Gustave Doré and His Engravings

Paul Gustave Doré (1832~1883) was a prolific French artist and famed book illustrator who produced numerous wood and steel engravings during his lifetime.

His illustrations are utterly wonderful.

Orreries

Engraving from The Universal Magazine (1749)
Showing John Rowley's Orrery

Grand Orrery (Picture by Marcin Wichary)

Thomas Heath's Grand Orrery, c. 1740 (Adler Planetarium)

Engraving Showing the Heliocentric Universe from Harmonia Macrocosmica (1661)

The orrery is a mechanical machine designed to precisely imitate the movements of planets, and is usually driven by a clock. The origin of its unusal name is a British nobleman named Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery, who supported a clockmaker named George Graham to build such machine in the 18th century.

Such mechanical devices must have symbolized revolutionary ideas that captivated Europeans during the Enlightenment. There is an irresistible charm behind an idea that the universe follows certain logical and mathematical laws, and orreries, or cosmic clockworks, are rather well-suited to beautifully convey such an idea. Orreries, moreover, were designed to describe the heliocentric system, an idea that was revolutionary and controversial in its own right at the time.

The heliocentric system forever removed the Earth from the center of the universe. Perhaps it was the first step that stripped the humanity of its sense of self sanctity...


I have a weak spot for orreries. I want one.

D'espairsRay: Redeemer

Aa... Screaming out your brief existence... to where? To heaven?

The recent music by D'espairsRay is too optimistic. But still... I adore its spirit.

The uncertain and intangible future awaits, while the familiar past is simply fading away.

Callous.

I wish to get a Flying V. Someday. Sigh.

Stradivarius and Piano Collection in the Palacio Real de Madrid

The Palacio Real de Madrid
(By Kaunokainen, Flickr ID)

Grand Piano
(Original Picture by Jorge Louzao Penalva)

Stradivarius Cello
(By Terence Wei)

Stradivarius Violin
(By Giant Ginkgo, Flickr ID)

El Palacio Real de Madrid, located in Madrid the capital city and once the residence of the King of Spain, is notable for its royal art collections and its immense scale. The current building was constructed between 1738 to 1755 by the orders of Philip V of Spain, and Italian architects Filippo Juvarra, Giovanni Battista Sacchetti, and Francesco Sabatini were mainly responsible for its Baroque design.

Antonio Stradivari, an Italian luthier who was born in 1644 and died in 1737, arguably crafted the most beautifully sounding string instruments of all time, and an instrument by him is known as a "Stradivarius."

The royal collections of the palace include the World's only complete set of Stradivarius instruments, which consists of two violins, a viola, and two cellos (One of the two cellos, pictured above, is an extra guarded by the palace, dated around 1700). This collection is named as "del Cuarteto Real" (meaning the Royal Quartet), or "los Stradivarius Palatinos." These rare instruments were acquired by Charles (Carlos) IV of Spain in 1775.

The grand piano shown is also a part of the palace's royal collection, but sadly I could not find much more about it other than that it was probably manufactured by Collard & Collard of London. It certainly is very beautiful, worthy of royalty.

I would love to try one of these priceless instruments.

Anamorphosis and Renaissance Art

The Ambassadors by Holbein the Younger, 1533

King Edward VI by William Scrots, 1546

Vexierbild by Erhand Schon, 1535

Anamorphosis is a technique that involves an unusual projection of the image to a plane, causing the viewer to only grasp the image's true or hidden form when viewed it at a certain and specific perspective or by using a deformed mirror. It seems during the Renaissance, anamorphosis provided another way to fascinate and amuse the royalty, scholars, and aristocrats alike. :)

The earliest known experimentation of anamorphosis was done by Leonardo da Vinci, who sketched an anamorphic image of an eye around 1485. This sketch is known as "Leonardo's Eye."

The Page in Progress...