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Feb 29, 2024 17 tweets 6 min read Read on X
Spring is a fierce reminder that from the barren comes the bloom, challenging the gloom to surrender to life.

This eternal cycle of rebirth and renewal is captured in the world's most beautiful spring paintings, each a tribute to nature's resilience and beauty. 🧵⤵️ By Pierre Auguste Cot - Metropolitan Museum of Art, online collection (The Met object ID 438158), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20137984
1. "Primavera" by Sandro Botticelli - A Renaissance masterpiece filled with mythological symbolism and lush, spring imagery. La Primavera (1482) by Sandro Botticelli; Sandro Botticelli, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
2. "Almond Blossom" by Vincent van Gogh - This painting is a celebration of spring and new life, with vibrant blue skies and blossoming almond trees. By Vincent van Gogh - dAFXSL9sZ1ulDw at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21977493
3. "Spring" by Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1635) - A 17th-century village awakens in spring, blending Flemish detail with the season's joy in bustling human and natural life. Image
4. "The Orchard" by Claude Monet - An impressionist depiction of a spring orchard in bloom, showcasing Monet's mastery of light and color. An Orchard in Spring (1886) by Claude Monet; Claude Monet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
5. "Spring" by Nicolas Poussin (1664) - Poussin's classical depiction of spring harmonizes mythological elegance with the season's renewal, capturing timeless beauty in serene landscapes. Spring (1664) by Nicolas Poussin; Nicolas Poussin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
6. "A Spring Morning in the Heart of the City" by Childe Hassam - An American Impressionist painting capturing the lively essence of spring in an urban setting. Image
7. "Spring in Italy" by Isaac Levitan (1890) - A serene depiction of the Italian countryside, highlighting the tranquil beauty of spring. Isaac Levitan, Spring in Italy, ca. 1890, private collection. Wikiart
8. "Plum Trees in Blossom Éragny" (1894) by Camille Pissarro - A vibrant and lively representation of plum trees in spring, showcasing the beauty of nature's renewal. Image
9. "Springtime" by Pierre-Auguste Cot - A romantic and idealized portrayal of young love in a lush spring setting. Pierre-Auguste Cot, Springtime (1873). Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
10. "Vasanti Ragini, Page from a Ragamala Series" (1710), India - This exquisite piece from the Ragamala series embodies the spirit of spring through vibrant colors and poetic imagery, intertwining music, mood, and season in a celebration of cultural heritage. Vasanti Ragini, Page from a Ragamala Series (Garland of Musical Modes), ca. 1710, India. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA.
11. "Kumoi-Zakura" by Hiroshi Yoshida (1920) - Yoshida's print captures the ephemeral beauty of cherry blossoms against a serene sky, embodying the fleeting essence of spring in Japan with delicate precision and tranquil harmony. Hiroshi Yoshida, Kumoi-Zakura, ca. 1920, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Spain. Wikimedia Commons (public domain).
12. "Wisteria" by Claude Monet - Part of Monet's exploration of his Giverny garden, this painting immerses the viewer in the beauty and tranquility of blooming wisteria. Image
13. "The Swing" by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1767) - Fragonard's iconic work, with its playful romance and lush, verdant setting, encapsulates the frivolity and sensuousness of spring, immortalized in the rococo style's exuberant embrace of color and light Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing.  Wallace Collection, London, United Kingdom.
14. "The Storm" by Pierre-Auguste Cot - Cot's masterpiece, with its dramatic portrayal of young lovers caught in a sudden spring storm, combines the intensity of emotion with the transient beauty of nature, capturing a moment of both vulnerability and enchantment. By Pierre Auguste Cot - 1. Pierre-Auguste Cot: The Storm (87.15.134). In Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. [1] (January 2007)2. Metropolitan Museum of Art, online collection (The Met object ID 435997), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1601165
15. "The Mount Riboudet in Rouen" at Spring by Claude Monet (1872) - Monet's impressionistic view of Rouen in spring captures the luminous play of light and shadow, showcasing his masterful depiction of the season's vibrant colors and atmospheric changes. The Mount Riboudet in Rouen at Spring by Claude Monet in Public Domain (1872) WikiArt
As spring reawakens the earth, which masterpieces of its renewal should be included in our collection? The Small Meadows in Spring (1881) by Alfred Sisley:  Sisley captures the tranquil essence of spring with delicate precision, portraying the lush, blooming meadows with a lightness and fluidity that breathes life into the landscape.  Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

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More from @CultureExploreX

Dec 19
Forget the predictable Christmas destinations.

If you want a December that actually feels like Christmas, these places still get it right.

Snow, bells, candlelight, and streets older than modern life itself.

