portrait-photo

The Wunderkammer of the Mild Colonial Boy, Esq., a Reactionary Tory Gentleman, who armed only with a Steampowered Babbage Engine and Pure Intentions, wanders the Time Streams and Aetheric Plane gathering an Eccentric Hodgepodge of Curiousities, Frivolities, Whimsicalities and Nonsense.

Q. Why is your Tumblelog called "My Ear-Trumpet Has Been Struck by Lightning"?

A. Because "My Grandmother's Ear-Trumpet Has Been Struck by Lightning" wouldn't fit in the available space.

somethingvain: Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘Blob’ drawings: For Da Vinci, drawing was his prime means of analyzing the phenomena of the living world. Painting was the synthesis. Analyzing in the way I use it here, however, is not ‘taking apart’ something observed or experienced, nor is synthesis ‘putting parts back together.’  Da Vinci’s method of analysis was by analogy. Rather than pick apart a phenomenon, separating what he perceived as its components, he created in a drawing a parallel world, an analog to reality. Working with analogs, he could emphasize the features of phenomena he considered most important. Da Vinci’s blobs—drawn masses of turbulent water or stormy air—are prime examples of his analogical method of analysis. Looking at a rapidly flowing stream or a thunderstorm leaves a strong visual impression, but many aspects of what is actually happening remain hidden from or are simply beyond the reach of observation, either by the naked eye or instruments. They have to be inferred from what can be observed, and this is a matter of interpretation, of imagination. It is very much the method Albert Einstein used in developing his theories of Relativity, because he could not directly observe objects moving close to the speed of light, or the movements of stars in interstellar space.  Da Vinci, in this way, created hypothetical worlds that revealed the hidden structures of nature. These, in turn, helped him create paintings of great originality that are imbued with a lasting aura of conceptual power. via

somethingvain:

Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘Blob’ drawings:

For Da Vinci, drawing was his prime means of analyzing the phenomena of the living world. Painting was the synthesis. Analyzing in the way I use it here, however, is not ‘taking apart’ something observed or experienced, nor is synthesis ‘putting parts back together.’  Da Vinci’s method of analysis was by analogy. Rather than pick apart a phenomenon, separating what he perceived as its components, he created in a drawing a parallel world, an analog to reality. Working with analogs, he could emphasize the features of phenomena he considered most important. Da Vinci’s blobs—drawn masses of turbulent water or stormy air—are prime examples of his analogical method of analysis.

Looking at a rapidly flowing stream or a thunderstorm leaves a strong visual impression, but many aspects of what is actually happening remain hidden from or are simply beyond the reach of observation, either by the naked eye or instruments. They have to be inferred from what can be observed, and this is a matter of interpretation, of imagination. It is very much the method Albert Einstein used in developing his theories of Relativity, because he could not directly observe objects moving close to the speed of light, or the movements of stars in interstellar space.  Da Vinci, in this way, created hypothetical worlds that revealed the hidden structures of nature. These, in turn, helped him create paintings of great originality that are imbued with a lasting aura of conceptual power. via

(via haxtor)

propagandery: People of accomplishment rarely sit back and let things happen to them. They go out and happen to things. ~Leonardo da Vinci [via @ricardodiaz]

propagandery:

People of accomplishment rarely sit back and let things happen to them. They go out and happen to things. ~Leonardo da Vinci

[via @ricardodiaz]

lopeziana:

AMAZING! Hadron Collider: Drawings of the elements of CMS detector, in the style of Leonardo da Vinci

propagandery: What if Leonardo da Vinci designed the Large Hadron Collider? Now could this be clockpunk? Drawings of the elements of CMS detector, in the style of Leonardo da Vinci [CERN Documentation Server via It’s Okay to be Smart]

propagandery:

What if Leonardo da Vinci designed the Large Hadron Collider?

Now could this be clockpunk?

Drawings of the elements of CMS detector, in the style of Leonardo da Vinci [CERN Documentation Server via It’s Okay to be Smart]

mesbeauxarts: Andrea del Verrocchio and Leonardo da Vinci. The Baptism of Christ. 1472-1475. Oil on panel. Galleria degli Uffizi. Firenze, Italia.

mesbeauxarts:

Andrea del Verrocchio and Leonardo da Vinci. The Baptism of Christ. 1472-1475.

Oil on panel.

Galleria degli Uffizi. Firenze, Italia.

welovepaintings: Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519) Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani (Lady with an Ermine) ca. 1490–91 Oil on wood 54.8 x 40.3 cm ___ Cecilia Gallerani was an influential mistress of the ruler of Milan, Ludovico Sforza. The animal cradled in her arms, an Ermine, was a symbol of virtue and purity. In its present state, Lady with an Ermine is ‘mostly’ by Leonardo. The original painting was entirely done by him and, in fact, contains his fingerprints. His background was dark blue, though—the black was overpainted by someone else in the intervening years. Cecilia’s fingers have been jarringly retouched, and the inscription in the upper left-hand corner is also a non-Leonardesque intervention. Arthistory.about.com

welovepaintings:

Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519)

Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani (Lady with an Ermine)

ca. 1490–91

Oil on wood

54.8 x 40.3 cm

___

Cecilia Gallerani was an influential mistress of the ruler of Milan, Ludovico Sforza. The animal cradled in her arms, an Ermine, was a symbol of virtue and purity.

In its present state, Lady with an Ermine is ‘mostly’ by Leonardo. The original painting was entirely done by him and, in fact, contains his fingerprints. His background was dark blue, though—the black was overpainted by someone else in the intervening years. Cecilia’s fingers have been jarringly retouched, and the inscription in the upper left-hand corner is also a non-Leonardesque intervention.

Arthistory.about.com