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Hierapolis-Pamukkale, Denizli, Turkey.
Pamukkale is a tourist attraction. It is recognized as a World Heritage Site together with Hierapolis.
December, 2018
Olympus E-M5MarkII
OLYMPUS M.7-14mm F2.8
WWII Memorial at sunset. An unforgettable sight at any hour of the day.
Arlington Memorial Amphitheater
WWII Memorial
I took a kajillion photos on this trip, so I visit the files quite regularly. Bear with me! :~}
Pamukkale, meaning "cotton castle" in Turkish, is a natural site in Denizli in southwestern Turkey. The area is famous for a carbonate mineral left by the flowing water. It is located in Turkey's Inner Aegean region, in the River Menderes valley, which has a temperate climate for most of the year.
Known as Pamukkale (Cotton Castle) or ancient Hierapolis (Holy City), this area has been drawing the weary to its thermal springs since the time of Classical antiquity. The Turkish name refers to the surface of the shimmering, snow-white limestone, shaped over millennia by calcium-rich springs. Dripping slowly down the vast mountainside, mineral-rich waters foam and collect in terraces, spilling over cascades of stalactites into milky pools below. Legend has it that the formations are solidified cotton (the area’s principal crop) that giants left out to dry.
Pamukkale is a tourist attraction. It is recognized as a World Heritage Site together with Hierapolis.
Pamukkale, meaning "cotton castle" in Turkish, is a natural site in Denizli in southwestern Turkey. The area is famous for a carbonate mineral left by the flowing water. It is located in Turkey's Inner Aegean region, in the River Menderes valley, which has a temperate climate for most of the year.
Known as Pamukkale (Cotton Castle) or ancient Hierapolis (Holy City), this area has been drawing the weary to its thermal springs since the time of Classical antiquity. The Turkish name refers to the surface of the shimmering, snow-white limestone, shaped over millennia by calcium-rich springs. Dripping slowly down the vast mountainside, mineral-rich waters foam and collect in terraces, spilling over cascades of stalactites into milky pools below. Legend has it that the formations are solidified cotton (the area’s principal crop) that giants left out to dry.
Pamukkale is a tourist attraction. It is recognized as a World Heritage Site together with Hierapolis.
Vase Detail.
“No one can hurry me down to Hades before my time, but if a man's hour is come, be he brave or be he coward, there is no escape for him when he has once been born.”
― Homer, The Iliad
Old Santa Barbara Mission, is a Spanish mission founded by the Franciscan order near present-day Santa Barbara, California. It was founded by Padre Fermín Lasuén in December 1786 for the religious conversion of the indigenous local Chumash-Barbareño tribe of Native American people. The original church was destroyed in an earthquake and rebuilt. The current facade has a classic, Greco-Roman design copied from a book made by Vitruvius, an ancient Roman architect.
With almost 4000 rooms and thirteen restaurants, Caesar's Palace, is one of the largest resort complexes in the world; a fun land for adults to eat, drink and be merr-y (-ily relieved of their money).
The picture shows a 20 foot (6.1m) tall Caesar Augustus at the entrance to his palace, with one of his towers of rooms behind him.
Greco-Roman statues in Egyptian dress, a product of the Egyptian cult in the Western world. Also seen in the background is the Egyptian obelisk which has pride of place in Munich's State Museum of Egyptian Art.
Today's two photos may be my last to be posted before Christmas, so let me wish all of you a Happy Christmas with friends and loved ones!
Carved faces on stone caps at an ancient theatre at the Ostia Antica archaeological site near Rome, Italy.
Dating from the 1st century AD, the amphitheatre is one of the highlights of the ancient Roman city of Jerash.
Picture taken in 2004.
Abbazia di Sant'Eutizio.
Agli inizi del V secolo nella Valcastoriana giunse un gruppo di monaci ed eremiti siriani. Questi padri si stabilirono nella valle ma non si costruirono un'abitazione, bensì presero dimora presso delle grotte artificiali, scavate in uno sperone di pietra sponga. In ogni grotta vivevano due monaci: un anziano chiamato “abba” e un giovane che imparava “il mestiere” di eremita; così questo insediamento monastico pre-benedettino, con l'appoggio della popolazione autoctona, diede vita ad una comunità improntata sulla regola monastica orientale. Lo stile di vita monastico suscitò ben presto ammirazione e interesse tra gli abitanti, i quali colsero l'umiltà e la spiritualità del loro modus vivendi. La devozione ai monaci fu tale al punto che molti abitanti si unirono alla loro comunità; questa comunità abbaziale fu fondata originariamente da Spes, Eutizio e Fiorenzo.
Il 28 marzo del 510 Spes morì ed Eutizio, date le sue grandi virtù e la sua devozione, prese il suo posto nel cenobio. Dopo la morte di Spes la comunità riuscì a mantenere un sano equilibrio e raggiunse una forma ben definita ed organizzata. Infatti, ebbe un notevole impulso: per celebrare l'impegno di Eutizio per la comunità, venne eretta la chiesa in suo onore, nella quale alla sua morte, il 23 maggio del 540, vennero deposte le proprie spoglie. Egli fu una figura molto importante per la comunità, tanto che fu chiamato l'evangelizzatore della valle.
