Mediæval Art and Religious Ritual
Excellent article on the Turin Shroud by Charles Freeman, whose work I greatly admire.
Moral of the story: 14C tempera paintings should never be put in the wash…
More later on my own adventures at the Lago di Garda and Verona, especially (horse and polenta… yum!). Meanwhile, here is some interesting material on 'Big Dog' - Cangrande della Scala, a rather belligerent young man who ruled Verona in early 14C and ended up poisoned. PDF here - his reconstructed robe is gorgeous!
The tombs of the Scaligeri dynasty are well worth seeing if you go there - splendid icing sugar confections of stone, topped by the knights in full armour, on horseback. Cangrande I, however, has a really cheesy grin in both equestrian and recumbent figures: I think it's an attempt at the Rheims Gothic smile, but just makes him look imbecilic and/or smug. The names make me think of The Hound: there are the 2 Cangrandes (Big Dogs), Mastino (Mastiff) and Cansignorio (Mr or Lord Dog). Indeed, their lives are all rather Game of Thrones-y: lots of brother vs brother plots and assassinations.
(Incidentally, I was told t'other day that The Hound had been in our local toyshop on Great George Street. A tad suspicious, given that there is a child - or dwarf-sized knight's dressing-up outfit in the window, with a surcoat bearing the heraldic device: gules, a lion rampant or. "It's Tyrion Lannister's…" I thought at once.)
Moral of the story: 14C tempera paintings should never be put in the wash…
More later on my own adventures at the Lago di Garda and Verona, especially (horse and polenta… yum!). Meanwhile, here is some interesting material on 'Big Dog' - Cangrande della Scala, a rather belligerent young man who ruled Verona in early 14C and ended up poisoned. PDF here - his reconstructed robe is gorgeous!
The tombs of the Scaligeri dynasty are well worth seeing if you go there - splendid icing sugar confections of stone, topped by the knights in full armour, on horseback. Cangrande I, however, has a really cheesy grin in both equestrian and recumbent figures: I think it's an attempt at the Rheims Gothic smile, but just makes him look imbecilic and/or smug. The names make me think of The Hound: there are the 2 Cangrandes (Big Dogs), Mastino (Mastiff) and Cansignorio (Mr or Lord Dog). Indeed, their lives are all rather Game of Thrones-y: lots of brother vs brother plots and assassinations.
(Incidentally, I was told t'other day that The Hound had been in our local toyshop on Great George Street. A tad suspicious, given that there is a child - or dwarf-sized knight's dressing-up outfit in the window, with a surcoat bearing the heraldic device: gules, a lion rampant or. "It's Tyrion Lannister's…" I thought at once.)