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 …
Triptych Leaf with St. Constantine
Triptych Leaf with St. Constantine, mid-10th century, Ivory, 16.4x6.5 cm, DumbartonOaks, Washington, DC, USAhttp://museum.doaks.org/objects-1/info/27455 It was but recently the whole human race celebrated various ten-year periods for the great Emperor with festive banquets. It was but recently we ourselves hymned t ...
The Bee Goddess of Eleutherna
Gold Pendant with the representation of a Bee Goddess, On the upper torso she is depicted as a female with a Daedalic wig and arms bent at the elbows. The rest of the body resembles an insect, its large wings decorated with stippled rosettes, 7th century BC, Archaeological Museum of Eleutherna, Crete, Greecehttps://ma ...
Painter at Work!
Painter at Work from the House of the Surgeon in Pompeii, Room L, East Wall, central section, 1st century AD, Fresco, 45x45.4 cm, National Archaeological Museum of Naples, Italy - Credit: Image © Photographic Archive, National Archaeological Museum of Naples https://isaw.nyu.edu/exhibitions/pompeii-in-color/objects/pa ...
Mother and Child by Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso, Spanish Artist, 1881–1973Mother and Child, ca. 1921, Oil on canvas, 142.9 × 172.7 cm, Art Institute, Chicago, IL, USAhttps://www.artic.edu/artworks/109275/mother-and-child Mother’s Day is an age-old tradition that can be traced back to the ancient Greeks, who held spring festivities to honour Rhea, Μ ...
Woman in Monsieur Forest’s Garden
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French Artist, 1864 – 1901Woman in Monsieur Forest’s Garden, 1891, Oil on Board, 60,7 × 55 cm, Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation, Athens, Greecehttps://goulandris.gr/el/collection/highlights How vainly men themselves amaze / To win the palm, the oak, or bays, / And their uncessant lab ...
Simon Bening’s May
Simon Bening (d. 1561) and his workshopBook of Hours, known as the Golf Book, May (f. 22v),c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UKhttps://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/calendars/page/11/ The American children’s poet Annet ...
La Fornarina
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino known as Raphael, 1483–1520Portrait of a Woman - La Fornarina, about 1519–20, Oil on Panel, 85x60 cm, Galleria Nazionale di Arte Antica (GNAA), Palazzo Barberini, Rome, Italyhttps://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%91%CF%81%CF%87%CE%B5%CE%AF%CE%BF:La_Fornarina,_por_Rafael.jpg The life of Raffael ...
Good Friday – Μεγάλη Παρασκευή
Book cover with a silver-gilt Spanish setting of a Byzantine Ivory Crucifixion, 10th century (ivory); late 11th century (setting), silver-gilt with pseudo-filigree, glass, crystal, and sapphire cabochons, ivory on wood support, Overall: 26.4 × 21.9 × 2.5 cm, the MET, NY, USA https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/se ...
Holy Monday – Μεγάλη Δευτέρα
Vienna Genesis, The Pharaoh’s Banquet, folio 17, page 34, (Cod. Theol. gr. 31), first half of the 6th century, Illuminated Parchment dyed purple, heightening in shell gold, with a text written in silver ink, 32.0x26.5 cm, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, Austria https://onb.digital/result/10F14EEA On the ...
Lazarus Saturday – Σάββατο του Λαζάρου
Cup with the Raising of Lazarus (Christ holding a staff and Lazarus still wrapped in his burial shroud), 4th century, Free-blown glass with wheel-cut decoration; very pale green, nearly colourless, 11.2 × 11.8 cm, Yale University Art Gallery, USAhttps://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/52562 Six da ...
Byzantine-Style Mosaic Necklace with Christ and Twelve Apostles
Unidentified Artist from Murano, Venice? Byzantine-Style Mosaic Necklace with Christ and Twelve Apostles, the 1870s-1910s, gold with glass and shell inlay, Smithsonian American Art Museum, USAhttps://americanart.si.edu/artwork/byzantine-style-mosaic-necklace-christ-and-twelve-apostles-30961 Sargent, Whistler, and V ...
The Sarcophagus of the Muses in the Louvre
Sarcophagus of the Muses, c. 150-160 AD, Pentelic Marble, 0.92x2.06 m, the Louvre Museum, Paris, Francehttps://twitter.com/MuseeLouvre/status/1254455247449317379/photo/1 Come thou, let us begin with the Muses who gladden the great spirit of their father Zeus in Olympus with their songs, telling of things that are ...
The Death of Socrates by Jacques Louis David
Jacques-Louis David, French Artist, 1748-1825The Death of Socrates, 1786, Pen and black ink, over black chalk, touches of brown ink, squared in black chalk, 27.9 × 41.6 cm, the MET, NY, USAhttps://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/679783?searchField=All&sortBy=Relevance&ft=Jacques+Louis+David& ...
Simon Bening’s April
Simon Bening (d. 1561) and his workshopBook of Hours, known as the Golf Book, April (f. 21v),c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UKhttps://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/calendars/page/11/ Praise the spells and bless the ...
Camille Pissarro Flower Arrangements
Camille Pissarro, French Artist, 1830–1903Pink Peonies, 1873, Oil on Canvas, 73 x 60 cm, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UKhttps://www.wikiart.org/en/camille-pissarro/pink-peonies-1873 The flower that smiles to-day / To-morrow dies; / All that we wish to stay / Tempts and then flies. / What is this world's delight? / Li ...
Joseph Karl Stieler’s Portrait of Katerina “Rosa” Botsaris
Joseph Karl Stieler, German Painter,1781–1858 Katerina “Rosa” Botsaris, 1841, oil on canvas, 72,4 x 59 cm, Gallery of Beauties, Schönheiten-Galerie König Ludwig I, Nymphenburg Palace, Munich, Germanyhttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portr%C3%A4t_von_Katharina_Botzaris.jpg The diarist Christiane Lüth (1817–1 ...