art for the love of it is the highest form of art

arwyn's art/history/literature blog??

[schrl]

17th century rocket cat but i redrew it as pixel art

From: Ein wahres Probiertes und Pracktisches geschriebenes Feuerbuch, 1607. [manuscript] via Folger Shakespeare Library, V.b.311, f. 129r

[thoodleoo]

i think maybe my new favorite category of roman intaglio art is "insects doing human things" because it's so indicative of the human need for whimsy. now take a look at this 1st century BC/AD intaglio of a grasshopper in a chariot pulled by butterflies

[passionpeachy]

an ode to nessie

[fovfvk]

braids the hair of his love

[hollowboobtheory]

ancient greek vet trying to neuter a hydra but alas...

[caesarsaladinn]

age regressing back to toddlerhood for the sole purpose of reopening my critical period and learning Arabic

[100frogsinatrenchcoat]

The ancient Romans were so so right about “eheu” being their word for “alas”. It sounds like the saddest most pathetic little sob. Eheu….

[kallistoi]

[fluentisonus]

☞ THUS

[frankherbertsdune]

It's so funny to me that Mary Shelley, her husband, John Polidori, and Lord Byron had a competition to see who could write the best horror story and she wrote fucking Frankenstein. Imagine losing a competition that badly. Imagine just doing a silly little competition with your friend and she basically invents a new genre and creates one of the most famous characters in fiction. Imagine being proud of your little story and then she shares one that people will still read every day in 200 years. Imagine doing a writing competition with your wife and she becomes so recognizable that you'll always be known as Mary Shelley's husband

[mikeybooch]

Medea, my contribution to the Greek Mythology zine Sing, O Muse! Chthonic Visions. it is inspired by a fragment from the otherwise lost play "The Root-Cutters" by Sophocles. I wanted to focus on the labor that went into witchcraft in the ancient world.

[znj]

[discardingimages]

Out and in

Book of hours, Flanders c. 1485

Kraków, MNK 3025 I, p. 469-470

[theancientfootsteps-deactivated]

just saw someone call christianity a cannibal cult, I can't believe people are unironically regurgitating roman anti-christian talking points in the year of our lord 2025

[starling-spacecadet]

[thecatholicseamstress17129]

Show idea: magical girl group but each girl is based on one of the seven heavenly virtues

[elgringo300-deactivated20260512]

ok so turns out this already exists and it was written in the fifth century AD

[elgringo300-deactivated20260512]

they have their own weapons and everything

[and-her-saints]

resistance to fascists is obedience to God. [x]

[byjove]

Chances are you’ve seen Fayum mummy portraits, the very realistic and warm panel paintings depicting the people of Roman Egypt between the 1st century BC and the 3rd century AD.

They’re breathtaking and very moving. Familiar faces, so human and so beautiful in their humanity. Most of them have been divorced from their purpose, torn from the bodies of the people they depict.

It is a different feeling entirely to see them in their original context.

This boy died before he could finish growing that mustache. Someone’s beloved son, crowned in golden laurels for all eternity, swaddled in linen. He is in there. The depiction of his face covers his face. The other portraits have lost their subject, greedily taken by those who wanted to admire their beauty without acknowledging the profound grief they represent.

[consulships]

i do think theres something sad about how largely only the literature that's considered especially good or important is intentionally preserved. i want to read stuff that ancient people thought sucked enormous balls

[finalproblem-mlm]

Euripides' Medea came dead last in the play competition it was in!