News comes today that the somewhat controversial “La Belle Ferronnière”, a painting most likely from the 18th Century and once questionably attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci, has sold through Sotheby’s auction house at the princely sum of $1.5 million, about twice what it was expected to garner. Beautiful as it is, “La Belle” has been through the critical ringer ... Read More »
God bless the juvenile minds over at Cracked for going on a rather tawdry “Easter Egg hunt” in the European classics. They find a gigantic brain in Michaelangelo’s “Sistine Chapel” fresco (1475-83), porn in the same artist’s “Last Judgement” (1534-1541), and, yes, bared backsides in Bruegel the Elder’s “Netherlandish Proverbs” (1559, left). It’s a touch “The Da Vinci Code”, but ... Read More »
Despite the success of ‘The Da Vinci Code,’ and maybe in part because of it, this summer’s smash hit ‘Angels and Demons‘ didn’t have an easy ride to the cineplex. The 2008 Screen Actors Guild strike meant on-location filming was limited to a 3-week Roman blitz. Not only that, but the Pope’s people, unhappy with ‘Da Vinci,’ put the kibosh ... Read More »
A new exhibition has opened in Berlin at the Gemäldegalerie celebrating the 400th anniversary of Italian Renaissance painter Caravaggio. The exhibition includes two major works, Doubting Thomas and Amor Vincit Omnia, which belong to the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg and the Gemäldegalerie, respectively. Both the works were created for the marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani and were brought to ... Read More »
It has been 18 long months since one of the crowning jewels of the National Gallery, London has seen the light of day but last week, Leonardo DaVinci’s masterpiece The Virgin of the Rocks finally returned to its place in the museum’s Sainsbury wing. Read More »
It is the season to be jolly, but it’s also the season to sit through hours of painfully awful music. Christmas music is as divisive as the season is unifying, with the endless stream of ditties keeping the happy-go-lucky in the spirit, but sending musical purists bounding for the hills. Usually our Six Sounds column is an exercise in reduction; ... Read More »
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