Why do I write about beautiful art and places? What do I hope to accomplish, you may ask. For one thing, I’m intentionally focusing each day on something beautiful or meaningful because I see value in that. To keep my mind above the fray in a challenging world, I’m taking the advice of Paul of Tarsus: “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely . . . think on these things.” Good thoughts lead to good actions. In other words, as my thoughts go, so goes my life.

As the Music Goddess says, wait for it: 😇

Depictions of Noah’s Ark in art of the past: It often served as a visual metaphor for the Church — where people could come to be saved.

Just for fun - Giving names to the hairstyles on ancient statues:

The Boboli Gardens : An enchanting green space in Florence, Italy. They were commissioned around 1549 by Eleonora di Toledo (wife of Duke Cosimo I de' Medici) following her purchase of the Pitti Palace - to provide the family a secure place for fresh air, lovely views, and for hosting performances and gatherings.

For your Sunday: 28 seconds in Venice, looking up at Tiepolo’s heavenly visions.

This is what they could accomplish in the Middle Ages, without AI, computers, or mechanized equipment. The Octagon of Ely Cathedral in England was built from 1322-1340. The panels at the base of the lantern could be opened so that the monks could sing from on high, like a choir of heavenly angels.

The little church of Sant'Alvise in the Cannaregio district of Venice. Its painted trompe l'oeil ceiling is said to represent the heavenly Jerusalem. (My 📸)

Happy Saturday, friends! I hope you find a reason to do a bit of frolicking today.

What unusual feature do you notice about this Tiepolo angel from the ceiling of the Scuola dei Carmini in Venice, Italy? "Seldom in painting have there been angels as attractive as Tiepolo's. This angel has his arms raised and in the hollow of his armpits we see a soft down. This was not customary with angels . . . . not even in Caravaggio." -- Roberto Calasso, in "Tiepolo Pink." An 'earthy' angel with armpit hair. And yet, as Calasso observes, "nothing is as calmly celestial as this angel."

Tomaso Albinoni: A composer Venice-lovers should know! 🙂

A Deep Thought about Ancient Rome by Jack Handy: "If you were an ancient barbarian, I bet a real embarrassing thing would be if you were sacking Rome and your cape got caught on something and you had to ask another barbarian to unhook it for you."

Padua, Italy, boasts an extraordinary historical footprint: Beyond being the burial site of Saint Anthony and home to one of the world's oldest universities, the city served as the setting for Shakespeare’s 'The Taming of the Shrew' and hosted both Dante and Galileo. And . . . Most notably, it houses one of the crown jewels of Western art: Giotto’s masterpiece, the Scrovegni Chapel.

Renaissance architecture worth knowing: 3 Things to Know about the Medici Villa at Poggio a Caiano, Italy: 1. It was commissioned by Lorenzo the Magnificent in the 1480s. Thanks to his innovative architect, Giuliano da Sangallo, the villa features the very first use of a Classical, pedimented temple-front portico on a residential building. This structural detail influenced Andrea Palladio’s iconic villa designs decades later. 2. Departing from the defensive style of medieval estates, Sangallo built the villa on a raised podium encircled by a ground-floor arcade loggia. This design actively opened the living space to the surrounding agricultural landscape. 3. During World War II, the villa’s underground vaults were used as a bomb shelter for major artworks (such as Michelangelo's sculptures from San Lorenzo and over 500 paintings from the Uffizi and Accademia, including works by Botticelli) and also as an air raid shelter for hundreds of local civilians.

Let’s encourage and support the real-life working artists among us here on the X platform! 👇

In 1902, the famous bell tower of St. Mark’s collapsed, 1,000 years after its construction began in 902. It fell almost straight down, not over. The Venetians said it fell like “a gentleman.” Miraculously, no one was killed (except a cat) and there was only minor damage to the surrounding buildings. The campanile was rebuilt 9 years later – com'era, dov'era ("as it was, where it was") - visually identical but structurally sounder. The new bell tower (the one we know today) was inaugurated 1,000 years to the day of the inauguration of the first one’s foundation. Interestingly, when work on the new tower began, workers discovered that the thousand-year old original wooden foundation stakes were still in excellent condition. (Painting: "Stones of Venice," by Pinckney Marcius-Simons, c. 1904-1905)

Private chapel of Eleonora of Toledo, wife of Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici, in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio. Agnolo Bronzino, the great Mannerist, painted the ceiling, altar & walls in the mid 1500s.