Sigismondo Coccapani | Baroque painter

Sigismondo Coccapani (1585-1643) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.

Born in Florence, he studied under Ludovico Cigoli in Rome, before returning to his native city.

He at first studied literature and mathematics, but abandoned them for painting, becoming a pupil of Ludovico Cigoli in Rome where he assisted him on his work at Santa Maria Maggiore in 1610-13.

Using his scientific background he showed Cigoli, who was making a record of solar activity for his friend Galileo, how to observe and record sunspots through a method of projection.

Wisława Szymborska | Le donne di Rubens

Ercolesse, fauna femminile,

nude come il fragore di botti.

Fanno il nido in letti calpestati,

nel sonno la bocca si apre al chicchirichì.

Le pupille rovesciate all’indietro

Penetrano dentro le ghiandole da cui i lieviti stillano nel sangue.

Peter Paul Rubens | Frans Snyders - Ceres with two Nymphs, 1624 | Museo Nacional del Prado

Vincent van Gogh | Landscape under a stormy sky, 1889

Van Gogh's dramatically atmospheric Paysage sous un ciel mouvementé is one of the finest of the artist's Arles landscapes.

Painted amidst the most fruitful period of the artist's career, when his canvases were flooded with rich passages of densely-painted color, the composition depicts a verdant field under threat of an explosive rainstorm.

Van Gogh creates a scene of intense anticipation here, replete with psychological drama as the laborers hurry to finish their work before the heavens rain down upon them.

Vincent van Gogh | Landscape Under a Stormy Sky, 1889 | Sotheby's

Peter Paul Rubens | Mars and Rhea Silvia, 1617

Mars and Rhea Silvia is a 1617 painting by Peter Paul Rubens, now in the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna.

It shows Mars's rape of Rhea Silvia, which resulted in the birth of Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome.

Anwen Keeling, 1976 | Figurative painter

Anwen Keeling is an Australian portrait painter.

Working primarily with oil paints, her artworks have often focused on introspective women in private settings.

She has "always been influenced by Caravaggio".

Her artworks prominently contain areas of deep shadows.

Butterflies | Van Gogh series, 1889-1890

In May 1889, Van Gogh began work on Green Peacock Moth which he self-titled Death's Head Moth.

The moth, called death's head, is a rarely seen nocturnal moth.

He described the large moth's colors "of amazing distinction, black, grey, cloudy white tinged with carmine or vaguely shading off into olive green".

Behind the moth is a background of Lords-and-Ladies.

Vincent van Gogh | Emperor moth, 1889 (detail) | Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Papa Francesco: "Cari poeti, aiutateci a sognare!"

Pubblichiamo la lettera di Papa Francesco pubblicata nel libro “Versi a Dio. Antologia della poesia religiosa". (in inglese)

Cari poeti,

so che avete fame di significato, e per questo riflettete anche su come la fede interroga la vita. Questo “significato” non è riducibile a un concetto, no. È un significato totale che prende poesia, simbolo, sentimenti.

Il vero significato non è quello del dizionario: quello è il significato della parola, e la parola è uno strumento di tutto quello che è dentro di noi.