#waldemar januszczak

[alilyamongroses]

The Unsettling Secrets Hidden In Holbein's Tudor Portraits (Waldemar Januszczak,) Perspective / Jane Seymour’s Portrait, Hans Holbein

[denimbex1986]

'...Play: Hamlet (1599-1601)

Chosen by Dominic Maxwell, the Sunday Times theatre critic

Sometimes biggest is best. Shakespeare’s longest play is also the most enduringly stimulating drama in the English language. A ghost story, a tragedy, a revenge thriller, a repository of some of the Bard’s biggest hits — “to be or not to be”, yes, but also “neither a borrower nor a lender be”, “brevity is the soul of wit”, “there is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so”, a dozen more — it’s also got a wicked sense of humour and offers perhaps the greatest leading role. All the greater, really, for the way no single actor can iron out all the kinks in Prince Hamlet, who is at once grieving, confused, poetical, doubting, vindictive, waspish, deceptive, sincere, sensitive and careless, damaged and damaging. Other adjectives are available, and necessary. It’s the role that every classical actor wants to have played; if Benedict Cumberbatch’s fine performance in 2015 was diluted by the lavish set around him, Andrew Scott’s 2017 take got close to his man’s heart. Other fine Hamlets this century include Ben Whishaw, David Tennant, Samuel West, Maxine Peake, Paapa Essiedu, Rory Kinnear and Simon Russell Beale. I won’t say every Hamlet I’ve seen has been an ecstatic experience. Theatre doesn’t work like that. Yet every time you see this astonishing play you find something new in it. Vote for it!...'

[the-paintrist]

William Dobson - Portrait of Abraham van der Doort - ca. 1640

Abraham van der Doort (c. 1575/1580? - June 1640) was a Dutch artist. As Keeper of Charles I's art collections, he was the first Surveyor of the King's Pictures.

The office of the Surveyor of the King's/Queen's Pictures, in the Royal Collection Department of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, is responsible for the care and maintenance of the royal collection of pictures owned by the Sovereign in an official capacity – as distinct from those owned privately and displayed at Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle and elsewhere. The office has only been full-time since 1972. It now operates in a professional capacity with a staff of a dozen people. As of the end of 2020, the position has been put in abeyance.

Although the office dates from 1625, there has always been someone responsible for pictures in the Royal Household. Notable recent office-holders have included Sir Lionel Cust (1901–1927), Sir Kenneth Clark (1934–1944), Professor Anthony Blunt (1945–1972), one of the infamous Cambridge Five, and Sir Oliver Millar (1972–1988). The post of Surveyor of the King's Pictures is currently in abeyance; the most recent was Desmond Shawe-Taylor, who held the post from 2005 to 2020.

William Dobson (4 March 1611 (baptised); 28 October 1646 (buried)) was a portraitist and one of the first significant English painters, praised by his contemporary John Aubrey as “the most excellent painter that England has yet bred”. He died relatively young and his final years were disrupted by the English Civil War.

Around sixty of Dobson's works survive, mostly half-length portraits dating from 1642 or later. The thick impasto of his early work gave way to a mere skim of paint, perhaps reflecting a wartime scarcity of materials. After Oxford fell to the Parliamentarians, in June 1646, Dobson returned to London. Now without patronage, he was briefly imprisoned for debt and died in poverty at the age of thirty-five.

Ellis Waterhouse described Dobson as "the most distinguished purely British painter before Hogarth", and in the view of Waldemar Januszczak he was "the first British born genius, the first truly dazzling English painter".

There are examples of Dobson's work at the National Gallery, the National Gallery of Scotland, Tate Britain, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Maritime Museum, Queen's House in Greenwich, the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull, the Courtauld Institute of Art, the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, in several English country houses including notably Alnwick Castle where Dobson's self-portrait with Nicholas Lanier and Charles Cotterell is displayed, and at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery in New Zealand.

The 2011 anniversary of his birth was marked by exhibitions, a 'Dobson Trail' listing his paintings on a website, and a BBC television profile by Januszczak, The Lost Genius of British Art: William Dobson.

[bbbrianjones]

i was tagged by the lovely penguin @astro-gnome to answer these questions !! thank u boo boo 💋💋

LAST SONG I LISTENED TO: magic by pilot. mwah !!!

FAVORITE COLOR(S): purple!

especially #eeddee. though all these colours are sexy.

CURRENTLY WATCHING: shetland which has FINALLY started to play on my tv after months of them teasing it in ads. it's my mama's favourite show!!!

