Sebastien Bourdon [French Baroque Painter]

Sebastien Bourdon is a French Baroque era painter born in 1616 in Montpelier. His father was a painter on glass and this influenced the young boy to undergo a career in art, being sent at the age of seven to Paris as an apprentice to a painter. At the age of 14 he left his apprenticeship and went to Bordeaux and the to Toulouse. Having a precarious financial situation, to say the least, he enlists in the army where in 1634 an officer recognizing his talent directs Sebastien on the road of his destiny by discharging him from military service and financing his journey to Rome. There he studied works by Poussin, Claude Lorrain and Caravaggio and earned his income by selling reproductions of other works.

In 1637 he returned to Paris and began to have his own commissions, among them St. Peter's martyrdom for Notre-Dame and the Martyrdom of St. Andrew for Church of Saint-André in Chartres. In 1648 he was one of the founders of the French Royal Academy. The next important moment in his biography is the year 1652 when Christina of Sweden made him chief court painter. He continued to execute commissions for the church of Saint-Benoit, for the cathedral of Montpellier, in Cologne and for the Tuileries Palace.

Movie : Tsar/Царь [Rusia : 2009]

The starting point of the movie is the consecration of Philip II as bishop and his enthronement as Metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia. Director Pavel Lungin preferred to follow the relationship between two opposing sides, the Saint and the Tsar. Doing so we only witness three years of history with nothing to explain why Ivan the Terrible earned this name.

The situation of the country is not particularly well recreated in the sense that there is not much depth involved excepting the Ivan - Philip development. Other than that, Lungin remained fairly close to historical accounts.

Overall the movie is a masterpiece of Slavic cinematography and I highly recommend you make the time to watch it, the acting is excellent.

Pyotr Mamonov as Ivan the Terrible 

Oleg Yankovskiy as Metropolitanate Philip

Nightly Poem #12 : The Way Home

Photographer unknown

The birth of this poem is at a typical small intersection which can be found in any typical city. I was waiting for the cars to pass in order to continue on my way. It was still daylight, in fact the sunset was behind me casting long shadows. The block of flats was reddish, the smell of pancakes reminded me it was Friday.


The mirage of dreams has conquered us
Chrism, wonder and progress.
Smell of pancakes in the air,
Cars waiting at the traffic light,
It's haste, solitude and bustle
on the street, in the soul and in life.

Mirajul viselor ne-a captivat.
Mir, mirare și progres.
Miros de clătite în aer,
mașini oprite la semafor,
e grabă, pustiu și freamăt
pe stradă, în suflet și-n viață.

Drew Darcy and Emika

		Another Duo dedicated to the universal emotion of lust. The hardest to control and the easiest way to descent into the abyss if that is what you wish. The artistic merit of the paintings is overshadowed by the direct subject matter. The music, a soundtrack for the distressed. The whole, a union of feelings.

Emika

Respect the artist, buy the album

Emika was born on 8 January 1986 and her real name is Ame Jolly. She is an English singer of Czech origin who at present resides in Berlin. After an education in classical music she began to be interested in electronic music offering an input of high quality to the genre. The song is from her second album entitled Dva and released in 2013.

www.emika.co.uk

Drew Darcy

An artist from the United Kingdom, born in Birmingham, who combines his talent in visual arts with music. Of the two arts I found his paintings to be, at the moment, the most expressive. He has an excellent technical ability regarding the use of light and shadow and the rendering of drapery.

www.drewdarcy.co.uk/