Quando avanzò la crisi demografica, che nella tarda antichità investì l'impero romano, le invasioni barbariche rasero al suolo i paesi rendendoli deserti; l'Abbazia rimase l'unico punto di riferimento per le popolazioni smarrite della zona. Infatti, come narrano I dialoghi[1] di Gregorio Magno, l'avvento dei Longobardi non sembrò sconvolgere la vita dell'Abbazia. Nel periodo altomedievale l'abbazia fu arricchita da molte donazioni; l'abate conseguì i diritti feudali su un vasto territorio, parte nell'Umbria, parte nella Marca Spoletana. Una cospicua donazione fu lasciata da donna Ageltrude, la vedova di Guido II duca di Spoleto, re d'Italia e imperatore.
La prosperità di cui godeva l'Abbazia permise ai monaci, che ormai vivevano sotto la Regola di San Benedetto[2], di migliorare gli edifici del complesso monastico e di dotarsi di un'efficiente biblioteca e di uno scriptorium, all'interno del quale furono redatti i celebri codici liturgici dell'Abbazia di Sant'Eutizio, codici che testimoniano la forte esperienza di vita e di fede vissuta dai monaci. In questi testi veniva celebrato lo spontaneo connubio tra il senso latino della pietas, il valore benedettino dell'ospitalità e dell'accoglienza, e quello evangelico della charitas a vantaggio dei sofferenti.
Tra le mura dell'Abbazia fu redatto uno dei più antichi e importanti documenti in volgare dopo il Placito di Montecassino: la Confessio Eutiziana, realizzata nella prima metà dell'XI secolo. La biblioteca rimase intatta fino al 1605, quando l'abate Giacomo Crescenzi, appartenente ad una nota famiglia patrizia romana, ne donò una parte (circa 35 codici con miniature) a san Filippo Neri, del quale era stato figlio spirituale.
Inoltre le donazioni permisero all'abate Teodino I nel 1180 di restaurare e ampliare la struttura; servirono molti anni per completare l'opera di restauro, che si concluse nel 1236 con Teodino II. I monaci, mediante i loro studi, acquisirono non solo conoscenze teologiche e umanistiche, ma anche conoscenze mediche, arricchite da manuali di medicina grecoromana ma apprese soprattutto dalle esperienze di vita quotidiane. Oltre ai manuali di medicina, i monaci conservavano scrupolosamente anche le piante medicinali, in quanto la regola benedettina prevedeva che i monaci si dovessero prodigare nella cura degli infermi.
In questo momento di splendore nacque presso l'Abbazia la famosa Scuola chirurgica preciana, che rese Preci famosa in tutta Europa con l'appellativo di "Pulchra Sabina Preces Prisca Chirurgis Patria". Prima dell'istituzione della scuola chirurgica, però, venne stipulata una legge che impediva agli ecclesiastici di esercitare la professione medica. Questa legge fu sancita da importanti concili[3] che avvennero tra il 1131 e il 1215; tra i divieti stabiliti, i monaci non potevano seguire corsi di diritto o di medicina, e ai sacerdoti non era permesso esercitare alcuna arte medica che prevedesse l'uso del fuoco o dell'incisione. Perciò i monaci, per evitare che la loro cultura col tempo si disperdesse, avevano trasmesso, già da tempo, agli abitanti della comunità abbaziale le loro conoscenze e abilità mediche, affinché si creasse un ambiente favorevole allo sviluppo dell'attività di chirurgia empirica della scuola.
Il XIII secolo vide consolidarsi l'autorità dei comuni, che cercavano di affermarsi nei territori circostanti per crearsi un contado. Il mondo feudale era entrato in una crisi senza via d'uscita, e anche l'abate-feudatario di Sant'Eutizio fu coinvolto in questi movimenti. I vari comuni, Norcia in primo luogo, sottrassero i castelli costruiti sul territorio dell'Abbazia e ad essa soggetti.
Danneggiata dal terremoto del 26 ottobre 2016.
Da Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera.
The Octagon House & Museum
also known as the Colonel John Tayloe III House
parlor, coadestone fire place
architect: William Thornton, 1799
architectural style: Federal
administered by: the American Institute of Architects Foundation
Foggy Bottom neighborhood
1799 New York Avenue, NW
Washington, District of Columbia
The exotic beach of Falassarna is located 59km west of Chania city and almost 17km west of Kissamos, at the western base of Cape Gramvousa. At the northern end of the beach there are the ruins of the ancient Grecoroman city of Falassarna.
Falassarna bay is one of the most famous beaches in Greece, which has been awarded as the best beach of Crete and voted as one of the 10 best beaches in Europe in the past. Falasarna spans a large area and consists actually of five consecutive beaches, with the two most central being the most favorite.
Roman, Imperial period, 1st or 2nd century A.D.
Copy of Greek statue of the 3rd or 2nd century B.C.
The goddess of love is shown as though surprised at her bath. Originally, her arms reached forward to shield her breasts and pubis in a gesture that both concealed and accentuated her sexuality.
Statues of Aphrodite in the nude proliferated during the Hellenistic period. All were inspired to some degree by the Aphrodite of Knidos (Cnidus), created in the fourth century B.C. by the famous Attic sculptor Praxiteles. That statue, the first major Greek work to show the goddess without clothing, was celebrated throughout antiquity as one of the seven wonders of the world. This particular work has the same gesture of modesty as the Knidia and is very similar to another Roman copy, the so called Medici Venus, which has stood in the Tribuna of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence since 1688. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it was considered one of the finest ancient works in existence.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
NYC
The oval Forum in the is one of the highlights of the ancient city of Jerash (Gerasa) . It's Roman columns and huge limestone paving slabs date from the 1st century AD.
