Puntogf Antiques.

Scroll Painting Portrait

The Intellectual Devotional

Week 1

History

Monday, Day 1

The Alphabet

In circa 2000 BC, the Egyptian pharaohs realized they had a problem. With each military victory over their neighbors, they captured and enslaved more prisoners of war. But the Egyptians could not pass down written orders to these slaves as they could not read hieroglyphics.

Early writing systems, such as Egyptian hieroglyphics, were extremely cumbersome and difficult to learn. These systems had thousands of characters, with each symbol representing an idea or word. Memorizing them could take years. Only a handful of Egyptians could actually read and write their complicated script.

Linguists believe that almost all modern alphabets are derived from the simplified version of hieroglyphics devised by the Egyptians four thousand years ago to communicate with their slaves. The development of an alphabet, the writing system used throughout the Western world, changed the way the ancients communicated.

In the simplified version, each character represented only a sound. This innovation cut back the number of characters from a few thousand to a few dozen, making it far easier to learn and use the characters. The complicated hieroglyphic language was eventually forgotten, and scholars were not able to translate the characters until the discovery of the Rosetta stone in 1799.

The alphabet was extremely successful. When the Egyptian slaves eventually migrated back to their home countries, they took the writing system with them. The alphabet spread across the Near East, becoming the foundation for many writing systems in the area, including Hebrew and Arabic. The Phoenicians, an ancient civilization of seaborne traders, spread the alphabet to the tribes they encountered along the Mediterranean coast. The Greek and Roman alphabets, in turn, were based on the ancient Phoenician script. Today most Western languages, including English, use the Roman alphabet.

Additional Facts

Several letters in modern-day English are direct descendents of ancient Egyptian characters. For instance, the letter B derives from the Egyptian character for the word house.
The most recent edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains 171,476 words in current usage, among the most of any language.

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Literature

Tuesday, Day 2

Ulysses

James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) is widely regarded as the greatest novel written in English in the twentieth century. It retells Homer's Odyssey in the context of a single day -- June 16, 1904 -- in Dublin, Ireland, recasting Homer's great hero Odysseus in the unlikely guise of Leopold Bloom, an aging, cuckolded ad salesman who spends the day running errands and making various business appointments before he returns home at long last.

Though Bloom seems unassuming and ordinary, he emerges as a heroic figure, displaying compassion, forgiveness, and generosity toward virtually everyone in the odd cast of characters he meets. In his mundane and often unnoticed deeds, he practices an everyday heroism that is perhaps the only heroism possible in the modern world. And despite the fact that he always feels like an outsider -- he is a Jew in overwhelmingly Catholic Ireland -- Bloom remains optimistic and dismisses his insecurities.

Ulysses is celebrated for its incredibly rich portraits of characters, its mind-boggling array of allusions to other literary and cultural works, and its many innovations with language. Throughout the course of the novel, Joyce flirts with literary genres and forms ranging from drama to advertising copy to Old English. The novel is perhaps most famous for its extensive use of stream-of-consciousness narrative -- Joyce's attempt to render the inner thoughts of his characters exactly as they occur, with no effort to impose order or organization. This technique became a hallmark of modernist literature and influenced countless other writers, such as Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner, who also experimented with it in their works.

Not surprisingly, Ulysses poses a difficult journey for the reader, especially its famous last chapter, which recounts the thoughts of Bloom's wife, Molly. Molly's reverie goes on for more than 24,000 words yet is divided into only eight mammoth sentences. Despite the challenge it poses, the chapter shows Joyce at his most lyrical, especially in the final lines, which reaffirm Molly's love for her husband despite her infidelity:

and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.

Additional Fact

Ulysses was banned for obscenity in the United States for nearly twelve years because of its (mostly indirect) sexual imagery.

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Visual Arts

Wednesday, Day 3

Lascaux Cave Paintings

The cave paintings at Lascaux are among the earliest known works of art. They were discovered in 1940 near the village of Montignac in central France when four boys stumbled into a cave. Inside they found a series of rooms with nearly 1,500 paintings of animals that were between 15,000 and 17,000 years old.

There are several theories regarding the function of the paintings. A natural feature of the cave may have suggested the shape of an animal to a prehistoric observer who then added highlights to relay his vision to others. Since many of the paintings are located in inaccessible parts of the cave, they may have been used for magical practices. Possibly, prehistoric people believed that the act of drawing animals, especially with a high degree of accuracy, would bring the beasts under their control or increase their numbers in times of scarcity.

