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 …
Albenga Baptistery
Albenga Baptistery, interior view, early 6th century, Albenga, Italy “Early Christian Baptisteries were more than simply convenient shelters for liturgical rites. They functioned as symbols in themselves; their shape and decoration reflected and reinforced the theological significance or meaning of the ritual. Wher ...
Blue Glass Amphoriskos from Pompeii
Blue Glass Amphoriskos with cupids gathering grapes from the Villa of the Mosaic Columns in Pompeii, between circa 1 and circa 79 AD, Cameo Glass, Naples Archaeological Museum “Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed / Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu; / And, happy melodist, unwearied, / For ever ...
Villa of the Mosaic Columns
Mosaic Columns from The Villa of the Mosaic Columns in Pompeii, 1st century AD, Naples National Archaeological Museum “If you have a garden in your library, we will want for nothing” wrote Marcus Tullius Cicero to his illustrious new friend Marcus Terentius Varro... and he is so right! Gardening can be so gratifyin ...
The Month of August
The Month of August, latest 1407, possibly by Maestro Venceslao, Fresco, Torre Aquila, Castello del Buonconsiglio in Trento, Italy “I am a reaper whose muscles set at sun-down. All my oats are cradled. / But I am too chilled, and too fatigued to bind them. And I hunger. / I crack a grain bet ...
The Archangel Gabriel of Hagia Sophia
Archangel Gabriel, 9th century, south side of the Bema of the Holy Apse, entire figure seen through scaffolds, photographed in 1938, MS.BZ.004-03-01-02-016-029, The Byzantine Institute, Dumbarton Oaks Fieldwork Records and Papers, ca. the late 1920s-2000s, Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives at Dumbarton Oaks, Tr ...
Grant Wood and the Revolutionary Spirit
Grant Wood, 1891-1942Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, 1931, Oil on Masonite, 76.2 × 101.6 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Arthur Hoppock Hearn Fund, Photograph: © 1988 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Art © Estate of Grant Wood / Licensed by VAGA, New York. Listen, my children, and you shall hear / Of the midnigh ...
Pollaiuolo’s Apollo and Daphne
Piero del Pollaiuolo, about 1441 - before 1496Apollo and Daphne, 1470-1480, oil on wood, 29.5 x 20 cm, The National Gallery, London Daphne, daughter of Peneus, was Apollo's first love, which not blind chance, but Cupid’s savage anger, gave… One suddenly loves, the other flees the name of lover, rejoicing in the hid ...
When Fashion becomes Art
Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, 1871-1949Delphos Champagne pleated silk Dress with separate gold stencilled empire waistband, armholes and side seams decorated at the hem with white, blue and yellow Murano glass beads, 1920, private collectionDelphos Dress, ca. 1920, Collezioni di Museo Fortuny, inv. MFN01711 ©Fondazione M ...
Parallel Stories of Byzantine Imperial Portraits
Roundel with Emperor John II Komnenos, ca. 1110 – 1118, marble, 90 x 90 x 7.5 cm, Byzantine Collection, Dumbarton Oaks MuseumAngaran Roundel, marble, d. 100 cm,Campiello de Ca'Angaran, Dorsoduro in Venice Parallel Stories of Byzantine Imperial Portraits is about our fascination with the ‘image’ of the Byzantine Emp ...
Ariadne on Naxos
Dionysos and Ariadne, 1st century AD, Pompeii, from the House of Capitelli Colorati, now in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples Ariadne on Naxos… what an inspiration… “Eros / The archipelago / And the prow of his seafoam / And the seagulls of his dreams / In his highest mast, the sailor flutters / ...
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 ...