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Strahov Monastery it is not only a working place of pilgrimage but also a valuable museum and a famous library, still holding over 16,000 books. The Theological Hall with stucco decoration and paintings from 1720's. From my recent trip to Prague ...
Prague, Czech Republic, Europe
Thank for your visit, fave and comment, always appreciated!
Regards, Serge
Copyright © Serge Daigneault Photography, 2015
Is not about you and me. It is not about selfish asceticism either. It is about being. Being part of and responding to, life. Master Eckhart was a medieval philosopher-theologian, and it is quite illuminating what synonymous terms he used in order to describe "detachment" (abgescheidenheit and gelazenheit in the vernacular): un-forming (entbilden), un-becoming (entwerden), peeling off (abeschelen), alienate (entvremden), loosen (abeloesen) and becoming free (vri, ledic), true (luter) and naked (bloz). Letting go is hard work.
Christian theology, therefore, is obliged not only to acknowledge but also to highlight the divine kenosis, referred to by a recent pope as “a grand and mysterious truth for the human mind, which finds it inconceivable that suffering and death can express a love which gives itself and seeks nothing in return.”…
… The kenosis of God is the ultimate reason why time is real and God is not-yet. Divine presence is humbly withheld to make room for time and hence the opportunity for something other than God to come into being…
… While I want to take into account as far as possible the experience of other religious traditions, I am obliged to start with the scandalous Christian belief that God is vulnerable and defenseless love. I cannot casually pass over the fundamental Christian belief that God has chosen to be identified with a crucified man who was fully subject to the terrifying irreversibility of time.
-God after Einstein What’s Really Going On in the Universe? John F. Haught
To be a theologian, to find meaning in what YOU find meaningful.
Headdress: Zibska "Aeron"
The Aeron headpiece offers 10 colours via HUD for corona, skull and roses.
Makeup: Zibska "Aglaeca"
The Aglaeca makeup includes 8 colours with Omega and Lelutka (bento) appliers and system tattoo layer options.
March 3rd-28th atThe Crossroads.
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Crossroads%20Event/1...
Gloves/Corset/top: [CX] "The Iron Maiden" available now at The Arcade.
Nails: Spellbound "Spooky Salon Heavy Metal Dark" for bento hands. Available now at The Arcade.
In 1670 Jeroným Hirnheim, a philosopher and theologian became the abbot of Strahov. His greatest work, which has survived to the present days, was the building of the new library, in the so-called Theological Hall (Teologický sál) completed in 1679. During the 17th and the early 18th century other abbots continued in the reconstruction of the monastery. They also cared for the church, which was repaired and decorated several times during the given period. The monastery experienced other great building activity namely after the assault of French and Bavarian troops in 1742, when Prague was bombarded and seriously damaged. Then the abbot organized building works again in the course of which the church was rebuilt along with the monastery area.
After 1950, the library was incorporated into the Memorial of National Literature. After 1989 the library was along with the monastery returned to the Premonstratensians. Within the library reading room also works today. The Strahov Library contains over 200,000 volumes, including over 3,000 manuscripts and 1,500 first prints stored in a special depository.
The monastery survived in this way until 1950, when it was taken over by the communist regime, the religious being interned and placed in civil employment, very few of them being able to work in the clerical administration as priests of the diocese. The monastery was subjected to thorough archeological research and transformed into the Memorial of National Literature. In the course of the said archeological research the long since forgotten Romanesque form of the monastery was revealed and reconstructed in a sensitive way.
The Sphere Within Sphere, also known as Sfera con Sfera, is a series of sculptures created by Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro depicting an enormous metal sphere with a cracked surface revealing an intricate interior with another cracked sphere inside.
Arnaldo Pomodoro says that the inner ball represents the Earth and outer ball represents Christianity. The design of the internal layers which look like the gears or cogwheels of a complex machine symbolizes the fragility and complexity of the world.
This sphere is at Trinity College in Dublin Ireland but it can be found at other prime location around the world. Originally created for the Vatican Church in the 1960s, also at the Headquarters of the UN in New York, The Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, USA, The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, the Columbus Museum of Art in Columbus and the Tel Aviv University in Israel, to name a few.
Do you recognise him? Protecting you from being exploited by those above you and preventing you from falling into the misery of those below you; helping you to get through the sea of revolution without getting wet shoes; making you look charitable and green at next to no expenses. This is the God of those who think they belong neither to the rich nor the poor. He is the God of most of us.
