Zanimljivosti iz sveta umetnosti

Mavro Kazafranka · Administrator

Researchers: Da Vinci's fingerprint has been identified

ROME
Anthropologists said they have pieced together Leonardo da Vinci's left index fingerprint -- a discovery that could help provide information on such matters as the food the artist ate and whether his mother was of Arabic origin.

The reconstruction of the fingerprint was the result of three years of research and could help attribute disputed paintings or manuscripts, said Luigi Capasso, an anthropologist and director of the Anthropology Research Institute at Chieti University in central Italy.

''It adds the first touch of humanity. We knew how Leonardo saw the world and the future ... but who was he? This biological information is about his being human, not being a genius,'' Capasso said in a recent telephone interview.

The research was based on a first core of photographs of about 200 fingerprints -- most of them partial-- taken from about 52 papers handled by Leonardo in his life. Capasso's work, presented in 2005 in a specialized magazine called Anthropologie, published in the Czech Republic, is on display in an exhibition in the town of Chieti through March 30.

The artist often ate while working, and Capasso and other experts said his fingerprints could include traces of saliva, blood or the food he ate the night before. It is information that could help clear up questions about his origins.

Certain distinctive features are more common in the fingerprints of some ethnic populations, experts say.

''The one we found in this finger tip applies to 60 percent of the Arabic population, which suggests the possibility that his mother was of Middle-Eastern origin,'' Capasso said.

The idea that Leonardo's mother could have been a slave who came to Tuscany from Costantinople is not new and has been the object of other research.

Alessandro Vezzosi, a Leonardo expert and the director of a museum dedicated to the artist in his hometown of Vinci, said there are documents that appear to back this up.

''This coincides with documented indications that she was Oriental, at least from the Mediterranean area, not a peasant of Vinci,'' he said.

Vezzosi, who manages the archive of documents Capasso used for his study, warned that her origin cannot be determined with any certainty until a contract documenting her sale is found.

''Still, her name was Caterina, the most common name among slaves in Tuscany, and we have no certain elements about her,'' he said. The experts say some of the fingerprints left on the manuscripts might belong to the people who handled them over time. However, those caused by attempts to remove ink blots were surely left by the author, Capasso said.

Biological information on Leonardo is largely incomplete. The artist, who was generally but not exclusively left-handed, used his fingers to paint, and his thumb print recurs on the manuscripts, Vezzosi said.

Leonardo sometimes worked while eating or traveling, and his fingers were often dirty, sometimes with residue of food, Vezzosi said.

Carlo Vecce, a professor of Italian literature at Naples' University and a leading Leonardo expert, said the research, in which he was not involved, appears to be ''founded.''

''The research on Leonardo's fingerprints is very interesting. It's always good to locate and distinguish these details both on the paintings and on the drawings,'' he said. ''The fingerprints can tell us if Leonardo was there or if he intervened (on a painting), it's a hint.'' Vecce noted, though, that a fingerprint is not enough proof to attribute a work with certainty, and such a discovery does not necessarily add much to what is known about the artist.

''It give us the illusion of a contact with the genius,'' he said. ''But the most important things about Leonardo are those that concern his intellectual activity, those that we get by reading his words or interpreting what he wrote.''

December 1, 2006

BY Marta Falconi, Associated Press

Rogan · Pristupio: 14 Apr 2006 Poruke: 5426 Studijska grupa: Istorija umetnosti

Tycoon holes dream Picasso deal

Picasso's The Dream at its auction in 1997

A US casino mogul has pulled out of a deal to sell his Picasso painting for a record $139m (£74m) after accidentally elbowing a hole in the middle.

Las Vegas magnate Steve Wynn was showing Le Reve (The Dream) to guests at his office in Las Vegas last month.

Mr Wynn, who has retinitis pigmentosa, an eye disease affecting peripheral vision, tore a coin-sized hole.

He will now keep the painting, which he bought in 1997 for $48.4m, and repair it, his spokeswoman said.

'Terrible noise'

Mr Wynn had finalised the sale of the 1932 painting to art collector Steven Cohen.

The $139m price tag would have been $4m higher than the previous private-sale record - for Gustav Klimt's 1907 portrait, Adele Bloch-Bauer I, in July this year.

