Platone | The Arts in education

The Republic (Greek: Πολιτεία, Politeia) is a Socratic dialogue, written by Plato around 380 BC, concerning the definition of justice (δικαιοσύνη), the order and character of the just city-state and the just man ecc..

It is Plato's best-known work, and one of the world's most influential works of philosophy and political theory, both intellectually and historically.

In the dialogue, Socrates discusses with various Athenians and foreigners the meaning of justice and whether the just man is happier than the unjust man.

He considers the natures of existing regimes and then proposes a series of hypothetical cities in comparison, culminating in Kallipolis (Καλλίπολις), a utopian city-state ruled by a class of philosopher-kings.

Raffaello | Scuola di Atene - Platone / Raphael - The School of Athens (1509-1511)

Vincenzo Sorrentino, 1956 | Neo Baroque painter

Vincenzo Sorrentino was born in Torre Annunziata, (Naples) Italy.

He is an illustrator, painter, sculptor and modeler of ceramic works.

His exhibition activity began in 1984 in institutional places, private galleries and at cultural institutes.

He taught painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples, and since 2001 he his a professor of fresco theory and technique at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan.

Antonio Mancini | Verist painter

Antonio Mancini (14 November 1852 - 28 December 1930) was an Italian painter.

Mancini was born in Rome and showed precocious ability as an artist.

At the age of twelve, he was admitted to the Institute of Fine Arts in Naples, where he studied under Domenico Morelli (1823-1901), a painter of historical scenes who favored dramatic chiaroscuro and vigorous brushwork, and Filippo Palizzi.

Mancini developed quickly under their guidance, and in 1872, he exhibited two paintings at the Paris Salon.

Alexei Butirskiy, 1974 | Cityscape painter

Born in Moscow, Russian painter Алексей Бутырский entered Moscow Art College in 1992.

In 1996 he completed his studies at the Art College and graduated with an Excellence Diploma.

In 1998 he graduated from the Russian Academy of the Arts where he studied under respected professor, L.S. Hasyanova.

He graduated from the Academy with the highest honors attainable.

Alexei currently serves as Professor of Drawing at the same academy.

Hortense Haudebourt-Lescot | Genre painter

Hortense Haudebourt-Lescot, born Antoinette Cécile Hortense Viel (1784-1845), was a French painter, mainly of genre and historical scenes.

She was born in Paris to Jean-Baptiste Viel, a perfumer, and his wife Cécile, née Lejeune.

Her mother became a widow two years later and remarried; to Jean-Louis Lescot, a pharmacist.

Jacques Van Den Abeele, 1960 | Figurative sculptor

Jacques Van den Abeele, Belgian sculptor, is exhibited in galleries spread over Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Switzerland and the United States of America.

He realized also monumental sculptures for state orders.

For Jacques Van den Abeele, art is above all a quest for the essential foundations of existence, moving towards what lies behind appearances: feelings, emotions, fears.

Anna Klumpke | Catinou knitting, 1887

Encouraged by an independent, educationally oriented mother, Anna Elizabeth Klumpke (1856-1942) was a copyist in the Luxembourg Museum and studied at the Académie Julien in Paris.

She enjoyed an education guided by the concept that women artists could compete with their male counterparts.

In her memoirs of 1940, Klumpke cites a most influential moment in her childhood: receiving the gift of a Rosa Bonheur doll.

Her admiration of Bonheur, the French painter of animals, led her to paint the aging woman’s portrait - which is considered a companion piece to her portrait of leading suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Louis Aragon | Amor mio, non dire niente / Mon Amour ne dis rien

Amor mio non dire niente

lascia cadere queste due parole nel silenzio

Come una pietra a lungo lisciata fra i palmi delle mie mani

Una pietra veloce e pesante una pietra

Che cada nel profondo della nostra vita

DU Kun 杜昆, 1982 | Surrealist painter

DU Kun /杜昆 born in Sichuan, China.

Under the influence of his art teacher father DU began studying painting from the age of four, later graduating from Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts’ Oil Painting program.

