By Catherine Clover - Spring Morning In the hut in the mountains one is free the live-long day A clump of bamboos leaning o’er screens from cold mountain air Green grows the grass and the sky reels in joy, Late lingers the dew in the cups of scarlet flowers The man alone […]
By Patrick Hunt – What is the relationship between ancient Egyptian kingship and animal husbandry, specifically the practice of owning, tending and herding animals like cattle? Ancient cattle pens have been found in Nilotic contexts going back at least eight thousand years into the Neolithic, possibly the earliest examples of […]
By P. F. Sommerfeldt -Â Memoirs are by nature usually suspect; this one truly raises the bar. Here honesty is cherished and myopic self references are at a minimum. Especially when they are filled with rationalizations of bad behavior, railing curses against foes or aimed at generating sympathy for a […]
By Andrea Gáldy – Pontormo and Rosso. Diverging Paths of Mannerism, 8 March to 20 July 2014, Palazzo Strozzi, Piazza Strozzi, Florence, Italy, www.palazzostrozzi.org. An exhibition curated by Antonio Natali (director of the Uffizi Gallery) and Carlo Falciani (lecturer in art history) and held at the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi. Carlo […]
By Catherine Clover – Â Bangkok, Thailand, is a city with many interesting wats, or temples, palaces and occasionally a home of historical significance, many of which I see often and have visited as I’ve lived here in Bangkok for several years. The Jim Thompson house is a fine […]
By Patrick Hunt How many wines can compete with the renown of Burgundy for Pinot Noir?  To many, Maienfeld in the Canton of Graubunden in Switzerland is famous as the setting for Johanna Spyri’s 1880 novel of Heidi, so this lovely and picturesque part of the Rhine Valley has even […]
by Andrea M. Gáldy - Roman Augsburg and Kempten are hidden gems of Southern Germany. This region offers more than skiing holidays and Oktoberfest, nice though they are. Traces of ancient Celtic and Roman settlements in the former Province of Raetia can still be made out, while during the Mediaeval […]
By Andrea M. Gáldy - Prepare to get lost in ancient Egypt. Actually, prepare to get lost constantly for this is a museum cleverly hidden within the Munich Kunstareal (Fig. 2). As you approach the Museum of Egyptian Art you turn from a normal visitor into an archaeologist discovering a […]
By Patrick Hunt – According to 17th century German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz, “Music is a secret exercise in the arithmetic of the soul.” That music and mathematics are deeply wedded needs no explanation, since “Music is mathematics you can hear” [1] If anyone could hear the mathematics of music, it […]
By Andrea M. Gáldy, Exhibitions and Museum Editor - When life was suddenly brought to a halt and encapsulated in 79 AD, the people caught up in the catastrophe cannot have been entirely surprised by Vesuvius erupting. The earthquake of February 62 AD alone might have been a wake-up call. […]