Renaissance Utterances

The Elector of Saxony’s wire drawing bench (1565) is an extremely complicated piece of art and technology which remains relatively unknown...

It's often about timing; sometimes dates, events, circumstances, planetary alignments* combine to make an extraordinary moment in time...

This was an interesting start to Birkbeck Arts Week . Given the MA  Catholic reformation module , I thought it would be a on topic diversi...

Suleiman the Magnificent I hadn't been to one of the Birkbeck EMPHASIS seminars in ages. Every time I go to one, I leave with my he...

These notes were quite difficult to write up because in the end I wasn't sure what I wanted to say. I'm seriously regretting not g...

My thought soars not so high ; though duly bent In reverence, and awe, and long attent, To study Nature and the works and ways, So wondrous,...

Although the intellectual life of the artist is crucial, my focus this weekend has been on the patron and his concerns. I'm coming rou...

Perhaps it's just me, or the pernicious influence of academia but sometimes the actual paintings can get lost in the amount of theory ...

This post arises out of my initial essay ramblings about the artist Annibale Carracci (November 3, 1560 – July 15, 1609). I am setting out...

Here, have some kittehs instead This lecture was on relics and the cults of the saints and I was presenting – hence the post on propagan...

Almost exactly a year ago I was at a University of London lecture listening to John Onians and in my blog  I touched on the nature of conn...

True Cross, Santo Toribio de Liébana , Spain. (photo by F. J. Díez Martín). This post has come out of a preparation for a class present...

It seems timely that Monday’s class was about altar pieces. Given that Hasan Niyazi spent so much of his time investigating and writing abou...

Il Gesu The title of this fourth lecture held a lot of promise: 'Space, Function and Decoration in a Catholic Church'. In it we ...

No nudes thanks, we're post-Trent Catholics It's that time of year again when we're dusting off the pencil cases and hole re...

This third posting took us from a classroom in Bloomsbury to a sunny City square in Lisbon. I adore Lisbon; that sweepingly elegant capita...

The second 'On the River' Summer School post concerns portrayals of rivers in maps. Having the foresight to do some quick research...

View of Wool Wharf from the Tower I've chosen the Paul Strohm lecture on Chaucer from the 'On the River' Summer School to w...

'Stop it with all the damn metaphors' Kirk to 'Bones' McCoy in irritated exasperation  Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013) S...