Art
Lesser known Venice
Read this interesting article by Dr. Susan Steer, an art historian specialising in Venice. Her MA concentrated on the city’s art and architecture and her PhD on Venetian Renaissance altarpieces.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/tours/venice-things-to-see-and-do-beyond-st-marks/
Before oil paint came in tubes…
If you admire great paintings, you’ll be even more in awe when you consider that for most of history, artists had to make their own paint from oil, pigment, and sometimes eggs. Watch this video to see the process and as a plus, you can practice your Italian skills!
Artwork hidden from the Nazis
With the Academy Awards coming up soon and two of the best films nominated for best picture (Darkest Hour and Dunkirk) dealing with art hidden from Nazis in the U.K., comes this timely exhibition.
The National Gallery in London celebrates how it hid priceless paintings from Nazis in a Welsh mine. The gallery’s display will recall the summer of 1940 when, following Dunkirk, the British feared invasion.
The new exhibition shows 24 archival photographs detailing how paintings were removed, packed, transported and stashed in a disused slate mine in Snowdonia, along with a picture of how it looks today.
A new 30 minute film about the rescue mission, capturing an “immersive” dance and spoken word performance, has been commissioned to accompany it, to be broadcast on BBC Two.
In 1940, the Bristish feared for the safety of the national art collection: Winston Churchill is known to have personally intervened to veto a plan to take them to Canada by ship, fearing a u-boat attack could leave paintings lost at sea.
Instead, curators agreed to hide works in the Manod mine, enlarging its entrance with explosives and building small brick “bungalows” inside to protect them from damp.
Monitoring the conditions the paintings were kept in further led to “valuable discoveries” about how best to protect them, a spokesman for the gallery said, explaining air conditioning was then added to the renovated London gallery after the war.
How to create a Renaissance panel painting
The technique and materials are made clear in this excellent video. Then, all you need is talent!
Florence in the year 1300, a city of towers
As this film says, back in Dante’s day, Florence was a vertical city, from it’s tall walls that circled the citta’ to its many, many towers.
Urban climbs in Florence
Here are two of my favorite urban climbs in the Renaissance citta’, the Torre di Arnolfo and the Torre San Niccolò.
Interest in Michelangelo reigns
You didn’t expect the same old same old, did you?
And you didn’t get the same old, same old! God bless the Obamas!
get back, lauretta! 
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