alternative names are associated with cats. This is thought to be because both cats and hares have been linked with witches, as their familiars.

– Jill Mason
Excerpted from The Hare
p. 131

See also the previous posts:
• Creature of Mystery, Creature of Magic
• Usurper
• The Hare-Witch
• Hallowtide Transformations

Image: “Hare Familiar Nature Spirit” A5 notebook by Arabella Figg. Part of the company's “Ethereal Familiars” collection.

Morning Light

See also the previous posts:
• Morning Light – July 20, 2017
• Morning Light – November 8, 2011
• Morning Light – September 20, 2010
• Morning Light – May 3, 2010
• Morning Light – March 20, 2010
• Morning Light – June 18, 2009
• Morning Light – July 25, 2008

Images: Subjects and photographers unknown.

Harvest Hare

Winner of an Elle Decoration British Design Award in 2012, "Harvest Hare" by Mark Hearld is a single colour wallpaper, printed in the UK using water-based inks and paper from sustained forests.

Born in 1974, Mark Hearld studied illustration at Glasgow College of Art and then completed an MA in Natural History Illustration at the Royal College of Art.

Taking his inspiration from the flora and fauna of the British countryside, Mark works across a number of mediums, producing limited edition lithographic and linocut prints, unique paintings, collages and hand-painted ceramics. [Mark admires] artist/designers such as Bawden, Piper, Nash – artists well regarded for their forays into the world of commercial design.

Mark Hearld has recently completed commissions for Faber & Faber and Tate Museums. A children's book [Outside Your Window] illustrated by a series of Mark's unique collages was published by Walker Books in May 2012. In Autumn 2012 Merrell Books published Mark Hearld's Work Book – the first book devoted to Mark's work.

A short film about Mark's inspirations and working methods can be viewed here.

– Source

See also the previous posts:
• Hare Décor – July 12, 2012
• Running Hare – March 25, 2012
• Hare Décor – March 25, 2011
• Running Hare – November 21, 2009

Lammastide

Hoof and horn, hoof and horn,
all that dies shall be reborn

Lammastide — Lughnasadh — First Harvest.

Originally a festival celebrated by the Celts and Saxons, this day marks the first of three harvests in the annual solar cycle.

It is a festival of Light and Fire. We celebrate today by baking breads, crafting with our hands and pausing to give thanks to God – the One, the All – for the bounty we are receiving in our lives, particularly the bounty of this year.

This is a holiday to evaluate and release. We’re encouraged to reflect on what has grown throughout the year, what has not, and what we can still potentially gather in the coming months ahead.

Love and Light!

– Carlos Alberto Orama

Corn and grain, corn and grain,
all that falls shall rise again

Related Off-site Links:
Lughnasadh Blessings – Arianna Alexsandra Collins (Hearken to Avalon, July 28, 2017).
Lughnasadh and Lammas – Celestite (A Pagan Tapestry, July 31, 2010).

See also the previous post:
• Harvest Blessings

Image 1: Artist unknown.
Image 2: Wendy Andrews.
Image 3: Artist unknown.

Xōchipilli

The following is excerpted from Cassell’s Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol and Spirit.

Xōchipilli (also Naxcit-Xuchitl), Aztec Prince of Flowers, consort of the goddess Xōchiquetzal. . . . Xōchipilli is a god of flowers and sensual pleasures. He is the patron of entertainers – dancers, singers, actors, jugglers, gymnasts, and game-players (especially of the nexoxochitlaxiliztli, the “game of throwing flowers”). He is also the patron of perfumers. He delights in perfumes containing many exotic essences, called xochitlanamactli. Like other deities, Xōchipilli brings not only joy but also suffering, especially to those who fail to make sacrifices to him. They are likely to be stricken with venereal disease or hemorrhoids. In Nahuatl, hemorrhoids are referred to as xochiciutzlil, “the flowers of the anus.” Offerings to Xōchipilli include toasted corn bread and butterfly-shaped breads.

