An amazing installation in the Panthéon (Paris)

The scrotum of the monster?

Above the centre, pink nets arch above Foucault's Pendulum

Conceived and realised by Ernesto Neto, a Brazilian artist who makes use of nets, one of his favourite forms, to broaden the scope of sewing and knotting. Nets of white lycra tulle suspended from the Pantheon ceiling hold polystyrene beads.

Others are filled with sand or dried lavender.

Léviathan Thot - an anthropomorphic installation inspired by the biblical monster. Forms represent the eyes, brain, mouth and heart of the beast from the Book of Job.

Additionally, Thot, French translation of the Egyptian god Thoth, is representing wisdom, culture, writing and language. Victor Hugo, Louie Braille, Voltaire, Emile Zola and many others lie in tombs beneath the floor of this space. The art installation was in the Pantheon from 15 September 2006 until 31 October for Paris' Autumn Festival.

Yes, that's right, another Moreau post!

Angels of Sodom "The Lord's two angels only found one righteous person living in Sodom" ... this is the most uncluttered and solemn Moreau painting on display. After reporting back to a higher authority that the only 'righteous' person in Sodom was Lot, the place was destroyed. My interpretation of this composition is that 'shooting the messenger' is not among the artist's values. Are they surveying the wreckage of the city they doomed to destruction? With satisfaction? Or despair? The shadowy faces do not betray an expression.

I wonder if jihadists delight in their 'righteous' destruction more obviously... one example is the way Osama bin Laden does his videos from that location which still eludes the Coalition of the Willing. Others who followed his 'righteousness' to their deaths though... in an afterlife state, are they able to survey the wreckage and awfulness they inflicted on others? What emotions would those willing terrorists experience?

Jupiter and Europa

Whoops! That wierd neck foreshortening is my camera angle, not a fault in Moreau's technique

Hmmm... it looks like Moreau was taken with the Winged Victory's drapery as much as I was

More Moreau: drawings

In the elegant home of a symbolist painter

It's Loni's birthday. Her family arrives in Paris in less than 24 hours. So the best way I can think of treating her to a memorable day is to visit a place she has not yet been to herself: the former home and museum of artist Gustave Moreau.

There are scores of sliding drawers and cabinets, filled with hundreds of the artist's studies and working drawings.

No flash allowed... ever!

Seeing these stunning drawings, it is hard not to think of da Vinci and his many anatomical and biological studies. The similarities end there however - Moreau's paintings are different altogether from Leonardo's...

Splendidly busy.. love the technique, but the composition?

See more examples here