Francisco Cruz’s Post

William the Hippo, The Met's unofficial mascot, c. 1961 BC – c. 1878 BC, during the reigns of Senusret I and Senusret II. "William", also known as "William the Hippo", is an Egyptian faience hippopotamus statuette from the Middle Kingdom, found in a shaft associated with the Upper Egyptian tomb chapel of "The Steward, Senbi", in what is now Meir, William dates from c. 1961 BC – c. 1878 BC, during the reigns of Senusret I and Senusret II. This statuette of a hippopotamus (popularly called "William") was molded in faience, a ceramic material made of ground quartz. Beneath the blue glaze, the body was painted with lotuses. These river plants depict the marshes in which the animal lived, but at the same time their flowers also symbolize regeneration and rebirth as they close every night and open again in the morning. The seemingly benign appearance that this figurine presents is deceptive. To the ancient Egyptians, the hippopotamus was one of the most dangerous animals in their world. The huge creatures were a hazard for small fishing boats and other rivercraft. The beast might also be encountered on the waterways in the journey to the afterlife. As such, the hippopotamus was a force of nature that needed to be propitiated and controlled, both in this life and the next. This example was one of a pair found in a shaft associated with the tomb chapel of the steward Senbi II at Meir, an Upper Egyptian site about thirty miles south of modern Asyut. Three of its legs have been restored because they were probably purposely broken to prevent the creature from harming the deceased. The hippo was part of Senbi's burial equipment, which included a canopic box (also in the Metropolitan Museum), a coffin, and numerous models of boats and food production. The hippo's modern nickname first appeared in 1931 in a story that was published in the British humor magazine Punch. It reports about a family that consults a color print of the Met’s hippo—which it calls "William"—as an oracle. The Met republished the story the same year in the Museum’s Bulletin, and the name William caught on! Courtesy The Met, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. William the Hippo: Celebrating 100 Years at The Met. https://lnkd.in/dJj6v_BG Curator Isabel Stünkel on an Egyptian statuette of a hippopotamus (popularly called "William"). https://lnkd.in/diHGgjaS Hippopotamus ("William"), Middle Kingdom, a. 1961–1878 B.C. https://lnkd.in/d9Fpx6au

The new expanded and remastered edition of Frank Sinatra’s ‘L.A. Is My Lady’ album will be available October 25th to stream and download and to purchase on vinyl and CD Courtesy Frank Sinatra E.

In the heart of downtown Washington D.C. hides an art lover’s hidden gem with a scandalous history. Tucked inside the Freer Gallery of Art, home to the National Museum of Asian Art, is the Peacock Room, a late 19th-century blue-green room ornately painted with golden adornments. Historians consider it one of the premiere extant interiors of the Aesthetic Movement and one of the leading embodiments of the Anglo-Japanese style, which was in vogue in the U.K. during the mid-to-late 1800s...

Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” Brought to Life in a Spanish Flashmob of 100 Musicians Imagine what life would be like if lived, in May Sarton’s lovely phrase, with “joy instead of will.” That is what Beethoven imagined, and invited humanity to imagine, two centuries ago in the choral finale of his ninth and final symphony, known as “Ode to Joy” — an epochal hymn of the possible, half a lifetime in the making. In the spring of 2012, the Spanish city of Sabadell set out to celebrate the 130th anniversary of its founding with a most unusual, electrifying, and touchingly human rendition of Beethoven’s masterpiece, performed by a flashmob of 100 musicians from the Vallès Symphony Orchestra, the Lieder, Amics de l’Òpera and Coral Belles Arts choirs. Watching the townspeople — children with kites, elders with walkers, couples holding hands — gather to savor the unbidden music in a succession of confusion, delight, and ecstasy is the stuff of goosebumps: living proof that “music so readily transports us from the present to the past, or from what is actual to what is possible.” Couple with the remarkable story of the making of “Ode to Joy,” then revisit the neurophysiology of enchantment and how music casts its spell on us. By Maria Popova

