How Raphael Made—and Unmade—the Renaissance

 

From ArtNet:

Raphael is one of those names that everyone knows. He is the prince of painters, a master of the High Renaissance. And the Metropolitan Museum of Art has given him the full blockbuster treatment in a highly anticipated exhibition called “Raphael: Sublime Poetry.”

The show is the first comprehensive international loan exhibition ever dedicated to him in the United States. There are 237 works in total—33 paintings, 142 drawings—and his Sistine Chapel tapestries. There are loans from the Louvre, the Vatican Museums, the Prado, the Uffizi, and the British Museum. Many of these works, according to the Met, have never been shown together, and some have never previously left Europe. Curated by Carmen C. Bambach, it took 17 years to assemble.

No one quite captured divine beauty like Raphael did. But what is the story within the story of this artist who left indelible mark on western art? I’m joined by art critic and podcast co-host Ben Davis, who has just published a review of the exhibition, to dive into that question. (Read more.)

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Twelver Doomsday Cult

 From Tierney's Real News:

We all know the danger of Iran getting a nuclear weapon—it’s a nightmare scenario that could change the world overnight. A detonation would not just endanger Israel, but could rain radioactive fallout across Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and beyond. Prevailing winds would carry lethal poison across the Middle East, crippling the region and reshaping civilization as we know it.

Iran is no longer just a regional menace — it’s a global one. Advances in its missile program now give Tehran the ability to mount a nuclear warhead on an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching Europe — and, in time, even the eastern United States. A single launch could erase cities and usher in a new dark age.

Yet Iran stands out as uniquely dangerous in the region and the world - not because of its ancient Persian heritage or the Iranian people themselves, who once thrived under the Shah. Under the Shah, Iran was a prosperous ally of America and Israel. Women were free and the nation’s oil wealth funded growth.

What replaced that modern Persian confidence was something horrifying: Ayatollah Khomeini’s fusion of apocalyptic Twelver Shia Islam and atheist Soviet-style Communism. He combined them together in what is known as the Twelver Shia version of Islamo-Communism. It’s this “red‑green” hybrid — part cleric, part commissar — that makes Iran uniquely dangerous in the 21st century. (Read more.)

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Mary and Isabella – the Women in Cages

 From History...the Interesting Bits:

On 25 March 1306 Mary, Christian, Elizabeth and little Marjorie were all present when Robert the Bruce was crowned King Robert I by Isabella MacDuff, Countess of Buchan, who claimed her family’s hereditary right to crown Scotland’s kings (despite her being married to a Comyn). The Earls of Fife had, for centuries, claimed the hereditary right to crown Scotland’s kings. However, in 1306, the earl was only a teenager, in English custody, and a loyal devotee of Edward I. It fell to the courageous Isabella MacDuff, the young earl’s aunt, to claim the hereditary right to perform the ritual.

Isabella’s husband was John Comyn, Earl of Buchan, friend and cousin to the John Comyn killed in the church in Dumfries. Isabella knew that she was not only facing the wrath of King Edward but also her husband in participating in Robert’s inauguration as king. Isabella’s participation was an act of bravery and defiance. She would have known that her actions would mean there was no going back. In supporting Robert the Bruce, the man who stood accused of John Comyn’s murder, Isabella turned against her husband and his entire family, people she had lived among for her entire married life. Isabella is said to have stolen one of her husband’s destriers for the ride to Scone to place the crown on the new king’s head. However, it is also suggested that Robert sent the Earl of Atholl to fetch Isabella from her lands, to perform the inauguration, indicating she was rather reluctant to play her part in the open defiance of Edward I.

With the murder of Comyn hanging over him, Robert the Bruce wanted to ensure that his inauguration was an imitation of that of Alexander III, to reinforce his legitimacy and respectability as king. In the absence of the royal crown of Scotland, a gold circlet was placed on Robert’s head. The ceremony may have been overseen by bishops Wishart and Lamberton, though both claimed they were not present when questioned by Edward I. Bishop Lamberton, as Bishop of St Andrews and senior prelate in Scotland, certainly celebrated High Mass for the new king and queen two days later, on 27 March.

Robert’s coronation was the start of the most desperate period of his life – and that of his supporters. Edward I of England was never one to acquiesce when his will was flouted; he sent his army into Scotland to hunt down the new king and his adherents. After Robert’s defeat by the English at Methven in 1306, he went into hiding in the Highlands. (Read more.)

