Archers

In keeping with the Robin Hood theme, here are a few other archers. The first is from my most recent purchase at the Met - a book titled Battle; A Visual Journey Through 5,000 years of Combat (by R.G. Grant), which is an excellent history of warfare, giving broad brush strokes of what happened, between whom, using what, when, and showing how said-particulars fit into the historical scheme of things.

This is in the European Sculpture Court, which has some fabulous classics sculpture, including a Perseus holding Medusa's head, cast in white marble. The only reason I don't post it is, wonderful as it is, it doesn't come close to the one Grim posted a bit ago, which I think is in Italy. Some of my favorite Rodin sculpture is in this room, a section of the Burghers of Calais.

Here are those crazy Burghers!,

though the picture cannot do them justice; you must gaze at their pained expressions in person.

Onward...

This is the American Wing of the Met. It is simply fabulous, filled with breathtaking sculpture in an open and airy setting. It abuts the Medieval Hall and the Arms and Armor Hall, and resides next to the Tiffany displays, which are something to behold. The bronze sculpture I posted to accompany Grim's Mother's Day poem comes from this room.

A Good Moment

Hope for the Future:

I'm not sure which of these items I like better: the governor of California calls to end all state welfare, or this ad from Alabama:



Yes, Allah, he's serious. When a man from Alabama pulls out his lever-action in a political ad, he means business.

Robin Hood

Robin Hood:

I went to the new Robin Hood movie today, prepared to see Gladiator in cloaks; instead, I saw a genuinely remarkable and worthy film. I hope that all of you will take time to see it, but more importantly, that you will suggest that others should see it.

The new Robin Hood harmonizes perfectly with our current political situation exactly where it varies from the historical account. This may or may not be how it was intended, but it happens to be the case. King Richard the Lionheart is the old king, valiant but wasteful on foreign adventures. King John is the lying, prideful new king, who talks about unity and promises to bring all Englishmen together, then betrays them in order to seize greater power and taxes from the people. He is provocatively weak, inspiring a French invasion because he is clearly unable to lead. He is saved by William Marshall and Robin Hood, the former a military man who is trusted by all except the new King -- who detests him, but needs him 'whether he likes it or not.' The latter is an everyman, good at what he does, honest, brave, and foolish enough to believe that a king will appreciate his honesty.

The remarks on liberty, the place of the law in relation to it, and the rights of men are note perfect. Normally departures from history in historical films bother me; but not here, because there is other game afoot.

It's a tremendous movie, deeply enjoyable. Some of the music is fantastic, designed around the mandolin and drum.

I would not have expected it to be the best Robin Hood film ever made; but it may very well be that, and besides that, a great movie judged apart from its genre.

Japanese Cuirass and helmet

For your information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haramaki

Confess

Confess:

One of the hardest things to get smart people to do, whether philosophers or scientists, is to confess the hard limits to our knowledge. One thing well beyond the limits is what is called 'the hard problem' of consciousness: that is, why does it feel like we're conscious at all?

If we don't call it a miracle, it's not clear what else we might call it.

[H]ere we are, a gaudy efflorescence of consciousness, staggeringly improbable in light of everything we know about the reality that contains us.

There are physicists and philosophers who would correct me. They would say that if there are an infinite number of universes, as in theory there could be, then creatures like us would be very likely to emerge at some time in one of them. But to say this is only to state the fact of our improbability in other terms....

The universe passed through its unimaginable first moment, first year, first billion years, wresting itself from whatever state of nonexistence, inflating, contorting, resolving into space and matter, bursting into light. Matter condenses, stars live out their generations. Then, very late, there is added to the universe of being a shaped stick or stone, a jug, a cuneiform tablet. They appear on a tiny, teetering, lopsided planet, and they demand wholly new vocabularies of description for reality at every scale. What but the energies of the universe could be expressed in the Great Wall of China, the St. Matthew Passion? For our purposes, there is nothing else. Yet language that would have been fully adequate to describe the ages before the appearance of the first artifact would have had to be enlarged by concepts like agency and intention, words like “creation,” that would query the great universe itself. Might not the human brain, that most complex object known to exist in the universe, have undergone a qualitative change as well? If my metaphor only suggests the possibility that our species is more than an optimized ape, that something terrible and glorious befell us—if this is merely another fable, it might at least encourage an imagination of humankind large enough to acknowledge some small fragment of the mystery we are.

The thing about the hard problem isn't that we don't know how to answer it. The important thing is that we can't even put firm brackets around what an answer would look like.

Back from the Land of the Dead

Back from the Land of the Dead:

I have returned from my short journey to California. Southern California has a particular beauty, which can help explain why there seem to be so very many people there. Some highlights from the trip included getting to sit with some Hollywood Marine recruits on the flight out, who were just on their way to boot camp; it was a pleasure to talk with them. In addition, I had one afternoon for looking across the bay at Coronado, and for driving past Miramar.

Now, as DB says, back to your regular programming.

Robin Hood, History Channel

I'm watching a wonderful History Channel show on Robin Hood. Ridley Scott, Russell Crow, and various historians are all in it. I particularly like the actual timeline they keep showing of when the name "Robin Hood" first began to appear in written documents. They say he was mentioned in oral history for about 100-200 years before his name was recorded in documents. He also had a big presense in various ballads, all way before his name ever was written anywhere.  Somewhere around 1460 a guy who has come to be known as Robin Hood existed.

Of course, I can still recite the entire song from the Disney version and I recall having a massive crush on the fox (read: cartoon) version of Robin Hood. Never was into Errol Flynn. I will enjoy seeing Russell Crow be him.

