Tag Archives: Lord Nelson

build and he will come

Parliament voted a sum to “support the Dignity and the Dukedom” and to create “a lasting Memorial” of the nation’s “Gratitude and Munificence.” And thus began the Duke of Wellington’s search for a palace. Don’t despair of your own house … Continue reading

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butch cassidy goes to piedmont

A rarity. At least at the time, one of the first media celebrities, a kind of royalty of image and talent. They all get discarded eventually as each new generation creates their gods. But Garibaldi is enduring; his manner of … Continue reading

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A salty dog: avoiding the press gang

In the end, although Napoleon’s ambitions were terminated on the field of Waterloo, the struggle at sea decided the issue and determined the course of the century that was to follow. As with Carthage and Rome, it was a struggle … Continue reading

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PASSION FOR POMPEII: “RANDY FOR ANTIQUE”

It was buried by a volcanic eruption in 79 A.D. Pompeii. When the ruins came to light, beginning in 1747, they caused a revolution in taste- stripping away rococo gilt, reshaping the female figure , and leaving a deposit of … Continue reading

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Antique Eurythmics: “TABLEAU VIVANTS” at POMPEII

When the ruins of Pompeii came to light, they caused a revolution in taste- stripping away rococo gilt, reshaping the female figure, and leaving a deposit of pseudo-Greek temples from Moscow to Mississippi; although what sometimes passed for “classical” would … Continue reading

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ANARCHY OF THE PASSIONS: BEAUTY OF OPPOSITES

Edmund Kean (1790-1833) was acclaimed as the greatest actor of his time. Something of a prodigy, while still a teenager he gave a command performance for King George III at Windsor Castle. Coleridge said that watching Kean perform “was like … Continue reading

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VASE OF ANTIQUITY AND INIQUITY

Genie out of the vase. It is an enigmatic urn. During the artistic rape of Europe in the eighteenth century, the ransack that is now known as the Grand Tour, England was flooded with spoils of her wandering noblemen. Paintings, … Continue reading

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AUTHENTICITY AND AESTHETICS

Snobbery has its own aesthetics. If a work of art seems identical to the naked eye, why should an original Picasso end up in the living room, a reproduction on the stairway and a forgery in the recycle bin? In … Continue reading

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