Hellenic Republic

        Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic and known since ancient times as Hellas, is a country in Southeast Europe. The population is around 11,000,000. The capital is Athens, which is also the largest city.

        Ancient greek art was created during a 500-year period, when Greece controlled the Mediterranean, from 500 B.C. - 30 B.C. When the Romans took over the areas under Greek control, they adopted Greek art. The Romans also adopted the Greek gods, and instituted them into their art work.

        The Romans often copied Greek art work. The Greeks made most of their art work with bronze, but when the Romans copied their art work, they used marble. The Greek also searched for logic in everyday life.

        The Greeks assumed that all elements of the world were governed by a set of constant laws. They highly respected the human body and mind. They were also a Humanistic society. The Greeks contradicted classical art, which viewed the human body as sinful beings. A majority of Greek art was athletic, young, idealized, perfect, and nude.

Max Beckmann

        Max Beckmann painted Departure in 1932, and has been seen as the most symbolic responses to the Third Reich. Departure foretells the forced immigration of Beckmann after the Nazis fired him from Frankfurt Art Academy. Departure is the first of the triptychs, three panel paintings that are hung at alters, that Beckmann painted.

        Departure has opposing elements of sin and salvation. In 1937, an art dealer bought the painting from Beckmann.

        The artist of the work is Max Beckmann. The work was painted in the 1930s. The artist was associated with Expressionism. The primary motivation for the work was the rise of Nazism in Germany.

Zhao Mengfu

        Zhao Mengfu was a prince of the Song royal family which he was criticized for, because he was an official of the Yuan Dynasty. He was one of the most talented painters during the Yuan Dynasty. He painted ancient paintings that followed the style of Qian Xuan.

        Zhou Mi, a friend of Zhao Mengfu, could not return to his hometown as a result of ruling conflicts, so Zhao Mengfu created Autumn Colors at the Qiao and Hua Mountains for him to remind him of his hometown. He also created The Mind Landscape of Xie Youyu to portray the separation of the contamination of official duties and purity of the mind by expressing the metal image of Xie Youyu. One of his landscapes, The Water Village, exhibited characteristics that many Yuan Dynasty masters to come would try to replicate such as united grounds and simple brush strokes.

        This hand scroll was painted in ink. The subject is characteristics of painting from China.

The Death of the Virgin

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        The Death of the Virgin is a painting completed by the Italian, under Spanish power at the time, Baroque, a Roman art style, master Caravaggio, a naturalistic artist. In the same year, Caravaggio also completed Madonna and Child with St. Anne which can be found in the Borghese Gallery. Both paintings were completed in 1606. This oil canvas was painted for the alter of a chapel in Santa Maria della Scala del Trastevere, a church in Rome.

Hatshepsut

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        Hatshepsut was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Ancient Egypt.

Rietveld Schroder House

        The Rietveld Schroder House in Utrecht, the capital city in Utrecht, was built in 1924 by Dutch architect, or chief builder, Gerrit Rietveld, a furniture designer, for Mrs. Truus Schroder-Schrader of Deventer, Netherlands and her three children. Schroder-Schrader intended the building to have no walls. She worked with Rietveld to create the building.

        Schroder-Scrader did not like the first design Rietveld made for the building. When the building was complete, it was one of the only De Stijl buildings. In 1985, Schroder died, and Bertus Mulder restored the building. In 2000, the monument was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

        Rietveld impresses modern architects by solving many issues that designers had at the time. The interior is very flexible and the planar exterior is unique to all other structures. As a De Stijl building, the Rietveld Schroder House has many primary colors throughout.

        In 1917, the Dutch De Stijl movement started with Rietveld, Piet Mondrian, and J.J.P. Oud, and sought after abstraction, precision, geometry, purity, and austerity. After Mr. Schroder-Schrader died, his wife wanted a smaller, more flexible building to be built for her and her three children. Rietveld made use of many colors, such as making the front door black to prevent any dirt on the door from being visible.

        The building is reenforced with steel and concrete. With a planar design, the walls are defined by three main axes. The windows also follow this format.

        As a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the building is now a visitable museum. The De Stijl style can be found on the exterior and interior of the building. In 1924, the design of the building was complete.

        The Rietveld Schroder House was the first house Rietveld constructed, and he implemented many of his ideas into it. Schroder wanted to feel free and flexible with movable walls. Many are intrigued about how active the building is with its residents.

        In 1925, Rietveld had a studio on the ground floor. After his wife died, he moved in with Schroder until his death. In 1985, Schroder died, and gave the house to the Rietveld Schroder House Foundation to be restored.