Today he works between Tianjin and Beijing as his base, and is particularly widely renowned as a young Chinese artist for his creativity and the brilliance of his techniques.

Further, since his student days, in addition to his work as a painter DU Kun has been applying his talents in the field of music.

Édouard Cortès | Paris in the Belle Époque

Édouard Leon Cortès (1882-1969), of french and spanish ancestry, was born in Lagny-sur-Marne, a few miles east of Paris.

As an adolescent, he became fascinated with the arts and at seventeen began his studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

The year 1901 marked the artist's first exhibition at the Salon des Artistes Francais.

His piece depicting a dramatic Paris street scene at dusk brought him immediate recognition and fame.

David Bowers, 1956 | Surrealist painter

David Michael Bowers was born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania and graduated from art school in Pittsburgh in 1979.

He began working as a staff artist at various studios in the Pittsburgh, PA area.

Two years later, David began teaching his craft at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh where he lectured for ten years and was honored as the Keynote Speaker for the Class of 2003.

In 1991, David began his illustration career working mostly with book publishers in New York City in which he completed over one hundred book covers in the span of over ten years.

Meadow Gist, 1975 | Impressionist painter

Meadow Gist chooses the subject matter she paints to express a love and respect of a simpler life, when you grew your own food and more things were crafted by hand.

This is what attracted her to being an artist in the first place, "crafting a unique item that has a piece of me in it, and I can say "I made that".

She enjoys presenting a romantic view of bygone days, and sharing a little of this optimism with all who view her paintings.

Her inspiration comes from the painting of the Russian Impressionists and the way they paint daily life, as well as the Orientalists and the pride they bring to the simple man.

Salvador Dali: "Adoro i miei nemici quando sono intelligenti"

"Ho sfondato il muro della spudoratezza con una disciplina da caserma" - confidava Salvador Dalí in una intervista del 1961 alla giornalista e scrittrice italiana Oriana Fallaci (1929-2006), mentre, nelle successive riflessioni tuonava contro gli pseudo moralisti: "Non sono io il pagliaccio ma lo è questa società mostruosamente cinica e così ingenuamente incosciente che gioca a fingere di essere seria per meglio nascondere la propria follia".

Coco Chanel: "Fashion changes, but style endures"!

Coco Chanel and Romy Schneider

• "Where should one use perfume? A young woman asked. Wherever one wants to be kissed".

• "It’s probably not just by chance that I’m alone. It would be very hard for a man to live with me, unless he’s terribly strong".

And if he’s stronger than I, I’m the one who can’t live with him. … I’m neither smart nor stupid, but I don’t think I’m a run-of-the-mill person".

I’ve been in business without being a businesswoman, I’ve loved without being a woman made only for love".

The two men I’ve loved, I think, will remember me, on earth or in heaven, because men always remember a woman who caused them concern and uneasiness".

Francisco Sanchis Cortés, 1969 | Impressionist figurative painter

The Valencian painter Francisco Sanchis Cortés has an enviable genetic line that leads him in pursuit of the fine arts.

A line that genetically connects the best manners of Hispanic roots, heir to the demonic fictional painting of the Pinazo, Emilio Sala, Mongrell and Sorolla.

A narrative line in which he tells a lot about the story of the matter and his ability to move.

A line in which knowing how to paint is essentially valued, precisely to characterize the motifs, with humanity in the gestures of the characters and above all with an outcrop of a romantic character.

Santiago Carbonell, 1960 | Visionary painter

Born in Quito, Ecuadorian painter Santiago Carbonell emigrated to Mexico in 1986.

Carbonell studied painting in Barcelona and was part of a group of young painters influenced by informalism.

Tàpies was an influential figure for him.

Tachism and working with different materials, accidents, chance, and texture are all highly influential in his works.

Nancy Boren, 1955 | Impressionist painter

Nancy Boren’s first painting, a watercolor, was done at age 12 while sitting next to her artist father, James Boren, as he painted at the Grand Canyon.

Since then she has branched out to original print making and oil painting, depicting a variety of landscape and marine subjects, and is often captivated by scenes in which the figure fills the canvas.

