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Oct 31

The most disturbing art ever made is 500 years old, by a mysterious Dutch painter.

But these aren't just imaginative nightmares. They're warnings about human nature — and what a world without religion is like.

Click this thread if you dare... 🧵

Very little is known about Hieronymus Bosch, but his art is world-famous.

His paintings take us to Hell and back, revealing what sort of actions land us there, and the consequences...

Bosch is known best for his surreal visions of Hell as a chaotic parade of punishments.

In Bosch's Hell, you won't burn in flames — you'll be crucified in a giant harp and prodded at, or devoured by a half-man, half-fish.

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Culture Critic

@Culture_Crit

Oct 30

Most people don't realize how mysterious the Pyramids truly are.

They're so old that Cleopatra lived closer to us than to their construction — yet Khufu's Pyramid is so precise it aligns north within 1/20th of a degree.

Some more mind-blowing facts about them… 🧵

They're not just incredibly old, but impossibly precise.

The Great Pyramid (attributed to Khufu, c.2550 BC) is 3.4 arcminutes off perfect alignment with true north. That's precision of ~1 millimeter per meter of the length of its base.

Executing such accuracy on something with a 13 acre footprint is astounding — how did they do it?

Possibly with the help of the sun on the equinox, which on that day rises exactly in the east (and sets perfectly in the west)...

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Culture Critic

@Culture_Crit

Oct 29

Which of these paintings of Mary is better?

Pre-Renaissance art might look primitive to our eyes, but it in fact contains a hidden beauty.

Because this isn't a painting of Mary and Jesus — but of the entire universe... (thread) 🧵

Gothic art or icons before the Renaissance might look crude, expressionless, two-dimensional to our eyes.

But it's not because they couldn't paint with perspective, say — they chose not to for a reason...

In iconography, a painting of Jesus is much more than a painting of Jesus.

The process of making it is a symbolic exercise mirroring creation. First, flat colors are the chaos or "formless void" of the universe in Genesis...

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Culture Critic

@Culture_Crit

Oct 27

This 2,700-year-old tablet is the oldest map of the world.

It reveals just how differently the ancients understood the world — but one detail is particularly strange.

It sheds light on a VERY ancient story… (thread) 🧵

The "Imago Mundi" is the oldest map of the world — as it was known to the Babylonians around 700 BC.

It's carved into a small piece of clay, with annotations explaining it, and the creation myth of the world.

The central parts of the map are easy to read:

The Euphrates river runs north to south, straddled by the city of Babylon (modern-day Iraq), and surrounded by cities and regions marked by small circles.

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Culture Critic

@Culture_Crit

Oct 24

We often hear about the 7 Wonders of the World, both ancient and modern.

But what about wonders of the Medieval Age?

Here are seven — and what happened to them... 🧵

There's no "official" list of wonders built in the Middle Ages like for antiquity. The 7 ancient wonders list was proposed by Ancient Greeks, and endured to today.

So here are suggestions — sadly, most are long lost to time...

1. Old London Bridge

By all measures considered a world wonder by medieval Europeans. "Living bridges" were common in the Middle Ages and London's was the greatest — people even flocked to it for religious pilgrimage.

Read 18 tweets

Culture Critic

@Culture_Crit

Oct 23

Everyone knows Botticelli's Birth of Venus — one of the most iconic paintings of all time.

But what exactly is going on here? Scholars have wrestled with its meaning (and mystery) for 500 years.

And it isn't what you think... (thread) 🧵

The first thing to notice is the title is wrong.

Venus, goddess of love, beauty, and fertility, is not actually being born here — she's coming ashore...

In Greek myth, Aphrodite (Venus to the Romans) came to be after Cronus castrated his father Uranus, and threw his genitals into the sea.

Then, out of the sea foam emerged Venus, riding upon a seashell to land on the island of Cyprus.

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