When was it decided that January 1st is the new year?

The New Year is the time or day at which a new calendar year begins and the calendar's year count increments by one. Many cultures celebrate the event in some manner.

In the Gregorian calendar, the most widely used calendar system today, New Year occurs on January 1 (New Year's Day, preceded by New Year's Eve).

This was also the first day of the year in the original Julian calendar and the Roman calendar (after 153 BC).

Kike Meana, 1969 | Figurative painter

The works of Spanish painter Kike Meana demonstrate a rigorous interest in drawing.

Meana confronts us with the indoctrinated mass that this society can be and in which we all, in some way, see a reflection of ourselves.

His fantastic urban landscapes, mythical in their atmosphere, light, and colour, as well as the immense panoramic views of Havana, London and Madrid overwhelm the viewer.

Meanwhile, his more intimate pictorial approaches of these big cities show us their daily life and their hidden corners with an equal strength and beauty, even in the hard and intense series´ Metamorphosis and Matadero.

Marlène Dietrich and Édith Piaf

"My Friend Édith Piaf" by Marlène Dietrich

From the autobiographical book Marlène D., 1984

"In my eyes, she really was the sparrow, the little bird whose name she bore.

But she was also Jezebel, whose unquenchable thirst for love must have been due to a feeling of imperfection, her 'ugliness', as she put it -- her delicate, scrawny body, which she sent forth into battle like Circe, the Sirens and Lorelei, the temptress who with her incomparable vitality promised all the pleasures of the world".

Marlene Dietrich ed Édith Piaf, 1952

Vincent Van Gogh | Butterflies series

Butterflies is a series paintings made by Vincent van Gogh in 1889 and 1890.

Van Gogh made at least four paintings of butterflies and one of a moth.

The metamorphosis of the caterpillar into a butterfly was symbolic to Van Gogh of men and women's capability for transformation.

Vincent van Gogh | Butterflies and Poppies | Van Gogh Museum

Giuseppe De Nittis | Vita ed opere

De Nittis Giuseppe (1846-1884) - Nacque a Barletta (Bari) il 25 febbr. 1846, da Raffaele e da Teresa Buracchia. Visse gli anni della sua prima giovinezza nella città natale con i fratelli, dopo la morte di entrambi i genitori.

Compiuti i primi studi con G. B. Calò e con V. Dattoli, iniziò a dipingere trovando ispirazione nella natura, con quell'istintiva gioia e dedizione che saranno le doti primarie del suo operare.

Quindicenne, entrò all'istituto delle belle arti di Napoli, dove studiò sotto la guida di G. Smargiassi e di G. Mancinelli.

Egon Schiele | Quotes / Poems

• "Art cannot be modern. Art is primordially eternal".

• "Bodies have their own light which they consume to live: they burn, they are not lit from the outside".

• "I must see new things and investigate them. I want to taste dark water and see crackling trees and wild winds".

• "At present, I am mainly observing the physical motion of mountains, water, trees and flowers. One is everywhere reminded of similar movements in the human body, of similar impulses of joy and suffering in plants..."

• "I was in love with everything- I wanted to look with love at the angry people so that their eyes would be forced to respond; and I wanted to bring gifts to the envious and tell them that I am worthless.".

Così parlò Zarathustra | Nietzsche, 1885

Così parlò Zarathustra

Parte seconda | Il canto notturno

È notte: solo ora si svegliano tutti i canti degli amanti. E anche la mia anima è il canto di un amante.

Qualcosa di insaziato, insaziabile è in me; che vuole farsi sentire. È in me un desiderio d'amore, che parla il linguaggio dell'amore.

Io sono luce: ah, fossi notte! Ma questa è la mia solitudine, che io sono cinto di luce.

Ah, fossi io oscuro e notturno! Come vorrei attaccarmi alle mammelle della luce!

Caspar David Friedrich | Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, 1818 | Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg

Olga Dugina, 1964 | 1001 Nights

Sheherazade, the king's beautiful wife, is due to be executed at dawn - unless she can convince the king to change his mind.

That night she tells him a wonderful story which, as dawn comes, she leaves unfinished.

"Will you let me live to finish the tale?" she asks.

"Of course", replies the king, "I must know what happens next".