THE JOYS OF BLOGGING

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A blog, short for web log, is just a website designed to put your opinion or expertise online. You may have different reasons for starting a blog and it invariably leaves you enriched. With a creative control over your own little corner of the internet is a great way to learn new things and express yourself. With so many free blogging services it's fairly easy to set up a professional-looking website. Many blogs take the form of an online diary, with pictures, audio and even video.

Why do we blog?

There could be many reasons for starting a blog like-

1.   Blogging makes you a better writer and thinker.

2.   You meet thousands of new people & followers through comments, social media or email.

3.   You can share your adventures and experience with far-flung family and friends.

4.   You can run a club of special interest groups like cooking, gardening, fishing and golfing.

5.   It is a way to keep everybody informed in an informal way and is replacing the old fashioned newsletter in many institutions

6.   You help and inspire others through your blog.

7.   You can promote your own business or services through blogging.

8.   You become popular and more confident.

Whatever is the reason, the point is a blog can be a very powerful tool for achieving various goals. Understanding your end-goal will help you decide what kind of service to use to create your blog.

Why is it easy?

You don't need a writing degree or web design skills. There's a wide range of places for you to web-publish your creation. They all have designer-created templates to make your work look polished and professional. All you have to do is add your ideas in your own words.

Who's your audience?

1.   Are you an expert giving advice to novices or are you writing for people with the same level of knowledge as you?

2.   Is your audience there for a good time or are they more of a serious crowd?

3.   Are you spreading awareness about a group or publicizing a cause,

4.   Do you want to build an online community for your profession and profit?

If it's just for you and immediate family and friends, your focus should be on keeping it fresh, interesting and satisfying. On the other hand if your aim is to get readers from far and wide to take notice of your skills and highlight your profession then it has to be formal and efficiently organized.

How do you reach your audience?

Be a member of multiple social media groups in multiple social media platforms – Facebook, WhatsApp, WeChat, Instagram, Twitter. Write briefly about your new blog and post it in these groups along with the hyperlink to your new blog.

Follow other discussions whenever you find time and if you have written on the same topic then write a comment with a hyperlink to your relevant blog.

If your clinic help / nurse is sitting idle then give your phone to her and request her to pass on your blog information to all your WhatsApp contacts.

How do you keep your audience with you?

There are a few tricks which I will share with you:

1.   Treat them with respect. Just because they are likely to be less knowledgeable than you about a subject (which is why you're writing the blog) doesn't mean they're not as smart. Put yourself in their shoes. How would you want something explained to you? Assume your readers are just as intelligent as you and go from there.

2.   Always answer or acknowledge questions and comments with respect. If your readers see that you respond to their comments promptly there will be more comments and your blogs will be more popular.

3.   Be regular and consistent with your blogs. Consistency is more important than frequency. Irregular blog contributions can frustrate your readers. Two articles on the same day followed by a two-month break look disorganized and unprofessional.

4.    Stick to your style. You don’t have to be like any other successful blogger, be yourself. Don’t be shy. Let your personality shine through. Very soon your audience will know what to expect from you.

What do you write about?

Choosing your topic is vital because if you are not passionate about it, it shows. Some bloggers are wedded to their topics. So you might find people writing only about the economy like Mr. Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyar or only about politics like Mr. Manoj Joshi or Mr. Pawan Verma or only about Travel like Ms. Mridula Dwivedi or only aboutsports like Mr. Boria Majumdar and Mr. Aiyaz Memon. You will like to follow them only if you too are interested in their respective topics of interest. A bigger challenge is to write randomly about everything under the sun. I personally find this encasement of mind very stifling and suffocating and so my topics are varied because that is how I am, passionate about many things. So I have written about

·        Travelogue and travel related topics – Kailash Mansarovar, Kerala, Window Seat, Waiting for your bags

·        Food – Breakfast the world loves, Biriyani, From a Street Food Junkie

·        Art – Monalisa, Dali, Mario Miranda, The Birth of Venus, The Scream, The Creation of Adam, The Kiss, Lost Forever

·        Literature – Lost Forever, Book Reviews, Upapandavas

·        Lifestyle – Farming, Fishing, Public Speaking, Monkey Caps, Working from home, Value of Solitude, Midlife – Where is the crisis?

·        Medicine – Acid Attacks, Transplants, Medical Education, Corona, Synthetic Biology, Performance Anxiety

·        History – The Vanquished Never Write History, History Books are not serving the purpose

·        Education – Why Education is pulling us back? Madarsa Education, Higher Education – open the deadlock

·        Politics – Need a new political party, Marooned in fantasy island, Abrogation of Article 370, Huge fan of Trump Comedy, Reservation-now in Y axis

·        Religion – Navratri, Durga Puja and Women Empowerment, Kali Puja

·        Recent Advances – Phytoceauticals, Anti Aging, Simulation and Lab Training

What are the hallmarks of good blogging?