Picture taken in 2004.
Guarda a schermo intero
View in light box
Vista de caja de luz
www.flickr.com/photos/chiccofratta/sets/72157626271492862...
Sotto il regno di Eumenes II la città raggiunse il suo massimo splendore e la sua Acropoli rivaleggiava per bellezza con quella di Atene.
During the reign of Eumenes II, the city reached its peak and its Acropolis rivaled in beauty with that of Athens.
durante el reinado de Eumenes II, la ciudad alcanzó su pico y su rivalizaba en belleza con el de la Acrópolis de Atenas.
Guarda a schermo intero
View in light box
Vista de caja de luz
www.flickr.com/photos/chiccofratta/sets/72157626271492862...
L'Agorà di Pergamo
Situata in prossimità della costa sul Mar Egeo, Pergamo risale al 399 a.C.
Pergamo fu grande città per il commercio e le arti durante il periodo greco-romano.
The Agora of Pergamum
Situated near the coast of the Aegean Sea, Pergamon dates back to 399 BC
Pergamum was a great town for business and the arts during the greek-roman period.
El Ágora de Pérgamo
Situado cerca de la costa del Mar Egeo, Pérgamo se remonta al 399 aC Pérgamo era una gran ciudad para los negocios y las artes durante el período griego-romana.
Jordan 2019 (Jabal al-Qal'a the L-shaped hill is one of the seven jabals (mountains) that originally made up Amman. Evidence of occupation since the pottery Neolithic period has been found. It was inhabited by different peoples and cultures until the time of the Umayyads, after which came a period of decline and for much of the time until 1878 the former city became an abandoned pile of ruins only sporadically used by Bedouin and seasonal farmers. Despite this gap, the Citadel of Amman is considered to be among the world's oldest continuously inhabited places.
*The Temple of Hercules is a historic site in the Amman Citadel. It is to be the most significant Roman structure. According to an inscription the temple was built when Geminius Marcianus was governor of the Province of Arabia (AD 162-166), in the same period as the Roman theater below...)
Copyright © 2019 by inigolai/Photography.
No part of this picture may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means , on websites, blogs, without prior permission.
Completed in 191 AD, the Nymphaeum of Gerasa lies between the Propylaeum of the Temple of Artemis and that of the Temple of Dionysus, overlooking the Cardo Maximus. It is a very ornate monumental water fountain, in the form of an exedra, that was decorated with Corinthian columns, niches holdings statues, polychrome marble, and painted stucco, and topped by a half-dome. The marble and stucco are long gone, as are the statues, but many of the niches, Corinthian columns, and other stone decorations have survived. Also extant is the basin that collected the water which flowed down the façade of the Nymphaeum. (courtesy of MM212 on virtualtourist.com)
Giambologna's "Rape of the Sabine" sculpture under the Loggia dei Lanzi along with a film of an exotic dance being projected on the back wall on the Piazza della Signoria in Firenze (Florence), Italy.
Gandhara is the name given to an ancient region or province invaded in 326 B.C. by Alexander the Great, who took Charsadda (ancient Puskalavati) near present-day Peshawar (ancient Purusapura) and then marched eastward across the Indus into the Punjab as far as the Beas river (ancient Vipasa). Gandhara constituted the undulating plains, irrigated by the Kabul River from the Khyber Pass area, the contemporary boundary between Pakistan and Afganistan, down to the Indus River and southward towards the Murree hills and Taxila (ancient Taksasila), near Pakistan"s present capital, Islamabad. Its art, however, during the first centuries of the Christian era, had adopted a substantially larger area, together with the upper stretches of the Kabul River, the valley of Kabul itself, and ancient Kapisa, as well as Swat and Buner towards the north.
A great deal of Gandhara sculptures has survived dating from the first to probably as late as the sixth or even the seventh century but in a remarkably homogeneous style. Most of the arts were almost always in a blue-gray mica schist, though sometimes in a green phyllite or in stucco, or very rarely in terracotta. Because of the appeal of its Western classical aesthetic for the British rulers of India, schooled to admire all things Greek and Roman, a great deal found its way into private hands or the shelter of museums.
Gandhara sculpture primarily comprised Buddhist monastic establishments. These monasteries provided a never-ending gallery for sculptured reliefs of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas. The Gandhara stupas were comparatively magnified and more intricate, but the most remarkable feature, which distinguished the Gandhara stupas from the pervious styles were hugely tiered umbrellas at its peak, almost soaring over the total structure. The abundance of Gandharan sculpture was an art, which originated with foreign artisans.
In the excavation among the varied miscellany of small bronze figures, though not often like Alexandrian imports, four or five Buddhist bronzes are very late in date. These further illustrate the aura of the Gandhara art. Relics of mural paintings though have been discovered, yet the only substantial body of painting, in Bamiyan, is moderately late, and much of it belongs to an Iranian or central Asian rather than an Indian context. Non-narrative themes and architectural ornament were omnipresent at that time. Mythical figures and animals such as atlantes, tritons, dragons, and sea serpents derive from the same source, although there is the occasional high-backed, stylized creature associated with the Central Asian animal style. Moldings and cornices are decorated mostly with acanthus, laurel, and vine, though sometimes with motifs of Indian, and occasionally ultimately western Asian, origin: stepped merlons, lion heads, vedikas, and lotus petals. It is worth noting that architectural elements such as pillars, gable ends, and domes as represented in the reliefs tend to follow the Indian forms
.
