chess in art

The painting of Caissa or Caïssa could be by  Domenico Maria Fratto, 1669-1763, but other sources give 1800 as date of painting... ( by whom ? still to find out ! )...

Exactly in that year  1763  Sir William Jones  published his long poem called " Caïssa or the Game of Chess ", about a waternymph, Caïssa, from which poem I quote some lines :

O'er hills and valleys was her beauty fam'd, and fair Caïssa was the damsel nam'd; Mars saw the maid; with deep surprize he gaz'd, admir'd her shape, and every gesture prais'd.

Caïssa rejects the love  of Mars (!) and Mars gets the advice : Canst thou no play, no soothing game device, to make thee lovely in the damsel's eyes ?

The god of sports, Euphron, helps : from him the British nymphs receiv'd the game, and play each morn' beneath the crystal Thame.

In this forum we pass over in silence what happened, who won or lost the game betwee Mars and Caïssa,  but : Caïssa was promoted by the gods to the godess of Chess, (instead of being that waternymph of lower order.)

This is a nice quote as well : No mortal hand the wond'rous sport contriv'd, by gods invented, and from gods deriv'd...

Thanks, Winnie_Pooh, for post nr 892, fine information !

In posts 893 and 894 I copied pages I found of Philidor's book of 1805, in which the poem is included, with that introduction...

Without words, for now.   Who makes the best title ?

blondes have more fun

amazing. I mean, amazing. whow! thank you. It will take me a while to go through this. whow! whow! did I say that? whow!

yo computoJon....that's a great piece of work !!! i'll remember it for future reference ... THANKS:)

Hi, everybody, have a look at the forum : " if you know list here any chess film or documentary " ; and especially posts 10, 19, 20, 21 and 22 about a nice video that belongs to this "chess in art" ( ... art in chess ... ).

( Somebody likes to insert that video in this forum as well ? )

hello ger,

i cannot find the forum... can you post a link tot the forum ?

The forum is started by Grandbrother Rizaa in Somalia, I think you can find him in Members with his list of posts...

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/fun-with-chess/if-you-know-list-here-any-chess-film-or-ducumentary