A good blog is one that leaves the reader enriched, pleased and wanting for more. They are used to the style of the blogger and know what to expect from him/her and hate to be disappointed. They have the attention span of a butterfly and so they need the information promised by the blog title as quickly as possible. There are some mistakes a blogger should never make:

Accurate article titles

Don't get caught dreaming up attractive, snappy titles that have little to do with the article's content. Your readers will figure it out pretty quickly and leave.

Web search engines will also pick up on this trend and mark you down as an unreliable source for that particular search phrase or topic. This means you get fewer readers over time. Give your blog posts an intriguing title, but keep it relevant and honest.

Do not leave the core subject

Aim for one core topic or focus, with a smattering of related content to keep things fresh. A blog about golfing will appeal to golfers, but if you include your passion for red wine and love of Hawaiian shirts you'll struggle to find readers interested in all three. If you want to discuss a wider range of subjects, find a link between them.

For example, food and travel go well together because people like to read about different foods from interesting places. Once you can easily balance those two, you might add fine wine into the mix, as it's often specific to a region and goes well with food.

If you have lots of information and opinions on different subjects you might even consider creating separate blogs.

Have a strong lead

The lead is the sentence that introduces the subject matter and hooks the reader. Put it in your first sentence, not several paragraphs lower. The readers can lose interest and leave before they get to the good stuff.

Show the good stuff early

After your introduction (complete with a good lead), put the most important information next. Most people never read an entire web article, so to make sure they easily find the information they came for, put it up top.

You can always put supporting information after the main parts, for those that need it.

Keep paragraphs short

These days it is likely that most of your blog traffic will come from people using a Smartphone. So, keep paragraphs short or your reader will have to scroll forever on their tiny screen. Try to limit your paragraphs to two-to-four sentences if you can.

Text type and size

Larger, more spacious fonts work better online. Calibri and Arial are good staples, as are Verdana and Georgia. Avoid fancier fonts such as Lucida Handwriting and Forte; they're harder to read and slow down your readers. And avoid Comic Sans.

It's hard to nominate a specific font size for online – just make sure your text doesn't have the tiny lettering. Easy reading is the key for the casual online audience. Templates will have typefaces and sizes already set, so go with what they give you, at first anyway.

Use subheadings

Regular subheadings act as anchor points. They help the reader keep track of where they are and what topic they're reading about. They also visually break up large slabs of type.

Make your subheadings directly relevant to your content rather than overly clever and 'punny'. This will both help your readers keep track and make your blog post turn up better in web search results.

Self-editing your blog

Edit as you go for spelling, grammar, correct context and conciseness. This will make subsequent edits easier. For the final edit, leave your blog post alone for a few hours, if not a day. Then come back to it with fresh eyes. If you don't, you risk missing obvious mistakes that your eyes have become accustomed to glossing over. By producing half cooked half baked blogs with silly mistakes you insult your readers and they will soon abandon you.

Copyright considerations

You can't just pinch images from other websites willy-nilly. It's illegal to use copyrighted words or images from other websites without express (preferably written) permission by the copyright holder, unless it falls under 'fair use' provisions.

However, you can freely use many materials, such as images, that have a Creative Commons license. This lets you distribute, remix, tweak and build upon the original work (depending on the nature of the license) so long as you give credit for the original creation.

What do you want to achieve?

First, work out why you're starting a blog. To me it was ‘Swantah Sukhaya’. I love communication with people and sharing my experience and benefiting from theirs’. I now have a very large pool of friends from all over the world with whom I can remain in constant touch with absolute geographical neutrality. 

But if you want to propagate your scope of practice then blogs on subjects like Face lift, Tummy Tuck, Breast Reduction, Laser rejuvenation etc can be of use to you. But please do not post your patient’s photograph without their consent.

Which blogs are popular?

Well written, well composed, well designed and well publicized blogs are popular. But you really do not know what clicks people’s imagination, Two of my most popular blogs each with more than 40,000 visits and over 300 comments are

1.   Letter from a father to his son who is getting engaged

2.   Never argue with the Anaesthetiest

These were both very personal blogs but somehow caught the attention of people from 6 continents!

An event which is currently in news will always be more popular and so all my blogs on Corona Pandemic were very well received. A blog on Kumbh Mela while it was on, one on Notre Dame inferno on the day it burnt down were hugely popular. I went to Turkey in 2010 and was mesmerized by the Bosporus Strait in Istanbul dividing the two continents but two weeks back I chose to write about Hagia Sophia because it was in news after its conversion into a mosque.

