Word: medici
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Protestants snickering and to send Catholics scurrying for their rosary beads. The indulgences of Innocent VIII, the depravity of Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia bought himself the papacy and used it to benefit his illegitimate children), and the wars of Julias II left Rome bankrupt. When Cardinal Giovanni d'Medici became Pope Leo X, declaring "God has given us the papacy--now let us enjoy it", he was desperate for money and decided to sell the only thing he could--pardons. Full-scale simonry continued throughout the age, with indulgences being sold at church alters...
There is, of course, no question which treatment he prefers. For 16 years Balthus was director of the French Academy at the Villa Medici in Rome: never a sinecure for the meek, and perhaps not since Ingres's day held by a more indurated snob than Balthus. One can follow his appetite for grandeur as the name evolves: plain Balthasar Klossowski to start, then Balthasar de Klossowski, then Klossowski de Rola, and now, in his eighth decade, the "Comte de Rola." The fact that he has been able to fend off inquiry about his origins for so long...
...quotation than on sight, he ended up with enameled parodies of Claude like Landscape ofChamprovent, 1941-43. The more he cast himself as the last conduit of classical prototypes, the stiffer and more self-satisfied his work be came, a decline most evident after he moved to the Villa Medici in 1961. The measured suppleness of Balthus's paint surface now began to ossify, acquiring a thick, chalky, fresco-like appearance. It was meant to suggest the warmth and historical patina of old Roman walls, and so it did, but in a merely decorative way. "Pier rot della Francesca...
...fascination to him, and the erotic fury one often senses in his squeezing and manipulation of the clay was by no means a metaphor. One of his friends recorded a conversation with Rodin in his old age, as the sculptor talked about an antique copy of the Venus di Medici that stood in his studio: "He spoke in a low voice, with the ardor of a devotee, bending before the marble as if he loved it. 'It is truly flesh!' he said, and beaming, he added: 'You would think it moulded by kisses and caresses!' Then...
...reclusive American eccentric, a man working solely out of private fantasy, is to miss one major point of his art: its continual dialogue with the work of other artists, not only the Renaissance and mannerist painters whose images he selectively filched (as in his Medici Prince and Medici Princess boxes), but also those of the 20th century...