By Lucy Gordan The Palazzo Colonna with its impressive entrance courtyard and (below) magnificent gardens at its back. I’ve lived in Rome for more than 50 years and had never heard of, much less visited, Palazzo Colonna, until last November when the Culture Group of the Foreign Press Association was invited on a tour [...]
By Lucy Gordan “The Deposition” or “Strozzi Altarpiece.” (Photo: Courtesy of the Ministero della Cultura-Direzione regionale Musei nazionali Toscana-Museo di San Marco). Probably a self-portrait of Fra Angelico in the “Strozzi Altarpiece” A blockbuster exhibition celebrating Fra Angelico (c.1395-1455), better known as “Beato (Blessed) Angelico,” is on display until January 25, 2026 [...]
By Lucy Gordan St. Catherine of Alexandria is "Caravaggio 2025"'s logo. (Photo credit: Museo Nacional Thyssen Bornemisza, Madrid. In April 1951, in Milan’s Palazzo Reale, the scholar Roberto Longhi curated the first exhibition in history dedicated to Caravaggio, whose name had been forgotten for over three centuries. Born in Milan in 1571, Michelangelo Merisi [...]
By Lucy Gordan Giovanni Paolo Panini’s “Interior of S. Maria Maggiore (St. Mary Major) in Rome,” ca. 1754 The Basilica of St. Mary Major was consecrated on August 5, 434, soon after the Second Council of Ephesus in 431, when an assembly of bishops affirmed the doctrine that Mary was the Mother of God. [...]
By Lucy Gordan Andrea Palladio, the architect of this votive church on the island of Giudecca, La Chiesa de Santissimo Redentore (The Church of the Most Holy Redeemer) Spread to human beings by fleas that had previously bitten infected rats, the bubonic plague or “black death” was a constant problem for Venice from its [...]
By Lucy Gordan The Altar of Calvary before being sent to Florence for Restoration (Courtesy of Brother Stéphane Milovitch) Brother Stéphane Milovitch (Courtesy of Terra Sancta Museum) The 109 spectacular masterpieces on display until January 8, 2025 at the Marino Marini Museum in Florence chronicle more than five centuries of sacred art. [...]
By Lucy Gordan Bernini’s Baldacchino (Photo, Wikipedia) Self-portrait by Gianlorenzo Bernini (1623), now in Rome’s Borghese Gallery. (Photo, Wikipedia) Gian Lorenzo Bernini was Cardinal Maffeo Barberini’s favorite artist. On his ascent to the papal throne in 1623 Urban VIII remarked, “It’s a great fortune for you, O Cavaliere, to see Cardinal [...]
Correggio's "Noli Me Tangere" in the Prado Art in Parma in the 16th Century For the general exhibition-going public, Italian Renaissance art — and especially the art of the 16th century — tends to revolve around three great centers: Florence, Venice, and Rome. Instead, “Correggio and Parmigianino” — on at Rome’s Scuderie until June [...]
"The Crucifixion in Central Park" “Art is a spiritual, immaterial respite from the hardships of life.” —Fernando Botero Born in Medellín, Colombia, on April 19, 1932, Fernando Botero, whose signature style, also known as “Boterismo,” depicts overly rotund human figures both in his paintings and in his sculptures, is one of today’s most prolific [...]
In the Vatican Gardens, Pope Francis blesses two new statues by Argentine artist Alejandro Marmo (CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano) “Art must not discard anything or anybody. It’s like mercy.” Pope Francis, May 29, 2015 During a recent conversation with Monsignor Jacobone, he mentioned that on Saturday, February 18, 1984, in Rome’s Dominican church, Santa Maria [...]
