Arty Farty Friday 15 March

15 March 44 BC : Julius Caesar was murdered on the Ides of March.
Typogravure of a 19th century painting by Karl von Piloty:

Julius Caesar, the "dictator for life" of the Roman Empire, murdered by his own senators at a meeting in a hall next to Pompey's Theatre. The conspiracy against Caesar encompassed as many as sixty noblemen, including Caesar's own protege, Marcus Brutus. Caesar was scheduled to leave Rome to fight in a war on March 18 and had appointed loyal members of his army to rule the Empire in his absence. The Republican senators, already chafing at having to abide by Caesar's decrees, were particularly angry about the prospect of taking orders from Caesar's underlings. Cassius Longinus started the plot against the dictator, quickly getting his brother-in-law Marcus Brutus to join.

Caesar should have been well aware that many of the senators hated him, but he dismissed his security force not long before his assassination. Reportedly, Caesar was handed a warning note as he entered the senate meeting that day but did not read it. After he entered the hall, Caesar was surrounded by senators holding daggers. Servilius Casca struck the first blow, hitting Caesar in the neck and drawing blood. The other senators all joined in, stabbing him repeatedly about the head. Marcus Brutus wounded Caesar in the groin and Caesar is said to have remarked in Greek, "You, too, my child?

From This Day in History.






Nearer to our own time:

Janet Leach was born 15 March 1918 in Grand Saline, Texas, USA died 12 September 1997. She was a studio potter working in later life at St Ives, Cornwall in England. In 1956 she married Bernard Leach, a famous British studio potter. Janet was a potter in her own right before meeting Bernard and her independent spirit ensured that her work was quite different from much of her husband's in style. She never felt the need to pay reverence to her husband's work, was sometimes even critical of it. In return her own work was not always valued within the St Ives Studio, much of it remained hidden. David, Bernard Leach's son from one of his previous marriages, stated before his father's death: "Janet must be the one person who has worked closely with him for a number of years without being visibly influenced. She is so strong in herself that she has maintained more independence than anyone else who has been as close to that dangerous fire, my father!"

See more about Janet Leach HERE and HERE








Aldo Giorgini, artist and scientist, pioneer in computer graphics, was born in Voghera, Italy on 15 March 1934. He was one of the first computer artists to combine software writing with early printing technologies, leaving an aesthetic legacy in the field of the digital arts. He died in 1994.








Ruth Bader Ginsburg United States Supreme Court Justice was born on
15 March 1933, in Brooklyn, New York. Simmie Knox, under commission of the United States Supreme Court painted this portrait of her. She is the second female justice (after Sandra Day O'Connor) and the first Jewish female justice. She is generally viewed as belonging to the liberal wing of the Court. Before becoming a judge, Ginsburg spent a considerable portion of her legal career as an advocate for the advancement of women's rights as a constitutional principle. (Wikipedia)






Finally - another link to the date, and - stretching things a bit to achieve arty-fartyness - a famous ceiling painting by Caravaggio (the only ceiling painting by him).

The date:

Every 248 years Pluto moves inside Neptune's orbit for about 20 years. The period January 23, 1979 to March 15, 1999 was the last time Pluto's very eccentric orbit carried it inside the orbit of Neptune. During that time, Neptune became the outermost planet in the solar system.

For 35 interesting facts about Pluto, see Random Facts, HERE



The painting:

The fresco, features Jupiter, Pluto and Neptune as allegorical representations of alchemy. The artist used his own body and facial features as model for the figures. Jupiter stands for sulphur and air, Neptune for mercury and water, and Pluto for salt and earth. The fresco was commissioned by Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte for the ceiling of a small second-floor alchemy lab of his hunting lodge in 1597.

On his eagle, Jupiter swoops down towards Neptune and Pluto, who are standing at the opposite edge of the ceiling, as if he were making the sky light up with a crystal ball. Any interpretation of the gathering of the gods, seen, unusually, from below, must shift between mythology (the gods, identified by the animal associated with each: an eagle for Jupiter, a sea stallion for Neptune and the three-headed dog Cerberus for Pluto); astrology (zodiac signs can be seen on the globe), and alchemy.

