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She gazes through centuries… limestones eyes heavy with memory, adorned in wheels of silence. The Lady of Elche, Iberia’s eternal guardian, carved between earth and spirit, where myth becomes stone. A face that outlived empires.

#Iberia #iberians #the lady of elche #ancient spain #ancient history

Long before Rome cast its shadow, the Iberian Peninsula was alive with the strength of two peoples: the Iberians, children of the sun-baked earth, and the Celts, wanderers who carried the wild breath of the north. Where their worlds touched, a new spirit was born — the Celtiberians — fierce, proud, and unyielding. These were the ancestors who walked the hills and valleys of ancient Spain, leaving echoes in stone, metal, and memory.

#ancient history #iberians #celts #celtiberians #ancient spain #poetic history

Susanna and the Elders by Artemisia Gentilechi

susanna is a virtuous woman who is bathing alone in her private garden. Two older men — elders of the community — spy on her and attempt to coerce her into sleeping with them. When she refuses, they falsely accuse her of adultery. Susanna is nearly sentenced to death, but the young prophet Daniel exposes the elders' lies and saves her.

• Artemisia was the daughter of Orazio Gentileschi, a painter in Rome.

• She trained in her father's workshop and was immensely talented - far beyond most women of her time (when women were largely shut out of the art world).

• In 1611, shortly after painting Susanna, she was sexually assaulted by her father's colleague and tutor, Agostino Tassi.

• A public trial followed, during which she was tortured with thumbscrews to prove she was telling the truth.

• Despite the trauma, Artemisia persisted - continuing to paint, and eventually becoming one of the most celebrated women artists of the Baroque era.