“At first glance so convincingly real, so archaeologically exact, so beautiful and innocent, ‘Spring’ turns out on closer examination to be illusionary, historically confused, and mischievously immoral.” — Louise Lippincott, former Curator of Fine Arts at Carnegie Institute and author of “Lawrence Alma Tadema: Spring” Masterful works of art are often multilayered and complex. What…
Beneath the Surface of Beauty
Life of Donatello, Sculptor of Florence
Donato, who was called Donatello by his relatives and wrote his name thus on some of his works, was born in Florence in the year 1403. Devoting himself to the arts of design, he was not only a very rare sculptor and a marvellous statuary, but also a practised worker in stucco, an able master…
Mirabell Palace: An Understatement of Symmetry and Simplicity
At more than 400 years old, the historic Mirabell Palace of Salzburg, Austria, has seen destruction and restoration, as a collection of influences and architects shaped it into the impressive structure that it is today. In the early 19th century, the palace was remodeled and restored in the Neoclassical style while the palace’s walls shelter…
Currier and Ives, Two Illustrators Who Created Colorful Prints Found in Nearly Every Home in 19th-Century America
The impressive body of work by 19th-century lithographers Nathaniel Currier and James Ives is widely recognized today as hallmark Americana. Currier & Ives, as their business was known, specialized in producing inexpensive lithographic prints that were sold throughout the United States and in Europe, ranging from a couple dimes to $5, depending on size and…
How an Imprisoned Alchemist Found the Secret of ‘White Gold’: Pure Porcelain
Chinese artisans had already been making porcelain for thousands of years when Venetian merchant Marco Polo first brought porcelain from China to Europe in the 14th century. Polo’s discovery started Europe’s enduring love of porcelain. European porcelain has a fascinating story to tell. “From functional pieces and decorative objects, to fine art and tableware, porcelain…
The Life of Filippo Brunelleschi, Sculptor and Architect
Many men are created by nature small in person and in features, who have a mind full of such greatness and a heart of such irresistible vehemence, that if they do not begin difficult—nay, almost impossible—undertakings, and bring them to completion to the marvel of all who behold them, they have never any peace in…
A Day in April That Some Past Poets Implore Us to Remember
It was dawn, April 19, 1775, and the British troops who had left Boston earlier that night arrived at Lexington, Massachusetts, in search of caches of arms gathered by American colonialists and hoping to arrest Sam Adams and John Hancock. Assembled on Lexington’s town green was a collection of civilians: militia roused to confront the…
Life of Sandro Botticelli
At the same time with the elder Lorenzo de’ Medici, the Magnificent, which was truly a golden age for men of intellect, there also flourished one Alessandro, called Sandro after our custom, and surnamed Di Botticello for a reason that we shall see below. This man was the son of Mariano Filipepi, a citizen of…
The St. Vitus Cathedral of Prague
The St. Vitus Cathedral is located on a hill that overlooks the city of Prague. When construction began in the 14th century, Prague was the third-largest city in the world after Rome and Constantinople. In this grand Gothic cathedral, kings have been crowned, married, and buried, and national treasures have been held. As in the…
Twirling on Ice
Oona Brown, 17, and her brother Gage Brown, 19, are on Team USA for U.S. Figure Skating. Although their lifetimes are short thus far, those lifetimes have been spent mostly on the ice. Their story begins in 2008, when Oona was 4 and Gage was 6. Gage and his older siblings were being homeschooled by…
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