Picasso's Boy With a Pipe, which fetched $104.1m in 2004, holds the record for art sold at auction.

Mr Wynn, known for gesturing with hands while speaking, was showing the painting at his office at Wynn Las Vegas when he struck it with his right elbow, spokeswoman Denise Randazzo said.

Director and screenwriter Nora Ephron was at the incident and wrote about it on a blog site.

She said Mr Wynn raised his hand then "at that moment, his elbow crashed backward right through the canvas. There was a terrible noise".

"Smack in the middle... was a black hole the size of a silver dollar. 'Look what I've done' he said. 'Thank goodness it was me.'"

Mr Wynn, a high-profile art collector, developed The Mirage and Bellagio resorts in Las Vegas in the 1990s.

Ono shtop BBC-jev sajt ne pominje je da je lik prvo rekao "Oh, shit!"

Posetilac

hahaha, kakav kralj!
mada sumnjivo mi je, zvuci suvise neverovatno... koliko jako moras da gestikuliras da bi probusio sliku... mozda ima osiguranje? Kez

Rogan · Pristupio: 14 Apr 2006 Poruke: 5426 Studijska grupa: Istorija umetnosti

Techo, istina je, vest je obishla chitav svet, a bilo je prisutno i nekoliko novinara...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15310601/

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200610/s1769212.htm

uostalom, slike su preparirano platno zategnuto preko drvenog rama, poput dobosha.

Mavro Kazafranka · Administrator

Destino
Dalí & Disney

screenshot iz filma Destino

Destino je zajednički projekat Salvadora Dalía i kompanije Walt Disney. Ovaj kratki film (7 minuta) koji je pored Dalía potpisao John Hench (Disneyev crtač, radio na Alisi u Zemlji Čuda, Petru Panu, Pepeljuzi, Dambu, Fantaziji...) bio je u produkciji oko 58 godina - od 1945 do 2003. Bio je proglašen neisplativim i čekao je bolja vremena koja su došla 1999 kada ga je Roy Edward Disney (nećak Walta Disneya) ponovo oživeo.

Film prati igračicu kroz sueralnu scenografiju uz malo dijaloga. Ceo film prati muzika Armanda Domingueza.

Film je nominovan za Oskara za najbolji kratkometražni animirani film 2004. godine i dobio je više gran prijeva na festivalima širom sveta.

trejleri na YouTube:

| Destino Trailer "Turtles" |

| Destino Trailer "Eyeballs" |

timon · Moderator

ima i kratak dokumentarac o filmu na youtube-u

Mavro Kazafranka · Administrator

Geostacionarna banana iznad Teksasa

GEOSTATIONARY BANANA OVER TEXAS is an art project that involves placing a gigantic banana in the Texas sky. From the ground, the banana will look like one tenth the size of the moon. It will be clearly visible day and night and will stay up for approximately one month. The expected launching date is June 2007, from the Sonora desert in the north of Mexico.

Addressing a large geographical (or political) region, GEOSTATIONARY BANANA OVER TEXAS aims to expose the meaningfulness of localized actions within a context of global repercussions. This project is also an exploration of space and territory for art and its dissemination, where the sky is redefined as a canvas for artistic expression.

Banana ce inace biti napravljena poput dzinovskog balona (duzine oko 300m) i lebdece na oko 50-80 km visine.

www.geostationarybananaovertexas.com

Rogan · Pristupio: 14 Apr 2006 Poruke: 5426 Studijska grupa: Istorija umetnosti

Svetlosni Crtezhi

josh toga na : http://www.metofa.com/

Rogan · Pristupio: 14 Apr 2006 Poruke: 5426 Studijska grupa: Istorija umetnosti

Hunt for Da Vinci painting will resume

By ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press Writer
Sat Jan 13, 12:22 PM ET

ROME - A real-life Da Vinci mystery, complete with tantalizing clues and sharp art sleuths, may soon be solved, as researchers resume the search for a lost Leonardo masterpiece believed to be hidden within a wall in a Florence palace.

Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli and officials in the Tuscan city announced this week they had given approval for renewed exploration in the Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of power for various Florence rulers, including the Medici family in the 16th century. There, some researchers believe, a cavity in a wall may have preserved Leonardo's unfinished painted mural of the "Battle of Anghiari" for more than four centuries.