The animals are outlined or portrayed in silhouette. They are often shown in what is called twisted perspective, that is, with their heads in profile but their horns facing front. Many of the images include dots, linear patterns, and other designs that may carry symbolic meaning.

The most magnificent chamber of the cave, known as the Great Hall of the Bulls, contains a painted narrative. From left to right, the pictures depict the chase and capture of a bison herd.

As soon as the paintings had been examined and identified as Paleolithic, the caves were opened to the public in 1948. By 1955, however, it became increasingly evident that exposure to as many as 1,200 visitors per day was taking its toll on the works inside. Although protective measures were taken, the site closed in 1963. In order to satisfy public demand, a life-sized replica of the cave was completed in 1983, only 200 meters from the original.

Additional Facts

The cave painters were conscious of visual perspective; they painted figures high on the wall, styled so that they would not appear distorted to the viewer below.
The only human figure depicted in the cave appears in the Shaft of the Dead Man. The fact that it is drawn more crudely than the animals suggest that they did not think it was endowed with magical properties.

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Science

Thursday, Day 4

Cloning

In 1997, a baby sheep named Dolly introduced the world to reproductive cloning. She was a clone because she and her mother shared the same nuclear DNA; in other words, their cells carried the same genetic material. They were like identical twins reared generations apart.

Scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland created Dolly by a process called nuclear transfer. Taking the genetic material from an adult donor cell, they transferred it into an unfertilized egg whose genetic material had been removed. In Dolly's case, the donor cell came from the mammary gland of a six-year-old Finn Dorset ewe. The researchers then gave the egg an electric shock, and it began dividing into an embryo.

One of the reasons Dolly's creation was so astounding was that it proved to the scientific community that a cell taken from a specialized part of the body could be used to create a whole new organism. Before Dolly, almost all scientists believed that once a cell became specialized it could only produce other specialized cells: A heart cell could only make heart cells, and a liver cell could only make liver cells. But Dolly was made entirely from a cell extracted from her mother's mammary gland, proving that specialized cells could be completely reprogrammed.

In many ways, Dolly was not like her mother. For example, her telomeres were too short. Telomeres are thin strands of protein that cap off the ends of chromosomes, the structures that carry genes. Although no one is sure exactly what telomeres do, they seem to help protect and repair our cells. As we age, our telomeres get shorter and shorter. Dolly received her mother's six-year-old telomeres, so from birth, Dolly's telomeres were shorter than the average lamb her age. Although Dolly appeared to be mostly normal, she was put to sleep in 2004 at the age of six, after suffering from lung cancer and crippling arthritis. The average Finn Dorset sheep lives to age eleven or twelve.

Additional Facts

Since 1997, cattle, mice, goats, and pigs have been successfully cloned using nuclear transfer.
The success rate for cloning is very low in all species. Published studies report that about 1 percent of reconstructed embryos survive birth. But since unsuccessful attempts largely go unreported, the actual number might be much lower.
Before she died, Dolly was the mother of six lambs, all bred the old-fashioned way.
A group of Korean researchers claimed to have cloned a human embryo in 1998, but their experiment was terminated at the 4-cell stage, so there was no evidence of their success.

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Music

Friday, Day 5

The Basics

Music is organized sound that can be replicated through imitation or notation. Music is distinct from noise in that the sounds of a door creaking open or fingernails on a blackboard are irregular and disorganized. The sound waves that map these noises are complex and cannot be heard as identifiable pitches.

Some of the basic ways that we analyze musical sounds are:

Pitch: How high or how low a sound is to the ear. Pitch is measured technically by the frequency of a sound wave, or how often waves repeat themselves. In western music there are twelve unique pitches (C, C-sharp or D-flat, D, D-sharp or E-flat, E, F, F-sharp or G-flat, G, G-sharp or A-flat, A, A-sharp or B-flat, and B). The pitches followed by sharps or flats are called accidentals, and they are most easily described as the black keys on the piano keyboard. They are located musically, one half step between the two pitches on either side of them. For example, D-sharp and E-flat have the same pitch. When referring to pitches in the context of notated, or written music, they are called notes.

Scale: A stepwise arrangement of pitches (for example, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C) that often serves as the basis for a melody. A piece, or a portion of a piece, will often use only notes found in a particular scale. Western music primarily uses the major scale or the minor scale, in one form or another. To most people, the major scale, because of its particular arrangement of pitches, has the quality of sounding "bright," "happy," or "positive." A minor scale, likewise, is usually described as "dark," "sad," or "pessimistic."

