Layers
Street posters, Aarhus Denmark
Join Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #15: Changing or Changeable
Half Bear, 2018, Big Trash Animal Series Artist: Bordalo II,
Gulbenkian Museum Garden, Lisbon, Portugal
Beautiful hand-painted decorative tiles cover the interior and exterior of many buildings in Portugal, the most famous works found churches, palaces, schools, and train stations. Patterned ceramic tiles were introduced to Spain and Portugal by the Moors in the 13th century. Known as azulejos, the painted tin-glazed ceramic tiles were used for both artistic and utilitarian purposes. At the height of azulejo popularity in Portugal, blue and white figured tiles covered flat surfaces with scenes of Portuguese history, cupids hanging from vines, historical figures, the lives of the saints, or architectural and floral elements. But not all of tile surfaces were so grand. Walk down any street in Aveiro and be amazed by the infinite number of tile patterns used purely for surface decoration, patterns that go on into infinity.
In the mid-19th century, Brazilian immigrants introduced industrialized tile production. As the Portuguese adopted the Brazilian fashion of decorating the facades of businesses and houses, Lisbon factories began using transfer-print methods to produce large quantities of blue-and-white or polychrome patterned azulejos. As I walked through Aveiro last week, I tried to find two facades with matching tiles—No such luck. I’m not sure of the age of the tiles in the gallery. Most appear to be transfer-prints, but one or two may be hand-painted.
Royal Palace of Madrid, Palacio Real de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Ceiling and window decoration over one of the grand stairways of the Royal Palace of Madrid. While the palace is officially the home of the Spanish royal family, it is currently only used for state occasions. Construction of the palace began in 1738 and was completed in 1755, though later renovations and expansion were undertaken. The palace, the largest royal palace in Europe by floor area, has 3,418 rooms and 1,450,000 sq ft of floor space.
Join Jennifer’s Color Your World 2018: 120 Days of Crayola, a 4 month (January 1, 2018 to April 30, 2018) blogging challenge event. Each day has a new color theme based on a past or current crayon color in Crayola’s box of 120 crayons.
Mosque of Ibn Tulun, Cairo, Egypt
Section of a portico arcade in the Mosque of Ibn Tulun (Masjid Ibn Ṭūlūn) in Cairo, Egypt. It is said to be the oldest mosque in the city surviving in its original form and is the second oldest mosque in Egypt. Commissioned by Ahmad ibn Tulun, the Turkic Abbassid governor of Egypt, the mosque was constructed between AD 876 and 879. The upper part of the mosque’s exterior walls hold 128 arched windows with intricate pierced-stucco geometric patterns. Only four of the arched windows date back to the period of Ibn Tulun. The intersecting circle motifs are specific to that period. Each window is unique in its design motif and they are considered one of the most exquisite characteristics of the building. Stucco decoration of combining linear and floral decoration adorn the edges and soffits of the arcade and window arches. The mosque has the oldest and richest collection of stucco decoration in Egypt. For more detailed information on the style and decoration of the mosque, go to Discover Islamic Art .
Second to last day of my Egypt trip. We have returned to Cairo. Before lunch that included fresh falafel, we visited the Egyptian Musuem.
The museum is so out of date it still uses fans for climate control and has very few labels identifying items.
Extraordinary works of are art plunked down in galleries and no one stopping kids and adults from touching them.
They are building a new Egyption Museum in Giza. When finished, it will apparently be the biggest museum in the world. They have a long way to go because of delays. It was scheduled for 2018. This is a bad picture from a bus window.
