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A BUTCHER'S #41

A BUTCHER’S hook/look (Cockney rhyming slang)

tough life

The Roman portraiture that always strikes me is that of the gladiators and wrestlers - the bruisers. They are rougher and tougher, like the characters depicted. This portrait stopped me in my tracks.

tough guy ©SteveButcher2025

atilt

There’s something to be said for making the extra effort - don’t think that this stuff goes unnoticed!

geometric study @SteveButcher2022

up close and in yer face

©SteveButcher2022

In ISSUE #36 cubism I commented on the different levels of ‘simple to complex’ in the mosaics I’m looking at these days. This one appears to be made using teeth and corn niblets(!) and even in its apparent crudeness, the subtlety achieved is fantastic.

NY Roma

Another of my New York postcard collages - this one from 2002. It was the windows in the NY buildings that reminded me of a mosaic that prompted me to combine it with the amazing gladiator mosaic from Galleria Borghese. Of course the resulting combination could be seen as kind of alarming!

NY Roman - postcard collage ©SteveButcher2002

I was using the postcards that were available to me then - the colors and scale of the actual mosaic have to be seen to be believed and really appreciated.

brutal

Some of you might have seen this when it was lent to the MET in 2013. An incredible Greek bronze statue from sometime 330 - 50 BC, that was prized enough back then to have been wrapped and carefully buried, keeping it well hidden, safe from invading barbarians, looters and 2000 years of man’s history of melting down anything in sight when needed.

Made in sections using the lost wax casting techique and so realistic in its portayal of a boxer resting, after or between fights - broken nose, cauliflower ears, swollen lips, cuts and blood (inlaid with copper), scars, bruises (using a different alloy to show as a different color), he looks completely knackered - you really feel for him.

the boxer discovered - 1885 Rome

I could devote a whole issue to this sculpture but keeping it short is best! There’s something great about this photo from 1885 showing the boxer almost waiting to be hoisted out.