Key: An arrangement or system of pitches, usually based on one of the major or minor scales, that is meant to serve as a reference point and a guiding force of a melody. The tonic of a key is often the starting and ending point for a piece written in a particular key -- so if a piece is in E major, then the pitch E will serve as the piece's tonal center.

Additional Facts

All of these basic elements can be notated on the staff, which is a repeating of five parallel horizontal lines. Often it is divided into measures to indicate metric divisions in the piece and marked at the beginning of each staff of the page with a clef to indicate reference points for identifying pitches.
When a piece strays from its basic key, this is called modulation. Keys are indicated in written music by a key signature at the beginning of each staff.
There are hundreds of scales used in the world's many different musical cultures. In India, music played on the sitar and other instruments chooses pitches from a collection of twenty-two possibilities, with the distances between scale steps sometimes larger and sometimes smaller than those used in Western music. This can make differences between pitches extremely subtle and demands a high virtuosity from Indian classical musicians.

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Philosophy

Saturday, Day 6

Appearance and Reality

Throughout its history, one of the great themes of philosophy has been the distinction between appearance and reality. This distinction was central to the thought of the earliest philosophers, called the Presocratics, because they lived before Socrates.

The Presocratics believed that the ultimate nature of reality was vastly different from the way it ordinarily appeared to them. For instance, one philosopher named Thales held that appearances notwithstanding, all reality was ultimately composed of water; Heraclitus thought the world was built from fire. Further, Heraclitus maintained that everything was constantly in motion. Another thinker, Parmenides, insisted that nothing actually moved and that all apparent motion was an illusion.

The Presocratics took seriously the possibility that all of reality was ultimately made up of some more fundamental substance. And they suspected that uncritical, everyday observation tends to present us with a misleading picture of the world. For these reasons, their thinking is often considered a precursor to modern science as well as philosophy.

Many later philosophers -- including Plato, Spinoza, and Leibniz -- followed in this tradition and presented alternative models of reality, which they claimed were closer to the truth than ordinary, commonsense views of the world.

Additional Facts

The distinction between appearance and reality is also central to the venerable philosophical tradition known as skepticism.
Immanuel Kant also addressed the difference between appearance and reality. He distinguished between things we experience and what he called a "thing-in-itself."

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Religion

Sunday, Day 7

Torah

The Torah is the name generally given to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, or the Five Books of Moses. Christians refer to these books as the Old Testament. The word Torah can also refer to the entire breadth of Jewish law encompassing several texts as well as oral traditions.

The Five Books of Moses are the basis for the 613 laws that govern the Jewish faith, and they are the foundation for the world's three great monotheistic faiths -- Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. They are as follows:

Genesis: Tells the story of creation as well as the history of the Israelites, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their families
Exodus: Recounts the exodus from Egypt to Canaan, including Moses receiving the Ten Commandments
Leviticus: Contains the rules and practices of worship
Numbers: Relates the journey of the Israelites in the wilderness
Deuteronomy: Consists of speeches made by Moses at the end of his life that recount Israelite history and ethical teachings

The five books are traditionally believed to have been given to Moses on Mount Sinai. Alternative theories claim the beginning of the Torah was given on Mount Sinai but that the revelation continued throughout Moses's life.

Historically, archaeologists have argued that the Torah was written sometime between the tenth and sixth centuries BC. Proponents of the Documentary Hypothesis, which according to Orthodox Jews is heretical, claim that the original five books came from four sources, eventually compiled into one by a fifth author or redactor. The arguments in favor of this theory are the multiple names used for God, varying styles of writing. and the repetition of stories.

From the beginning, the Torah was accompanied by an oral tradition, which was necessary for its complete understanding. Although it was thought to be blasphemous to write the oral tradition down, the necessity for doing so eventually became apparent, leading to the creation of the Mishna. Later, as rabbis discussed and debated these two texts, the Talmud was written in order to compile their arguments.

The Jewish tradition uses the text of the Torah to derive innumerable laws and customs. Rabbinic scholars have spent entire lifetimes parsing every word for meaning.

Additional Facts

Torah scrolls written in Hebrew by hand, contain 304,805 letters and may take more than a year to produce by hand. If a single mistake is made, the entire scroll becomes invalid.
Reprinted from: The Intellectual Devotional: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Roam Confidently with the Cultured Class by David S. Kidder & Noah D. Oppenheim © 2006 TID Volumes, LLC. Permission granted by Rodale, Inc., Emmaus, PA 18098. Available wherever books are sold or directly from the publisher by calling at (800) 848-4735.

About the Author

David S. Kidder is an entrepreneur with a wide range of technology and marketing experience. Kidder and his companies have appeared in articles in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and other publications. He lives in Westchester, New York, with his wife, Johanna, their new baby, Jack, and Bella, their charismatic dog.