Hat tip to Guia Bargigli at THIS BLOG for clear representations, information and interpretation of the painting.

Arty Farty Friday ~ Clarice Cliff ~ Aquarian Bizarre-ness

Clarice Cliff - sounds like the name of one of today's pop stars! She was, however, an English designer of ceramics, one of the most prominent of her heyday: late 1920s to late 1930s, the Art Deco period. She was born on 20 January 1899 in Tunstall, in the area of England known as the midlands, Staffordshire to be exact. Staffordshire was, and still is, famous for its potteries.






(From Economist.com and inlifeplus - here)

Clarice Cliff was always her own person. A Victorian (she was born in 1899), she carried on with her married boss, drove her own car from an early age and never stopped working until she died at 73.

She was raised in Staffordshire, the centre of Britain’s pottery industry, and joined a local business, the Newport Pottery factory, as a lithographer when she was still in her teens. Cliff’s artistic talent quickly came to the attention of her senior colleagues who sent her, at company expense, to the Royal College of Art in London and on trips to Paris where the Art Deco style was developing.

The phrase “Art Deco” was not commonly used in Britain until the 1960s. It derived from the Paris Exposition of 1925 and became a catch-all for a new visual language that drew on a wide range of sources--Cubism, the Ballets Russes, the Bauhaus, folk art, classicism and the rectilinear design of Art Nouveau. Reinterpreting these influences, artists and designers throughout Europe strove for an aggressively modern style that turned its back on the 19th century and the great war that had effectively brought it to an end.

Cliff and her team of paintresses eagerly set about appropriating this style for a domestic setting. Not for nothing has she been called the Mary Quant of her age. For in applying vivid, coloured designs to pottery that was made to be used--cups and saucers, teapots and plates--Cliff brought modernity face-to-face with the kitchen sink. Japanese pagodas, tennis nets, fruit and sunrays--they all served a purpose. Cliff’s shapes were distinctive, her colours appealingly bright. Hand-painting bands of colour without making a mistake took skill. The pottery may have been produced in multiple sets, but it never looked or felt as if it came off a conveyor belt. Cliff’s work sold and sold.

Three-quarters of a century later, it has also become widely collected, both in America and in Britain.

12 noon chart (no time of birth known)


"The Art of Bizarre" declares the book cover at the top of this post. Yeah, well.... when you see the word "bizarre" and astrology is involved, the next thing you expect to see is Aquarius and/or Uranus prominent in the natal chart. Yes! Sun at 00 Aquarius, with Uranus, Aquarius' modern ruler, in helpful sextile to Sun from 6 Sagittarius.

Some Sun Aquarius-types are more bizarre than others. I believe this to be dependent on the placement of Uranus. I'm an Aquarius-type myself, with Uranus in Earthy Taurus - I tend to be more of a "feet-on-the-ground" person, a wee bit less bizarre than some others born with Sun in Aquarius. In the case of Ms Cliff, with Uranus in Sagittarius, signifying exaggeration and all that's a wee bit over-the-top, we could expect a decent - or even indecent - showing of bizarre-ness!

Clarice Cliff did not disappoint, in art or in her lifestyle. Carrying on with the married boss, driving one's own car from an early age, working until age 73: these things aren't at all uncommon nowadays; some have become "the norm". But for a woman born into the Victorian era, in the midlands, far from the "wicked" city, her lifestyle must have seemed more than a little bizarre to onlookers. Her artwork too, her designs and use of colour were certainly bizarre, for those times.

Ms Cliff's natal Moon would have been in Taurus whatever time of day or night she was born. Taurus is ruled by Venus, planet of the arts - her gravitation to artistic design comes mainly from here. Taurus' ruler, Venus is in Sagittarius - so we find another echo of the same trend towards exaggeration seen in her Sun ruler's placement. However, Venus is conjunct practical business-minded Saturn which may explain her pull towards designing items for everyday practical use rather than merely for show.