Las palabras mágicas: October 2012

Sunday, 21 October 2012

Ancient Greek painting

This is my find of the year. I found it by chance flipping through a book at a bookshop.
So it turns out that there are some examples of Ancient Greece painting on wood panels. The wood is covered in plaster and painted in several colours with mineral pigments: black, white, blue, red, green, yellow, purple and brown.

These are known ase the Pitsa Panels, and they were found near the town of Sycion in Greece. They have been dated c.540 - 530 BC.

This one shows a sacrifical scene connected to the cult of the nymphs:

Interesting lady: Zenobia

apparently this bust, though found in Palmyra, is not really a representation of Zenobia, what a pity

Name: Zenobia
Full name in Roman: Julia Augusta Zenobia
Lived: III century
Occupation: Queen of Palmyra
Where's Palmyra: it was one of the main cities of the ancient Near East, nowadays it is in Syrian land.
Main achievement: She led a revolt against the Roman empire, whose armies wanted to conquer every territory they set foot on as usual.
Achievement nº 2: She led expeditions, expanded and ruled over the Palmyrene empire after the death of her husband in 267. This included the invasion of Egypt.
Date the dream is over: in 274, when she was defeated by the Roman emperor Aurelian and taken to Rome as prisoner.

To know more: wikiyouknowhat, and on the blog Zenobia, empress of the East