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 [...]
From ancient aqueducts to "nasoni" By Lucy Gordan The Trevi Fountain is the largest and most spectacular of Rome’s fountains, designed to glorify the three Popes who commissioned it: Clement XII (r. 1730-40), Benedict XIV (r. 1740-58), and Clement XIII (r. 1758-74) Rome is nicknamed “The Eternal City” thanks to her monuments from all [...]
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 Introduction by ITV staff Here, Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli (who is blind), with the head of his Andrea Bocelli Foundation, Laura Biancalani, at the recent inauguration of the foundation’s new Maria Manetti Shrem Educational Center in Florence, Italy. Photos courtesy of The Andrea Bocelli Foundation. Photo credit: Giacomo Moresi, 2024. For [...]
By Lucy Gordan Panoramic view of part of the Vatican necropolis In preparation for 2025’s Jubilee, The Vatican Museums have opened to individual tourists and pilgrims an ancient Roman pagan necropolis or burial grounds. Previously it had been accessible only to select groups of scholars. Now underground, it was once street-level along the Via [...]
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 [...]
SIgned and dated by the painter, The Madonna Nursing the Baby Jesus (1464) is the earliest known work by Antoniazzo Romano. On display until February 2 on the ground floor of the majestic Palazzo Barberini, built by Maffei Barberini for his family beginning in 1623 when he was elected Pope Urban VIII, and today [...]
Anne de Bretagne,Queen of France, commissioned thisprayer book for her son Charles-Orland in c. 1494 On display in a splendid exhibition called “Illuminating Faith: The Eucharist in Medieval Life and Art” until September 2 are 65 of the some 1,300 medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts belonging to New York’s Morgan Library. Here illuminating means [...]
