Professor Hedgehog's Journal

Snaps

Posted on 22/09/2019 by carolinemmurray

Our recent jaunt to Venice and Ravenna provided more than the usual amount of food for thought, so while I ponder further on Titian and Rubens, peacocks, camels, women painters, Francesco Morosini and silence, here are some pictures which I took just because the subjects were so fascinating, and not because I was pursuing a theme. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, Italy, Museums and Galleries, Venice | Tagged art, martyrs, mosaics, Murano, Ravenna, San Vitale, Sant' Apollinare in Classe, Sant' Apollinare Nuovo | 5 Comments

A Secret Garden

Posted on 15/09/2019 by carolinemmurray

Of course, a great many gardens in Venice are secret – that is, invisible to the normal passer-by in the calle. But the garden of Palazzo Soranzo Cappello is probably the most famous secret garden in the city (with the ‘Garden of Eden’ on Giudecca in second place). We had been trying to get into the gardens for some years, especially as my book, The Gardens of Venice and the Veneto (2013) says that all you have to do is go into the portego and ask the porter for permission. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Botany, Gardens, History, Italy, Literature, Natural history, Printing and Publishing, Venice | Tagged gardens, Henry James, Palazzo Soranzo Cappello, The Aspern Papers, Venice | 3 Comments

Anon.

Posted on 07/09/2019 by carolinemmurray

I just made it to ‘Artist: Unknown: Art and Artefacts from the University of Cambridge Museums and Collections’, the current exhibition at Kettle’s Yard. (It continues until 22 September, but the Hedgehog ménage will be away – Venice, since you ask, followed by a quick stop in Ravenna.) One theme of this small and lovely exhibition is the effect on the viewer of not knowing who the artist is, and this is something that has always intrigued me. Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Art, Botany, Cambridge, Gardens, History, Museums and Galleries, Natural history, Venice | Tagged anonymous artworks, attribution, copies, forgery, Kettle's Yard | 1 Comment

Jewels

Posted on 05/09/2019 by carolinemmurray

Also in Brugge the other day, I was hit by a interesting revelation (assuming, of course, that the statement below, in the Groeninge Museum, is true). The reason Jan van Eyck, Hans Memling and the other so-called Flemish Primitives painted jewels so beautifully and lovingly was twofold: they had plenty of examples before them, not only at the Burgundian court but also among the staggeringly rich merchant class of Flanders; and they painted in oils. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, Museums and Galleries | Tagged Brugge, Groeninge Museum, Hans Memling, Jan van Eyck, jewels, oil painting | 8 Comments

Fingers Crossed!

Posted on 02/09/2019 by carolinemmurray

Terrifyingly, it is that time of year again … the first Christmas catalogue arrived a few days ago (thank you, R.H.S.), and yesterday I filled in my application form for a stall at the Mill Road Winter Fair in Cambridge, which this year happens on Saturday 7 December. I’ve written about this event before (twice), and this year, assuming I’m lucky enough to get a stall, I shall, as always, be raising money for EdUKaid, a wonderful charity which supports schools and their pupils in southern Tanzania. Continue reading →

Posted in Cambridge | Tagged Christmas, EdUKaid, Mill Road Winter Fair, Tanzania | 2 Comments

Plant of the Month: August 2019

Posted on 29/08/2019 by carolinemmurray

Passiflora, the passion flower, is – perhaps unsurprisingly – a genus in the family Passifloraceae, which is itself part of the enormously varied order of Malpighiales, which includes everything from the willow to the violet by way of poinsettias. The order derives its name from that of Marcello Malpighi (1628–94): it was bestowed by Charles Plumier on the genus Malpighia, shrubs and small trees found in the American tropics, and confirmed by Linnaeus. Continue reading →

Posted in Botany, Cambridge, Exploration, Gardens, Natural history | Tagged Charles Plumier, gardening, Marcello Malpighi, Passiflora, passion flower, passion fruit, plant of the month | 3 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 a few days only) in Bruges, and not only in Bruges but in the very hotel room out of which, apparently, Colin Farrell jumped in the film ‘In Bruges’. I say ‘apparently’ because although I saw the film on television a few years ago, I disliked it intensely, and can remember very little about it except that I think it didn’t end too well for any of the protagonists? (For some reason, I can never see the humour in ‘black comedy’, only the blackness.) Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Art, Biography, History, Museums and Galleries | Tagged Adornes family, Bruges, Brugge, Jerusalem chapel, pilgrimage | 8 Comments

Plant of the Month: July 2019

Posted on 27/07/2019 by carolinemmurray

The nasturtium (occasionally nasturtian, or, if you are an A.A. Milne fan, mastershalum) is one of those plants which it is quite easy to overlook for their ubiquitous familiarity. Simple to grow (and to regrow if you save the seeds), bulking up rapidly, with complex, brightly coloured, endlessly repeating flowers, and leaves with decorative veining and the delightful ability to capture pearls of rainwater in their slightly indented centres, what’s not to like? Continue reading →

Posted in Botany, Exploration, Gardens, History, Natural history | Tagged caterpillars, gardens, nasturtium, plant of the month, seeds, Tropaeolum | Leave a comment

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 is a good excuse to revisit his extraordinary career in more detail. Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Art, Biography, Cambridge, Exploration, History, Italy, London, Museums and Galleries, Printing and Publishing | Tagged Archaeology, Egypt, Fitzwilliam Museum, Giovanni Battista Belzoni, Henry Salt, Rameses II, Rameses III, river Nile | Leave a comment

Popinjays

Posted on 17/07/2019 by carolinemmurray

I didn’t mention that at Niguliste, there is also a collection of silver objects, many of them formerly owned by the various guilds of Tallinn. By far (in my view) the most attractive of these items is a popinjay, made in the first half of the sixteenth century. It belonged to the Brotherhood of the Black Heads, and was given to the winner of a regular archery contest. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, London, Museums and Galleries, Natural history | Tagged archery, Black Heads, Hanseatic League, parrot, popinjay, Tallinn | 6 Comments