An eclectic assortment of stuff: food, archaeology, fun, books, history, geekery, etc.
From The Telegraph: Ostrich egg patterns oldest form of art and communication.
Engraved patterns on the side of ostrich eggs dating back to the Stone Age could be the oldest form of written communication known to man, claims a new study.
The etchings, thought to be 60,000 years old, were used to mark the eggs which had [...]
Posted in art, history & archaeology on Mar 6th, 2010
From The Independent: The Virgin Queen, the serpent and the doctored portrait.
When this painting of Queen Elizabeth I was last displayed to the country in 1921, curators at the National Portrait Gallery noticed spots of discolouration which cast a spiralling shadow across the Tudor posy the monarch held in her right hand. The gallery put [...]
Posted in art, history & archaeology on Mar 1st, 2010
From the BBC: Lasers lift dirt of ages from artworks.
Physicists have applied the same laser techniques commonly used for tattoo removal to clean several famous works of art, including wall paintings.
Laser cleaning is well established for stone and metal artefacts already.
It has now been successfully applied to the wall paintings of the Sagrestia Vecchia and [...]
Posted in art, history & archaeology on Jul 1st, 2009
From the Telegraph: Michelangelo signed fresco with self-portrait.
Restorers claim that a bearded man wearing a blue turban in the Crucifixion of St Peter bears a striking resemblance to portraits and bronze busts of the artist.
It’s an extraordinary and moving discovery, said the Vatican’s chief restorer, Maurizio De Luca. The self-portrait is one of three knights [...]
Posted in art, history & archaeology, technology on Jun 30th, 2009
From physorg.com: Computer recognises archaeological material and fake Van Goghs.
People find it very easy to recognise a face, even under very different circumstances. For a computer, on the other hand, it is extremely difficult. Dutch researcher Laurens van der Maaten has developed a new analytical technique which enables the computer to better interpret the content [...]
Posted in art, history & archaeology on Mar 11th, 2009
From The Telegraph: Caravaggio used ‘photography’ to create dramatic masterpieces.
The 16th century master used modern darkroom techniques to create his masterpieces, more than 200 years before the invention of the camera.
Italian researchers claim the technique explained why many of his subjects were left-handed – the image projected onto the canvas had been reversed.
Art historian Roberta [...]
Posted in art, history & archaeology on Feb 22nd, 2009
From Times Online: Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci discovered in Basilicata.
What may be a hitherto unknown portrait of Leonardo da Vinci in middle age shows that the Renaissance genius had piercing blue eyes, a long nose and long greying hair with a droopy moustache.
The damaged oil-on-panel portrait was discovered by Nicola Barbatelli, a medieval historian, [...]
Posted in art on Jan 16th, 2009
From The Times: Czech sculptor David Cerny admits £350,000 EU art hoax.
It seemed like such a good idea at the time: what better way to celebrate the Czech Republic’s presidency of the European Union than a giant art installation, with input from every member state, showing what we really feel about our place in Europe?
True, [...]
Posted in art, history & archaeology on Dec 29th, 2008
From the BBC: Artistic clues to coastal change.
Nineteenth Century artwork is a useful tool for studying coastal erosion, according to a retired coastal engineer.
Robin McInnes assessed the accuracy of geological and topological features in more than 400 paintings of the Isle of Wight and Hampshire coastline.
Dr McInnes said such old masters gave engineers the chance [...]
Posted in art, history & archaeology on Oct 28th, 2008
From Neatorama: Negative Campaigning in Medieval Time:
Negative political campaigns and mudslinging aren’t anything new – in fact, the practice harks back to medieval time. [continue, see image of mural, oh my.]
Posted in art, history & archaeology on Oct 20th, 2008
From The Telegraph: Lost Queen Elizabeth I portrait found in attic.
A lost portrait of a young Elizabeth I that was discovered in the attic of a country house has intrigued historians after X-rays revealed that it was painted over an earlier picture of the monarch.
The painting, which had lain unnoticed in the dirty loft for [...]
Posted in art, history & archaeology on Oct 13th, 2008
From the Beeb: New method used to date cave art.
Experts from the University of Bristol are to attempt to accurately date prehistoric caves.
The team from the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology travelled to northern Spain to collect samples of paintings from more than 20 caves.
They will use a new method, based on the radioactive decay [...]
Posted in art, history & archaeology on Oct 13th, 2008
From the Guardian: Solved: mystery of The Ugly Duchess – and the Da Vinci connection.
