Monthly Archives: November 2018

The 1567 “Dutch Revolt” in Brussels (Travels in revolutionary Mitteleuropa, from the Rhine to the Danube/4)

Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum is holding the first-ever comprehensive monograph exhibition on Pieter Bruegel the Elder, bringing together nearly two-thirds of his works to celebrate 450 years since his death. The eye-opening focus of the astonishing exhibition is on the method … Continue reading

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The 1415 “Western Schism” in Konstanz (Travels in revolutionary Mitteleuropa, from the Rhine to the Danube/3)

In the German border town of Konstanz I listen for “The voice … of the noblest of rivers,/Of free-born Rhine.” The Alpine Rhine begins in the Swiss Alps, flows into Lake Constance, which lies between Switzerland, Germany, and Austria, passes … Continue reading

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The 1819 Dresden Conspiracy (Travels in revolutionary Mitteleuropa, from the Rhine to the Danube/2)

I went for the first time to Germany last month with a specific purpose: To walk in the footsteps of revolutionary friends in Dresden, such as the comrades in this painting. “Two Men Contemplating the Moon” by Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840), … Continue reading

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A disturbance of memory in Weimar (Travels in revolutionary Mitteleuropa, from the Rhine to the Danube/1)

As a Greek, and a native Athenian at that, I have always lived in a sublime Germany of letters, reflections, art, and music.  Its writers and creators have been my mentors and friends.  I have shared their passions and inquiries … Continue reading

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An elegy for the Jewish cultivation of Hellenic self

The enchanting movie Call me by your name (2017) pays a melancholic tribute to a major project of Protestant modernity, the Jewish self-forming engagement with aesthetic Hellenism. The movie, based on André Aciman’s Künstlerromanby the same name (2007), deals with the … Continue reading

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