Renaissance Utterances

It's rare that any lecture fails to spark a meteor shower of ideas but just occasionally I'm caught off guard. The LSE arranged ...

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

One of the unexpected highlights of the Royal Palace was the collection of prints drawings and photographs. On the top floor, like the pri...

Cava del Braschi, Monte Ceceri This lecture opened in entertaining style with an immediate reference to the previous one . Dr Dent had p...

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...

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 (...

'Hands' French, c18th, Richard Day I am lucky enough to work in a place with an idiosyncratic and eclectic take on the arts. A ...

River Scene © The estate of L.S. Lowry I have a vague personal connection with  artist L.S. Lowry. He lived opposite my playgroup in th...