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💬🌳🏛🖼️📜 Quotes, nature, architecture, art and history about our homeland, Europe.
Cameo of Ptolemy II Philadelphus and Arsinoe II, his second wife, 278-269 BC. C.
It is an onyx gem with nine layers of engraving, with remarkable dimensions, 11.5 x 11.3 cm.
Arsinoe (the figure behind) wears a crown covered by a veil on her head, while Ptolemy (in front) wears a helmet adorned with divine symbols that were already attributed to Alexander: the serpent uraeus-Agathodaimon on the cap (which was shown here without wings), the winged thunderbolt of Zeus on the cheekbone and an image of Amun on the nape shield.
They are clearly idealized portraits that respond to an identification of royalty with the ideal of physical and spiritual perfection that a god or a sovereign must have and, in turn, an affirmation of their dynastic legitimacy in Egypt as successors of Alexander the Great.
📸 The Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
“We’re all immortal, as long as our stories are told.”
― Elizabeth Hunter, The Scribe
Roman swastika-shaped fibula. The object is made of bronze and dates to the 3rd-4th century CE. The artifact was found near Veliko Gradište, in eastern Serbia.
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Ancient Roman marble statue of a panther with a goat's head between the legs.
Thought to be part of a large group of sculptures found at Hadrian's Villa in the 18th century, the panther was actually found on one of the estates known as "Old Rome" (Roma Vecchia).
Due to the restoration of the ancient surface by caustic acid etching, it gives the impression of the work of the 17th or 18th century.
📸 Vatican Museums in Rome
Burgonet, elaborated by the Armorer Filippo Negroli (Italian), in 1543.
This masterpiece of Renaissance metalwork is signed on the browplate by Filippo Negroli, whose embossed armor was praised by sixteenth-century writers as "miraculous" and deserving "immortal merit." Formed of one plate of steel and patinated to look like bronze, the bowl is raised in high relief with motifs inspired by classical art. The graceful mermaid-like siren forming the helmet's comb holds a grimacing head of Medusa by the hair. The sides of the helmet are covered with acanthus scrolls inhabited by putti, a motif ultimately derived from ancient Roman sculpture and wall paintings.
"The Lion Man", from Stadel Cave in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, 40,000 years old.
The oldest known evidence of religious belief in the world.
"Prudentia - Klokhet" — Julius Kronberg (Swedish), 1889.
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"Jason and His Teacher" — Maxfield Parrish, 1909.
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"Trizna" — Andrey Shishkin
Trizna was a funeral feast of ancient Slavic religion, which was conducted for distinguished members of society before their cremation.
"There is more honor in accumulating little by little than in reaching for the sky and ending up flat on your face."
— Vatnsdæla Saga
"Melissa and Bradamante" — Gustave Doré's illustration in the epic poem Orlando Furioso
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"Young Mother Gazing At Her Child" by William Bouguereau (French).
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“Its not over while a single european still draws breath.”
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A reconstruction of a 7th-century Anglo-Saxon helmet found in the Staffordshire hoard.
📸 Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
"Société Protectrice des Animaux" — Jules Didier (French)
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“People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors.”
― Edmund Burke.
Roman helmet once belonged to a gladiator of type provocator, dated to the 1st century CE.
The helmet is beautifully decorated with a visible eagle on the front. The face was covered with a visor with holes.
Provocator was partially armoured, unlike other types of gladiators. He wore a breastplate held by leather straps crossing his back. The fighting style required a great deal of skill in using a sword and operating a shield. His weight prevented him from making too much of his finesse.
He was most often put up against Samnites or other provocator.
📸 Naples Museo Archeologico Nazionale.
The David Plates are a set of nine silver plates, in three sizes, stamped between 613 and 630. The plates were created in Constantinople.
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Ancient life-size Hercules statue discovered hidden in Roman sewer system.
The marble statue, complete with identifying lion skin headwear and club, was discovered during the cleaning of a 100-year-old sewer pipe which had triggered mudslides in Rome's Appia Archeologial Park .
The sculpture appears to have been intentionally buried in the sewer pipe a century ago, some 65 feet below what is now street level. Because the sculpture was not found at its original site, the surrounding soil cannot be used to help date the work. Instead, the best clues to help determine its age lie in its physical appearance.
Experts at the archaeological park have developed a theory that the statue may be a depiction of the Emperor Gaius Messius Quintus Traianus Decius, or Decio Traiano, based on the work’s wrinkled face and its likeness to known coins featuring the visage of the ruler, who was in power from 249 to 251.
"Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily."
— Napoleon Bonaparte
Byzantine ivory triptych showing military saints, Christ and the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, c.1000
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The Castlestrange stone is located in the grounds of "Castlestrange House" near Athleague in County Roscommon, Ireland.
It is a granite boulder decorated with flowing spirals in the La Tène style, dating from the Iron Age period between 300 BC and 100 AD.
Only three other stones of this type have been found in Ireland, the Turoe Stone in County Galway, the Killycluggin Stone in County Cavan and the Derrykeighan Stone in County Antrim. All four stones lie on roughly the same line connecting them on a map of Ireland. The use of the stones is not known but it is assumed they served some religious or ritual purpose.
Hermitage of Saint Donato, on Mount Beriain, Navarre, Spain.
This is how it can be seen in winter.