#ChthonicThursday: Maximilian Pirner

April 25, 2024

Maximilian Pirner (1854–1924) was a Czech painter and one of the leading figures in the Vienna Secession, a significant movement in art and design that emerged in 1897.
At its core, the Vienna Secession was a rebellion against the academic art establishment, which was dominated by historicism and rigid standards: the artists involved sought to create a new, modern aesthetic that reflected the changing times and the spirit of the age, which might explain why Pirner is… well… a bit gloomy.

Pirner wasn’t as active in the local artistic community as artists such as Gustav Klimt, Josef Hoffmann, and Koloman Moser, and maybe that’s why his focus remained on classical mythology, but the incursions of macabre themes undeniably tie him to his contemporaries.

The end of all things

Medusa

Hecate (1901)

movies and tv

But for pursuit of virtue and of knowledge

I’m sure you’ve read enough analysis of Nolan’s Odyssey to last a lifetime, and you don’t need another European ranting that he changed stuff, so I’m not going to. Instead, I’d like to talk about the movie in itself, as an independent work, granting the

August 7, 2026 1:48 pm

Summertime

A Pilgrimage With No Shrine

The full German title of today’s book is Die Ringe des Saturn: Eine englische Wallfahrt — “The Rings of Saturn: An English Pilgrimage” — and it was written by W.G. Sebald, a German-born writer, essayist, poet, and literary scholar who lived much of his life

August 7, 2026 6:00 am

music and theatre

Ma se io avessi previsto tutto questo

Francesco Guccini è stato una figura importantissima per la mia crescita e per il mio sviluppo personale. Sono cresciuta in una casa in cui il rapporto con la musica è stato quantomai particolare, almeno durante la mia infanzia, e l’avevo scoperto grazie all’intervento di due

August 6, 2026 1:21 pm