She is one of the most popular paintings in the National Gallery, whose rather unfortunate looks inspired illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. But one question has always puzzled: did the poor lady really look like this?
Today the Guardian [...]
I bet Anna Garforth has more fun making graffiti than anybody else; certainly she has more impressive results. For her Mossenger project (Mossenger part one, Mossenger part two) Anna made letters out of moss, then affixed them to a brick wall. She sprays the text with water to keep it alive.
Erasmuspc.com includes Anna’s explanation:
Being [...]
Posted in art on Aug 24th, 2008
From the Wall Street Journal: From the Art World to the Underworld.
Shortly after 9 a.m. on June 4, three men drove to a seaside promenade near Marseilles, their van carrying paintings by Brueghel, Sisley and Monet. The art had been stolen at gunpoint from the Museum of Fine Arts in Nice last August. Now a [...]
Posted in art, health, history & archaeology on Aug 22nd, 2008
From Information Week: Solar-Powered Nanotech-Purified Air In Medieval Churches.
The glaziers who created gold-painted stained glass windows for medieval churches in Europe inadvertently developed a solar-powered nanotech air-purification system.
According to Zhu Huai Yong, an associate professor at Queensland University of Technology in Australia, the gold paint used in medieval-era stained glass windows purified the air when [...]
Posted in art, history & archaeology on Aug 21st, 2008
From The Guardian: Fire lays bare prehistoric secrets of the moors in Yorkshire.
A catastrophic fire which "skinned" a precious moorland to its rocky bones has unexpectedly revealed some of the most important prehistoric archaeology found in Britain.
The uncontrolled six-day blaze on Fylingdales Moor in North Yorkshire has exposed a lost landscape dating back 3,000 years [...]
Posted in art, history & archaeology on Aug 1st, 2008
From the BBC: Ancient rock carvings discovered.
More than 100 new examples of prehistoric art have been discovered carved into boulders and open bedrock throughout Northumberland and Durham.
The 5,000-year-old Neolithic carvings of circles, rings and hollowed cups, were uncovered by volunteers.
One of the most interesting discoveries was [continue]
Posted in art, history & archaeology on Jul 30th, 2008
From The Telegraph: New X-ray technique reveals colour of hidden van Gogh.
A portrait of a woman by Vincent van Gogh that he later painted over has been revealed in more detail than every before thanks to a new X-ray technique.
Previous research had discovered an outline of the peasant’s head behind the Dutch painter’s later work, [...]
Posted in art, history & archaeology on Jul 29th, 2008
From The Times: Many hands painted Lascaux caves.
The painted caves of Lascaux in the Dordogne region of France are one of the most famed monuments of Ice Age art. Dating back about 17,000 years, the great Hall of the Bulls and its adjacent chambers proved so popular with visitors that a generation ago the cave [...]
July 24th is the feast day of Saint Christina Mirabilis. Here’s a bit about her from the St. Christina the Astonishing page at Cynthia Large’s site:
Christina was born in the town of Saint-Trond in 1150. She was orphaned at fifteen, along with her two sisters, and worked as a shepherd, growing closer to God over [...]
Posted in BC, Canada, art, history & archaeology on Jun 6th, 2008
From the Globe and Mail: Centuries-old sketch comes home.
He stares at us from centuries past, a clear, unflinching gaze attesting to his status as a great warrior chief of the Musqueam. Strands of long, dark hair curl past his shoulders and he wears a stylish conical cedar hat adorned with feathers.
Call him Qeyapaplanewx. That we [...]
By now much of the world has heard of the recent art theft at UBC’s Museum of Anthropology. A terrible pity, but I didn’t blog it because stories of yet another theft usually bore me.
This however, is not boring: the story of how the thief –or thieves — got away with the treasure. From the [...]
Posted in art, history & archaeology on May 4th, 2008
Oh my. From the Guardian: Carpet of stone: medieval mosaic pavement revealed.
The wraps have come off one of Westminster Abbey’s least known treasures, a medieval marble pavement foretelling the end of the world, while conservation experts consider how to preserve the ancient stones for the next 740 years.
Few modern visitors have ever seen it, although [...]
Posted in art, history & archaeology, religion on Feb 19th, 2008
From The Art Newspaper: Noah’s Ark in the desert.
The ancient Egyptian monastery of Deir al-Surian is traditionally said to have been modelled on Noah’s Ark, since the outline of its walled buildings looks like a ship.
But Deir al-Surian resembles the Ark in another sense, as it has preserved unique examples of very early Christian art, [...]