From the Hand of Donatello to a Physician

The V&A launches its Medieval & Renaissance galleries with some spectacular art works by the likes of Donatello. The most fantastic piece to make it into the gallery includes a "tondo the size of a plate" that was a gift for the doctor Giovanni Chellini da San Miniato who writes about it in the Ricordanze, his economic diary. Back in the Renaissance, well-to-do men would keep small journals about their finances (e.g. debits and credits, dowries, etc). Occasionally, the author would add a small commentary or two.

Chellini did the same on the 27th of August 1456, when to his surprise, the physician treated a celebrity. The celebrity in question was none other than Donatello, one of the most iconic visual artists of the Quattrocento (what the Italians called the 1400's or the Renaissance). As payment for the doctor's treatment of an unspecified illness, Donatello gave a tondo of the Virgin Mary, who is forced to bend her neck to avoid being out of the boundary of the sculpture. On either side, two angels stop her from going to the left or right.

The fact that the good doctor accepted a work of art as a form of payment comes to show that visual artists were held in greater esteem than in our modern times. In addition, Donatello created art that replaced beauty with emotional honesty, making him the first expressionist visual artist before even Van Gogh equated emotion with art.


Sources:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/nov/21/donatello-vanda-medieval-renaissance-galleries

http://www.answers.com/topic/tondo-art-1

http://www.lib-art.com/imgpaintingthumb/3/3/t9233-chellini-madonna-verso-donatello.jpg

Analytical Psychology...and Art

For the first time ever, Carl Gustav Jung's Red Book, officially named Liber Novus is on public display at the Rubin Museum in New York.

For those of you who do not know who Carl Gustav Jung is, I will tell you a little bit about him:

Carl Jung was a Swiss psychologist and former disciple of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Jung eventually left Freud's inner circle over disagreements about the role of spirituality and psychosexual development in the human mind.

The book itself is the result of his 16 years of studying his own unconscious. What is particularly interesting is the many illustrations done by Jung himself. They include mythological figures and Buddhist symbols known as mandalas.

Jung's family was reluctant to have the book published; Jung himself was worried that he would be branded as a mad man and his scientific credibility would be ruined.

Finally, a historian from London was given permission to translate the book from German to English. Since October 7, the Red Book has been up on display for everyone to see, according to the BBC.

External Links:

http://www.mandalaproject.org/What/Index.html

http://www.rmanyc.org/theredbook

http://www.answers.com/topic/carl-jung

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8295650.stm

http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/27093.html

Author's Note:

Admittedly, this is not my most objective post. However, seeing Jung's name on the BBC, I was compelled to read the story. I've been fascinated with Carl Jung for a little while now, since I heard his name on a TV series. What was particularly interesting about Jung, from the point of view of an artist, are his quotes on creativity:

"The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves."

"From the living fountain of instinct flows everything that is creative; hence the unconscious is not merely conditioned by history, but is the very source of the creative impulse."

First Post Ever

Hello friends,

This is my first post ever, so I'd better make it count. In case I didn't make things clear, this blog is going to be covering the arts (fine arts, music, drama and theatre, and writing of prose and poetry) and entertainment and their effect on the world. For instance, if a new book is making a splash in the literary world, I will be talking about it. If something has happened to a particularly influential artist (visual artist, musician, writer, poet, and/or actor), it is inevitable that I will be covering the person in question's influence on the world.

Despite my love for the arts, especially creative writing, I am still a Journalism student. This means that I can not be biased in favour or against anyone or anything and I will not take sides.

Rather, I try to present as much information as I can in hopes that one can take an informed stance on any issue I might bring up.

I will do what I can to live up to my intentions.

PS: The name SEAL is a combination of the letters in my name (Skander Eric Alexandre Lafif)