Xōchipilli was honored with Xōchiquetzal at the Xōchilhuitl festival as well as the Tecuilhuitontli. Held in the seventh month of the Aztec year, the Tecuilhuitontli was an unusual festival in that human sacrifice played no part in it. It was, in the words of Father Durán, “an occasion for enjoying the flowers which abounded in that season,” and in ancient texts was represented by “a man arranging [or men exchanging] flowers.” It was a time when great banquets were held which emphasized dainty and exotic dishes and when flowers, “mantles, breechcloths, and jewels” were exchanged. Hierodules wearing flower garlands and “elaborately embroidered huipils” danced in the streets, while noblemen reclined on couches, “surrounded by flowers, picking one up and laying it down, [then] taking another and abandoning it.”

As the god of dance, Xōchipilli was honored with the cuecuechcuicatl, the “dance of the itch.” This dance was compared by Durán to the Spanish saraband, “with all its wriggling and grimacing and immodest mimicry.” It was performed by hierodules and by transgendered ciluayollo males “dressed as women.” As David F. Greenberg states, Xōchipilli is “the patron of male homosexuality and male prostitution.” His patronage of individuals engaging in these behaviors suggests a complex set of associations including the role of entertainer, the love of exotic foods and perfumes, male gender variance, and same-sex eroticism.

See also the previous posts:
• The Hare of the Agave
• Kiss of the Rabbit God
• The Divine Masculine Principle
• In American Gods, An Otherworldly Depiction of Queer Attraction and Connection
• Totem Animal
• The Great Hare
• Nanabush
• Among the Egyptians
• An Ancient Religion
• A Powerful Hero
• We Are Still Mythical

Images: Artists unknown.

The Art of Saul Lyons

Notes the official website of Saul Lyons:

Saul Lyons is a fine artist living and creating in New York City, NY and New Hope, PA. A graduate of Pitzer College, with a degree in Creative Writing and Performance Art, he spent several years writing and working with theater companies such as the Wooster Group, Mabou Mines and Highways Performance Space. After finding interest in fashion, he spent over 10 years as a womenswear and fabric designer and several years teaching. In the early 2000s, he expanded into digital fine art and formed partnerships with interior designers to work on artwork for hotels and residences and exhibited in gallery shows. In 2015, he was inspired to express himself through drawing and painting. Creating mostly figurative art, using all he learned about color and texture in the world of fashion, he generally works in Oil and Acrylic for paintings and Graphite for Drawings.

He has published one book, Lyons Men 2017-2019, which is available for purchase here.

Related Off-site Link: Saul Lyons's Official Website (which includes his excellent blog)

See also: The Art of Alexis Vera | Mauna Nada | Ego Rodriguez | Liam Campbell | Richard Vyse | David Jester | Aaron Moth | Travis Chantar | Douglas Simonson | Guglielmo Plüschow | Vilela Valentin | Dante Cirquero | Nebojsa Zdravkovic | Brenden Sanborn | Wilhelm von Gloeden | Richard Haines | John MacConnell | Leo Rydell Jost | Jim Ferringer | Juliusz Lewandowski | Felix d'Eon | Herbert List | Joe Ziolkowski

Hare in the Bluebells

See also the previous posts:
• Hare and Meadow Flowers
• Hare in Summer Field
• In Summer Green
• Hare in Field of Gold
• Among the Wheat
• A Still Moment

Image: Photographer unknown.

Cajiib iyo Saaxiib Qurux Badan

Image: “Cajiib iyo Saaxiib Qurux Badan” (“Scarf and Beautiful Friend”) by The Leveret.

See also the previous posts:
• All the Time
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan

Yesteryear

Images: Subjects and photographers unknown (except image 3 by Wilhelm von Gloeden).

See also the previous post:
• Yesteryear (Part I)
• The Art of Wilhelm von Gloeden
• The Art of Guglielmo Plüschow
• The Art of Felix d'Eon

And at The Leveret's brother site, The Wild Reed, see:
• Manly Love
• Reclaiming the Power of Male Touch
• The Archetype of the Double and Male Eros, Friendships, and Mentoring
• A Fresh Take on Masculinity