Brought to you by James Payne, a curator & lover of art, Great Art Explained seeks to unveil some of the world's greatest paintings & sculptures in an approachable & well-balanced light
Highly recommend this one on Bosch
Apr 24, 2021 • 17 tweets • 7 min read
An impressive short book for anyone looking to understand & embody the "long term". It includes a handful of exploratory short essays that elegantly frames what the @stewartbrand & the team at @longnow is building.
""kairos (opportunity or the propitious moment) and chronos (eternal or ongoing time). While the first...offers hope, the second extends a warning." Kairos is the time of cleverness, chronos the time of wisdom."
Jan 17, 2021 • 59 tweets • 23 min read
Volume VI. The Reformation
With his quintessential & commanding prose, Durant captures the history & drama of European civilization outside of Italy from 1300-1564. Another text worth savoring.
"Our knowledge is a receding mirage in an expanding desert of ignorance."
Jan 10, 2021 • 16 tweets • 6 min read
John Ruskin Selected Writings
Another gem of a find at the local bookstore. His works are fluid, inventive, & transformative, shaping not only the Victorian era's thought, but also ours. The diversity of his works & opinions makes reading them a thrill.
John Ruskin, 1 of the 19th century's most powerful art & societal critics. His writings cover a multiplicity of genres & ideas, including science, education, social politics, & aesthetics.
At its essence, he teaches us to use our eyes, to see the world afresh.
Nov 1, 2020 • 24 tweets • 12 min read
62/ A masterpiece in French Gothic architecture, Chartres Cathedral
"The fame of Chartres rests on its sculpture and its glass. In this palace of the Virgin live 10,000 carved or pictured personages—men, women, children, saints, devils, angels, and the Persons of the Trinity." 63/ Chartres roses
"The modern spirit, too hurried and nervous to achieve patient and placid perfection, stands in wonder before works that must be ascribed not to the genius of singular individuals, but to the spirit and industry of a people, a community, an epoch, and a faith"
Oct 24, 2020 • 17 tweets • 9 min read
An excellent overview of urbanism & its formal elements by the MIT Emeritus Professor, Michael Dennis.
At the heart of a city, are foundational elements which when neglected, erodes the narrative experience of once magnificent spaces.
1. Cites are about urban space and not objects 2. How to make urban architecture and urban landscape 3. Cities should be lived in and not commuted to from suburbs
Oct 3, 2020 • 62 tweets • 28 min read
Volume IV. The Age of Faith
Encompassing the history of medieval civilization (Byzantine, Islamic, Judaic, and West European) from Constantinople to Dante (AD 325-1330).
As usual, Durant delivers with incredible understanding, nuance, & grace.
"The meeting and conflict of the four cultures in the Crusades provides a measure of unity; and the tired reader, appalled by the length of the book, may find some consolation in learning that the original manuscript was half again longer than the present text."
Sep 20, 2020 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
Another fascinating & captivating piece by @Ada_Palmer on the historic & vibrant city that is Florence.
Brought to mind to so many lovely memories 👏
In no way a substitution for reading its entirety, here are just a few of my favorite highlights!
"Every two months nine names were pulled out, and these nine men became the Signoria, the ruling council, to rule the city for two months. At the end of these two months new names were drawn, so no one ever ruled alone,..."
Sep 12, 2020 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
I have a sneaking intuition that I'm going to be revisiting this piece often. Timeless wisdom in complex systems & cities.
> A City is Not a Tree by Chris Alexander (1965)
*cc @context_ing - if you haven't already, this may be right up your alley.
"When compared with ancient cities that have acquired the patina of life, our modern attempts to create cities artificially are, from a human point of view, entirely unsuccessful."
Trees & semilattices are ways of thinking about complex systems.
Sep 8, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Lessons from a Stoic.
-Will Durant's, Caesar & Christ
"But how does one acquire wisdom? By practicing it daily, in however modest a degree; by examining your conduct of each day at its close;"
Critical self-examination & surrounding yourself w/ virtuous friends/mentors
"by being harsh to your own faults and lenient to those of others; by associating with those who excel you in wisdom and virtue; by taking some acknowledged sage as your invisible counselor and judge."
Aug 29, 2020 • 24 tweets • 8 min read
@Ada_Palmer's 5-part series on Machiavelli was an absolute joy to dive into.