If you write for a target audience you usually get a favourable response from that group but not necessarily from others. Thus my blogs

1.   Reaching 60, time to start the second innings

2.   Why can’t adults make friends

3.   A dearth of PG teachers in Medical Institutions

4.   The Class Teacher’s Home Visit

were very popular with a section of my readership but not with all

 

Free Blogs vs Self Hosted Paid Blogs

There are 2 ways to make a blog - one is free and other is by paying around $100 (Rs 7500) for a domain name & hosting.

Popular free blogging sites

• WordPress.com
• Blogger.com
• Tumblr.com
• Strikingly.com
• LiveJournal.com

A free service is good if you're new to blogging and just want a way to express yourself, or let friends and family know what you've been up to, without incurring extra costs. Usually they will provide a free web address for your blog, such as ‘surajitbrainwaves.blogspot.com'.

Popular paid blog builders

• Squarespace.com
• Wix.com
• Weebly.com
• Wordpress.com
• Smugmug.com

Paid platforms give you more options and ready-to-go templates that do much of the heavy lifting for you. You can start off simple and expand your blog's website as you gain experience. Experienced users can also build everything from scratch. Payment is usually monthly or yearly.

So why should you go for the paid sites when there are free sites available? I am giving you 6 compelling reasons why you shouldn’t start a free blog.

• On a free blog site the domain name of your blog will look like surajitbrainwaves.blogspot.com or YourBlogName.wix.com which is too lengthy to read as compared to a paid blog that will read  surajitbrainwaves.com.
• You will face serious limitations incorporating many design changes.
• Monetization will become difficult affecting your revenue adversely.
• The whole process of shifting from free platform to paid one is very tedious and you might also lose some of the traffic & revenue.
• Your readers, advertisers and clients are not going to take you seriously if you are on a free site.
• Lastly, you are not in control of your content because everything is in the hands of the free platform you are using. If anything goes wrong with your blog, they will suspend your blog & you can't do anything.

Can you make money blogging?

The short answer is yes, you can make money from blogging. But no, it's not easy. Publishing your blog for profit is a whole different exercise that requires a systematic approach, consistent effort and a fairly steep learning curve.

The easiest way to start making money with advertising is through Adsense. Sign up for an account; enter in the ad settings you want like a 300×250 sized banner placed below the first paragraph of a post! It is a rude interruption for your readers but may be profitable for you. You should be able to make as much as $1 per 1,000 visitors to your site if you have enough placements, and while that won’t sound like much, once you reach 25,000 visitors a month, you can leave Adsense, join Mediavine and start making 10 times more money with advertising.

You can also earn through selling products and services on other’s behalf which is also known as affiliate marketing. Amazon Associate is one such example. Any time you mention a product on your site, you can search for the product through Amazon Associates, and then use that link in your post. Whenever your readers click on that link and choose to buy anything, you’ll receive a commission on that sale. Packing lists, in-depth reviews, and gift guides are great for monetizing through Amazon, so get started with those. But don’t over do it.

You may need to learn about online marketing, using social media platforms, blog directories, search engine optimization (SEO), ad services and affiliate programmes. You might even create an online store for selling your product, such as art, crafts, t-shirts and other stuff.

Top bloggers can make big money, but you might be happy if you can just cover your online costs, so that your hobby pays for itself. Web search "make money blogging" or similar for more info.

Keep it fun!

Making your blog should be interesting and fun, but if the pressure of regular, fresh content starts to pall, you might need to alter your approach, change your schedule or broaden your topic. Think about what you know and love best and start sharing.

Is it too late? Nope! Hell no. Seriously — it’s not too late. 

Enjoy this Instagram chat: 
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CDMMgQhpcL6/?igshid=ltft1uqwssds

THE KISS – GUSTAV KLIMT’S MASTERPIECE

Austrian artist and symbolist painter Gustav Klimt is known for his ethereal, pattern-rich portraits. Today, several of these canvases are considered masterpieces, though This Kiss, a particularly exquisite piece, seems to float above the rest.

Featuring shimmering gold tones, stylized forms, and sentimental iconography, The Kiss has enchanted audiences since its completion in 1908. Today, the awe-inspiring piece is housed in Vienna’s esteemed Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, though its illustrious legacy transcends Klimt’s Austrian roots.

The Kiss is an oil-on-canvas painting with added gold leaf, silver and platinum. It was painted at some point in 1907 and 1908, during the height of what scholars call his "Golden Period". "The Kiss" is the final painting of Klimt's Gold Period, during which he incorporated gold leaf into his works. This practice reflects the strong influence of the gold-detailed religious art of the Middle Ages as well as the sacred works created by artists of the Byzantine Empire.