One daylight LED lamp and one LED spotlight; edited in Fuji's raw converter and refined in Luminar.
The library of the Strahov Monastery is one of the most valuable and best-preserved historical libraries in Prague, Czech Republic. The library is divided into two major halls:
The oldest part of the library, the Baroque Theological Hall, was established between 1671 and 1674 with stucco decoration and paintings from 1720s, containing 18,000 religious texts.
The grand Philosophical Hall is two storeys tall and has over 42,000 ancient philosophical texts. The main Classicist vaults date from 1794.
♥ Thank you very much for your visits, faves, and kind comments ♥
The Theological Hall of Strahov Monastery Library in Prague. A section of the hall which has miniature bibles, and private bibles prove that this was one of the ancient 'printing presses' (scriptoriums) which the monks used to write and draw the illuminated scripts of the first private Bibles. It could only be afforded by the uber rich.
Demon 1: "This Is The Gateway To Hell. Expect A Eternity Of Punishment For Your Sins, Starting With Gluttony!"
Me: "Cool! I Used To Work For The Gov't, I'm A Glutton For Punishment."
Demon 1: "What?"
Demon 2: "Hey! We're Gonna Need A Supervisor Up Here!"
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Asia - Brunei Sultanate - Borneo Island - Bandar Seri Begawan - Capital City - Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque - One of the most beautiful Islamic mosques in Asia Pacific - Place of worship for Muslim community - Major landmark & tourist attraction of Brunei at Dusk - Twilight - Blue Hour - Night
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El Colegio de San Gregorio de Valladolid es la sede principal del Museo Nacional de Escultura. Es uno de los mejores ejemplos de la arquitectura del periodo de los Reyes Católicos. En particular, su patio y su portada son célebres por su refinada ornamentación, las elegantes proporciones y una ostensible simbología del poder.
Igualmente interesante es su historia como institución docente. Destinado a colegio de Teología para frailes dominicos, adquirió una notable autoridad doctrinal y actuó como un semillero espiritual y político de la España renacentista y barroca.
La Universidad de Valladolid fue fundada en el siglo XIII durante el reinado de Alfonso X el Sabio; como en otros países se potenció la aparición de centros colegiales, de modo que tardíamente se creó el Colegio de San Gregorio, que actuaron en paralelo o complementariamente con relación a la vida universitaria. En Valladolid se creó además el Colegio de Santa Cruz también a finales del siglo XV
La creación del Colegio, bajo la advocación del doctor de la Iglesia San Gregorio, fue obra del dominico Alonso de Burgos, obispo de la diócesis de Palencia y confesor de los Reyes Católicos. Alonso de Burgos condicionó su fundación a la obtención de la comunidad dominica de San Pablo de los terrenos para la construcción de su propia capilla funeraria, que serviría igualmente para el alumnado del Colegio. Tal petición se vio satisfecha en 1487: consigue el espacio necesario, lo cual fue confirmado por el Papa Inocencio VIII.
Las obras se iniciaron en 1488 aunque se había comenzado ya la construcción de la capilla funeraria, cuya puerta de entrada se percibe en el crucero sur de la Iglesia conventual de San Pablo.
La fachada fue concebida como un telón o estandarte (arquitectura suspendida). Su compartimentación se organiza con elementos vegetales que evocan los arcos triunfales construidos con madera y enramada, reforzándose su carácter civil y urbano. Dada su significación simbólica, la explicación de los diferentes motivos y elementos que la integran ofrece una gran dificultad, tanto individualmente como en su totalidad y en la relación entre los diferentes elementos.
En el tímpano principal y sobre el dintel decorado con flor de lis aparece la dedicatoria y la ofrenda del Colegio por parte del fraile dominico Alonso de Burgos a san Gregorio Magno en presencia de San Pablo y Santo Domingo.
Destacan las figuras de hombres silvestres cubiertos, o no, de pelo, y con garrotes y escudos; o bien aluden a la costumbre cortesana de disfrazar escuderos con ocasión de fiestas, o bien representan la imagen mítica del «hombre natural», tal como se discutió por esas fechas y entran en diálogo visual con esculturas de caballeros, vestidos con armaduras y portando lanzas y escudos, encarnando la Virtud.
