Every year around New Year’s Eve in my social media certain late-medieval miniatures goes viral: they depict a young man who most likely drank too much alcohol. However popular the depiction may be, most of people sharing and forwarding this image have no idea where it comes from. It is…
Book of Hours of Catherine de Clèves (van Kleef) is the most richly decorated 15th c. Netherlandish book of prayers. It was created in Utrecht after 1434 and is in The Morgan Library & Museum (MS M.917/945). I have previously written about its miniatures decorating Monday prayers for the Purgatory…
In Central Europe, churches’ furniture dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries may often be a source of very interesting curiosities. For example, let’s take a look at pulpits: they sometimes had extremely weird shapes, as well as complex theological meaning. Some time ago I wrote about whale-shaped pulpits…
One of the oldest children’s plays is making soap bubbles – soap was produced already in the antiquity. In European art soap bubbles appear mainly in Early-Modern times; however, late medieval manuscripts provide proves that soap bubbles appeared also in the medieval courtly culture. Check out this monkey on a…
Today I would like to tell you about my on-line work in the times of pandemics, when I am supposed to write an article about a painting on a few days notice. The text was supposed to have been about “Madonna under the Firs” by Lucas Cranach the Elder, commissioned…