Renaissance Utterances

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

'Germania florescens' 1586 It's about time I did a dissertation update, even if to just place myself on the map; probably ri...

Finally we reach specific sculptors and a review of three in chronological order. Given that we end with Rilke writing a poem in response...

Reconstruction of Zeus These notes continue on from the lecture on idols . The boundaries between gods and idols are rather blurred; bot...

Boucher, 'Pygmalion and Galatea' Last night I could have hugged the lecturer; anyone discussing my all time favourite book of st...

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...

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...

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 ...

Rome as a religious centre? Pardon? Ok, what exactly did I know about Rome as a place of pilgrimage? I’ve seen Gladiator and I, Claudius (...

This course has piqued my interest in a huge way. After nearly spending the entire weekend – unintentionally – in the Warburg Library read...

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...

Le banc d’orfèvre It's time for a change topic wise. I have a summer project to do and guess what? I've chosen another awkward o...

'Explosion' in the Tate  On Friday the MA group went on a field trip to the Tate prints and drawings room. It was reminiscent of...

In a week that has seen tentative steps towards a cure for a devastating disease , unforgivable hypocrisy in the church and the cardinals ge...

Interior of first chamber This piece of work has been sat in my MA file for years. However the subject matter has recently become quite ...

These are notes from Martin Kemp, 'The mark of truth: Looking and learning in some anatomical illustrations from the Renaissance and e...

I have been grappling with space for weeks so the thought of examining the art/science of the human body was appealing, something on a sca...

Of all the lectures so far this one interested me the most even though some of the ideas Dr Gabriel Koureas presented I want to argue with. ...