The Life Line Winslow Homer 1850 Winslow Homer s masterpiece The Life Line (1884) is the center of an exhibition about the making and meaning of an iconic American image of rescue. One of the great popular and critical successes of the artist s career, the painting engages age-old themes of peril at sea and the power of nature, while celebrating modern heroism and the thrill of unexpected intimacy between strangers thrown together by disaster. The real power of this piece is that you never see the face of the hero.
Theseus Killing the Minotaur Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano 1505 From the collection of Museo Poldi Pezzoli The Athenian hero is killing the Minotaur in the Labyrinth. Unusual is the depiction of the Cretan monster with a bull s body and the bust of a man and not, as in the legend, a bull s head and a man s body. It is also interesting to note the way the painter depicts the struggle in the Minotaur s prison: the device of the ruined wall on the left reveals the scene and the Labyrinth is imagined as a spiral-shaped construction open to the sky. The use of light is characteristic of Cima s maturity, an original development of the naturalistic model of Giovanni Bellini. The panel probably comes from the same cycle, intended to decorate a cassone or the headboard of a bed, which included the panel with the Wedding of Bacchus and Ariadne (see no. 30). Both works date from around 1505.
Progress through Education Carlos V. Francisco 1964 From the collection of Fukuoka Asian Art Museum This work was created as a mural for a Manila textbook publishing firm and it depicts the arrival and spread of education in the Philippines, dramatizing the importance of education. The lower left part of the painting shows the Malay people who came to the islands in antiquity, and their sultan points to a Catholic priest from the period of Spanish occupation who is shown blessing a couple. The upper left depicts Christian missionaries sent during the American occupation of the islands. In the center of the canvas, the father of the modern Philippine independence movement, Jose Rizal, is shown with his mother, learning how to read and write. The layering of this teaching scene with a large background figure resembling Christ on the Cross suggests the tragic fate of this national hero. The edges of the canvas are filled with the spirits of the dead, images of ignorance and faithlessness, all being banished by the spread of education. Francisco was nationally famous for large works on the history of the Philippines, including the murals in the Manila City Hall, and his work brought a new dimension to the fields of wall painting and historical painting.
The transformation of Clark Kent Solo 2013/2013 From the collection of Emergence The artist with his mural work emphasizes how each of us must find the strength to fight what hinders him in life. The superhero becomes man to remind us that within everybody lies a super hero.
Saint George Killing the Dragon Bernat Martorell (Spanish, about 1400 1452)1400/52 From the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago In the second quarter of the 15th century, Bernat Martorell was the leading painter of Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia in northeastern Spain. Saint George was the patron saint of Catalonia, and Martorell s vivid painting probably once formed the center of the altarpiece of the chapel of the Catalan government in its palace in Barcelona. The central image would have been flanked by smaller narrative panels, now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris; they illustrate the martyrdom of the saint in gruesome detail.
Juno Beach D-Day Landings Hulton Archive 1944-06-06 From the collection of Getty Images Troops from the 48th Royal Marines at Saint-Aubinsur-mer on Juno Beach, Normandy, France, during the D-Day landings, 6th June 1944. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Philippines Carl Mydans 1941-11 From the collection of LIFE Photo Collection Lone Filipino sentry standing guard pre war preparations being made across the Philippines just prior to American involvement in WWII.
When The Tide Went Out United States Coast Guard 1944-06-16 From the collection of The George C. Marshall Foundation Search parties of Americans go over the litter of the assault beach looking for dead. The debris is from ships that were hit, sunk and later washed ashore.
D-Day Landings Robert Sargent 1944-06-06 From the collection of Getty Images A view from inside one of the landing craft after US troops hit the water during the Allied D-Day invasion of Normandy, France. The US troops on the shore are lying flat under German machine gun resistance. (Photo by Robert F Sargent/Getty Images)