new habits of a simple
Caravaggio – “an excellent rival of nature”
At the turn of the XVI – XVII centuries in Italy, famous for great painters, poets, scientists and humanists, a very peculiar artist appeared. His paintings caused a genuine sensation. Noble signorers and common people, artists and art lovers, clergymen and numerous multilingual wanderers, who filled the Eternal City during the great holidays, were eager to see them. Connoisseurs of art of that time praised the masters and talked about creations that were truly extraordinary and unique in their own way. They simultaneously cursed him as a person. Continue reading
Vincent van Gogh in Holland
In 1879, when the epidemic of typhoid fever and fever in a multitude mowed people, Borinage’s miners marveled at the young lord, who fearlessly avoided the infected shacks, nursing the sick and maimed. This man was Vincent Van Gogh. Traveling over half of Europe, he ended up as a missionary at the coal mines. When the disaster at the mine was followed by a massive explosion of indignation of the miners, Vincent, their defender, entered into open conflict with the administration. “For almost two years,” he wrote bitterly about this to his brother, “I had to go through something in Borinage that did not look like a pleasure walk.” The unrest of the miners was suppressed, and the obstinate preacher was denied a seat. Continue reading