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 …
Personification of Spring
Tunic Decoration: Tabula (Square) with the Head of Spring, 5th – 7th centuryAD, Tapestry in multicolored Wool and Linen, 23.5 x 25 cm, the MET, NY, USA https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/444327 Christos Laskaris captures the essence of Spring in his evocative poem: ‘Διάβαζα ένα ποίημα για την άνοιξη / ...
Moissac Vase by René Lalique
René Lalique, French Artist, 1860-1945Moissac Vase, c. 1930, Opalescent Glass, Height: 13 cm, Private Collection https://hickmet.com/products/rene-lalique-moissac-vase?srsltid=AfmBOopKGBdoz2qgOWYJy5s3FAq5xmPJq2A1jCN-QQW4gMqEHjEXwrhK Glass is a marvellous material, capable of transforming light, texture, and form in ...
Tomb of the Philosophers
Tomb of Philosophers, c. 300 BC, Fresco Paintings, Pella, GreeceWest Wall: Main figural frieze showing a man in a red himation with a wooden rod, pointing at a blue globe. North Wall: On the right side of the photo, a bearded man is depicted, absorbed in reading a papyrus roll. South Wall: On the left side of the phot ...
Sofonisba Anguissola of Cremona
Sofonisba Anguissola, c. 1532 – 1625Self-Portrait at the Easel, 1554, Oil on poplar wood, 19.5 x 12.5 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria https://smarthistory.org/sofonisba-anguissola/ On International Women’s Day, March 8, we honor the visionary achievements of Sofonisba Anguissola of Cremona, a pioneeri ...
David Hockney’s Daffodils
David Hockney, English,born 9 July 1937The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020, Do Remember They Can't Cancel the Spring, iPad painting © David Hockney https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/david-hockney-daffodils-spring-coronavirus-lockdown-a4394636.html As we step into March, we celebrate its arrival with the radiant ...
Variations in Flesh Colour and Green
James McNeill Whistler, American Artist, 1834-1903Variations in Flesh Colour and Green – The Balcony, 1864-1870; additions 1870-1879, Oil on Wood Panel, 61.4 × 48.5 cm, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian, Washington DC, USA https://asia-archive.si.edu/object/F1892.23a-b/ During the latter half of the 19th ce ...
Rubens and Isabella Brant
Peter Paul Rubens, 1577-1640Rubens and Isabella Brant in the Honeysuckle Bower, c. 1609–10, Oil on Canvas, 178 x 136.5 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany https://smarthistory.org/peter-paul-rubens-and-isabella-brant-in-the-honeysuckle-bower/ You can almost smell the sweet fragrance of honeysuckle wafting from the ...
Eros and Psyche
Eros and Psyche, Roman marble sculpture, 300 AD, after a Hellenistic, 2nd century BC original statue, Marble, Height: 1.25 m, Capitoline Museums, Rome, Italy - Photo Credit: Amalia Spiliakou, February 18, 2024, ‘Meanings’. Personifications and Allegories from Antiquity to Today Exhibition, Acropolis Museum, Athens, Gr ...
Amarna Canopic Jar
Canopic Jar with a Lid Depicting a Queen, New Kingdom, Amarna Period, Dynasty 18, reign of Akhenaten, ca. 1349–1330 BC, from Upper Egypt, Valley of the Kings, Tomb KV 55, Travertine (Egyptian alabaster), blue glass, obsidian, unidentified stone, Height of Jar and Lid: 53.2 cm, the MET, NY, USA https://www.metmuseum.or ...
Portrait of a Young Man Praying and Flowers in a Jug
Hans Memling, 1435-1494Portrait of a young man praying (obverse) and Flowers in a Jug (verso), ca. 1485, Oil on Panel, 29.2 x 22.5 cm, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain https://www.museothyssen.org/coleccion/artistas/memling-hans/retrato-hombre-joven-orante-anverso and https://www.museothyssen.org/colec ...
The Wisteria-Laburnum Table Lamp by Tiffany Studios
Designer: Louis C. Tiffany, American, 1848–1933 (Shade) - Clara Driscoll, American, 1861–1944 (Base)Maker: Tiffany Studios, 1902–32‘Wisteria-Laburnum’ Table Lamp with a telescoping reticulated ‘Queen Anne's Lace’ base, circa 1910, leaded glass, patinated bronze, Height: 73.8 cm, Private Collection https://www.sothebys ...
Sweet Violet
Sweet Violet, Vienna Dioscurides, Folio 148v, about 515 AD, Byzantine Greek Illuminated Manuscript of De Materia Medica by Pedanius Dioscurides, vellum folios measure 37 by 30 cm, Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, Vienna https://jenikirbyhistory.getarchive.net/topics/vienna+dioscurides?page=2 “The Vienna Dioscur ...
The Tyche of Antioch
Tyche of Antioch (Roman copy after a Greek bronze original by Eutychides of the 3rd century BC), 1st-2nd cent AD, Marble, Height: 0.89 m, Galleria dei Candelabri, Musei Vaticani - Photo Credit: Amalia Spiliakou, February 18, 2024, ‘Meanings’. Personifications and Allegories from Antiquity to Today Exhibition, Acropoli ...
The Figure of Eight Shield
Wall painting depicting the Figure of Eight Shield, Fresco from the Cult Center of the Acropolis of Mycenae, 1250-1180 BC, National Archaeological Museum of Athens, Greece https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mycenaean_mural_depicting_a_shield_at_the_National_Archaeological_Museum_of_Athens_on_October_26,_2021.jpg ...
Cropsey’s Winter Evening in the Country
Jasper Francis Cropsey, American Artist, 1823-1900Winter Evening in the Country, 1865, Oil on Canvas, 61 x 102.2 cm, Private Collection https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6519595?ldp_breadcrumb=back#lot-essay Jasper Francis Cropsey’s Winter Evening in the Country captures the serene stillness and frosty charm of ...
The Portrait of Mäda Primavesi
Gustav Klimt, Austrian Artist, 1862-1918Mäda Primavesi, 1912–13, Oil on Canvas, 149.9 x 110.5 cm, the MET, NY, USA https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436819 The Portrait of Mäda Primavesi, the subject of Klimt's painting currently in the MET, presents the lively nine-year-old daughter of a wealthy Vien ...