Oh say can you see…?
source: Dark Roasted Blend
On the heels of a weekend of frankfurter-fortified patriotism here in the U.S., the good folks at Dark Roasted Blend have published a momento mori– “Flags of Forgotten Countries“…
Consider the beauty above– the standard of one of the superpowers of its time, The Most Serene Republic of Venice. A version of this pennant waved for most of the thousand years– from the late seventh century to 1797– that Venice stood sovereign… a period that ended with the city-state’s defeat by Napoleon, himself the author of a number of now-redundant flags.
See the whole collection here.
As we think timeless thoughts, we might recall that in the midst of Venetian ascendancy, on this date in 1593, across the boot in Rome, Artemisia Gentileschi was born. Influenced by her father Orazio and his mentor Caravaggio, she was the first female painter to tackle historic and heroic themes that were at the time believed to be “beyond the reach of women,” and to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence.