Gandhara became roughly a Holy Land of Buddhism and excluding a handful of Hindu images, sculpture took the form either of Buddhist sect objects, Buddha and Bodhisattvas, or of architectural embellishment for Buddhist monasteries. The more metaphorical kinds are demonstrated by small votive stupas, and bases teeming with stucco images and figurines that have lasted at Jaulian and Mora Moradu, outpost monasteries in the hills around Taxila. Hadda, near the present town of Jalalabad, has created some groups in stucco of an almost rococo while more latest works of art in baked clay, with strong Hellenistic influence, have been revealed there, in what sums up as tiny chapels. It is not known exactly why stucco, an imported Alexandrian modus operandi, was used. It is true that grey schist is not found near Taxila, however other stones are available, and in opposition to the ease of operating with stucco, predominantly the artistic effects which can be achieved, must be set with its impermanence- fresh deposits frequently had to be applied. Excluding possibly at Taxila, its use emerges to have been a late expansion.
Architectural fundamentals of the Gandhara art, like pillars, gable ends and domes as showcased in the reliefs, were inclined to follow Indian outlines, but the pilaster with capital of Corinthian type, abounds and in one-palace scene Persepolitan columns go along with Roman coffered ceilings. The so-called Shrine of the Double-Headed Eagle at Sirkap, in actuality a stupa pedestal, well demonstrates this enlightening eclecticism- the double-headed bird on top of the chaitya arch is an insignia of Scythian origin, which appears as a Byzantine motif and materialises much later in South India as the ga1J.qa-bheru1J.qa in addition to atop European armorial bearings.
In Gandhara art the descriptive friezes were all but invariably Buddhist, and hence Indian in substance- one depicted a horse on wheels nearing a doorway, which might have represented the Trojan horse affair, but this is under scan. The Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, familiar from the previous Greek-based coinage of the region, appeared once or twice as standing figurines, presumably because as a pair, they tallied an Indian mithuna couple. There were also female statuettes, corresponding to city goddesses. Though figures from Butkara, near Saidan Sharif in Swat, were noticeably more Indian in physical type, and Indian motifs were in abundance there. Sculpture was, in the main, Hellenistic or Roman, and the art of Gandhara was indeed "the easternmost appearance of the art of the Roman Empire, especially in its late and provincial manifestations". Furthermore, naturalistic portrait heads, one of the high-points of Roman sculpture, were all but missing in Gandhara, in spite of the episodic separated head, probably that of a donor, with a discernible feeling of uniqueness. Some constitutions and poses matched those from western Asia and the Roman world; like the manner in which a figure in a recurrently instanced scene from the Dipankara jataka had prostrated himself before the future Buddha, is reverberated in the pose of the defeated before the defeater on a Trojanic frieze on the Arch of Constantine and in later illustrations of the admiration of the divinised emperor. One singular recurrently occurring muscular male figure, hand on sword, witnessed in three-quarters view from the backside, has been adopted from western classical sculpture. On occasions standing figures, even the Buddha, deceived the elusive stylistic actions of the Roman sculptor, seeking to express majestas. The drapery was fundamentally Western- the folds and volume of dangling garments were carved with realness and gusto- but it was mainly the persistent endeavours at illusionism, though frequently obscured by unrefined carving, which earmarked the Gandhara sculpture as based on a western classical visual impact.
The distinguishing Gandhara sculpture, of which hundreds if not thousands of instances have outlived, is the standing or seated Buddha. This flawlessly reproduces the necessary nature of Gandhara art, in which a religious and an artistic constituent, drawn from widely varied cultures have been bonded. The iconography is purely Indian. The seated Buddha is mostly cross-legged in the established Indian manner. However, forthcoming generations, habituated to think of the Buddha as a monk, and unable to picture him ever possessing long hair or donning a turban, came to deduce the chigon as a "cranial protuberance", singular to Buddha. But Buddha is never depicted with a shaved head, as are the Sangha, the monks; his short hair is clothed either in waves or in taut curls over his whole head. The extended ears are merely due to the downward thrust of the heavy ear-rings worn by a prince or magnate; the distortion of the ear-lobes is especially visible in Buddha, who, in Gandhara, never wore ear-rings or ornaments of any kind. As Foucher puts it, the Gandhara Buddha is at a time a monk without shaving and a prince stripped off jewellery.
The western classical factor rests in the style, in the handling of the robe, and in the physiognomy of Buddha. The cloak, which covers all but the appendages (though the right shoulder is often bared), is dealt like in Greek and Roman sculptures; the heavy folds are given a plastic flair of their own, and only in poorer or later works do they deteriorate into indented lines, fairly a return to standard Indian practice. The "western" treatment has caused Buddha"s garment to be misidentified for a toga; but a toga is semicircular, while, Buddha wore a basic, rectangular piece of cloth, i.e., the samghiifi, a monk"s upper garment. The head gradually swerves towards a hieratic stylisation, but at its best, it is naturalistic and almost positively based on the Greek Apollo, undoubtedly in Hellenistic or Roman copies.
Gandhara art also had developed at least two species of image, i.e. not part of the frieze, in which Buddha is the fundamental figure of an event in his life, distinguished by accompanying figures and a detailed mise-en-scene. Perhaps the most remarkable amongst these is the Visit to the Indrasala Cave, of which the supreme example is dated in the year 89, almost unquestionably of the Kanishka period. Indra and his harpist are depicted on their visit in it. The small statuettes of the visitors emerge below, an elephant describing Indra. The more general among these detailed images, of which approximately 30 instances are known, is presumably related with the Great Miracle of Sravasti. In one such example, one of the adjoining Bodhisattvas is distinguished as Avalokiteshwara by the tiny seated Buddha in his headgear. Other features of these images include the unreal species of tree above Buddha, the spiky lotus upon which he sits, and the effortlessly identifiable figurines of Indra and Brahma on both sides.
Another important aspect of the Gandhara art was the coins of the Graeco-Bactrians. The coins of the Graeco-Bactrians - on the Greek metrological standard, equals the finest Attic examples and of the Indo-Greek kings, which have until lately served as the only instances of Greek art found in the subcontinent. The legendary silver double decadrachmas of Amyntas, possibly a remembrance issue, are the biggest "Greek" coins ever minted, the largest cast in gold, is the exceptional decadrachma of the same king in the Bibliotheque Nationale, with the Dioscuri on the inverse. Otherwise, there was scanty evidence until recently of Greek or Hellenistic influences in Gandhara. A manifestation of Greek metropolitan planning is furnished by the rectilinear layouts of two cities of the 1st centuries B.C./A.D.--Sirkap at Taxila and Shaikhan Pheri at Charsadda. Remains of the temple at Jandial, also at Taxila and presumably dating back to 1st century B.C., also includes Greek characteristics- remarkably the huge base mouldings and the Ionic capitals of the colossal portico and antechamber columns. In contrast, the columns or pilasters on the immeasurable Gandhara friezes (when they are not in a Indian style), are consistently coronated by Indo-Corinthian capitals, the local version of the Corinthian capital- a certain sign of a comparatively later date.
The notable Begram hoard confirms articulately to the number and multiplicity of origin of the foreign artefacts imported into Gandhara. This further illustrates the foreign influence in the Gandhara art. Parallel hoards have been found in peninsular India, especially in Kolhapur in Maharashtra, but the imported wares are sternly from the Roman world. At Begram the ancient Kapisa, near Kabul, there are bronzes, possibly of Alexandrian manufacture, in close proximity with emblemata (plaster discs, certainly meant as moulds for local silversmiths), bearing reliefs in the purest classical vein, Chinese lacquers and Roman glass. The hoard was possibly sealed in mid-3rd century, when some of the subjects may have been approximately 200 years old "antiques", frequently themselves replicates of classical Greek objects. The plentiful ivories, consisting in the central of chest and throne facings, engraved in a number of varied relief techniques, were credibly developed somewhere between Mathura and coastal Andhra. Some are of unrivalled beauty. Even though a few secluded instances of early Indian ivory carving have outlived, including the legendary mirror handle from Pompeii, the Begram ivories are the only substantial collection known until moderately in present times of what must always have been a widespread craft. Other sites, particularly Taxila, have generated great many instances of such imports, some from India, some, like the appealing tiny bronze figure of Harpocrates, undoubtedly from Alexandria. Further cultural influences are authenticated by the Scytho Sarmatian jewellery, with its characteristic high-backed carnivores, and by a statue of St. Peter. But all this should not cloud the all-important truth that the immediately identifiable Gandhara style was the prevailing form of artistic manifestation throughout the expanse for several centuries, and the magnitude of its influence on the art of central Asia and China and as far as Japan, allows no doubt about its integrity and vitality.
In the Gandhara art early Buddhist iconography drew heavily on traditional sources, incorporating Hindu gods and goddesses into a Buddhist pantheon and adapting old folk tales to Buddhist religious purposes. Kubera and Harm are probably the best-known examples of this process.
Five dated idols from Gandhara art though exist, however the hitch remains that the era is never distinguished. The dates are in figures under 100 or else in 300s. Moreover one of the higher numbers are debatable, besides, the image upon which it is engraved is not in the conventional Andhra style. The two low-number-dated idols are the most sophisticated and the least injured. Their pattern is classical Gandhara. The most undemanding rendition of their dates relates them to Kanishka and 78 A.D. is assumed as the commencement of his era. They both fall in the second half of the 2nd century A.D. and equally later, if a later date is necessitated for the beginning of Kanishka`s time. This calculation nearly parallels numismatics and archaeological evidences. The application of other eras, like the Vikrama (base date- 58 B.C.) and the Saka (base date- 78 A.D.), would place them much later. The badly battered figurines portray standing Buddhas, without a head of its own, but both on original figured plinths. They come to view as depicting the classical Gandhara style; decision regarding where to place these two dated Buddhas, both standing, must remain knotty till more evidence comes out as to how late the classical Gandhara panache had continued.
Methodical study of the Gandhara art, and specifically about its origins and expansion, is befuddled with numerous problems, not at least of which is the inordinately complex history and culture of the province. It is one of the great ethnical crossroads of the world simultaneously being in the path of all the intrusions of India for over three millennia. Bussagli has rightly remarked, `More than any other Indian region, Gandhara was a participant in the political and cultural events that concerned the rest of the Asian continent`.
However, Systematic study of the art of Gandhara, and particularly of its origins and development, is bedeviled by many problems, not the least of which is the extraordinarily complex history and culture of the region.
In spite of the labours of many scholars over the past hundred and fifty years, the answers to some of the most important questions, such as the number of centuries spanned by the art of Gandhara, still await, fresh archaeological, inscriptional, or numismatic evidence.
