Venice to Piegaro: A Daring Escape In 1292, the rulers of Venice decreed all glass blowing would move to the island of Murano to protect the city from fires created by the furnaces in the glass workshops. Subsequently, the artists became virtual prisoners to their craft as the Venetians attempted to keep a monopoly on [...]
Ah, Caravaggio. Some have called him “Baroque’s Bad Boy”, but regardless of the nickname anyone gives this extraordinary painter, those words will forever fall flat when in the presence of his work. You will find numerous works by Caravaggio in Rome, but when you walk through a museum anywhere in the world, you can instantly [...]
Layered History in Scrovengni Chapel When Giotto di Bondone began his work inside the Arena Chapel, he had a great deal more than fresco design on his mind — ruthless money lenders. The commission came to Giotto from the Scrovegni family, and the chapel equally bears the names Scrovegni Chapel and Arena Chapel. Scrovegni [...]
A Chance Discovery Trevi Many years ago, by sheer luck, I found myself in the small town of Trevi. This treasure rests in the province of Umbria, adjacent to the SS3, the main road that winds north from Terni to Foligno. I stopped in the town to have lunch and discovered, either by [...]
Roma Termini Station Hidden History When you step from the cavernous main hall at the Roma Termini station, you enter the Piazza dei Cinquecento. Visitors often head directly for the buses, taxis, and waiting private cars. Most miss the large museums across the Via Viminale, the busy boulevard that lines the northern side [...]
Gian Carlo Menotti In 1950, Peter Herman Adler, artistic director of the NBC Opera Theatre, commissioned composer Gian-Carlo Menotti (1911–2007) to create the first opera for the American television audience. This proved no easy task, but Menotti’s exceptional talent — and a bit of inspiration, — led to his composition of an opera [...]
Convent of Sant’Agata Once, I walked along the Via San Gallo in Florence, a street I have come to know well. For more times than I can count, I have passed the façade of what appears to be a church and, until that moment, paid little attention. A small metal marker on a [...]
Votive offerings are given in times of gratitude, most often for miracles granted. The Cappella del Voto (Chapel of the Madonna of the Vow) rests in the right transept of the Duomo of Siena. The chapel is also referred to as the Chigi chapel because the space was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini on a [...]
From politics to art, education to science, men dominated the world of Renaissance Italy. Yet, at least in the Arts, more and more women began to rise above the misogynistic domination of that world to become famous by their own talents. This article focuses on only three female painters of the time. Yet, the list [...]
Binnenhof Palace, Dutch parliament in Den Haag Portrait of Rachel Ruysch by Godfried Schalcken On an early November day, I traveled to Den Haag, the Hague. The train route from Amsterdam’s Centraal station includes a brief stop in the strikingly beautiful station in Leiden. I was tempted to disembark the train [...]