#Terror Antiquus

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‘Terror Antiquus’ by Léon Bakst, c. 1908.

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Terror Antiquus (Ancient Horror) by Léon Bakst (1908)

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Terror Antiquus. Léon Bakst. 1908.

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Terror Antiquus (1908) by Léon Bakst (1866–1924), Russian painter and scene/costume designer for the famous Ballets Russes

Государственный Русский музей

[muthur9000]

Dreadnought entering Planet 4′s atmosphere looks like this and as David leads the landing party to the city the shape of the land with the river down the middle is like the path through the engineer corpses:

Terror Antiquus by Léon Bakst 1908

Terror Antiquus depicts the death of an ancient civilization; in the midst of a natural disaster. In the pagan conception of the world, the "Ancient Terror" is the horror of life in a world under the domination of dark and inhuman destiny, the horror for we who are helplessly submissive to destiny without hope of escape; Or horror at the chaos and nothingness  to which we are irremediably drawn, which will be fatal. 

Perhaps we could free ourselves from this terror. Even with some sort of religious faith like Christianity, Judaism, or other religions or philosophies which bring us a possibility of a new conception of destiny. But the de-christianisation of culture has condemned him to return to this terror.

The Russian poet and philosopher Viatcheslav Ivanovich Ivanov considers that in choosing to call his work "Terror Antiquus," the painter wants to highlight the horror of destiny, he wants to show that not only all that is human, but also all that is divine was perceived as relative and passing by the ancients. The only certainty is that of the existence of destiny, or the indispensable "necessity of the world”

The scene is a symbolic of the fallen Engineer Empire, and type of horror this movie is supposed to be, the horror at the chaos and nothingness. This is immediately highlighted in the darkness of space when Captain Branson’s body is flushed out the airlock. Daniels brings this up when she says she cannot hear anything, no birds, no animals, nothing.

In Prometheus David also repeats the Lawrence of Arabia line: "There is nothing in the desert and no man needs nothing."

In the original move, the entire quote:

"I think you are another of these desert-loving English: Doughty, Stanhope, Gordon of Khartoum. No Arab loves the desert. We love water and green trees, there is nothing in the desert. No man needs nothing." -  Prince Feisal, Lawrence of Arabia

The quote echoes the conclusion of the movie -- Peter Weyland discovers that the journey to the "desert" of LV-223 yielded nothing.

In fact, Weyland's final words are "There's nothing". David then answers "I know... Mr. Weyland, have a safe journey". 

After Weyland's final words, the android seems to be bidding farewell to his father, who is leaving for the desert... where there's nothing, and where he won't be needing anything else.

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[florilegiodelgrottesco]

Léon Bakst, Terror Antiquus (1908)

Лев Само́йлович Бакст (Лейб-Ха́им Изра́илевич Розенберг), Древний ужас

[butterlaneantiques]

Union of Russian Artists (1903-1923)

1903 saw the foundation of the Union of Russian Artists, an exhibiting society comprising artists from the St Petersburg based Mir iskusstva (World of Art) and former members of the progressive and democratic group known as the Wanderers (Peredvizhniki). The World of Art movement had become disillusioned, as the Pre-Raphaelites had before them, with the anti-aesthetic nature of modern industrial society, seeking to restore and consolidate neo-romantic Russian artists under one flag - notable members included Alexandre Benois and Léon Bakst. Break away members of the Wanderers included Valentin Serov and Abram Arkhipov.

This Russian charm is modelled as an artist's palette, complete with gem-set paint patches. The quality is superb, as expected with Imperial Russian jewellery, it's crafted in 56z (14 karat) gold with an inscription 9th/21st March 1903 (at the time Russia used the Julian calendar, while the rest of Europe had changed over to the Gregorian, meaning the dates were 13 days out of sync). Was it commissioned to commemorate the founding of the Union of Russian Artists? Quite possibly. We'll never know for sure.

The society's explicit purpose was to "to promote Russian art and to provide members sell their art works", but it also sought to break away from the old forms through self organised exhibitions, not controlled by juries. It ran 18 exhibitions in total from 1903 to 1923, the most successful being the 11th (1913/14) which hosted over 25,000 viewers and made over 70,000 roubles from the sales of works (over $2 million in today's money).

Artists from the two groups embraced widely divergent aesthetic stances ranging from lyrical landscapes by Nikolay Klodt and Arkady Rylov, to the impressionistic paintings of Igor Grabar, symbolist works by Viktor Borisov-Musatov, and experimental works by Mikhail Brubel and V. Serov. The Union of Russian Artists didn't achieve stylistic unity until after the 7th exhibition (1910), when 17 of the St Petersburg artists, led by Benoit, departed citing artistic differences and going on to re-form the World of Art. From then until its dissolution in 1923, the members mainly produced landscapes and genre scenes characterised by a democratic tendency and an interest in the Russian landscape and the distinctly original features of Russian life.

Left: Viktor Borisov-Musatov, Ghosts (1903)

Right: Igor Grabar, September Snow (1903)

Left: Konstantin Yuon, The Night. Tverskoy Boulevard (1909)

Right: Valentin Serov, The Rape of Europa (1910)

Left: Mikhail Vrubel, Six-winged Seraph (Azrael) (1904)

Right: León Bakst, Terror Antiquus (1908)

[psikonauti]

Léon Bakst (Russian, 1866-1924)

Terror Antiquus ,1908

[aiastelamonian]

Terror Antiquus by Léon Bakst, 1908 (Russian Museum, St. Petersburg)

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1908_Leon Bakst, 1866-1924. (Terror Antiquus)

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Leon Bakst — Terror Antiquus ['Ancient Horror'], 1908.  

