Clik here to view.
Painting Within Tent: John Auldjo’s ascent of Mont Blanc
A couple of hundred years ago, it was fashionable to travel to the Alps, don your finest tweed jacket, breeches and nailed boots, and go to walk up a mountain like Mont Blanc. For some, it became an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rebirth: 2 A Gothic introduction
By 1300, the Tuscan city of Florence had grown steadily into one of the most powerful and prosperous in Europe. Its riches were based on the wool trade, which in turn had strengthened its currency and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Paintings of Florence: 1 History
The city of Florence, to the north-west of Rome, in Tuscany, has long been a centre of art. Even before the Renaissance, its painters were among the most prominent in southern Europe, and it’s often...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Paintings of Florence: 2 Landscapes
With so many artists flocking to see paintings of the Renaissance masters in Florence, it was only a matter of time before they stayed a little longer and stepped out into the open to paint views of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Goddess of the Week: Selene (Luna), the Moon
The daily journey of the sun chariot across the heavens is well-known, as are the myths surrounding it. Both classical Greek and Roman mythology had a matching moon chariot, driven by Selene (Greek...
View ArticleClik here to view.
In Memoriam Johann Friedrich Engel, and the Bavarian Pocahontas
Johann Friedrich Engel (1844-1921), a German-American painter who died a hundred years ago today, on 2 March 1921, enjoyed fame through the monochrome prints of his paintings which were published in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Faerie Queene: Contents and summary of books 4-6 and Mutabilitie Cantos
This is the second of two articles which provide a succinct summary of the plot of Edmund Spenser’s epic poem The Faerie Queene. This contains a selection of the finest paintings of its scenes, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Painting Within Tent: Godfrey Vigne painting his way out of trouble
Many of the nineteenth century’s explorers were glorious amateurs, like Godfrey Thomas Vigne (1801-1863), who just sailed off to India in 1832 and spent the next seven years travelling in the Western...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rebirth: What changed in the Renaissance and when?
Although no one questions the existence of the Renaissance, there’s extensive debate as to when it started. In the south of Europe, it appears to have started at different times in different arts: in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Where did you get that hat? 1 Paintings of hat history
It wasn’t that long ago that it was most unusual to go out without wearing a hat. Although they’ve made something of a comeback in recent decades, in much of the world they’re still far from popular...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Where did you get that hat? 2 Paintings of hat society
Even today, the world looks to Paris for the height of fashion in clothing, a phenomenon which was well-established by the late nineteenth century. This of course included hats, and in this second...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Goddess of the Week: Thetis, Achilles’ mother
The dividing line between nymphs such as Nereids and goddesses is both thin and flexible. According to some, Thetis (Greek Θέτις) was merely the senior of the Nereids, but others rate her a goddess in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Introduction to a new series: Don Quixote
One of many combatants in the Battle of Lepanto on 7 October 1571 was an itinerant Spaniard named Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Four years later, he sailed from Naples on a galley which was captured by...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Painting Within Tent: William John Burchell’s long treks for plants
The advancement of science was one of the major reasons for exploration. With the Age of Enlightenment, people wanted to discover, name and classify the flora and fauna of the whole world, which took...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rebirth: Was perspective essential to the Renaissance?
If you were to name the single most visible change which the Renaissance brought to painting in Italy, for most it would be the introduction of geometrically correct linear perspective projection. In...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The gold-digger who painted Australia: 1 From Vienna to Victoria
Painters come from many different backgrounds, and it’s common for them to have done something different before painting full-time. However, I think that Eugene von Guérard (1811-1901) is exceptional...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Comical Canvases: Humour in paintings 1
It has been a long time since we’ve been able to see paintings in the flesh by visiting art galleries, at least here in the UK. But one thing I’ve noticed about them is how serious they are. Great...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Comical Canvases: Humour in paintings 2
In the first of these two articles looking at some humorous paintings, I started with pioneers Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Brueghel the Elder, and worked my way through visual and other jokes until I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Goddess of the Week: Eos (Aurora), the dawn
Some goddesses get all the best jobs, and I can’t think of any better than bringing the dawn light of a new day, the task of Eos (Greek Ἕως), known better in her Roman guise as Aurora. As the daughter...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Don Quixote: 1 The making of a knight
Cervantes opens the first book with a prologue, together with a series of poems allegedly dedicated to Don Quixote and other characters, to give them an air of reality. He then takes us to a village in...
View Article