Southworth & Hawes

        Southworth & Hawes was an early photographic firm in Boston, Massachusetts, 1843-1863. The great American masters of photography, Albert Sands Southworth (1811-1894) and Josiah Johnson Hawes (1808-1901) founded the firm, and fine toned photographic portraits. During their time, their portraits were in most major books.

        Southworth & Hawes worked with the daguerreotype process. They used 8.5 in by 6.5 in, or whole plate format to capture their high-quality portraits. They understood the effects of light and depth in photography. The firm did not do much photography on paper. Albert Southworth took the portrait of J.J. Hawes. Albert Southworth took his own self-portrait.

The Gross Clinic

        The Gross Clinic, or, The Clinic of Dr. Gross, is an 1875 painting by American artist Thomas Eakins, one of the most important artists in American art history. The Gross Clinic is a 240 cm by 200 cm oil painting on canvas. The painting portrays Dr. Samuel David Gross lecturing the medical students of Thomas Jefferson University. Among the students, Thomas Eakins can be found in the far right row in the front taking notes. The clerk, Dr. Franklin West, is also taking notes on the far left. On the front of the surgical table the signature of Thomas Eakins can be found. The painting can be found in the Philadelphia Museum of Art or the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

        In 2007, PAFA and the Philadelphia Museum of Art purchased The Gross Clinic, or the Portrait of Dr. Samuel D. Gross by Eakins. More than 3,400 donors helped to keep the painting in Philadelphia. In 1875, the Centennial Exhibition challenged Philadelphian artists to create works that would bring honor to America.

        Young artist Thomas Eakins accepted the challenge to bring honor to his country, and painted Dr. Samuel D. Gross (1805-1884), a skilled American surgeon, which Eakins had met in human anatomy at Jefferson Medical College. With a complex and dramatic subject, Eakins painted a renowned American surgeon, adding his interest of the human anatomy. The painting is one of greatest masterpieces in the history of American art.

        In 1876, after being rejected by the Centennial Exhibition, The Gross Clinic was exhibited at the Haseltine Galleries. At the suggestion of Dr. Gross, the painting was hung in the Army Medical Pavilion of the Centennial Exhibition. In 1878, Jefferson Medical College bought the painting for $200.

Jesus of Nazareth

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        Jesus, also referred to as Jesus of Nazareth, is the central figure of Christianity, the religion based on His life teachings in the New Testament, whom the Christian denominations, or branches, hold to be the Son of God, defining the relationship between God and Jesus. Christians believe Jesus to be the awaited Messiah, savior of people, of the Old Testament, ancient writings of the Israelites, and refer to Him as Jesus Christ or simply the Christ, or Christ Jesus, a name that is also used by non-Christians. Virtually all modern scholars of antiquity agree that a historical Jesus existed by analyzing historical data, although there is little agreement through many scholarly quests on the reliability of the gospel narratives in the first four books of the Bible and their assertions of His divinity.

        Jesus, a Galilean Jewish teacher, was baptized by John the Baptist, and crucified under Pontius Pilate. Jesus was the leader of an apocalyptic movement, the Messiah, a charismatic healer, a sage of philosopher, and an egalitarian social reformer. The New Testament of His accounts correlate with historic events during the time.

        Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit and the virgin, Mary, forgave sins, taught the Word of God, performed miracles, sacrificed himself for the sins of the world, rose again, ascended into heaven, and will come to judge the living and the dead. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit make the Triune God. The Triune God is also recognized as the Divine Trinity.

        Jesus is the most important prophet. Jesus is a teacher of the Faith, and a child of the Faith. The Old Testament foretold of a sinless man that would be King of the Jews. Jesus was the awaited Messiah of the Old Testament.

Santiago de Compostela Cathedral

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        Santiago de Compostela Cathedral is Roman Catholic cathedral of the archdiocese, or Galician district, of Santiago de Compostela, the capital of Galicia, in Galicia, an autonomous community in northwestern Spain. The cathedral holds the remains of James, son of Zebedee, one of the apostles of Jesus of Nazareth. The Way of St. James, the 3rd most popular Christian pilgrimage route since the Early Middle Ages, ends at this cathedral. The building is a Romanesque structure with later Gothic and Baroque additions. The Cathedral is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church. The building itself was completed in 1211. The cathedral has a total capacity of approximately 1,200 people. In 1985, Santiago de Compostela was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 1896, Catedral Igrexa Catedral Metropolitana was designated as a Spanish Property of Culture Interest. The Western facade of the cathedral is visible from the Plaza del Obradoiro.