Margaret Mead | Remember me / Ricordati di me

Years ago, American cultural anthropologist, author and speaker Margaret Mead (1901-1978) was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture.

The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones.

But no. Mead said that the "first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed".

Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die.

"You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food.

You are meat for prowling beasts.

No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal.

A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery.

Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts", Mead said.

Margaret Mead | Remember me

To the living, I am gone,

To the sorrowful, I will never return,

To the angry, I was cheated,

But to the happy, I am at peace,

And to the faithful, I have never left.

Dame Laura Knight | The Dark Pool, 1908-1918

Vittore Carpaccio | Mannerist painter

Vittore Carpaccio (1460/1465-1525) was an Italian painter of the Venetian school who studied under Gentile Bellini.

Carpaccio was largely influenced by the style of the early Italian Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina (1430-1479), as well as Early Netherlandish painting.

Although often compared to his mentor Gentile Bellini, Vittore Carpaccio's command of perspective, precise attention to architectural detail, themes of death, and use of bold color differentiated him from other Italian Renaissance artists.

Pascal Campion, 1973 | Conceptual illustrator / animator

Pascal Campion is a French American prolific illustrator and storyteller. He has worked decades in the field of animation, illustration and commercials.

Born in River Edge, New Jersey, Pascal began his art career at a very young age of seven when his older brother Sean, gave him the task of "copying" comic books covers in exchange for Pascal to read the comics!

At the age of three, his family relocated back to the south of France, where he spent hours sketching and drawing both comics and the beautiful landscapes of Provence.

In 1998 Pascal began his studying narrative illustration at Arts Decoratifs de Strasbourg, in France.

Igor Levashov [Игорь Левашов] 1964 | Flower painter

Born near Moscow, Russian painter Игорь Левашов entered the School for Young Painters in 1997 and the world-famed Sourykoff Institute in Moscow in 1984.

He finished his formal training at the Royal Academy of Modern Art in the Hague in 1996.

In this age he discovered his love and passion for flowers.

His detailed paintings are done in oil in a one-time-session.

Petrarca | Chiare fresche e dolci acque / Clear, sweet fresh water

Chiare, fresche et dolci acque è la canzone numero CXXVI (126) del Canzoniere di Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374).

Fu scritta tra il 1340-1341 ed il poeta fu ispirato, molto probabilmente, dal fiume Sorgue, che scorre nei pressi dell'attuale comune francese di Fontaine-de-Vaucluse (Fonte di Valchiusa).

Chiare, fresche et dolci acque,

ove le belle membra

pose colei che sola a me par donna;

gentil ramo ove piacque

(con sospir’ mi rimembra)

a lei di fare al bel fiancho colonna;

herba et fior’ che la gonna

leggiadra ricoverse

Marie Spartali Stillman | The First Meeting of Petrarch and Laura, 1889

Hermann Hesse | In the Fog / Nella Nebbia / Im Nebel

Strano vagare nella nebbia!

È solo ogni cespuglio ed ogni pietra,

né gli alberi si scorgono tra loro,

ognuno è solo.

Pieno di amici mi appariva il mondo

quando era la mia vita ancora chiara;

adesso che la nebbia cala

non ne vedo più alcuno.

Julius Von Leypold | Wanderer in the Storm, 1835 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Pompeian red | Ancient colors

Pompeian red refers to the color of iron oxide-based mineral pigment with a hue close to red ochre, so named because of its common use in ancient Roman painting and the fact that it is abundant in the murals of Pompeii.

Studies have shown that walls with Pompeian red backgrounds were painted in various ways, of which the use of cinnabar was the most expensive.

This term also defines the ochre-red color of a plaster characteristic of Roman ceramics.

Pompeii roman freso

Egyptian blue | The first synthetic pigment in history

Egyptian blue, also known as calcium copper silicate (calcium copper tetrasilicate) or cuprorivaite, is a pigment that was used in ancient Egypt for thousands of years.

It is considered to be the first synthetic pigment.

It was known to the Romans by the name caeruleum.

After the Roman era, Egyptian blue fell from use and, thereafter, the manner of its creation was forgotten.

In modern times, scientists have been able to analyze its chemistry and reconstruct how to make it.

Tomb of Amunherkhepshef, son of Pharaoh Ramesses III