Archive for the Facts & Figures Category
Antiquity’s Colors
English Translation Soon Les œuvres qui nous sont parvenues de l’Antiquité sont souvent dominées par la monochromie liée à l’usure du temps et à la disparition des pigments d’origine. Paradoxalement, on a souvent admiré la « blancheur » ou plus concrètement la nature « brute » des sculptures an marbre ou des statuettes en […]
Glassware production
Glass, a luxury and exquisite material, whose technical virtuosity reached a peak during ancient times. Both a natural element tamed by man to match the finest precious stones, and an element of fascination modeled to suit human taste, in playing with the effects of colors and the natural light reflections. […]
Glass and Future Prediction…
By coincidence, I recently fell on one of those signs which give information about the time it takes for various materials that we use everyday to degrade. Apple cores, paper tissues, cigarette butts, chewing gum, cans, or plastic bags may thus take up to 500 years to decompose. However, among […]
Art Trades
As a reflection before the first major art fair of the year, which will take place as usual in Brussels during the month of January, it is worth noting that unlike most modern-day states, neither the Greek cities nor, later, Rome adopted a set of laws to protect or simply […]
The Modernity of Greek Tragedy
Athens, 6th century B.C.; Pisistratus the tyrant, who then reigned supreme in the Greek city, institutes a tragedy competition during the Greater Dionysia, celebrated annually in early spring. The plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides enjoy a considerable success, attracting a large audience in the amphitheaters. Over 2,000 years later, […]
Antique Theatre
In the 5th century ancient Greece, the month of Poseideon – which corresponds to our month of December – was the occasion to celebrate the Rural or Lesser Dionysia, a festival that took place in various demes (villages) of Attica. With the City or Greater Dionysia, celebrated in Athens in […]
Paris, City of Culture and Exhibitions
Nowadays, Paris has many nicknames such as the City of Light, the Capital of Fashion and Design, the Capital of Gastronomy or of the Art of Living. All these references actually tend to reduce Paris to a flashy, glittery city, which limits to the Champs-Elysées and to the annual shows […]
Ideas of the Past
As the archaeologist and historian R. Turcan documents in his recently released study on the perception of the past in classical (and especially Roman)* antiquity, the concern for “what it was” was already present in ancient societies, especially in times of crisis or perceived by contemporaries as pivotal moments between […]
The Art of Collecting
It all may have started with a few shells collected on a beach, or with smooth, particular pebbles, or with pieces of wood carefully selected. It took place by a river, or in a forest… The Art of Collecting is Universal One thing, however, is certain: the act of collecting […]
