History of Poetry

Enheduanna's head - celebrated as the earliest known named Author in world history | Morgan Library / The Penn Museum

Poetry is one of the oldest forms of human expression, predating literacy and evolving from oral traditions used to preserve history, genealogy and law.

The word "poet" originates from the Greek poiētēs, meaning "maker".

The Echo in the Cave

The first voice wasn't a voice at all, not really.

It was a rhythm.

In the dim coolness of a limestone cave, millennia ago, Elara, a woman of the Clan of the Whispering Winds, beat a steady pulse on a stretched animal skin.

Chicago Armory Show of 1913

Vincent van Gogh | Two Peasant Women Digging in Field with Snow, 1890

The Armory Show of 1913, formally titled the International Exhibition of Modern Art, was a landmark event organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors that introduced modern European art to American audiences on a massive scale.

Held from February 17 to March 15 at New York City's 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue, it later traveled to Chicago and Boston, drawing huge crowds and sparking intense debate about the nature of art.

Irish Art History and Sitemap

Phoebe Anna Traquair | Arts and Crafts Movement painter

The history of Irish art starts around 3200 BC with Neolithic stone carvings at the Newgrange megalithic tomb, part of the Brú na Bóinne complex which still stands today, County Meath.

In early-Bronze Age Ireland there is evidence of Beaker culture and a widespread metalworking.

Trade-links with Britain and Northern Europe introduced La Tène culture and Celtic art to Ireland by about 300 BC, but while these styles later changed or disappeared under the Roman subjugation, Ireland was left alone to develop Celtic designs: notably Celtic crosses, spiral designs, and the intricate interlaced patterns of Celtic knotwork.

Marc Chagall | Les Offrandes, 1958

In his address delivered at the inauguration on 7 July 1973 - his 86th birthday - of the Musée national message biblique Marc Chagall in Nice, the artist described the meaning he found in Biblical stories:

“It has always seemed to me and still seems today the greatest source of poetry of all time.

Ever since then, I have searched for its reflection in life and in Art.

The Bible is like an echo of nature and this is the secret I have tried to convey”

- (quoted in J. Baal-Teshuva, ed., Chagall, A Retrospective, New York, 1995, p. 295).

Rabindranath Tagore: "O woman, you are not merely the handiwork of God.." / Metaphorical painter

Rabindranath Tagore | Metaphorical painter

O woman, you are not merely the

handiwork of God, but also of men;

these are ever endowing you with

beauty from their hearts.

Poets are weaving for you a web

with threads of golden imagery;

painters are giving your form ever

Les Nabis | Art history and Sitemap

Paul Sérusier - The Bois d'Amour à Pont-Aven / The Talisman (Le Talisman), 1888, Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Ambitious decorative painting enjoyed a resurgence in Europe from the late 1880s through the early twentieth century.

In Paris, Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis and Édouard Vuillard were among the most influential artists to embrace decoration as painting’s primary function.

Their works celebrate pattern and ornament, challenge the boundaries that divide fine arts from crafts, and, in many cases, complement the interiors for which they were commissioned.

Disaffected with the rigidly representational painting methods taught at the Académie Julian, Bonnard and Denis joined with other like-minded students in the fall of 1888 to form a brotherhood called the “Nabis”, a Hebrew word meaning “prophets”.

Vincent van Gogh | Still lifes of Shoes

Vincent van Gogh painted several still lifes of shoes, primarily between 1886-1888.

He found beauty in worn-out, mud-covered boots, viewing them as symbols of the "scars of life" and the long journeys of the working class.

Step into Van Gogh’s world, one shoe at a time Shoes were an unusual subject in Van Gogh’s time.

Most artists painted elegant still lifes, often symbolizing wealth.

Modern Masters of 20th Century | Art Quotes

Salvador Dalí | Couple aux têtes pleines de nuages, 1937

Salvador Dalí:

• "The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot".

"Il primo uomo a paragonare le guance di una giovane donna a una rosa era ovviamente un poeta; il primo a ripeterlo era forse un idiota".