The place: Tenochtitlan, a metropolis built in the middle of a lake, with floating islands supported by piles. The date: November 1519. Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and his men must have been astonished. Tenochtitlan had more inhabitants than London or Paris and, in many ways, was better organized. Standing before Cortés, a 34-year-old university […]

According to the legendary epic poem by Homer, the Trojan War was one of the most destructive in Greek history. It involved nearly every Greek state in a unified siege against the walled city of Troy, in Asia Minor, which would last for 10 years. But what started the war? According to Homer, it […]

The Trojan War, famously recounted by 8th century BCE poet Homer in the Iliad, has been a subject of awe and debate among scholars, ancient and modern, for over 2,000 years. While the views of modern scholars differ on whether or not the war happened, they generally agree that Troy was a real city […]

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a famous artist and poster painter, who became known for his images of popular performers and dancers of his time. He came from a privileged background but was excluded from the higher classes due to his disability. Toulouse-Lautrec found his home among circus performers, sex workers, and other artists, who […]

Impressionism was the revolutionary art movement that shifted our relationship with painted images. However, we are mostly familiar with it through the lens of painting. The truth is that many artists, photographers, composers, and writers tried to apply the movement’s principles to their respective domains with various degrees of success. Read on to learn […]