My previous post was dedicated to female artists in the Middle Ages; of course artistic activities of women are better documented when it comes to the Early Modern Times. One of the known female artists was an engraver Claudine Bouzonnet-Stella (1636-1697). She was a daughter of a goldsmith named Étienne…
I have a feeling that lately a fashionable topic became (lack of) women among Old Masters of art. It is undoubtedly true that the most famous Old Masters are male, and that in past centuries women had much more limited options when it comes to making any career. It is…
There are legends that just live in European culture for centuries, since ancien Times till nowadays. There are motifs that keep coming back. One of those motifs – especially in Christian culture – is a story about a man who sold his soul to the devil. Source of inspiration for…
Depictions of Saints and their patronages is an infinite source of all kinds of curiosities. An art historian working on medieval religious art has to study carefully mysterious attributes and surprising storylines of the Saints’ lives. And as I currently work on the Polish version of the ICONCLASS database, I…
I must confess that when the worldwide popularity of the series “Game of Thrones” started, I was not interested at all in watching it. I am not a fan of fantasy – even though, as a proper medievalist, I do have interest in dragons. However, somehow around the premiere of…