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 …
Unidentified Byzantine Church in Constantinople known today as Gül Camii
Unidentified Byzantine Church in Constantinople, between 867-886 or 1000-1150Gül Camii since the last decade of the 15th centuryhttps://pbase.com/dosseman/image/160671612 A beautiful Byzantine Church was once created… “Not (just for) the rhetors or philosophers, / not those who study the writings of Hellenes, / not ...
Rouen Cathedral in the Morning
Claude Monet, 1840 - 1926Rouen Cathedral in the Morning (Pink Dominant), 1894, Oil on canvas, 100.3 × 65.5 cm, Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation, Athenshttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Claude_Monet_-_La_Cathedrale_de_Rouen_Le_Matin%2C_dominante_rose_-_Goulandris_Museum.jpg “The subject is s ...
Ring of Michael Stryphnos
Ring of Michael Stryphnos, late 12th – early 13th century, Enamel and gold, 1.9x3.2x3.2 cm, Byzantine Collection, Dumbarton Oaks Museum, Washington, DC, USA https://www.doaks.org/resources/bliss-tyler-correspondence/art/bz/BZ.1934.3.jpg/view “The house of Angelus, which had thus found greatness so suddenly and unex ...
The Labours of the Months: June
By an unknown Venetian artist…The Labours of the Months: June, 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 What is so rare as a day in June? / Then, if ever, come perfect days; ...
Amphora showing Athena and Hermes
Berlin Painter, ca. 500–ca. 460 BCA: Athena – B: Hermes, ca. 480 B.C. Athenian Red-Figure Terracotta Amphora, Height: 33.20 cm, Yale University Art Galler, New Haven, CT, USA https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/1726 The Orphic Hymn to Athena is an exuberant celebration of the goddess with in ...
Gold Coin Pendant of Constantine the Great
Constantine the Great Gold Coin Pendant, 321 AD, Gold, Diameter: 92 millimetres, British Museum, London, UKhttps://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1984-0501-1 …it was becoming clear that Constantine was determined to put an end to Diocletian’s disastrous division of the Empire and to rule it alone. From 3 ...
Garden in Corfu by Angelos Giallinas
Angelos Giallinas, 1857-1939Garden in Corfu, early 20th century, Watercolour on Paper, 39x72 cm, Averoff Museum, Metsovo, Greece https://www.averoffmuseum.gr/garden-in-corfu/?lang=en “…Tell me, the open codes of flowers, / Lick up the glance to pocket a whole mind. / Nothing precipitates, is left behind, / The is ...
Teaching with Antonello da Messina
Antonello da Messina, 1430-1479Portrait of a Man (detail), about 1475-6, Oil on poplar, 35.6 x 25.4 cm, National Gallery, Londonhttps://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/antonello-da-messina-portrait-of-a-man “Now there was one Antonello da Messina, a person of good and lively intelligence, of great sagacity, an ...
Mother’s Day
Mary Stevenson Cassatt, 1844–1926Maternal Caress, 1890-91, Drypoint, aquatint and softground etching, printed in color from three plates, 36.5 × 26.8 cm, the MET, NY, USAhttps://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/364213 “Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome / Has many sonnets: so here now shall be / One ...
The Labours of the Months: May
The Labours of the Months: May, 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 Pink, small, and punctual, / Aromatic, low, / Covert in April, / Candid in May, &nbs ...
Anastasis at the Monastery of Hosios Loukas
Anastasis, 11th century, Mosaic, Monastery of Hosios Loukas, Greece https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hosios_Loukas_(narthex)_-_East_wall,_right_(Harrowing_of_Hell)_03.jpg “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that ...
The Raising of Lazarus by Duccio
Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1278 – 1318The Raising of Lazarus, 1310–11, Tempera and gold on panel, 43.5 x 46.4 cm, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, USA https://www.kimbellart.org/collection/apx-197501 Lazarus Saturday… “Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany…” (John 12:1) and The Raising of Lazarus by Duccio ...
The Interceding Theotokos at Dumbarton Oaks
Interceding Theotokos - Virgin Hagiosoritissa Relief, Middle Byzantine, mid-eleventh century, Marble, 104 cm x 40 cm x 7 cm, Dumbarton Oaks Museum, Washington, DC, USA https://www.doaks.org/resources/bliss-tyler-correspondence/art/bz/BZ.1938.62.jpg/view “…denuded of all help, and deprived of human alliance, we were ...
Villa Poppaea Viridarium Frescoes
Second Pompeian Style painting on the walls surrounding the Viridarium (small garden) of the Villa Poppaea at Oplontis (Italy), 1st century ADPhoto credit: Carole Raddato published on 06 May 2020https://www.ancient.eu/article/1552/a-visitors-guide-to-oplontis-stabiae--boscoreale/ I wish I were standing in the middl ...
Angelic Musicians
Domenicos Theotokopoulos, 1541-1614The Concert of the Angels, c. 1608-1614, oil on canvas, 115-217 cm, National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum - Evripidis Koutlidis Foundation, Athens https://www.nationalgallery.gr/en/painting-permanent-exhibition/painting/domenicos-theotokopoulos-el-greco/the-concert-of-the-ange ...
Odilon Redon and Pandora’s Box
Odilon Redon, 1840-1916Pandora, 1910/1912, oil on canvas, 143.5 x 62.9 cm, NGA, Washington DC, USA https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.46531.html#bibliography It is nature also who orders us to obey the gifts she has given us. Mine have led me to dreams; I submitted to the torments of imagination and the ...