SWEET/SAVORY/SPICY:

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: waiting for ilkka kivimäki 🌷

CURRENT OBSESSION: i have been watching a lot of waldemar januszczak documentaries !! to me he is the only art critic i can actually stand by.

LAST THING I GOOGLED: how to spell distorted because as im sure u can probably tell by my tags i'm not the best speller.

[liberty1776]

Men Of The North: Waldemar Januszczak Uncovers Viking, Anglo-Saxon & Car...

[ciberio13]

St. George and the Dragon by Jacopo Tintoretto

“You know, whenever I see Saint George adopted as a nationalist symbol by right wing factions ( in england, for instance) it always makes me laugh, because he was actually a turk of Greek origin who was born in palestine near Tel Avi and who served in the Roman Army. So all those Skinheads who’ve got Saint George tattooed on their foreheads they’re actively promoting turkish-greek-palestinian-roman and Jewish unity. Well done lads.”

- Waldemar Januszczak

[misterlemonzlime]

The Armolfini Portrait, Bruges, 1434. Waldemar Januszczak has a marvelous doc on Prime all about this Flemish Renaissance painting from the 1400s. Van Eyck used magnifying glasses to paint this piece about an Italian cloth merchant and his Belgian bride. Her cloak is lined with with the soft white fur of 2,000 Polish red squirrels. They called in Miniver. misterlemonzlime.tumblr.com/archive

Jan van Eyck

[fabioperes]

The Happy Dictator: Inside One Of The World's Most Secretive Countries | Absolute Documentaries Deep in the heart of Central Asia lies one of the world’s most secretive countries – Turkmenistan. Run until recently by a dictator whose megalomania spawned a personality cult to rival that of Chairman Mao, this unlikely desert republic has earned itself a grim reputation as ‘the North Korea of Central Asia’. But since no one is usually allowed in or out, the truth about Turkmenistan is impossible to separate from the rumours and the legends. Until now. In this quirky and highly entertaining documentary, well-known critic Waldemar Januszczak journeys to Turkmenistan to investigate the myth of the now deceased Turkmenbashi the Great who retained absolute control over the country, forbidding photography, reporters, dogs, cinemas, circuses, car radios and ballet! Posing as a tourist who goes to Turkmenistan for a stag weekend, Januszczak goes undercover in this bizarre country to separate the facts from the fiction. And he’s taken his camera with him… Absolute Documentaries brings you the best of entertaining and fascinating documentaries for free. Whether you’re into true crime, stories from around the world, family and social life, science or psychology, we’ve got you covered with must-see full-length documentaries every week. Subscribe for more premium documentaries: https://bit.ly/AbsoluteDocumentariesYouTube From: The Happy Dictator Content licensed from ZCZ Films to Little Dot Studios. Any queries, please contact us at: owned-enquiries@littledotstudios.com via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8ZXGLb1faU

[middleageamerican]

global-sized Tony-like pallet

Waldemar Januszczak living David Attenborough living Anthony Bourdain 1956 – 2018 . . Waldemar and David continue as TV media personalities and x perts on their subjects in a style that makes them a living version of Anthony . . eye’m known as an adventurous eater and my cooking has navigated far fr Martha’s my late mother’s . . but even less adventurous eaters can probably say this . . Anthony…

[ilhoonftw]

ngl i watch the most random art documentaries for waldemar januszczak . idk i just enjoy how genuinely passionate the guy is and how he doesn't overcomplicate things, has a very approachable style. in this short 10min video he packed so much information about polish art and the impact the partitions (aka poland disappearing) had on it

[kimyoonmiauthor]

Time

I covered this loosely in the Astronomy and Geography doc.

A time consortium wasn't set up until about the 19th century and if you poke around you can still find the old calendars.

But it's not precise that ancient civilizations couldn't figure out calendars. It's reported Aztecs and Mayans (the older civilization, not the current ones obviously. They aren't dead.), had a really accurate calendar. There was also a calendar I believe in Western Europe which Waldemar Januszczak covered in his series about "Dark Ages" art (You can find it free and legally on Youtube, BTW) that's more accurate than our current effed up calendar.

If you're dealing with Nomadic peoples, YES, this is true, fuzzy logic was a part of it, but it's not like the industrial nostalgia? or you could say fantasy of them, in the wilds, no contact with civilization ever, and never bothering anyone. (which I heavily covered). So yeah, they'd still learn things like oh these people think it is their season called "Spring" and there is still tension these days between being city dwellers and nomadic, such that many of the nomadic groups are dying out and are UNESCO and government protected. (This is why I find agricultural only boring. C'mon. You got tension here you can play with and you are skipping it to be what? Lazy?)

