Culture Explorer Profile picture
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.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Culture Explorer

Culture Explorer Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @CultureExploreX

Jun 14
You think Europe is refined, orderly, predictable?
Then you haven’t been to Sicily.

Here, civilizations clashed. Greek temples, Norman castles, Baroque churches, Arab domes, Christian altars. The Godfather...

Let’s walk through the places that make Sicily unforgettable 🧵👇 the Roman Theater of Catania
Casa Professa, Palermo

Baroque without restraint.

Marble explodes across every surface, ceiling to floor, like the church itself couldn’t contain the faith inside it.
Valley of the Temples, Agrigento

Once a rival to Athens.

Now a ghostly colonnade standing watch over olive groves and Sicilian winds. Image
Read 16 tweets
Jun 13
For decades, Iran has been reduced to headlines.

But behind the politics is a land of unimaginable beauty—palaces, poetry, sacred light, and stone cities older than Rome.

Let’s rediscover the real Iran through breathtaking places you’ll never forget 🧵👇 “Nation Gate” or “Gate of all Nation” is a gate constructed during Achaemenid era by King Xerxes order. He was the successor of the founder of Persepolis, Darius.
Vank Cathedral, Isfahan (1606)

Armenian resilience meets Persian detail. Inside: frescos, tilework, and a library that survived centuries. Credit: @WorldOfPicture5
Golestan Palace, Tehran (1524)

Qajar elegance wrapped in mirrors, marble, and European charm. The peacock throne once stood here. Image
Read 25 tweets
Jun 12
Before Picasso broke forms and Duchamp mocked art...
A group of painters built entire worlds of beauty, myth, and silence.

They weren’t rebels.
They were the last idealists.

And when the world changed, it left them behind.
Their story deserves to be remembered. 🧵👇 The paintings:  When the heart is young, 1902 Dolce Far Niente, 1897 Dolce Far Niente, 1906 All paintings are by John William Godward. Credit: period.dramas.lover
Lawrence Alma-Tadema

He recreated ancient Rome with obsessive detail—temples, baths, and sunlit terraces.

His marble looked colder than real stone. His women, timeless.

At his peak, he was a celebrity.
By the 1920s? Virtually erased. The Finding of Moses, 1904, oil on canvas, 137.7 × 213.4 cm, private collection.
The Women of Amphissa, 1887, Clark Art Institute
Sappho and Alcaeus, completed in 1881, depicts Sappho and her companions listening as the poet Alcaeus of Mytilene plays a kithara, on the island of Lesbos (Walters Art Museum).
The Education of the Children of Clovis (1861), oil on canvas, 127 × 176.8 cm, private collection. Queen Clotilde, wife of King Clovis, is shown training her three young children the art of hurling the axe to avenge the death of her father.
John William Godward

A disciple of Alma-Tadema.
He fled to Rome to escape modernism.

He painted silent, solitary women wrapped in togas, draped in color, resting in peace.

The world mocked him.
He destroyed all his work before dying by suicide in 1922. A fair reflection, 1915
Read 15 tweets
Jun 11
June 11, 323 BC: Alexander the Great dies suddenly in Babylon.

No wounds. No battle. Just a rising fever and silence.

Was it poison? A god’s curse. Or something more mundane that no one expected?

Here’s the real story behind history’s most haunting death. 🧵👇 Statue of Alexander the Great riding Bucephalus and carrying a winged statue of Nike.  Pella, Macedonia/Greece ©Carole Raddato
The empire Alexander built stretched from Greece to India.

His generals fought over it for decades after his death.

Because he died without naming a clear successor.

And nobody knows why. Image
For over 2,000 years, rumors have circled:

He was poisoned.
He drank himself to death.
He collapsed under madness.

Each version says more about politics than medicine. Augustus at the tomb of Alexander the Great by Lionel Royer
Read 18 tweets
Jun 11
He painted the most famous face in Western art.

But behind those soft lines was a mind unraveling, torn between God, myth, and mortality.

This isn’t just the story of Botticelli’s Venus. It’s about the man who gave beauty a soul... 🧵👇 Image
He was born Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi in Florence.

But the world would come to know him as Botticelli.

A student of Fra Filippo Lippi, he inherited the ability to blend sacred tenderness with poetic sorrow.

And then took it somewhere darker. Adoration of the Magi .... Botticelli may have drawn his self-portrait (person on the far right)
In the 1470s, Botticelli found his voice.

He painted The Madonna of the Magnificat, a round image of Mary writing her hymn of praise while Christ, barely an infant, guides her hand.

But the real story is how Botticelli broke the rules of space and form to show silent awe. Magnificat Madonna, c. 1483, Uffizi, Florence
Read 15 tweets
Jun 10
Vienna looks polished but dig deeper, and you’ll find the weight of empires, revolutions, and rebirth.

You are not walking through a city, you are walking through history.

After these 15 places, you won’t just visit Vienna. You’ll feel it. 🧵 Kunsthistoriches Museum Café in Vienna Credit: Elena Sanchez on pinterest pin/441915782204949240/
Austrian National Library (1723)

This was a throne room for knowledge, commissioned by Emperor Charles VI to rival the grandeur of Versailles.

Today, it holds over 12 million items.
You feel history just standing inside. The Austrian National Library in Vienna is the largest library in Austria, with more than 12 million items in its various collections. Founded by the Habsburgs, the library was originally called the Imperial Court Library. Renamed in 1920. The library complex includes four museums, as well as multiple special collections and archives.
Justizpalast (1881)

In 1927, protestors lit this building on fire.

Anger over a trial verdict erupted into violence.
Austria’s fragile democracy trembled that day. Image
Read 19 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(