Robin Hood and Little John running through the forest, laughing back and forth at what the other one has to say; reminising this and that, and having such a good time; ooodalolly ooodalolly, golly what a day!

Don't worry, gang, Grim comes back soon and will be restoring the usual program.

Paintings of Knights at The Met (Saints Maurice and George)

Half Armor with Plates

Saber with Emeralds

I'm having a girly-girl fit.  All you guys will groan, I'm sure. Yes, it's only a ceremonial saber, but it's so pretty.

Isn't it wonderful?

And while I'm at it...

Great Riots of US History

Great Riots of US History:

Todd Jensen writes to point us to his piece on ten great (or terrible) riots of American history. It's a short piece, but with description and video from the more recent of these shortlived uprisings.

Old door, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Faustina

For your info:

http://www.roman-empire.net/highpoint/hadrian-index.html

I just had to know, so I looked up Hadrian, and searched for Faustina within those results, and got this:

As Hadrian died shortly after and Antoninus Pius assumed the throne, Marcus soon shared in the work of the high office. Antoninus sought for Marcus to gain experience for the role he would one day have to play. And with time, both seemed to have shared true sympathy and affection for each other, like father and son. As these bonds grew stronger Marcus Aurelius broke off his engagement to Ceionia Fabia and instead became engaged to Antoninus' daughter Annia Galeria Faustina (Faustina the Younger)in AD 139.  An engagement which should lead to marriage in AD 145.

Faustina would bear him no fewer than 14 children during their 31 years of marriage. But only one son and four daughters were to outlive their father.

In AD 139 Marcus Aurelius was officially made caesar, junior emperor to Antoninus, and in AD 140, at the age of only 18, he was made consul for the first time.

Also of interest:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faustina_the_Younger

Never listen to gossip!

Travels

Travels:

I'm traveling this week.



While DB continues to entertain us with Met photos, I may have less to say than usual.

Nubuck armor

I may turn this into an almost daily piece from The Met. Any objections? Or should I cool it already?

What do you suppose the little hook is for above? To hold the helmet in place?

I'm grouping these pieces together only because of the reconstructed look using the nubuck. Historians will recoil, I'm sure.

hehe -- lookin' a little Texas (above).

Getting down to brass tacks (above).

Here is a great link about the history of armor, its use, and various related links. You can search by time period and region. I highly recommend the informational links at The Met, as well as the artwork and artifacts.

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/aams/hd_aams.htm

Disclaimer to the Hall:
I am learning about this stuff as I go along; maybe in ten years you'll get an essay or two that wraps the pretty pictures and the historical aspect together. Since I grew up with the porcelain tea set and not the faux weapons, I'm not inclined to already know about this stuff. However, my best friend and I did always raid her brother's room, since his stuff was cooler. After all, we did not have "equipment" or "ammunition" and his endless array of neat things like little hard plastic backpacks (for when we were going on a mission) that could be packed with fake coiled ropes, "rations," and a spare rifle outshone our many plastic shoes, boas, and various outfits in which to change our dolls. Inevitably, he had to lower himself to dealing with us, and we'd make up one side and he the other. We'd always win.

This amuses me no end:



Yup, along with British and French troops, that's a company of US Infantry, marching in Red Square. Part of the 65th anniversary celebrations of the victory over Nazi Germany. The US, British and French troops were invited by the Russian Government to participate this year, for the first time ever.

But other Russians aren't so happy:

Author Alexander Prokhanov, editor in chief of the nationalist Zavtra daily, called the appearance of U.S. servicemen in Red Square a national humiliation.

"The fact that American troops are trampling underfoot the cobblestones of Red Square is a huge shame and humiliation for Russia," Prokhanov said. "Thus they are celebrating their final victory not in World War II but in the Cold War."

Heh.

(via perfunction)

Amor Caritas

To go with Grim's beautiful poem...

Lady of Flowers

Lady of Flowers:

O Lady of Flowers, May is your hour;
The world fills with color, deepens in hue,
Trees grow with green, vines tower,
Bulbs of winter now blossom for you.
We broke beds in November, marked with stone,
Fires of winter we lay by in mirth,
The white ash on beds shone
‘Til April rain turned ash to earth,
We planted while our son would sing;
For You love flowers, and we you;
Worked, we, to thunder of spring;
The soft shoots of the plantings grew.
The sunlight of May at first break of day
Embraces your love in fullest display.

Medieval ladies quiz

Happy Mother's Day. Don't forget the ladies.

"The Inquisition"

How serendipitous is question #10?

Toast

Making Toast:

I wish this book had never been written, because it is the account of an unbearable sorrow, and I wish it had never befallen Roger Rosenblatt. On December 8, 2007, his daughter, Amy Rosenblatt Solomon, thirty-eight years old, the mother of three children, a pediatrician, collapsed at home in Bethesda and died. Rosenblatt and his wife... immediately left their home on Long Island and drove to their mutilated family. When one of his little grandchildren asked how long he is staying, Rosenblatt replied, "Forever."

That was a reply worthy of a man.

Gotta Love the Corps

Gotta Love the Marine Corps:

Apparently the USMC and the UFC have decided that they'd be good for each other; you've probably seen the new Marine recruting ads. What I hadn't seen until this evening is the USMC's supplementary material: MMA fighers invited to Marine Corps martial arts training.

They never had a chance, of course. 'You're going to die in this situation. Your job is just to take one guy out, so your buddy coming behind you has one fewer to fight.'

That's not the mindset of a competition fighter. There was no way they were going to be able to make the shift in time. Uncertain, they hesitate, and are lost.