Isabella Alston
1) Tarot Cards
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The earliest known decks of tarot cards created in Italy in the late 15th century were used as a game. The tarot's association with fortune telling and gypsies did not come about until the late 1700s. The first decks were hand painted for wealthy families who had the money to commission the decks as well as the time to play with them. After the advent of lithography, the easy replication through printing made tarot decks much more accessible to the...
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The French poster, born of a basic utilitarian purpose, has developed with age into an admired and collected art form. Vintage posters command high prices at auction and curators specialize in their restoration. The earliest art-worthy posters appeared on the streets of Paris designed by French-born artists such as Jules Chéret, who popularized poster art with his Maîtres de l'Affiche publication from 1895 to 1899, Paul Émile Berthon, and Henri...
3) Delacroix
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Eugène Delacroix was highly influential in the 19th-century Romanticism art movement and is considered by many art historians to be the most important of the Romantic painters. Delacroix is often attributed with refining Romanticism, not only aesthetically but philosophically, as his work influenced not only art, but also literature. One of Delacroix's best-known paintings, completed in 1830 and on the cover of this book, is Liberty Leading the People,...
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The origins of Chinese astrology can be traced to the Han Dynasty (stretching from the second century BC to the AD second century) and evolved in close association to broad Chinese philosophical concepts, most notably Confucianism and Taoism. The system of astrology that developed in the East was consistent with the prevailing religious or spiritual beliefs of the population, which were primarily polytheistic and mythologically based. The Eastern...
5) Mondrian
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Piet Mondrian pioneered the de Stijl movement-Dutch for "The Style"-that emerged in the early 20th century and which served as an important transition from a focus on Symbolism and Realism to a new and growing focus on abstraction. The evolution of Mondrian's initial, traditional style, akin to that of The Hague School, through to his much later works in primary colors and geometric forms, which he called Neo-plasticism, is marked by rather sharp...
6) Coco Chanel
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Coco Chanel, without question probably the most famous fashion designer of all time, was named by Time magazine one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Her life was filled with trauma, romance, intrigue, and scandal, but her business acumen and groundbreaking talent (along with funding by her paramours) took her far beyond her humble beginnings. Chanel understood how to get what she wanted from life and never hesitated to pursue...
7) Edvard Munch
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Edvard Munch's career is effectively divided into two periods: those before and after his mental breakdown in 1908. Prior to his psychiatric treatment and recuperation, the underlying themes of his work bounced between dark sorrow and an overt, aggressive sexuality. But after his breakdown, when he had returned to his homeland of Norway after two decades in France and Germany, his work took a decidedly positive turn in theme and subject. Munch's body...
8) Botticelli
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Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as simply Sandro Botticelli, was born in Florence, Italy, probably in or around 1445. Serendipitously winning a high-profile commission from the Florentine court, he was catapulted to notoriety as wealthy patrons, in particular the Medici family, hired him to create works that celebrated their lives and their family's lives and marked important events such as weddings. Botticelli's range was wide:...
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The human body is an immensely complex and amazing system, but sometimes something goes haywire and causes one or more of its vital elements to misfire, resulting in bizarre and often devastating anatomical anomalies. Such physical abnormalities in times past often meant that the affected individuals would be stigmatized and shunned from the rest of society, primarily out of fear of the unknown. Thankfully, modern science and modern medicine working...
10) Pin-up Girls
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The image most indelibly linked to the term Pin-Up Girl is a busty, longlegged, beautiful woman posing provocatively on calendars, posters, and in magazines primarily during the World War II years, most often in the U.S. military's Yank magazine. These images make up the quintessential and most recognizable Pin-Up Girls, although they are only representative of a specific era in pin-up history. The Pin-Up Girl has actually been around since the late...
11) Liberace
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When Liberace was just seven years old, he memorized the full 17-page score of Mendelssohn’s “Midsummer Night's Dream" in one day. No matter your opinion of Liberace's ostentatious and flamboyant style, his talent on the piano is unarguable. He learned the entertainment business as a teenager playing honky tonks and bars, moving after high school graduation to New York City, "the city that never sleeps." He found moderate success there, but soon...
12) Edith Head
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Edith Head is probably the most iconic of all Hollywood costume designers. Beginning in the early 1930s until her retirement in 1977, Edith Head costumed the stars of over 500 films. With 35 Academy Award nominations for Best Costume Design, she won 8-the closest to come to her record is Irene Sharaff, who garnered 15 nominations and 5 wins. Edith Head truly surpassed all of her competition. Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Natalie Wood, Lucille Ball,...