Category Archives: Biography

Painting Women

Posted on 11/10/2019 by carolinemmurray

I’m guessing that if you were to ask 100 random people to name an historical (as opposed to contemporary) female painter, some at least would answer ‘Artemisia Gentileschi’ (1593–?1654), who has been in the public eye (in the UK at … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biography, History, Italy, Museums and Galleries, Venice | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

1687 and All That

Posted on 05/10/2019 by carolinemmurray

If Francesco Morosini is remembered worldwide today, it is probably for the collateral damage caused when a stray Venetian cannon ball hit the gunpowder store which the Turks had so thoughtfully placed in the Parthenon during the siege of Athens. … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biography, History, Italy, Museums and Galleries, Printing and Publishing, Venice | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

In Brugge

Posted on 29/08/2019 by carolinemmurray

I begin thus because, as on previous visits, I noticed that the good people of what we tend to call Bruges would rather speak German or English, or indeed Chinese, than utter a word of French. But we were (for … Continue reading →

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

The Great Belzoni

Posted on 23/07/2019 by carolinemmurray

… is today hung on display in the Fitzwilliam Museum – or, at any rate, a spectacular likeness produced after his death is. I mentioned this fascinating character several times in my previous blogging persona, but his arrival in Cambridge … Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Art, Biography, Cambridge, Exploration, History, Italy, London, Museums and Galleries, Printing and Publishing | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sedgwick’s Boots

Posted on 20/06/2019 by carolinemmurray

I begin with an appalling confession, made because of my reasonable confidence that nobody (least of all @TheMuseumOfLiz) actually reads this stuff … Here goes: although the Golden Jubilee of my arrival in Cambridge is only just below the horizon, … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Cambridge, Exploration, History, Museums and Galleries, Natural history | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Stepney Meeting

Posted on 07/06/2019 by carolinemmurray

A stone’s throw away from the back of Stepney’s enormous churchyard, where the parakeets and pigeons own the sky, and even closer to Lady Mico’s almshouses, is a much smaller cemetery, its gravestones broken, eroded or obscured by the black, … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Gardens, History, London | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

The Loss of the ‘Royal George’

Posted on 09/05/2019 by carolinemmurray

Was Proust the first or merely the best to describe the extraordinary moment when a completely forgotten incident in your life rises fully formed in your memory? In my most recent incident, it was a phone call at work about … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Exploration, France, History, London, Museums and Galleries, Printing and Publishing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Allegorical Tombs

Posted on 06/05/2019 by carolinemmurray

… are apparently a Thing, and one which I have come across twice in as many days in Venice, though they seem to owe their origin to one Owen Swiny (MacSwiny, McSweeny, MacSwiney, McSwiny, and other variants), of Enniscorthy in … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biography, Cambridge, History, Italy, London, Museums and Galleries, Venice | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

A Life in Footnotes

Posted on 15/04/2019 by carolinemmurray

I mentioned some time ago that I was going to investigate (at my usual superficial level, naturally) the life and career of the physician Francesco Travagino (sometimes Travagini), who appears to have taken advantage of a space on somebody else’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Botany, History, Italy, Natural history, Printing and Publishing | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Charterhouse

Posted on 28/03/2019 by carolinemmurray

Another real bargain in London … Last week I took a tour of the Charterhouse. In my case it was organised by the Friends of Strawberry Hill, but you can book online yourself. I was escorted there by kind relatives … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biography, Gardens, History, London, Museums and Galleries, Music | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments