μetanoias

Newsletter about art, philosophy, history, psychology, consciousness. Read more & subscribe at metanoias.substack.com ♥ my content? Buy me a ☕ to say thanks!

[metanoias-substack]

Western men’s dress today is sensible, practical, understated, uniform.

In a word: boring.

But that wasn’t always the case.

The costume of the modern man is an odd and short-lived aberration preceded by centuries of fashion extravaganza.

Traditional masculinity — of the hardcore, army-slaying and empire-building kind modern conservatives fanboy over — was deliciously high-heeled and leggings-clad peacockery at its finest.

Don’t believe me?

Feast your eyes.

[letsbelonelytogetherr]

— Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld (via letsbelonelytogetherr)

[threeamserif]

instagram | photos are my own, reblogs fine, do not repost/reuse

[metanoias-substack]

More Venice aesthetics.

An impossibly chic Paul Newman during the 1963 Venice Film Festival (Archivio Cameraphoto Epoche/Getty Images).

Morning commute on a vaporetto, Venice, 1960, by Gianni Berengo Gardin, one of Italy’s greatest photographers.

[metanoias-substack]

I’m trying to read more instead of doomscrolling.

One neat trick I’ve found helps is to sandwich a new book between related books I’ve read and loved.

This way, I know I’m in for a treat, regardless of how the new book turns out.

Jan Morris’s Venice (affiliate link), supposedly one of the greatest travelogues ever written, has languished on my bookshelf for a good decade now. It’s about time I gave it some love.

Incidentally, these three make a perfect summer reading list.

[metanoias-substack]

New OBSESSION unlocked. The Hours of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, ruler of Milan, late 14th century.

Creation of Eve, LF46v, attributed to Belbello da Pavia.

Fall of the Rebel Angels, LF12.

[metanoias-substack]

Some things never change. A mischievous cat walked over this 15th century manuscript from Dubrovnik, Croatia.

[the-lady-and-the-unicorn]

Medieval dragons across Europe and the Middle East

[metanoias-substack]

German Renaissance art isn’t getting the hype it deserves. It has it all.

Impeccable autumn palettes: check.

Delightfully whimsical characters that are just begging to be children’s book illustrations: check.

The sassiest Saint George you’ve ever seen: check!

Michael Pacher, St Barbara, ca. 1480-90

Anonymous, St Barbara Is Led into the Tower, ca. 1420

Simon von Taisten, St George and the Dragon, ca 1490

[metanoias-substack]

Why did we stop making our homes beautiful?

Top: Photographs of traditional houses in Koprivshtitsa, Bulgaria, by Anthony Georgieff (left) and Boryana Krasteva (right)

Bottom: Chimneys of residential houses in Koprivshtitsa. Sketches by architect Todor Zlatev, 1931

[metanoias-substack]

The Kiss of the Oceans, a postcard from 1923. Based on a map of the same name designed by Charles A. de Lisle Holland in 1910.

[metanoias-substack]

Harry Clarke, The Little Sea Maid (1916)

Clarke was an Irish stained-glass artist and book illustrator (what a cool combo!) and a leading figure in the Irish Arts and Crafts Movement. He was especially influenced by Art Nouveau, Art Deco and the French Symbolist movement.

[metanoias-substack]

Oh well I guess it’s settled then. I’m getting myself a cabinet of curiosities and I’m filling it with gigantic seashells.

Alexandre-Isidore Leroy de Barde, Selection of Shells Arranged on Shelves, ca. 1810

[metanoias-substack]

Now that a certain high-profile and predictably tawdry event in Venice is finally over, here is an image of a beautiful party in La Serenissima to cleanse our palates:

Wilhelm von Gegerfelt, Venice in Twilight (1883)

[metanoias-substack]

The Iliad offers a fresh — and liberating — lens through which we can view privilege and accomplishment.

Homer’s characters, though tragically and irresistibly flawed in many ways, to their credit never seem to resent noble lineage, excellence or greatness.

You are devastatingly handsome, impossibly athletic or dangerously cunning through no fault of your own?

You descend from a long line of great heroes and famed beauties?

Ah, then you must be one of the gods’ favourites, and will be revered, admired and feared as such.

Here are some lessons on privilege that we, the terminally online post-moderns, can learn from the ancient Greeks.

[metanoias-substack]

The gods perceive what lies in the future,

and mortals, what occurs in the present,

but wise men

apprehend what is imminent.

— Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana, VIII, 7

© Image by Sueda Gln

[metanoias-substack]

Wedding in Toropets (detail) by anonymous Russian painter, late 1700s

Ahinora (1925) by Ivan Milev, the founder of the Bulgarian Secession movement