April 11, 2021
Racism can be expressed and experienced on different levels. Not knowing how to value another race or another religion is part of an ethical conception of racism. This is a relatively recent phenomenon. It appears in the Renaissance and especially develops in the 18th and 19th centuries. Non acceptance has always existed; in this regard, [...]November 19, 2020
Titian (c. 1488-1576) is arguably the greatest Venetian painter of the Italian Renaissance, who earned European-wide fame and recognition during his own lifetime. The collection of paintings referred to as his ‘poesies’ (a name he coined himself) delineate poetic pictures or poetry produced in painting and draw upon the Roman poet Ovid’s classic epic, Metamorphoses [...]January 22, 2020
History is rich with inspiring examples of the human spirit flourishing. One of the strongest among them is the Renaissance. It generated a change in the perception of the world and provided a new understanding of the human being, reviving the idea of interconnection between the Macrocosm (the Universe/divine) and the Microcosm (the human being). [...]May 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 [...]March 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 [...]September 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 [...]January 21, 2018
Tall, trim and relaxed in any environment, Yaron Barzilay smiles easily, but weighs his words very carefully. Understated and well-read, he punctuates his conversations unexpectedly, with an incisive colloquial humor that betrays his acute sense of the current socio-economic and political climate, and his capacious grasp of India’s history and mythology. Professionally, Yaron Barzilay is [...]October 19, 2017
Raphael was born in 1483 and by the age of 17 he had been given the title of ‘Magister’, meaning independent master. This exhibition of his drawings and studies at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford takes a look at the essence of the artist. The opening lines of the exhibition’s guide read as follows: ’Drawing [...]July 25, 2016
The Royal Academy of Arts has recently put together an excellent exhibition presenting some of the greatest painters of the high Renaissance (c. 1490-1530) in a single show. The main intent of the exhibition was to revisit in particular the enigmatic figure of Giorgione, considered by many to be the founder of Venetian painting of [...]June 10, 2016
It is quite remarkable to consider how many words and phrases in regular use today were first penned by William Shakespeare. The literary critic Bernard Levin picked out a few of them: “If you have ever been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a [...]January 20, 2016
Philosophy is an approach to life, a search for a way to try to live a little bit better, a little bit truer, everyday. But by what moral standards should we judge our actions? There is a difference between being immoral, and being amoral. Amoral means that there is no recognition of right and wrong [...]August 27, 2014
In the first of the twelve doorways that await us in this year 1983, it is good – or perhaps simply inevitable – to sharpen the sight and hearing of the Soul in order to detect what the future holds in store for us, based on the interaction between our own characteristics and the environment, [...]