History of Poetry

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.

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

Chicago Armory Show of 1913

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.

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

Les Nabis | Art history and Sitemap

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”.

Civiltà romana

Per Civiltà Romana si intendono tutti quegli aspetti della popolazione indoeuropea chiamata Romani (inizialmente stanziata a Roma, poi diffusasi su gran parte d'Europa e nell'intero bacino del Mediterraneo), da sociali a religiosi, culturali, letterari, artistici, militari.

L'origine del nome della città e quindi del popolo che lo abitava, era incerta anche in età arcaica.

Servio, grammatico a cavallo tra il IV e il V secolo d.C., riteneva che il nome potesse derivare da un'antica denominazione del fiume Tevere, Rumon, dalla radice ruo (a sua volta proveniente dal greco ρεω), scorro, così da assumere il significato di Città del Fiume.

Ma si tratta di un'ipotesi che non ha riscosso molto successo.

Magic Realism | Art history and Sitemap

Giorgio de Chirico

Magic Realism, also sometimes called fantastic realism, is a genre that blends realistic depictions of the everyday world with elements of fantasy, myth, or the surreal.

It's not merely about adding monsters or fantastical creatures into a realistic scene.

It's more nuanced than that. It's about portraying the ordinary with an air of mystery, strangeness, and sometimes a subtle political or social commentary.

The "magic" isn't explicitly explained; it's accepted as part of the natural order within the artwork's world.

Romanticism | Art history and Sitemap

Let's dive into the wonderfully evocative world of Romantic art!

Romantic art, flourishing roughly from the late 18th through the 19th centuries, is a fascinating and complex movement that fundamentally shifted focus away from Enlightenment ideals of reason and order towards a celebration of emotion, imagination, and the sublime.

Eugène Delacroix | Liberty Leading the People (28 July 1830) | Musée du Louvre

Le Pont des Arts, Paris

Le Pont des Arts / The Bridge of Arts or Passerelle des Arts is a pedestrian bridge in Paris which crosses the River Seine.

It links the Institut de France and the central square (cour carrée) of the Palais du Louvre, (which had been termed the "Palais des Arts" under the First French Empire).

Between 1802-1804, under the reign of Napoleon I, a nine-arch metallic bridge for pedestrians was constructed at the location of the present day Pont des Arts: this was the first metal bridge in Paris.

The engineers Louis-Alexandre de Cessart and Jacques Dillon initially conceived of a bridge which would resemble a suspended garden, with trees, banks of flowers and benches.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Le Pont des Arts, Paris, 1867-1868

Ancient Greek | Legacy

The civilization of ancient Greece has been immensely influential on language, politics, educational systems, philosophy, science, and the arts. It became the Leitkultur of the Roman Empire to the point of marginalizing native Italic traditions. As Horace put it,

Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artis / intulit agresti Latio (Epistulae 2.1.156f.)

"Captive Greece took captive her uncivilised conqueror and instilled her arts in rustic Latium".