This Ancient Roman wall painting shows an opulent domicile, and adorned a bedroom of a first-century BCE aristocrat. The plants in the scenery show a love of the natural world common in elite decor. We know that Romans of means took great thought in how they situated their estate homes, considering matters like which way […]
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Here you see the image of Mary holding her infant son . . . The first of its kind in Western Europe, it appears in the_Book of Kells_, the most famous manuscript of Medieval Ireland, and it dates to about 800 CE. The centuries that proceeded its composition were chaotic ones indeed, with warlords in
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As the days of quarantine add up, many of us have expressed a strange sense of time becoming blurred — the hours we used to divide with our old routines have been upended, and our unchanging surroundings can sometimes make the feeling of time feel less progressive. In fact, of course, the external physical world
Wells Cathedral Clock in England Read More »
This image of the famous ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi (aka Lao Tzu) dates to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and shows the semi-legendary Lao Tzu as an old man, peacefully riding atop a bull. It is a fitting image for one of the most famous figures in the history of Doaism/Taoism, which emphasizes cultivating an ability
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The object featured here – a box carved out of whale’s bone – comes from Britain in the early 700s, which was an age of fragmented states and political destabilization. The scene shown is a rendering of the sack of Jerusalem by the Romans, but to the onlooker the most obvious activity is that of
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This is the only depiction of Joan of Arc created in her own lifetime, and is a doodle out of the imagination of the illustrator made in 1429. In many ways — especially in her religious fervor and because she thought most women ought to behave conventionally — I find Joan’s personality grating. But the
Era Accurate Depiction of Joan of Arc Read More »
One of the most entertaining saints in the biz, Sainte Foy was known as the trickster saint (a reliquary holding some of her remains is on the second slide). She had all the usual chops to star in a holy cult centered around her: allegedly killed by Romans when she refused to do pagan sacrifices,
Sainte Foy and the Heist by the Monks of Conques Read More »
You are looking at the most famous labyrinth in Medieval history: that of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Chartres. In eleven concentric circles, the path wanders towards the center rosette. This labyrinth dates to about 1200, and is the most complete and largest of its type. The meaning of this maze has been debated —
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“The Thunder, Perfect Mind” is a mesmerizing poem dating perhaps to the second century CE. It reflects the mingling of many different belief systems in the Roman Empire, such as those ideas popular with the Cult of the Egyptian Goddess Isis, shown here in a Roman-styled rendition.It takes the voice of a female divine being,
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Get ready to geek out here, because I am going to sing praises for the ways molecular chemical analysis is helping historians understand more clearly how people saw and created art in Medieval Europe. This first slide here is part of a cover page for a new paper published in _Scientific Advances_ which shows fabric
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This funky-faced individual was Oswald von Wolkenstein, a poet, musical composer, and diplomat in the Late Middle Ages (1376/7-1445). Von Wolkenstein’s adventurous life included episodes of warfare, daring military ventures, and captivity, but what I find most intriguing is the conflation of his Christian world-view with his open admission of enjoying appetites that he considered
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This detail of Auguste Rodin’s masterpiece, _The Burghers of Calais_ (1884-89) evokes a moment of despondency and sacrifice that took place in the Hundred Year’s War between France and England in the Late Middle Ages. The story ultimately has a happy ending, but nowhere is this foreshadowed in Rodin’s work.In 1346, the French town of
Wealthy Calais Classes Sacrifice for the Less Powerful Read More »
Many who like history are drawn to a past that they can feel connected to. But some are drawn to the ways the past feels radically different. In the latter case, when faced with a totally alien world-view, we are constantly forced to recognize how powerful cultural ideals are in shaping the consciousness of human
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In the Central Middle Ages, before the witch-hunt craze of the 16th century, more men than women were accused of sorcery. However, the association of women resorting to unscrupulous and un-Christian ways to fly had become well entrenched by 1500 CE.In a manuscript called the _canon Episcopi_, which might have been written in the late
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Pesky flies torment this poor dog in a Medieval manuscript from the early 1300s. Then and now, we have seen these insect vermin as an annoyance. In the Middle Ages, however, flies were associated with something far more sinister — demons.So it was that in the fourteenth century, a poor woman called Ermine de Reims
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There is a common misconception that Native American Indians had no exposure to alcohol before contact with the Europeans. This idea extends to imagining that AmerIndians were genetically less able to metabolize alcohol than the explorers from the Old World. In fact, neither of these ideas are true, as the laws and traditions of the
Indigenous Aztec’s and Their Alcohol Consumption Read More »
This painting by Francois Fleury-Richard shows a scene from the children’s fairy-tale “Little Red Riding Hood.” The illustration dates to about 1820, which is centuries after the original story developed. However, some features of this piece render the original spirit of the tale better than later versions. We see the smallness of the girl, who
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Carved out of marble in the first century CE, this Ancient Roman sculpture is one of the world’s most famous works of art. It showcases a tragic moment in the myth of Lacoon and his sons, when, in revenge for trying to alert the Ancient Trojans about a giant horse armed with secret enemies of
The Tragedy of Lacoon and the “Snake Detection Hypothesis” Read More »
This sculpture by Paul Lancz from 2014 is one of the many public works of art always on display in the city of Montreal. Entitled “La Tendresse/ Tenderness,” it captures a ubiquitous display of affection between mother and child. This physical gesture of a mother kissing her baby has been a hallmark of affection uniting
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This fresco from the first-century ruins of Pompeii show that Ancient Roman physicians knew how to practice surgery. In a world without the scientific method, knowledge of germ theory, or antibiotics, doctors could get a lot wrong. However, they got enough right to establish some medical practices that endured for ages, and have influenced medicine
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