As a member of the Secessionist Movement and a pioneer of Symbolism—a European genre of art characterized by mystical motifs, a personal approach to the visual arts, and an aesthetic similar to the contemporaneous Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts movements—Gustav Klimt often took an avant-garde approach to painting. The Kiss is a close-up on the embrace. Like many of Klimt's works that depict embraces, it conceals the man's face and focuses instead on that of the woman. In this work, the young woman's facial expression and closed eyes simultaneously evoke feelings of abandonment, ecstasy and delight.

On a closer inspection The Kiss depicts an embracing couple kneeling in a grassy patch of wildflowers. Clad in a geometrically-printed robe and with a crown of vines on his head, the man cradles the woman’s face as he leans in to kiss her. The female figure—whose colourful, organically patterned dress contrasts her partner’s garment—wears flowers in her hair. As she wraps her arms around her partner’s neck, her eyes are peacefully closed, emphasizing the tranquillity and intimacy of the scene. Klimt often explored this theme of love in his work.

The Kiss is a combination of different schools of art. If the gold leaf hearkens back to Byzantine art works as seen in mosaics of the Church of San Vitale, the composition of the work reflects the influence of Japanese prints. The contrasting pattern of the two lovers’ cloaks reflect the art and craft movement of that era and overall Klimt succeeded in producing an excellent example of  his signature Art Nouveau style.

The use of gold harked back to Klimt's own past, to the metal work of his father and younger brother Ernst, who had both died a decade earlier.  Klimt learned the use of metalwork from them and later carried it to his style of working during his luminous “Golden Period.” Works produced during this time feature pronounced planes and delicate detailing made of gold leaf. During this time Klimt would use a lot of gold leaf paint to lift his paintings up to a new level. This boldness helped him to differentiate his work from others and is also why his career remains so memorable even today. Inspired by Byzantine mosaics, this gilding gives each piece a glimmering appearance that accentuates the ethereal nature of Klimt’s subject matter and style. In addition to The Kiss, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907), Judith and the Head of Holofernes (1901), and Water Serpents I (1904) convey this glimmering aesthetic.

The Kiss has a romantic feel with two lovers who are accompanied by the incredibly bold artistic style of Klimt. He added gold leaf paint into most of his paintings to add a highly stylish finish to them. He followed a similar style throughout his career after his initial period as a developing artist and quickly discovered that the style that both proved successful within the mainstream Austrian art world, and also was satisfactory to Gustav in terms of his own artistic development.

Klimt's Golden Period, of which this painting is the pinnacle, is believed by many to have been inspired from the artist's trips through Italy several years earlier. Amongst the locations of his visit was the city of Ravenna which continues to hold an impressive collection of mosaics from the Byzantine period. Artists Jan Theodor and Fernand Khnopff were also influential on Klimt through their symbolist styles which came from the Netherlands and Belgium respectively. Several earlier pieces show Klimt starting to use gold in his work whilst building up to the visual feast which was to be The Kiss.

The Kiss was originally called Der Kuss which reflects Klimt's upbringing in Vienna where he quickly established a reputation for himself as a creative young artist who held great ambitions for the future, and these were mostly to be achieved. Klimt managed to get customers of both fortune and power which helped him to build up an impressive array of work as well as allowed him a comfortable living in Austria.

This artwork was purchased even before the artist had fully completed it. The sale to the Austrian Gallery, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, underlines how it was much less controversial that some of his other paintings, and the speed with which was snapped up indicates how the painting struck a chord with the Austrian public and academics alike. Gustav Klimt was much loved as an artist for the intricate detail that he managed to put into most of his paintings, and typically he would use huge canvases in order to give him enough room to add detail even across the sprawling backgrounds that often incorporated pretty arrangements of bright flowers. The Kiss has a similarly complicated series of flowers plus also imaginative patterns on the clothing of the two lovers around which the painting is based.

The Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna contains the biggest collection of original Gustav Klimt paintings to date, making it a prized spot for the artist's fans and one of the major destinations for followers of 20th century art in the world. There are currently 24 artworks from his career on display here, including the likes of The Kiss, Judith, Avenue to Schloss Kammer, Sonja Knips, Adam and Eve, Cottage Garden with Sunflowers and Water Serpents I.

The Kiss is within the top ten of most popular painting and also is regularly reproduced as a copy of the original in all sorts of media, such handmade oil paintings, stretched canvases and posters.