"We took this decision to verify conclusively if the cavity exists and if there are traces of the fresco," Rutelli said during a visit in Florence.

The search for the Renaissance masterpiece began about 30 years ago, when the art researcher Maurizio Seracini noticed a cryptic message painted on one of the frescoes decorating the "Hall of the 500."

"Cerca, trova" — "seek and you shall find" — said the words on a tiny green flag in the "Battle of Marciano in the Chiana Valley," one of the military scenes painted by the 16th-century artist Giorgio Vasari.

Between 2002 and 2003, radar and X-ray scans allowed Seracini and his team to find a cavity behind the fresco that is the right size to cocoon Leonardo's work, which was long thought to have been destroyed when Vasari renovated the hall in the mid-16th century.

Shortly after the initial discovery, Seracini's decades-long quest came to a standstill when authorities refused to renew his survey permit.

"We are not talking about a search like any other," Seracini told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "We are searching for Leonardo's greatest masterpiece, considered as such also by his contemporaries."

Leonardo began working on the "Battle of Anghiari" in 1505, when he was 53. He worked alongside fellow artist and rival Michelangelo, who had been commissioned to decorate the opposite wall of the council hall, which was to have scenes of the Florentine republic's military triumphs.

The pairing of two great artists created ripples of excitement in art-loving Florence, but both men soon left for other cities.

Michelangelo never went beyond the preparatory work for his "Battle of Cascina," but Leonardo did eventually paint his battle's centerpiece — a violent clash of horses and men called the "Fight for the Flag," which is known today through Leonardo's preparatory studies and copies made by other artists.

Some chroniclers of the time said Da Vinci had experimented with unstable paints that had rapidly degraded, leaving the painting irreparably damaged.

But Seracini said documents show that at least the centerpiece was admired and copied for decades, until Vasari began his work at Palazzo Vecchio. Vasari himself, who wrote biographies of several artists including Leonardo, would have been loath to destroy Leonardo's work. He is known to have salvaged other art by leaving works cocooned between walls when he made renovations, the researcher said.

Seracini, whose research on another Leonardo painting is quoted in Dan Brown's best-selling novel "The Da Vinci Code," is an engineer who has spent the last three decades conducting scientific investigations on art treasures.

Florence city officials said no date has been set for the new investigation because details still needed approval.

While the new research will be supervised by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, one of Italy's top restoration institutes, Seracini will be on the team, said Alessandra Garzanti, a city spokeswoman.

"He brought this forward until now, it would be stupid to leave him out," she said.

Once the work starts, researchers would need a year and a half to give a definitive answer on whether Leonardo's masterpiece is there, Seracini said.

The work would include documentary research to determine which chemicals Leonardo used to paint the fresco, and subsequent scans to see if those pigments are present behind the wall, he said.

Seracini declined to reveal how the scans would work, saying the method was still experimental. However, he said the analysis would not involve probes or other instruments that would damage the overlying Vasari fresco.

Rogan · Pristupio: 14 Apr 2006 Poruke: 5426 Studijska grupa: Istorija umetnosti

Stonehenge Didn't Stand Alone, Excavations Show
James Owen
for National Geographic News
January 12, 2007

Recent excavations of Salisbury Plain in southern England have revealed at least two other large stone formations close by the world-famous prehistoric monument.

One of the megalithic finds is a sandstone formation that marked a ritual burial mound; the other, a group of stones at the site of an ancient timber circle.

The new discoveries suggest that many similar monuments may have been erected in the shadow of Stonehenge, possibly forming part of a much larger complex, experts say.

Cremation Mound

The first monument—a 9.2-foot-long (2.8-meter-long) sarsen stone—was found lying in a field next to the River Avon, 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) east of Stonehenge, which is located near the modern-day city of Salisbury (United Kingdom map).

The riverside sarsen—large sandstone blocks that occur naturally in southern England—had been stood upright, archaeologists say, like the blocks that form the main structure of Stonehenge.

A team lead by Colin Richards of Manchester University and Joshua Pollard of Bristol University found the hole that originally held the stone, dug between 2500 and 2000 B.C., as well as human remains and artifacts that date to the same period.

