Absolutely beautiful work as ever.
I wondered if you had a source for the back decoration -- the ubiquitous eight-rayed star is derived from the yoke -- a motif which, incidentally, is alluded to in the eighteeth chapter of the second book of the Iliad: “Up now, Zeus-born Patroclus, master of horsemen. Lo, I see by the ships the rush of consuming fire. Let it not be that they take the ships and there be no more escaping! Do on my armour with all haste, and I will gather the host.”
So spake he,and Patroclus arrayed him in gleaming bronze. The greaves first he set about his legs; beautiful they were, and fitted with silver ankle-pieces; next he did on about his chest the corselet of the swift-footed son of Aeacus, richly-wrought, and spangled with stars. And about his shoulders he cast the silver-studded sword of bronze, and thereafter the shield, great and sturdy; and upon his mighty head he set the well-wrought helmet with horse-hair crest, and terribly did the plume nod from above; and he took two valorous spears, that fitted his grasp.''
Assuming the reconstruction to be conjectural, there could hardly have been chosen a better motif for this first panoply of Achilles (as opposed to the Olympian panoply that Hephaestus forges for him after this first panoply is stripped from the corpse of Patroclus by Hector).
I have been hunting through my collection of pictures and as yet have not found a rear view of a spolas with the lions.They do, however, have an extremely respectable pedigree -conventionalised lions are by no means uncommon. Your paintings have echoes of the Nemean lion on the stamnos, c. 490 B.C.E. (a couple of generations before your source), with the rather ungainly name of Philadelphia L-64-185 -- the conventionalised carriage of the tail is identical.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/lion.html
All in all, marvellous work -- the only response I have to add is ''keep it coming!
P.S. I have no idea why there is a little scowling face in the corner of this message -- I have never learnt how these smilies work.
I wondered if you had a source for the back decoration -- the ubiquitous eight-rayed star is derived from the yoke -- a motif which, incidentally, is alluded to in the eighteeth chapter of the second book of the Iliad: “Up now, Zeus-born Patroclus, master of horsemen. Lo, I see by the ships the rush of consuming fire. Let it not be that they take the ships and there be no more escaping! Do on my armour with all haste, and I will gather the host.”
So spake he,and Patroclus arrayed him in gleaming bronze. The greaves first he set about his legs; beautiful they were, and fitted with silver ankle-pieces; next he did on about his chest the corselet of the swift-footed son of Aeacus, richly-wrought, and spangled with stars. And about his shoulders he cast the silver-studded sword of bronze, and thereafter the shield, great and sturdy; and upon his mighty head he set the well-wrought helmet with horse-hair crest, and terribly did the plume nod from above; and he took two valorous spears, that fitted his grasp.''
Assuming the reconstruction to be conjectural, there could hardly have been chosen a better motif for this first panoply of Achilles (as opposed to the Olympian panoply that Hephaestus forges for him after this first panoply is stripped from the corpse of Patroclus by Hector).
I have been hunting through my collection of pictures and as yet have not found a rear view of a spolas with the lions.They do, however, have an extremely respectable pedigree -conventionalised lions are by no means uncommon. Your paintings have echoes of the Nemean lion on the stamnos, c. 490 B.C.E. (a couple of generations before your source), with the rather ungainly name of Philadelphia L-64-185 -- the conventionalised carriage of the tail is identical.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/lion.html
All in all, marvellous work -- the only response I have to add is ''keep it coming!
P.S. I have no idea why there is a little scowling face in the corner of this message -- I have never learnt how these smilies work.
Patrick J. Gray
'' Now. Close your eyes. It's but a short step to the boat, a short pull across the river.''
''And then?''
''And then, I promise you, you'll dream a different story altogether''
From ''I, Claudius'', by J. Pulman after R. Graves.
'' Now. Close your eyes. It's but a short step to the boat, a short pull across the river.''
''And then?''
''And then, I promise you, you'll dream a different story altogether''
From ''I, Claudius'', by J. Pulman after R. Graves.
