NYC - Metropolitan Museum of Art - Fragments of a marble statue of the Diadoumenos

NYC - Metropolitan Museum of Art - Fragments of a marble statue of the Diadoumenos

Image by wallyg
Fragments of a marble statue of the Diadoumenos (youth typing a fillet around his head)
Roman, Flavian period, ca. A.D. 69-96
Copy of a Greek bronze statue of ca. 430 B.C. by Polykleitos
Head, arms, and legs from knees down, and tree trunk are ancient. Remainder of figure is a cast taken from a marble copy found at Delos and now in the National Museum, Athens.
Fletcher Fund, 1925 (25.78.56)

This statue represents a youth adorning his head with a fillet (band) after victory in an athletic contest. The original bronze probably stood in a sanctuary such as that at Olympia or Delphi, where games were regularly held. The Greek sculptor Polykleitos of Argos, who worked during the mid-fifth century B.C., was one of the most famous artists of the ancient world. His figures are carefully designed with special attention to bodily proportions and stance. The figure's thorax and pelvis tilt in opposite directions, setting up rhythmic contrasts in the torso that create an impression of organic vitality. The position of the feet-poised between standing and walking--gives a sense of potential movement. This rigorously calculated pose, which is found in almost all works attributed to Polykleitos, became a standard formula used in Graeco-Roman and later Western European art.

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanent collection contains more than two million works of art from around the world. It opened its doors on February 20, 1872, housed in a building located at 681 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Under their guidance of John Taylor Johnston and George Palmer Putnam, the Met's holdings, initially consisting of a Roman stone sarcophagus and 174 mostly European paintings, quickly outgrew the available space. In 1873, occasioned by the Met's purchase of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriot antiquities, the museum decamped from Fifth Avenue and took up residence at the Douglas Mansion on West 14th Street. However, these new accommodations were temporary; after negotiations with the city of New York, the Met acquired land on the east side of Central Park, where it built its permanent home, a red-brick Gothic Revival stone "mausoleum" designed by American architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mold. As of 2006, the Met measures almost a quarter mile long and occupies more than two million square feet, more than 20 times the size of the original 1880 building.

In 2007, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was ranked #17 on the AIA 150 America's Favorite Architecture list.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1967. The interior was designated in 1977.

National Historic Register #86003556

Noxubee Refuge 2007

Image by Roger Smith
Please pardon the self indulgence, but today the winners of the 2007 Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge Photography Competition were announced. I was fortunate enough to win the scenery division and to finish second in the wildlife competition. There were a total of 56 entries (28 per category).

I'm even more proud that my son won both divisions in the youth category!

Here are the original photos:

Time For Reflection

Juvenile Alligator

slider5 won the wildlife category with his photo landing gears.

Cookie Contest Entrants

Image by Atwater Village Newbie
In the end, only four could win: Best Classic, Best Taste, Best Decorated and Best Youth Entry. Atwater Village Street Festival, 3100 block of Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, California, June 10, 2007.

International Day of Peace

Image by United Nations Development Programme
Augustin Lagneau received the first prize in a photo contest organized by the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Civic Action, UNDP, UNFPA to celebrate the International Day of Peace in Haiti. Under the theme "hope", the winner portrayed the youth in this neighborhood trying to find joy despite the harsh conditions lived in a settlement camp. "Every time that I saw an image that reflected hope I tried to make my camera capture that moment: children playing football, laughing, running... For me, when you speak about hope and peace, you want to show people who smile, who are happy, who enjoy themselves". Augustin will continue to develop his gift thanks to a training scholarship offered by a local photo studio, offered as the top prize.

Challenge Nation Scavenger Hunt

Image by apocaknits
This is our "creativity" clue: you may remember those essay contest questions from your youth that went something like "what does ___ mean to you?" For this clue, find the work by local artist Alfred Tibor- the sculpture can be found directly across a bridge from the largest of the several statues around depicting the namesake of this fair city. The name of the sculpture is the "blank"-- can you capture what it means to your team in a photo?

(This was one of the harder clues- the statue ended up being about celebrating life. Sarah's interpretation, being a tree, cracks me up.)