September 8th, 1565 is Founder’s Day in St. Augustine. Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés landed in that harbor and proclaimed the area St. Augustine. He then built a fort-Castillo de San Marcos. This was the basis of the longest continously settled town in the United States. Ponce de Lion had actually landed there on March 27th, 1513 declaring the area Florida-the land of flowers. He only stayed there five days. After seeing that the fountain of youth was not there, he continued his search along the coast.
All of this, and more from the booklet “The Story of St. Augustine. The Oldest City in the United States” by Howard Lee, 1951.
September 8, 1504 the statue of David by Michelangelo was unveiled in Florence. This was only sixty-one years before Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés landed in St. Augustine.
I got the skinny on David from the book “Great Artists. A Treasury of Paintings by the Masters” published 1987. While the book mainly discusses and analyzes paintings, how can one not also discuss sculpture when talking of Michelangelo. The statue is seventeen feet tall. Michelangelo made David when he was twenty-six. The block of marble was flawed, and turned down by several sculptors. Michelangelo was already a star because of the reputation he received from the Madonna della Pietà, now in St Peter’s Basilica. Michelangelo was only 24 when he completed Pietà.
September 8th is International Literacy Day. The more people can read, the better society can be. When I research and talk about topics, I hope that in a small way, I am helping others to question, and then research to read more. I certainly get destracted from writing by reading more in the books that I talk about.
One such distraction that I noticed in the book “Great Artists” (I flipped through a lot when researching the sculture David), was the painting”The Luncheon on the Grass” by Manet. It is unusual to have a naked lady looking right at you, while her companions are just chatting away, fully clothed. It turns out that it made quite a scandel when it was exhibited.
Reading more, I found out that Manet had traveled to Rome in 1853, and had copied some of the Old Masters paintings-Manet really loved their style and subjects. In reviewing them, I saw a work by Raphael (1483-1520) “Judgement of Paris” that he gave to Raimondi Marcantonio (1470-1534), an engraver. This engraving was from about 1515. Marcantonio was one of the first to be able to famously make copies of paintings.
In the lower right-hand side of the etching, are two nude river gods, talking with a Naiad or female water spirit . They have the same poses as Manet’s painting from 1863-but about 350 years earlier. Another interesting fact is on the lower left of the work. Paris is deciding who is the most beautiful: Juno, Menerva, or Venus. He picked Venus and is given a golden apple. Menerva was the goddess of Wisdom, the same that was in an illustration with Louis XIV from 1704, that I talked about on September 5. She was the one here taking off her robe.
The more I learn, the more questions I have, so the more I read. This is my circle of Li…brary. Thanks for spinning along.
Librarytomes 