Friday, August 27, 2010

Arty Farty Friday ~ Virgo and Virgins



Following last month's post featuring Leo and lions in art, let's see what I can come up with for Virgo and virgins this Arty Farty Friday.

The poster, left, is by American artist David Palladini, who also created the Aquarian Tarot deck, which I own. I love his style, obviously much influenced by art nouveau and Alphonse Mucha.








Another elegant depiction of Virgo is below:
Virgo by 19th century Italian sculptor Adolfo Wildt




There's an old (English?) joke, now much the worse for wear: that "it'd be hard to find enough virgins in this (any) town to fill a telephone box." As it happens, telephone boxes are now harder to find than virgins.......



A thought springs to mind: why do virgins always have to be female? Guys can be virgins too, but get clean away without being painted for posterity. There was, however, this movie.






Virgin themes can be found in myth, legend and history: vestal virgins, wise and foolish virgins, Virgin Mary, Virgin Queen. There's also the use of the word in other contexts, to indicate purity: virgin olive oil, virgin wool, virgin snow, virgin territory. And brand names courtesy of multi-billionaire Richard Branson: Virgin Airlines, Virgin Music. Branson, coincidentally (or not) natally has Moon and Saturn in Virgo.




Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins - etching by Peter Bruegel




The Wise and Foolish Virgins by Peter von Cornelius



Veiled Vestal Virgin statue by Raffaelle Monti



Temple of Vesta and the Virgins by Constantin Holscher



Gather Ye Rosebuds by John William Waterhouse, inspired by a poem of Robert Herrick, To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time:

Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,
Old Time is still a flying:
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he's a getting;
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.



The Virgins by Gustav Klimt



The Virgin by Piero della Francesca



Coronation Portraitof The Virgin Queen (Elizabeth I of England, after whom the state of Virginia was named). Artist unknown.



Virgin wool



Virgin snow


Virgin territory: planet Jupiter. There's lots more virgin territory out there in space!


4 comments:

Gian Paul said...

Seen from my Brazilian perspective, that virgin snow was calling for a skier! Never thought of Jupiter as virgin territory, though. Imagine Zeus(!) a virgin...

Twilight said...

Gian Paul ~~~ Yes, indeed - and from the perspective of many here, who love to ski in our mountainous areas too. :-) I hope a little of the snow will always remain virgin though.

Re Jupiter - lol! I had difficulty choosing some virgin territory so ventured into space, beyond Moon and Mars where man has managed to already take a look, or land equipment.

Often, on one of our trips we remark that in the wilderness areas of Earth, there are probably thousands acres of ground where the footsteps of man have never been known - parts of the forests where you live might well be some of these.

Gian Paul said...

The beauty with snow is that every time it snows, it's again all virgin. When a boy, we were waking up early, wondering if it had snowed over night.

The forest where I live, as you guessed is virgin. In the upper parts. Teak trees 5-600 years old, lower down, charcoal people had invaded. Around 1825, judging from dated red-brick they left in some still intact furnaces.

São Paulo then had no other energy resource. That's why the Atlantic Forest was decimated, not because of agriculture. Another myth that needs to be debunked.

Twilight said...

Gian Paul ~~~ There's something especially beautiful about newly fallen snow - yes....it must resonate with the virginity remaining within us all. ;-)

Fabulous location, you're in GP. Thanks for that further information about the forests.