Gustav Klimt undeniably is the most respected artist to have come from Austria. The Kiss and Gustav Klimt both hold unique positions within the art world and have both been gratefully embraced by mainstream art fans. They have held this magical artist amongst their most preferred. Gustav Klimt's bold use of gold leaf paint as well as the romantic scenes which he regularly depicted was two of the reasons which helped to make and keep him as a household name right across Europe and the rest of the world. Such is the popularity of this painting that it has its own website thekissgustavklimt.com

Gustav Klimt was a thickset and brooding man, usually photographed wearing his painter's smock, who never married and led an openly bohemian lifestyle. If Klimt preferred to allow his paintings to speak for him, then the message that The Kiss gave was extremely evocative - hinting, through their elaborate surfaces, at the workings of an enigmatic subconscious. It is no coincidence that Klimt's work is often linked to that of his Viennese compatriot, and near-contemporary, Sigmund Freud.

In January 1918, Gustav Klimt suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. He was subsequently hospitalized, and while there contracted pneumonia, of which he died on February 6, 1918. He is buried at the Hietzing cemetery in Vienna. When Klimt died at the premature age of 55, several unfinished works of a strikingly sexual nature were found in his studio, as if revealing the erotic undercurrent latent beneath much of his earlier work. The Kiss does what a great piece of art is supposed to do: hold your gaze, make you admire its aesthetic qualities while trying to discern what's beyond its superficial aspects.

ART LOST FOREVER – AN UNFATHOMABLE LOSS TO CIVILIZATION – Part 5

Works of art are a statement of and a commentary on the time, place and persons who created them and patronized them. They are the images of the civilization gone bye and help us to understand history. Although we may not realize it, art is a cultural statement that remains to inform and educate future generations of how life once was. This is what makes certain pieces of art more poignant and famous than others, when they come to symbolize a generation or period of time.

Though priceless and invaluable there have been occasions in history when they were not shown the respect they deserved and they were pillaged, plundered, stolen and destroyed. Thus either unknowingly or worse still, knowingly and with a vengeance of intolerance they have been destroyed and left gaping holes in the story of our civilization. So whether it was because of the World Wars or it was the plunder of Muslim fundamentalists of ISIS or Taliban, many precious works of art were lost forever. Accidents, fire, negligence and botched up restoration efforts too have contributed to the tragic loss of priceless artworks.

The wars have had a very detrimental impact on culture and civilization and art which remains an embodiment of both has suffered most and many epics have been lost forever. The invading armies were either ignorant of their true value or were so afraid of their potential to revive a culture that they purposely destroyed them.

When properly taken care of, works of art can persist through millenniums that tell the stories of the times passed to future generations. To preserve cultural heritage from getting destroyed, art galleries and museums have installed a set of rules designed to protect the artworks from thieves, vandals, and accidents. Artworks are often protected by safety ropes that keep the visitors at a reasonable distance. Some pieces are placed inside bulletproof glass boxes.

But, since art venues are trying to keep the sense of accessibility, many works are showcased without these protective items. Instead, they are guarded by a series of guidelines that the visitors must obey. For instance, viewers are often asked to leave their belongings (such as briefcases and umbrellas) at the front desk. Since children are prone to accidents of all kinds, museums demand that they must be accompanied by adults. Food and drinks are not allowed and touching the pieces is strictly forbidden.

There's a reason why museums and galleries ask people not to touch works on display. Human skin carries natural oils and acids that are harmful to artworks. A single touch can initiate permanent changes, darken the paint or corrode metal. But despite these rules, accidents happen and artworks get shattered, punched through or completely destroyed.

In a 5 part series I will be presenting 50 priceless and invaluable works of art which we will never be able to see again because they have been lost forever and this is the fifth and the last series of 10 such masterpieces:


41. Five Dancing Women - Edgar Degas

Five Dancing Women is a pastel painting by Edgar Degas that features the subject for which he is best known. More than half of his works feature dancers and they were the subject that he most identified with. Done sometime in the late 19th century, this pastel piece of art depicts five beautiful ballerinas. The dancers appear on stage mid-performance. Degas is considered by many to be an impressionist despite the fact that he thought himself to be much more of a realist.

This piece was part of the collection of Baron Mor Lipot Herzog who had one of the greatest art collections in all of Europe and was a jew. It was the largest in Hungary and featured more than 2,500 works of art. Baron Mor Lipot Herzog died in 1934 and the collection then went to his widow who died in 1940. After that the art collection passed down to his three children, Andras, Istevan and Erzsebet.

In 1944, Hungary an ally of Nazi Germany not only began forcing all Jews to register their art but also began sending them to Nazi death camps. The Herzog family attempted to save their art by hiding in the basement of one of their factories, but it was eventually discovered. Andras was sent to a work camp where he later died, but his daughters did manage to escape.

Today a significant portion of the Herzog collection is on display in various museums throughout Hungary. The family has filed suits to try and get the art back but to no avail. There has also been no information on what happened to this Degas work but it has not appeared in any museums in Hungary. The art was divided soon after it was found with some of the art staying in Hungary and some being sent to Germany.

