ἕν οἶδα, ὅτι οὐδέν οἶδα
All I know is that I know nothing
Allegedly said by Socrates
So true, 30 years in Education, and I still feel like a kindergarten student, curious and inquisitive, questioning, interested, prying …
Teaching with the Kritios Boy
Kritios Boy, 480 BC, Marble from the island of Paros, Height: 116.7 m, Acropolis Museum, Athens, Greece https://www.theacropolismuseum.gr/en/youth-statue-kritios-boy Teaching with the Kritios Boy is a set of student activities and worksheets inspired by an awe-inspiring work of art created by a remarkable artist, ...
Salvador Dali or Pavlos Samios
Salvador Dali, 1904 - 1989Figure at the Window, 1925, Oil on papier-mâché, 105 x 74,5 cm, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia https://en.opisanie-kartin.com/description-of-the-painting-by-salvador-dali-woman-at-the-window/Pavlos Samios, 1948 - 2021Awaiting, 1983, Acrylic on canvas, 130 × 88 cm, Basil & Elise ...
Mosaics from the Ilissos Basilica in Athens
Exhibition of Mosaics from the Ilissos Basilica in Athens, 5th century AD, Byzantine and Christian Museum, Athens, Greece http://www.byzantineathens.com/betaalphasigmaiotalambdaiotakappaeta-iotalambdaiotasigmasigmaomicronupsilon.html How do they call him, how do they call him / the river? / Ilissos, Ilissos. / Let ...
The Tennis Court Oath by Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David, 1748 - 1825The Tennis Court Oath, 1791, oil on canvas, 65 × 88.7 cm, Musée Carnavalet, Paris, Francehttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Serment_du_Jeu_de_Paume_-_Jacques-Louis_David.jpg One of the two representations of the historic The Tennis Court Oath by Jacques-Louis David i ...
A Meissen Figurine of La Chocolatière
A Meissen Figure of La Chocolatière, circa 1870, porcelain, 36 cm, Private Collection https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/13951/lot/103/ I hate milk chocolate, don’t want clouds / of cream diluting the dark night sky, / don’t want pralines or raisins, rubble / in this smooth plateau. I like my / black, my beer from Ge ...
Lansdowne Portrait of George Washington
Gilbert Stuart, American Artist, 1755–1828Portrait of George Washington, the Lansdowne Type, 1796, oil on canvas, 243.8x152.4 cm, National Portrait Gallery , Washington, DC https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.2001.13 My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth… George Washi ...
The Labours of the Months: July
By an unknown Venetian artist…The Labours of the Months: July, about 1580, oil on canvas, 13.6 x 10.6 cm, National Gallery, Londonhttps://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/italian-venetian-the-labours-of-the-months-january#painting-group-info As an introduction to my new BLOG POST The Labours of the Months: July ...
White Ships by John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent, American artist, 1856-1925White Ships, circa 1908, Translucent and opaque watercolor and wax resist with graphite underdrawing, 35.6 x 49.2 cm, Brooklyn Museum, NY, USA https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/20397 Strange flight, the body / Held at a threshold / And never quite f ...
House of Julia Felix
Fourth Pompeian style Wall from the Tablinum (Room j in the provided plan) of the House of Julia Felix, 62-79 AD, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napolihttps://www.museoarcheologiconapoli.it/en/room-and-sections-of-the-exhibition/frescoes/ Julia Felix, daughter of Spurius was very lucky indeed! After the earthquake ...
Idle Hours by William Merritt Chase
William Merritt Chase, American painter, 1849-1916Idle Hours, 1894, oil on canvas, 90.17x64.77 cm, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Texas “The first lily of June opens its red mouth. / All over the sand road where we walk / multiflora rose climbs trees cascading / white or pink blossoms, simple, intense / the sc ...
Unidentified Byzantine Church in Constantinople known today as Gül Camii
Unidentified Byzantine Church in Constantinople, between 867-886 or 1000-1150Gül Camii since the last decade of the 15th centuryhttps://pbase.com/dosseman/image/160671612 A beautiful Byzantine Church was once created… “Not (just for) the rhetors or philosophers, / not those who study the writings of Hellenes, / not ...
Rouen Cathedral in the Morning
Claude Monet, 1840 - 1926Rouen Cathedral in the Morning (Pink Dominant), 1894, Oil on canvas, 100.3 × 65.5 cm, Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation, Athenshttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Claude_Monet_-_La_Cathedrale_de_Rouen_Le_Matin%2C_dominante_rose_-_Goulandris_Museum.jpg “The subject is s ...
Ring of Michael Stryphnos
Ring of Michael Stryphnos, late 12th – early 13th century, Enamel and gold, 1.9x3.2x3.2 cm, Byzantine Collection, Dumbarton Oaks Museum, Washington, DC, USA https://www.doaks.org/resources/bliss-tyler-correspondence/art/bz/BZ.1934.3.jpg/view “The house of Angelus, which had thus found greatness so suddenly and unex ...
The Labours of the Months: June
By an unknown Venetian artist…The Labours of the Months: June, about 1580, oil on canvas, 13.6 x 10.6 cm, National Gallery, Londonhttps://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/italian-venetian-the-labours-of-the-months-january#painting-group-info What is so rare as a day in June? / Then, if ever, come perfect days; ...
Amphora showing Athena and Hermes
Berlin Painter, ca. 500–ca. 460 BCA: Athena – B: Hermes, ca. 480 B.C. Athenian Red-Figure Terracotta Amphora, Height: 33.20 cm, Yale University Art Galler, New Haven, CT, USA https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/1726 The Orphic Hymn to Athena is an exuberant celebration of the goddess with in ...
Gold Coin Pendant of Constantine the Great
Constantine the Great Gold Coin Pendant, 321 AD, Gold, Diameter: 92 millimetres, British Museum, London, UKhttps://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1984-0501-1 …it was becoming clear that Constantine was determined to put an end to Diocletian’s disastrous division of the Empire and to rule it alone. From 3 ...