The ability to synthesize such a complex character & time period, all while entertaining the reader, is to be applauded.
Here are just a couple of my favorite passages ✌️
exurbe.com/machiavelli-s-…1/ "Yes, I am going to talk about Machiavelli, and I hope you see here that the fundamental mistake most introductions to Machiavelli make is that they start by talking about Machiavelli. Context is everything."
"Structural members relate to one another with a visual poetry of mutual negotiation, collaboration, and celebration, creating visual harmony."
Brilliant & provocative (h/t Nathaniel Walker & the @classicist).
classicist.org/articles/grace…
The lovely dance of columns, scrolls, & bouquets. They should be polite to one another & seek to celebrate one's "grace under pressure".
Abruptness is antithetical to classicism's greatest virtue.
Aug 26, 2020 • 44 tweets • 15 min read
Volume III. Caesar and Christ
Covering the interwoven histories of Rome & Christianity up until the time of Constantine, it's a narrative masterpiece. The brainpower needed to construct such a synthesis and with such prose, is commendable.
"Properly applying the [Classical] orders can still make our buildings speak, speak eloquently and with the wisdom of tradition."
Aug 3, 2020 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Forewords generally receive a bad rap, but this one by John Norwood from 1988, is FILLED with timeless gems.
An elegant prose, he explains
1. Why the art of architecture & the men/women who practice it, are underrated
2. How to sharpen our aesthetic sense
Let's explore ⏭️
So, why is it so often dismissed?
1. The art is not a pure one
If the archichect gets carried away by his desire to create a work of art to the point where that work can no longer perform its function, then, however beguiling it may be to the eye, it is bad architecture.
...
Jul 2, 2020 • 44 tweets • 14 min read
Volume II. The Life of Greece
Covering the rise & fall of Greek civilization, beginning with the Neolithic Age in Crete & ending with the conquest of Greece by Rome, this illustrious volume showcases the incredibly rich variety of Greek culture. amazon.com/Life-Greece-St…2/ While we may ascribe the pinnacle of culture & civilization to the Greeks, the Greeks themselves saw Egypt as embodying the highest development of society.
“You Greeks,” said an Egyptian priest to Solon, “are mere children, talkative and vain, and knowing nothing of the past”
Jun 30, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Victorian-style architecture at its finest in Wicker Park, Chicago.
1. Weinhardt Mansion, "The Gingerbread Mansion", 1888 (left) 2. John Rapp House, built on Beer Baron Row, 1880 (top right) 3. Harris Cohn House, "The Wicker Park Castle", 1880 (bottom right)
No better than time than the present to dive into Will and Ariel Durant's, The Story of Civilization.
Narrating Western history over 11 volumes, 10,000 pages, 4 mil words, & 375 hours of Kindle reading hours, I couldn't be more delighted.
Will file my favorite passages here 👇
Preface
"For the probability of error increases with the scope of the undertaking, and any man who sells his soul to synthesis will be a tragic target for a myriad merry darts of specialist critique."
May 24, 2020 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
Few people write timeliness and enthralling narrative non-fiction better than @candice_millard.
Having already read The River of Doubt my expectations for Here of the Empire were sky high. Millard did not disappoint.
“Bullets—to a philosopher my dear Mamma—are not worth considering,” he would assure his mother ... “I do not believe the Gods would create so potent a being as myself for so prosaic an ending.”
2/12
Mar 15, 2020 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Falling in love with Will Durant's writing all over again.
Volume 5, The Renaissance, is a captivating journey from the age of Petrarch, the rise of the Medici, the birth of Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, and the numerous colorful popes.
Brilliant sentences aplenty.
Petrarch & ✍️
"the pen we take up rejoicing, and lay down with satisfaction; for it has the power to advantage not only its lord and master but many others as well, even though they be not born for thousands of years to come..."
Came across this insightful @TheActuaryMag article on the history of British actuarial thought and was surprised to see some familiar names, such as Edmond Halley, John Maynard Keynes, Frank Redington, and Frederick Macaulay!
“Edmond Halley (the Astronomer Royal of comet fame)...deserves credit for the first mortality table to be produced using recognisable statistical methods objectively applied to mortality data.”
63/ Chartres roses
1/ The crazy & bizarre system that was the Signoria
Another treasure. 
