Edward VIII or George VI Coronation Portrait
In what could be called an early example of airbrushing, the coronation portrait of Edward VIII was changed to be George VI. The portrait on the left side is the original coronation portrait, painted for the Illustrated London News, and shows Edward VIII in his coronation robes. Due to the speedy change of monarch, it was decided to just paint over the face with George VI’s.
![King Umberto I and his Mighty Mustache
I posted this for the mustache however my readers may also be interested in this curious story about Umberto…
In Monza, Italy, King Umberto I, went to a small restaurant for dinner, accompanied by his aide-de-camp, General Emilio Ponzia- Vaglia. When the owner took King Umberto’s order, the King noticed that he and the restaurant owner were virtual doubles, in face and in build. Both men began discussing the striking resemblances between each other and found many more similarities.a) Both men were born on the same day, of the same year, (March 14th, 1844).b) Both men had been born in the same town.c) Both men married a woman with same name, Margherita.d) The restauranteur opened his restaurant on the same day that King Umberto was crowned King of Italy.e) On the 29th July 1900, King Umberto was informed that the restauranteur had died that day in a mysterious shooting accident, and as he expressed his regret, he was then assassinated by an anarchist in the crowd. [Source]
Make of that what you will.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbpat9suza1rnseozo1_1280.jpg)
I posted this for the mustache however my readers may also be interested in this curious story about Umberto…
In Monza, Italy, King Umberto I, went to a small restaurant for dinner, accompanied by his aide-de-camp, General Emilio Ponzia- Vaglia. When the owner took King Umberto’s order, the King noticed that he and the restaurant owner were virtual doubles, in face and in build. Both men began discussing the striking resemblances between each other and found many more similarities.
a) Both men were born on the same day, of the same year, (March 14th, 1844).
b) Both men had been born in the same town.
c) Both men married a woman with same name, Margherita.
d) The restauranteur opened his restaurant on the same day that King Umberto was crowned King of Italy.
e) On the 29th July 1900, King Umberto was informed that the restauranteur had died that day in a mysterious shooting accident, and as he expressed his regret, he was then assassinated by an anarchist in the crowd. [Source]
Make of that what you will.
Vesta Tilley, Late 19th Century Drag King (via)
![The Crazy Lady & Ernest Hebert’s Pasqua Maria
Anna Maria Helena, comtesse de Noailles was an English noblewoman. At the Paris Salon of 1863 she saw a portrait of a young girl by Ernest Hébert, which she wished to buy. However, it had already been purchased. Not one to be deterred, de Noailles decided to adopt the model, Maria Pasqua.
Like you do.
Maria’s father brought her to be adopted for the price of two bags of gold. De Noailles agreed to [his] conditions that Maria be brought up a Catholic and be treat as an equal. De Noailles kept her word but Maria’s childhood was to be an extraordinary one.
Curious rules and regulations were imposed on her, such as only being allowed to wear loose clothing. At boarding school she was excused from wearing a uniform for this reason. She was also given her own supply of fresh milk from de Noailles’s personal dairy herd (de Noailles believed that children brought up on milk were less likely to become drunkards) and de Noailles encouraged her cows to graze near open windows believing the methane they produced was good for her health.
De Noailles left England every winter for fear of catching flu. She believed the climate to be unhealthy when leaves fell, especially from oak trees, which she thought England had too many of. Later, de Noailles would only eat food served on plates behind a two-foot-high silk screen, for reasons she never revealed.
Other habits included sleeping with a loaded pistol beside her bed; having a string of fresh onions hung on her bedroom door to protect her from infections; wrapping silk stockings stuffed with squirrel fur around her forehead to prevent wrinkles; eating large amounts of fresh herring roe to prevent bronchitis. She also believed that port wine should be drunk at sunset, mixed with a little sugar and diluted with soft rainwater collected from the roof of their house by her servants.
Maria recorded that de Noailles once shrieked in terror because a piece of blue silk covering her brass bedroom door handle had fallen off and she feared that the glaring light shining off it was damaging her eyes.
In her will de Noailles endowed an orphanage for the daughter of clergymen, where inmates were made to follow several of her ‘rules’. Each was examined by phrenologists to ensure that they were “firm spirited and conscientious”. None of the girls were to be vaccinated and no girl under ten was to be taught any mathematics except for multiplication tables.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ma9gsdAVKP1rnseozo1_500.jpg)
Anna Maria Helena, comtesse de Noailles was an English noblewoman. At the Paris Salon of 1863 she saw a portrait of a young girl by Ernest Hébert, which she wished to buy. However, it had already been purchased. Not one to be deterred, de Noailles decided to adopt the model, Maria Pasqua.
Like you do.
Maria’s father brought her to be adopted for the price of two bags of gold. De Noailles agreed to [his] conditions that Maria be brought up a Catholic and be treat as an equal. De Noailles kept her word but Maria’s childhood was to be an extraordinary one.
Curious rules and regulations were imposed on her, such as only being allowed to wear loose clothing. At boarding school she was excused from wearing a uniform for this reason. She was also given her own supply of fresh milk from de Noailles’s personal dairy herd (de Noailles believed that children brought up on milk were less likely to become drunkards) and de Noailles encouraged her cows to graze near open windows believing the methane they produced was good for her health.
De Noailles left England every winter for fear of catching flu. She believed the climate to be unhealthy when leaves fell, especially from oak trees, which she thought England had too many of. Later, de Noailles would only eat food served on plates behind a two-foot-high silk screen, for reasons she never revealed.
Other habits included sleeping with a loaded pistol beside her bed; having a string of fresh onions hung on her bedroom door to protect her from infections; wrapping silk stockings stuffed with squirrel fur around her forehead to prevent wrinkles; eating large amounts of fresh herring roe to prevent bronchitis. She also believed that port wine should be drunk at sunset, mixed with a little sugar and diluted with soft rainwater collected from the roof of their house by her servants.
Maria recorded that de Noailles once shrieked in terror because a piece of blue silk covering her brass bedroom door handle had fallen off and she feared that the glaring light shining off it was damaging her eyes.
In her will de Noailles endowed an orphanage for the daughter of clergymen, where inmates were made to follow several of her ‘rules’. Each was examined by phrenologists to ensure that they were “firm spirited and conscientious”. None of the girls were to be vaccinated and no girl under ten was to be taught any mathematics except for multiplication tables.
Miniature portrait of Catherine of Aragon (first wife of Henry VIII) with her pet monkey. 1525.
The Museum of Bad Art (MOBA) is a privately owned museum whose stated aim is “to celebrate the labor of artists whose work would be displayed and appreciated in no other forum”. Its permanent collection includes 500 pieces of “art too bad to be ignored”.
Image 1: Lucy in the Field with Flowers (oil on canvas by Unknown; acquired from trash in Boston) remains a favorite with the news media and patrons. As the first work acquired by the museum, Lucy is “a painting so powerful it commands its own preservation for posterity”, setting a standard by which all future acquisitions would be compared.
Image 2: In 1996, the painting Eileen, by R. Angelo Le, vanished from MOBA. Eileen was acquired from the trash, and features a rip in the canvas where someone slashed it with a knife even before the museum acquired it, “adding an additional element of drama to an already powerful work”, according to MOBA. The museum offered a reward of $6.50 for the return of Eileen, but the work remained unrecovered for many years. The Boston Police listed the crime as “larceny, other”, and [the MOBA Director] was reported saying she was unable to establish a link between the disappearance of Eileen and a notorious heist at Boston’s famed Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum that occurred in 1990.
Image 3: Think Again: This disturbing work “makes an offer you can’t refuse”. The chilling, matter-of-fact manner in which the subject presents the severed head to us is a poignant reminder of just how numb we have become. The understated violence implicit in the scene speaks volumes on our own desensitization, our society’s reflexive use of force, and the artist’s inability to deal with the hindquarters of the animal.
Image 4: Charlie and Sheeba: No longer able to tolerate the incessant barking, Charlie the Chipmunk used a band-aid to tape Sheba the Sheepdog’s mouth shut before posing with her on the picnic table.
(Source: Wikipedia)
![Lavinia Fontana, Portrait of Antoinetta Gonzalez. c.1595:
Antonietta Gonzalez (as well as her father, two sisters and other family members) had hypertrichosis (also commonly called “werewolf syndrome”). This is a rare genetic disorder which causes an abnormal amount of hair on the body. Antonietta’s father, Pedro Gonzalez, was the first known person to be affected with this disorder. Given the rarity of the disease, it seems a little surprising that so many people within the Gonzalez family were affected by hypertrichosis. One writer noted that in terms of pathology, “the Gonzales sisters were one in a billion - all three of them.”
Luckily, though, Antonietta and her sisters were not shunned by society, but welcomed into the courts of Europe. Although I’m sure that these girls served as objects of curiosity to some degree, they also were subject to medical investigations and, obviously, portrait sittings. Antonietta explains a little of her personal history in the handwritten note which she holds in the portrait: “Don Pietro, a wild man discovered in the Canary Islands, was conveyed to his most serene highness Henry the king of France, and from there came to his Excellency the Duke of Parma. From whom [came] I, Antonietta, and now I can be found nearby at the court of the Lady Isabella Pallavicina, the honorable Marchesa of Soragna.”](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6x1fao4q21rnseozo1_1280.png)
Lavinia Fontana, Portrait of Antoinetta Gonzalez. c.1595:
Antonietta Gonzalez (as well as her father, two sisters and other family members) had hypertrichosis (also commonly called “werewolf syndrome”). This is a rare genetic disorder which causes an abnormal amount of hair on the body. Antonietta’s father, Pedro Gonzalez, was the first known person to be affected with this disorder. Given the rarity of the disease, it seems a little surprising that so many people within the Gonzalez family were affected by hypertrichosis. One writer noted that in terms of pathology, “the Gonzales sisters were one in a billion - all three of them.”
Luckily, though, Antonietta and her sisters were not shunned by society, but welcomed into the courts of Europe. Although I’m sure that these girls served as objects of curiosity to some degree, they also were subject to medical investigations and, obviously, portrait sittings. Antonietta explains a little of her personal history in the handwritten note which she holds in the portrait: “Don Pietro, a wild man discovered in the Canary Islands, was conveyed to his most serene highness Henry the king of France, and from there came to his Excellency the Duke of Parma. From whom [came] I, Antonietta, and now I can be found nearby at the court of the Lady Isabella Pallavicina, the honorable Marchesa of Soragna.”
(Source: albertis-window.blogspot.co.uk)
An excess of ruff: Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt - Portrait of a Woman. 1628.
Vertumnus, a portrait of today: Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor painted as Vertumnus, Roman God of the seasons, c. 1590-1, by Giuseppe Arcimboldo.
Arcimboldo’s conventional work, on traditional religious subjects, has fallen into oblivion, but his portraits of human heads made up of vegetables, plants, fruits, sea creatures and tree roots, were greatly admired by his contemporaries and remain a source of fascination today.
At a distance, his portraits looked like normal human portraits. However, individual objects in each portrait were actually overlapped together to make various anatomical shapes of a human. They were carefully constructed by his imagination. Besides, when he assembled objects in one portrait, he never used random objects. Each object was related by characterization.
American Gothic with its models.
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