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 …
La Belle Nani by Paolo Veronese
Paolo Veronese, 1528–1588 Portrait of a Venetian Woman - La Belle Nani, circa 1560, oil on canvas, 119x103 cm, Louvre Museum, Paris, Francehttps://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010065927 Men were created before women... But that doesn't prove their superiority – rather, it proves ours, for they were born ou ...
The Princess from the Land of Porcelain by James Abbott McNeill Whistler
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American Artist, 1834-1903Rose and Silver: The Princess from the Land of Porcelain (Portrait of Christine Spartali), 1863-1865, Oil on Canvas, 201.5x116.1 cm, Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USAhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_from_the_Land_of_Porc ...
Theotokos ton Blachernon in Constantinople
The Ride of Emperor Theophilos to the Church of Theotokos ton BlachernonMadrid Skylitzes Illuminated Manuscript, 12th to the 13th centuries, Manuscript on Parchment, 36 x 27 cm, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Spainhttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Emperor_Theophilus_visits_St_Mary_of_Blachernae.jpg ...
Love of Virtue by François Lemoyne
François Lemoyne, 1688-1737Study of a head for Love of Virtue in The Apotheosis of Hercules, circa 1733,Pastel, trois crayons and stump blending on formerly blue paper, © château de Versailles, France https://en.chateauversailles.fr/news/exhibitions/drawings-versailles-20-years-acquisitions#the-exhibition The Doors ...
Villa Arianna’s Dionysus and Ariadne Fresco
Ariadne on Naxos, 4th Pompeian Style Fresco, Villa Arianna grand Triclinium, (fresco and Room No. 3), 1st century AD, Stabiae, Italyhttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Triclinio_3_di_Villa_Arianna#/media/File:Affresco_particolare_23.jpghttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Triclinio_3_di_Villa_Arianna#/m ...
Suzanne Valadon
Suzanne Valadon (Marie-Clémentine Valadon), 1865-1938Self Portrait with Family (Suzanne Valadon is in the center, flanked by André Utter and her mother, with her son at the foreground), 1912, oil on canvas, 97 x 73 cm, Le Centre Pompidou, Paris, Francehttps://www.centrepompidou.fr/fr/ressources/oeuvre/cyjjkkA#&gid ...
Simon Bening’s January
Simon Bening (d. 1561) and his workshopBook of Hours, known as the Golf Book, January (f. 18v),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/2013/01/a-calendar-page-for-january-2013.html It’ ...
Floor Mosaic with Apolausis the personification of Enjoyment
Floor Mosaic with Bust of Apolausis/Enjoyment (Baths of Apolausis, Pool Room West of the Frigidarium), late 4th century-early 5th century, Mosaic on Mortar, 98x266 cm, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, USAhttp://museum.doaks.org/objects-1/info?query=Portfolios%20%3D%20%222606%22&sort=0&page=2 I have always sa ...
Santa Maria foris portas at Castelseprio
Nativity, Church of Santa Maria foris portas in Castelseprio, Italyhttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Maestro_di_castelseprio%2C_storie_dell%27infanzia_di_cristo%2C_datazione_incerta_tra_l%27830_e_il_950_dc_ca.%2C_15_nativit%C3%A0_1.jpg I have been fascinated by the Santa Maria foris portas at Cast ...
David with the Head of Goliath by Andrea del Castagno
Andrea del Castagno, c. 1419-1457David with the Head of Goliath, c. 1450/1455, tempera on leather on wood, H. 115.5 cm, width at top: 76.5 cm, width at bottom: 40.6 cm, NGA, Washington DC, USAhttps://el.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%91%CF%81%CF%87%CE%B5%CE%AF%CE%BF:Andrea_del_castagno,_scudo_di_david_con_la_testa_di_golia, ...
Five O’Clock Tea with Mary Stevenson Cassatt
Mary Stevenson Cassatt, 1844-1926 Five O'Clock Tea, 1880, Oil on Canvas, 64.7x92 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mary_Cassatt_-_The_Tea_-_MFA_Boston_42.178.jpg I believe it is customary in good society to take some slight refreshment at five o'clock… Oscar Wilde ...
Theseus and Antiope
Theseus and Antiope, sculpture from the West Pediment of the Temple of Apollo Daphnephorus in ancient Eretria, late 6th century, Marble, 110 cm, Archaeological Museum of Eretria, Greecehttps://www.esag.swiss/eretria/museum/ The multiple aspects of the concept of Kallos in the everyday life and the philosophical dis ...
Pissarro’s Basket of Pears
Camille Pissarro, French Artist, 1830–1903Still Life: Pears in a Round Basket, 1872, Oil on Canvas, 45.7 x 55.2 cm, The Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation on loan to the Princeton University Art Museum, USAhttps://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/21437 They are juicy and sweet, can be tart or buttery, so ...
The Labours of the Months: December
By an unknown Venetian artist…The Labours of the Months: December, 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 Last, for December, houses on the plain, / Ground-floo ...
Titian in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Tiziano Vecelli (Titian in English), c. 1488/90-1576The Rape of Europa, between 1560 and 1562, Oil on Canvas, 178 × 205 cm, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, USAhttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/L%27Enl%C3%A8vement_d%27Europe_Rubens.jpeg Titian in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is abou ...
The Turkeys by Claude Monet
Claude Monet, 1840-1926The Turkeys, 1876, oil on canvas, 1876 174x172 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, Francehttps://www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/oeuvres/les-dindons-1109 On Thanksgiving Day remember Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882) and Give thanks for each new morning with its light, / For rest and shelter of the night. / For h ...