Posted on 12/21/2007 11:46:49 AM PST by WesternCulture
A unique exhibition of 2,000-year-old paintings called Pompeian Red has opened at the National Museum of Rome.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Bump we are studying Rome.
This may be GGG worthy.
Thank you for the post outstanding. As a student (old one) of ancient Rome this is great!
I see that they left out the X-rated paintings.
“Bump we are studying Rome.”
- There are, indeed, subjects more boring than Rome.
I’m a proud Viking, but I admit certain other civilizations are worthy of respect too.
Post scriptum, we Vikings never took part in demolishing Rome.
“Thank you for the post outstanding. As a student (old one) of ancient Rome this is great!”
- Glad to hear that!
Greetings from Gothenburg, Sweden!
ping
Rome is fascinating, not boring. They had everything.
One can see where we are heading when one studies Rome.
How long it will take for us to get to the end is the only question.
I just finished the History of Western Civilization (got an “A”...thanks for asking). It was a very interesting class, but I came away wondering why the classical Romans and Renaissance artists depicted the men’s ....penises, so small. Most of the statues and paintings have grown men with little tiny penises. It is a wonder that Romans were able to procreate.
Small penises were supposed to symbolize nobility and self-restraint. If you saw a big one, it was usually on a satyr or a barbarian.
It was colder back then.
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Thanks Perdogg. This sounds like it would be GREAT to visit. |
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· Mirabilis · Texas AM Anthropology News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · · History or Science & Nature Podcasts · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
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So there IS an advantage to global warming.
most excellent!
thanks.
Could it be they used their brains for thinking instead of their dicks?
Could it be they used their brains for thinking instead of their dicks?
Nah, they just preferred to live by the motto "Make War, Not Love"... /grin
You would think Theseus was bitten by the Minotaur and infected with miniaturizing venom just before they painted that picture.
It ain’t the (deleted) it’s the (deleted).
George Costanza is *in the building*...
What a highly educative thread this has developed into!
Thanks for the response.
Below, I’ll try to be PC, moral and serious.
Yesterday, my local Social Democratic art advisor over here in Sweden, Mrs Saabrina Borkström, tried to dissuade me from posting these images on Free Republic.
“Americans lack a deeper understanding of things like art and culture”, she informed me. “The tread is bound to deteriorate within seconds. You see, Americans have no traditions. Just consider the fact that in their country, people who aren’t real military officers are allowed to call themselves ‘Colonel’ just because they’ve founded a fast-food chain” she went on. “Furthermore, they are fixated with sex, but not in a civilized and orthodox Freudian way like we Europeans are” she added.
I objected to this, arguing that there are uncultivated people everywhere, even in Scandinavia.
“Hardly”, she answered. “European education is superior to all other forms of intellectual training and spiritual upbringing”. Mrs Borkström continued by telling me that “Stockholm is the Renaissance Florence of our time, no city in the world is more cultivated, liveable or boasts a higher Volvo per capita rate”.
I riposted “More than 1/5 of all visitors to Florence, Italy, the art capital of the world, are of American origin and no other nation publishes more academic material about ‘il Rinascimento’ than the US does on an annual basis”.
“That doesn’t count” Saabrina said. “I’ve seen all of Michael Moore’s films, I know what I’m talking about. Those uneducated ketchup addicted rednecks come to Europe just to find out if McDonald’s actually tastes the same all over the world”.
I responded “If Americans are so uneducated, why do we award them so many Nobel prizes?”
Upon this Saabrina started yelling “The power of Marx compels You!”. When this didn’t help, she ordered me to leave her office. Then, she slammed the door like only an enraged, university educated Swedish feminist can.
My conclusion is that even if there are certain flaws to European as well as American traditions and ways of thinking, cultural progress does still exist.
On the whole, civilization is on the right track, even if some might say it’s not running fast enough.
I’m convinced the whole world one day will become sophisticated and French.
Greetings from Sweden - Land of Socialist meatballs, blondes with funny accents, safe and politically correct cars and deadly accurate Excalibur missiles (great American/Swedish accomplishment)!
Very good!
“Very good!”
- Thanks.
Have a great weekend!
Wow! Great!
Bookmarking.
:’D After the first paragraph, I just had to check. :’)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_language
Along with the other North Germanic languages, Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. Standard Swedish is the national language that evolved from the Central Swedish dialects in the 19th century and was well-established by the beginning of the 20th century. While distinct regional varieties descended from the older rural dialects still exist, the spoken and written language is uniform and standardized. Some dialects differ considerably from the standard language in grammar and vocabulary and are not always mutually intelligible with Standard Swedish. These dialects are confined to rural areas and are spoken primarily by small numbers of people with low social mobility.
[that Wikipedia thingee is amazing — all this time I thought it was about croquet]
Thanks also, numberonepal. :’)
Buddha statue from 6th c found in Viking hoard in Helgo, Sweden
Biblical Archaeology Review | March/April 2005 | “Worldwide” editor
Posted on 04/27/2005 2:26:07 AM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1391864/posts
Crystal Amulet Poses Question On Early Christianity (Denmark - 100AD)
Denmark DK | 3-9-2007
Posted on 03/09/2007 2:37:30 PM EST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1798187/posts
Rain Uncovers Viking Treasure Trove
The Local | 9-14-2007
Posted on 09/15/2007 12:57:04 PM EDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1897059/posts
Report: Ancient Roman graveyard found in suburban Copenhagen
IHT | October 10, 2007 | Associated Press / Roskilde Dagblad
Posted on 10/11/2007 2:55:59 PM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1909864/posts
with love,
NordP
Most all of the art was commissioned by wealthy individuals for display in their homes. The subjects of the art were either real people or mythic gods.