Nat King Cole performs the classic song "Mona Lisa." "Mona Lisa" is a song written by Ray Evans and Jay Livingston for the Paramount Pictures film Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1950). It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for 1950. The arrangement was by Nelson Riddle and the orchestral backing was played by Les Baxter and his Orchestra. The soundtrack version by Nat King Cole spent eight weeks at number one in the Billboard singles chart in 1950. Also, Cole's version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1992. The Billboard sales charts of 1950 also showed significant sales on versions by Dennis Day and Harry James. In 1986, it was used as the theme to the British film Mona Lisa. An uncredited version of Mona Lisa plays in the background of one scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954). The song was used in the wedding scene of the NBC mini-series, Witness to the Mob, in 1998. Various artists, including Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, Art Lund, Shakin' Stevens, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, the Neville Brothers, and Nat King Cole's daughter Natalie Cole, have released cover versions of this song. Bruddah Iz (Israel Kamakawiwo'ole) also covered the song on the album Alone in IZ World. Harry Connick, Jr. included the song on his 2009 album, Your Songs. A rockabilly version of "Mona Lisa" (b/w/ "Foolish One") was released by Carl Mann on Phillips International Records (#3539) in March 1959 and reached number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100. Conway Twitty recorded a version of "Mona Lisa" in February 1959, but planned to release it only as an album cut (on an EP and an LP by MGM Records). Nevertheless, it peaked at #5 in the UK Singles Chart in that year. Sam Phillips signed Carl Mann to record his version of the song after the Twitty version began getting radio play in early 1959. This was the most successful single in Mann's career. The melody is slightly different, and the lyrics are also mostly the same as in the original version by Nat King Cole, though a few more phrases are added in that elaborate more on the girl he likes. The singer Don Cherry recorded a version backed by the Victor Young Orchestra which reached number seven in 1952. In 1961, this song was covered by Hong Kong female singer Kong Ling (江玲), on her LP album Off-Beat Cha Cha with the local Diamond Records. Courtesy King Cole Partners, LLC. https://lnkd.in/dtGKvEaA

Happy birthday to the man who stole the Mona Lisa and took it to Italy Sunday was the anniversary of the birth — and the death — of the Italian painter who made perhaps the biggest art repatriation blunder in history. Vincenzo Peruggia, the man who stole the Mona Lisa from France and returned it to Italy, was born on Oct. 8, 1881 and died on Oct. 8, 1925. Though he was misguided as a historian and an umpire of provenance — the painting had been clearly and cleanly purchased by the King of France, the country to which it was ultimately returned — Peruggia’s caper is worth recalling at a time when repatriation remains a murky battleground. Each week, it seems, investigators announce new seizures of looted antiquities from museums and private collections. Countries of origin rejoice as artifacts are returned. Collectors and museums complain that the concept of what is stolen art is being constantly redefined, at their expense and, perhaps, the public’s, too. Do the Elgin marbles belong back in Greece or should they remain in London? Should the Lions of San Marco in Venice be returned to Turkey? For his part, Peruggia would become a national hero in Italy when da Vinci’s missing masterpiece was finally found there. “Grateful Italians embraced the hero-thief as Italy’s Don Quixote,” R.A. Scotti wrote in “Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of the Mona Lisa” (2009). Even now, Peruggia’s motivation is unproven. Details of the spectacular theft are still sketchy. But this much appears to be known: By the early 20th century, da Vinci’s 1506 half-portrait of the Florentine noblewoman Lisa del Giocondo (mona suggesting noble or aristocratic, in Italian), the wife of a silk merchant, was already one of the most famous paintings in the world. To protect it from vandals, it was rehung in the Salon Carré of the Louvre in Paris encased in a protective glass case that Peruggia, a housepainter and glazier who had worked at the museum, may have helped fabricate. The day of the theft, Aug. 21, 1911, was a Monday....his article originally appeared in The New York Times. - Sam Roberts Photos: 1) An archival photo of Vincenzo Peruggia, the man who stole the Mona Lisa from France and returned it to Italy in 1911. Some part of Peruggia’s motivation for stealing the masterpiece appears to have been nationalism, but money was a big factor too. Wikimedia Commons via The New York Times. 2) The Mona Lisa, Italian: Gioconda or Monna Lisa, French: Joconde is a half-length portrait painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1503–1506, perhaps continuing until c. 1517 Oil on poplar panel. Musée du Louvre Courtesy Musée du Louvre https://lnkd.in/dZrP72U... 3) The Mona Lisa on display in the Uffizi Gallery, in Florence (Italy). Museum director Giovanni Poggi (right) inspects the painting. The masterpiece would be latter returned to Museum of Louvre where it had been stolen from. December 1913. 4) People gather around the Mona Lisa painting on January 4, 1914 in Paris