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Color Psychology

 

 

From Architectural Digest:

The project began with a clear concept: to make color a key component of the space. “We didn’t use color as merely a finish, but as a design element,” explains architect Ciro Scognamiglio of AreaDieci Architetti—alongside Francesca Sannino, he was responsible for the apartment’s reimagined interior design. Instead of tackling the previously modern interior as a neutral box to be repainted, the architect duo created a coherent design strategy in which every vertical surface and piece of furniture participated in a precise system built around color. Cooler tones, which are used throughout this project, evoke tranquility and a sense of spaciousness. The interior firm mainly stuck to this side of the color wheel in their renovation. Now, inside the apartment, light bounces off jewel-like surfaces, and color becomes a tool to connect spaces, not separate them. (Read more.)

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Courage, Hungarians!

 From The European Conservative:

A statement of interest is in order here: the writer is a Magyarophile. As a Portuguese and as a European, I have good reason to think fondly of the great people of the Carpathians who have given the world so much. It is to a son of Hungary, Mardell Károly, that much of the reconstruction of Lisbon, following the horror of the 1755 earthquake, is owed. Hungarian sacrifice at Mohi, in 1241, helped turn the tide of Mongol advance into the heart of Europe; disaster at Mohács, in 1526, made Hungary the suffering frontier of Christendom against the Ottoman onslaught. Yet, despite this tumultuous history, Hungarians have—in the field of battle and in the world of sciences and the arts, from music to literature and architecture—persistently been at the forefront of European achievement. Our civilisation would be much poorer, indeed, without Liszt, Kós, and Petőfi. Europe is also the daughter of King Saint Stephen and Corvinus.

Great little Hungary will be asked to make a momentous decision this coming April 12th. For Brussels, the next legislative election presents it with the hope that now, at last, the Hungarian nuisance might be taken out of the picture; that Hungarian determination in safeguarding its independence, its sovereignty, and its national interests will be silenced. For this purpose, the Brusselians have built a Trojan horse, Péter Magyar, and concocted an absurd coalition uniting everything from pro-EU liberals and centrists to reformed communists and former neo-Nazis. In several constituencies, candidates of the once vilified Jobbik party withdrew in support of Tisza, Magyar’s party. Magyar also enjoys the support of a good number of former Communists. Ágnes Forsthoffer, vice president of his party, comes from a wealthy family of Kádar-era communist nomenklatura; another Tisza vice president, Zoltán Tarr, is similarly alleged to have been an informer of the hated Communist political police, the Third Department of the Ministry of the Interior. 

This post-ideological mishmash is obviously unfit to govern, and ultimately it doesn’t care about governing. After all, it was not born from Hungarian soil, but from the machinations of Brussels bureaucrats who loathe Hungary. In Magyar, they found a man ambitious and gullible enough to sign their Faustian bargain. If he were to prevail, he would not be a Hungarian prime minister, but a European satrap in Budapest. It is unfortunate to notice the excitement with which Magyar himself yearns for that supremely undignified role.

Brussels dreams of a weak, compliant Hungary. They could never quite understand how a tiny country of nine million, landlocked, still recovering from decades of communist oppression, might have the audacity to resist them. It doesn’t help that, time and again, the Hungarians showed themselves to be the last bastion of European common sense. When Brussels and Berlin were merrily destroying Europe’s nuclear sector, Budapest was infuriating them by modernising and strengthening its own. When Merkel and the Brusselians were proclaiming “Wir schaffen das” and opening Europe’s borders to tens of millions of non-European immigrants who never were nor ever could be integrated, Prime Minister Orbán was a lonely voice of wisdom and realism in reminding Brussels that, in fact, hyper-immigration would lead to catastrophe. 

When the Establishment was busily demolishing the very foundations of European industrial prowess and economic prosperity by severing oil and gas imports from Russia, Hungary warned that doing so would lead to desindustrialisation and a loss—not an increase—of strategic autonomy. Now, with the Middle East on fire and oil prices on the way to 200 dollars per barrel, the profound wisdom of Orbán’s warnings is visible for all to see. In all those cases, the Hungarian prime minister stood alone, isolated, and maligned by a hopelessly foolish European establishment. He held his ground. And he was proven right. (Read more.)