Consider the artist, wanting to make the guy who is paying for the art feel “good” about themselves. I mean, WHO wants to live in a place where even the ART WORK has more going for it than the owner? Solution, deemphasize certain areas of the art to make the “old man” feel better! I mean, what Roman guy wouldn’t want to be able to say, “Yeah, I got more swingin’ than old Zeus himself!”
The art owner feels better, the artists gets paid a handsome sum, the owner shows off his new art to the rich friends and neighbors, they ask who the artist is and is he available to decorate THEIR homes with more art! It is just the old adage in action, “Make the customer KING!”
At least, that is my theory.
“My mother wants to know when she can have her land back?”
- It’s understandable if different minorities around the world feel they are being oppressed and claim that other people have ‘stolen’ their land.
However, all ethnic groups were nomads a long time ago and therefore it’s hard to say exactly what land belongs to this or that people.
Another aspect is of course that different ethnic groups constanly are mixing with each other.
I don’t wish to disrespect anyone, but I doubt that it is possible to decide exactly what is and what is not original Sami territory.
There goes the teaching I had that depth perspective in art was basically an invention of Renaissance Florentine artists.
I agree...just 'ribbing' you.
:’) The Renaissance artists did study it, and gave us modern perspective. The best of the fresco artists of the ancient world did a great job with realistic portrayals, so they have had some kind of text on which they relied. Michelangelo got the equivalent of his postdoc studies when a Roman sculpture (marble, from a Greek work, by Greek sculptors, probably a bronze) was dug up in 1506. I’ve actually seen a pretty silly allegation on the web that the Laocoon group wasn’t Roman-era, but instead was the work of Michelangelo. :’) By the time Michelangelo saw this in Pope Julius’ collection, he’d already done the Pieta and the David, either of which blast most prior works right out of the water. :’D
http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/h/images/hellenstc_laocoon.lg.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laoco%C3%B6n_and_his_Sons
great post thanks
No central heat...
Thank you for the site. It’s wonderful!
Hey! It was a 'Roman thing'!
My daughter was able to spend a semester in Florence studying fine art. Her apartment faced the Il Duomo. Her favorite painting hangs in the Galleria degli Uffizi where she was able to enter with her student pass as often as she liked. She came home not only a better artist, but much more fashionable (high end) and polished. The experience was worth every penny.
Yeah, but these were paintings from Pompeii, not statues, and showed some of the typical tricks of artists in painting a scene to give the illusion of depth perspective.
I hadn’t seen many Roman painting from this era that were clear enough to show this.
There’s a really cool mural in one Pompeiian house, a trompe l’oeil of balconies and columns, that appears to be a Roman stage (y’know, where plays would be performed), perhaps it was used for that (private performances by players) or perhaps the owner of the house just loved theater.
“My daughter was able to spend a semester in Florence studying fine art. Her apartment faced the Il Duomo. Her favorite painting hangs in the Galleria degli Uffizi where she was able to enter with her student pass as often as she liked. She came home not only a better artist, but much more fashionable (high end) and polished. The experience was worth every penny.”
- You ought to be proud of your daughter and as a parent, you should be proud of yourself as well!
By today, I have visited Florence several times, but even before I went there the first time, I was aware of the most important aspect of this unique city:
The impact Florence has had in the history of Western Civilization.
Florence is indeed a city of art, but Florence goes beyond art itself.
Renaissance Florence was, simply put, the embryo of our modern world. The ideas of the Renaissance revolutionized the way we Westerners view ourselves, it changed the ‘picture of man’ in our culture.
Before the Renaissance, claiming that humanity is at the center of creation and that the world actually is at humanity’s command would have been considered as blasphemy.
The Renaissance brought forth a belief in a new golden age and the conviction that man can do more or less anything.
The above mentioned Florentine cathedral, ‘Il Doumo’, (La Basilica di) Santa Maria del Fiore, is in fact of a certain importance in this context. The completion of the magnificent cupola of Il Duomo made people realize that they did NOT live in a ‘dark age’, but in an age which could construct something not even the ancient Romans could have erected. It is hard to overestimate the impact of what this engineerical triumph meant to a city that some decades ago, during the Black Death, had been staring into the dark depths of Hell.
Without the kind of spirit that gained ground in Europe during the Renaissance, the Enlightment as well as modern science are more or less unthinkable.
In this passage, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) expresses this ‘new idea of Man’ in a much admired manner:
``We have given you, O Adam, no visage proper to yourself, nor endowment properly your own, in order that whatever place, whatever form, whatever gifts you may, with premeditation, select, these same you may have and possess through your own judgement and decision. The nature of all other creatures is defined and restricted within laws which We have laid down; you, by contrast, impeded by no such restrictions, may, by your own free will, to whose custody We have assigned you, trace for yourself the lineaments of your own nature. I have placed you at the very center of the world, so that from that vantage point you may with greater ease glance round about you on all that the world contains. We have made you a creature neither of heaven nor of earth, neither mortal nor immortal, in order that you may, as the free and proud shaper of your own being, fashion yourself in the form you may prefer. It will be in your power to descend to the lower, brutish forms of life; you will be able, through your own decision, to rise again to the superior orders whose life is divine.’’
“Oration on the Dignity of Man”:
http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/Mirandola/
About Florence Cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_cathedral
Finally, as a European I’d like to welcome all Americans to Florence and Tuscany.
It is your cultural heritage too.
Thank you for your contributions to Free Republic!
Thanks a lot, fellow FReeper and Merry X-Mas!
“Ett bra jobb!”
- Tack så mycket!
“Thank you for your contributions to Free Republic!”
- From Europe to America:
Thank you for your contribution to freedom and Western Civilization!
Merry X-mas!
you know what I have to say to your Social Democratic art advisor...... “bite me” America Rocks!
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