Re: BURIAN AT WORK - ANY CZECH SPEAKERS OUT THERE?

[Danvarner@aol.com]

In a message dated 8/28/2006 3:24:16 PM Eastern Standard Time,  
ddkrentz@charter.net writes:

<< My favourite is an image of the man who sculpted the Venus  of  
Wellendorf.  He sits back, admiring his work while behind him  proudly  
stands the portly woman he used as a model!  Genius.  >>

You've got that right, David. It's reproduced in  beautiful color in the old 
Time-Life Nature Library book, _Early Man_, on page  155. It's one of his 
masterpieces, that's for sure. What brushwork! The same  volume has Matternes 
at 
his best.
Along with his early man  works I think his _The Book of Mammoths_is also 
Burian at his best. His  dinosaurs and sea reptiles don't fare as well, but I 
believe that is mostly due  to lack of familiarity with the specimens.
It's  interesting that the depiction of early man captures the imaginations 
of so many  paleoartists. Knight, Burian, Maurice Wilson, Jay Matternes, and, 
most recently  John Gurche became rather obsessed with the subject. I 
understand why, but I  stay away from it. DV