Anne de Montmorency and August I

Where is the hunt?

You know me, I relish a good connection. I went looking for a geographical connection between Elector August I in Dresden and the current home of his wire drawing bench in Ecouen. It was unlikely, I admit, but I was rewarded for perseverance so I thought I'd quickly share.

Although the bench is no longer in its original location, and separated from the Dresden art and books with which it would have initially sat, its current geographic location is wholly appropriate. The country chateau which houses the museum in Ecouen was once the home of French aristocrat Anne de Montmorency, (1493-1567) Constable of France under Francis I. He spent his entire life in the service of the French kings and for Catholicism, and was well-known for his martial abilities, usually against Francis’s great rival, the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.

More on the bench: Hunting for a direction

What the heck is it?

What I am about to describe has never been done so completely in English, as far as I know. The images were afforded a mere quarter of a paragraph in Gunther Heine's 1990 article about the bench. I can't say with the same surety say that it hasn't been done in French or German, but if it has, I haven't yet found it. Given my focus on geography of art, the landscape images were demanding that I take a closer look so I took a flying visit to the Museum of the Renaissance in Ecouen, to look at the those images specifically. This is what I constructed in transit so it's rough and ready.

I need to orientate you so you can piece together a map of the bench in your head. Imagine you are standing at one short end of it, looking all the way down towards the good light and the window. That illuminated end is the end with the image of the man in his workshop and the elaborate coat of arms of the Elector of Saxony. But you're not there yet, you see the monogrammed AM in the landscape. Crouch down and move to the right. Underneath the long jousting tableau, which you've already admired, there is the first square picture. There are four of these, two either side of the end pieces.

Is Negative Attention Better Than No Attention?

Ostracism, (n), exclusion from a society or group

One of the legal journals I was scanning yesterday brought to my attention a report looking into whether negative attention was better than no attention. Jane O'Reilly and her colleagues believed that employees have a strong ‘need to belong’ within their organisations. So they set out to test whether employees perceive ostracism, compared with harassment, to be more socially acceptable, less psychologically harmful, and less likely to be prohibited in their organisation.

Leonardo: Drawing the heart strings

When you're spending time on a dissertation as fabulous as mine, it takes a very special lecture to distract you. One such lecture turned up and I needed to go! I attended the second John Hunter lecture last year and this year's joint venture organised by the Huntarian Society and the Royal Society of Medicine looked fascinating.

Mr Francis Wells presented 'The heart of Leonardo seen through contemporary eyes' and as the notes said, his 'interest in the Arts is a long-standing in both music and art, particularly in the areas of the Renaissance and the act of drawing. The accuracy and beauty of the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci are of particular interest and fascination'. He has collaborated with Martin Kemp, and last year he worked with Windsor Great Library on an exhibition of the heart drawings for the Queen's Gallery. He has since published 'The Heart of Leonardo', which is presumably from where he drew most of the lecture notes. As he also works as a consultant in the fields of heart valve reconstruction and heart and lung transplantation, the scope of his knowledge and expertise is awe-inspiring.