Astrolabes and Armour: The Studiolo of Federico da Montefeltro at Urbino

Art History, Early Renaissance, Out of Town

Tweet At the heart of Federico’s Palace at Urbino, of which I spoke in my last post, was his studiolo, a tiny inner sanctum for study and reflection, and a place which served to advertise his erudition to visitors. Created by 1476, its lower level is clad...

“The light of Italy”: The Ducal Palace at Urbino

Architecture, Early Renaissance, Out of Town

Tweet On the slopes of the Apennines, almost in the centre of Italy towards the Adriatic, is situated, as everyone knows, the little city of Urbino. … Among the blessings and advantages that can be claimed for it, I believe the greatest is that for a long time...

The Carafa Chapel, St Thomas Aquinas, and an earnestness of young monks

Art History, Centro Storico, Churches, Early Renaissance, Fresco, Relics, Rome

Tweet This week my parents were in town and on Tuesday I was wandering around churches with my pa and Anthony Blunt’s book on Roman Baroque churches. (We did 16 that day, that’s where I get it from…). The last of the day was Santa Maria sopra...

Shaking off the Middle Ages: the Castiglione Chapel at San Clemente

Art History, Caelian, Churches, Early Renaissance, Fresco, Late Medieval, Late Medieval Art, Medieval Art, Rome

Tweet On Monday morning I was exploring underground sites on the Caelian Hill with a charming couple from California. We started off a stone’s throw from the Colosseum at the church of San Clemente where layer upon layer of the city’s history can be explored; a...

Antoniazzo Romano – Pictor Urbis: Rome’s home-grown Renaissance painter

Art History, Centro Storico, Churches, Early Renaissance, High Renaissance, Late Medieval Art, Melozzo da Forli', Renaissance, Rome

Tweet I’ve always been rather fond of Antoniazzo Romano (1430/5-1510), a Rome-born mid-fifteenth century artist who bound the developments of Florentine painting to the medieval traditions of religious art, creating an inimitably Roman style. He rose to prominence...

The Vatican Museums: Not just the Sistine Chapel

Art History, Early Renaissance, Melozzo da Forli', Vatican

Tweet Anyone visiting Rome over the next week or so may have been dismayed to find that at 1pm today the Sistine Chapel closed to allow preparations for the conclave to take place, and will remain closed as long as is necessary. The next time it opens there will be a...