Theory and Authors of the Symbolic Culture. History of the Symbolism.
Masterpieces and connections to the Masonic Arts. Contemporary tendencies of the development of the Symbolic Culture.
THE BUILDERS: A Story and Study of Masonry, by Joseph Fort Newton, Litt. D. part 2
PART I THE PROPHECY CHAPTER 1 The Foundation By Symbols is man guided and commanded, made happy, made wretched. He everywhere finds himself encompassed with Symbols, recognized as such or not recognized: the Universe is but one vast Symbol of God; nay, if thou wilt have it, what is man himself but a Symbol of
THE BUILDERS: A Story and Study of Masonry, by Joseph Fort Newton, Litt. D. part 1
When I was King and a Mason - A master proved and skilled, I cleared me ground for a palace Such as a King should build. I decreed and cut down to my levels, Presently, under the silt, I came on the wreck of a place Such as a King had built. -- Kipling THE
Knight, Death and the Devil
Knight, Death and the Devil (German: Ritter, Tod und Teufel, originally Rider, German: Reuter ) is a large 1513 engraving by the German artist Albrecht Dürer, one of the three Meisterstiche (master prints) completed during a period when he almost ceased to work in paint or woodcuts to focus on engravings. The image is infused with complex iconography and symbolism, the precise meaning of which has been
Mars and Venus
Mars and Venus is a c. 1483 painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli. It shows the Roman gods Venus and Mars in an allegory of beauty and valour. The youthful and voluptuous couple recline in a forest setting, surrounded by playful satyrs. The painting is typically held as an ideal of sensuous love, of pleasure and play. In the painting Venus watches
Classical elements
Classical elements typically refer to the pre-scientific concepts in Ancient Greece, of earth, water, air, fire, and aether, which were proposed to explain the nature and complexity of all matter in terms of simpler substances. Ancient cultures in Egypt, Babylonia, Japan, Tibet, and India had similar lists, sometimes referring in local languages to "air" as "wind" and the fifth element as "void". The
A Faun Teased by Children
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Italian, 1598–1680). Bacchanal: A Faun Teased by Children, 1562–1629. Marble. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, The Annenberg Fund Inc. Gift, Fletcher, Rogers, and Louis V. Bell Funds, and Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, by exchange, 1976 (1976.92). A drunken satyr, follower of Bacchus, the wine god, lunges forward to pick
The School of Athens
The School of Athens, or Scuola di Atene in Italian, is one of the most famous frescoes by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. It was painted between 1509 and 1511 as a part of Raphael's commission to decorate with frescoes the rooms now known as the Stanze di Raffaello, in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. The Stanza della Segnatura was the first of the rooms to be decorated,
Melencolia – 1514
Melencolia I is a 1514 engraving by the German Renaissance master Albrecht Dürer. It is an allegorical composition which has been the subject of many interpretations. One of the most famous old master prints, it has sometimes been regarded as forming one of a conscious group of Meisterstiche ("master prints") with his Knight, Death and the Devil (1513) and Saint Jerome in his Study (1514). The engraving measures
Three Graces
Three Graces (Charites), Roman statue (marble) copy of Hellenistic original, 2nd century AD, (Musée du Louvre, Paris).