Marie and Julia talk with Dr. Steven Bule about the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.
The Uffizi is one of the oldest museums in the world, the building was begun in 1560 for Cosimo Medici as an office building for the city of Florence (wouldn't you love to work in an office like that!) but now holds one of the most amazing collections of Renaissance art in the world!
Botticelli's, The Birth of Venus and Primavera
Van Eyck, Giovanni Arnolfini and his Bride, 1434
This is another painting we discussed which implements the use of oranges as a symbol of fertility.
In the late 19th century, Japanese, American, European and
other cartoon artists communicated cross continentally. They traveled, taught, and joined in business
with each other. The Japanese cartoons,
called Manga today, developed into a unique graphic style rich in Japanese
culture with strong Western influences.
The target audience of Charles Wirgman’s “Japan
Punch” was a small but expanding group
of English speaking people residing in Japan.
Manga began as cartoons in magazines and newspapers, then
spread to illustrations in books in the early 1900’s. Osamu Tezuka is credited for creating narrative
manga, where the images themselves, in succession, tell the story, instead of
simply illustrating the words.
1949 Rakuten’s take on censorship; and the
train company heads sinking in a "sea of shame", from the book
“Kitazawa Rakuten: Founder of the Modern Japanese Cartoon”
New Treasure Island, Tezuka, 1947
“Anime” is the term for Japanese animation. Manga artist and animator Hayao Miyazaki has
directed several successful films, including “Howl’s Moving Castle” and
“Ponyo”. He advocates hand drawing in
anime, allowing no more than 10% of footage in his films to be computer
generated.
We also need to give a huge thank you to Helen McCarthy, for all your great information that was made available to us on your website and on youtube! Go check out her videos if you want to learn more about this history!
This is an episode Julia and Marie had lots of fun with! For starter, we should thank listener Arina Miteva for the suggestion on this one.
For anyone who is unaware of either of the names (as both of us were), Sidney Nolan is an Australian painter who often highlighted the Australian landscape in his work.
One of his most famous series is the Ned Kelly Series. Ned Kelly has become as much myth as historical figure in Australia as one of the most infamous bandits in the outback. Most of our information on the series came from the National Gallery of Australia. (Great website with LOTS of information!)
One reason this series is well loved is because it incorporates Australian landscape in many of these pieces.
The court room shows Nolan's very collage-like style. He pulls into the courtroom different elements of Australian locations and personal experience.
You will notice that every time Ned Kelly appears he's in strangely shaped clothes... this is the actual armor Ned Kelly would have used in his last stand and this becomes iconic for dear ol' Ned!
Thank you again Arina and if you have any suggestion feel free to tell us!