Painting: oil on canvas, 250 x 270 cm. State Russian Museum.

In 1907, Leon Bakst visited Greece in the company of Valentin Serov, sketching the country’s ancient monuments and Mediterranean nature and reading the works of her ancient philosophers and writers. This helped to form an image of Greece and Greek culture in his imagination, one both concrete and simultaneously abstract. This duality can be seen in Terror Antiquus, in which the artist uses symbols to express the apocalyptic nature of the modern age. He depicts the destruction of an ancient city and its inhabitants. Bakst scrupulously reproduces a number of ancient edifices — the Lion Gate in Mycenae, the ruins of the palace at Tiryns, and the Athenian Acropolis.

The natural landscape in the picture is a generalisation and also reflects Bakst’s study of Hellenic geography. The image of the Archaic kore presiding over the chaos and personifying the inexorable force of human fate is equally concrete and just as abstract.

Although the critics found many faults in Terror Antiquus, Bakst’s painting enjoyed great success at the Salon d’Automne in Paris. It was awarded a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle in Brussels in 1910. Source

Classical Themes

Romanticism

1900s

[muthur9000]

Alien Covenant  Delve in deeper into the artistic, mythological and symbolic meaning of each scene, set and script. Find out how rich this tapestry of Horror, Science and Art may be one of the most meaningful pieces of cinema for the 21st Century and beyond.

-Patch- USCSS Covenant Weyland Yutani Patch

-Film Style- Aeschylus

-Advertising- Alien: Covenant Poster Prologue: The Crossing The Last Supper Meet Walter Nature Boy Under the Water

-Mythology- Epimetheus - Walter Prometheus - David & Elizabeth Shaw Pyrrha - David Janus - David

-Facts- How old is David in Alien: Covenant

-Names, Words & Meanings- Meaning of the name Daniels Meaning of the name Janet(Daniel’s First name) Meaning of the name Walter The Meaning of David 2 https://muthur9000.tumblr.com/post/168426179020/so-as-you-may-know-david-8s-character-shares-many The meaning of Origae The meaning of Origae 2 https://muthur9000.tumblr.com/post/163394139855/names-meanings-origae The meaning of Wagner

-Alien: Covenant Prologue- The Nativity David Throne Chair

-Art- Terror Antiquus - Lander Entering Planet 4′s Atmosphere Satan Descends Upon Earth - USCSS Covenant In Orbit Around Planet 4 Lost & Virgil Leads Dante Onward - Covenant Ground Crew Ascends Mountain The Tempest of Hell - Covenant Crew Discovers Crashed Juggernaut Remember Purgatory - Covenant Crew Gathered At Base Of Mountain The Great Red Dragon & Woman Clothed In Sun - Ledward, Rosenthal & Oram’s Death Satan by William Blake - David raises his arms Three Beasts & Beatrice - Neomorph & Protomorph Deaths & David Apocalyptic Procession - Journey To The Engineer City Satan presides over the Avaricious & the Prodigal - Engineer Citadel The Sistine Chapel, Time: The Flood by Michelangelo Buonarroti - The Engineer Cathedral Bridge over Chaos - Crossing The Plaza Extended The Courts of God & Dante and Virgil Approaching The Entrance To Hell  - Crossing The Plaza Isle of the Dead - Elizabeth Shaw’s Garden Pandemonium & the 7th Plague - Crossing The Plaza Stairway to Heaven - Engineers Run For Their Lives Ophelia - Rosenthal’s Death Paradise - Prometheus, Meet Walter & Alien: Covenant Mountains The Vivisected Engineer - David’s Vivisected Engineer Casting of the Rebel Angels into Hell - The Crossing Part I Souls Circling to form Letters - The Crossing Part II Rings of Glowing Souls - The Crossing Part III Gaze upon Hell - The Crossing Part IV Whirlwind of Lust - The Crossing Part V Punishment of Thieves - The Crossing Part VI

-Illustrations- David’s Drawings of Dr Elizabeth Shaw Sabrina and Her Nymphs by William Etty Study for the Head of Leda by Leonardo Da Vinci

-Poetry & Literature- Robinson Crusoe - David Fog by Carl Sandburg - “Me and Fog on little cat feet” - David Oh, Whistle, And I’ll Come To You, My Lad by M. R. James - “Whistle and I’ll Come” - David “Blow on the nostrils of a horse and it will be yours for life, but you have to get close, you have to earn it’s trust” - David, Alien: Covenant

-Homages- Xenomorph attacks David/Walter in screen - Xenomorph attacks Dr.Gediman Alien: Resurrection The Last Supper - Dinner scene in Alien 1979 Tennessee Fact - Homage to Stanley Kubrick

-Blu-ray Extra’s-

Advent Twinkle twinkle little star - Walter in the Greenhouse

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Prometheus Analysis | Alien Covenant Analysis |  Mythology Prequels Project | The Crossing Analysis |  Advent Analysis

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Léon Bakst - Terror Antiquus (1908)

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Leon Bakst Terror antiquus

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Léon Bakst – Terror Antiquus, 1908