Renaissance Utterances

Bartol Kašić (1575-1650) On my island of olive growers and fisherman I feel as far away from the baroque as is possible. The landscape ...

There was a spell in the not so distant past where I did a module on  exhibiting the body as part of my MA in History of Art. It was one ...

Eleanor Morgan It's been my intention to write and record something about glass for a while now, primarily looking at it from a comb...

I don't usually write about music because I find it extraordinarily difficult to articulate, unless in poetry. When I have talked about...

The Wettin rulers’ journey from margraves to kings was not an easy one. The most serious period of instability occurred in the years prior...

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...

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...

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,...

It turns out that few art historians make excursions into music history , mainly because music can be rather technical. I am the first to ...

Nativity of Christ, Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome I looked everywhere for this poem online but it seems to be only in a fragile pamphlet 19...

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...

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...

This book review is dedicated to the memory of my good friend, Hasan Niyazi . I just wish it had been a book on Raphael, about whom who he k...

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