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The Cultural Tutor

@culturaltutor

Feb 9

This is Mount Nemrut in Turkey, one of the strangest ancient ruins in the world.

It's a colossal, 2,000 year old burial mound on top of a mountain, surrounded by huge stone heads.

Who built it? A king who wanted to become a god...

First, where is Mount Nemrut?

It's in the Taurus Mountains, a range in south-eastern Turkey. And, rising to more than 2,000 metres, it's one of the tallest mountains in the region.

It was part of the ancient Kingdom of Commagene, a small state that fought both with and against the Roman Republic, and eventually became part of the Roman Empire.

The tomb-temple at Mount Nemrut was built in 62 BC, when Commagene was an independent kingdom.

Read 24 tweets

The Cultural Tutor

@culturaltutor

Feb 5

A brief history of landscape art:

In Medieval Europe landscape painting wasn't a genre of its own, and it hardly featured in art at all.

Notice how the background of this 11th century mural indicates the landscape merely by the generic sketch of a castle and an isolated, highly stylised tree:

This changed in the 14th century with Giotto, a revolutionary painter from Florence.

He introduced proper landscapes into his paintings: rocks, trees, flowers, and skies.

But Giotto's version of nature remains highly stylised; this is not a "realistic" landscape.

Read 25 tweets

The Cultural Tutor

@culturaltutor

Feb 3

In the year 1712 something incredibly strange happened in Sweden.

For the first and only time in history, February had 30 days.

Here's the story of what happened — and why...

The story begins in 753 BC, when Rome was founded by the mythical Romulus.

Now, Romulus was credited with creating the first Roman calendar.

It had ten months, each of 30 or 31 days, beginning in March and ending in December.

What about the time between December and March?

Early Rome was fundamentally agricultural. With less work to do in Winter it was simply a long, dark, and undated stretch of time.

But as Roman society grew more sophisticated this situation became obviously troublesome.

Read 24 tweets

The Cultural Tutor

@culturaltutor

Jan 28

This is the American Radiator Building, a 101 year old black and gold skyscraper that's half Gothic, half Art Deco.

It's famous, but not as famous as it should be — so here's a brief history of one of the world's coolest skyscrapers...

In 1923 the American Radiator Company wanted to build a new office in New York.

This was the Golden Age of Skyscrapers: the Woolworth Building was ten years old, and the Empire State and Chrysler were less than a decade away.

So it was going to be a skyscraper... but what sort?

Enter Raymond Hood, an architect who had just won the competition to design Chicago's Tribune Tower.

Even though it hadn't yet been completed, his Neo-Gothic design was so well-received that the American Radiator Company wanted him to design their new skyscraper.

Read 25 tweets

The Cultural Tutor

@culturaltutor

Jan 25

Why Brutalism isn't as bad as you think...

When you hear the word "Brutalism" what comes to mind?

Maybe something like this: an uninspiring line of highrises, the sort people tend to call boring, generic, or even oppressive.

But that isn't real Brutalism — and it never has been.

Brutalism has become a byword for any modern building made primarily of concrete.

But that would be like saying Gothic Architecture is anything built from stone, or that Islamic Architecture is anything with ceramic tiles for decoration.

It simply isn't true.

Read 23 tweets

The Cultural Tutor

@culturaltutor

Jan 18

Urban design isn't magic — there are specific reasons why we like some places more than others.

So here are 10 ways to make a street more (or less) interesting...

1. Street Parking

Parked cars, however nice they look themselves, almost always make a street look less appealing and feel less inviting.

There are two broad reasons for this.

The first is aesthetic — no car, however good it looks, was designed to be in the place it happens to be parked, with those particular buildings.

So, rather than contributing to a street's appearance, a parked car is always aesthetically incohesive with its surroundings.

Read 25 tweets

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