Mozambique is a southern African nation whose long Indian Ocean coastline is dotted with popular beaches like Tofo, as well as offshore marine parks. In the Quirimbas Archipelago, a 250km stretch of coral islands, mangrove-covered Ibo Island has colonial-era ruins surviving from a period of Portuguese rule. The Bazaruto Archipelago farther south has reefs which protect rare marine life including dugongs.
Category Archives: History
Covid-19: ‘The Johnson & Johnson Vaccine’ (Video)
Mayo Clinic Insights: Dr. Swift discusses what you need to know about the new Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. For more up to date information about COVID-19, visit https://mayocl.in/3aUioXa
Dinosaurs: ‘The Long-Necks Of The Triassic’
The Triassic was full of many bizarre creatures and no animal showed this more then Tanystropheus that had a neck that measured the same length as the rest of its body. So where did Tanystropheus come from and why did it have such a long neck?
Art History: ‘Orientalism’ – Visionary Delights (Video)
Orientalist art transports and immerses the viewer into a place in time. 100 and more years after it was painted, it beguiles us even now. Sotheby’s upcoming Orientalist sale (22 – 30 March) which includes works from the celebrated Najd Collection, features fascinating landscapes from John Lavery’s depictions of Tangier to Edward Lear’s View of the Pyramids Road. As well as stunning scenery, artists captured the lives of water sellers, musicians and soldiers, providing valuable documentary evidence of how the Orient looked at a time when the region was still an elusive dream to many.
Culture: ‘Guinea-Bissau – A Matriarchy Rules’ (Video)
A matriarchy rules on one of the Bijagos Islands off the coast of Guinea-Bissau. The tribe of the same name lives on Orango, one of the most populated islands in the archipelago. Women dominate public and private life there. This documentary focuses on the women of the Bijagos tribe of Guinea-Bissau. Unlike many women in traditional and modern societies elsewhere, they pick their husbands, propose marriage and own their homes.
In addition to being responsible for raising children, they also act as high-priestesses in animist ceremonies, organize work, guard the keys to the rice stores, lead their families and ensure there are descendants to continue the line. The Bijagos revere women, who are believed to be in charge of the balance between the worlds of the living and the dead. A matriarchy of this kind is unusual, not only for Africa but around the world. Even though this culture has persisted for centuries, aspects of Western lifestyles are starting to gain a foothold. Rising rates of school attendance could contribute to the demise of the community’s traditions. Future generations will determine whether the Bijagos can retain their culture.
Guinea-Bissau is a tropical country on West Africa’s Atlantic coast that’s known for national parks and wildlife. The forested, sparsely populated Bijagós archipelago is a protected biosphere reserve. Its main island, Bubaque, forms part of the Orango Islands National Park, a habitat for saltwater hippos. On the mainland, the capital, Bissau, is a port with Portuguese colonial buildings in its old city center.
Cocktails With A Curator: Cimabue’s “Flagellation of Christ” (Frick Video)
In this week’s episode of “Cocktails with a Curator,” Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator Xavier F. Salomon examines the only work by Cimabue in a public collection in the United States, a small panel depicting “The Flagellation of Christ.” Acquired by the Frick in 1950, the attribution of this work was a topic of debate until a sister panel was discovered in 2000, establishing that they once belonged to a larger ensemble by the 13th-century Florentine. (In 2019, a third fragment was discovered.) As a nod to the gold background, this week’s complementary cocktail is the Gold Rush, a drink invented in New York in the 1920s.
Cimabue, also known as Cenni di Pepo or Cenni di Pepi, was an Italian painter and designer of mosaics from Florence. Although heavily influenced by Byzantine models, Cimabue is generally regarded as one of the first great Italian painters to break from the Italo-Byzantine style.
To view this painting in detail, please visit our website: https://www.frick.org/cimabuechrist
Food Insider: ‘Wasabi – Japanese Horseradish’
See what’s up with wasabi (Japanese horseradish), the root with a pungent punch that plays an important role in Japanese cuisine.
Wasabi or Japanese horseradish is a plant of the family Brassicaceae, which also includes horseradish and mustard in other genera. A paste made from its ground rhizomes is used as a pungent condiment for sushi and other foods.
Tours: ‘Fountains Abbey, North Yorkshire, UK’
In this video tour, you’ll discover the story of Fountains Abbey, North Yorkshire, where archaeology has shed light on medieval life. Learn more about these archaeological finds and understand how modern technology allows this journey of discovery to continue.
Fountains Abbey is one of the largest and best preserved ruined Cistercian monasteries in England. It is located approximately 3 miles south-west of Ripon in North Yorkshire, near to the village of Aldfield.
Art: ‘After Raphael. 1520 -2020’ – State Hermitage Museum, Russia (Video)
A film about the Exhibition “After Raphael. 1520 – 2020” at the State Hermitage Museum. Director of the film – Manas Sirakanyan. The film was made with the support of the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, U.S. Embassy Moscow and the Hermitage Museum Foundation (USA)
Raphael is the most influential artist of the Modern Era. Over the course of five centuries, exponents of Mannerism and Academicism, Caravaggisti and masters of the Baroque, Romantics and Modernists have invariably compared their own work with Raphael’s legacy. What is the cause of such fame? What did his name represent in this or that historical period, and what does it represent today? What connects the artist’s followers in different centuries? The exhibition in the Hermitage is an attempt to answer those questions and to look at the art of the past 500 years through the lens of Raphael’s influence.
The large-scale display includes more than 300 exhibits – paintings, graphic art, sculpture and applied art from the Hermitage’s own stocks and twelve other collections in Russia and Western Europe. They include both famous masterpieces and previously unknown works. Dozens of paintings and pieces of graphic art are leaving the museum’s storerooms and being presented to the public for the first time, while a whole number of the exhibits are going on show after painstaking restoration in the Hermitage’s workshops.
The display opens with works by the master himself: a painting and drawings from European collections. Without claiming to be a full representation of the artist’s oeuvre, they serve to set the tone, as it were, and after viewers have “tuned themselves in” it will be easier for them to identify echoes of Raphaelesque harmony in the works from later centuries. The choice of graphic art for this purpose reveals another dimension to the main metaphor: it is specifically the beauty of the clear, precise line, so evident in the drawings made by the master’s own hand, that lies at the foundation of the aesthetics of Raphael himself and many of his followers.
Europe: An Economic History Of Portugal
In the lead up to the Eurozone Crisis, Portugal’s Economy was an outlier. Whilst many economies went on an incredible run, the Portuguese Economy did not have such a good time. Not only underperforming the average eurozone growth rate, but unemployment actually rose from 3.8% to 7.5% between the millennium and 2008. Compare this against the likes of Greece, Spain and Italy, all of which had seen significant declines in unemployment. Raising the question of why? Why had Portugal’s Economy stagnated in what were supposed to be the good times? What was the impact of its long history as a colonial power? And to what extent did a 19th Century letter from Pope Leo the 13th influence its wider economic approach?
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