She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Abilene Christian University and cites the influence of notable traditional painters such as Sargent, Sorolla and Fechin.

Giacomo Moretti, 1939 | Genre painter

Giacomo Moretti is an Italian painter born in Cava dei Tirreni in the province of Salerno Italy. For some years he lived in Naples where in 1971 he received, on the occasion of the First Neapolitan Biennial of Contemporary Painting, the diploma with a gold medal.

He later moved to La Rochelle, France. Giacomo Moretti has achieved great success among collectors, obtaining interesting prices.

Luigi Bazzani | Neo-Pompeian painter

Luigi Bazzani, also called Il Bazzanetto, was an Italian painter, illustrator and watercolorist.

He was born November 8, 1836, in Bologna, Italy.

Bazzani studied at Bologna's Accademia di Belle Arti then traveled to France, Germany and, eventually, Rome where he settled down in 1861 and began to specialize in genre and landscape subjects as well as set designs for theaters.

Many of his paintings featured the remains of the city's monuments from classical antiquity.

Rosmery Mamani Ventura, 1985 | Pastel painter

Rosmery Mamani Ventura is an award winning hyperrealistic pastel artists from Bolivia.

She was born in Omasuyos, near Lake Titicaca where she lived until 1998.

At 14 she migrated from her rural Aymara indigenous community to the city of El Alto to work as a maid, a move that brought excitement, but also struggle.

Despite the hardships, that move was also the first step toward discovering her talent as an artist.

Johan Ericson | Landscape painter

Johan Erik Ericson (1849-1925) was a Swedish landscape painter.

He was born to Anders Eriksson, a woodcarver, and his wife Johanna, née Petersson. His father emigrated to America when he was only four.

From 1872 to 1878, he studied at the Royal Institute of Art, where his primary teacher was Per Daniel Holm.

This was followed by studies in France from 1878 to 1884, where he came under the influence of the Impressionists and served as an assistant in the studios of Alfred Wahlberg.

Jan Bogaerts (Dutch, 1878-1962)

Johannes Jacobus Maria (Jan) Bogaerts was an artist from Netherlands.

Born in the Dutch city of 's-Hertogenbosch, in the province of North Brabant, Bogaerts attended the Koninklijke School voor Nuttige en Beeldende Kunsten in his birth city between 1893 and 1899.

He spent four years working in the studio of the fin-de siècle artist Antoon van Welie (1866-1956) and also received tutelage from him at the Den Bosch academy from 1897 until 1899.

Under his influence, Bogaerts painted figures, portraits, landscapes, parks, gardens and castle grounds in a symbolistical manner.

Alexander Sheversky, 1961 | Ballet dancers

Alexander Sheversky is an artist who truly captures the essence of beauty with his brushstrokes, whether he is painting a still life, a ballerina, or an assortment of candy in a crystal clear Mason jar.

Clean, modern, crisp. Sheversky's art speaks to his technical training, discipline, and great patience.

Alexander employes these same skills, in his daily practice of yoga.

Alexander Sheversky, born in the Republic of Moldova, the son of an accomplished artist.

Louis Aragon | Tutte le parole del mondo / Toutes les paroles du monde…

Quando tutte insieme le parole del mondo ti avrò dato

Tutte le foreste d’America e tutte le messi notturne del cielo

Quando ti avrò dato ciò che brilla e ciò che l’occhio non può vedere

Tutto il fuoco della terra come una coppa di lacrime

Il seme maschile delle specie diluviane

E la mano di un bambino

Sergey Shenderovsky

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Jeune fille (L’Eté), 1880

Renoir’s Jeune fille (L'Eté) is a pretty pastel fantasy: a plump brunette wears a breezy white chemise and a fashionable straw hat, festooned with a thick blue ribbon.

This Impressionist goddess of summer, nestled in a flowering meadow, has adorned her hat with freshly plucked blooms.

She leans towards the viewer with a sweet, languid look, her lips gently parted.

The sensuality of her expression is underscored by the casual exposure of her bare shoulder, arms and décolleté.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Jeune fille (L’Eté), 1880 | Christie's

Babylon, the Gate of the Gods

Babylon was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about 85 kilometres (55 miles) south of modern day Baghdad.

Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-speaking region of Babylonia.

Its rulers established two important empires in antiquity, the 19th-16th century BC Old Babylonian Empire, and the 7th-6th century BC Neo-Babylonian Empire.

Babylon was also used as a regional capital of other empires, such as the Achaemenid Empire.

Babylon was one of the most important urban centres of the ancient Near East, until its decline during the Hellenistic period.

Nearby ancient sites are Kish, Borsippa, Dilbat and Kutha.

An artist's depiction of Ishtar Gate as it may have appeared around the time it was constructed in Babylon c. 575 BCE. From the game Old World

Antonio Zoppi | Grandpa plays the accordion for Grandma

Antonio Zoppi (1860-1926) was an Italian painter, mostly of genre and costume scenes, as well as landscapes.

He was born and resident in Novara. In 1881 at Milan he exhibited: Paggio del secolo XVI.

In 1881 at Rome he exhibited: Fate la carità e In vino laetitia.

To other exhibitions he sent: Winter Sun; Dolci ricordi; Il nonno; Adele; Study of a head; A landscaper of Tobacco; and Savoy and Winter Morning.

Antonio Zoppi | Grandpa plays the accordion for Grandma / Il Nonno suona la fisarmonica per la Nonna | Simpson Galleries, Houston, Texas

William Faulkner: "I believe that man will not merely endure he will prevail!"

William Faulkner’s speech at the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm

December 10, 1950

Ladies and gentlemen,

I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work - a life’s work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before.

So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin.

Antonio Nunziante

Iain Faulkner, 1973 | Figurative / Romantic painter

Scottish painter Iain Faulkner was born in Glasgow where he was raised and educated.

He graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1996 with a BA (Honours) Degree in Fine Art.

From the onset of his professional career, the fashionable and trendy routes of contemporary and conceptual art, adopted by many of his peers, was not an option.

He chose instead to follow the more difficult and demanding path of figurative painting wherein clear, concise yardsticks of competence, draughtsmanship and painterly skills can be measured and judged, warts and all.

Sir John Everett Millais | Ophelia, 1851-1852

The scene depicted is from Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act IV, Scene VII, in which Ophelia, driven out of her mind when her father is murdered by her lover Hamlet, falls into a stream and drowns:

There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds

Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;

When down her weedy trophies and herself

Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide,

And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up;

Sir John Everett Millais | Ophelia, 1851-1852 | Tate Britain, London

Marc Chagall's America Windows, 1977

The America Windows are a stunning display of the iconic style of one of the world’s most prolific and expressive artists.

They capture Marc Chagall’s unique vision as he reflected, late in his career, on the resilience and freedom of the creative spirit.

At eight feet high and thirty feet across, these stained glass windows are a vast arrangement of colors of the highest intensity - bright reds, oranges, yellows, and greens - placed against brilliant shades of blue. Representations of people, animals, and items such as writing implements, musical instruments, and artists’ tools float above a skyline of buildings and trees.

Paul-Louis Delance | Allegorical / History painter

Paul-Louis Delance (1848-1924) was a French painter and educator.

He is known for his allegorical and genre scene paintings early in his career, and his religious, and landscape paintings later in his career.

Paul-Louis Gustave Delance was born on March 14, 1848, in Paris, France.

His grandfather was Comte Joseph van Roosebeck from Belgium.

Van Gogh's starry skies

"At present I absolutely want to paint a starry sky.

It often seems to me that night is still more richly coloured than the day; having hues of the most intense violets, blues and greens.

If only you pay attention to it you will see that certain stars are lemon-yellow, others pink or a green, blue and forget-me-not brilliance.

And without my expatiating on this theme it is obvious that putting little white dots on the blue-black is not enough to paint a starry sky" - Vincent van Gogh, Letter to Wilhelmina van Gogh, the sister, written 9 and 16 September 1888 in Arles.

