Category Archives: Art

Bourns

Posted on 18/08/2016 by carolinemmurray

The word ‘bourn’ has two main meanings: it is either a brook (cf. northern and Scots ‘burn’) or it is a destination, limit, or boundary (as in ‘… That undiscovered country, from whose bourn / No traveller returns’). As a … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biography, Cambridge, History | Tagged Bourn, Bourn church, Bourn Hall, Cambridge Past Present and Future, De La Warr family | 2 Comments

Lammas

Posted on 08/08/2016 by carolinemmurray

… is about now, sort of. It is an ancient festival, but seems to have meant different things to different people, and to have been celebrated at different times in different circumstance. It is not an official moveable feast of … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Cambridge, History, Natural history | Tagged August, feasts of the church, Lammas, pagan feasts, wheat harvest | Leave a comment

Plant of the Month: July

Posted on 31/07/2016 by carolinemmurray

Though it’s difficult to select a subject in July (too much choice!), I decided to write about pinks – as opposed to carnations, sweet Williams, or any others of the Dianthus tribe – but the most superficial investigation shows that … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Botany, Cambridge, Gardens, Natural history, Venice | Tagged carnations, Dianthus family, pinks, plant of the month | 4 Comments

Object of the Month: July

Posted on 29/07/2016 by carolinemmurray

I was planning to follow up on some thoughts generated by a recent interesting talk at the Fitzwilliam Museum about portraits of men with their secretaries/assistants/friends, but I got diverted quite early on to a rather different topic. The Museum … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biography, Cambridge, History, Museums and Galleries | Tagged Fitzwilliam Museum, Joshua Reynolds, Mary Palmer, portrait miniatures, Van Dyck | 1 Comment

Object of the Month: June

Posted on 26/06/2016 by carolinemmurray

I don’t like, and have never liked, pottery and porcelain figures. I admire the superb craftsmanship that went into making them, but it seems to me a terrible waste of skill and effort to produce these coy and simpering results. … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, Museums and Galleries | Tagged Fitzwilliam Museum, flint mills, Josiah Wedgwood, pew group, Salisbury Museum, Staffordshire pottery | 9 Comments

Layers of Paint

Posted on 09/06/2016 by carolinemmurray

The great moment has arrived: Sebastiano del Piombo’s ‘Adoration of the Shepherds’ has gone on display in the Flowers Room at the Fitzwilliam Museum, just outside the Italian Gallery where it may well finally hang.

Posted in Art, Cambridge, History, Museums and Galleries, Venice | Tagged Fitzwilliam Museum, Hamilton Kerr Institute, restoration of paintings, Sebastiano del Piombo | 3 Comments

OK, So Who Did Kill Cock Robin?

Posted on 05/06/2016 by carolinemmurray

A few weeks ago, my friend and (sadly ex-)colleague @elleccollins tweeted a picture of the remarkable Victorian editor, controversialist and Shakespeare scholar James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps thumbing his nose at ‘the idiots who ask me to resume literary studies’. He could … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Bibliography, Biography, History, Literature, Printing and Publishing | Tagged bibliomania, Buckland rectory, James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, nursery rhymes, robins, Sir Thomas Phillipps, Worcestershire | 5 Comments

Object of the Month: May

Posted on 30/05/2016 by carolinemmurray

This month’s object (coming in just under the wire again – I blame (paradoxically) both my holiday and my new, blissful, part-time job!) may well look familiar. This is because it is one of the ‘Marlay Cuttings’ in the Fitzwilliam … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Cambridge, History, Museums and Galleries | Tagged Annunciation, Fitzwilliam Museum, illuminated manuscript, Marlay Bequest | Leave a comment

Plant of the Month: May

Posted on 27/05/2016 by carolinemmurray

At the beginning of May last year, wisteria was flowering its head off in Venice. This year, at the same time, it was almost over, except for some plants on very shadowed or north-facing walls. And back at home, it … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Botany, Cambridge, Exploration, Gardens, Natural history | Tagged Cambridge University Botanic Garden, Chinese plants, Claude Monet, Japanese plants, plant of the month, wisteria | 1 Comment

The Mystery of Sant’ Eufemia

Posted on 21/05/2016 by carolinemmurray

Of the 118 churches in Venice (that is, the surviving ones, as opposed to the demolished/decayed/collapsed, of which there are about fifty), many are never (in my experience) open. There is a uniform notice on each one, telling you what … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, Museums and Galleries, Venice | 3 Comments