42. A Harlot’s progress - William Hogarth

This encompasses a series of 6 works by W. Hogarth and in these 6 plates he had depicted the rise and fall of a prostitute. Hogarth, an English painter is seen as the father of ‘satirical caricatures’. The original paintings depict the story of a young lady who, finding herself in London gets into prostitution and dies aged 23. We see her selling her body for money, getting arrested for it, succumbing to poverty and eventually dying of syphilis. Her disgrace doesn't end there though. In the final plate her coffin is used as a tavern bar, ironically enough in the presence of other whores and whoremongers bringing the story to a full circle. These plates were also gutted in a fire, but due to the massive number of copies sold, they managed to remain for about 30 years.

A Harlot's Progress (also known as The Harlot's Progress) is a series of six paintings (1731) and engravings (1732) shows the story of a young woman, M. (Moll or Mary) Hackabout, who arrives in London from the country and becomes a prostitute.

The first of Hogarth’s ‘Modern Moral Subjects’, he intended the pictures to stand without accompanying text. The series had 1,240 subscribers and was so popular that pirated versions were quickly issued. A Male version of this morality is found in another series called 'the Rake's progress' (1735) where a man gradually loses all his money on wine, women and gambling in a series of 8 successive paintings. He is finally in a mental asylum in the last painting. Marriage-a-la-mode (1745) is a similar riches to rags story told in 6 pictures. The 'Four Stages of Cruelty' (1751) is the most gruesome series of 4 pictures by this artist in which he shows how a young boy tortures animals, becomes a criminal as an adult and eventually hung at the gallows.

43. Philosophy - ceiling panel for the Great Hall of Vienna University (1899 - 1907) - Gustav Klimt

Upon presenting his paintings commissioned by University of Vienna entitled Philosophy,Medicine and Jurisprudence, Klimt came under attack for ‘pornography’ and ‘perverted excess’ in the paintings. In the end, none of the paintings would go on display in the university. In the very very end, in May 1945 all three paintings were destroyed by retreating SS forces. In1911 Medicine and Jurisprudence were bought by Klimt’s friend and fellow artist, Koloman Moser. Medicine eventually came into the possession of a Jewish family, and in 1938 the painting was seized by Germany. In 1943, after a final exhibition, they were moved to Schloss Immendorf, a castle in Lower Austria, for protection. In May 1945 the paintings were destroyed as retreating German SS forces set fire to the castle to prevent it falling into enemy hands. All that remains now are preparatory sketches and a few photographs. Only one photograph remains of the complete painting of Medicine, taken just before it was destroyed.

Philosophy was the first of the three pictures presented to the Austrian Government at the seventh Vienna Secession exhibition in March 1900. It had been awarded a gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris, but was attacked by many art critics in his own country. Klimt described the painting as follows: "On the left a group of figures, the beginning of life, fruition, decay. On the right, the globe as mystery. Emerging below, a figure of light: knowledge". Critics were disturbed by its depiction of men and women drifting in an aimless trance. The original proposal for the theme of the painting was "The Victory of Light over Darkness", but what Klimt presented instead was a dreamlike mass of humanity, referring neither to optimism nor rationalism, but to a "viscous void".

Medicine was the second painting, presented in March 1901 at the tenth Secession Exhibition. It featured a column of semi-nude figures on the right hand side of the painting, representing the river of life. Beside it was a young nude female who floated in space, with a newborn infant at her feet, representing life. A skeleton represented death in the river of life. The only link between the floating woman and the river of bodies is two arms, the woman's and a man's as seen from behind. At the bottom of the painting Hygieia tood with the Aesculapian snake around her arm and the cup of Lethe in her hand, turning her back to mankind. Klimt conveyed an ambiguous unity of life and death, with nothing to celebrate the role of medicine or the science of healing.

Jurisprudence, too, is laden with anxiety: a condemned man is depicted surrounded by three female furies and a sea monster, while in the background, the three goddesses of Truth, Justice, and Law look on.

44. An Angel with Titus Features - Rembrandt van Rijn

Rembrandt van Rijn or simply Rembrandt as he has become known today was active as a painter from 1620 until his death in 1669. He was a printer and a painter, showing an early skill for the craft. He was able to open his own studio at a very young age and was known to have created hundreds of paintings and etchings throughout his lifetime. He also had several periods where he explored different techniques and themes, but his work was always recognized for the skill and the emotion behind them.

It was in his later years that more and more biblical themes appeared in his works and it might have been around that time that he completed this piece. This elegant but soft piece evokes very strong emotions and portrays the skill that Rembrandt was known for. There is very little known about this piece even before World War II however. This piece is cataloged by the Art Loss Register as missing due to the Nazi invasion of France.

