Archaeology · Art · Heritage · Rome
The back of the Ostia altar gave it a second name and a second life: it shows the she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, which is why the monument is also called the altar of the twins. This subject, too, is bound up with the name of Mars, who, according
NB! · Archaeology · Faith · Art · Museums · Rome
In the month named after Mars, let us remember the god of war and the patron god of the Eternal City. The front face of the altar from the Ostian portico of AD 124, with its bas-relief of Mars, Venus and a goose, has survived rather badly, having probably
NB! · Art · Nature
Wenzel Jamnitzer's Daphne stands on the earth, at once showing her kinship with nature and paying tribute to the earthly metamorphoses that people turn into art. A most interesting find: the clods of earth are made of uncut quartz crystals and are almost indistinguishable from the real substrate.
Art · Museums · Paris
The brilliant Wenzel Jamnitzer managed to discern not the gloomy side of Daphne's story, and his remarkable sculpture shows less the suicide of a despairing girl than a rebirth, a passage into another form of life, free of sin and suffering. This is one of two statuettes of
Art · Humour
It may look like the work of a contemporary artist, but this is the creation of the sixteenth-century German goldsmith Wenzel Jamnitzer, inspired by the myth of Daphne, a servant of Diana, who begged the gods to turn her into a laurel tree. Daphne had taken a vow of
NB! · Archaeology · Faith · Art
The Stoibadeion, a phallus on a pedestal adorned with a relief of a cock with a penis for a head. One of two sculptures beside the sanctuary of Dionysus on the island of Delos. He was patron not only of parties but also of fertility, and was associated with phallic
NB! · Archaeology · Art · Museums · Rome
NB! · The East · Art · Museums · Observations
Tutankhamun's child's chair, ebony, bronze, gold, ivory. The armrests are adorned with gold plates depicting antelopes and plants. How utterly charming
Art · Monarchies · People
Incidentally, Marie Antoinette's court portraitist Vigée Le Brun took a lively interest in everything happening in the world, not only at Versailles, and travelled willingly. Moreover, she was a unique woman for her time, who journeyed across Europe on her own, without a male escort: her husband remained
Art · Museums
The Wounded Amazon, Franz von Stuck, 1905. The image of the wounded Amazon is described by Pliny the Elder, who tells of a competition for the finest sculpture on the theme, in which the celebrated sculptors of the 5th century BC Polykleitos, Phidias, Kresilas and Phradmon took part. The statues
Art · Museums · Observations · Mores
To pose for Ribera, the 52-year-old Doña Magdalena Ventura was lodged in the palace of the Duke of Naples. It is believed that at this time she had just given birth to a child who, in the opinion of many art historians, is not depicted in the portrait:
Art · Museums · Mores · People
The great wonder of nature, Magdalena Ventura of the town of Accumoli among the Samnites, commonly called the region of Abruzzo, in the Kingdom of Naples, aged 52 years. And it is noteworthy that at the age of 37 she began to grow hairy and sprouted a beard so thick