Pompeii 

 

Pompeii was an ancient Roman city near modern Naples in the Campania region of Italy, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at BoscorealeStabiae), was buried under 4 to 6 m (13 to 20 ft) of volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. Many of the inhabitants were also buried before they could escape.

Pompeii artwork

Seven deadly sins

The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins, is a grouping and classification of vices within Christian teachings. Behaviours or habits are classified under this category if they directly give birth to other immoralities.According to the standard list, they are pridegreedlustenvygluttonywrath and sloth, which are also contrary to the seven virtues. These sins are often thought to be abuses or excessive versions of one's natural faculties or passions (for example, gluttony abuses one's desire to eat).

Sevendeadlysins art

Envy is the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situation.

 

Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.

 

Lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.

 

Anger is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury. It is also known as Wrath.

 

Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. It is also called Avarice or Covetousness.

 

Sloth is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work.

Sevendailysins.com

 

 

 

 


Antonio Vivaldi Le quattro stagion)

 

The Four Seasons (ItalianLe quattro stagioni) is a group of four violin concerti by Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi, each of which gives musical expression to a season of the year. They were written around 1721 and were published in 1725 in Amsterdam, together with eight additional violin concerti, as Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione ("The Contest Between Harmony and Invention").

The Four Seasons is the best known of Vivaldi's works. 

 

Leonardo Frigo Artwork

 

 

 

Unusually for the period, Vivaldi published the concerti with accompanying sonnets (possibly written by the composer himself) that elucidated what it was in the spirit of each season that his music was intended to evoke. The concerti therefore stand as one of the earliest and most detailed examples of what would come to be called program music—i.e., music with a narrative element. Vivaldi took great pains to relate his music to the texts of the poems, translating the poetic lines themselves directly into the music on the page. For example, in the middle section of the Spring concerto, where the goatherd sleeps, his barking dog can be heard in the viola section. The music is elsewhere similarly evocative of other natural sounds. Vivaldi separated each concerto into three movements (fast–slow–fast), and, likewise, each linked sonnet into three sections.

Wikipedia

 


The goddess of Fortune

Blindfolded woman

In the most common iconography, fortune is represented as a blindfolded woman. The origin of her personification has ancient roots. The Greeks called her Τύχη, goddess of prosperity and fate. The same goddess took the name "Fortuna" in the Roman religion. The dual nature of Fortune is celebrated by many classical Latin poets, including Virgil, who imagined her as a relentless, fickle and cruel goddess. The blindfold represents, in fact, the impartiality with which she distributes and takes away goods and glory from human beings.

Cornucopia

Wealth and fertility take shape through the representation of a horn rich in various kinds of goods. We are talking about the cornucopia, or horn of abundance, an auspicious symbol used since ancient times. Greek mythology tells that originally the horn belonged to the goat Amalthea, nurse of Zeus. The king of the gods filled the horn with flowers and fruit in honor of the one who had fed and raised him, giving it the magical property of generating everything that its owner had desired. This is why the cornucopia was commonly attributed to many gods and goddesses of fortune and riches. With the advent of the Christian faith, the cornucopia was assumed as a symbol of peace and abundance. Still today it is considered one of the most traditional attributes of fortune.

dante painting
Leonardo Frigo Artwork
 

Wheel of fortune

The wheel is a symbol of changeability, cyclicality and renewal. Since the Middle Ages it has been assumed as a symbol of fortune in popular culture. The wheel of fortune, in fact, represents the alternation of fate, now favorable, now unjust. When it turns, the wheel goes through 4 phases: an ascending phase, which symbolizes the passage from misery to wealth; the achievement of the climax, which symbolizes maximum glory and prosperity; decadence, which means return to poverty; the fall. It is a cycle that repeats itself over and over, a metaphor for the inevitability of human destiny.

Celestial globe

In iconography, fortune is sometimes represented with a celestial globe on her head. Dante Alighieri is one of the first who, in his writings, refers directly to the sphere as an emblem of fortune. For Dante the Earth is surrounded by nine perfectly concentric skies moved by the angelic hierarchies in such a way as to make the divine influences fall upon the earth itself according to the will of providence.  From the influences of the heavens derive the different characteristics of men. Fortune, on the other hand, governs its material goods and, through her will, we witness the variation of human destiny. She determines how riches should be distributed and who should prosper or decay according to the inscrutable divine judgment. In canto VII of Inferno Dante describes fortune as a fast figure, always on the move, ready to make her sphere turn. Here, the image of the angelic hierarchy that makes the sky rotate joins the popular one of the wheel of fortune, symbol of motion, becoming, cyclicality, renewal, and incorporates it.

Olive branch

The olive branch is one of the most used emblems of history. Already in the Old Testament the olive tree symbolizes prosperity. It has always been a symbol of justice and wisdom, as indicated by its bond with the Greek goddess Athena. The Romans also celebrated the most valiant citizens by crowning them with intertwined olive branches. Moreover, with the advent of Christianity, the olive tree also takes on the meaning of regeneration. These are all attributes related to fortune or, at least, to its benevolent nature.