Here are 23 European towns that turn Christmas into something real. 🧵⤵️Old Town Tallinn, Estonia Christmas Market
Tallinn, Estonia

One of Europe’s oldest Christmas markets, set inside a medieval square that time forgot. Credit: @archeohistories
Florence, Italy

Renaissance stone glowing under festive lights. Christmas surrounded by genius. Credit: @learnitalianpod
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Dec 18
Christmas didn’t just change how people worship.

It rewired how the West thinks about identity, guilt, desire, reason, and the soul.

This thread traces the thinkers who quietly shaped your mind, whether you believe or not. 🧵 Neapolitan presepio at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh
Paul the Apostle did something radical in the first century.

He told people their past no longer had the final word. Not birth. Not class. Not failure.

That idea detonated the ancient world. Identity became moral, not tribal. A statue of St. Paul in the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran by Pierre-Étienne Monnot
Origen of Alexandria shocked early Christians by saying Scripture wasn’t simple on purpose.

He argued that God hid meaning beneath the surface.

Truth, he said, rewards effort. If reading never costs you anything, you’re not reading deeply enough. Origen significantly contributed to the development of the concept of the Trinity and was among the first to name the Holy Spirit as a member of the Godhead
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Dec 10
We’ve been taught a false story for 150 years that Evolution erased God.

But evidence from science, psychology, and history points to a very different conclusion, one that almost no one is ready to face.

Nature produced a creature that refuses to live by nature’s rules. 🧵 During the 13th century, Saint Thomas Aquinas sought to reconcile Aristotelian philosophy with Augustinian theology. Aquinas employed both reason and faith in the study of metaphysics, moral philosophy, and religion. While Aquinas accepted the existence of God on faith, he offered five proofs of God’s existence to support such a belief.
When Darwin buried his daughter Anne, he didn’t lose his faith because of fossils.

He lost it because he couldn’t square a good God with a world full of pain.

Evolution didn’t break him. Grief did. Anne Darwin's grave in Great Malvern.
But here’s something we often forget.

The same evolutionary world that frightened Darwin is the one that produced compassion, loyalty, sacrifice, and love.

Traits no random process should easily create.

Why did nature bother?
No one has a satisfying answer. Hugging is a common display of compassion.
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Nov 21
This inscription was carved into a cliff 2,500 years ago. At first glance you see a king towering over chained rebels.

But this isn’t a carving of victory. It’s a warning.

The ruler who ordered it was watching his world fall apart and trying to warn us that ours will too. 🧵 Image
He didn’t carve this to celebrate power.
He carved it because rebellion nearly shattered the world he ruled.

A man rose up claiming the throne. People believed him. Entire provinces switched allegiance overnight.

Reality and Truth were twisted. Loyalties changed.

The king wasn’t concerned with rebellion, rather he was concerned with confusion.The Behistun Inscription is a multilingual Achaemenid royal inscription and large rock relief on a cliff at Mount Behistun in the Kermanshah Province of Iran.  Photo By Korosh.091 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0
The purpose of the inscription was to leave lessons for future generations.

Lesson 1: A civilization dies the moment truth becomes optional.

His empire didn’t collapse because of war or famine. It collapsed because millions accepted a story that wasn’t real. And once people started believing the false king, the entire structure of society twisted with frightening speed.

Truth wasn’t a moral preference to him.
It was the ground everything stood on.
Read 16 tweets
Sep 27
Civilizations don’t just fall.

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Art has always mirrored collapse in real time. Here’s the story... 🧵 In 1742 the great Venetian artist Giovanni Antonio Canal (1697-1768), better known as Canaletto, painted a series of five views of Rome's greatest monuments.
Rome left warnings in paint and stone.

Pompeii’s graffiti mocked leaders, cursed neighbors, and scrawled crude jokes.

“I’m amazed, wall, you haven’t collapsed under the weight of so many scribbles.”

When Vesuvius buried Pompeii, it froze satire in ash. CIL IV 10237. Gladiator Graffiti from the Nucerian Gate, Pompeii, depicting the names “Princeps” and “Hilarius”. Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.
CIL IV 8055. Graffiti depicting Gladiators, Pompeii. Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain
Asellina’s Tavern Election Poster. Picture Credit: Marco Ebreo. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International. Wikimedia Commons
Rufus est (This is Rufus). Caricature from the Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii. Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.
By the 5th century, Roman art had shifted.

Gone were muscular gods and lively battles.
Instead: flat, rigid emperors, empty eyes, Christian symbols replacing myth.

The style mirrored an empire losing vitality. Late Roman mosaics at Villa Romana La Olmeda, Spain, 4th-5th centuries AD By Valdavia - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0
Read 18 tweets
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Friday the 13th wasn’t always unlucky.

It became cursed the morning the most powerful knights in the world were dragged from their beds in chains.

This is the story of the Knights Templar — warrior monks who built empires, invented banking, and died in fire. 🧵 Image
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Templars took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. They lived like monks but fought like soldiers, a combination that shocked the medieval world. Image
Read 19 tweets

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