Something Beautiful

Della Robbia

It's always hard for me to believe that something so excellent as this Madonna and Child, ca. 1455, by Luca Della Robbia, can be made from terracotta.   

Church, Faroes

I find myself quite taken with this photo of a small church in the Faroe Islands, between Iceland and Norway.

Peony (drawing)

This is really quite marvelous -- Peony, c. 1800, by an unknown artist (charcoal heightened with white and red chalk, green wove).

Christus, Annunciation

Here's an exceptional Annunciation by Petrus Christus, at the Gemaldegalerie, Berlin. 

Master of the St Lucy Legend

This Lamentation of Saint John the Baptist and Saint Catherine of Alexandria, ca. 1495, by the Master of the Legend of Saint Lucy, is very fine.  You'll need to see it in close-up to appreciate its quality. 

Filippino Lippi

At the Norton Simon site, two beautiful works by Filippino Lippi -- Saints Benedict and Apollonia and Saints Paul and Frediano, c. 1483.

Flickr Commons

I haven't looked around much yet at Flickr Commons, but it looks very promising.

A good way of looking around seems to be the tag cloud.

While I was finding my way about, this photo from the Smithsonian collection caught my eye.

Hiroshige

The Norton Simon Museum is possessed of a beautiful collection of artworks. And now they have a fine viewer, too, that enables you to get up quite close to the work. I used it to look at these fine works by Japanese woodblock artist Ando Hiroshige

"Hatred does not cease through hatred at any time. Hatred ceases through love. This is an unalterable law." -- That quotation appeared in my Twitter feed yesterday. I think it might be the key to the future of our politics.

Canonical hours

In light of yesterday's post, how appropriate that I should today come across a reference to W.H. Auden's Horae Canonicae.   (via Anecdota Evidence)