Category Archives: Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology

rocks of ages and sages

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Dave

The rock monasteries of Cappadocia. In the days of Byzantium, monks turned weird rock cones into a city of cells and churches. It was part of central Turkey and a volcano buried the country-side for forty square miles in a … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged Ahmet Ertug, Buckle Church Cappadocia, Cappadocia churches, Cappadocia Monasteries, Church of the Serpent Cappadocia, Julian the Apostate, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Monasticism history, Saint Gregory of Nanzianus, Saint Jerome, Saint Jerome Vulgate, the anchorites, The Dark Church Cappadocia, the Dendrites, the stylites, the Thebaid | Leave a comment

seraglio hide and seek

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Dave

Don’t look back, it might be catching up to you. Being a Sultan was not an occupation, some call it a calling, others a divine right of kings. In any event, it was not for the faint of heart. Lots … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged Battle of Nicopolis, Bayezid and Tamerlane, Bayezid Turkish Sultan, Christopher Marlowe, circassian women, Grand Seraglio Istanbul, john frederick lewis, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, P.T. Barnum Circassian women | Leave a comment

wild and wooly: oh effendi!

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Dave

the Turks. The young turks,the old turks, they were all wild; from the quiet tranquility of the garden to the live action slicing and dicing of the human body, there was rarely a dull moment in the Ottoman Turkish empire. … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged 10cc sheet music, eric stewart 10cc, Evliya Effendi, Grand Seraglio, Grand Seraglio Istanbul, hatice Muazzez Sultan, Ibrahim Ottoman Sultan, Jean Chartier illustration, Jean Froissart Chronicles, kevin godley, Kiusem Queen Mother Ottoman Sultan, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Murad IV Ottoman Sultan, Osman and Mustafa, Ottoman Empire, Siege of Constantinople, Sultan Osman, the 10cc fan club | Leave a comment

all fall down

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Dave

Down the labyrinth with no idea how to get out. Seven ways to the center but only one route out. And at that center is a dichotomy; either a minoutaur lying in wait at the end of the journey or … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged Franz Kafka, Icarus, jean fouquet, Joshua and Jericho, Joshua and the fall of Jericho, Moses Cordovero, myth of daedalus, myth of Daedelus, Pablo Picasso, Salvador dali, salvador dali and picasso, Salvador Dali Vermeer | Leave a comment

a-maze-ing: of minotaurs and men

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Dave

Once you are in you’re in. If you make a myth your matrix and if that myth is centered upon as ancient and potent a concept as the Labyrinth, you build it around yourself without becoming aware that you are … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Modern Arts/Craft | Tagged Arkville Maze, Armand G. Erpf, Greek Mythology, Homer The Iliad, Icarus greek myth, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Michael Ayrnton, myth of Daedelus, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Virgil the Aeneid | Leave a comment

foiled hopes

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Dave

The Enlighenment. The Age of the Enlightenment. The name of an age, the eighteenth century all across Europe and the colonies in the New World and the name of a movement that pervaded and came to dominate that age: a … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Modern Arts/Craft | Tagged David Hume, Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, Immanuel Kant, Jacques Lacan, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Max Horkheimer, Peter Howson, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Slavoj Zizek, Sokari Douglas Camp, The marquis de Sade, Theodor Adorno, Voltaire, Wieland Schonied | Leave a comment

who’s the fairest sultan of all

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Dave

The Grand Seraglio. As opposed to Seraglio Minor. Yes that Grand Seraglio with the violence, the death and the sex fueled only the passion thatsix thousand concubines can command and the wayward restlessness of the Janissary guards. Frontier justice and … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Cinema/Visual/Audio, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged Ahmed I and Mustafa, Grand Seraglio, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Lord Baltimore, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Michel Baudier, Mustafa the cage, Ottaviano Bon, Radu the Handsome, Sultan Ahmed I, sultan murad IV, Sultan Osman | Leave a comment

within these walls what secrets…

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Dave

The Grand Seraglio. Within its walls the Turkist Sultans sought an answer to a an old question: Can absolute power bring absolute bliss? Within the confines of what is today the Topakapi Museum, the Sultan’s residence the answer between the … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged Gentile Bellini, Grand Seraglio, Janissary Corps, john frederick lewis, Lady Mary Whortley, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Mahmud II, Michel Baudier, Murad IV, Ottaviano Bon, Pierre Auguste Renoir | Leave a comment

seraglio: methodical despotism

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Dave

The Grand Seraglio. The search for absolute bliss backed up by absolute power with all the variations of sex, death, and violence could muster. The price to pay for approaching utopian conditions in a sort of Islamic version of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged Ahmed II, Gentile Bellini, Jean Leon Gerome, Karl Pavlovic Brullov, Le Stourgeon, Madame Girardin, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Ottaviano Bon, Sir Paul Rycaut, The Grand Seraglio | Leave a comment

sultans of swing: grim tunes

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Dave

The beheaded and the beholden. The Grand Seraglio. Within its walls the Turkish Sultans sought the answer to a perplexing and ancient question: Can absolute power bring absolute bliss? It brought a lot of absolutes to be sure, and the … Continue reading →