Weekly Photo Challenge: Regret

Regret can also mean mourn, grieve, lament, bemoan or sorrow.  

I have chosen Michelangelo’s sculpture “The Florence Pieta”, also known as “The Deposition of Christ”, and “The Lamentation over the Dead Christ”.    Michelangelo intended this piece for his tomb in Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, but it was never finished.

The Florence Pieta

This sculpture shows Nicodemus as the hooded taller figure, Mary Magdalene and the Virgin Mary mourning the death of Jesus.   However, the face of Nicodemus under the hood is considered to be a self-portrait of Michelangelo, himself, in his 80’s.   Michelangelo worked on  this sculpture between 1547-1555, near the end of his life.   After working daily for eight years he smashed the sculpture.   There was an impurity in the marble that had not been noticed until then.   After abandoning the sculpture,  Michelangelo gave it to his servant, who later sold it.  It was finished by Tiberio Calcagni who followed Michelangelo’s models.

The “Florence Pieta” is housed in Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Florence, Italy.    Michelangelo is buried in the Basilica de Santa Croce in Florence (the church of the cross), where he requested to be at the end of his life.  He was born in Tuscany and spent his life in Florence, a city he loved.

*Even though I have seen this sculpture and this is my photo, I used the sites below to make sure my information was correct.

http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.bluffton.edu 

Thanks for visiting today!

Judy

All text and images are copyright © 2002-2012 and are the exclusive property of Judy Johnson (unless otherwise indicated). All Rights Reserved. All Images are protected under United States and International copyright laws. None of the images on this site are in the Public Domain.

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Art Deco design and the Durham Museum, Omaha, NE

Hello dear blog readers!
I promised you a few weeks ago I would post more photos of the Durham Museum in Omaha, Nebraska.  Tonight’s the night!

Background:

The Durham Museum was originally Omaha’s Union (train) Station, which was designed by architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood and completed in 1931.  Gilbert Underwood used Art Deco design to enhance Union Station.  Union station was used from 1931 until it closed its doors to silence in 1971, after the last Union Pacific train departed.  The building remained vacant until 1975 when the Western Heritage Museum moved in.  At that time it was already in need of repairs.  In 1995 the building was closed for construction for more than a year.   In 1997 the building reopened, having been restored to its original glamour.  The building was re-named the Durham Museum, after Magre and Charles Durham, who were instrumental in organizing business leaders and philanthropists to help fund the restoration.

Art Deco Design:

Architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood used Art Deco design for the exterior and interior of the Durham Museum.  Many skyscrapers built in the 20’s and 30’s used Art Deco design. There are many hallmarks of Art Deco design that can be found inside and outside the museum.  Some features of Art Deco are: vertical designs, terraced-form sides, and exterior and interior stylized decorations.  High ceilings, cathedral windows, and pillars are all samples of vertical design and are all used in the museum.  In Art Deco buildings, geometric shapes were used to stylize plants and animals.  And the use of a sunburst was very popular then.  You can find zig-zags, squares, and lines in this type of design.  Another Art Deco characteristic is the use of metallic materials.  Architects used aluminum and stainless steel to give their buildings a modern, futuristic feeling.  In the Durham, natural stones were used: limestone for the interior walls, highly polished black marble for wainscoting and trim, and a terrazzo floor in a checkerboard pattern, interspersed with three large stylized sunburst patterns.  For the ceiling Underwood used gold, silver and aluminum leaf to accentuate decorative elements.  Another characteristic of Art Deco is the use of the chevron pattern.
Underwood also used bronze in the spandrels at the top of the windows, which are glazed in a rose tint.  It’s fun to look for these design elements in the museum….

Notice the chevron > > pattern and other geometric shapes

More geometric shapes and in the center, note the sunburst design....

  There is a stylized bird on each side of the clock.  (hard to see)  The detail under the clock is wonderful, too…

This is a close-up of the ceiling detail....gold, aluminum, stainless steel leaf. There is a chandelier hanging from the center

Here is the border in the same room. More gold, aluminum, steel leaf. On the ceiling you can see a raised chevron >>>pattern.

This is the floor in the main (former) passenger waiting area.  The sunburst design is considered “stylized” and repeats on the building exterior and inside too.  The floor here is terrazzo.

I know this was long……thanks for hanging in there!  I hope you learned something about Art Deco and the Durham Museum!  If you’d like to learn more, here are some links:

Durham Museum           Art Deco

Good night all!  Judy     

All images are copyright © 2005-2012 and are the exclusive property of Judy Johnson (unless otherwise indicated). All Rights Reserved. All Images are protected under United States and International copyright laws. None of the images on this site are in the Public Domain.