Noah D. Oppenheim, a producer of NBC's Today show, has extensive experience in television and print journalism. He has produced and reported for Scarborough Country and Hardball with Chris Matthews, and his writing has appeared in Esquire, the Wall Street Journal, Men's Health, and the Weekly Standard. He lives in New York City with his wife, Allison

For more information, visit www.theintellectualdevotional.com

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'Rabbits and Spring Flowers' Scroll Painting $29.49 *Enrich any room in your home or office with this wall art *Decorative accessory has the sweet vitality of the spring season *Hand-painted wall scroll features a pair of bunnies frolicking beneath a blooming peony tree *In the top-left corner, a short poem about the beauty of springtime is rendered in traditional Chinese calligraphy *For this piece, the artist has chosen a warm palette of charcoal gray, spring green and sunset orange to symbolize rebirth and renewal *A border of elegant light blue brocade paper frames the painting, complementing the soft brush strokes with textured arabesque patterning *Hand-carved wooden roll bar boasts a glossy lacquered finish *Piece lies flat against any vertical surface *Satiny ribbon is secured to the top, providing convenient hanging *Crafted from only the highest quality materials *Scroll painting comes rolled up in a beautiful and protective gift box *Measures 32 inches high x 12 inches wide The handcrafted nature of this item will produce slight variations from piece to piece in color, form and sizing, adding to the unique quality of individual items. All measurements are approximate.

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Portrait Painting Atelier (Hardcover) $22.63 The art of portraiture approached its apex during the sixteenth century in Europe with the discovery of oil painting when the old masters developed and refined techniques that remain unsurpassed to this day. The ascendance of nonrepresentational art in the middle of the twentieth century displaced these venerable skills, especially in academic art circles. Fortunately for aspiring artists today who wish to learn the methods that allowed the Old Masters to achieve the luminous color and subtle tonalities so characteristic of their work, this knowledge has been preserved in hundreds of small traditional painting ateliers that persevered in the old ways in this country and throughout the world.Coming out of this dedicated movement, Portrait Painting Atelier is an essential resource for an art community still recovering from a time when solid instruction in art technique was unavailable in our schools. Of particular value here is a demonstration of the Old Masters’ technique of layering paint over a toned-ground surface, a process that builds from the transparent dark areas to the more densely painted lights. This method unifies the entire painting, creating a beautiful glow that illuminates skin tones and softly blends all the color tones. Readers will also find valuable instruction in paint mediums from classic oil-based to alkyd-based, the interactive principles of composition and photograph-based composition, and the anatomy of the human face and the key relationships among its features. Richly illustrated with the work of preeminent masters such as Millet, G¿ricault, and van Gogh, as well as some of today’s leading portrait artists—and featuring seven detailed step-by-step portrait demonstrations—Portrait Painting Atelier is the first book in many years to so comprehensively cover the concepts and techniques of traditional portraiture.

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Chinese 'Youth' Symbol Wall Art Scroll Painting $18.89 *Add Asian charm to your home or office with this stunning artwork *Art scroll features the traditional Chinese symbol for youth *Crafted by a skilled Asian calligrapher *Symbol is brushed on a background of genuine white rice paper and surrounded by a gorgeous border of textured blue silk brocade *Scroll also features traditional stamps, including the artist's family seal *Unobtrusive hook built into the back of the scroll provides a convenient way to hang this piece against any wall or vertical surface *Natural bamboo roll bar secured to the bottom edge ensures the scroll will lie flat and even *Painting comes complete with a decorative storage box, making it an ideal gift *Measures 30 inches high x 12 inches wide The handcrafted nature of this item will produce minor differences in design, color and sizing. Subtle variations will occur from piece to piece, adding to its unique qualities. Measurements may vary slightly.

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Scroll $10.49 Scroll

'Cats & Spring Flowers' Wall Art Scroll Painting $28.49 *Update your home decor with this lovely wall scroll *Scroll is hand-painted by talented Asian artisans *Painting depicts two soft kittens at play beneath a bough of verdant peony flowers *Painting features a warm color palette, rich with charcoal grays, spring greens and brilliant pinks, embody the essence of rebirth and rejuvenation *In the top-left corner, a short poem about the beauty of the spring season is rendered in traditional Chinese calligraphy *Framed in an elegant border of light blue brocade paper featuring textured arabesque patterning for a truly authentic old-world feel *Hand-carved roll bar of lacquered wood keeps this scroll lying flat against any vertical surface, while a durable ribbon is affixed to the top for convenient hanging *Delivered in a complementary gift box, this scroll is sure to become a central element of your home or office decor *Measures 32 inches high x 12 inches wide The handcrafted nature of this item will produce minor differences in design, color and sizing. Subtle variations will occur from piece to piece, adding to the unique quality of individual creations. Measurements may vary slightly.

