Showing 254 articles
Bill Viola / Michelangelo: Life, Death, Rebirth
Author: Miha KosirMay 26, 2019
What is life, what is death, is there a rebirth? These are the big questions arising with the first spark of self-awareness. But what are the answers? A recent exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts entitled Bill Viola / Michelangelo: Life, Death, Rebirth displayed some of the finest drawings by versatile renaissance artist Michelangelo [...]
Ashurbanipal and his Library
Author: Pinar AkhanMarch 27, 2019
There is an exhibition currently running at the British Museum about Ashurbanipal, King of Assyria. It would not be not surprising if you have never heard of his name, as neither the king nor the Assyrian culture is familiar to most of us in the West. Ashurbanipal was the last king of the Assyrian Empire, [...]
The Kalevala
Author: Nataliya PetlevychMarch 27, 2019
A truly beautiful Finnish epic, in which words weave ancient stories of the world, its cycles of life and its heroes. Sung and passed on by word of mouth for centuries, it was recorded only in the 19th century by Elias Lönnrot. The word “Kalevala” means ‘land of heroes’, the abode of Kaleva, a mythical [...]
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms – Art & Sacred Work in the English Middle Ages
Author: Siobhan Cait FarrarMarch 27, 2019
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War is an exhibition currently running at the British Library and represents a comprehensive exhibit of significant Anglo-Saxon books and precious artefacts. It opens with an extraordinary funerary artefact from the 5th century, the Loveden Hill Urn. Upon the lid of the urn sits an ancient figure, known as the Spong [...]
Dunkirk – To live or to survive?
Author: Gilad SommerMarch 27, 2019
“Those men who, in war, seek to preserve their lives at any rate commonly die with shame and ignominy, while those who look upon death as common to all, and unavoidable, and are only solicitous to die with honour, oftener arrive at old age and, while they live, live happier.” (from Xenophon’s Anabasis) As production [...]
Thought
Author: Julian ScottMarch 19, 2019
Thought: a female head emerging from a block of unhewn matter, her hair blown by the wind, her eyes fixed on the above, concentrated but free, grasping the essence of things. Not the thought of the anguished intellectual, the complicated reasonings of an empty being who wants to impress; but the grand imaginings of [...]
The Temples of Ancient Egypt (Part 1)
Author: Agostino DominiciMarch 19, 2019
Introduction The quality of a civilisation’s culture is most visible in its art and more particularly in its architectural accomplishments, for these are usually its most complex and long-lasting forms. It’s hard to conceive of a more awe-inspiring architecture than that found in ancient Egypt. The essence and message of Egyptian architecture remained unaltered throughout [...]
Edward Burne-Jones
Author: Nataliya PetlevychMarch 19, 2019
Recently, the Tate Britain celebrated Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones with a grand exhibition, the first on such a scale in 40 years. It amazed visitors not only by the rich variety of works, including painting, tapestry and stained glass, but also by a special enigmatic beauty created by the artist. Born in industrial Birmingham, Burne-Jones [...]
A New Model of Civilization
Author: Gilad SommerMarch 10, 2019
One of the most astounding things about ancient civilizations is the unity of their way of life. In the Art Institute of Chicago, for example, there is a beautiful stele from the Mayan ruins of Calakmul in Mexico. This stele presents a ruler in his task as a high priest, dressed in ceremonial garbs, holding [...]
Chinese Alchemy and Immortality
Author: Agostino DominiciJanuary 25, 2019
Chinese alchemy has two main branches: ‘external alchemy’ (Waidan) and ‘internal alchemy’ (Naidan). Both words are related to the word dan (elixir), which evolves from a root-meaning of ‘essence’ (the true nature and quality of an entity). In this brief introduction, I am going to concentrate on the tradition of external alchemy or Waidan. The [...]
Grace
Author: Tarini VaidyaJanuary 13, 2019
Grace has become an old fashioned word, graciousness and courtesy have become old world values, almost valueless in today’s environment. The world has gone über brash. Billboards extoll the ‘virtue’ of Attitude, with a capital A: “Wear your Attitude,” screams one, as though attitude were an aspirational achievement! A young generation has grown up with [...]
Rodin and the Art of Ancient Greece: the transcendent reality of sculpture
Author: Siobhan Cait FarrarSeptember 14, 2018
This Spring, the British Museum opened the exhibition ‘Rodin and the Art of Ancient Greece’, which formed a poetic tripartite tribute to the artist, his love of ancient Greek sculpture and of the British Museum itself − Rodin famously spent hours studying the museum collections. Side by side were maquettes, marbles and famous bronzes of [...]