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 …
Watercolours by Howard Carter
Under the protection of the gods, marked and dated "Howard Carter 1908 ", watercolour on paper, 62 x 46 cm, private collectionhttps://egyptophile.blogspot.com/2014/12/a-la-decouverte-des-tresors-de-carter.html “...Carter painted Under the Protection of the Gods (1908), a composite fantasy that depicts a vulture — ...
Dioscurides and Krithamo
Portrait of the allegorical figure Epinoia (thinking power) holding a Mandragoa in the middle, Dioscurides describing the plant to the right, and a painter creating the image of the plant to the left, Vienna Dioscurides, Folio 5v, about 515 AD, Byzantine Greek Illuminated Manuscript of De Materia Medica by Pedanius Di ...
Saint Mary of the Mongols
Byzantine church, known as Saint Mary of the Mongols in ConstantinopleNicholas V. Artamonoff Collection from 1930-1947Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives (ICFA) of Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection «The Byzantine church known as Saint Mary of the Mongols, or Theotokos ton Mougoulion, was onc ...
Teaching with Donatello
Donatello, 1386-1466David, c. 1430, Bronze, Height: 158 cm, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence “Speak, damn you, speak!” Donatello allegedly cried to his sculptures whenever he desired depth in their expression! Teaching with Donatello is a set of student activities and worksheets inspired by the great Ita ...
The Month of November
The Month of November, latest 1407, possibly by Maestro Venceslao, Fresco, Torre Aquila, Castello del Buonconsiglio in Trento, Italy Yet one smile more, departing, distant sun! / One mellow smile through the soft vapoury air, / Ere, o'er the frozen earth, the loud winds ran, / Or snows are sifted o'er the meadows b ...
Thalia Flora-Karavia
Thalia Flora-Karavia, 1871-1960A Girl dressed in the traditional costume of Gida, 1905, pastel on paper, 0,73x0,40 cm, Athanasios Zahos Collection The outbreak of the First Balkan War in October 1912 found the painter Thalia Flora-Karavia in Munich. She hastily returns to Alexandria and undertakes ...
Louise Glück and William Waterhouse
William Waterhouse, 1849-1917Penelope and the Suitors, 1912, oil on canvas, 129.8 x 188 cm, Aberdeen Art Gallery This year's Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to the US poet Louise Glück… "for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal." Louise Glück and Wi ...
Teaching with Giotto di Bondone
Giotto di Bondone, 1266/7 – 1337Joachim meets Anna at the Golden Gate, 1303-06, Cappella degli Scrovegni (Arena Chapel), Padua Giotto once said… “Take pleasure in your dreams; relish your principles and drape your purest feelings on the heart of a precious lover.” Teaching with Giotto di Bondone is a set of st ...
Daughters of Eleutherna
Lady of Auxerre, c. 640-630 BC, from Crete, limestone statuette, H. 0.63 m, the Louvre, ParisDaughter of Eleutherna, 7th century BC, limestone statuette, the surviving height of 60 cm, so a total of about one meter, Museum of Ancient Eleutherna https://www.akg-images.com/archive/Dame-d%E2%80%99Auxerre-2UMDHUH75U8 ...
Unidentified Church in Constantinople known today as Vefa Kilise Camii
Unidentified Byzantine Church in Constantinople of the Komnenia Dynasty (11th or 12th century) with an exonarthex of the Palaiologan period (13th century)Vefa Kilise Camii of Istanbul since the 15th century “A former Byzantine church, now known by its Turkish name Vefa kilise camii, stands on Tirendaz Caddesi on th ...
The Month of October
The Month of October, latest 1407, possibly by Maestro Venceslao, Fresco, Torre Aquila, Castello del Buonconsiglio in Trento, Italy I'm not sure everyone has understood, October, / your great beauty: / in those fat vats, as large as a full stomach, / you brew must and inebriation ...
Émile Gallé
Victor Prouvé, 1858-1943 Portrait of Emile Gallé, 1892, oil on canvas, Musée de l'Ecole de Nancy “Our roots are in the depths of the woods-on the banks of streams and among the mosses.” How do you like this phrase as a "Motto" on your studio door? Émile Gallé loved it, and used it! https://en.wikiquote.org/wi ...
The Monastery of Pantokrator in Constantinople and the Pala d’Oro in Venice
The Pala d’Oro (the altar retable of San Marco in Venice) is an altarpiece with about 250 Cloisonné enamels of different sizes and epochs (10th – 12th century) on sheet gold. It was commissioned in Byzantium by the Venetians. The Archangel Michael is believed to have come from the Monastery of Pantokrator in Constanti ...
1st Day Back to School
School Lesson, Attic red-figure Kylix from Cerveteri by the painter Duris, around 480 BC, 11.5x28.5 cm, . Altes Museum, Pergamonmuseum “Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child and one teacher can change the world.” Said young Malala Yousafzai and I couldn’t agree more! Today, September 14, 2020, is the 1st Da ...
Rosa Bonheur
Rosa Bonheur, 1822 – 1899The Horse Fair, 1835–-55, oil on canvas, 244.5 cm × 506.7 cm, the MET, NY “Ah! If nations could only agree to employ their resources to perfect agriculture and improve transportation, and to bring all their girl children a good education, what an explosion of happiness there would be on ear ...
The Monastery of Pantokrator in Constantinople
The Monastery of Pantokrator of Constantinople, 12th centuryImperial Church of the Komnenian DynastyŞeyh Süleyman Mescidi of Istanbul “The most important imperial foundation from the Komnene age is the Monastery of Pantokrator, which continues to this day to impress both the scholar and the casual visitor. It is as ...