Saturday, September 17, 2011

St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Sofia, Bulgaria

It is one of the largest Eastern Orthodox Christian cathedrals in the world. Construction started in 1882 and was completed in 1917. It is in the Neo-Byzantine style of architecture. 

Saint Alexander Nevsky was a Russian prince. The cathedral honors Russian soldiers who died during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 when Bulgaria was freed from the Ottoman empire. Sofia is Bulgaria's capital city.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Nevsky_Cathedral,_Sofia

Saturday, September 3, 2011

American Impressionist Frederick Frieseke 1874–1939


"The Garden Parasol"
1910
Frieseke was born in Michigan & studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago & the Académie Julian in Paris. Frieseke liked to paint women, gardens, & bright sunlight.


Friday, September 2, 2011

Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892-1950

Dirge Without Music

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.

Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.

Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains,—but the best is lost.

The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the

love,—
They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not
approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the
world.

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave

Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.


French painter Jules Bastien-Lepage 1848-1884


"The Peasants"
1878

Pablo Picasso Weeping Woman


"The Weeping Woman"
1937