At the end of the Middle Ages, lapis lazuli began to be exported to Europe, where it was ground into powder and made into ultramarine, the finest and most expensive of all blue pigments.
Ultramarine was used by some of the most important artists of the Renaissance and Baroque, including Titian and Vermeer, and was often reserved for the clothing of the central figures of their paintings, especially the Virgin Mary, and symbolized holiness and humility.
Lapis lazuli is a deep blue semi precious stone prized since antiquity for its intense colour.
Lapis lazuli was mined in northeast Afghanistan as early as the 7th millennium BC. Lapis beads have been found at neolithic burials in the Caucasus.
The flamboyant flowering of Campsis radicans made it obvious to the first English colonists in Virginia. The plant quickly made its way to England early in the 17th century.
Trumpet vine (Campsis radicans) is spectacular and requires two or three years to establish itself and start blooming. Prune weaker branches from young vines to leave one main stem and branches. When the vine matures, cut the flowering shoots that have grown away from the supported branches back to the main branches in early or late winter. These branches will regrow the next year. Trumpet vine flowers on new growth, so pruning in spring does not affect flowering.
Cut back an old branch or two every year to maintain control. A trumpet vine grown too large and ungainly may be cut to within 12 inches of the ground in late winter to renovate it. Begin training the strongest new shoots to the trellis in spring.
Chinese trumpet vine (Campsis grandifora) is a native of East Asia, China and Japan.
Campsis, or trumpet vine is a self clinging climber grown for its clusters of showy, exotic orange to red or yellow, trumpet shaped flowers.
The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany presented the world with a draft of the Neanderthal genome sequence.
Neanderthal child
Some 200,000 years ago, our ancestors evolved in East Africa. They spread throughout the rest of the continent and then moved out into Asia and Europe. As they journeyed along coastlines and over mountains, they encountered Neanderthals and other human relatives. Interbreeding was a major feature of human evolution. Billions of people carry sizable chunks of DNA from Neanderthals and other archaic human relatives. Some of those genes may play important roles in our health today.
Joachim Neander (1650 – 31 May 1680) was born in Bremen, the son of a Latin teacher. His grandfather, a musician, had changed the family name from the original Neumann (‘New man’ in English) to the Greek form Neander following the fashion of the time. His most famous hymn is Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation (German: Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren).
In 1671 he became a private tutor in Heidelberg, and in 1674 he became a teacher in a Latin school in Düsseldorf. While living there, he liked to go to the nearby valley of the Düssel river, nature being the inspiration for his poems. The Neandertal (German thal for valley, modernized to tal) was renamed in his honor in the early 19th century, and became famous in 1856 when the remains of the Neanderthal Man (Homo neanderthalensis) were found there.
The name Homo neanderthalensis, “Neanderthal man” was first proposed by the Anglo-Irish geologist William King in 1864.
A zoom into the Hubble Space Telescope photograph of an enormous, bubble being blown into space by a super hot, massive star.
Astronomers trained the iconic telescope on this colorful feature, called the Bubble Nebula, or NGC 7635.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), F. Summers, G. Bacon, Z. Levay, and L. Frattare (Viz 3D Team, STScI)
The Hubble Space Telescope has been in operation since 1990 when it was launched into low Earth orbit. For the last 25 years it has provided humanity with beautiful, interstellar images of outer space that unravel the mysteries beyond the solar system.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) is recognized for his curiosity, imagination and sublime artistic ability.
study of oak branch and lily, the collection of the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, Windsor.
In the years after 1505 Leonardo da Vinci produced a number of delicate drawings of plants and flowers, mostly drawn with a sharpened red chalk on paper coated with a delicate pale red preparation, itself probably composed of ground red chalk.
study of blackberry branch, the collection of the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, Windsor.Francis I of France invited Leonardo da Vinci to Amboise and provided him with the Château de Cloux, as a place to stay and work.
Friedrich Froebel developed nature walks for each children to experience the natural environment and see plants and flowers growing in nature.
Wright designed the Hardy house facing Lake Michigan in 1905. It is the first instance where Wright designed a two story space, which is expressed on the exterior.
A central fireplace and the two story living room and dining room are in the middle with bedrooms at each end.Large terraces open the interior into the landscape.
Eugene Szymczak became the seventh steward of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Thomas P. Hardy House in Racine, Wisconsin on September 16, 2012.
Harry Bertoia was part of the post war American sculptural movement. A wave of economic prosperity and industrial power resulted in significant scientific advances. Exposed to new industrial materials, Bertoia quickly became technically proficient with previously untried metal alloys, wires, and plastics.
After partnering with Knoll, Bertoia moved to East Greenville, Pennsylvania in 1950 and produced something extraordinary.
Bertoia found sublime grace in an industrial material, creating a chair that works with any decor, in any room.
“If you look at those chairs, they are mainly made of air, like sculpture. Space passes right through them.”
The Bertoia Side Chair is among the most recognized achievements of mid century modern design.
Bertoia’s eponymous furniture collection was introduced by Knoll in 1952 and instantly proclaimed one of the greatest achievements of 20th century furniture design. Bertoia’s approach to the collection was in keeping with his sculptural interests.
Bertoia was born on March 10, 1915, in the small village of San Lorenzo, Friuli, Italy, about 50 miles north of Venice and 70 miles south of Austria.
Calling red “the color of creation”, Frank Lloyd Wright proposed that the Guggenheim Museum be constructed with red marble walls, long slim pottery red bricks, and weathered green copper banding.
Frank Lloyd Wright was known for using a brownish red he called Cherokee Red
Cherokee Red was not one exact color but a whole range of reddish hues made with iron oxide, some dark and some more vivid.
Cherokee Red harmonizes interior rooms with the natural colors of brick and wood.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s signature Cherokee Red concrete floors extend beyond the walls and become steps and outdoor decks.
The materials of the Usonian house were to be recognized as nature’s own: wood, stone, or baked clay in the form of bricks, and glass curtain walls, clerestories, and casement windows sheltered under overhanging soffits.
Frank Lloyd Wright said, “The outside of any building may now come inside and the inside go outside, each seems as part of the other.”
With so many layers of experimentation at Taliesin there are many inspiring ideas: borrowed views, seamless connection between the inside and outside, building and garden complementing each other so that the combination has more impact than either element alone.
The use of local natural materials grounded the place in its location, and great design executed in inexpensive materials made spaces more accessible. Wright chose yellow limestone for the house from a quarry of outcropping ledges on a nearby hill. Stones were laid in long, thin ledges, evoking the natural way that they were found in the quarry. Plaster for the interior walls was mixed with sienna, giving a golden hue. The outside plaster walls were similar, but mixed with cement. Windows were placed so that sun could come through openings in every room at every point of the day.
Pools of water placed near the house reflect light and to mirror the sky.
Author Kathryn Watterson takes readers inside the Smiths’ adventure of working and building with Wright to create their home in Bloomfield Hills, MI (1946). Their story “is a fairy tale with blueprints, a unique blend of architecture and affection, of serendipity and staying the course.” Length: 250 pages. Beautifully illustrated with both black and white and color photographs.