The partially cremated remains of two people were buried next to the stone, Pollard said. One was a large male whose unburned vertebrae suggest he was at least 6 feet (182 centimeters) tall.

"Seemingly he was so big they weren't able to cremate him properly," the archaeologist noted. "The unburnt bone is the product of that poor process of cremation."

Stone knives and arrowheads, a piece of limestone carved into the shape of a megalith, two pottery bowls, and a rare rock crystal were also unearthed near the burial site.

The rock crystal find is the earliest known example from Britain and possibly came from as far away as the Alps, Pollard said.

Archaeologists have suggested that other prehistoric burials in the area were connected to mainland Europe, Pollard added.

Page 2 of 2

Such a connection ties in with theories that Stonehenge was an important pilgrimage destination or a place where people traveled in the hope of miracle cures. (Related: "Pagans Get Support in Battle Over Stonehenge" [October 31, 2002].)

The megalithic burial site could also support theories that link Stonehenge and other standing stones to ancestor worship and commemorating the dead, Pollard added.

Circle of Stone

Pollard's team also found new evidence for stone settings at Woodhenge, a site 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) northeast of Stonehenge where a timber circle was constructed in about 2200 B.C.

Pollard said excavations in the 1920s hinted a stone monument may once have been present at the site.

"We were able to confirm last summer that there had been standing stones—some very considerable stones—at Woodhenge," he said.

While only fragments of the formation were found, the holes the stones were set in suggest the blocks stood up to 3 meters (9.8 feet) tall, Pollard said.

The team also found evidence for two phases of stone settings that probably came after the timber circle had rotted, he added.

"Four smaller stones were replaced by two much bigger sarsen settings," he said. "So it goes from a timber monument to being a megalithic monument, albeit not on the same scale as Stonehenge."

What happened to the stones at Woodhenge remains a mystery, Pollard added, though one possibility is that they were added to Stonehenge.

Network of Monuments

The research team says there is evidence from old maps and ancient sources for other similar monuments near Stonehenge.

"There may have been many smaller megalithic settings across this landscape," Pollard said.

"I think it's extremely likely there would have been other standing stones," particularly to the east, added Julian Thomas, professor of archaeology at Manchester University.

Such monuments would have had an important connection to Stonehenge, Thomas said. The stones and artifacts buried alongside the satellite monuments may have also played a symbolic role in spreading the authority of Stonehenge into the wider landscape.

"It was a way of referring to its powerfulness and to the importance and significance of the activities that are taking place at the henge and the people who are officiating," Thomas said.

He added that these latest finds show that Stonehenge shouldn't be seen in isolation.

"There's an overarching scheme of things which links Stonehenge to the broader landscape."

Mavro Kazafranka · Administrator

Artist eats swan

Published: 14 Jan 2007
By: Channel 4 News

An artist has risked the wrath of monarchists - not to mention breaking the law by eating swan - a privilege only legally available to the Queen.

Watch the report

Mark McGowan - who describes himself as a performance artist - tucked into the royal bird outside a gallery in East London. He claimed it was a protest against royalty and the upper classes.

The police say they will investigate the incident - and could take further action.

Others who've recently eaten swan have also got in trouble with the law; in March 2005 the Master of the Queen's music no less - Sir Peter Maxwell Davies - was cautioned by police who discovered a swan carcass outside his house in the Orkneys. He said he'd found it dead and was using it to make a terrine.

In November last year 52-year-old Shamshu Mia - a muslim from Llandudno in Wales - was jailed for two months after killing and attempting to eat a swan in caught in a boating pool in a park.

He claimed hunger from his Ramadan fast had driven him to the act.

timon · Moderator

III i IV tom "Enciklopedije arhitekture" u pripremii

Skupština Grada Beograda, sekretarijat za kulturu, sufinanasira štampanje III i IV toma "Enciklopedije arhitekture, Ličnosti i dela", Slobodana Maldinija.

Arhitekta Slobodan Maldini je autor i priređivač edicije "Enciklopedija arhitekture." Ovaj kapitalan projekat, Maldini je započeo da radi 1998. godine, po pozivu i uz inicijalnu stručnu podršku Srpske akademije nauka, da bi 1999. uz saglasnost SANU, ceo projekat nastavio da radi sam.

Godine 2004. izdao je kao samostalni izdavač prvi i drugi tom edicije. Ova dva toma sadrže preko 30.500 terminoloških jedinica i preko 6.000 ilustracija na 1650 stranica: tom I A-N (860 str.), tom II N-Ž (790str.).

Prva dva toma, međutim, ne predstavljaju završenu celinu. U njima nisu obrađivane biografije značajnih ličnosti, već su analizirani stručni pojmovi na polju arhitekture i srodnih umetnosti.

III i IV tom "Enciklopedije arhitekture" treba da zaokruže celinu edicije i dopune je biografijama značajnih ličnosti na području arhitekture, urbanizma i prostornog planiranja, dizajna, enterijera, hortikulture i srodnih disciplina na polju kulture.

Ovako koncipirani, tomovi III i IV predstavljaju logičan nastavak edicije "Enciklopedije arhitekture". To je jedinstveno delo enciklopedijskog tipa, savremenog preloma, izuzetno bogato ilustrovano fotografijama u boji.

Predstavljene su biografije ličnosti kroz celokupnu istoriju umetnosti, od nastanka same arhitekture pa do danas, podrazumevajući najznačajnija imena svih istorijskih umetničkih perioda, kao na primer: starog Egipta, antičke Grčke i Rima, renesanse, baroka, klasicizma, moderne arhitekture, postmoderne arhitekture, pa sve do predstavnika savremenih tendencija u arhitekturi, uključujući svetski već afirmisane umetnike najmlađe generacije.

Kriterijumi za unošenje ličnosti u enciklopediju su kolokvijalni, međunarodno prihvaćeni i priznati: predstavljene su one ličnosti koje imaju svoje potvrđeno mesto u svetskoj istoriji umetnosti i kulture, bez obzira na zemlju iz koje potiču ili drugi geografski ili istorijski činilac. Namera je da se usklađenim tekstom i slikama, na objektivan i sistematizovan način, obrade najznačajniji nosioci svetske kulture na polju arhitekture i srodnih umetnosti, zajedno sa njihovim najznačajnijim delima. Takođe, obim predstavljanja pojedinih ličnosti je usklađen sa njihovim značajem i mestom u istoriji kulture i umetnosti koje je opšteprihvaćeno i potvrđeno u svetskoj istoriji kulture.

Biografije ličnosti su obrađivane u okvirima nekoliko nivoa: neke su date samo sa osnovnim podacima, druge detaljnije, treće, pak, vrlo detaljno, a sve u odnosu na značaj konkretne ličnosti i njeno mesto i učešće u istoriji arhitekture, odnosno, umetnosti i kulture uopšte. Prezentacija svake pojedinačne ličnosti obuhvata: radnu biografiju, koja je data u odnosu na istorijski milje, uticaj ličnosti na razvoj arhitekture i kulture uopšte, te ilustracije njenih najznačajnijih projekata i realizovanih dela.

Obzirom da je predmet analize i obrade arhitektura - umetnost čija je najznačajnija karakteristika vizuelnost, knjige sadrže izuzetno bogat fotografski ilustracioni materijal: u tomovima III i IV predviđeno je objavljivanje preko 20.000 ilustracija, većina u boji, što ne postoji ni u jednom izdanju ovoga tipa u svetu.

Takođe, nigde do danas u jednom delu nije celovito obuhvaćen broj od preko 3.000 biografija ličnosti sa područja arhitekture i srodnih oblasti umetnosti (enterijer, dizajn, urbanizam, arhitektonska skulptura, vizuelne komunikacije), što je još jedna posebna karakteristika ove Enciklopedije.

"Enciklopedija arhitekture", tomovi I-IV, predstavlja do sada najcelovitije delo iz ove stručne, umetničke i kulturne oblasti koje je napisano na srpskom jeziku.

Publikacija predstavlja plod prikupljanja građe, istraživanja i njene obrade tokom osmogodišnjeg rada autora i priređivača.

Slobodan Maldini radi u uredništvu projekta „Srpske enciklopedije“, u redakciji za umetnost - arhitekturu, koji vode Srpska Akademija nauka i umetnosti i Matica Srpska.

