Hand with Reflecting Sphere

Hand with Reflecting Sphere
M. C. Escher, 1935
Lithograph, 31.8 × 21.3 cm

Hand with Reflecting Sphere also known as Self-Portrait in Spherical Mirror is a lithograph print by Dutch artist M. C. Escher, first printed in January 1935. The piece depicts a hand holding a reflective sphere. In the reflection, the hand holding the sphere is revealed to be Escher’s.

Self portraits in reflective, spherical surfaces are common in Escher’s work, and this image is the most prominent and famous example. In much of his self portraiture of this type, Escher is in the act of drawing the sphere, whereas in this image he is seated and gazing into the sphere. On the walls there are several framed pictures, one of which appears to be of an Indonesian shadow puppet.

Vitruvian Man

Vitruvian Man
Leonardo da Vinci, 1492
Pen and ink with wash over metalpoint on paper
344 × 245 mm

The Vitruvian Man is a world-renowned drawing with accompanying notes created by Leonardo da Vinci around the year 1492 as recorded in one of his journals. It depicts a nude male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and simultaneously inscribed in a circle and square. The drawing and text are sometimes called the Canon of Proportions or, less often, Proportions of Man. It is stored in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, Italy, but is only displayed on special occasions.

John William Waterhouse's Painting

Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May (1908)

Jason and Medea (1907)

Echo and Narcissus (1903)

Boreas (1903)

Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses (1891)

The Magic Circle (1886)

Hylas and the Nymphs (1896)

Odysseus and the Sirens

The Lady of Shalott, 1888 (Tate Gallery, London)

Ophelia (1889)

Bacchus

Bacchus
Caravaggio, c.1595
oil on canvas
95 × 85 cm
Uffizi, Florence

Bacchus (c.1595) is a painting by Italian Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610). It is held in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

The painting shows a youthful Bacchus reclining in classical fashion with grapes and vine leaves in his hair, fingering the drawstring of his loosely-draped robe. On a stone table in front of him is a bowl of fruit and a large carafe of red wine; with his left hand he holds out to the viewer a shallow goblet of the same wine, apparently inviting the viewer to join him.

Bacchus was painted shortly after Caravaggio joined the household of his first important patron, Cardinal Del Monte, and reflects the humanist interests of the Cardinal's educated circle.

Waterfall

Waterfall
M. C. Escher, 1961
lithograph, 38 × 30 cm

Waterfall is a lithograph print by the Dutch artist M.C. Escher which was first printed in October, 1961. It shows an apparent paradox where water from the base of a waterfall appears to run downhill before reaching the top of the waterfall.

While most two-dimensional artists use relative proportions to create an illusion of depth, Escher here and elsewhere uses conflicting proportions to create the visual paradox. Waterfall has the structure of a Penrose triangle, an impossible object designed independently by Roger Penrose and Oscar Reutersvärd.

Adam and Eve

Genesis is the first book of the Bible, and the first of five books of the pentateuch. It recounts the Judeo-Christian history of the world from the creation to the descent of the children of Israel into Egypt, and contains some of the best-known stories of the Old Testament, including Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah's Ark, the Tower of Babel, and the biblical Patriarchs.

For Jews the theological importance of Genesis centers on the Covenants linking God to his Chosen People and the people to the Promised Land. Christianity has reinterpreted Genesis as the prefiguration of Christian beliefs, notably the Christian view of Christ as the new Adam and the New Testament as the culmination of the covenants.

Structurally, Genesis consists of a "primeval history" (Genesis 1-11) and cycles of Patriarchal stories. The narrative of Joseph stands apart from these. Scholars see the book as the product of anonymous authors and editors working between the 10th and 5th centuries BC.

Sistine Chapel ceiling painting

The Downfall of Adam and Eve and their Expulsion from the Garden of Eden

The Creation of Adam

The Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, is one of the most renowned artworks of the High Renaissance. The ceiling is that of the large Sistine Chapel built within the Vatican by Pope Sixtus IV, begun in 1477 and finished by 1480.

Its various painted elements comprise part of a larger scheme of decoration within the Sistine Chapel which includes the large fresco of The Last Judgment on the sanctuary wall, also by Michelangelo, wall paintings by several other artists and a set of large tapestries by Raphael, the whole illustrating much of the doctrine of the Catholic Church.

Central to the ceiling decoration are nine scenes from the Book of Genesis of which the Creation of Adam is the best known, having an iconic standing equalled only by Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, the hands of God and Adam being reproduced in countless imitations.