As the Red Army rolled across Poland towards Berlin during the cold winter of 1944/45 it came to the notorious death camp where over a million people were exterminated, most of them Jewish on 27th January 1945. The horrors of what was being whispered about in the lands free from Nazi oppression, but being denied,… Continue reading Today we remember the 75th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz, & commemorate those lives
When undertaking a study of both European history and art history, it is essential to understand the way people of that period thought. It is one of the first things you are taught at university and for this you do need to delve into the classical texts and understand the various major events that affected all… Continue reading The influence of Renaissance learning on the visual arts
Some years ago my curiosity was piqued by an Indian ring-necked parakeet in an early 15th century Flemish altarpiece, Detail of the Madonna and Canon van der Paele (1434): Jan van Eyck (c1390-1441): Groeninge Museum, Bruges and an Australian sulphur crested cockatoo in one of 1496 painted for the Dukes of Mantua in Italy. This altarpiece was… Continue reading Study Day – Hidden in Plain Sight. 7th December, 2019. West House, Pinner, London.
Recently I was contacted by Susan Abernathy suggesting I might be able to help the owner of this painting who has owned the panel for the past thirty odd years and is still none the wiser as to who painted it, what it commemorates, who is portrayed and where it has been until it was… Continue reading Solve the puzzle of this 16th century painting for a £5,000 reward!
In my previous post I wrote about cubism, a movement that ran parallel with art nouveau. Unlike cubism, art nouveau is for everyone, not just an artistically intellectual elite. Since this late 19th/early 20thcentury exquisitely sensual style influenced so many elements of everyday life this article will have to be an over view. The movement lasted about twenty… Continue reading An overview of art nouveau
I met Ian earlier this year when he presented a paper at the conference, Maritime Animals, held at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich in April. That paper was a fascinating insight into how an 18th century midshipman in His Majesty's Navy supplemented their diet with rats. In this article Ian is looking at a particular… Continue reading Guest Post: The Case of the ‘Mad Middie’ – August 1796.
The face of Sir Thomas More (1478-1535), faithful servant of Henry VIII first as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1525-1529, then as Lord Chancellor from 1529-1532, is known to us because Hans Holbein the Younger (c1497-1543) painted the portrait that now hangs in the Frick Collection, New York. Sir Thomas More as Chancellor… Continue reading Sir Thomas More – how we know him & his family
