Vincent van Gogh- Self-portrait w/ bandaged ear

 Vincent van Gogh painted this self-portrait in 1889, after his left ear was severed. No one really know how that happened. Some historians say van Gogh lost his ear in a fight with his friend, Paul Gauguin. Others believe he cut his own ear off in a fit of madness. We may never know what really happened to  Vincent van Gogh's ear.

Hokusai's The Great Wave

                                                                                             

     This piece is absolutely breathtaking. The tsunami has a certain elegance; like it's some sort of mystical being. For something so fearsome to be so beautiful is incredible. Hokusai is an genius.                                                  

Botticelli's Birth of Venus

Botticelli's Birth of Venus depicts Venus a  lovely young woman, but her face has a child-like innocence. This is possibly due to the fact that Venus is a "newborn".  Seeing her standing on a seashell in the waves made me think of Venus' Greek name: Aphrodite, which means "sea foam". Her Greek name ties into her birth:  when Chronos (Uranus in Rome) was killed by Zeus(Jupiter in Rome) his body fell of the top of Mount Olympus and landed into the ocean. The blood from Chronos' split head mixed with the sea foam, it gave birth to Aphrodite/ Venus.

Unicorn is found at the fountain

When I first saw this piece, I recognized the bottom half (with the lions, unicorn, fountain, rabbits & stag)  from the opening credits of the 1982 animated film, The Last Unicorn. The film is about a unicorn, the last of her kind, who goes on a journey to find out what happened to the rest of her species.

In case any of you are wondering, my profile picture is me at my junior prom. Our theme was a masquerade.

Hello. This is Shannon Ryl. I'm looking forward to Art History 2.