Renaissance, Vatican, Vatican Tour
Tweet One wall of the Gallery of the Tapestries in the Vatican Museums is lined with wool tapestries telling stories from the life of Christ. They were woven in Brussels at the workshop of Pieter van Aelst in the early 16th century. Roman in design (they are the work...
Archeology, Art History, Capitoline Museums, Egypt, Roman Art, Roman sculpture, Rome, Undervisited Rome museums
Tweet A couple of weeks ago I was once again invited to be involved in Context Travel’s admirable series of Tours in the Public Interest. The focus of this year’s series is on museums which are regularly open to the public, but which get far fewer visitors than they...
Archeology, Architecture, Art History, Empire, Out of Town, Rome
Tweet I’ve mentioned (here and here) my fondness for clambering improbable staircases to view long bricked-in frescoes. Just as good, if not better, is making an appointment through the city heritage office to meet a key-bearing guard in an unlikely looking spot. One...
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...
Art History, Baroque, Michelangelo, Renaissance, Rome, Vatican
Tweet Recently I’ve been thinking about ceilings. Elaborately painted ones to be precise. A couple of weeks ago I took a group of 41 seventeen-year-old girls from the James Allen’s Girls’ School, plus their teachers, to see two of them. In the morning we visited the...
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