Tuesday 5 July 2011

The Spies, the Israeli Ministry of Tourism & more grape carrying

Just another quick post.  I'm going back to Godfrey Blount's 'The Spies' because my wise old Uncle H has highlighted to me that 'The Spies' image is the Israel Ministry of Tourism logo.  

Blount, Godfrey, The Spies, c.1900 at the Victoria & Albert Museum

The logo is a little less intricate than Blount's tapestry!  It turns out that you can buy statutes and all sorts of items depicting The Spies.


Looking a bit more widely, there are so many other representations of The Spies in artwork through the ages, here are a few.  I wonder what Godfrey Blount had seen of these other depictions?

Spies return from Canaan with a large bunch of grapes,
Hesdin of Amiens c.1450-1455
from Bible of the Poor,
Museum Meermanno Westreenianum, The Hague

The Spies Return from Canaan Carrying a Large Bunch of Grapes,by a follower of Simon Benin, c.1500-1525
 Museum Meermanno Westreenianum, The Hague
Autumn (The Spies with the Grapes of the Promised Land),
Nicolas Poussin, c.1660-1664,
Louvre, Paris

James Tissot painted the below around the same time as Blount produced The Spies.

The Grapes of Canaan,
James Tissot, 1896-1900,
Jewish Museum, New York
The Spies design appears on buildings also.


on the building at Beestenmarkt 50, Leiden,
Netherlands

at Il Duomo, Milan

In fact once I started looking, The Spies seem to be everywhere (no pun intended!).  So a few weeks ago, I was wondering what The Spies tapestry meant, and now it seems that EVERYONE knows about The Spies!

at Il Molino de Grace winery, Panzano,
Italy

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...