Jordan 2019 (Jabal al-Qal'a the L-shaped hill is one of the seven jabals (mountains) that originally made up Amman. Evidence of occupation since the pottery Neolithic period has been found. It was inhabited by different peoples and cultures until the time of the Umayyads, after which came a period of decline and for much of the time until 1878 the former city became an abandoned pile of ruins only sporadically used by Bedouin and seasonal farmers. Despite this gap, the Citadel of Amman is considered to be among the world's oldest continuously inhabited places.
*The Temple of Hercules is a historic site in the Amman Citadel. It is to be the most significant Roman structure. According to an inscription the temple was built when Geminius Marcianus was governor of the Province of Arabia (AD 162-166), in the same period as the Roman theater below...)
Copyright © 2019 by inigolai/Photography.
No part of this picture may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means , on websites, blogs, without prior permission.
[4U] - GOWN Collection - DOMIENO
This dress with a beautiful texture has a gold belt with a Greco-Roman engraving and, instead of straps, gold chains that are tied with a belt.
Zibska - Orbits and Wings
These are just parts of the HD158259 Set which includes headpiece & mask, shoulders, wings, and pasties left & right, arm and hip adornments with 16 colors via HUD for main and accent.
Mainframe Event 20 Jan - 13 Feb
The nymph Arethusa (a follower of Artemis) is trying to escape the amorous advances of the river Alpheus (son of Ocean and Thetis), yet the story's outcome will see a happy ending. The mosaicist, however, is worried that the spectators will not recognize the protagonists and so includes their two names. Both onlookers and owners must know the story to appreciate the scene's significance.
Hellenistic Period and Ptolemaic Period
Alexandria, Al Iskandarīyah, Tell Timai, Thmuis, and Al Mansurah
Graeco-Roman Museum
Alexandria Egypt
Gandhara is the name given to an ancient region or province invaded in 326 B.C. by Alexander the Great, who took Charsadda (ancient Puskalavati) near present-day Peshawar (ancient Purusapura) and then marched eastward across the Indus into the Punjab as far as the Beas river (ancient Vipasa). Gandhara constituted the undulating plains, irrigated by the Kabul River from the Khyber Pass area, the contemporary boundary between Pakistan and Afganistan, down to the Indus River and southward towards the Murree hills and Taxila (ancient Taksasila), near Pakistan"s present capital, Islamabad. Its art, however, during the first centuries of the Christian era, had adopted a substantially larger area, together with the upper stretches of the Kabul River, the valley of Kabul itself, and ancient Kapisa, as well as Swat and Buner towards the north.
A great deal of Gandhara sculptures has survived dating from the first to probably as late as the sixth or even the seventh century but in a remarkably homogeneous style. Most of the arts were almost always in a blue-gray mica schist, though sometimes in a green phyllite or in stucco, or very rarely in terracotta. Because of the appeal of its Western classical aesthetic for the British rulers of India, schooled to admire all things Greek and Roman, a great deal found its way into private hands or the shelter of museums.
Gandhara sculpture primarily comprised Buddhist monastic establishments. These monasteries provided a never-ending gallery for sculptured reliefs of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas. The Gandhara stupas were comparatively magnified and more intricate, but the most remarkable feature, which distinguished the Gandhara stupas from the pervious styles were hugely tiered umbrellas at its peak, almost soaring over the total structure. The abundance of Gandharan sculpture was an art, which originated with foreign artisans.
In the excavation among the varied miscellany of small bronze figures, though not often like Alexandrian imports, four or five Buddhist bronzes are very late in date. These further illustrate the aura of the Gandhara art. Relics of mural paintings though have been discovered, yet the only substantial body of painting, in Bamiyan, is moderately late, and much of it belongs to an Iranian or central Asian rather than an Indian context. Non-narrative themes and architectural ornament were omnipresent at that time. Mythical figures and animals such as atlantes, tritons, dragons, and sea serpents derive from the same source, although there is the occasional high-backed, stylized creature associated with the Central Asian animal style. Moldings and cornices are decorated mostly with acanthus, laurel, and vine, though sometimes with motifs of Indian, and occasionally ultimately western Asian, origin: stepped merlons, lion heads, vedikas, and lotus petals. It is worth noting that architectural elements such as pillars, gable ends, and domes as represented in the reliefs tend to follow the Indian forms
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Gandhara became roughly a Holy Land of Buddhism and excluding a handful of Hindu images, sculpture took the form either of Buddhist sect objects, Buddha and Bodhisattvas, or of architectural embellishment for Buddhist monasteries. The more metaphorical kinds are demonstrated by small votive stupas, and bases teeming with stucco images and figurines that have lasted at Jaulian and Mora Moradu, outpost monasteries in the hills around Taxila. Hadda, near the present town of Jalalabad, has created some groups in stucco of an almost rococo while more latest works of art in baked clay, with strong Hellenistic influence, have been revealed there, in what sums up as tiny chapels. It is not known exactly why stucco, an imported Alexandrian modus operandi, was used. It is true that grey schist is not found near Taxila, however other stones are available, and in opposition to the ease of operating with stucco, predominantly the artistic effects which can be achieved, must be set with its impermanence- fresh deposits frequently had to be applied. Excluding possibly at Taxila, its use emerges to have been a late expansion.
