Posted on 03/28/2005 8:43:46 PM PST by nuconvert
Antarctic Oil Painting Shrouded in Mystery
Mon Mar 28, 2005
By MATT APUZZO/ Associated Press Writer
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - As art restorers in London inspected a 230-year-old painting by master landscape artist William Hodges, they noticed the canvas was thicker in some areas than others.
Using an X-ray machine, they peered behind the lush greens of New Zealand and discovered the oldest known painting of Antarctica.
The X-ray revealed two icebergs, painted during Captain James Cook's historic expedition below the Antarctic circle. Until the National Maritime Museum in London made the discovery last year, historians believed that only sketches of the frozen continent had been produced.
"In the history of art, there's nothing comparable," said Angus Trumble, curator at the Yale Center for British Art, where the Hodges painting and the accompanying X-ray are on temporary display for their only U.S. appearance.
The discovery ignited a discussion over why Hodges endured frigid temperatures, fog and wind to capture the first image of the frozen continent, only to paint over it months later.
Cook had set out in 1772 to discover "Terra Australis Incognita," the mythical southern continent. Hodges was aboard the HMS Resolution to document the voyage, on which Cook spent nearly four months circumnavigating Antarctica.
"It put the final nail in the coffin that there wasn't a big land mass there suitable for commercial exploitation," said Brian Sandford, head of the U.S. chapter of the Captain Cook Society.
Painting the polar landscape would have made sense, experts agree, as it had never been seen before. And forensic analysis showed that Hodges took the time to complete the work. Yet when the Resolution left Antarctica and made its first stop in New Zealand, Hodges immediately turned on his iceberg canvas and painted his "View in Pickersgill Harbour, Dusky Bay Sound, New Zealand."
One theory is that the brutal weather destroyed some of Hodges' supplies, forcing him to reuse a canvas. Others suggest the bleak polar landscape didn't fit the popular style.
"Perhaps he said, 'Who paints icebergs?'" Isabel Stuebe, a Hodges biographer and scholar, said. "It wouldn't have met the standards for classic landscape composition. There was nothing in the foreground. It was more of a record of something as a scene rather than an artistic composition."
Or maybe four months in Antarctic waters were enough to make Hodges want to erase the artistic record of such a a perilous voyage.
"In a way, it's very understandable for Hodges to immediately be determined to paint this lush safe haven of New Zealand," Trumble said.
The painting, which is part of the traveling exhibit "William Hodges, 1744-1797: The Art of Exploration," is on display at Yale until April 24. It then moves to the Auckland Art Gallery in New Zealand.
I wonder if he ever did a landscape painting showing Capt. Cook being killed by happy natives on a beach in Hawaii.
FWIW, there actually is a painting of that......
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Striking resemblance.
Thanks, I'll add it to the catalog, but I think there's a similar topic...
Ah, here it is:
Cooks' Crew Hid First Antarctica Painting
ABC/Discovery News | 7-8-2004 | Rossella Lorenzi
Posted on 07/08/2004 11:41:34 AM PDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1167694/posts
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
I missed that one. That's why sometimes duplicate posts are a good thing, if you miss the first one, you get another chance at it.
I've often wondered if Herodotus recorded ancient knowledge of the iceberg-choked Antarctic sea:
"Sesostris... proceeded in a fleet of ships of war from the Arabian gulf along the shores of the Erythraean sea, subduing the nations as he went, until he finally reached a sea which could not be navigated by reason of the shoals."
"As for Libya, we know it to be washed on all sides by the sea, except where it is attached to Asia. This discovery was first made by Necos, the Egyptian king, who on desisting from the canal which he had begun between the Nile and the Arabian gulf, sent to sea a number of ships manned by Phoenicians, with orders to make for the Pillars of Hercules, and return to Egypt through them, and by the Mediterranean. The Phoenicians took their departure from Egypt by way of the Erythraean sea, and so sailed into the southern ocean. When autumn came, they went ashore, wherever they might happen to be, and having sown a tract of land with corn, waited until the grain was fit to cut. Having reaped it, they again set sail; and thus it came to pass that two whole years went by, and it was not till the third year that they doubled the Pillars of Hercules, and made good their voyage home. On their return, they declared -- I for my part do not believe them, but perhaps others may -- that in sailing round Libya they had the sun upon their right hand. In this way was the extent of Libya first discovered."
Yeah, I love 'em, myself, not least because I'm guilty of 'em from time to time.
Fascinating stuff. Kind of like finding a Ming vase at a garage sale. You never know what's out there.
The Age of Exploration. In those days, spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were real men, women were real women, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri.
Interesting post.
Those "ice bergs" look like some of those "monsters" that harassed Dr, Smith AND CREW OF JUPITER 2 on the old T.V.show LOST IN SPACE.
Some other interesting stuff about that frozen place...
http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-chat/1071522/posts#22
Thanks for the link to the old posts. I was thinking this "msystery" had to do with that map of Antartica they found a long time ago. Found more info on the link:
Here's the text that goes with the picture: The Buache Map, drawn in 1737, copied from ancient greek maps. It shows the Anctartica without ice. The surprising fact is that if today the ice didn't cover the Anctartica, the Ross and Weddell seas would be united in a huge strait, which would divide the Anctartica in two land masses, a fact that in modern times was established only in the Geophysical year of 1968.
Thanks
Corn?
Maybe they got the seed from the same merchant who supplied the cocaine?
It's your world. Do what'chu wan'.
By "corn" the (European) translator meant "wheat". In Europe, what we call corn, they call maize. ;')
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