Category Archives: Art

Plant of the Month: December

Posted on 17/12/2016 by carolinemmurray

For the avoidance of doubt (as we lawyers like to say), I’m talking here about European mistletoe: Viscum album (Linnaeus). There are about 70–100 species worldwide, as well as New World and southern hemisphere ‘mistletoes’ of quite different species, which … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Botany, Cambridge, Gardens, History, Literature, Natural history | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Object of the Month: December

Posted on 11/12/2016 by carolinemmurray

I bought a pack of these Christmas cards at the Fitzwilliam Museum shop a couple of weeks ago (don’t all rush, because sadly they are showing as out of stock on the website at the moment), partly because it’s a … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, London, Museums and Galleries | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Admiral Russell’s Frame

Posted on 01/12/2016 by carolinemmurray

Am I alone in having only the vaguest possible understanding of European history in the ‘long’ eighteenth century (1688-1789)? It is said that children these days leap from the Tudors to the Nazis (a cynic would say same difference), but … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, Museums and Galleries | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Object Of The Month: November

Posted on 24/11/2016 by carolinemmurray

In the Western Christian churches, Advent is the period of four weeks (or so) before Christmas Day, beginning on the Sunday closest to the feast of St Andrew on 30 November. This year it falls on 27 November, and may … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Cambridge, History, Music, Printing and Publishing, Venice | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Messing About In Boats

Posted on 17/11/2016 by carolinemmurray

The origins of the Regata Storica in Venice are unclear. One version is that it commemorates the occasion on which twelve poor but honest and beautiful girls, who had been given dowries by the state and were about to be … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biography, History, Museums and Galleries, Venice | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Plantin and Moretus

Posted on 30/10/2016 by carolinemmurray

Not quite a Proustian moment, as no madeleines were dunked in lime-flower tea, but the other day a friend with unexpected time on his hands in Belgium enquired of the world via Twitter what was interesting in Antwerp. Immediately, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Bibliography, Biography, Gardens, History, Museums and Galleries, Printing and Publishing, Venice | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Bambini

Posted on 13/10/2016 by carolinemmurray

Anyone who spends any time mooching around art galleries cannot fail to be struck by the quite remarkable ugliness of many infant Jesuses. I’m not talking about the extreme stylisation – derived from the Byzantine tradition – of Virgin and … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Cambridge, History, London, Museums and Galleries, Venice | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Object of the Month: October

Posted on 06/10/2016 by carolinemmurray

I came across this fragment in the online catalogue of the Fitzwilliam Museum while looking for something else. Ha! Corinthian, I thought, in my ignorant way, but it isn’t: it’s sixth-century BCE Clazomenian, as classified  (no. 7 in the Tübingen … Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Art, Cambridge, Classics, Museums and Galleries, Natural history | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Plant Of The Month: September

Posted on 12/09/2016 by carolinemmurray

Bramble or blackberry, friend or foe? I can afford to regard the bramble as a friend because I don’t have any in my garden. Another (human) friend, who is slowly reclaiming an overgrown allotment, reports that brambles (along with nettles … Continue reading →

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Object of the Month: August

Posted on 22/08/2016 by carolinemmurray

The apotheosis of Nelson was already well under way in 1836, when one George Gunning, of Frindsbury in Kent, presented a snuffbox to the Fitzwilliam Museum. Books, prints, portraits, medals and ceramics preserved the great naval hero in the public … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biography, Cambridge, History, Museums and Galleries, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments