Posted inArchaeology, Art

The Hirschlanden Warrior, the oldest life-size anthropomorphic Iron Age sculpture north of the Alps

On November 5, 1963, an enigmatic stone sculpture dating back almost 2,600 years was discovered in Hirschlanden, now a district of Ditzingen in the German state of Baden-Wurttemberg. It is a statue of a warrior measuring 1.50 meters in height and depicting the figure in an upright position and with clear signs of his high […]

Posted inArt

Singerie, the pictorial genre originated in Middle Ages depicting monkeys imitating human behavior

Reading the title of this article, more than one may wonder what madness this is, but seeing the accompanying images will understand it better… unless you run off in search of a psychiatrist. Jokes aside, since the Modern Age, it became fashionable among painters to create paintings with scenes of everyday life (playing cards, going […]

Posted inArt, Culture

The History of the Prinkipo Orphanage, the Largest Wooden Building in Europe

Büyükada is the largest of the nine Princes’ Islands located in the Sea of Marmara, so close to the city of Istanbul that they are considered its neighborhoods. Its barely 5 square kilometers, where motorized vehicles are prohibited, boast some historical monuments, Byzantine churches and monasteries, along with a mosque, an abandoned amusement park, and […]

Posted inAncient Rome, Art

The Extraordinary Tomb of the Haterii, a Roman Family who Adorned it with Reliefs of the Monuments they Built

Located next to the ancient Via Labicana, about 8.4 kilometers southeast of Rome, the Tomb of the Haterii is one of the most beautifully decorated tombs that have survived from the Roman Empire. Built between 100 and 120 AD, it offers a fascinating insight into funerary art and customs of the early imperial period. The […]

Posted inAntiquity, Art

The Warrior of Capestrano: The Strange Iron Age Sculpture Representing the Second King of Rome

In September 1934, a farmer was tending to his fields in the municipality of Capestrano, in the Abruzzo region of Italy, when his tools came across fragments of stone that would soon reveal themselves to be part of a grand sculpture. After notifying the authorities, archaeological excavations began, uncovering one of the masterpieces of pre-Roman […]

Posted inArt, Modern Era

When the Olympic Games included competitions in architecture, painting, sculpture, literature, and music

Jean Jacoby was a Luxembourgish painter; Alex Diggelmann, a Swiss poster artist; the Danish Josef Petersen was a writer; the Hungarian Alfréd Hajós, an architect; the British John Copley, an engraver; the Belgian Josue Dupon, a sculptor, just like the American Walter Winans. Can you imagine what they all had in common, apart from a […]

Posted inArt

Cesare Borgia, Machiavelli’s model for his Renaissance prince and alleged inspiration for Leonardo’s face of Christ

Cesare Borgia, commonly known as the Duke of Valentinois, gained his state through his father’s fortune, and lost it with that same fortune, despite employing every imaginable means and doing everything that a prudent and skillful man should do to establish himself in a state acquired with the help of arms and the support of […]

Posted inAncient Greece, Archaeology, Art

The Colossus of Dionysus and the kouroi of Flerio, Greek statues from the 6th century B.C. that remain unfinished in the quarries of Naxos.

The island of Naxos is the largest of the Cyclades in extension, famous and coveted since ancient times for its wealth and its white marble, with quarries exploited until today (only those of crystalline marble). As it happens in Egyptian quarries, where obelisks remain, or in those of Rapa Nui, with half-finished moai, in those […]