Architecture
Luminous and True Where it all began...
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Northern Europe
Germany
Austria
Vienna
Salzburg
A trip into the past - streets lined with immaculately preserved buildings dating from the medieval and Baroque periods.
A trip into the past - streets lined with immaculately preserved buildings dating from the medieval and Baroque periods.
Sweden
Stockholm
A city of charming historic alleyways - often called "the Venice of the north."
A city of charming historic alleyways - often called "the Venice of the north."
Belgium
Bruges
Characterized by cobblestone streets and canals, much of Bruges's preserved old city was built between the 12th and 15th centuries.
Characterized by cobblestone streets and canals, much of Bruges's preserved old city was built between the 12th and 15th centuries.
Antwerp
Riga, Latvia
City of Art Nouveau buildings.
City of Art Nouveau buildings.
France
Southern Europe
Italy
The "ART" of City Building - Byzantine Tradition
Late Roman Tetrarchy
The tetrarchy (literally "rule of four") led the Roman Empire from 293 to 313. Established by Emperor Dilcletian to share the responsibilities of government for the Empire and to prepare the next leaders for rule, it could not survive the bellicose jealousies of its second generation, with Constantie the surviving emperor. This statue, carved around the time, depicts the unity of the then peaceful four leaders. As they were also military leaders, they are dressed in lorica segmental arbor, a bronze breastplate from which bronze strips defend in a skirt of two connected layers to the knees. The shoulders and upper arms are covered with three layers of bronze strips (Layering aids in the movement of the arms and lower torso.) An undergarment to which this arbor may be connected can be seen on the arms and slightly below the skirt. Their scabbarded weapons are spats, long swords especially populare among Roman cavalry, although the long hilts may also indicate that they could be grasped by tow hands and used for fighting when the soldier had dismounted. Currently, the statue is outside the Basilica of San Marco, brought there from Constantinople by the Venetian Fourth Crusadrs after their sack of that city in 1204. |
Venice, with its network of romantic canals and its suggestion of Oriental exotica, had great appeal for Victorian travellers.
Augustus boasted that he found Rome a city of brick and left it of marble.
Rome was mud and smoky skies; the rank smell of the Tiber and the exotically spiced cooking fires of a hundred different nationalities. Rome was white marble and gilding and heady perfumes; the blare of trumpets and the shrieking of market-women and the eternal, sub-aural hum of more people, speaking more languages that Gaius had ever imagined existed, crammed together on seven hills whose contours had long ago disappeared beneath this encrustation of humanity. Rome was the pulsing heart of the world.
_ Marion Zimmer Bradley. The Forest House, Viking Press, 1994.
You, whoever you are, who see that the figures of wise Egypt sculptured on the obelisk are being carried by an elephant, the strongest of beasts, understand that it is proof of a strong mind to sustain solid wisdom. |
Tuscany
Venice
Florence
The Renaissance capital with its timeless, heart-lifting beauty.
The Renaissance capital with its timeless, heart-lifting beauty.
Excellence!
"I’ve studied why that picture of the Duomo is so good, how even that exquisite lily gets well gilded. I see that you’ve caught the shadow at a critical point, the moment it darkens the plane on the left, with that time told as well by the darkening edge above, on the circle of the window and, curving then toward the sky, across the slope of the dome. So as well as about great architecture, the picture is about time and about physics; it moves and reveals. A fine snap indeed! ... among many".
A keen Observer
Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), Italian Resaissance architect.
Go to: www.ancient.eu/Filippo_Brunelleschi/
Go to: www.ancient.eu/Filippo_Brunelleschi/
Pompeii
Herculaneum
Lucca & Tuscany
Amalfi Coast
Portugal and Spain
Portugal's history of intricate tilework—from its ceilings to floors, homes and hallways.
Oporto - October, 2023
Spain
Travel Photos