Notes on truth in art. Continue reading
Category Archives: essay
Consider Gerome’s The Death of Caesar and Vinchon’s Boissy d’Anglas
Comparison of paintings by Gerome and Vinchon. Continue reading
Some Comments About Line in Art
About the use of line to produce formal effects. Continue reading
Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener
Although quite tempted to do some editing, I refrained from doing so because of the antique nature of the language and the placement of punctuation possibly appropriate for the age. Things were not as standardized as our current obsessive times. The only changes I have made were to replace words such as “any thing” with … Continue reading
The New Deal in Old Rome by H.J. Haskell
I’ve completed reading The New Deal in Old Rome: How Government in the Ancient World Tried to Deal with Modern Problems by H.J. Haskell. Rather than to present a synopsis of the work, I have found many sources for just such a thing and rather than to reinvent the wheel will leave it to a … Continue reading
The Five Greatest Creations
In spite of the grand title of this article and the very arguable point of any work of art objectively placed in value above others, the exercise of the examination of the works most personally influential provokes such an examination in others. The following list is totally biased and as subjective as I can possibly … Continue reading
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of la Grande Jatte.
A Brief Look at Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of la Grande Jatte: Art Elements The various elements of this painting form carefully balanced verticals all across the canvas, repeated with the trunks of trees and the rather stiff figures. Partly responsible for the sedate atmosphere, these verticals support the verdant background, … Continue reading
Sandro Botticelli’s Venus and Mars
This picture by Botticelli has been given the name Venus and Mars purportedly, because of its dimensions, it is meant as an insert to a piece of furniture such as a bed, and has certain attributes that have led scholars to this conclusion about the subject matter. To refresh the memory of those not familiar … Continue reading
The Colorado Pilgrim
We left Yuma, Arizona a couple of hours before the sun went down. I relented to the insistent requests of my cousin and her husband to a trip to Martinez Lake not far from Yuma along the Colorado River. We loaded the car with food for an evening repast and a cooler full of ice and … Continue reading
The Satyricon by Petronius
First of all, it must be said that The Satyricon represents a marked difference from other works of Latin literature for several reasons but could offend those unable to tolerate explicit sexual references and homoerotic situations. Rather than present a synopsis of the contents of this work, one may find an online translation here. A summary, plus … Continue reading
Howard Bosler Artist 