The Friday Afternoon Challenge on Thursday this week! Do You Know Your World Class Cathedrals?

[CTyankee]

Six such cathedrals are pictured here, with distinguishing “features,” for you to identify!

Good luck (and don’t forget the “no cheating” rule, folks!).
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

[gateley]

1. Wow - don't know a single one, but I'd love to visit them all! Standing

by to learn the answers so I can get started in my travel itinerary. :7 :hi:

[monmouth]

3. Me too...I'd say the last one was at the Vatican..n/t

[CTyankee]

6. The Vatican is not in the mix.

[gateley]

69. Ha! I was going to maybe guess that, and I've actually been

to St. Peters! I'll just sit back and let the experts tell me. :)

[CTyankee]

4. Hi, gately! Nice to see you here!

If you go to see these cathedrals you'll have a wonderful trip! Six different countries! Be sure to plan enough time for each!

[gateley]

67. I'll join the convent by the time I'm through -- how awe-inspiring! nt

[CTyankee]

74. no convent, here, gately! However, you might want to go to the San Marco convent

in Florence to see the Fra Angelico frescoes. Quite an experience...

[elleng]

13. With you, gate!!!

:hi:

[gateley]

68. We can go together! nt

[Sanity Claws]

2. wild guesses

Notre Dame in Paris is the first one.

The sixth one is the Mezquite in Cordova, Spain.

[CTyankee]

8. sorry, no to either...

[pinto]

5. A couple -

1. Notre Dame

5. St. Peter's

[CTyankee]

9. oh, sorry...no to either.

[pinto]

14. LOL. I'm so not good at these.

:hi:

[appleannie1]

7. I will take a wild guess on the top one. Cologne Cathedral

[CTyankee]

10. I can see why you chose Cologne, but it isn't...

[appleannie1]

11. The architecture is very similar

[spinbaby]

87. Looks exactly like Cologne

I can't believe it isn't.

[Retrograde]

15. Notre Dame de Paris or possibly Reims

#6 - the one with the labyrinth - is Chartres. The one with the black and white bands I'm guessing is the Duomo in Florence.

[CTyankee]

17. Right on Chartres, Retrograde! Good for ya.

The Duomo in Florence is not that black and white style...

[Tansy_Gold]

12. guessing

#2 Coventry

#4 Chartres

[CTyankee]

19. Yes on both. Sad Coventry. all that is left plus what was built on, which you see on

the left side of photo.

[Tansy_Gold]

30. Coventry was easy

Chartres was an educated guess.

[CTyankee]

35. How so? I would have thought just the opposite!

Chartres is so famous, I thought everyone would get the famous labyrinth right away, but I guess there are a lot of places with labyrinths...fascinating, that...goes back to ancient times...

[Tansy_Gold]

48. I knew a little of the history of Coventry

from Lady Godiva to Jaguar to the destruction of the cathedral and then its rebuilding. Though I didn't know specifically about the maze in Chartres, I knew enough to guess if there were a maze anywhere, it would be in Chartres.

But as far as Coventry being a tragedy of war, it should be remembered that the "allies" destroyed as well.

What was left of the cathedral at Dresden --

[CTyankee]

51. Yes. While I can't sympathize with the Nazis at all or the Germans who went

along with them, I have a visceral reaction against destroying fine works of art or architecture in retaliation against what they did to you. As was the case with Coventry and the resulting church in Dresden.

Also, what was lost in Dresden during the firebombing by the Allies: the artwork of Hildegarde of Bingen (only reproductions remain). The Allied bombing of Berlin resulted in the loss of Caravaggio's original "St. Matthew and the Angel."

[Tansy_Gold]

54. The loss of the artwork is tragic

So is the loss of human life.

When we begin to value living human beings more than we value imaginary supernatural beings and their imagined words, maybe we'll be on the road to civilization.


Tansy Gold

[CTyankee]

64. this is an eternal question. Mourning the loss of great art is not

just the loss of expensive paintings. It is the loss of the soul of a people. Jews in Europe during WW 2 suffered more than many others because of the Nazis theft of their art. They were keepers of this art. They knew it's rejuvenative powers, which I know now because I go to art for consolation and for refuge.

The power of art is a great power of the human spirit. To separate it from the physical human is to deny the human the ability to have this incredible power to imagine and to love. Remember that the "imaginary supernatural beings" were created by artists, human beings, who reached into the depths of their souls and created works of astonishing beauty.

[Tansy_Gold]

70. Ah, but I think we are saying the same thing

regardless the "inspiration" for art -- inspiration being the "breathing in" -- we must first respect the life breathes, that creates the art, the life that envisions the invisible, that hears the silent, that imagines the unimaginable.

Art is the soul, the part of the life that lives on. Whether it is words or songs or paintings or cathedrals or a jeweled saint

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_g9_bY0YUdQs/TDxiJXMN9II/AAAAAAAAAGQ/aOUrjArYiu8/s320/Germany+168.JPG


It isn't civilized people who make art -- it is art that makes people civilized.

