Tag Archives: Italy

1737: Anti-Depressant

Posted on June 22, 2017 by corvusfugit

     It has been often related, and generally believed, that Philip V King of Spain, being seized with a total dejection of spirits, which made him refuse to be shaved, and rendered him incapable of attending council or transacting affairs … Continue reading →

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1495: Relationship Issues

Posted on June 9, 2017 by corvusfugit

Piero di Cosimo: A Satyr Mourning over a Nymph [The Death of Procris] (c. 1495) (source) In one version of the myth of Procris, her husband Cephalus abandons her for eight years to test her fidelity, and then, when he … Continue reading →

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1935: Renaissance Man

Posted on June 3, 2017 by corvusfugit

Leonardo da Vinci spent the last years of his life (1513-1519) in central France, in the town of Amboise, where he was supported by King Francis I. Although likely ailing from a stroke, Leonardo continued working, constructing  a mechanical lion … Continue reading →

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1685: Lift Up Thine Eyes

Posted on May 23, 2017 by corvusfugit

The masterful trompe l’oeil frescos on the (flat) ceilings of the Church of Sant’ Ignazio di Loyola in Rome were painted by Andrea Pozzo in 1685. One depicts the apotheosis of St Ignatius—he rises up out of the ceiling into … Continue reading →

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1505: The Dog Hidden Under the Hidden Unicorn

Posted on May 22, 2017 by corvusfugit

In 1934, restoration work on this early 16th-centruy portrait by Raphael revealed that sometime in the mid-17th century, an anonymous artist had painted over it in places, transforming it into a representation of Saint Catherine of Alexandria holding a spiked … Continue reading →

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1573: The Inquisition Grills an Artist for the Last Supper

Posted on May 19, 2017 by corvusfugit

Paolo Veronese: The Feast in the House of Levi (1573) Veronese’s painting was the cause of an investigation by the Roman Catholic Inquisition, which balked at the lavish settings and costumes—as well as the “buffoons, drunken Germans, dwarfs and other … Continue reading →

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