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 …
The Month of July
The Month of July, latest 1407, possibly by Maestro Venceslao, Fresco, Torre Aquila, Castello del Buonconsiglio in Trento, Italy The Month of July fresco comes from Torre Aquila in the Castello del Buonconsiglio, in Trento, Italy. It is part of an amazing fresco Cycle of the Twelve Months painted on the walls of th ...
Nearchos the Potter
Archaic Black-Figure Terracotta Aryballos (oil flask) by Nearchos, Archaic - ca. 570 BC, 7.8 cm, MET, NYArchaic Black-Figure Terracotta fragment of a Kantharos (drinking cup) by Nearchos, Archaic - ca. 550 BC, 15,5 cm, National Archaeological Museum, AthensAntenor Kore, 525-500 BC, Parian Marble, Acropolis Museum ...
The Rotunda Ambo
Rotunda Ambo, early 6th century, marble, originally from Thessaloniki, present location: Istanbul Archaeological MuseumPhoto Credit: OMNIA http://www.omnia.ie/index.php?navigation_function=3&europeana_query=Arch%C3%A4ologisches+Museum&europeana_cursor=%2A&europeana_prev_cursor=%2A&dpla_nav_start=0& ...
Bernardo Bembo and La Bencina
Hans Memling, 1433 –1494Man with a Roman Coin (Bernardo Bembo), ca. 1471-1474, oil on panel, 31 x 23,3 cm, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten AntwerpenLeonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519Ginevra de' Benci, 1474-78, oil on wood, 38,8 x 36,7 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC - On the reverse side of the portrait of ...
Matisse Cut-Outs
Henri Matisse, 1869-1954Polynésie, la mer, 1946, paper cut-outs painted in gouache glued on paper on canvas, 196 x 314 cm, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris Henri Matisse once said… “There is no interruption between my older paintings and my Cut-Outs. Just that with an increasing sense of ...
Alexandrian Mischievous Dog
Mosaic of a Mischievous Dog, Ptolemaic period, 2nd century BC, Length 3.25 m; width: 3.25 m, Museum of Antiquities - Bibliotheca Alexandrina There was once a Dog, according to Aesop, who was so ill-natured and mischievous that his Master had to fasten a heavy wooden clog about his neck ...
Early Christian Funerary Paintings
Tomb Painting of a Bird (Lark?), early 5th century, fresco painting, Museum for Byzantine Culture, Thessaloniki (Photo: Makis Skiatharesis, ΜΒΠ archive) “A Work of Art which did not begin in Emotion is not Art” Paul Cezanne said… and I think of him every time I visit Room 3, “From the Elysian Fields to the Ch ...
The Month of June
The Month of June, latest 1407, possibly by Maestro Venceslao, Fresco, Torre Aquila, Castello del Buonconsiglio in Trento, Italy The Month of June is an amazing fresco that comes from the Torre Aquila in the Castello del Buonconsiglio, in Trento, Italy. It is part of a fresco Cycle of the Twelve Months pai ...
Eάλω η Πόλις
Tabula Peutingeriana, 4th to 5th century Itinerarium, is one of the Austrian National Library's greatest treasures. The top picture presents the whole length of the Itinerarium, the bottom picture is a detail of the Itinerarium presenting the city of Constantinople. Eάλω η Πόλις remembers the Fall of Constantinopl ...
Virtual Trip to meet the Pre-Raphaelites
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1828–1882Monna Vanna, 1866, oil on canvas, 88,9 cm × 86,4 cm, TATE Britain, London “Conception, my boy, fundamental brain work, is what makes all the difference in art...” once said, Dante Gabriel Rossetti. During COVID 19 Days, we need a new meaningful Conception of our Life, and how we can ...
Small Arch of Galerius
Small Arch of Galerius, early 4th century AD, carved from a single block of marble, Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki “The Galerian Complex, the most important monumental group in Thessaloniki, was built at the turning-point of two worlds, the Roman and Byzantine. Its erection began in the late 3rd century-earl ...
Singer with a Glove…
Edgar Degas, 1834 – 1917Singer with a Glove, c. 1878, pastel on canvas, 53.2 x 41 cm, Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum "Art is not what you see, but what you make others see," Edgar Degas once said. What do we really see in his pastel painting of a Singer with a Glove? "What a creature he was, that Degas!” Renoir ...
The Mauritshuis
Hans Holbein the Younger (formerly attributed to)Portrait of a Woman from Southern Germany, c. 1520 – 1525, oil on panel, 45x34 cm, The Mauritshuis in The Hague “A visit to a museum is a search for beauty, truth, and meaning in our lives. Go to museums as often as you can” wrote Maira Kalman and she couldn’t be mor ...
Virtual Trip to meet the 1st Emperor of China
Terracotta Warrior from Qin Shihuangdi’s Tomb, 210 BC, Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, Xi'an, China Confucius once said that… Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it! During COVID 19 Days, we meditate, seek our inner soul and find beauty in many little things around us… like taking a Virtual Trip to mee ...
The Iron Crown
The Iron Crown, dated between the IV-V and IX centuries, gold, silver, enamel and cabochons with garnets, blue corundum, amethysts, Teodolinda’s Chapel, Monza Cathedral “…And so I left her to her prayers, and went To gaze upon the pride of Monza’s shrine Where in the sacristy the light still falls Upon the ...
Brussels Virtual Destination
Hôtel Hannon, In 1902 the engineer Edouard Hannon (1853 - 1931) called upon his friend, the architect Jules Brunfaut (1852 - 1942) to build this mansion, a masterpiece in the Art Nouveau style. The Swiss painter Hans Ruedi Giger (1940 – 2014), once said that… I like elegance. I like art nouveau; a stretched line or ...