Renaissance artist, inventor and all around genius Leonard da Vinci left many clues to his numerous experiments, much of which is written in a backwards handwriting he invented in order to keep his discoveries secret. Now, a fragment of his manuscript that had been forgotten for nearly 150 years has been rediscovered in the local archives in Nantes, France, uncovered ... Read More »
Serbia isn’t the first place one would think to find a work by famed, Italian, Renaissance artist Caravaggio, let alone two. But nonetheless, in the Pavle Beljanski Memorial Collection in Novi Sad, there exists two masterpieces which the collection’s namesake claim are works by Michelangelo Merisi, better known as Caravaggio. Pavle Beljanski was a great, Serbian art collector who ... Read More »
According to art historian David Hockney, he was. Hockney claims that Caravaggio used a lens or other optical device to help paint his masterpieces, like his Bacchus on the right, the argument for which he outlines in his book, Secret Knowlege. This view, however, is contended by Andrew Graham-Dixon, an art historian in his own right and BBC2 Culture ... Read More »
If you have ever visited Michelagelo’s breathtaking Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, you will know that much of the awe is marred by the shoulder to shoulder tourists filling the surprisingly small space. Tourists who are talking loudly and being shouted at by guards to not take pictures. So when last week the Vatican museum’s director, Antonio Paoluccio, announced ... Read More »
A Caravaggio painting stolen two years ago from the Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art was recovered in Berlin by German and Ukrainian police this past July. The painting, called “The taking of Christ” or “The kiss of Judas” by scholars, is considered the most valuable painting in the Ukraine. Originally belonging to a Russian Ambassador to France, ... Read More »
You may have noticed that Italy this year is especially in love with Renaissance painter Caravaggio since this year marks the 400th anniversary of his birth. To add to the Caravaggiomania that is sweeping the country, last week the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano announced in a front page article that it had found a previously undiscovered Caravaggio in the sacristy ... Read More »
The only ceiling Caravaggio ever painted has been hidden for hundreds of years in a villa in Rome. But now, Princess Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi in an effort to “bring more life” into the crumbling Villa Aurora, which she inhabits with her husband Prince Nicolò Boncompagni Ludovisi, descendent of Popes Gregory XIII and Gregory XV, is on view to the ... Read More »
In a daring chain of events reminiscent of a scene from Oceans Eleven, a Caravaggio painting stolen two years ago from the Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art has been recovered in Berlin by German and Ukrainian police. The painting, called “The taking of Christ” or “The kiss of Judas” by scholars, is considered the most valuable painting ... Read More »
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