Tang Dynasty Terracotta Female Tomb Figurines, 8th c. (image in public domain) By Patrick Hunt – Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) ceramics are otherwise deservedly famous for the sancai triple glaze, but often overlooked are the terracotta tomb attendant figurines of mingqi (“spirit deities”) who represent court ladies-in-waiting hovering nearby in the […]
Athena Parthenon model with cast of Athena Parthenios statue, Ludwig Maxmilians University Museum, Munich (image courtesy LMU, 2017) By Andrea Galdy – German universities are finally starting to engage with a particular kind of treasure many of them still possess: collections of many diverse categories that may have made a […]
By Nikki Goddard – For most people, splurging on a bottle of wine would mean spending fifty, maybe one hundred dollars. However, when it comes to the finest and rarest wines in the world, collectors are willing to pay exponentially higher prices for the opportunity to taste vinous bliss. […]
Chinese Qing Dynasty Jade ca. 1730-95, “Philosopher’s Repose” Jade Mountain (image public domain, courtesy of the British Museum, London) By Patrick Hunt – Jade is well known globally as a stone with innate translucent beauty, lustrous and vibrant in many shades of mostly green, although lavender and orange hues also […]
By Patrick Hunt – Neanderthal humans (Homo neanderthalensis) are documented in European contexts for around 430,000 years according to new studies,(1) and the accepted genomic contribution of Neanderthal DNA in modern Homo sapiens from Eurasia, including Scandinavian, Siberian, Asian population and the rest of Europe, with a range of around 2-4% […]
Medici Maiolica Armorial Plate, 16th. c. (image V&A) By Andrea M. Gáldy – Alessio Assonitis & Brian Sandberg, eds. The Grand Ducal Medici and their Archive (1537-1743). London/Turnhout: Havey Miller Publishers/Brepols, 2016. Over almost 30 years, the Medici Archive Project (MAP) – from its humble beginnings in the Florentine State […]
Nikolai Rerikh, Guests from Overseas, 1901, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow (public domain) By Patrick Hunt – Vikings in the early medieval period have often been odiously depicted as bloodthirsty and berserk raiders, certainly justifiable at times given the infamous Lindisfarne raid event of 793 on England’s northeast coast, with other details […]
W.-A. Bouguereau, The Remorse of Orestes, 1862 (public domain, courtesy of Chrysler Museum of Art) By Walter Borden, M.D. – “Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed out; for the first wrong, it doth offend the law, […]
Fig. 1 Thomas Rowlandson, “Bath Races”, ca 1810, (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich) By Cher Beall – Art in Britain during the Georgian period (1714-1830) is characterized by sophisticated oil paintings of landscapes and well-lit portraits by world renowned artists including J.M.W. Turner, […]
Matisse, The Serf, MOMA San Francisco (images courtesy of MOMA) By Alice Devine Wilson – At first glance, modern art seems to have little connection to antiquity’as contemporary art, by its definition, departs from the past. However, many modern artists of the twentieth century root their creations in ancient traditions. […]