La parte central superior está ocupada por un pilón hexagonal, rebosante de agua, que puede evocar la especulación intelectual como Fuente de la Vida. En torno al pilón, se arremolinan parejas de niños y de él arranca el tronco de un granado, en posible alusión a la Fuente de la Vida y al Árbol de la Ciencia, aparte de la celebración de la reciente conquista del Reino de Granada. Todo el relieve central de la fachada se constituye con esta representación simbólica de un microcosmos, a imagen del Paraíso, lugar hacia donde deberían dirigirse los hombres mediante el conocimiento de las Artes y la Teología.
La presencia del escudo de los Reyes Católicos, sostenido por leones y por el águila de San Juan podría tener una significación política o podría ser una alusión a la dedicación del edificio a la Monarquía, a la que Alonso de Burgos nombró heredera y patrona del Colegio.
El patio del Colegio es de planta cuadrada y representa una de las joyas de estilo hispanoflamenco. Sus dos pisos se levantan sobre pilares helicoidales decorados sus capiteles con medias bolas y lises separados ambos por el tema de la cadena.
En las arquerías del piso superior se encuentra toda la decoración mediante calados pretiles de tracería gótica y cortinas pétreas que al abrirse originan arcos geminados de guirnaldas y follaje, entre los que juguetean niños, concebido con una talla muy plana próxima al estilo renacentista. Un friso de yugos y flechas y las gárgolas es lo único que se conserva de su antiguo coronamiento.
El acceso al piso superior se realiza a través de una sola escalera con pretiles góticos a los que se suceden los paramentos almohadillados de su caja decorada también con el timbre heráldico del fundador y con un artesonado mudéjar, en cuyo friso se pueden observar las iniciales de los Reyes Católicos y que cierra todo su ámbito.
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colegio_de_San_Gregorio
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museo_Nacional_de_Escultura
The Colegio de San Gregorio is an Isabelline style building located in the city of Valladolid, in Castile and León, Spain, it was formerly a college and now is housing the Museo Nacional de Escultura museum. This building is one of the best examples of the architectural style known as Isabelline, which is the characteristic architectural style of the Crown of Castile region during the Catholic Monarchs' reign (late-15th century to early-16th century).
Among other sections highlights its courtyard and its facade for its refined decoration, elegant proportions and the number of symbologies. It was founded as a teaching institution. Aimed at College of Theology for Dominican friars, it has acquired a doctrinal authority and acted as a spiritual and political hotbed in the Central region of Spain's Renaissance and Baroque periods.
The University of Valladolid was founded in the 13th-century during the Alfonso X of Castile the Wise's reign; as in other countries, the emergence of college centers was potentiated, then belatedly was created the Colegio de San Gregorio, who performed in parallel or complementarily in relation to university life. In Valladolid the Colegio Mayor Santa Cruz was also created also in late 15th-century.
The creation of the College, under the title of the Doctor of the Church Saint Gregory the Great, was work of Dominican Alonso de Burgos, the Catholic Monarchs's confessor and Bishop of the dioceses of Córdoba, Cuenca and Palencia. The foundation of the college was confirmed by with Papal Bull of Pope Innocent VIII in 1487, and accepted as Royal patronage by Queen Isabella the Catholic in 1500, after the founder's death.
It attached to the Convento de San Pablo, which Friar Alonso had been its prior, its foundation was subject to the assignment of the Capilla del Crucifijo (Crucifix's chapel), attached to the Epistle's arm of the Dominican church, to become his own funeral chapel, which later acquired dual function to also serve as a chapel for college.
Work began in 1488 in a process from the inside to outside, being the main facade the last in lift. The Royal shields in the corners of the Large courtyard still do not present the Granada's symbol suggests that this part would be completed before 1492. The building is assumed to completed in 1496.
The facade, plain facing and topped with a crest, stands out above all for its spectacular main facade, which by its stylistic features it sets regarding the workshop of Gil de Siloé, a Flemish origin artist, who was at that time in Burgos dealing with the royal sepulchers of the Miraflores Charterhouse and is known to have been commissioned to make the defunct altarpiece of the chapel, very in connection with which the sculptor had made in the Conception's chapel or of Bishop Acuña in the Cathedral of Burgos and has obvious similarities to the upper of the main facade of San Gregorio.