This artwork was kept in chateau in the French countryside. There it was found by the Nazis and taken to Paris sometimes in 1943. It is believed then that this piece was set aside to become part of Hitler’s museum along with more than 300 other pieces of art that Hitler found to be worthy. It is well known that Hitler had great respect for the old masters and therefore would have wanted a Rembrandt in his museum. Even though 162 of the pieces that were slated for Hitler’s museum were recovered, there has been no sign of many of the others.

45. Temples of Palmyra

In May 2015, the terrorist group ISIS captured Palmyra, an ancient city in Syria that holds many archaeological ruins. Over the next eight months, ISIS plundered and destroyed a number of archaeological sites, including ancient temples dedicated to the gods Baalshamin and Bel

The Temple of Baalshamin was an ancient temple in the city of Palmyra, Syria, dedicated to the Canaanite sky deity Baalshamin. The temple's earliest phase dates to the late 2nd century BC; its altar was built in 115 AD, and the temple was substantially rebuilt in 131 AD.

The temples date back around 2,000 years and featured several massive, finely decorated columns. At the time the temples were in use, Palmyra was under Roman control. The city was becoming a hub for trade, bringing the city great wealth. A hybrid of eastern and western design, this temple showcased the cultural diversity and great wealth of Palmyra.

The temple, consecrated to the Mesopotamian god Bel, worshipped at Palmyra in triad with the lunar god Aglibol and the sun god Yarhibol, formed the center of religious life in Palmyra and was dedicated in 32 AD, the temple was destroyed by ISIS.

46. A Hunting Trip - Józef Brandt

This historic painter Józef Brandt, who spent a large part of his life in Munich, became famous for his depictions of hunting, rows, battles and Kozak-Tatar fights, as well as the 17th-century Swedish wars. Józef Brandt also had a huge influence on later Polish painting, as well as literature (notably the Trilogy of Sienkiewwicz. His painting entitled A Hunting Trip was kept at the Silesian Museum in Katowice until the Second World War. Following the invasion of the German army, the museum's collection was transported to the Landesmuseum in Bytom. Many works were either destroyed or stolen during transport. Towards the end of the war, the cultural heritage stored in Bytom was transferred to local monasteries and palaces. Their further fate remains unknown.

The painter was acclaimed for his military art. Throughout the second half of the 19th century, he was the leader of a Polish artistic colony in Munich. He was born in 1841 in Szczebrzeszyn, and died in 1915 in Radom. His other famous paintings are Chodkiewicz in the Battle of Khotyn and Return from Vienna – Rolling Stock. Brandt reached his highest artistic form in the 1870s and 1880s. After the presentation of Battle of Vienna during the World’s Fair in 1873 he was awarded Order of Franz Joseph. In 1875 he was designated to be a member of Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, and in 1878 he got a honorary professorship in the Bavarian Academy.

47. Portrait of a Young Woman - Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio

This oil on canvas painting is relatively small at only 23 by 14 inches. It was part of the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum prior to the war. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was known for creating paintings that have a realistic observation of the people within them. He captures both photo realistic representations of people but also the depth of their emotional state. His dramatic use of lighting in his paintings would greatly influence the Baroque paintings that would follow him.

Portrait of a Young Woman is no different from the rest of his stunning works. It features a beautiful young woman, nicely dressed and touching some flowers at her chest. The precision in her facial expression truly captured the personality of the subject matter. It has not been seen since 1945.
The painting belonged to the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum (now the Gemaldegalerie) in Berlin but was moved to the Berlin-Friedrichshain Flak tower repository. The painting was moved because the tower had reinforced concrete structures which were believed to be anti-aircraft and therefore a perfect place to protect the priceless artwork.

As of May 1945 the painting was believed to be in the tower but when the Soviets entered Berlin they found it difficult to keep a tight guard on the paintings still stored within the tower. That month a fire started within the tower that spread throughout the entire repository. It is believed that all of the art was destroyed but in 2011, a painting that was believed to be stored in the tower turned up for auction in New York. This leads some to believe that other paintings might have been saved.

48. Portrait of Trude Steiner - Gustav Klimt

This portrait by Gustav Klimt was of the daughter of Jenny Steiner a Viennese collector. Gustav Klimt was a popular painter in Vienna who was very selective about who he chose to paint. With no end to the commissions coming to his door he could pick the portraits that most appealed to him. In most cases he opted to paint women as they were his favorite subject. It was said that he would paint day and night in his home wearing nothing other than sandals and a robe.

Gustav Klimt was very secretive about his methods and how he painted. His golden period was during the early 20th century and it was then that he not only used gold in his paintings but that he was at the height of his popularity as a painter. He died in 1918 after suffering a stroke due to the pneumonia epidemic of the time.

