by Valerie | Jul 24, 2019 | art, General interest, history, Italy, museums, people
As I write, history is palpably being made, so I take refuge in the past. I have been asked how over 600 drawings and sketches by Leonardo da Vinci came into the possession of the Queen of the British Isles. No pictures survive from Antiquity, so no depictions... by Valerie | Dec 5, 2018 | art, Fashion, General interest, history, Italy, museums, people, travel
Fingers poised, I am about to type out a lecture on the period of art styled Mannerism, but am uncertain where to start. Yes, Florence again, not in the workshops that forged the talent of young Michelangelo and Raphael in the late 1400s, but in the Florentine court... by Valerie | Jul 19, 2018 | art, General interest, history, Italy, people, travel
The very word – ghost – evokes fear and fascination. It conjures up, literally, a host of images from will o’ the wisps dancing in cemeteries to Anne Boleyn running along a corridor in Hampton Court clasping her head under her arm. A country house near us boasts of a... by Valerie | Apr 4, 2018 | art, General interest, history, Italy, museums, people, travel
I was asked to look at a painting and pronounce whether it is an authentic work by Zoffany, an 18th-century portrait painter. Is it really his autograph work? As I write his name, my memory conjures up visions of gentlemen and women, in formal or informal poses, in... by Valerie | Jun 11, 2014 | art, General interest, history, Italy, museums, people, travel
Then the Sistine Chapel. Such is the forced direction that one enters on the wall with Michelangelo’s Last Judgement; it is the way the priests entered under Jonah, a prototype of Christ. We, the lay visitors, should have entered at the other end, to meet under those...
Recent Comments