Showing posts sorted by relevance for query MASQUE. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query MASQUE. Sort by date Show all posts

Saturday, May 18, 2024

 MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

Artist behind King Charles III's controversial portrait shares why he used the color red

KATIE KINDELAN
Thu, May 16, 2024

The artist behind the new portrait of King Charles III is sharing insight into some of his more controversial artistic choices, like the use of the color red.

Jonathan Yeo, a U.K.-based artist, painted the portrait of Charles -- unveiled Tuesday at Buckingham Palace -- over the course of three years.

The portrait, which stands over 6 feet tall, features a striking red background and shows Charles wearing the uniform of the Welsh Guards, of which he was made Regimental Colonel in 1975, according to the palace.

According to a new description of the portrait shared on Yeo's website, the artist chose the "vivid" red background, in part, to bring a "contemporary jolt" to the painting.

"The vivid colour of the glazes in the background echo the uniform's bright red tunic, not only resonating with the royal heritage found in many historical portraits but also injecting a dynamic, contemporary jolt into the genre with its uniformly powerful hue / providing a modern contrast to more traditional depictions," the description reads.

PHOTO: Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla at the unveiling of artist Jonathan Yeo's portrait of the King, in the blue drawing room at Buckingham Palace, in London, May 14, 2024. (Aaron Chown/AP)

In his own words, Yeo said the red is also designed to help Charles' military uniform fade into the background.

"As a portrait artist, you get this unique opportunity to spend time with and get to know a subject, so I wanted to minimize the visual distractions and allow people to connect with the human being underneath," Yeo said in a statement on his website.

The butterfly located above Charles' shoulder in the painting is described as being representative of not only the king's transformation to monarch, but also his passion for environmental causes.

"The Monarch butterfly is believed to have been named after an English King (William of Orange) due to its distinctive color," Yeo's website reads. "And this migratory species is already one of the most affected by climate change because of alterations in spring temperatures."

The unexpectedly modern painting and it's bold red tone drew mixed reactions online quickly after its unveiling, at which both Charles and Yeo were present.

"I think this is beautiful and such a break from the traditional portraits," one commenter wrote on Buckingham Palace's Instagram post about the portrait.

"I'm sorry but his portrait looks like he's in hell," wrote another commenter.

PHOTO: A handout image released on May 14, 2024, shows a portrait of Britain's King Charles by artist Jonathan Yeo. (His Majesty King Charles III by Jonathan Yeo via Reuters)

Others in the comments section saw a little of both sides, with one person writing, "I would have loved this if it was any other color than red. He really captured the essence of him in the face, but the harshness of the red doesn't match the softness of his expression."

King Charles gives Prince William a military title with close ties to Prince Harry

And still others commented that they would have expected even more of a more nature-based portrait for Charles.

"Given his love of nature and preservation, I am surprised there was not a natural landscape portrayed behind him," wrote one commenter.

The portrait of Charles is his first official portrait since his coronation last year.

PHOTO: Artist Jonathan Yeo, left, and Britain's King Charles III at the unveiling of artist Yeo's portrait of the King, in the blue drawing room at Buckingham Palace, in London, May 14, 2024. (Aaron Chown/AP)

The painting was first commissioned in 2020, when Charles was the Prince of Wales, a title that has since been passed to his eldest son Prince William, after the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022.

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"I do my best to capture the life experiences etched into any individual sitter's face," Yeo said in a statement shared Tuesday by the palace. "In this case, my aim was also to make reference to the traditions of Royal portraiture but in a way that reflects a 21st Century Monarchy and, above all else, to communicate the subject's deep humanity. I'm unimaginably grateful for the opportunity to capture such an extraordinary and unique person, especially at the historic moment of becoming King."

Yeo painted the portrait in his London studio in between four sittings with Charles from 2021 to 2023, according to the palace.

The painting will be on display for one month beginning May 16 at the Philip Mould Gallery in London. Then the painting will go on to hang in Draper's Hall, an historic building in London that was originally owned by King Henry VIII.



"The Masque of the Red Death", originally published as "The Mask of the Red Death: A Fantasy", is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1842. The story follows Prince Prospero's attempts to avoid a dangerous plague, known as the Red Death, by hiding in his abbey.
Genre: Short story
Characters: Prospero
Author: Edgar Allan Poe

Web results

The red death had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal -- the madness and the ...


Image result for e a poe the masque of the red death movie
The Masque of the Red Death is a 1964 horror film directed by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price. The story follows a prince who terrorizes a plague-ridden peasantry while merrymaking in a lonely castle with his jaded courtiers.
Directed by: Roger Corman
Actor: Vincent Price
Genre: Horror


Monday, February 10, 2020


For Thousands of Years, Quarantines Have Tried to Keep Out Disease
TOPICS:Georgia State University Public Health The Conversation Virology

By LESLIE S. LEIGHTON, GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY FEBRUARY 7, 2020



Quarantines have tried to keep out disease for thousands of years, being used long before germs were understood.

The recent global spread of a deadly coronavirus originating in Wuhan, China, has led world leaders to invoke an ancient tradition to control the spread of illness: quarantine.

