Ramblings of a Bookworm
Posted in Art, Paintings, Pre-Raphaelites on Jun 7th, 2008
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was first formed in the summer of 1848. From the start their work had no common denominator - the painters called “Pre-Raphaelites” were all individual and their paintings show great contrasts. Pre-Raphaelitism cannot be defined; there are as many differences between the paintings as there are similarities. The original members of the [...]
Posted in Book Reviews, Books, Celebrate the Author, Challenges, Paintings on May 27th, 2008
I expect a book by Margaret Forster to be good and this one is no exception. It is essentially the story of a painting, a variant of Gwen John’s “The Corner of the Artist’s Room in Paris“, as over the years it passes from one woman to another. The painting on the left is taken from the back cover [...]
Dante’s Exile from Florence
Dante entered politics in 1295 and in 1300 he became a Prior, one of the Governors of the City giving him great prestige. It was a dangerous time with fighting between the factions of Guelfs and Ghibellines. The Guelfs supported the Pope, opposing the Ghibellines who supported the Holy Roman Emperor. The [...]
Posted in Art, Dante, Paintings, Pre-Raphaelites on Mar 26th, 2008
Dante finished writing The Divine Comedy in 1321 shortly before his death. The subject of the final talk in my course on Dante’s Florence was The Divine Comedy, its sources, structure, an introduction to some of its characters, concluding with Dante’s legacy in art.
I don’t think that I’ve ever had such a long introduction to [...]
By the end of the 13th century Florence was a bustling and prosperous city. We looked at a painting by Lord Leighton - Cimabue’s Celebrated Madonna is carried in Procession through the Streets of Florence, 1853-1855. The Victorians had an intense interest in Dante. In this painting, which was bought by Queen Victoria, Cimabue’s painting [...]
Banking
Florence was a city of innovations. The Florin was first minted in 1252 and became a kind of medieval Euro. It was stamped with the symbols of the city – the lily, the secular symbol on one side with St John, the patron saint on the other side. Bills of Credit and the double entry [...]
Last week on my course on Dante’s Florence we looked at the development of the city, and the concept of ‘courtly love’ in relation to Dante’s La Vita Nuova (New Life).
Today we know Florence as a Renaissance city and there is little left of the medieval city that Dante knew. Originally a Roman city, by [...]
I’ve never ever had any inclination to read Dante’s Divine Comedy before, but I’ve now ordered a copy from Amazon. This is because I have enrolled on a course called Dante’s Florence. My initial interest was Florence not Dante. We have had some beautiful holidays in Italy; the last one (in 2000) was near Florence [...]
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Ramblings of a Bookworm
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