Architectural fundamentals of the Gandhara art, like pillars, gable ends and domes as showcased in the reliefs, were inclined to follow Indian outlines, but the pilaster with capital of Corinthian type, abounds and in one-palace scene Persepolitan columns go along with Roman coffered ceilings. The so-called Shrine of the Double-Headed Eagle at Sirkap, in actuality a stupa pedestal, well demonstrates this enlightening eclecticism- the double-headed bird on top of the chaitya arch is an insignia of Scythian origin, which appears as a Byzantine motif and materialises much later in South India as the ga1J.qa-bheru1J.qa in addition to atop European armorial bearings.
In Gandhara art the descriptive friezes were all but invariably Buddhist, and hence Indian in substance- one depicted a horse on wheels nearing a doorway, which might have represented the Trojan horse affair, but this is under scan. The Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, familiar from the previous Greek-based coinage of the region, appeared once or twice as standing figurines, presumably because as a pair, they tallied an Indian mithuna couple. There were also female statuettes, corresponding to city goddesses. Though figures from Butkara, near Saidan Sharif in Swat, were noticeably more Indian in physical type, and Indian motifs were in abundance there. Sculpture was, in the main, Hellenistic or Roman, and the art of Gandhara was indeed "the easternmost appearance of the art of the Roman Empire, especially in its late and provincial manifestations". Furthermore, naturalistic portrait heads, one of the high-points of Roman sculpture, were all but missing in Gandhara, in spite of the episodic separated head, probably that of a donor, with a discernible feeling of uniqueness. Some constitutions and poses matched those from western Asia and the Roman world; like the manner in which a figure in a recurrently instanced scene from the Dipankara jataka had prostrated himself before the future Buddha, is reverberated in the pose of the defeated before the defeater on a Trojanic frieze on the Arch of Constantine and in later illustrations of the admiration of the divinised emperor. One singular recurrently occurring muscular male figure, hand on sword, witnessed in three-quarters view from the backside, has been adopted from western classical sculpture. On occasions standing figures, even the Buddha, deceived the elusive stylistic actions of the Roman sculptor, seeking to express majestas. The drapery was fundamentally Western- the folds and volume of dangling garments were carved with realness and gusto- but it was mainly the persistent endeavours at illusionism, though frequently obscured by unrefined carving, which earmarked the Gandhara sculpture as based on a western classical visual impact.
The distinguishing Gandhara sculpture, of which hundreds if not thousands of instances have outlived, is the standing or seated Buddha. This flawlessly reproduces the necessary nature of Gandhara art, in which a religious and an artistic constituent, drawn from widely varied cultures have been bonded. The iconography is purely Indian. The seated Buddha is mostly cross-legged in the established Indian manner. However, forthcoming generations, habituated to think of the Buddha as a monk, and unable to picture him ever possessing long hair or donning a turban, came to deduce the chigon as a "cranial protuberance", singular to Buddha. But Buddha is never depicted with a shaved head, as are the Sangha, the monks; his short hair is clothed either in waves or in taut curls over his whole head. The extended ears are merely due to the downward thrust of the heavy ear-rings worn by a prince or magnate; the distortion of the ear-lobes is especially visible in Buddha, who, in Gandhara, never wore ear-rings or ornaments of any kind. As Foucher puts it, the Gandhara Buddha is at a time a monk without shaving and a prince stripped off jewellery.
The western classical factor rests in the style, in the handling of the robe, and in the physiognomy of Buddha. The cloak, which covers all but the appendages (though the right shoulder is often bared), is dealt like in Greek and Roman sculptures; the heavy folds are given a plastic flair of their own, and only in poorer or later works do they deteriorate into indented lines, fairly a return to standard Indian practice. The "western" treatment has caused Buddha"s garment to be misidentified for a toga; but a toga is semicircular, while, Buddha wore a basic, rectangular piece of cloth, i.e., the samghiifi, a monk"s upper garment. The head gradually swerves towards a hieratic stylisation, but at its best, it is naturalistic and almost positively based on the Greek Apollo, undoubtedly in Hellenistic or Roman copies.
Gandhara art also had developed at least two species of image, i.e. not part of the frieze, in which Buddha is the fundamental figure of an event in his life, distinguished by accompanying figures and a detailed mise-en-scene. Perhaps the most remarkable amongst these is the Visit to the Indrasala Cave, of which the supreme example is dated in the year 89, almost unquestionably of the Kanishka period. Indra and his harpist are depicted on their visit in it. The small statuettes of the visitors emerge below, an elephant describing Indra. The more general among these detailed images, of which approximately 30 instances are known, is presumably related with the Great Miracle of Sravasti. In one such example, one of the adjoining Bodhisattvas is distinguished as Avalokiteshwara by the tiny seated Buddha in his headgear. Other features of these images include the unreal species of tree above Buddha, the spiky lotus upon which he sits, and the effortlessly identifiable figurines of Indra and Brahma on both sides.