The practice is first recorded in the Old Testament where several verses mandate isolation for those with leprosy. Ancient civilizations relied on isolating the sick, well before the actual microbial causes of disease were known. In times when treatments for illnesses were rare and public health measures few, physicians and lay leaders, beginning as early as the ancient Greeks, turned to quarantine to contain a scourge.

In January, Chinese authorities attempted to lock down millions of residents of Wuhan and the surrounding area, to try to keep the new coronavirus from spreading outward. The country’s neighbors are closing borders, airlines are canceling flights, and nations are advising their citizens against traveling to China, a modern instance of the old impulse to restrict people’s movements in order to stop disease transmission.

U.S. authorities are holding travelers returning from China in isolation for two weeks as an effort to halt coronavirus’ spread. Always at the center of the policy of quarantine is the tension between individual civil liberties and protection of the public at risk.
Keeping contagion at bay

The meaning of quarantine has evolved from its original definition “as the detention and segregation of subjects suspected to carry a contagious disease.”

Now it represents a period of isolation for persons or animals with a contagious disease – or who may have been exposed but aren’t yet sick. Although in the past it may have been a self-imposed or voluntary separation from society, in more recent times quarantine has come to represent a compulsory action enforced by health authorities.

Leprosy, mentioned in both Old and New testaments, is the first documented disease for which quarantine was imposed. In the Middle Ages, leper colonies, administered by the Catholic Church, sprung up throughout the world. Although the causative agent of leprosy – the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae – was not discovered until 1873, its disfiguring and incurable nature made civilizations wrongly believe it was easily spread.

The plague of the 14th century gave rise to the modern concept of quarantine. The Black Death first appeared in Europe in 1347. Over the course of four years, it would kill between 40 million and 50 million people in Europe and somewhere between 75 million and 200 million worldwide.


Now part of Croatia, Ragusa was in the Venetian Republic when it invented the 40-day quarantine to try to keep the plague out.

In 1377, the seaport in Ragusa, modern day Dubrovnik, issued a “trentina” – derived from the Italian word for 30 (trenta). Ships traveling from areas with high rates of plague were required to stay offshore for 30 days before docking. Anyone onboard who was healthy at the end of the waiting period was presumed unlikely to spread the infection and allowed onshore.

Thirty was eventually extended to 40 days, giving rise to the term quarantine, from the Italian word for 40 (quaranta). It was in Ragusa that the first law to enforce the act of quarantine was implemented.

Over time, variations in the nature and regulation of quarantine emerged. Port officials asked travelers to certify they hadn’t been to areas with severe disease outbreaks, before allowing them to enter. In the 19th century, quarantine was abused for political and economic reasons, leading to the call for international conferences to standardize quarantine practices. Cholera epidemics throughout the early 19th century made clear the lack of any uniformity of policy.
Imported to America

The United States has also had its share of epidemics, beginning in 1793, with the outbreak of yellow fever in Philadelphia. A series of further disease outbreaks led Congress in 1878 to pass laws that mandated involvement of the federal government in quarantine. The arrival of cholera to the United States, in 1892, prompted even greater regulation.


Officials quarantined ‘Typhoid’ Mary Mallon in a hospital.

Perhaps the best known example of quarantine in American history, pitting an individual’s civil liberties against public protection, is the story of Mary Mallon, aka “Typhoid Mary.” An asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever in the early 20th century, she never felt sick but nevertheless spread the disease to families for whom she worked as a cook.

Officials quarantined Mary on North Brother Island in New York City. Released after three years, she promised never to cook for anyone again. Breaking her vow and continuing to spread the disease, she was returned to North Brother Island, where she remained for the remainder of her life in isolation.

More recently, in 2007, public health officials quarantined a 31-year-old Atlanta attorney, Andrew Speaker, who was infected with a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis. His case grabbed international attention when he traveled to Europe, despite knowing he had and could spread this form of TB. Fearing quarantine in Italy, he returned to the United States, where he was apprehended by federal authorities and quarantined at a medical center in Denver, where he also received treatment. Following release, deemed no longer contagious, he was required to report to local health officials five days a week through the end of his treatment.

Quarantine today continues as a public health measure to limit the spread of contagious disease, including not just coronavirus, but Ebola, flu, and SARS.

Its stigma has largely been removed by emphasizing not only the benefits of quarantine to society, by removing contagious individuals from the general population, but also the benefit of treatment to those who are ill.

In the United States, where the Constitution guarantees personal rights, it’s a serious decision to restrict an individual’s freedom of travel and compel medical treatment. And quarantine is not an ironclad way to prevent the spread of disease. But it can be a useful tool for public health officials working to stop the spread of a contagious disease.

Written by Leslie S. Leighton, Visiting Lecturer of History at Georgia State University.

Originally published on The Conversation.

'

"The Masque of the Red Death", originally published as "The Mask of the Red Death: A Fantasy", is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1842. The story follows Prince Prospero's attempts to avoid a dangerous plague, known as the Red Death, by hiding in his abbey.
Genre: Short story
Characters: Prospero
Author: Edgar Allan Poe

Web results

The red death had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal -- the madness and the ...


Image result for e a poe the masque of the red death movie
The Masque of the Red Death is a 1964 horror film directed by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price. The story follows a prince who terrorizes a plague-ridden peasantry while merrymaking in a lonely castle with his jaded courtiers.
Directed by: Roger Corman
Actor: Vincent Price
Genre: Horror