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An Old Roman Tombstone

 From All That's Interesting:

When Roberto Tessari recently hiked into the woods near Livorno, Italy, he was hoping to find some wild asparagus. Instead, he stumbled across an ancient Roman tombstone that was partially submerged in a shallow creek and had seemingly become exposed after a period of heavy rains in the region. The tombstone, which dates from the 2nd century C.E., is engraved with three names. Though little is known about the people it references, archaeologists suspect that it was made by a family of freed slaves or their descendants, and that it possibly contains the hint of a family tragedy. According to a report from local media outlet Livorno Today, 77-year-old Roberto Tessari, a former firefighter, was walking in the woods near Livorno when he spotted something sitting in a creek.

In the 1970s, Tessari was one of the founding members of the Livorno Paleontological Archaeological Group (another member of which discovered ancient coins near Livorno in 2023), so he quickly realized that he’d stumbled upon an important artifact.

“I was walking through a wooded area when my eye caught sight of a rectangular shape just above the water’s edge,” Tessari explained. “I approached and immediately realized it was something interesting. I turned it over and noticed it was an ancient tombstone that undoubtedly speaks to the history of our area. It has several names engraved on it.”

Tessari immediately notified both a friend, Lorella Alderighi — the archaeological official of the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the provinces of Pisa and Livorno — as well as the local fire department. (Read more.)

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An Illuminated Year

 

From Daily Art Magazine:

The Très Riches Heures is the name of probably the most famous book of hours in the world. A book of hours is a prayer book with texts for each liturgical hour of the day. It often contains psalms, masses and calendars, as we can see here. Twelve pages dedicated to each month show the usual activities and customs of the month, as well as the zodiac signs of the month. The illuminations are a clear example of late International Gothic style, we can see it in typically elongated figures, little or mistaken spatial depth, and elaborated ornamentation and attention to detail. Check out the lavish costumes from the January page: the Duke is sitting on the right, he is wearing a furry hat and a blue robe, coloured with the most expensive pigment made from crushed Middle Eastern stone lapis-lazuli. (Read more.)

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Understanding Iran’s Apocalyptic Threat

 From Tierney's Real News:

We all know the danger of Iran getting a nuclear weapon—it’s a nightmare scenario that could change the world overnight. A detonation would not just endanger Israel, but could rain radioactive fallout across Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and beyond. Prevailing winds would carry lethal poison across the Middle East, crippling the region and reshaping civilization as we know it.

Iran is no longer just a regional menace — it’s a global one. Advances in its missile program now give Tehran the ability to mount a nuclear warhead on an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching Europe — and, in time, even the eastern United States. A single launch could erase cities and usher in a new dark age.

Yet Iran stands out as uniquely dangerous in the region and the world - not because of its ancient Persian heritage or the Iranian people themselves, who once thrived under the Shah. Under the Shah, Iran was a prosperous ally of America and Israel. Women were free and the nation’s oil wealth funded growth.

What replaced that modern Persian confidence was something horrifying: Ayatollah Khomeini’s fusion of apocalyptic Twelver Shia Islam and atheist Soviet-style Communism. He combined them together in what is known as the Twelver Shia version of Islamo-Communism. It’s this “red‑green” hybrid — part cleric, part commissar — that makes Iran uniquely dangerous in the 21st century. (Read more.)

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The Ancient Greek Myth That Inspired Tolkien

 From The Greek Reporter:

In Tolkien’s writings, Númenor is described as an ancient kingdom located on a large island to the west of Middle Earth. It is inhabited by the greatest human civilization to have existed and is essentially an idyllic utopia ruled by wise kings. The island itself was a gift presented by the Valar – angelic godlike figures – to the ancestors of the Númenóreans as a reward for facing the Dark Lord Morgoth in battle.

However, over time, the Númenórean civilization is corrupted. The trouble started when the last king of Númenor, Ar-Pharazôn, defeated Sauron, the lieutenant of Morgoth, and brought him back as a prisoner to the island kingdom. Sauron, who was remarkably deceitful, managed to convince the Númenórean king that he could live eternally if only he worshiped Morgoth as a god.

Consequently, the Númenóreans ceased their worship of Eru Ilúvatar, the One God in Tolkien’s mythos, and disaster ensues. For their hubris and corruption, they were punished with the sinking of their island. Only a few of the virtuous Númenóreans escaped to Middle Earth, where they founded the kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor. (Read more.)

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