HOUSE OF CONTRADICTION
IDOLS AND LADIES
Welcome to the House of Contradiction Idols and Ladies site.
Within this site you can find nothing but pictures. These are some of the pictures of idols that I have collected over the years and also some pictures of people that I've taken.
THERE ARE NO NUDITY HERE.
This site is dedicated to the admiration of the female form. I have long admired the beauty of the female form, as many men have, but I appreciate them for their work of art created by nature. This is in no way lewd nor vulgar.
The pictures of idols here have been collected from various sites on the internet and since no one has claimed the rights for them, I believe they are for free and public viewing and usage.
The pictures taken by me however, are restricted from any other usage except for being published on this site only.
"All pictures carrying the 'House of Contradiction' banner is the property of Jackson Tan and the subjects in it. These pictures may not be saved, kept or used by anyone without proper approval either from the photographer himself or the subject in the picture.
The pictures in here are not and cannot be used for any commercial purposes whatsoever. They are merely for viewing purposes only.
The pictures in here are a representation of photographic aesthetic of beauty. Meaning the pictures of ladies are here because they have a certain beauty that appeals to the photographer, either photographically or physically."
Before you proceed any further, please read the article below. This article was taken from the Sage and Rosemary's Poetry for Lovers website.
Beauty-- What Is it? Is it important? Why this website?
Beauty
is studied in a branch of philosophy called "esthetics," sometimes
spelled aesthetics. I am not sure if philosophers really understand it. Plato
said that beauty is a reflection of the ideal world made manifest to men. In
other words, when we are moved by beauty, we are in touch -- however briefly --
with heaven.
Beauty is one of those subjects that can be defined only by indirection. In
other words, we all know it when we see it, but cannot define it very readily.
The concern of Americans about pornography on the web has tended to blur the
line between nudity and pornography. Every nude figure study is not pornography,
or we would have to burn a high percentage of all painting in the Louvre.
Matisse, Picasso, Rubens, Renoir, would all be pilloried as pornographers. No, I
think, not hardly. In fact, great paintings of the Madonna were posed for by
professional models no more or less moral than most of the women whose
photographs appear on this website.
The redeeming social value of nude or figure studies on the web lies in the
artistry of great photography. To that, add the skills of great scanners, who
can digitize great photography and preserve the brilliance, the color, the
depth. The unsung heroes of this site are the great photographers and scanners
who took young women-- admittedly remarkably beautiful -- and brought that
beauty to life for us.
Keats said, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty, / That is all ye know on earth,
and all ye need to know." Beauty on the Grecian Urn was timeless, and Keats
implies that great beauty glimpsed in the world of men is a reflection or
"gleam" of a higher order. Keats see beauty as the timeless moment
breaking into the world of materiality and time.
Beauty was often distinguished by great painters from mere prettiness. A
beautiful model inspired great art, because she had a "greatness of
soul." Conversely, a merely pretty women seldom inspired great painting.
Renoir once said, "I can paint an ugly woman as beautiful, but a merely
pretty woman . . . never."
Photogenic beauties who draw attention through their photographs have a quality
that we might term "charisma." There's something electric or magnetic
about them. Again, as with beauty itself, we are groping for definitions and
terms here. Why does Naomi Campbell have 3,910 websites featuring her in some
way? Why not similar fame for "Jane Doe" or "Mary Smith?"
Ms. Campbell just has a certain something. Trying to define that something is
very difficult, but I believe it is there.
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Beauty as Tragic-- How does beauty figure into art and literature? One of
the oldest themes in literature has involved beauty as tragic. The best example,
perhaps, is Helen of Troy. Helen did not want to be abducted. She was kidnapped
and taken to Troy because of her great beauty. Throughout the Iliad, she appears
to just "want to go home." The Grecian king begins a great war to get
her back that involves the pillage, burning, and sacking of Troy. Remember
Marlowe's famous lines from "Doctor Faustus," of Helen--
Is this the face that launched a thousand ships
And burnt the topless towers of Illium?
Beauty is either a great gift or a great curse, or both, in classical
literature. Recall Shakespeare's Othello, or Romeo and Juliet. Recall the damage
done by Guinevere, who tore Camelot apart with her love for Lancelot. King
Arthur says to her, at their last meeting, when his kingdom is in ruins:
"Your children are fire, red ruin, and the breaking down of law." Not
much of a compliment.
Beauty can be-- what? Beauty becomes a judgment about form. A Grecian Urn
can be beautiful, a quarterhorse can be beautiful, a sunset can be beautiful. In
art, also, the human form is oftentimes seen as beautiful. Donatello and
Michelangelo tended to portray male forms in part because they were attracted to
male forms. Many male artists with hererosexual interests have tended to portray
the female form. Women fascinate many male artists because they have both an
"inside" and an "outside." A Grecian urn does not, nor does
the still life of a bowl of fruit. Any human being has both an inside and an
outside-- a spirit, or personality, as well as a visual form. Painters tend to
paint what interests them. Mary Cassat painted children-- some of the best ever
put on canvas. Essentially, artists tend to paint what they like to paint.
Renoir and Degas -- and others of course -- painted women. Renoir was hardly a
lecher or a villain-- in fact, up to his death at an advanced age, he was
surrounded by a household filled with women-- his wife, his daughters, and
various maids whom he loved to paint. In fact, his wife was frustrated because
he insisted she keep maids in the household who were clumsy and inept servants--
because they were so well suited as models. Renoir may or may not have been
absolutely faithful-- he was French, after all -- but biographies of him reveal
a family man, a good father, and a good husband. It's interesting that his last
years were devoted almost entirely to painting nudes. The "bather"
paintings are very late. At that point he was so badly crippled with
We like to consider ourselves more moral today than our forbearers. Frankly, I
believe much of today's culture is about as deep as a coat of paint. Everything
has to be canned, or packaged, and is leveled down to the cartoon level --
Barbara Anderson of Baywatch is about as deep as we go with respect to beauty.
With militants of various stripe -- feminists, or self-appointed moral watchdogs
-- insisting that any portrayal of womann in art is a degradation. "Lots of
luck."
Now that you have finished the article, or I hope you have, please proceed.