people: green man

Title:  unknown

Artist:  Bevin Chikodzi, 1966-2006, Zimbabwe

Style:  Shona sculpture

Medium:  green serpentine (?) stone

Measurements:

height: 27 cm

width: 9 cm

depth: 4 cm

Condition:  a few scratches

Signed:  By B Chikodzi

This abstracted figure was released from the stone by Zimbabwean sculptor Bevin Chikodzi.  Carvers in the Shona tribe contemplate the piece of rock in order to expose the spirit it contains. The figure revealed here has a large right hand, and a serene face reminiscent of traditional African masks.  I don’t know the title.

Bevin Chikodzi was born in Mrewa, Zimbabwe in 1966, and was an artist in Chitungwiza.  According to Efka, “The development of his talent is related to his uncle Wellington Mudhokwani, a local sculptor in Seke. Under his wings Bevin at the age of 16 dedicated almost his entire time to sculpturing. He sculptured for hours with passion often neglecting his school and later work. Next to his uncle also ‘Mr. Mdokwani’, probably sculptor Farai Mdokwani, taught him to carve in 1987.” (1.)  He set out on his own the next year.  Bevin worked as a full-time sculptor. (2.)

Bevin said, “When I sculpt I have to do it with spirit in my work. You can not just sculpt. According to some method or some book. You must place your whole emphasis on the spiritual content.” (1.)   He believed that, “nothing which exists naturally is inanimate” –it has a spirit of its own.  You must be aware of the stone’s contribution to the finished artwork.  (2.)

Bevin was a gentle man of good humor, respected in his community.  His art has been exhibited in Africa, UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, USA, Australia, Spain, Singapore, Japan and Belgium. Bevin represented Zimbabwe at the Expo 2000 Germany and the Expo 2004 in Japan. (1.)  His country’s name, Zimbabwe, means, “house of stone.”

Shona sculpture is, “perhaps the most important new art form to emerge from Africa in the 20^th century,” according to Newsweek. (3.)  Picasso admired Shona sculpture, but modern cubism was not an influence on the African artists. (3.)  They began with traditional subjects, and worked with the stone’s spirit to discover the image within.

In this stone, Bevin found a human with right arm bending.  If you tried to pose this way, your palm might be out.

1.  “Bevin Chikodzi African Abstract Bird Stone Sculpture Zimbabwe 2nd Half of the 20th C,” c.2016-2019.  Efka in the Netherlands, of BrandNewVintageStore on Etsy.  https://www.etsy.com/listing/611234687/bevin-chikodzi-african-abstract-bird
2. “A Mothers Love,” by Unknown in Somerset West, Cape Town, South Africa, Stone Sculpture blog, April 9, 2013, http://artcreationsafrica.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-mothers-love.html
3. “SHONA MODERN | The Peggy Knowlton Collection of 20th Century Zimbabwean Art,” Press Release by Material Culture, May 23, 2017, https://materialculture.com/about_shona_modern/

People: Stone Cold Hunter

Scene:  Maitrakanyaka rides a horse to go hunting

Artist:  Unknown

Date:  Recent replica of an A.D. 8th Century stone temple carving

Size:  7.5 inches high and 23 inches long, without frame.  I believe the original is three or four times this size.

Materials: originally Cambodian sandstone

Origin:  Buddhist temple carving from Borobudur, a Mahayana Buddhist Temple in Central Java, Indonesia

Location of panel 114:  Borobudur Temple, first gallery, lower wall series, East wall.

Carved in stone, the Buddhist traditions about Maitrakanyaka are shown in fifteen panels, 106 to 120.  This one is Panel 114.  [Impatient readers may skip to the final paragraph now.]

The label on the back of this piece identifies the rider as Maitrakanyaka, but researchers claim Panels 113-120 are, “not identified.” [1.]

The story of Maitrakanyaka begins with his father Maitra’s friends predicting the only way the child will survive is with a feminine name, literally, “daughter of Maitra,” so he will not die at sea.  The father, a merchant, dies on an ocean voyage.  After Maitrakanyaka grows up, his mother doesn’t want to lose her son, so she says at first his father was a shopkeeper, then a perfume merchant and a goldsmith.  In each of these trades, he is very successful, and donates four large gifts to charity, in the amounts of 4, 8, 16 and 32 units of money.  [Panel 106.]

To eliminate the competition, the other tradesmen inform him that to really follow his father’s footsteps, he must become a traveling merchant.  His mother begs him to stay, grasping his feet.  In anger, Maitrakanyaka kicks his mother’s head and leaves. [Panel 107.]

His voyage is cut short, when a sea monster wrecks his ship.  (An alternate version says his companions blame him for no wind and throw him overboard.)  [Panel 108.]  Maitrakanyaka is washed ashore and meets four heavenly nymphs.  He spends years enjoying their pleasure, and then succumbing to wanderlust.  [Panels 109-111.] This happens four times, as he meets 4, 8, 16 and then 32 nymphs.

One day he wanders into an iron town and meets a tall man tortured with a flaming iron wheel on his head.  [Panel 112.]

“Who are you?” asks Maitrakanyaka.

“A man who has mistreated his mother,” comes the answer.

Suddenly a voice is heard, “Those who are bound, are free, and those who are free are now bound.”  The iron wheel leaped onto Maitrakanyaka’s head.

“How long is my punishment?” he asks.  The answer:  66,000 years.

“Who will be punished after me?”

“One who has committed the same sin as yourself, ” says the man.

In pain but with compassion, Maitrakanyaka declares, “I am willing to wear this wheel forever on my head for the sake of my fellow creatures.  May there never come another who has committed such sin.”

The wheel immediately lifts from his head and floats above him.  At this moment the Bodhisattva Maitrakanyaka dies and is born again into heaven.

In Buddhism, a Bodhisattva like Maitrakanyaka is a person who seeks awakening and enlightenment with compassion for all beings.  It is someone on the way to Buddhahood.  I am probably not very accurate in these descriptions of someone else’s religion, but I hope you get a taste of it.

 

These stories in these panels are from the Divyāvadāna (divine tales), and are a kind of literature called avadana (former lives of virtue).   The Borobudur Temple has thousands of bas-relief panels illustrating these legends.

In 1917 A. Foucher [2.] wrote about the temple sculptures: “While their chisels could only moderately carve the fine Cambodian sandstone into rather shallow pictures, the artists of Java, not disheartened by the coarse grain of the volcanic stone furnished by their island, have drawn from it veritable high-reliefs of an astounding depth.  Their figures, in spite of the effeminate softness of their lines, are rightly celebrated for the justness of their proportions, the naturalness of their movements and the diversity of their postures.  Above all, they exhibit a knowledge of foreshortening…” [3.]

If you read his essay describing the panels, you’ll encounter questing princes, genii, a magic ring, kings, jewels, monks and nuns.  Foucher also suspects that the artists included extra scenes to fill wall space.

“Not only are the characteristic episodes thus drowned in a dull, monotonous flood of pictures without movement, but even in each picture the principal motif is often submerged under a veritable debauch of accessories and details.  The only excuse here for the artists is to be found in the form of the frame, which is at least three times as wide as it is high.  Consequently there is no great personage whose cortege is not spread out to form a wallcovering, sometimes over several rows….

“That is not all:  the sculptors have made it, as it were, a point of honour not to leave vacant any part of the surface at their disposal….they go so far as to fill the space beneath the seats with [various items and]….animals of all kinds, cleverly sketched, indeed from life, with the single exception of the horses, which are mediocre.”  [3.]

The artists are able to portray types of characters in the stories, but not individual likenesses.   In other words, Foucher thinks they all look the same.

Is it weird for me to be quoting an European scholar while listening to “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” music?  Well, I hope I’m not too blinded by my Western ethos.

This panel shows Maitrakanyaka hunting while riding a horse.  A group of guards with swords and arrows escort him.  He is carved on the temple wall to illustrate a virtuous life to the faithful.  If you visit the thousand-year-old Borobudur Buddhist Temple in Java, you will see that the lower level narrative pictures like this give rise to more iconic figures on the higher levels.

Sources:

1.  Borobudur: Golden Tales of the Buddhas, By John Miksic, Tuttle Publishing 1990, 2017  https://books.google.com/books?id=jwzQAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
2. Alfred Charles Auguste Foucher (1865–1952) was a French scholar who identified the Buddha image as having Greek or Roman origins. Wikipedia
3. Buddhist Art in Java, 5. Maitrakanyaka’s Story, 1917 public domain text by A. Foucher, translated by L.A. Thomas and F.W. Thomas as part of ‘The Beginnings of Buddhist Art,’ re-edited with photographs by Anandajoti Bhikkhu in 2013.

https://www.photodharma.net/Indonesia/06-Divyavadana-Level-1/06-Divyavadana-Level-1-Maitrakanyakas-Storyboard.htm

People: Busted Presidents

All presidents deserve a bust.  If you had to pick only eight…

This set of busts was obtained in Philadelphia where our founding fathers met to bring forth on this continent a new nation.   They are sold in a “USA Presidents Toob,” by Safari Ltd. for about ten dollars.

