Crashingly Beautiful

“All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.“   —

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

(from:  billyjane via: Anonymous ~ Charlottenhof Garden, Germany,c.1915)

T. W. Sanders, “Premonition,” 1981

(from: sealmaiden)

Luko - Yasur (from: uncertaintimes & yamswool)

LOOKING TOWARD THE NILE ALONG THE MAIN AXIS OF DAKKA TEMPLE

The description of the short time spent by the expedition at the Temple of El-Dakka, as recorded by Breasted in his field diary, serves to remind us that fieldwork can be fraught with danger:

Friday, March 23, 1906
El-Dakka, Nubia

“At noon a good south wind arose, and before sundown, we saw the tall pylons of the El-Dakka temple,which we reached in time for a preliminary inspection before dark.”

Saturday, March 24, 1906
Koshtamneh, Nubia

“We spent half a day at the Temple of El-Dakka, which is entirely of the Graeco-Roman age … . By two o’clock we were able to sail, and reached Koshtamneh at dusk. We met with an ominous accident, which by rare good fortune ended happily, before (we) left El-Dakka. As we were making our first survey of the temple and laying out the work, we clambered down a confused mass of huge blocks lying before the holy of holies. At the top was a fragment broken off the end of a 20 ton architrave, and weighing about 600 pounds. As Persons passed it, coming down, it suddenly slipped from its place, slid grinding and crunching down the incline of a fallen architrave, carrying Persons with it. As he was below the moving block as it slid, and they were moving swiftly down a steep decline, it seemed certain that he would be crushed between the heavy fragment and the massive blocks below. I had reached his side when they struck the blocks below, and I expected to find him fearfully hurt. The block was resting on his shoulder and hip; we were powerless to move it, as it was jammed in. Persons was silent but not unconscious. As we tugged away vainly striving to move the fragment and release him, Persons quietly said, he thought he could extricate himself with a little aid. To our amazement we were able to pull him out, and then perceived that by surprising good fortune he had fallen into a hole between two blocks at the bottom, and this hole was by a hand-breath too narrow to allow the falling fragment to enter. Thus Persons escaped what might have proved a fatal accident, with a bruise or two, and a few rents in his clothing.”

EGYPT: El-Dakka
Saturday, March 24, 1906
Photograph by Friedrich Koch
From original 8” x 10” glass plate negative
Oriental Institute photograph P. 2673

(from: uncertaintimes via: Lost Nubia)

Henri Le Secq (French, 1818–1882), Grandes figures au porche nord, cathédrale de Chartres, 1852 (from theshipthatflew via: source)

Baron, “Tamara Toumanova of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo 2”

(from: darksilenceinsuburbia & theanatomyofmelancholy)

Adolf De Meyer, 1920 (from Vintage Blog)

“Puck and the Fairy”

Illustration from Harpel’s Typograph : or Book of Specimens Containing Useful Information, Suggestions and a Collection of Examples of Letterpress Job Printing Arranged for the Assistance of Master Printers, Amateurs, Apprentices, and Others

By Oscar H. Harpel

Published in Cincinnati, 1870

[via: liquidnight via DoubleM2]

(via touba)