15 de Outubro

"A sister is a little bit of childhood

that can never be lost"

Marion C. Garretty

Gabrielle d'Estrées and Her Sister, c. 1594

School of Fontainebleau

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

8 de Outubro

"Come, thou monarch of the vine,

Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne!

In thy fats our cares be drown'd,

With thy grapes our hairs be crown'd:

Cup us, till the world go round,

Cup us, till the world go round!"

William Shakespeare

Young Bacchus, c. 1597

Caravaggio

Uffizi Gallery. Florence

24 de Junho

"I would rather that my spark should burn out

in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled

by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor,

every atom of me in magnificent glow, than

a sleepy and permanent planet. The function

of man is to live, not to exist..."

Jack London

Fireworks over Carraia Bridge in Florence during the Festival of John the Baptist, 19th century

Giovanni Signorini

Uffizi Gallery, Forence

23 de Junho

"Her lover was entire as a child's

and though warm a summer

it was fresh as spring"

Thomas Hardy

Henriette of France as Flora, 1742

Jean-Marc Nattier

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

22 de Junho

The important thing is this:

To be able at any moment

to sacrifice what we are

for what we could become"

Charles Dubois

The Sacrifice of Isaac, 1601

Agnolo Bronzini

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

29 de Maio

"The heart has its reasons

which reason knows not of"

Blaise Pascal

Madonna and Child with Saints, c. 1518

Rosso Fiorentino

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

17 de Maio

"Now Nature hangs her mantle green

On every blooming tree,

And spread her sheets o' daisies white

Out o'er the grassy lea"

Robert Burns

Spring, 1478

Sandro Botticelli

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

8 de Maio

"Muses work all day long

and then at night

get together and dance"

Edgar Degas

Apollo and the Dancing Muses, early 16th century

Baldassare Peruzzi

Palazzo Pitti, Florence

24 de Abril

"Infancy conforms to nobody:

All conform to it, so that one babe

commonly makes four or five out of the

adults who prattle and play to it"

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Birth of Mary, c. 1750

Corrado Giaquinto

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

1 de Abril

"It is respectable to have no illusions -

and safe - and profitable, and dull"

Joseph Conrad

Cabinet of Curiosities, late 17th century

Domenico Remps

Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence

29 de Março

"They say the sea is cold, but the sea

contains the hottest blood of all,

and the wildest, the most urgent"

D. H. Lawrence

Neptune and Amphitrite, 1618

Filippo Napoletano

Palazzo Pitti, Florence

24 de Março

"I would rather not see such winds

subside, which carry your slow

ship away, although they leave

me, cast down, on an empty

shore, often, with clenched hand,

calling you cruel"

Propertius Sextus

Rinaldo abandons Armida, 1750-55

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

20 de Março

"We shall find peace. We shall hear the

angels, we shall see the sky sparkling

with diamonds"

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

The Annunciation, 1333

Simone Martini

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

11 de Março

"Italia ! Oh Italia !

Thou who hast the fatal gift of beauty"

Lord Byron

The Doge's Palace and the Piazetta in Venice, c. 1755

Canaletto

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

7 de Março

"Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advanced,

Holds his dear Psyche sweet entranced,

After her wandering labors long,

Till free consent the gods among

Make her his eternal bride;

And from her fair unspotted side

Two blissful twins are to be born,

Youth and Joy; so Jove hath sworn"

John Milton

Psyche Discovers Cupid, 1707-09

Giuseppe Crespi

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

3 de Março

"Venus favors the bold"

Ovid

The Birth of Venus, c. 1490

Sandro Botticelli

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

5 de Fevereiro

"Permanence, perseverance, and persistence

in spite of all obstacles, discoragements,

and impossibilities: It is this that in all things

distinguishes the strong soul from the weak"

Sir Francis Drake

Hercules between Vice and Virtue, early 17th century

Jan Van Den Hoecke

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

30 de Janeiro

"The root of all superstition is that
men observe when a thing hits,
but not when it misses"

Francis Bacon

Witchcraft or An Allegory on the Choice of Hercules, c. 1535

Dosso Dossi

Uffizi Gallery, Florence