September 4th, 2013 -- by Bacchus
Hypatia
From Dr. Faustus’s Hedonic Miscellany:
The art is Hypatia (c. 1885) by Charles William Mitchell. According to Wikipedia, Hypatia was a noted philosopher in Alexandria when she became embroiled in a dispute between the governor and the bishop, whereupon a Christian mob kidnapped her in the street and took her to a church where they completely stripped her. Accounts differ as to her fate after this point; she may have been stoned to death with paving tiles, some say her flesh was ripped from her living body with oyster shells, and others say she was dragged through the streets until she died.
Frankly, I like the art better without the back story.
Similar Sex Blogging:
This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 4th, 2013 at 10:28 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Shorter URL for sharing: https://www.erosblog.com/?p=10508
Shorter URL for sharing: https://www.erosblog.com/?p=10508
As Hypatia was somewhere between 45 and 65 at her death, this looks like a case of “When the legend becomes fact, paint the legend.” as someone nearly said.
Have you seen Sandra Bullock lately? Lady has put a Lot of work into maintaining her external appearance! But yeah, the artist is probably using some stylistic imagery here to make a point.
In regards to the above two comments, true art, by its nature, is rarely “documentary”. In fact, most artists intentionally distort reality.
The above painting would be the visual equivalent of following the literary advice to, “Never let the truth, stand in the way of a great story”…
This long-haired, youthful, leggy redhead, with the perky breasts, is a more effective empathy-generating image than its antithesis, in promoting this story.
Pairing this posting with the next one (on the UPS failure to deliver), was great, even if merely serendipitous.
She’s beautiful! Thanks for sharing the image…