Perhaps evoking the triumphal arches of the architectures at that time were developing in Central Europe, or perhaps the Islamic Madrasas, architects of this building applying an individually decorated of the Castilian late-Gothic (Isabelline), it has a complex symbolic significance in that mix contemporary figures, saints, allegories, wild men, abundant symbolic of power, etc.
It has two bodies framed by two buttresses. The lower hosts a vain lintel decorated with fleur-de-lys, the founder's symbol repeated often enough, covered with three-centered arch in turn covered by another ogee trefoil.
It draw attention to the "savage men" of the jambs and buttresses, a total of sixteen. Theories about the significance of these figures, present in many buildings of 15th-century, are varied and should be put in relation to the context in which these appear. One of its functions would be simple heraldry sculptures. It is also said that, dressed with shield and mace, were the guardians of the building, beastmen guaranteeing security. Or these could allude to the custom of disguising the squires and lackeys in Court (nobility) festivities in which it presented the "savage" as inferior, in relation, for example, the chivalric romances, which mentions hair covered wild men, degraded men, estranged from the civilized world, not Christianized, and could here be in visual confrontation with the knights who also appear on the main facade, with armor, spears and shields, that would be interpreted as allegories of Virtue. On the contrary, these could also be a positive allusion, the mythical image of man in nature, unpolluted, symbol of purity that evokes the time in a perfect and happy world, with prototype to John the Baptist.
Those on the lower part, flanking the main facade, are completely covered with long hair, carrying weapons and the shields are decorated with demonic figures except in one, which has a Knight order of Calatrava's cross, the same motifs of the soldiers's shields of the second floor, the same iconography already seen for over a century.
However, in the top of the main facade are completely different, with the same attributes but without hair on the body and even two hairless, with a more human aspect, and there are authors who consider the oldest representation in Castile of an American Native, reflecting the effect of the Americas's arrival in the European imagination.
The tympanum, on a lintel, seems to represent the offering of the college by Friar Alonso de Burgos to Saint Gregory the Great in the presence of Saints Dominic and Paul, patrons of the neighboring Dominican convent, a somewhat disconcerting scene, unbalanced, with disproportion between the figures and Saint Paul with a cruciferous nimbus, an exclusive attribute of Christ. It seems to be earlier work than the rest, or even reused from other site.
The upper body is divided into three sections, with the center occupied by a hexagonal pylon which starts a pomegranate tree, referring to the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada's conquest in 1492, swirling around putti playing and jumping. It could be a Fountain of Eternal Youth's representation, hence the children, of the Tree of Knowledge, in relation to the building dedicated to the study, an allegory of the Paradise, the place to which men aspire to reach through the knowledge, an allegory of the Golden Age, in relation to the historical moment that was occurring to the Spanish monarchy.
The pomegranate tree is topped by a big shield of the Catholic Monarchs with the St. John's eagle held by two attitude lions and below the Catholic Monarchs's symbols also appear: the beam and arrows. And the use of the royal heraldry with propaganda purposes in this period reached prominence hitherto unknown, present not only in buildings directly promoted by the Catholic Monarchs but also in many that of their closest collaborators, in that way showing participation and acceptance in the political project undertaken by Isabella I and Ferdinand II in relation to the establishment of a modern state with which to control and organize all their territories under their unique power.
Upper body's side sections have the founder's heraldic decoration and two kings of arms placed at height of the central shield.
Distributed among the distributed arboured throughout the main facade are seen multiple scenes related to the defects to be overcome with the study, in relation to the search for truth and rejection of heresy, the triumph of intelligence over force or the strength to overcome temptation.
(Large courtyard) The Patio Grande was the access to the most important stays of the set. It considered a Hispanic-Flemish (Isabelline) gem, is set in relation to Juan Guas for its similarities to Palacio del Infantado in Guadalajara, although have also located abundant motifs that Bartolomé Solórzano, an active artist at that time in the area, used in the Cathedral of Palencia, seat of the Friar Alonso's bishopric.
It is square with two floors, the lower with slender pillars, perhaps a Solomonic reference in relation to a building as a "temple of wisdom", with capitals of average balls and fleur-de-lis sustaining segmental arches, and the upper with one of the most decorative Isabelline galleries, with parapets openwork with Gothic tracery and geminare arches riddled with garlands and foliage among those appears children playing and where already shown Renassaince influence, of midpoint and a form that goes be more flat.
