The Culture Enthusiast

The Parthenon is a temple inside the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, dedicated to the goddess Athena. It is  considered the most important surviving building of Classical Greece.  I've recently finished reading about it in an art book and was fascinated by these facts:

1) Pericles built the temple with the funds provided by Athen's allies to build a new fleet to fight the Persians. The allies and many Athenians weren't so hot on the idea of prioritizing art over security. Plus, a lot of people just didn't like the style of the work. Because of these disputes, Pericles fell from power and Pheidias (the artist who was supervising the project) had to flee into exile.

2) Plutarch, talking about the decorative sculptures 500 years later  said: "They were created in a short time for all time. Each, immediately it was done, assumed the dignified air of antiquity, and now that they are old, they seem fresh, as though done only yesterday. They have about them the bloom of eternal youth, so that time cannot age them, they are replete with life that fades not, and a spirit which never grows old."

3) The building was already transformed into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary and into an  Islamic mosque. The Greeks used it as a treasury.

4) A lot of the sculptures that decorated the Parthenon were saved from destruction by Lord Elgin. In the 19th century he bought a great number of them from the occupying Ottoman Empire. They are now in the British Museum.

5) Since the 1980's the Greek government has been trying to get the Parthenon's sculptures back to Athens. The British Museum doesn't seem willing to return them and claims they offer the sculptures free of charge for the whole world to see and that many are available for study online. You can read more about it here.

The British Museum made an interesting video about Parthenon sculptures which I couldn't embed... It's a very good way to see them closely.

What do you think about the Parthenon and its sculptures?

Images via 1, 2, 3.  

 A young hare by Albert Düurer, 1502

Albrecht Dürer was a German painter and printmaker from the 16th century. He is considered to be the most important artist of the Northern Renaissance  He produced several altarpieces, religious works, portraits and cooper engraving. He also wrote theoretical works on Art in German, rather than in Latin which was the norm. Here's some interesting information about him:

- He made several self portraits, as a way of preparing for other activities and not being idle.

- His beautiful engraving from 1514, Melencolia I, was and still is extensively discussed and interpreted. In it we see "an angel sitting in the middle of a construction site, surrounded by hammers, planes and geometrical devices. It wears a dark and withdrawn countenance while Saturn radiates nocturnal light over the ocean behind." Art historian Erwin Panofsky initiated the modern reinterpretation of this work with the publication of his work Saturn and Melancholy. He proposes that Durer's work shows Melancholy not as a negative, undesirable state but a state connected to genius and intellectual work. There's a great article about it in The Guardian.

Lastly, I'm a big believer in studying, experiencing and, dare I say?, living, art in person. Even though most of my art education comes from books, I check out new exhibits at local museums and try as much as I can to travel to New York and D. C. to visit the collections in bigger museums. If you'd like to check out when a Durer exhibit is coming near you, Artsy is a good resource for upcoming shows (they also offer Durer's works and articles about them in case you, like me, have to marvel at Durer's genius from home).

  detail from the San Giobbe AltarPiece by Giovanni Bellini (1480)

He received his first lessons from Andrea Mantegna, his brother-in-law, which were decisive for the formation of his talent.

A self-made man, he maitained an independent studio and never received any honours. He was always imposing himself through his own merit.

Even when he was in his 80's he was still proposing new paths to aesthetic research.

In 1516, the german painter Albert Duher, wrote to a friend that he saw Bellini in Venice and that despite Bellini's old age he was still the most important painter there.

Images' sources: 1, 2, 3

What is your favorite painting from Bellini? Do you like his Madonnas?

2. Despite painting so much, he still managed to create incredibly different portraits. His arch-rival, English painter Thomas Gainsborough, said of him: "Damn him! How various he is!"

4. He was one of the founders and the first president of the Royal Academy. In his last speech as president, in 1790, he dedicated his speech to his rival Thomas Gainsborough. You can read some of his discourses, where he advocates rigorous academic training and the study of old masters, here

5. He was an intellectual himself and had many friends who were writers and thinkers such as Edmund Burke, Dr. Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith and Horace Walpole.

Source (3) The Story of Art by E. H. Gombrich p. 355-356

All images via WikiPaintings

What's your favorite painting by Reynolds? Do you like portraits?