Blog Posts
Trouble with Robert Andrews, His Wife Frances, Not to Mention the Dog
The Andrews are doing their best to stand still while Thomas Gainsborough is sketching them. Initially, the dog was in the right place. The dog was soon all over the place or nowhere to be seen. Ultimately, the Andrews had enough, too. Despite the trouble with the models, Tomas Gainsborough […]
Liza Minnelli
Absolutely magnificent in Cabaret.
Meeting at Rittenhouse Square at 5 p.m.
It is almost five. The young man has to take a taxi. She hurries, too. Happy together.
The Lady with the Tutti-Frutti Hat
Carmen Miranda leads the Mummers parade in Philadelphia. No time to change for dinner in Atlantic City.
Inspired by a Luttrell Psalter Illumination
A beautiful illumination in the Luttrell psalter. Not Sir Geoffrey Luttrell but Friedrich I Barbarossa, the Holy Roman Emperor (1122-1190). Friedrich is embarking on the Third Crusade. Seeing him off are his mother and his beloved spouse. On his way to the Holy Land, Friedrich passed through Rascia (now Serbia) […]
Jersey Shore
Nowdays Bathing Beauties in the Forties The Roaring Twenties Photoshopped daguerrotype.
Mali Radojica or a Multicultural and Multiethnic Happy End
Radojica the Kid. Radojica is pronounced Rah-doy-ee-tza. In the epic, Radojica is referred to as “little”. It is not quite clear if the definition implies that he was short or young or the junior among other Radojicas. He was a border raider and therefore he may be safely called The […]
The Glory That Was Rome
Lead roles: Lucius Papirius Cursor. N.B. It is not an invented name (see Livy, History of Rome,Book XXII). This Lucius is the great, great, etc. grandson of the founder of the honorable Cursor family. The pure Roman lineage has been disrupted when Lucius’s father married a princess of the Visigoths […]
Americana
Grant Wood painted American Gothic in 1930. If the painting seems different nowadays, that just proves that time has no mercy. Time has changed Grant Wood’s sister, his dentist and even the setting. What does the future hold for this beauty?
Amadeus
Full name: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Playing for the emperor in Schoenbrun. Composing Eine kleine Nachtmusik in broad daylight. Having a good time with Konstanze. To many he is best known for the delicious Mozartkugeln.