Then follows a frieze of yokes and arrows on highlighting the imaginative gargoyles.
It has abundant emblems of the Catholic Monarchs and the kingdoms of Navarre and Granada, incorporated into the Crown of Castile during the erection of the building.
The only staircase that connects both floors is rectangular of two sections, Isabelline base, decorated walls with padding of Renaissance influence with the founder's heraldry; an impressive Mudéjar roof on a frieze with the Catholic Monarchs's initials; and neo-Gothic parapets with same trace that the base, added in works in the 1860s to replace the wooden fence that had.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colegio_de_San_Gregorio
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museo_Nacional_de_Escultura,_Vallad...
The palace had its origins in a single-storey structure without wings built for Alberto V d'Este (1385), a small retreat intended solely for suppers and diversions, as a sort of banqueting house, with an urban front and a garden front. As the equivalent of a Roman villa suburbana, the Palazzo Schifanoia long predated the first such pleasure villa built in Renaissance Rome, the Belvedere built for Nicholas V.
In 1452 Borso d'Este received the title of Duke for the imperial fiefs of Modena and Reggio Emilia that he held from Emperor Frederick III. The occasion for the cycle of frescoes was the expected investiture of Borso d'Este as Duke of Ferrara in 1471 by Pope Paul II. The subtext of the festivities embodied in the fresco cycle is the right ordering of mankind and nature under the good government of the Duke, the guarantor of peace and prosperity in the Este dominions. Under the commissions of Borso d'Este, the architect Pietro Benvenuto degli Ordini was called upon to develop a ducal apartment on an upper level, providing the building with a salone suitable for presentations of ambassadors and delegations, a counterpart of the governing structure of Ferrara housed in the former Palazzo della Ragione, destroyed in World War II. The palace was often used by Marfisa d'Este, a great patron of the arts.
There, in the Salone dei Mesi ("Hall of the Months"), Cosimo Tura's purely pagan cycle of the months presents the cycle of the year as an allegorical pageant with the appropriate Olympian gods presiding on their fanciful cars drawn by the beasts proper to each deity, with appropriate personifications of the constellations of the zodiac. The frescoes were realized circa 1469–70 by artisans of the d'Este household, the larger figures based on cartoons by Cosmé Tura, and the vignettes of the labors of the year and the activities of the Ferrarese court under the benevolent eye of Borso d'Este, flanked by astrological figures to designs by Francesco del Cossa and Ercole de' Roberti. The learned and elaborate scheme of the allegorical presentations must have come from the immediate circle of Borso d'Este, perhaps from the court astrologer, Pellegrino Prisciani, with some details drawn from Boccaccio's Genealogia deorum.
In the Sala delle Virtù ("Hall of Virtues") nearby, the sculptor Domenico di Paris painted the stucco reliefs in a frieze of putti and symbols of the Cardinal and Theological Virtues, under a painted compartmented ceiling.
The façade was originally decorated with a cornice of feigned battlements, its surface smoothly stuccoed and decorated with geometric designs of highly colorful imitation marbles, which have been lost, lending a somewhat dour public face to Palazzo Schifanoia that was not what Borso d'Este intended. The rich white marble entrance door survives, though its tinted colors have weathered away and art historians disagree whether it is to be attributed to the painter-designer Francesco del Cossa or to Biagio Rossetti. Above the arched door, flanked by pilasters, the Este arms are displayed and the unicorn, a symbol of ducal benevolence and the source of patronage. In 1493 the terracotta cornice was added to designs by Biagio Rossetti, who was also commissioned by Ercole I d'Este to extend the palace.
From the Salone dei Mesi the visitor once passed directly into the gardens reached by a monumental stair from the summer loggia, structures that were demolished in the 18th century. After the Este left Ferrara in 1598, the palazzo was inherited through successive heirs, eventually by the Tassoni family, its frescoes whitewashed over. Eventually, during administration of the duchy as part of the Papal States, with a Habsburg garrison, it became a tobacco warehouse and manufactory. When Palazzo Schifanoia came into the possession of the comune of Ferrara in the aftermath of World War I, only seven of the months in the Salone remained legible.
Palazzo Schifanoia forms part of the heritage of Ferrara conserved under the umbrella of the Musei Civici d'Arte Antica di Ferrara. The 14th and 15th century rooms contain collections of antiquities, a numismatic collection and medals cast by Pisanello and other Quattrocento artists to commemorate members of the Este family.
"Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't there. Theologians can persuade themselves of anything."
Robert A. Heinlein
up: 2016/01/20
Enlightenment? Or Bud Light? The important thing is not so much to look in the right places, but to find it in all places. I believe that there is something to be learned in every situation...you just have to remember to look.
An astonishing mix of architecture and Christian symbolism forming part of a functional staircase and skylight. Comprising two merging circles, outlining a fish bladder, this is an ancient Christian symbol for Jesus and is repeated elsewhere throughout the building.
Conversion from RAW in Apple's "Photos" editor. An acceptable result - and by far the fastest method. To be clear: I am about editing images, not manipulating them.
Our reason for going to the Strahov Monastery was to visit the Theological and Philosophical Halls within the complex. For 50 Korunas any tourist can obtain a Fotolicence and snap away at these magnificent rooms.
© LMGFotography 2014; please do not use without permission.
From www.aviewoncities.com/prague/strahovmonastery.htm:
The Theological Hall was built between 1671 and 1679 and houses the theological book collection of the famous Strahov library. Its collection contains over 200,000 books and includes works from famous printers such as Christoffel Plantin. Besides valuable books, the hall also contains several geographical and astronomical globes from the seventeenth century.
The frescoes on the ceiling of the Theological Hall took four years to complete. They depict the profession of the librarian.
Hosea 6:2 (ESV)
2 After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live before him.
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One of my favourite places in Prague, I thought I'd missed the chance to photograph this room as they closed up at 12 but it was only for an hour. Enough time to sample the monastery's on-site micro brewery selling very nice unpasteurised amber beer. The staff were also very patient with me whilst taking this shot with my tripod and lots of other visitors! You must buy a photography licence to take pictures in the monastery; however, it was only a small sum. Well worth it to work with such a location. There's also a guided tour that takes you into the rooms that aren't open to the public but it must be booked a few days in advance and subject to availability.
The Royal Canonry of Premonstratensians at Strahov is one of the oldest monasteries of the Premonstratensian Order in the world. It has been a working monastery practically ever since it was founded in 1142. Fire, the Hussite Wars, religious wars, and the Communists all failed to shut down this institution. Even when the members of the monastery were unable to live within its walls, they gathered wherever they could and nurtured the spirit of their House until they were able to return to the monastery complex.
The Theological Hall was built under Abbot Jeroným Hirnhaim (1671-1679). The architect was a Prague burgher of Italian origin, Giovanni Domennico Orsi, whose Italian school is evident in the stucco cartouches. The Baroque concept of the library is demonstrated by the shelves; unlike the Romanesque treasury system or the Gothic desk system, the books were stored upright. Above the shelves, there are gilded wooded carved decorations with wooden cartouches. This was a rudimentary library aid, because the pictures in the wooden cartouches and their titles specified the type of literature stored on the shelves. At this time (1672) Library Rules were compiled by Abbot Hirnhaim.
Theological Hall 1 Fifty years later, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the translation of St Norbert's relics (1727), the hall was extended by several metres. It was then decorated with frescoes by the Strahov Premonstratensian and painter Siard Nosecký. Symbolically, and based on quotations from the Bible (mainly Proverbs) and in part from the philosophical tracts of the hall's founder, Abbot Hirnhaim, he presented the true wisdom we acquire through piety, fear of God. In his tracts, Hirnhaim opposed scholasticism and its racionalistic understanding of the world and truth, which he believed to be false or proud wisdom. He wanted to gain an understanding of the world through true humble piety. A person enlightened by faith, however, must build on knowledge and education. The library hosts several frescoes as a symbol of this principle. Above the forged iron gates on the other side of the library there is a small legend: INITIUM SAPIENTIAE TIMOR DOMINI - the beginning of wisdom is fear of God. It remains a paradox that the philosophical works of the library's founder were put on the index of forbidden books and were therefore placed in special locked cabinets above both the hall doors; Hirnhaim himself had these cabinets installed. As time passed, publication of his works was permitted, and they became the inspiration for Siard Nosecký. A portrait of Jeroným Hirnhaim hangs by the first window, Nosecký's self-portrait by the second.