The Portrait of Trude Steiner was one of the commissioned paintings that Gustav Klimt did. It is a simple piece that gives a softer and less erotic feel than some of Gustav Klimt’s other works. It was commissioned around 1900 which was before Gustav’s golden period and before he became a very prominent painter throughout Vienna.

The painting was lost when Jenny Steiner fled Austria with her daughters in 1938, shortly after the Nazi invasion of Vienna. The painting was taken by the Nazis that same year under the pretense of being part of a collection to pay the taxes. It was sold at auction around April of 1941 and there has been no information on the portrait since then.

49. General Honjō's Samurai Sword - Goro Nyudoo Masamune

Japan’s most famous swordsmith, Goro Nyudoo Masamune made this quasi-legendary katana – said to be perhaps the finest sword ever made – in the early 14th century. It was wielded in combat over the course of centuries, getting its name from a 17th-century owner, General Honjō Shigenaga. The story goes that another samurai attacked Honjō with this sword and split his helmet in two with a single blow, but Honjō won the fight and took the sword as his prize. It was worn by the Tokugawa shoguns and declared a national treasure of Japan in 1939. It disappeared, along with a collection of 15 prized swords, in January 1946, when these blades were taken by someone who appeared to be an American allied officer. None has been recovered.

Swordsmith Gorō Nyūdō Masamune (lived A.D. 1264 to 1343) is considered by many to be the greatest sword maker in Japanese history. This sword is named after one of its owners, Honjo Shigenaga, who took it as a prize after a 16th-century battle. The sword came into the possession of Tokugawa Ieyasu, a leader who became the first shogun of Japan, after winning a series of wars in the 16th century.

The sword would be passed down through the Tokugawa family until the end of World War II, when, during the American occupation of Japan, the sword had to be turned over to American authorities who were concerned that this sword, and others like it, could be used as weapons against the Americans. The sword never re-appeared again. It's possible that American soldiers destroyed the sword, along with other captured Japanese weapons; or they may have brought the sword to America, meaning it could be re-discovered.

The last record of this sword’s whereabouts was during 1862, when it was given by Tokugawa Ishige to the imperial family to mark his marriage to Princess Kazunomiya. However, that this is the first Masamune sword that has been identified in roughly 150 years.

50. The Just Judges - Hubert and Jan van Eyck

The "Just Judges" is a panel that is part of the Ghent Altarpiece, a 15th-century work of art painted by Hubert and Jan van Eyck that is located in the Saint Bavo Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium. The panel shows a number of characters on horseback, their identity uncertain. Philip the Good, who was Duke of Burgundy at the time the altarpiece was created, is likely one of the characters on horseback. The panel was stolen in 1934 and has never been found.

The panel was removed from the frame, apparently with care, leaving the other panels undamaged. In the empty space was left a note, written in French, with the words, "Taken from Germany by the Treaty of Versaile", a reference to the fact that the altarpiece, having been removed to Berlin by German forces during World Wat I, had to be returned in accordance with Article 247 of the Treaty of Versailles. On 30 April, the Bishop of Ghent received a ransom demand for one million Belgian francs, to which the Belgian minister refused to agree. A second letter was delivered in May. The Belgian government then commenced negotiations with the thief arguing that since the lost panel was a national treasure, the diocese's ownership interest was subordinate to that of the nation. Correspondence continued through October between the thief and the government, with the exchange of at least 11 letters. In an act of good faith the ransomer returned one of the panel's two parts (a grisaille painting of St John the Baptist).

However, despite the passage of time, new tips continue to come in and the case file is still active with the attorney general's office still updating the 2,000-page file, wrote art historian Noah Charney in an article published in the Guardian in 2013. Before the Just Judges was stolen in 1934, there were numerous other attempts to steal it and other parts of the Ghent Altarpiece.

With this I conclude the five part series of lost treasures of the world of art. Whether it was a deliberate act of theft or a natural calamity like earthquake, floods, or accidents like fire, shipwreck, plane crash or pure negligence of the connoisseurs like touching, poking or destroying inadvertently or lack of tolerance towards art, whatever may be the reason, but loss of a priceless work of art is an incalculable toss to our culture and heritage. I felt it was best to spread this message through the social media so that those who also feel similarly can simply spread the word by passing on the Facebook and WhatsApp messages to their friends and family. We must always remember that this is our treasure, we have inherited it and it is our responsibility to pass it on to the next generation. 

Developing a taste for art brightens up our lives in more ways than one. Visits to museums and galleries, reading books and watching documentaries on Art History, discussing with those who know all together make you more and more an art connoisseur. And once you start enjoying Art it becomes your responsibility to protect it so that others too can enjoy!