Vincent van Gogh | Starry Night Over the Rhône, 1888 | Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Johannes Vermeer | The Milkmaid / La Lattaia, 1657-1658

The Milkmai was painted by Johannes Vermeer in about 1657-58.

The small picture (18 x 16 1/8 in., or 45.5 x 41 cm) could be described as one of the last works of the Delft artist’s formative years (ca. 1654-58), during which he adopted various subjects and styles from other painters and at the same time introduced effects based on direct observation and an exceptionally refined artistic sensibility.

Influenced by the detailed realism of Gerrit Dou (1613-1675) and his followers in Leiden, Vermeer created his most illusionistic image in The Milkmaid (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, SK-A-2344).

Jean-André Rixens | Orientalist painter

Jean-André Rixens (1846-1925) was a French painter, known for his classical scenes and portraits.

He was born in Saint-Gaudens. His father was a master shoemaker.

After completing his basic education, he was enrolled in 1860 at the École supérieure des beaux-arts de Toulouse.

He paid for his tuition there and supported himself by painting commercial signs and making copies of artworks.

Albert Camus | Invincibile estate / Within Me

Mia cara,

nel bel mezzo dell’odio

ho scoperto che vi era in me

un invincibile amore.

Nel bel mezzo delle lacrime

ho scoperto che vi era in me

un invincibile sorriso.

Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall | The Tree of Life, 1963 | Stained glass

The Tree of Life or The Peace window - La Paix ou L’Arbre de vie - at the chapel of Cordeliers of Sarrebourg, a small town in the Vosges Mountains in France, is a stained-glass window about 15 feet (4,6 meters) wide and 12 feet (3,7 meters) high, contains several symbols of peace and love, such as the young child in the center, being kissed by an angelic face which emerges from a mass of flowers.

The Peace Window / Tree of Life is the largest stained-glass window made by Marc Chagall.

On the left, below and above, motherhood and the people who are struggling for peace are depicted.

Musical symbols in the panel evoke thoughts of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which was a favourite of Mr. Hammarskjöld's.

Antonio Nunziante, 1956 | Il maestro della Metafisica

Il pittore Italiano Antonio Nunziante afferma che tra Surrealismo e Metafisica: "c’è una commistione.

Mediamente la metafisica mi da più apertura, nel senso che è una realtà possibile e più vicina a noi.

Il surrealismo invece è qualcosa di estremo, oltre una realtà.

Raramente vado oltre la realtà delle cose, infatti nel contesto della mia espressione apparentemente tutto sembra ben proporzionato e normale, ma non è proprio così".

Scottish painter Jack Vettriano dies aged 73

Scottish painter Jack Vettriano, best known for his painting The Singing Butler, has died at the age of 73.

His publicist said the artist was found dead at his apartment in Nice, in the south of France, on Saturday, 1 March 2025.

It is understood there are no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.

Wisława Szymborska | Ritratto di Donna / Portrait of a Woman

Deve essere a scelta.

Cambiare, purché niente cambi.

È facile, impossibile, difficile, ne vale la pena.

Ha gli occhi, se occorre, ora azzurri, ora grigi,

neri, allegri, senza motivo pieni di lacrime.

Egon Schiele | Seated Woman with Bent Knees, 1917 | National Gallery of Prague

Women Artists | Sitemap

"Someone, I say, will remember us in the future".

"Qualcuno, dico, si ricorderà di noi in futuro".

Saffo

The absence of women from the canon of Western art has been a subject of inquiry and reconsideration since the early 1970s.

Linda Nochlin's influential 1971 essay, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" examined the social and institutional barriers that blocked most women from entering artistic professions throughout history, prompted a new focus on women artists, their art and experiences, and contributed inspiration to the Feminist art movement.

Camille Claudel | L'âge mûr /L'Età matura, 1902

Paul Emil Jacobs | Orientalist painter

Paul Emil Jacobs (1802-1866) was a German painter, noted for Orientalist themes, portraits and figures.

Jacobs, son of the philologist Frederick Jacobs, received his art training at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts and first became known for his painting of Mercury and Argus (from Classical mythology).

In 1824 he went to Rome, where he attracted critical attention by painting "The Raising of Lazarus".

In 1836 he made a series of historical paintings at the Welfenschloss in Hannover.

Jehan-Georges Vibert | Academic painter

Jehan Georges Vibert or Jean Georges Vibert (1840-1902) was a French academic painter.

He was born in Paris, the son of engraver and publisher Théodore Vibert, and grandson of the influential rose-breeder Jean-Pierre Vibert.

He began his artistic training at a young age under the instruction of his maternal grandfather, engraver Jean-Pierre-Marie Jazet.

Vibert was more interested in painting than engraving and entered the studio of Félix-Joseph Barrias and eventually the École des Beaux-Arts when he was sixteen.

Louis Béroud (1852-1930)

Louis Béroud (1852-1930) was a French painter, a student of Léon Bonnat, renowned for his detailed and realistic works, often depicting interior scenes of famous museums, including the Louvre.

Some of his paintings are visible at the Musée Carnavalet and The Louvre in Paris.

He was awarded the medal of honour at the Salon in 1882 and won the bronze medal at the Universal.

Wilhelm Leibl | Genre painter

Wilhelm Maria Hubertus Leibl (1844-1900) was a German realist painter of portraits and scenes of peasant life.

Leibl was born in Cologne, where his father was the director of the Cathedral choir.

He was apprenticed to a locksmith before beginning his artistic training with the local painter Hermann Becker in 1861.

He entered the Munich Academy in 1864, subsequently studying with several artists including Carl Theodor von Piloty.

Claude Monet | Nazi looting / Il saccheggio nazista

Under the Nazi regime, both in Germany from 1933 and in German-occupied countries until 1945, Jewish art collectors of Monet were robbed by Nazis and their agents.

Several of the stolen artworks have been returned to their rightful owners, while others have been the object of court battles.

In 2014, during the spectacular discovery of a hidden trove of art in Munich, a Monet that had belonged to a Jewish retail magnate was found in the suitcase of Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of one of Hitler's official dealers of looted art, Hildebrand Gurlitt.

Claude Monet | Fécamp, bord de mer

Emily Dickinson | Marzo: Mese di attesa / March: Month of expectation, 1877

Marzo: mese di attesa.

Le cose che ignoriamo -

E le persone del nostro presagio

Sono in cammino -

Ci sforziamo di fingere fermezza -

Come si deve, ma la gioia solenne

Claude Monet | Strada Romana at Bordighera | Museum Barberini

Cecil van Haanen | Genre painter

Cecil van Haanen (1844-1914) was a Vienna-born Dutch portrait and genre painter, whose significant work was centred at Venice.

Van Haanen was the son to landscape painter Remigius Adrianus Haanen (1812–1894) and Emilie Mayer von Alsó-Rußbach.

He received early artistic training from his father and Friedrich Schilcher, and from April 1854 was educated at the pre-school of the Vienna Academy under Peter Johann Nepomuk Geiger.

Carl von Marr | Genre painter

Carl von Marr (1858-1936) was an American-born German painter whose work encompassed religious and mythological subjects, genre and portraits.

He was also a professor of art in Munich.

He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

He was a pupil of Henry Vianden in Milwaukee, of Martin Schauß in Weimar, of Karl Gussow in Berlin, and subsequently of Otto Seitz at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich.

His first work, Ahasuerus, the Wandering Jew, received a medal in Munich.

Grazia Deledda (Nobel Prize) | While the east wind blows, 1905

Grazia Maria Cosima Damiana Deledda (1871-1936) was an Italian writer who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926 "For her idealistically inspired writings which with plastic clarity picture the life on her native island [i.e. Sardinia] and with depth and sympathy deal with human problems in general".

She was the first Italian woman to receive the prize, and only the second woman in general after Selma Lagerlöf was awarded hers in 1909.

While the East Wind Blows

A short story by Grazia Deledda published on the official website of the Nobel Prize

From the collection I giuochi della vita, 1905

Translated by Anders Hallengren

Mentre soffia il levante (Original text)

Karl Raupp | Crossing Lake Chiemsee in a storm under the aegis of a guardian angel