Theological Hall 2 The left-hand side of the hall is dominated by a Late-Gothic wooden statue of St John the Evangelist. The link between this statue and the library is his small pouch, held by St John in his left hand. This pouch called girdle-book, although frequently depicted in manuscripts, has only been preserved in several cases, mainly because of the purpose it served - as a travel bag. It was either destroyed during journeys or cut off on inclusion in the book collection. On the right-hand side, there is a 'compilation wheel', commissioned by the library in 1678 and used to compile texts. The scribe had the various sources he was using distributed over the shelves of the wheel. The planet mechanism means that when turned, its shelves were kept at the same angle so the books are not liable to fall.
A number of globes (both astronomical and terrestrial) line both sides of the Theological Hall. Some of them come from the workshop of the Rotterdam-based family Blaeu, which specialized in manufacturing maps, atlases, and globes over several generations in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Over 18,000 volumes are stored in the Theological Hall. The name of the hall comes from the content of these works. The northern wall contains nothing but different editions of the Bible or parts of the Bible in many languages.
In 1993 and 1994, the interior was restored; the shelves were completely dismantled and the wood was treated. At the end of the 1980s, the original red paint was discovered under the later blue-grey paint, and this red was used in the restoration as the oldest layer. The parquets from the 20th century were replaced with a historically and aesthetically more accurate copy of the original Baroque flooring. The original visitors' route went through all the main areas of the library. After long-term readings were analyzed, the tour was adjusted to the current version, as the humidity in the halls fluctuated so much during the day that the good condition of the frescoes and book bindings was in jeopardy.
The Strahov Monastic Brewery was first founded by King Vladislav II in 1142.
24 exposures combined in Photomatix Pro v5.
Capella di Sant'Andrea, Ravenna, Italy (about 500 AD). In this unique mosaic the risen Christ is depicted as a Roman soldier subduing a lion and a snake. The book he is carrying says in Latin "I am the way, the truth and the life". In combination of all the pictorial elements the conclusion is obvious that one better believes the message. Bad news for everyone who thinks differently. This image represents the "orthodox" tradition versus the version of the Christian faith the current Germanic ruler, Theoderic, was holding on to: Arianism.
Dante and Virgil in Hell by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1850.
The Artist:
"William-Adolphe Bouguereau (November 30, 1825 – August 19, 1905) was a French academic painter. Bouguereau...was a staunch traditionalist whose realistic genre paintings and mythological themes were modern interpretations of Classical subjects with a heavy emphasis on the female human body. Although he created an idealized world, his almost photo-realistic style was popular with rich art patrons. He was very famous in his time but today his subject matter and technique receive relatively little attention compared to the popularity of the Impressionists." - enWikipedia
Tuesday Plein Air with @petemorrisart at the Fuller Theological Seminary. Lunch at The Refectory there.
Oil
8x10x2 Stillman & Birn Beta Series
Sketched live on location 11:10 AM to 12:17 PM
Tuesday June 17 2025
Chartres Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres (French: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres), is a Roman Catholic church in Chartres, France, about 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Paris and is the seat of the Diocese of Chartres. Mostly constructed between 1194 and 1220, it stands at the site of at least five cathedrals that have occupied the site since Chartres became a bishopric in the 4th century. It is in the Gothic and Romanesque styles.
It is designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, which calls it "the high point of French Gothic art" and a "masterpiece".[2]
The cathedral is well-preserved for its age: the majority of the original stained glass windows survive intact, while the architecture has seen only minor changes since the early 13th century. The building's exterior is dominated by heavy flying buttresses which allowed the architects to increase the window size significantly, while the west end is dominated by two contrasting spires – a 105-metre (349 ft) plain pyramid completed around 1160 and a 113-metre (377 ft) early 16th-century Flamboyant spire on top of an older tower. Equally notable are the three great façades, each adorned with hundreds of sculpted figures illustrating key theological themes and narratives.
Since at least the 12th century the cathedral has been an important destination for travellers. It remains so to the present, attracting large numbers of Christian pilgrims, many of whom come to venerate its famous relic, the Sancta Camisa, said to be the tunic worn by the Virgin Mary at Christ's birth, as well as large numbers of secular tourists who come to admire the cathedral's architecture and historical merit.
Just around the corner to the right (under the stairs) is the entrance to the Seminary Co-op Bookstore, the largest academic bookstore in the United States. In other words, Nerd-vana. During my days at the University of Chicago, I visited the place often, but only once did I catch a sight like this. -Leif