Love of learning is the guide of life

I just thought that I should take a needed break from writing my paper for my Early Greek Art class to talk about another Greek related topic, ΦBK. I was inducted into this academic honor society on Sunday (which I almost missed on account of my trip to The Princeton Museum in order to work on my Early Greek Art paper!) and feel fortunate and honored to be a part of this organization. Their motto, "Love of learning is the guide of life", is one which reflects my own love of learning and one which I will happily adopt as my own personal motto.

Back to Greek Art! For my paper, I have chosen an Attic red-figure psykter dating from about 500 B.C. from The Princeton Museum. "What," you might ask, "in the world is a psykter?" And I shall answer you by telling you that a psykter is a wine cooler used at drinking parties, also known as symposiums, attended by men during the ancient Greek period. Wine and water were mixed in a larger krater and the resulting mixture was poured into a psykter. The psykter was then placed into a krater filled with cool water or snow to keep the diluted wine cool. There you have it, ancient refrigeration!

Now there's a Greek who likes his wine!

Class Field Trip: Cloisters

Our Gothic Art professor arranged a field trip to the Cloisters yesterday. Part of the purpose of the trip was to see some of the art works we have been discussing in class (Unicorn Tapestries, Tapestries of the Nine Worthies, the Book of Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux, and the Merode Altarpiece [which we will discuss later in class]); the other reason for the trip was so that each student could choose an object on which to write a paper. I chose the "Psalter and Hours of Bonne of Luxembourg" who was the Duchess of Normandy. The manuscript is small, measuring about 3" x 5" (76 mm x 127 mm) and the painting is exquisite; I love the delicately painted birds scattered among the colorful and leafy vines of the marginalia (I counted about fourteen of them, each one different than the other); the bunny in the lower right of the frame is also très adorable!). It is really incredible how the details in the minuscule faces were painted; the precision and control of the artist(s) is beyond belief--the book must have been painted with a magnifying glass and an eyelash!

I wish I could have gotten a better image, but it is really difficult to take a picture of a book behind glass. The scene on the top seems to be King David (who is typically depicted with a lyre; a very appropriate subject since this is a psalter and many of the psalms are attributed to him) with two other figures who are also holding instruments. The bottom depicts the same David, but captures a scene from his youth just at the moment when the stone has left his hand and is about to hit the Philistine giant Goliath (note the sway and elongation of Goliath's body which are characteristics of the International Gothic Style)

Update: Women and Law

Woo HOO! It seems that our teacher didn't show up for class tonight and so all the students left early. I'm going to use this time to catch up on my readings and perhaps get started on my second paper for Italian Renaissance and Baroque Architecture.