By Alice Devine Wilson – Wander into the enormous Roman sculpture galleries of the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, Italy and a strapping man carrying the weight of the world on his muscled shoulders may arrest your attention. In his crouched position on bended knee, his arms raised overhead to […]
View up Riquewihr’s central street, Rue de General de Gaulle (Photo P. Hunt 2016) By Patrick Hunt – Those who love the best of Alsace know that although it is now part of France, it has been fought over though history, involuntarily […]
Vosne-Romanée (Photo P. Hunt, 2015) By Patrick Hunt – Vosne-Romanée may be known to many connoisseurs as the most exclusive wine village not only in the Côte-d’Or and perhaps all of Burgundy, but it is even more valuable historically as its name preserves its distant past. The Romans were indeed […]
Bronze Chimera of Arezzo, ca 400 BCE, Cosimo I Medici Estate, Archaeological Museum, Florence (photo P. Hunt, 2014) By Andrea Gáldy – WINCKELMANN, FIRENZE E GLI ETRUSCHI IL PADRE DELL’ARCHEOLOGIA IN TOSCANA, Archaeological Museum, Florence, 26 May 2016 to 30 January 2017. Catalogue available in Italian and in German: Barbara Arbeid, […]
By Patrick Hunt – Almost any informed list of the most famous historic buildings of the world will include the Pantheon of Rome. Its longevity since the mid-second century is important but not the most important reason why; its grandeur and size are staggering, even more so when one one […]
Pontormo, Venus and Amor, 1533 By Andrea M. Gáldy – Maniera. Pontormo, Bronzino and Medici Florence, 24 Feb to 5 June 2016 at the Städel Museum, Frankfurt/Main curated by Bastian Eclercy, the department of Italian, French and Spanish paintings before 1800. Catalogue available in English and German: Bastian Eclercy, ed. […]
Mandalay’s Golden Palace (Image courtesy of Oway Agency, Myanmar) By Catherine Clover – On a recent trip to Myanmar (Burma) I made a stop in the crossroads city of Mandalay. Linking the route from the south of the country in Yangon to the states of the north, in modern times […]
By Andrea M. Gáldy – Imagine a present-day student being so happy with the education she or he received from the alma mater that the thank you note includes a huge drinking vessel in the form of a ship and made from gilded silver. Perhaps a little over-the-top but then […]
By P. F. Sommerfeldt – That far-fetched frolic of the rogue librarian Raspe, Adventures of Baron Munchausen has entertained many generations of readers since 1785, including the genius Terry Gilliam who made his peerless movie version in 1988, thereby introducing its wiles to modern cinematography, although often faithful to Gustave Doré’s […]
By Cher Stone Beall – Gardens are a vital part of urban Pompeii as perhaps the best known Roman city. From a distance the location of some of the gardens in Pompeii must have revealed themselves with treetops rising above walls encircling them. The gardens of Pompeii were spread throughout […]