RECENZIJE EDICIJE:

O ediciji „Enciklopedija arhitekture“, napisali su izuzetno značajne komentare direktori i urednici svetski poznatih kuća:

"Thames and Hudson Ltd.", High Holborn, London; Lucas Dietrich, architecture editor: "...neverovatan mamutski posao (mammoth job)...odavno mi u ruke nije dopala ovakva knjiga... naša izdavačka kuća dobija dnevno preko 2.000 tekstova knjiga, medjutim, ovakvu knjigu do danas nismo imali..."

"The Japan architect Co., Ltd.", Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo; Chie Abe, chief editor: "...nismo ni pretpostavili da će nam stići knjiga ovog kvaliteta i obima... ovo je zaista kapitalno delo... iskreno čestitamo!"

"China editors", Shangai, - "...ukoliko budete imali izdanje na engleskom jeziku, obavezno nam ga ponudite..."

Rogan · Pristupio: 14 Apr 2006 Poruke: 5426 Studijska grupa: Istorija umetnosti

Egypt fumes over fresh seven wonders competition for pyramids

by Alain Navarro

CAIRO (AFP) - Egypt is fuming over a competition to choose the world's "new seven wonders," deriding it as a marketing stunt that demeans the pyramids of Giza, the only surviving ancient wonder.

"They are the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world that still exists, it's ridiculous, they don't need to be put to a vote," Egypt's antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass was quoted as saying in local newspapers.

Culture Minister Faruq Hosni echoed the complaint, describing the project as "absurd" and its creator, Swiss-Canadian filmmaker Bernard Weber, as a man "concerned primarily with self-promotion".

Weber has embarked on a tour of the 21 short-listed sites but got a frosty reception in Egypt.

The hotel function room near the pyramids where Weber was due to hold a news conference Wednesday was closed down at the last minute "for maintenance" and an AFP TV crew was prevented from filming "for security reasons."

"I must say that I've never seen anything quite like this anywhere in the world," Weber said after the botched media event.

The hostility his initiative has met in Egypt came in stark contrast to the honours granted by Jordan, where Weber's presentation was graced by the presence of an enthusiastic Queen Rania.

"This is probably a conspiracy against Egypt, its civilisation and monuments," wrote editorialist Al-Sayed al-Naggar in a leading state-owned daily.

Weber, a former assistant to Italian filmmaking legend Federico Fellini, launched a website where Internet users can vote and choose the world's "new seven wonders."

The seven wonders of the ancient world were the pyramids, the hanging gardens of Babylon, the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus and the lighthouse of Alexandria.

Among the 21 sites short-listed for the new competition are Petra in Jordan, the Eiffel Tower, the Acropolis in Athens, the Statue of Liberty, the Taj Mahal, the Sydney Opera House and the Great Wall of China.

"I had thought of excluding the pyramids from the competition, but Internet voters would have included them in their selections anyway," said Weber, who argued Egypt "should have pounced on the opportunity."

But Nagib Amin, a renowned Egyptian expert on world heritage sites, charged that "in addition to the commercial aspect, the vote has no scientific basis."

Weber retorted that the controversy had "political motivations" and added that he would donate part of the proceeds of his project towards the reconstruction of the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan, destroyed by
Afghanistan's then Taliban-controlled government in early 2001.

After 160 more days of voting online or by text messaging, the "seven new wonders of the world" will be declared at a ceremony to be held in Lisbon on July 7.

Rogan · Pristupio: 14 Apr 2006 Poruke: 5426 Studijska grupa: Istorija umetnosti

Rare Rembrandt sells for $25.8 million

Thu Jan 25, 1:16 PM ET

NEW YORK - A rare late work by Rembrandt depicting the Apostle James in prayer was sold Thursday for $25.8 million, the auction house said.

"Saint James the Greater," painted by the artist in 1661, was described by the vice chairman of Sotheby's Old Master paintings, George Wachter, as one of the most important Rembrandt works ever handled by Sotheby's.