But yes, often seasons told you when to do things and in order to remember, they created religion to also tell you to do things.

Like Easter: OMG, you better make those rams eff those Ewes or you're screwed. People keep arguing it's about planting. But nope. It originally was that, because most Agrarian societies outside of Europe don't have a special "Spring planting" holiday, because if you've done gardening, you know there is no such thing. What you really need the holiday for is to make sure if you're in a pastoral society to get your animals to mate with each other. Because if you miss the timing on that you will have nothing to sell.

Worker's Rights

Likewise, the idea that workers did not fight for rights back in the day... Nyahh... Europe, after the Bubonic Plague waves, workers were like, Sure, I'll work your land if you pay more. Some people attribute this to the rise in slavery of West African peoples (one of the contributing factors along with Al Andalus, the Berbers, the Mongols and the commandeering of forests are the main ones I've seen listed. And some say also climate Cold climate==needs to burn wood during winter.)

There were worker's riots in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, basically any country I've studied. So yeah, not formal union, but yes, unification for better rights and people resisting all of the time. I mean, I think Ben Jonson would be devastated to find that State conformer, William Shakespeare was the more popular one. The man challenged NOTHING, and Ben Jonson was jailed MULTIPLE times on sedition for writing nasty things about the Queen and his play burned.

Even William Shakespeare was a bit daring when he wrote that boys should not be forced into acting troupes for her majesty's pleasure and included it into a play for 3 lines. like a coward.

But yes, workers did take siesta in Spain, but no, sometimes it was that bad as worker's hours were long and hard. Sometimes you simply had to work overnight and no, you did not get extra pay for it. Your only pay was not going to the pillory, as in Europe, or in places like ancient China, getting flogged for not paying your taxes.

So if you want to plant an uprising, so right ahead. Not everyone is going to conform or agree just because you've set up a Monarchy, democracy or whatever you've decided on.

It is worth looking at old devices for time. My personal favorite is the Islamic Empire ones, but I'm clearly biased. I mean Automatons without electricity. I'll repeat that a thousand times. The whole thing blows my mind. Who needs Rube Goldberg when you have Ismail al-Jazari. Look at the Elephant clock and then come back here and dare to argue that you are not amazed. If you aren't I don't know what's wrong with your sense of engineering.

Clock towers in towns existed going far back and often religious institutions were in charge for keeping the time for the citizens. (Outside of Europe too? Yes.)

It's not that people in non-electric civilizations had no time keeping, it was that there was no precise time keeping or they delegated the duty to other people.

Watches do not need batteries, but would be expensive. People told the time by the tides. Organization of time was essential for mostly temperate climates and pastoral peoples to do things like breed their animals, harvest their crops, (Another reason for celebration of the Summer Equinox... Agrarian society? What crops you grow changes after the Summer Equinox.)

Sometimes the clock would be put in the middle of the square. And the ability to keep time was for the rich.

While we're here, BTW, be sure to look up Second Sleep. Your reliance on electric light is too much. And in movies, they light everything up with extra lights around that candlelight. So don't delude yourself. Look up rush lights, for example.

When people talk about being able to write late at night by one candlelight on old dirty tallow candles... my question to you is have you tried it and taken a picture of yourself trying it??? It's not a fun time. And remember beeswax is hella expensive for the lower class.

Break your industrial mindset on everything. Global connected world, with what technology are you doing that? Horses aren't cars. Information is going to travel slower (BTW, My Lady Jane does this really well). Justify, justify, justify or find another means. And remember, you do not have to centralize your gender definition, your sexual orientation definitions or stick to "man or woman" define them the same... if you truly build an other world, how much consistency are you going to believe before you think the author is being lazy? lol I walked 3-5 blocks in this city of mine and I'm in a different socio-economic sphere. C'mon.

Slight note about the system of food.

'cause adding it to the large doc might crash my computer?

I've realized that though historical fiction minds this more when set in pre-industrial times, that often fantasy set in agricultural societies doesn't seem to do this, though it should.

So I'll give you an example...

Almost everything in Korean food is centered and bred for two things: Kimchi and soy sauce.

But what you don't realize in your industrialized state how freaking long it takes to make these things and how much planning is involved and how much you have to mind the seasons in order to make it correctly.

Kimchi:

Baekchu (or other vegetables) that's often harvested in fall.

