American Philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum is the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics in the Philosophy Department, Law School, and Divinity School at the University of Chicago. In her short and powerful new book called Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities she makes a passionate case for the importance of the liberal arts at all levels of education. She challenges us all to strive be truly human – ‘to remain childlike, to keep an open mind, to refine an ability to remain humble, to eschew pride and arrogance and to be reverent towards other people and towards the natural world’.

Click here to read more of this article

The mirror, more than just glass, has occupied a unique place in his imagination as a site of the divine or demonic, of lucidity or madness. It is the ‘matrix of the symbolic’ and accompanies the human quest to know and understand our identity.

Click here to read more of this article

Classic – is the SECOND part of our four (4) segment course the Evolution of Art, Design & Style. It is available in video, ebook or podcast format and can be watched, read or listened to on your computer, iPad, Kindle or iPod.

Click here to read more of this article

20th century Pop Art Prince Andy Warhol knew that works of art meet many needs, including that of the ‘artist’. He didn’t want to pay the wages of art or beauty himself but to provide the lifestyle he wanted to enjoy. He concentrated on graphic works because he knew they would exhibit more than normal significance in a world rapidly being dominated by emerging technologies.

Click here to read more of this article

During the rebirth of humanism in Italy from the 4th to the 14th centuries patrons began recognizing that artisans, who had always worked under the direction of guilds or the church, were not only skilled technicians but also thinkers, discoverers and inventors. They sought to acquire the works of these ‘artists’ and use their talents to advance their own social agenda. So nothing has changed really.

Click here to read more of this article

The Australian Antique & Art Dealers Association (AA&ADA) Show is on at Royal Randwick Racecourse at Sydney from the 7 – 11th September. It is the leading industry body representing antique and art dealers in Australia today. Their Code of Practice is surety that your investment in the past is also an investment in your future.

Click here to read more of this article

François 1 dazzled Europe with the sophistication of his court and Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci [1452-1519], former festaivolo at the court of Milan became his ‘Master of the Entertainments’. Following his son Henry II’s untimely death devastating religious wars ensued until Henry IV [1553-1610], the Great, restored France to peace, strong monarchy and stable [...]

Click here to read more of this article

Day 19 -  The Dream Team Part 3 Louis XIV set about renovating his father’s hunting lodge at Versailles seconding the talents of Foucquet’s ‘dream team’ to create a building project that ultimately influenced the evolution of all the arts in the western world. Louis Le Vau was succeeded on his death at Versailles by [...]

Click here to read more of this article

Day 20 – England and its Great Treasure Houses King James II threw the Great Seal of England into the Thames and fled England when Dutch Protestant rulers William and Mary of Orange claimed the throne of England. Around 1688 some of the grandest architectural gestures in England occur, including Chatsworth, a country palace wholly [...]

Click here to read more of this article

Day 17 – Dutch Simplicity, Sobriety and Sensuality – Parts 1 & 2 The northern and southern Netherlands [today's Holland and Belgium] was united under Spanish rule until 1579 when a sense of national pride influenced the nature of art including still life. Collectively the works of such as Rembrandt, Rubens and their contemporaries reflect [...]

Click here to read more of this article

Day 18 – The Dream Team – Parts 1 & 2 In seventeenth century France Paris was becoming a sophisticated city when the Superintendent of the King’s Finances Nicolas Foucquet, conceived and completed the quintessential French country Chateau Vaux le Vicomte designed by his ‘dream team’ architect Louis Le Vau, designer Charles Le Brun and [...]

Click here to read more of this article

Charles 1 by Anthony Van Dyck Day 16 The Tudors – In the Name of Progress Part 3 Henry VIII’s son Edward succeeded him as a minor but died before his majortity and the ill-fated Lady Jane Grey lost her head to Bloody Mary, who lasted only five years. When his daughter Elizabeth 1 came [...]

Click here to read more of this article

Join us for CLASSIC, the SECOND part of our four (4) segment course of study The Evolution of Art, Design & Style CLASSIC: ARTIST & ARTISANS Renaissance to Restoration This part of the course (Days 11 – 20) covers the periods from the rebirth of humanism in Italy during the fourteenth century to the restoration [...]

Click here to read more of this article

Days 11 & 12 – Italian Renaissance – Four Parts The rediscovery of ancient texts in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in Europe changed perceptions and a new group of accomplished architects and artisans who collectively ushered in a new era in art, design and style. Central to that development was the emergence of the [...]

Click here to read more of this article

Today members of the various clans of Scotland, scattered all over the world, communicate with each other, meet together, learn from and help each other, search for their identity and, from time to time, gather together to celebrate being part of a wider family – one with a proud and dramatic history.

Click here to read more of this article

The Nicholson Museum at Sydney University is the second largest teaching collection of ancient artifacts in the world, certainly the biggest such collection in Australia. It is a stunning array and humbling in that there are so many objects from many ancient civilisations we will recognise and connect with, despite them having been created thousands of years ago.

Click here to read more of this article