penwithlit

As Ovid nears the end of Book 13 of his Metamorphoses, Aeneas and his companions are in transit across the Mediterranean towards Italy and destiny. The poet rushes them through a rapid succession of adventures, told in detail in Virgil’s earlier Aeneid, before bringing them to Sicily for the closing stories in this book.

The Story

Ovid summarises much of the Aeneid in just a few lines, which take Aeneas from Crete through Ithaca, Samos, Dodona, and Phaeacia, to land on Sicily, where Scylla and Charybdis threaten the safety of mariners. Scylla is combing the hair of Galatea, as the latter laments her tragic love-life. Wiping tears from her eyes, Galatea then tells us her story.

When he was only sixteen, Galatea had fallen in love with Acis, the son of the river nymph Symaethis, but the Cyclops Polyphemus fell in love with her. The latter did his best to…

Gustav Wunderwald, 1927, U-Bhf “Schönhauser Tor”

On this grey and gloomy day, a splash of colour straight from 1927: Gustav Wunderwald’s painting of the entrance to U-Bahnhof “Schönhauser Tor”.

The station, part of the old Linie A (now U2), was later re-named by the Nazis “Horst-Wessel-Platz” but after the Second World War was known as “Luxemburgplatz”.

To avoid it being confused with the state of Luxemburg, the station as well as the plaza, whose name in fact honoured the great Communist leader murdered in January 1919, was once again re-named: today it features on Berlin maps as U-Bahnhof “Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz”.

As today is New Year’s Eve, it is time to look back on some of my favourite paintings which I have featured in articles here over the past year.

This is one of my favourite articles to write, because it gives me an excuse to go back and enjoy the many paintings which I have shown, but it is also one of the most difficult, given the choice. I hope that you will enjoy these few.

Gustave Moreau (1826–1898), The Apparition (1876-77), oil on canvas, 55.9 x 46.7 cm, Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum (Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop), Cambridge, MA. Courtesy of Harvard Art Museums.

Gustave Moreau’s The Apparition (1876-77) was featured in my series looking at who killed John the Baptist?

Osman Hamdi Bey (1842–1910), The Tortoise Trainer (1906), oil on canvas, 221.5 x 120 cm, Pera Müzesi, Istanbul. Wikimedia Commons.

I had not come across the paintings of…

As the Kulturabteilung (Department of Culture) of UFA, legendary German film-production company celebrating its 100th birthday this year, released this film little did they know that it would become one of the most detailed and rare images of the lost city of pre-war Berlin.

Its director, Adolf Trotz, created a timeless documentary which you, Dear Reader, can now enjoy without leaving your warm living room.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!