The salt, which was traditionally sea salt was harvested in the spring and summer months.

Garlic is a spring to mid summer crop.

The sweet rice that goes into winter kimchi takes a ton of work to make and can take from Spring to fall.

The fish sauce that goes into Kimchi that helps preserve it for over a year, takes and ENTIRE YEAR to make. Yes, a year. You really, really have to plan on that. And what do you do if the fishing is poor for that year?

Spring onions are faster to grow, but you still have to time it for the fall kimchi making.

The fish are seasonal. For example, Yellow Corvina is taken in Korea in the spring. Shrimp in the summer (June), and anchovies in early spring to fall.

Your timing has to be impeccable and you need an entire year to plan this one dish.

Meanwhile, you, industrialized person, take for granted that you can get fish sauce any time you like and can pour it over kimchi.

In fantasy this could add flavor to your fantasy make up, if your character can only get this dish once a year. It can add political unrest (What do you mean the salt harvest was poor and we're left with the shitty metallic salt), because your characters in an agricultural society will be subject to weather changes, which you get when reading historical fiction and so on. Three seasons of poor harvest, daaaamnn... the people might overthrow their government. There might be new religions that pop up, there might be uprisings because the King and Queen are eating feasts every day while the peasants are eating things that are empty calories.

What I'm saying is that you can't be too entrenched into industrial mindset if you're not writing an industrial setting.

That orange is seasonal and only comes about in a connected system that has winter and a warmer climate.

Maybe there are key foods for your climate that are highly treasured or sought after. Mandarins once were. Cacao. Think a bit about those things and how it might interact with the larger world. When does your plant mature and when can it be harvested? is it different from different climates? There's wars that have been fought over food. (Tea, famously, at least a few times).

A staple crop failing is going to have devastating consequences.

And yet, often in fantasy, I often see people going, ya know what I can eat in the dead of winter, strawberries. Do we have greenhouses? No. Did we have freezers? No. But you know what my character is eating? A strawberry. Yeah, think about that. Strawberries don't preserve well. So plan out the timing of your dishes a bit (to the climate and subsistence system) and it can give a bit of background worldbuilding to your dishes and food.

I do have to say that the small mentions from Rings of Power n what's in season or not and why kinda made me feel like the world and the traveling was more "real" with the Harfoot. There's small references to fall v. spring crops.

[zmkccommonplace]

Among all the self-appointed societal judges who have taken up their posts in the internet age, none is quite as outrageously self-appointed as the modern curator.

Waldemar Januszczak

[eschynite]

I highly recommend the Waldemar Januszczak art history series on the Perspective youtube channel

[cjjasp]

#FineArtFriday: Vincent van Gogh Painting Sunflowers by Paul Gauguin 1888 (revisited)

Title: Van Gogh Painting Sunflowers Artist: Paul Gauguin Genre: portrait Date: 1888 Medium: oil on jute Dimensions: Height: 73 cm (28.7 ″); Width: 91 cm (35.8 ″) For a brilliant look a the life and art of Paul Gauguin, see: Why Is Gauguin So Controversial? (Waldemar Januszczak Documentary) | Perspective – YouTube For a wonderful documentary on Vincent’s Sunflowers, see: The Mystery of Van Gogh’s…

[copyrightlitigation]

Favorite tweets: I think we can all agree that the world is turning to shit. Britain is broken, social media is ghastly, and all that. Luckily, we still have art. Standing for a few minutes in front of a great Vermeer, or listening to some delicate Chopin, is still a profound joy. Hallelujah. https://t.co/kwKHlB8Eoa — WALDEMAR JANUSZCZAK (@JANUSZCZAK) Feb 8, 2023

http://twitter.com/JANUSZCZAK

[historyartthings]

On one end of that spectrum is Mantel, on the other is people being, imo, unnecessarily nasty?

Waldemar Januszczak’s documentary on Holbein is bad for this, where he went on about Cromwell’s ‘piggy eyes’, and kept referring to his appearance as a reason why we should see him as the ‘baddie’ to More’s ‘goodie’. He also said Henry looked like a walrus which was nice :/

But it’s always his weight and ‘piggy’ features. I think starkey compared Cromwell to a stuffed pig before his execution as well?

And it’s like just shut up about their faces and bodies man😭 either as a means to try and show their ‘evil’, or as somehow some kind of failing on their part, or just because.

The only thing I hate more than Cromwell the Babe Magnet is the desexualisation of Cromwell.

Cromwell's "piggy face" SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP