02 Paintings, Middle East Artists, Anna Boghiguian’s Alexandria , with Footnotes, #69

Anna Boghiguian, B. 1947, EGYPTIAN
ALEXANDRIA, JUNE – SEPT.
Oil on canvas
50 by 50cm.; 19 5/8 by 19 5/8 in.
Private Collection

Alexandria is a Mediterranean port city in Egypt. Founded in c. 331 BC by Alexander the Great, Alexandria grew rapidly and became a major centre of Hellenic civilisation, eventually replacing Memphis, in present-day Greater Cairo, as Egypt’s capital. During the Hellenistic period, it was home to the Lighthouse of Alexandria that ranked among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, as well as the storied Library of Alexandria. Today, the library is reincarnated in the disc-shaped, ultramodern Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Its 15th-century seafront Qaitbay Citadel is now a museum. Called the “Bride of the Mediterranean” by locals, Alexandria is a popular tourist destination and an important industrial centre due to its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez. More on Alexandria…

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09 works, Today, November 25th, is Saint Catherine of Alexandria’s day, her story, illustrated #328

Unknown artist
Scenes from the Life of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, ca. 1430-1450
Oil on panel
62.8 × 162 × 5.5 cm (24.7 × 63.7 × 2.1 in)
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Catherine of Alexandria, or Katherine of Alexandria, according to tradition, a Christian saint and virgin, who was martyred in the early 4th century at the hands of the emperor Maxentius. According to her hagiography, she was both a princess and a noted scholar who became a Christian around the age of 14, converted hundreds of people to Christianity and was martyred around the age of 18. More than 1,100 years after Catherine’s martyrdom, Joan of Arc identified her as one of the saints who appeared to and counselled her…

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