Himalayan Mountain Temple Wall Art Scroll Painting $28.99 *Update your home decor with this Mountain Temple wall art *Wall scroll depicts the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas *Wall painting will whisk you away to the very heart of Asia *Depicts remote ranges of undisturbed mountains *Picture shows a hidden stairway leading upward to a remote mountain top temple with courtyards of cherry blossoms *In the background, rolling mists and cliffs convey the vastness of the landscape *Masterpiece exudes cool tranquility with a palette of soft charcoal grays, wintery whites and a sprinkling of vibrant red and terracotta shades *Features a border of textured light blue brocade paper frames this piece, accentuating the striking shades of the painting *Made for hanging on a wall or other vertical surface, this scroll features a lacquered wood roll bar for easy storage, and a sturdy ribbon for convenient suspension *Scroll is delivered rolled up in an attractive and functional gift box that protects your purchase from scratches and scrapes *Wall scroll is sure to enliven any room in your home or office *Measures 32 inches high x 12 inches wide The handcrafted nature of this item will produce minor differences in design, color and sizing. Subtle variations will occur from piece to piece, adding to the unique quality of individual creations. Measurements may vary slightly.

The Portrait $9.65 A painter seeks revenge in this subtle look at the interrelationship between artist and critic. Set at the beginning of the 20th century, THE PORTRAIT begins when a portrait painter named Henry MacAlpine gives up his successful London life in favor of exile to a small island off the coast of France. He invites the powerful and influential critic William Naysmith--his former mentor--to visit so that he can paint Naysmith`s portrait. However, MacAlpine also has grievances against the critic, and in fact has more on his mind than mere portrait-painting.

'Winter Cranes and Pond' Wall Scroll Painting $52.99 *Enhance your home decor with charming artwork *Fill your home with inspiration with beautiful scroll art *Bring a magical Eastern winter into your home or office with this lovely scroll art hand-painted by talented Asian artisans *Bewitching painting depicts two cranes floating gently over a frozen pond *Snow-laden birch trees tower in the background, the speckled texture of their leaves adding to the Eastern mystique *Glistening whites, cool blues and deep charcoal colors of this piece enhance its exotic atmosphere *According to ancient Asian legend, cranes symbolize longevity and are said to bear blessings of a long and healthy life *Painting is bordered in textured white brocade paper for authentic Eastern flavor, and comes with a silky ribbon affixed to the top edge for convenient hanging *Carved wooden roll bar secured to the bottom edge ensures this piece will lie flat against any vertical surface *Delivered to your door in an attractive box, this piece also makes a wonderful gift for friends and loved ones *Scroll painting is sure to infuse any room with elegant verve *Measures 50 inches high x 16 inches wide The handcrafted nature of this item will produce minor differences in design, color and sizing. Subtle variations will occur from piece to piece, adding to the unique quality of individual creations. Measurements may vary slightly.

'Cranes and Cherry Blossoms' Wall Scroll Painting $53.49 *Enhance your home decor with this charming Asian art wall scroll painting *Bring inspiration and good fortune into your home decor with this beautiful artwork *Soothe yourself with the Eastern allure of this scroll art, hand-painted by skilled Asian artisans *In this delightful piece, a bevy of eight elegant cranes gather beneath the sweeping boughs of blossoming cherry trees *Painting captures the very essence of springtime in the Orient with its soft, dappled blend of steel blues, stark whites, rose pinks and chartreuse greens *As cranes possess unusually long life-spans, Asian tradition dictates that anyone lucky enough to see a crane will be blessed with longevity and good health *Remarkable painting is bordered in graceful white brocade paper that swirls with textured floral patterning *Lacquered wooden roll bar is affixed to the bottom edge, ensuring that this piece will lie flat against any wall or vertical surface *Durable, satiny ribbon secured to the top makes this piece easy to hang *With its extraordinary craftsmanship and versatile colors, scroll art is sure to bring the spirit of spring into any room in your home *Measures 36 inches high x 22 inches wide The handcrafted nature of this item will produce minor differences in design, color and sizing. Subtle variations will occur from piece to piece, adding to the unique quality of individual creations. Measurements may vary slightly.

Progression Pictures of a scrollsawed portrait