[CTyankee]

72. It is true and art springs from the human heart...

all of our senses of color, line, brush stroke, interpretation of light, perspective....comes from this spirit. I think it is a hunger to know what the truth is. I feel this in Vermeer as he seems to say "what is going on here? what is happening at this moment? why should we care?"

An eternal question...

[Tansy_Gold]

76. One of my favorite quotes

When Pablo Picasso visited the newly-discovered Lascaux caves, in the Dordogne, in 1940, he emerged from them saying of modern art, "We have discovered nothing".

http://www.lascaux.culture.fr/#/en/00.xml

[elleng]

21. yank beat me to it; was gonna say Yes, Coventry!

[CTyankee]

24. A terrible tragedy of war...

[Tansy_Gold]

22. #1

Sagrada Familia in Barcelona?

[CTyankee]

25. No, sorry, it is not the Sagrada Familia...

[joeybee12]

16. Is the first....

Milan's? can't think of the name.

Is 2 Chartres?

[CTyankee]

20. not Milan. Chartres, yes, see above...

[NightWatcher]

18. The only ones I've ever visited were in Brugges and Koln (Cologne)

I couldn't tell you if either one of them were in the quiz.

[CTyankee]

23. Neither is.

[JVS]

26. Is #6 Aachen/ Aix-la-chapelle?

The black/white pattern looks familiar, but I only have seen the octogon.

[CTyankee]

28. I'm not sure of what number you are referring to...but none is Aachen or Aix-la-chapelle.

[hobbit709]

27. First one is St. Stevens in Vienna.

[CTyankee]

29. good for you, hobbit! Have you been there?

As you can guess, this photo was taken at the time of the Anschluss...

[hobbit709]

31. When I was a kid I lived about 4 blocks from there.

Haven't been back since 1972 but I bet I can still find my way around.

[CTyankee]

36. It looks like a pretty place now...I'd love to visit Vienna...it's on my bucket list!

[elleng]

33. Beat me, hobbit, by 3 minutes and ???? YEARS???

[hobbit709]

34. I lived there back in the 50's, '72 was the last time I was in Vienna.

[CTyankee]

38. It must have been a sad place in the 50s. I was in Paris and Amsterdam in the late 50s

and things were still pretty sad looking. Versaille was nothing like it is today...

[hobbit709]

41. My earliest memories are of the occupation troops.

Vienna was divided like Berlin. My mother and I lived with my grandparents in the American sector but most of my relatives lived in the Soviet sector. It was weird going through the checkpoints-my mom with her Austrian papers and me even as a baby with an American passport.

[CTyankee]

46. Wow, what a time to live in! Have you written about it?

Sounds fascinating...

[elleng]

32. #1, St. Stephen's, Wien

[CTyankee]

39. It's an incredible photo, isn't it?

That smiling soldier in the front...no one seemed to know what was coming...

[elleng]

45. Yes. Creeps me out.

[CTyankee]

47. The streets appear to be empty, it's weird.

This photo was out there back then. Didn't people get the creeps then? Something was godawful wrong!!!

[elleng]

50. Yes, yank. This was/is Austria.

Did visit Jewish Museum in 2000.

http://www.cvltvre.com/mod/cvltvre_events/thumbnail.php?id=25765

[CTyankee]

57. My god, what an experience! It must have been incredible!

[elleng]

65. Yes, quite.

JUST remembered actually visited St. Steven's, and a bunch of other stuff, like concerts. Will review photos.

[Angry Dragon]

49. That smiling soldier in front to me has feminine facial features

Just my opinion

[CTyankee]

52. I know. Strange, isn't it? I keep thinking it;s a woman...

[elleng]

53. Me, too, but what is it?

Saw neighbor's 8? month old baby from a distance last week, and just 'knew' it was a boy! It IS!

[librechik]

37. # 6 is Montserrat

there is a tourist becoming one with the universe while standing on the vortex.

[CTyankee]

40. hey, great librechik! Did you go there to see this vortex?

[librechik]

42. only while astral travelling

all the swellest spirit travellers have to make a stop there, right after Nazca.

[kwyjibo]

43. #5

is in Siena.

[CTyankee]

44. No. What exactly in Siena did you have in mind?

The cathedral is faintly checkered...odd, it seems like more of a a little more northern influence...but I could be wrong...

[kwyjibo]

82. I remembered green/black stripes from the cathedral there

here's a good photo

[jberryhill]

55. #2 is that one in England, or Scotland

Where they used to do that religious stuff.

And if it's not the one in England, then it's the other one that is somewhere else.

[CTyankee]

60. they did so much it's hard to tell, isn't it?

[jberryhill]

62. It's whatchamacallit Abbey or something like that

(although the Byzantine arches don't seem right, but Coventry I guess had some changes over time. I don't remember it that way)

[CTyankee]

71. don't think byzantine gets in here, but hey, who knows, right?

[Tansy_Gold]

56. #3

Ghent?

[CTyankee]

59. Oh, Lordy, now you've DONE it!

Please tell me you know...

[Tansy_Gold]

63. All I know is. . . .

I think I cheated. :blush:

[jberryhill]

66. I'll bet it was painted by that other Dutch guy

The one who ran a van business.

[CTyankee]

73. the guy and his brother!

Did they ever get to work! This thing is NICE!

All I know is people are crazy over it...what the hell...I mean, really...seen one, seen 'em all...

[jberryhill]

77. Echh! Kind of a Yawn after a while /nt

[CTyankee]

79. If you have seen the whole thing, you would see something very different...

it's amazing...just...amazing...

[jberryhill]

80. Would I say something like "Bravo"?

And Jan and Eck?

[Tansy_Gold]

58. #5

External pulpit of Duomo di Prato, Prato, Tuscany.

[CTyankee]

61. Hey, tansy, how did you know this? Have you been there?

[Tansy_Gold]

75. No, not been there. Not been anywhere

To tell the truth, I'm writing a novel that involves a medieval cathedral and a separate medieval chapel, both fictitious, and I've done some research to get some of the details. At first I thought this one was Spanish, but then I realized the pulpit was at an odd angle on the wall. External maybe? So I cheated.

I do that sometimes, and sometimes I even admit it.


TG

[CTyankee]

78. well, glad to hear that confession...altho I don't condone it here.

I forgive all sins...so I'll help you...

This is the balcony of the cathedral of Prato, a city just north of Florence. The balcony was designed by Masolino and the relief was carved by Donatello. Impressive credentials!

The "little problem" in Prato was the scandal of the creator of fresco in the cathedral. It was painted by Fra Felippo Lippi, a bad monk who was put in charge of a Prato convent of women and got one of the younger ones pregnant while he was painting her as the Madonna in a terrific early Renaissance painting which is in the Prato Cathedral today. What fun! I can help you with this!

The Spanish Chapel to which you might be referring is in the courtyard of the Santa Maria Novella Church in Florence. It has the black and white arrangement of tiles. The Dominicans founded this church. They were enforcers of the faith. The Spanish Chapel is found in the courtyard a few steps outside the Santa Maria Novella, in a small structure called the Chapter House. In this small building you will find a fresco of the 14th century (Gothic, not Renaissance)by Bonauiti. It was painted as a kind of "training module" of the Order because they had lost so many of the "brothers" in the plague of the late 1300s in Florence. It contains a nice medieval "pun" if you can find it...Google has much of this fresco...

I hope you can get to Italy to do the research on this book. Just to step inside the Santa Maria Novella Church would be a huge burst of energy for you! Good luck with it!

[Angry Dragon]

81. My understanding of the rules is that you may use google

because you have to think of the search request
however to use the google app to insert a picture
into the search is not fair

It is my understanding that there exists a google app where you can insert a picture into it and it will then direst you to the information you seek, that is requested that one does not use.........

[Tansy_Gold]

83. I inserted no pictures

Searching images based on "Cathedral external pulpit" achieved the desired result instantly.

But I had to study the posted pic first to discover that the pulpit was indeed external.

[Angry Dragon]

84. Then you did not cheat and have nothing to confess

[CTyankee]

85. True!. Using Google with your own hints is fine and I do it all the time!

The cheat is when you use the trick of getting the image source shown, regardless of your ideas of where you are going with the research, and you get the answer. Goggles is another technology that would be considered cheating.

[CTyankee]

86. Hey, folks. No Challenge for two weeks.

It will return October 21st. I'll be out of the country from October 7 til October 15th, going to Holland to look at Dutch art of the Golden Age.

Thanks for participating today! You guys are great...:loveya:

[court jester]

88. You probably already know this but for the benefit of those who can't go to Europe...

Google Earth Street View is now in High Definition (or whatever they call it, it is like looking out a window) in most of Western Europe and actually inside some museums (Rijksmuseum is one example). Here's a downsized picture of the Cathedral in Paris:

click for full size: img809.imageshack.us/img809/1788/pariscathedral1.jpg



There is also a (relatively) new feature called "360 cities" where someone has taken a panoramic photo of somewhere with a special tripod and after stitching it together with special software it appears in Goog earth as a globe, and you click on the globe and are transplanted into that picture where you can look up, down and all around. That's what those little red squares in the picture are. And faces aren't blocked out like they are on Google street view so it's fun to peoplewatch.

Here's how easy it is to, for example, tour most of the major Cathedrals in France.

Open a Wiki page to this-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cathedrals_in_France (there are a LOT)

click on a linked Cathedral and when that page loads the Latitude and Longitude coordinates will appear on the top right of that page. Highlight these coordinates, copy, then open google earth and paste them into the go to box, hit enter and you are whisked away to that cathedral. Most of the time you will be able to slide the little pegman over the cathedral and if blue lines appear, drop the pegman and you are (almost) there in street view and a picture as clear as the one above will appear on your monitor!

Repeat for Italy, etc. Before long, hours turn to weeks!

Oh, and great thread, I'll have to look for the contest when you get back.

[elleng]

89. Mon Dieu!!!

[CTyankee]

91. The Challenge will return on October 21st.

Thanks for this info! It is very helpful and makes me dream of transporting myself "there"!

[canetoad]

90. No. 1 - Rheims?

I picked Coventry. As a kid I lived closeby.

[CTyankee]

92. # 1 is St. Stephen's in Vienna.

This pic was taken at the time of the Anschluss...