Art historian with an interest in visual messages
For those of you who have visited Westminster Abbey's gallery displaying various treasures of our ancient abbey, you may have well have failed to notice an illuminated manuscript known as The Cramp Ring manuscript. In 2006 when I was researching my Master’s dissertation I was allowed to photograph the whole manuscript and the images of the… Continue reading The Good Friday Ceremony of the blessing of cramp rings and the curing of the King’s Evil
Recently, Rebecca Larson of www.Tudor’sDynasty.com and I were communing about how to amuse ourselves during this Covid-19 crisis and what we could do if we ended up having to self-isolate. We came up with the idea of creating a new Decameron, the first version was written by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) in around 1353. So we are throwing it out… Continue reading The Tudors Dynasty Decameron 2020 project
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!
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.
In simple terms, the who is easy – Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and George Braques (1882-1963) are credited with ‘inventing’ this style of art. When? 1907 is the first year a work in this style is exhibited. The why and what is cubism are questions that are not so easy to answer. The 19th century saw rapid… Continue reading What is Cubism, who invented it, when did they do it and why?
Melanie V Taylor 