I couldn't miss a chance to write a blog post about Michelangelo for his birthday (good luck fitting 542 candles on a cake!) but also because we had the fortune to have two Michelangelo drawings on campus as part of the Lines of Thought British Museum travelling exhibition, which is now on its way to…
Things have been really exciting on the University of Hull campus since January 3rd, as City of Culture started with welcoming the Lines of Thought travelling exhibition from the British Museum.
Where can you find a British country house, Italian chapel, Spanish monastery, French chateau, sculpture courtyard and Egyptian temple, besides thousands of art treasures, in the middle of New York City? The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue, backing onto Central Park.
Osborne House, situated on the Isle of Wight, was the family retreat from the city for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
Few places come close to the romance of Paris, and Monet's beautiful Nymphéas, or Water Lilies, in the Musée de l’Orangerie are a must visit to see the his genius.
The Museo del Prado has some beautiful Renaissance paintings, but for me, the jewel in their crown are the beautiful paintings by Titian for his Poesie series for Philip II of Spain.
The best place to go for Bernini in Rome is the Piazza Navona, where you'll find his beautiful Fountain of the Four Rivers, a sculpture of travertine and marble commissioned by Pope Innocent X.
Bernini is often associated with the magnificence of Baroque Rome - and so he should be. Pope Urban VIII is said to have told him "You are made for Rome and Rome is made for you".
Just like I wrote practically a mini love letter to Paris, I could also write one to Rome. These European cities are so beautiful, and it is helped completely by the way they are enshrined in literature, film and other forms of popular culture.
In the nineteenth century, Paris became the city of modernity. But art, it seemed, needed to catch up - and Baudelaire's call for artists to paint modern life is truly evident at the d'Orsay.
