A view of Florence and the nature of History.

This is the find of the week for me, something I’ve not seen before that I suddenly noticed adorning a book jacket. A view of Florence c1490, painted I hope by the anonymous gentlemen pictured in it. It’s amazing what art can do. Today I was feeling pretty humdrum, nothing much to stir the juices, then two or three hours ago I caught a glimpse of this and suddenly everything went into warp drive. This little post is the result.

A View of Florence.

Continue reading “A view of Florence and the nature of History.”

Masters of Battle: Elizabeth Butler Part 1.

Two of my great interests are history and art so to me it is very natural that history painting should form the basis of a section in this blog. They both complement each other nicely I think, so I have decided to put together a series about the great masters of battle. Not generals or admirals, though from time to time they do play a part but artists, whose sword is a paintbrush and whose order of battle is a palette, there armies are colours and there genius was their imagination. Stirring isn’t it, well I thought so. Ever since I started hearing about these great painters I wanted to see their works, thanks to the internet I have been able to do so, but seeing their pictures fuelled a desire to know more about the people who created them, so here they are, “TA DAH!” Or as much as I could find out about them anyway, the masters of battle and we begin with perhaps the most unusual because she was almost one of a kind. Overlooking grammer and spelling is always appretiated and with a bit of luck I’ll see you on the other side. Continue reading “Masters of Battle: Elizabeth Butler Part 1.”