"Over the past 20 years, the vast majority of pictures by the artist that have appeared on the market have dated to the 1630s and '40s," Wachter said. "It is exceedingly rare to have one that dates to the 1660s. Works of this period, the last decade of Rembrandt's life and a time of personal turmoil, are extremely intense, soulful and introspective."

The painting, which had a presale estimate of $18 million to $25 million, was purchased by an anonymous telephone bidder, Sotheby's said. The price includes the buyer's premium.

The work, offered as part of an old masters sale, is from a group of single figure, half-length "portraits" of religious figures Rembrandt painted in the late 1650s and early 1660s. The dimly lit portrait shows the patron saint of pilgrims with his hands clasped in prayer. His face is weathered and sad, and a wooden staff rests against a wall beside him.

"The hands of the apostle are particularly moving," Wachter said in a statement. "The gradations of color, browns and grays, are absolutely breathtaking."

"Saint James the Greater" recently was shown at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Staatliche Museum in Berlin.

The painting, measuring 36 inches by 20 inches, had been in the collection of Stephen Carlton Clark, the grandson of the founder of the Singer Sewing Machine Company and brother of Sterling Clark, founder of The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass.

It recently was donated to a foundation that consigned it for sale, Sotheby's said.

___

On the Net:

http://www.sothebys.com

Mavro Kazafranka · Administrator

Walls go up in the search for security

Herald Tribune
By Nicolai Ouroussoff
Published: March 6, 2007

Not so long ago, architects were obsessed with the notion that globalism, the Internet and sophisticated new building technologies were opening the way for a more fluid, transparent landscape in which walls would simply begin to melt away.

Things didn't turn out that way. After Sept. 11, a craving for the solidity of walls reasserted itself. And the wars on terror, and fractious peaces, enforced it. The Green Zone in Baghdad, Jerusalem's separation barrier, the concrete bollards that line corporate headquarters on Park Avenue in New York — all are emblems of an unintended new mentality.

Four years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, this state of siege is beginning to look more and more like a permanent reality, exhibited in an architectural style we might refer to as 21st- century medievalism.

Like their 13th- to 15th-century counterparts, contemporary architects are being enlisted to create not only major civic landmarks but lines of civic defense, with aesthetically pleasing features like elegantly sculpted barriers around public plazas or decorative cladding for bulky protective concrete walls. This vision may seem closer in spirit to Leonardo da Vinci's drawings of angular fortifications or Michelangelo's designs for organically shaped bastions than to a post-Cold War era of high-tech surveillance.

The emblematic capital of this transformation is the Green Zone, the American encampment in Baghdad, where the 3.6-meter, or 12-foot, high concrete slabs that surround Saddam Hussein's former palaces have infused the city within a city with the ethos of the gated suburban enclaves of Southern California. It is a place with "the calm sterility of an American subdivision," as described by Rajiv Chandrasekaran in his book, "Imperial Life in the Emerald City," not a place that expresses American ideals of democracy and political transparency.

That mentality has become acceptable in relatively stable cities as well, including London, where a debate has arisen over what do to with the concrete barricades that surround the U.S. Embassy in Grosvenor Square. Some suggest that they should be replaced by a permanent, more visually appealing barrier, as if better design could somehow negate the notion that we are surrendering to the inevitable.

In Miami, U.S. marshals have suggested that the barricades originally included in the plans for a park designed by Maya Lin as part of a new courthouse complex might have to be reinforced.

The most chilling example of the new medievalism is New York's Freedom Tower, which was once touted as a symbol of enlightenment.

Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, it rests on a 20-story, windowless fortified concrete base decorated in prismatic glass panels in a grotesque attempt to disguise its underlying paranoia. The brooding, obelisk-like form above is more of an expression of American hubris than of freedom.

But even the most thoughtful solutions, like the gracefully curved steel tubes that defend the plaza of Thom Mayne's Caltrans District 7 headquarters building in Los Angeles or the faceted bronze bollards on Wall Street, suggest the fragile balance today's architects are struggling to reach between assuring the freedom of movement that is vital to a functioning democracy and bolstering security.

To some, compromise may be preferable to surrounding our cities with barbed wire and sandbags. The notion that we can design our way out of these problems should give us pause, however. Our streets may be prettier, but the prettiness is camouflage for the budding reality of a society ruled by fear.