{quotable thursdays}

'Wisdom begins in wonder.'

Socrates

{Carnelian gem imprint of Socrates}

Can there be anything better than wonder? Wonder, curiosity...these things lead to the pursuit of knowledge. 

As I'm headed to Greece this weekend, I thought it appropriate to quote a Greek philosopher. We owe a lot to the Greeks. Many of our fundamental ideas about living and what it is to be human come from the Greeks--government, politics, philsophy, not to mention, as an Art Historian, the importance and long lasting legacy of their art. 

it's rather timely that I'm working on a paper that deals with the collecting of antique gems and coins and their copies/replications across media in the Renaissance. I've been looking a lot at similar images to the one above of Socrates, and the role they played in disseminating interest in the classical past among early antiquarians and collectors in the fifteenth century. Somebody who has been coming up a lot in the literature, and who I find is a fascinating character, is Ciriaco d'Ancona, an Italian who travelled widely, including Greece, and recorded the ancient monuments and general history in notebooks (and who came back with a collection of antiquities): 

{the Parthenon by Ciriaco, MS Hamilton 254 f. 85r in the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek Berlin }

& I could go into the whole category of wonder for the wunderkammer and collecting culture in early modernity, but enough Art History...I'm excited to go to Greece, for the history & culture, but also to relax & enjoy a wedding (more on that soon)...
yay for wonder & curiosity...let's see what Greece has in store for me!

{some kinda wonder-ful}

{wonders}

{wonders}

{WONDERful world!}

& finally a soundtrack to the little wonders in this life...

xo,
L
ps: I took ancient Greek in undergrad in France and all that I can remember is: ton probaton (I think: Ton probaton), which means a sheep! mehhhhh....

{Audrey in Spain c 1961; I saw this recently, and couldn't resist--although it's a goat and not a sheep. Is it not life's little wonders, like baby animals and babies in general, that make us wonder at this wonderful world?}