The likenesses could be better, but you can tell who’s who.  The Big Four from Mt. Rushmore are included:  Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Lincoln.

The next four dead presidents in the toob are J. Q. Adams, Jackson, FDR and JFK.   The Andrew Jackson has the hairstyle, but I don’t recognize the face.  All of these busts are helpfully labeled in case you can’t tell J. Adams from J.Q. Adams.

This set of busts has educational as well as decorative value.  Each sculpture is two inches tall.

This collection includes three Democrats, two Democratic-Republicans, two Republicans and one unaffiliated politician.

People: Great like Alexander

Bust of Skanderbeg

Artist: unknown, possibly after Odhise Paskali’s 1968 work

Size: 8.5” x 2.25” x 2.25”

Materials:  marble, nylon, plastic, paint

Package marked: Souvenir Tirana-Albania

Value:  $1.91

Acquired:  August 2018

This is a small replica of a bust of George Castriot, aka Skanderbeg, who lived from 1405 to 1468.  He’s known as the Invincible Albanian National Hero and Defender of Western Civilization.  Okay, it’s a tourist souvenir from Tirana, the capital of the Republic of Albania.

There are A LOT of monumental statues all over the world that look like this, some busts, some equestrian.  As far as I can tell, the original Albanian artist was Odhise Paskali (1903-1985).  So the spread of these images might be a 20^th and 21^st century example of Albanian pride.  They appear in Albania, Kosovo, Italy, and in Geneva, London, New York, Brussels, Rome, Budapest, and Rochester Hills, Michigan, etc.*  I wonder how much is in reaction to the issues around the Serbian-Albanian conflicts or the 1999 Kosovo War.

Skanderbeg has a super story.  In 1405, he was born into a noble Albanian family, who were Christian.  When the Ottoman Empire took over, the noble family was required to send sons as a “blood tax.”  The boys entered the Devshirme system, a military school intended to convert Christians to Islamic soldiers.  George converted and rose through the ranks, fighting for the Ottomans.  They named him Leader Alexander, İskender beğ, possibly compared to Alexander the Great.  He became governor of a state.

After twenty years, he and his men deserted the Ottomans (on the battlefield) and converted to Christianity.  He ruled a small area in Northern Albania, and successfully fought the surrounding forces under a red flag with a black eagle.  He was admired for his military expertise, often defeating larger armies.  Skanderbeg is sometimes considered the model of Western resistance to Muslim expansion.  (Another resister was Vlad III Dracula.)

His flag was the double-headed black eagle on red.  It was like his family crest, and came from the earlier Byzantine Empire.  The double-headed eagle could be traced back to the Hittites, and can be a symbol of empire or power.  The current flag of Albania has a similar design.

Bonus flag story from Wikipedia:  “There is an incorrect version of the flag still commonly used by Albanians and officials, most notably used in the 100^th Anniversary of the Independence of Albania [2012] in which the eagles were very noticeably deformed. The flags were ordered from a Chinese company that produced incorrect details. These flags were quickly removed after Independence day, but a few specimens can still be found.” **  [The one behind this bust is not the incorrect version, but it’s not the current official flag either.]

References:  *”SKENDERBEU” today in 12 world metropolises lobbies for Kosovo and Albanians, by Astrit Leka, March 10, 2012, http://www.preshevajone.com/seknderbeu-sot-ne-12-metropole-boterore-lobon-per-kosoven-dhe-shqiptaret/

Wikipedia:  ** “Festë me flamuj të deformuar” (Press release) (in Albanian). Top Channel. 22 November 2012. Retrieved 25 November 2012. Shqipëria po përgatitet të festojë 100-vjetorin e Pavarësisë me simbole të deformuar.

See also:  Skanderbeg, an opera by Vivaldi.  Skanderbeg, a poem by Longfellow.

 

Charles In Charge, or Not

Not  a coin, not a medallion—what is it?  It caught my eye at the thrift store.  It’s sort of bubblegum colored, but made out of a hard resin.

Solving a mystery is fun.  The first clue is the writing around the edge: Latin, which translates, “Charles – the second – of God – a favorite – Sovereign – Britain – France – and Ireland – King – Sure – Defender.”

This is the Great Seal of the Realm.  At least one side of it.  I always imagined kingly documents were sealed with something the size of a signet ring.  This is more than five inches across.  Apparently some seals were this big, put inside a box that dangled from the document.

Pennsylvania only wishes they had one of these.  Their charter was given by King Charles II to William Penn in 1681.  That document used to have a seal like this, but green.  They lost it.  [1]

Looking at the beautiful artwork, we see Charles II himself:

“The King on horseback …, his head uncovered, …, his hair flowing over his shoulders and back. The King is clad in armour with a cloak fastened over his right shoulder and flying behind his back, and is riding with single curb rein; in his right hand is a straight sword …, his foot spurred and placed in the stirrup. The horse is rearing and is harnessed with bridle, saddle, saddle-cloth, and a strap passing round the whole length of its body; from behind the saddle fall three straps across the flanks of the horse hanging almost perpendicularly towards the ground.” [2]

Where is he going?  The bridge below the horse is London Bridge, after it was “falling down,” but before the 1666 Great Fire of London.  The scene shows London past the River Thames from Southwark.  The big buildings are churches. Under the stallion’s belly is “old” St. Paul’s Cathedral before it was destroyed in the fire.

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre would have appeared on the near shore under his foot, except it had been closed by the Puritans along with all the other theatres.

Charles II (sort of) became king when his father Charles I was executed after the English Civil War.

In 1649, Scotland proclaimed him king, but England was led by Oliver Cromwell.  Charles II was defeated by Cromwell in 1651, and fled to Europe for 9 years.

After Cromwell died, Charles II returned to England on his 30th birthday 29 May 1660, and became king.  He tried to enact religious freedoms, i.e. tolerate the Catholics.

He was known as the Merry Monarch for the hedonism of his court.  The country returned to normal after Cromwell’s Puritan rule.  He had no children–except 12 illegitimate children by seven mistresses.  Princess Diana is descended from two of his illegitimate sons, and Prince William could become the first monarch descended from Charles II.

He was nicknamed “Old Rowley,” after one of his stallions.

Earl John Wilmot said,

 “We have a pretty witty king,

Whose word no man relies on,

He never said a foolish thing,

And never did a wise one”

Charles II responded, “That’s true, for my words are my own, but my actions are those of my ministers.”

During his reign:

1660  Restoration (of monarchy from restrictive Puritan republic.)  Also, Restoration Comedies were cynical, bawdy and sharp plays.

1665  Great Plague of London

1666  Great Fire of London

1681  Gave land to Wm. Penn to pay a debt.  That became Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Charles II was a contemporary of scientists Robert Boyle and Sir Isaac Newton, and of architect Sir Christopher Wren.  [3]

His seal half-way looked like this reproduction. There would have been a design on the other side too.  This replica was probably made by The British Museum Cast Service in the 1970s.  Very detailed for a fake piece of history!

 

Sources:

1  http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/documents/1681-1776/pennsylvania-charter.html

2  SOURCE: Public Records Office. United Kingdom.  http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/documents/1681-1776/pennsylvania-charter.html

3  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_II_of_England

 

 

 

 

 

Sculpture: Bull Pen by Marx

I really love the sculptures of Louis Marx.  My number-one favorite army man of all time is the blue walking cavalry man by Marx.  The Marx plastic toys are detailed, realistic and well made.  These once common figures are collectible, and inferior reproductions have shown up in the market.

This is “Bull Pen Boo Boo,” a baseball pitcher for the BUMS.  He’s part of the “Nutty Mads” series, 1963-64.  He’s mad crazy and mad angry.  And about to deliver a bean ball, so watch out…a bean ball to home plate, or maybe first base?  Who?

The Nutty Mads sculptures are about six inches tall, and made of injection molded polymer plastic.  This one is from Series 2.  Today, its value has increased to $20 or $40 on eBay from the original 13 cents in 1963.

The artistic inspiration for the Nutty Mads has to be recognized in the art of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, (remember Rat Fink?)  Other influences could be the cartoons of Basil Wolverton and Don Martin, according to Wikipedia!, and “reportedly based on original designs created by veteran Mad Magazine artist Jack Davis.[citation needed]”

Louis Marx, “toycoon,” ran the world’s largest toy company in the 1950s.  In 1972, he sold the company for $54 million.  I have been unable to document that Marx himself did any sculpting, so let’s call this, “studio of Louis Marx,” to be completely honest.

OK, so I’ll admit it.  This athletic figure reminds my of my own physique, the one-pack abs and the robust complexion.

Admiring this statue reminds that I am part of what is common to all men, what it is to be human.  Aren’t we all Nutty Mad?