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David
David In last week’s post we could find a tiny plastic David at the Trevi Fountain in Rome. Here he is a full-size bronze copy of the original marble sculpture, overlooking Florence from the elevated Piazzale Michelangelo. For a stone replica we have to descend into town to the Piazza della Signora. And if we…
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Fontana di Trevi
Fontana di Trevi Apart from Mary with her deceased son in her lap, Venus, David, the Sabine woman … I think they’d all quite like to splash about in the fountain under the watchful eye of Oceanus.I miss Anita Ekberg; she would have fitted in perfectly with them. Photo of the week: Souvenir stall, Trevi…
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Selinunte
Selinunte This photo tells a similar story as the one of last week, through its subject as well as its composition. Here we are in an ancient Greek city, not in western Turkey but on the south coast of Sicily, Italy. And the temple in the distance on the left is not of Ionic but…
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The near and the far
The near and the far The Temple of Athena at Priene was built in the Ionic order, which is clearly recognisable by the shape of the capitals with their two volutes (curls). Over time, the entire temple had collapsed or been destroyed. All the columns lay on the ground and their discs were scattered about.…
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The past and the present
The past and the present In the foreground are the columns of the Temple of Athena in the ancient Greek city of Priene, in Turkey. In the background lie the neatly laid-out fields of the plain below. Archaic Priene had a seaport, but the mouth of the River Meander silted up over time, during the…
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Gerasa-Jerash
Gerasa-Jerash Only a stone’s throw away: Walk down the South Decumanus road of Roman Gerasa into present day Jerash – or vice versa – and you bridge a time span of two thousand years in just a few minutes. Actually this switching in time is nothing extraordinary. It happens with every visit to historical monuments…
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The Red Maple
The Red Maple When desperate and tired of the society of men I find refuge with trees Living off water, air, sun their feet firmly planted in the earth their foliage in full splendour overhead and no blood on their hands Photo of the week: Daitoku-ji complex, Koto-in, Kyoto, Japan 2008
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Sento Park
Sento Park The raking together of dead leaves is not exactly an occupation that captures the imagination. Except in Japan. With their neat appearance the lady gardeners show respect and dedication to their work. It reminds me of the title of a book – which I aptly modify here for the occasion: Zen and the…
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U-turn – if you can
U-turn – if you can I don’t think they can. It looks as if they are too big and the aquarium too narrow for them to turn around. They are condemned to stay floating in the water as they are : tail to tail. Photo of the week: Kyoto, Japan 2008
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A ray of sunshine …
A ray of sunshine … … just enough for the museum guard to bask for a moment in its warmth. A quiet, peaceful scene, for a considerable part due to the inventive architectural design of Daniel Libeskind, with its sober interplay of lines, light and colours. We are in the Jewish Museum in Berlin, where…
καιρός remembered
… the right moment, position chosen, shoot …
