Something Beautiful

Fine photographs (from Greece)

Greek photographer Antonis Sarantos has posted a photograph each day from January 14, 2005 to September 24, 2005, when he left off to study for his upcoming exams.   Just a quick look will persuade you that his work is well worth your time. 

In honor of Sunday, I will just mention that Antonis provides us with some marvelous photographs of the monasteries of Mount Athos, Greece.   There is an entire page of color photos.   But the set that really blows me away are his black-and-white photographs of that sacred mountain. 

Ancient women letter-writers

Today I found an enchanting set of illuminated miniatures at one of my favorite sites.  It appears that the Roman poet Ovid wrote a fictional set of letters by famous mythical women to their lovers.   The collected letters are known as the "Heroides" of Ovid.    Available for our delectation on the Web are illuminated "portraits" of these women, in a French manuscript of the 15th or 16th century.

   Most of the women are pictured within a patterned frame border, with the subject dressed in handsome brocade robes, standing against a simple architectural background.

The four best portraits, in my opinion, are these:

Dido
Helen
Penelope 
Phaedra

Eleven other women --

Ariadne
Briseis
Canace
Deianira (?)
Hermione (with text)

Hypermenestra
Hypsipyle
Laodamia
Medea
Oenone
Phyllis

Two of the beloved men are also pictured, but in a rather undistinguished fashion --

Leander
Paris 

A new day

I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning. -- J. B. Priestly

Archduke Trio, by Beethoven

This afternoon I am listening to Beethoven's Archduke Trio for the first time.  Marvelous!

Who is the Archduke?   Rudolf Johann Joseph Rainer Habsburg, that's who -- better known as Archduke Rudolf.  Beethoven dedicated more compositions to Rudolf than to any other person.  Those works inclue the Triple Concerto, the Grosse Fugue, the Missa Solemnis, two piano concertos, two piano sonatas, one violin sonata, and the eponymous "Archduke" Trio.  Archduke Rudolf was a wealthy patron, but also a friend and student, a musically talented young nobleman who accepted Beethoven and his compositions despite the eccentricities of both.   (So, at rate, I have read.)