Aka Venus

Statue of Aphrodite, c. 2nd century BC, The J. Paul Getty Museum.

It is assumed that this statue represents Aphrodite (or Venus) because she holds and apple, one of the goddesses attributes (see Judgement of Paris), but it could also be the image of a noblewoman posing in the guide of Aphrodite.

Seasonal Themes

Virgin of the Angels, 1881 by William Adolph Bouguereau, The Getty Museum, Courtesy of Forest Lawn Memorial Park Association.

This painting was restored by the conservation specialists the Getty Museum and in exchange for restoring the work the owner, The Forest Lawn Museum, allowed the Getty to display the work. Bouguereau was very popular during his lifetime and while often panned by critics, remains a popular artist among museum visitors today.

Same Name

Starry Night, c. 1893, by Edvard Munch, The J. Paul Getty Museum.

Munch is the Symbolist painter best known for The Scream. He was from Norway but traveled and studied in Paris and admired van Gogh.

Starry Night, 1899 by Vincent van Gogh, MOMA, NYNY

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Herculaneum - The Redheaded Step Child

Pompeii A.D. 79 by Alfred Elmore, 1878, Yale Center for British Art

An exhibition entitled The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection opened on February 24th and runs through July 7, 2013 at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The exhibition features works inspired by the loss of the cities in 79 AD and their re-discovery in the early 18th century. It includes works by a wise range of artists from Piranesi and his detailed drawings of the site, to Rothko's abstract expressionist take on the murals from the Villa of the Mysteries.

Last Days of Pompeii Twitter

Beautiful Death

Master of the Dresden Prayer Book, about 1480 - 1485?, The Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

The Getty Museum is hosting an exhibition whose subject is the representation of death in medieval manuscripts. The manuscript was the most important piece of individually owned art during that time. People would commission artists, usually monks, to create books of prayers for them that were intended for personal use. They were small in size so the owner could easily carry them around. The exhibition entitled Heaven, Hell, and Dying Well: Images of Death in the Middle Ages runs through August 12, 2012.