Tania Stene - An Artist that Works from The Shadows

Tania Stene is a Norwegian woman known as "Nacht" and except her participation in the excellent project AGHAST, she is also well-known amongst the Black Metal circles as the painter of some of the most iconic covers of the Norwegian scene. Over the years, there are no details known about her personal life and also there is really very few selected photos of her around. 

Even if there are not good Norwegian albums any more, I hope she will continue to practice her craft as in my opinion she had really the touch of capturing the darkness and melancholy of the Norse landscapes.

For those not familiar with her artistic works. Below are some of them.

ULVER - Nattens Madrigal (1997)

ULVER - Bergtatt (1995)

BURZUM - Hlidskjalf (1999)

BURZUM - Daudi Baldrs (1997)

BURZUM - Balder's Dod

DARKTHRONE - Ferdasyn (1994)

DARKTHRONE - Taakeferd (1993)

SATYRICON - The King of he Shadowthrone

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Norwegian Black Metal - Anno 1992

 

 

Why Do We Celebrate Yule on The 25th of December?

Michelangelo in The Third Reich - Arno Breker & Josef Thorak

MEDICI Series Part II Coming Soon!

Just found out that a new second season coming soon. Ok, lets be honest, the first 12 episodes (as "Medici: Masters of Florence" , see here ) was real crap. My expectations was really high and all we got was another boring, dull and soap-opera style series. After that, I thought that this was over for good. But yesterday, looking between various trailers or movie spoilers saw this one following below. Normally, after such crush I would not give it a change or waste any time further, but the addition of Sean Bean (a fine actor!) and also that this season is about my favorite Renaissance personality, Lorenzo "il Magnifico", changed my mind radically about it. So soon I`ll check it.

In the meantime , if you want to know more about the real deal, then you check this masterpiece :

THE MEDICI: Godfathers of The Renaissance

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 MEDICI : The Magnificent - Trailer

Black Sun in Albrecht Dürer's Art

Albrecht Dürer (May 21, 1471 - April 6, 1528) was a German painter, engraver, printmaker and mathematician. His extensive body of work includes altarpieces, religious works, portraits, self-portraits, woodcuts and copper engravings. Among his three large prints known as the Meisterstiche (master engravings) is the enigmatic MELENCOLIA I (1514) depicting the intellectual situation of the artist and, by extension, a spiritual self-portrait. The allegorical composition has been the subject of more interpretations suggest the image references the depressive or melancholy state, although some have seen it as an autobiographical portrait of Dürer's loss of self-confidence. Due to the extensive alchemical imagery in the print, the sun illuminating this scene has often been interpreted as the alchemical SOL NIGER, or BLACK SUN.

Taken from the book THE BLACK SUN UNVEILED by James Pontolillo

OUTLAW KING - 2018 Film Review

Despite the fact that the last (at least) 15 years I`ve refused to submit in the general Hollywood Anglophobia of "evil england vs every good man/state/army of this world", especially concerning anything from the early to late Medieval and Renaissance historical periods. Without a doubt there has been really good films but most of the times openly one-sided (See films like Braveheart, Rob Roy etc). Not that English rule was the most noble of all at times. Quite the contrary, but still the majority of the films focus only on that. It gets boring.

Knowing all that, I decided to give a chance to a new 2018 film named OUTLAW KING that released few weeks ago. Its about the story of Scotish nobleman Robert The Bruce and its scenario based on real historical facts. His fall and rise as a king starting in the period from the death of William Wallace and onwards.

I had low expectations. But to my suprize this film turned really good!
Excellent photography & directory. The story as it unfolds, the outstanding filming locations across Scotland and England , the very realistic combat scenes (both man-to-man and between armies as well) made this movie into a 2-hour watching pleasure. 

 For sure among my top 5 for 2018.

Check it out!

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlaw_King