Another important aspect of the Gandhara art was the coins of the Graeco-Bactrians. The coins of the Graeco-Bactrians - on the Greek metrological standard, equals the finest Attic examples and of the Indo-Greek kings, which have until lately served as the only instances of Greek art found in the subcontinent. The legendary silver double decadrachmas of Amyntas, possibly a remembrance issue, are the biggest "Greek" coins ever minted, the largest cast in gold, is the exceptional decadrachma of the same king in the Bibliotheque Nationale, with the Dioscuri on the inverse. Otherwise, there was scanty evidence until recently of Greek or Hellenistic influences in Gandhara. A manifestation of Greek metropolitan planning is furnished by the rectilinear layouts of two cities of the 1st centuries B.C./A.D.--Sirkap at Taxila and Shaikhan Pheri at Charsadda. Remains of the temple at Jandial, also at Taxila and presumably dating back to 1st century B.C., also includes Greek characteristics- remarkably the huge base mouldings and the Ionic capitals of the colossal portico and antechamber columns. In contrast, the columns or pilasters on the immeasurable Gandhara friezes (when they are not in a Indian style), are consistently coronated by Indo-Corinthian capitals, the local version of the Corinthian capital- a certain sign of a comparatively later date.
The notable Begram hoard confirms articulately to the number and multiplicity of origin of the foreign artefacts imported into Gandhara. This further illustrates the foreign influence in the Gandhara art. Parallel hoards have been found in peninsular India, especially in Kolhapur in Maharashtra, but the imported wares are sternly from the Roman world. At Begram the ancient Kapisa, near Kabul, there are bronzes, possibly of Alexandrian manufacture, in close proximity with emblemata (plaster discs, certainly meant as moulds for local silversmiths), bearing reliefs in the purest classical vein, Chinese lacquers and Roman glass. The hoard was possibly sealed in mid-3rd century, when some of the subjects may have been approximately 200 years old "antiques", frequently themselves replicates of classical Greek objects. The plentiful ivories, consisting in the central of chest and throne facings, engraved in a number of varied relief techniques, were credibly developed somewhere between Mathura and coastal Andhra. Some are of unrivalled beauty. Even though a few secluded instances of early Indian ivory carving have outlived, including the legendary mirror handle from Pompeii, the Begram ivories are the only substantial collection known until moderately in present times of what must always have been a widespread craft. Other sites, particularly Taxila, have generated great many instances of such imports, some from India, some, like the appealing tiny bronze figure of Harpocrates, undoubtedly from Alexandria. Further cultural influences are authenticated by the Scytho Sarmatian jewellery, with its characteristic high-backed carnivores, and by a statue of St. Peter. But all this should not cloud the all-important truth that the immediately identifiable Gandhara style was the prevailing form of artistic manifestation throughout the expanse for several centuries, and the magnitude of its influence on the art of central Asia and China and as far as Japan, allows no doubt about its integrity and vitality.
In the Gandhara art early Buddhist iconography drew heavily on traditional sources, incorporating Hindu gods and goddesses into a Buddhist pantheon and adapting old folk tales to Buddhist religious purposes. Kubera and Harm are probably the best-known examples of this process.
Five dated idols from Gandhara art though exist, however the hitch remains that the era is never distinguished. The dates are in figures under 100 or else in 300s. Moreover one of the higher numbers are debatable, besides, the image upon which it is engraved is not in the conventional Andhra style. The two low-number-dated idols are the most sophisticated and the least injured. Their pattern is classical Gandhara. The most undemanding rendition of their dates relates them to Kanishka and 78 A.D. is assumed as the commencement of his era. They both fall in the second half of the 2nd century A.D. and equally later, if a later date is necessitated for the beginning of Kanishka`s time. This calculation nearly parallels numismatics and archaeological evidences. The application of other eras, like the Vikrama (base date- 58 B.C.) and the Saka (base date- 78 A.D.), would place them much later. The badly battered figurines portray standing Buddhas, without a head of its own, but both on original figured plinths. They come to view as depicting the classical Gandhara style; decision regarding where to place these two dated Buddhas, both standing, must remain knotty till more evidence comes out as to how late the classical Gandhara panache had continued.
Methodical study of the Gandhara art, and specifically about its origins and expansion, is befuddled with numerous problems, not at least of which is the inordinately complex history and culture of the province. It is one of the great ethnical crossroads of the world simultaneously being in the path of all the intrusions of India for over three millennia. Bussagli has rightly remarked, `More than any other Indian region, Gandhara was a participant in the political and cultural events that concerned the rest of the Asian continent`.
However, Systematic study of the art of Gandhara, and particularly of its origins and development, is bedeviled by many problems, not the least of which is the extraordinarily complex history and culture of the region.
In spite of the labours of many scholars over the past hundred and fifty years, the answers to some of the most important questions, such as the number of centuries spanned by the art of Gandhara, still await, fresh archaeological, inscriptional, or numismatic evidence.
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On 30 August 2015, ISIL demolished the Cella and the inner court of the Temple of Bel using 30 tonnes of explosives.
Satellite imagery taken on 31 August 2015 confirmed only the monumental entrance door remained standing.
I suspect that the majority of the ornate stone carvings within and around the Cella were 'carefully' removed by ISIL to sell on the black market, before they blew up the remaining structure.
This is the only logical reason that ISIL took their time before destroying this temple.
Palmyra, Syria
Photographed at Hearst Castle, the immense estate built by William Randolph Hearst, in San Simeon, California.
Diane chasseresse
in light
Hunting Diana Statue
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New York - Metropolitan Museum of Art
After the wrestle they ask for money from the spectators. It's an old tradition. See videos at youtube/jimmavro
Ma quando, o Febo, per Delo soprattutto si rallegra il tuo cuore,
allora gli Ioni dai lunghi chitoni
coi loro figli e le mogli si radunano nella tua piazza;
là con pugilati e danze e canti
ricordandoti si rallegrano allorché bandiscono l'agone. ”
(Inno ad Apollo attribuito ad Omero)