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Tag Archives: Sandro Botticelli
triumph of instinct over intellect
All comedy aspires to laughter, although not all laughter is related to comedy. Still, many essential aspectsof comedy find affirmation in this response. To begin with, as Aristotle long ago observed, laughter is a uniquely human prerogative. Even that staid … Continue reading
Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Literature/poetry/spoken word
Tagged Adriaen van der Werff, Biblical Tale of Sarah, Boccaccio Decameron, Easter Laughter Greek Orthodox Church, Homer Iliad, Homer The Odyssey, Homeric Hymn to Demeter, John Milton Paradise Lost, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Pliny Roman scholar, Sandro Botticelli, Suzanne Langer, Willem van Mieris
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essence of comedy: the geese
The essence of comedy is the triumph of nature over intellect; where hedonism replaces heroism, and the thirst for glory is seen as the repair of the fool. The tragic hero dies for what is nobler in the mind, the … Continue reading
Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Literature/poetry/spoken word
Tagged Boccaccio Decameron, Dante Alighieri, Dante Divine Comedy, Giovanni Boccaccio, Homer The Iliad, Homer The Odyssey, John Everett Millais, John William Waterhouse, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Sandro Botticelli
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Francis and the wild things
Of Saint Francis’s ability to lure birds and beasts there can hardly be any question. But the modern reader may well inquire as to the nature of his alluring power and may ask science for an explanation. Unfortunately science seems … Continue reading
Posted in Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion
Tagged Donovan Brother Sun and Sister Moon, Franco Zeffirelli, G.K. Chesterton, Isenbrant artist, Jane Goodall, Konrad Lorenz, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, roberto rossellini, Saint Francis Blessing of the Animals, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis Song of the Creatures, Saint Francis with the Animals, Sandro Botticelli
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those dodgy heretics: mystic encounters of the third kind
The heretics who dodged the inconvenient texts of Scripture by allegory and symbolism relied ultimately on mysticism. Not all mystics of course were heretics; it seemed to depend on which texts they dodged. But the basic theory of mysticism was … Continue reading
Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion
Tagged Alumbrados, Alumbrados burned in Catholic Spain, Bohemian Adamites, Christian Messianism, Christian mysticism, Christian mystics, English Ranters, French Libertines, Gary Cooper, harpo marx, jack benny, Matthew Fox, Pietists persecuted, Quakerism, Sandro Botticelli, The Ranters, The Zohar, Theodore Roszak
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just a bad patch: calling perfection into question
Back to the nude. Sort of. After the classic honeymoon period of art history, came the quarrels and separation. Somehow, it can never quite be patched up and made new like the good ole’ days. Face it, after several millennia … Continue reading
Posted in Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Modern Arts/Craft
Tagged Botticelli Birth of Venus, Brancusi, David Park art, Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, edward muybridge, Franz Kafka, Madame Pickick, madame pickwick art blog, Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso, Sandro Botticelli, Thomas Eakins
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agonizing doubts: the nature of things
Can reason and logic solve all of people’s problems? The great Roman poet Lucretius seems to take the affirmative side in the individual’s unending debate on this question- but his verses are charged with agonizing doubts. The material of the … Continue reading
Posted in Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Literature/poetry/spoken word
Tagged Atheism, Christopher Hitchens, Cicero, Epicurus, Harold Bloom, Lucretius, Lucretius The Nature of Things, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Nepos, Richard Dawkins, Sandro Botticelli, Stephen Greenblatt
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plastic fantastic: you look fabulous!
Carefully structured violence packaged and passed off as spontaneous beauty, reproductions of the divine mean as a reflection of that inner you. Everyone is a Venus. What is the alternative? The aesthetic condemnation of the ugly as a symptomatic expression … Continue reading
Posted in Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion
Tagged andi zeisler, Andy Warhol, edward kienholz, elizabeth haiken, Gainsborough, gayle kirschenbaum, Jean Baudrillard, John Singer Sargent, judith leyster, laurie essig, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Rogier van der Weyden, Sandro Botticelli, Slavoj Zizek, Walter Benjamin
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paradox: soul on ice and fire
Rembrandt’s vagabond prints were studies of despair and wretchedness far removed from say, the Frans Hals norm of guileful, droll figures within the tradition of moral satire that reaffirmed popular images of the bottom of the social rung. Rembrandt, though, … Continue reading
Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion
Tagged bosch prodigal son, cornel west, Frans Hals, gary schwartz, Hieronymous Bosch, Martin Buber, mitch snyder, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Rembrandt, rembrandt return of the prodigal son, rembrandt the jewish bride, Sandro Botticelli
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