Plant of the Month: June

Posted on 18/06/2016 by carolinemmurray

Cornus close-upThe obvious plant would be the rose (which seems to be having a wonderful year in general, though I’m cheerfully expecting my ‘Félicité Perpétue’ flowers to turn into blue, mildewed mush, as it always rains in June just as their buds are opening). But, simply because my own is looking so stunning at the moment, my choice falls on Cornus kousa, or Japanese dogwood. Continue reading →

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The Dream of Gerontius

Posted on 15/06/2016 by carolinemmurray

550px-Edward_ElgarI tend to fight shy of opining about music, since it’s an area where I feel even more fraudulently incompetent than usual, but I am going to make an exception for the wonderful concert I attended last Saturday. Continue reading →

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Layers of Paint

Posted on 09/06/2016 by carolinemmurray

BabyThe 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. Continue reading →

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OK, So Who Did Kill Cock Robin?

Posted on 05/06/2016 by carolinemmurray

440px-Death_and_Burial_of_Poor_Cock_Robin_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_17060A 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 equally have been communicating with his father-in-law … Continue reading →

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Object of the Month: May

Posted on 30/05/2016 by carolinemmurray

Marlay_Cutting_FL_1This 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 Museum, and the glorious details of the flowers in the margin, as well as the tiny Annunciation scene itself, are frequently reproduced. Continue reading →

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Plant of the Month: May

Posted on 27/05/2016 by carolinemmurray

Long raceme 2At 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 is catching up fast: compare the wisteria thicket in the Botanic Garden on 14 May, and today (below). Continue reading →

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The Mystery of Sant’ Eufemia

Posted on 21/05/2016 by carolinemmurray

Euf madonnaOf 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 cultural delights lie within, but nothing about opening hours or access; and their doors, with flaking paint, rusted hinges, and cobwebs woven across them, seem to confirm that, like the cave where the Holy Family sheltered on the way to Egypt, nobody has been in for weeks, months or years. Continue reading →

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

The Venice Test!

Posted on 11/05/2016 by carolinemmurray

Bovolo‘It’s very naughty of me, but I would like to set an examination paper at Dover, and turn back every tourist who couldn’t pass it.’ Thus Miss Eleanor Lavish, the self-described Radical and New Woman, and one of E.M. Forster’s cruellest caricatures, à propos tourists in Florence, in A Room with a View (1908). I am almost certain that Ruskin said something similar in a private letter (though I can’t find the reference): he certainly adopts an extremely patronising attitude to his readers in his late guide-book, St Mark’s Rest: The History of Venice, Written for the Help of the Few Travellers Who Still Care for Her Monuments. Continue reading →

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O Venusta Sirmio

Posted on 08/05/2016 by carolinemmurray

Bust… as Catullus remarked on returning thankfully from a period of diplomatic activity in the Middle East. (Nothing changes much after more than two millennia, alas.) I’m not sure when it was that airports began to (re)name themselves after people rather than places: John Lennon, JFK, etc. But they do it in spades in Italy. Here is a short quiz: what cities do the following serve? Aeroporto Antonio Canova; Aeroporto Guglielmo Marconi; Aeroporto Federico Fellini; Aeroporto Luigi Ridolfi. (Answers at foot of page.) Continue reading →

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My Own Private Robin

Posted on 03/05/2016 by carolinemmurray

Robin croppedA sadly long time ago, my aunt and uncle had their own robin, who would turn up most days at teatime and flit around the veranda, looking increasingly impatient and peremptory, until he was served with either crumbled digestive biscuits or crushed peanuts. Most people who have a garden have ‘their own’ robin – or indeed several, though unless an individual has a particular characteristic such as an ornithologist’s ring, or missing feathers after a close encounter with a predator, you are unlikely to tell one from the other. Continue reading →

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