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Paul Klee, Abstruse, 1934.
In Archaeology:
Three beautifully preserved mosaics from an Ancient Greek city that is partly submerged in water are uncovered.
The ancient city of Zeugma was originally founded as a Greek settlement by Seleucus I Nicator, one of the generals of Alexander the Great, in 300 BC. The population of the city at its peak was approximately 80,000 inhabitants.
Portraits of women by Gustav Klimt after 1900 almost resemble mosaics. The term AESTHETIC DECORATION is used mostly to describe this. It’s use means that there is no reference to the sitter’s location, family, interests, etc, as mainly their hands, face and decolletage are the only things peeking out of the geometrical patterns that surround them.
It is possible to read the portraits as the sitters being marooned from the world and many scholars have noted that the overt use of aesthetic decoration symbolizes the isolation felt by Klimt, and how he had withdrawn into himself and his art shortly after he renounced the University of Vienna commission in 1904.
The mandorla, the cruciform, the square, the star...
History of the halo in art: http://d.pr/KKai
