In this interview, Quebec-based classical painter and art instructor Patrick Cyr talks with Rising Tide Foundation Director Matthew Ehret about the importance of classical thinking the need to revive the lost techniques of classical painting in order to bridge the artificial gulf separating the arts and sciences in today’s age. Patrick’s website can be found…
Tag: Aesthetical Education
RTF Review: Ballet’s Secret Code
By Nicholas Jones Ballet’s secret code is a documentary about the Origins and principles behind Maestro Enrico Cecchetti’s lifetime of work and devotion to the Classical humanist art form: Ballet. Madam Julie Cronshaw takes us through the depths of his character, education and philosophy and his work as a Ballet Master under Diaghilev for the…
Poetry, Art and Civilization Today: Reflections on Shelley’s “A Defence of Poetry”
By David Gosselin July 8, 2023, marked the 201st anniversary of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley’s tragic drowning in the Bay of Lerici, Italy, at the age of 31. However, before he died Shelley left the world with one of the most impassioned and timeless defences of poetry ever composed. At a time in which Western…
St Augustine’s City of God and Lessons for Today’s Religious Wars
By Matthew Ehret Last week, I published an article on The Truth of the Peace of Westphalia followed up with the forgotten Jewish-Christian-Muslim-Confucian Alliance of the 8-9th century. The following story should be seen as a continuation of that unfolding series. It isn’t often that a generation lives through a systemic breakdown crisis. While many shallower minds are quick…
C.S. Lewis’ “Weight of Glory”: Longing in the Poets, Composers & Theologians
By David Gosselin C.S. Lewis famously discussed the role of an eternal “longing” found in each mortal human being. Lewis referred to this longing using a specific German word, “Sehnsucht.” For Lewis, the longing for a something in the distance and an awareness of its unattainability within this world lay at the heart of man’s…
How to Conquer Tyranny: A Lesson from Plato
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Plato’s Letter VII Plato to Dion’s associates and friends wishes well-doing. You write to me that I must consider your views the same as those of Dion, and you urge me to aid your cause so far as I can…
Profiles in Poetry: Friedrich Schiller
By David Gosselin “Trust me, the fountain of youth, it is no fable. It is running Truly and always. Ye ask, where? In poetical art.” – Friedrich Schiller, The Fountain of Youth Friedrich Schiller was born on November 10th, 1759 in Marbach, Württemberg. He was without question one of the greatest poets and dramatists to…
How Tragedy Can Heal Society: The Oresteia as Political Therapy with Dr. Nicolai Petro
What does classical tragedy have to do with geopolitics? Why is it so important for modern statesmen, diplomats to think like Aeschylus and why should more artists think like statesmen? In this Rising Tide Foundation lecture, Dr Nicolai Petro introduces classical Greek Tragedy from a moral, and philosophical perspective containing within its essence, the necessary…
Renaissance or Dark Age? RTF Symposium
In this first of three presentations delivered to the Renaissance or Dark Age Symposium on September 7, 2025 in Toronto Ontario, Matt Ehret introduces the concept of Renaissances and Dark Ages as the effects of principles (or the defiance) of Universal Principles of Natural Law applicable to ALL societies across ALL ages. What are those…
Education as the Cause of Political Freedom – The Brethren of the Common Life
We all know that human society is littered with dark ages, renaissances, fallen empires, and brilliant revolutionary bursts of progress, increased liberty and creative freedom. But what is the ‘secret sauce’ that allows a fallen society to rise and generate such powerful artistic, scientific and political minds capable of leading humanity into greater harmony with…