by Hilary White
The Sacred Painters of Umbria and Siena: from the Duecento to the Renaissance
A walk through the National Gallery of Umbria in Perugia - Part 1 I’ve mentioned a few times that I started studying egg tempera painting techniques and the history and meaning of traditional Christian iconography at about the same time. During a trip to Rome to visit some former colleagues in October 2019, I discovered an icon painting workshop that was to run through November and December. Some friends kindly donated the cash to cover the costs and I started.
by Hilary White
What I did on my summer holiday
Drawing practice, Donkey Races, Etruscan Art and some new projects Well, as Samwise said, I’m back. I hope you’ve had a nice summer, got to see some fam, take some hikes, go for some swims, get some stuff done, got a little sightseeing in, maybe even did a little drawing or art or gardening…
by Hilary White
The invisible order beneath: Raymond Reddington, The Blacklist, and the lure of the otherworld
A dark modern fairy tale I don’t know if you’ve watched the strange crime show The Blacklist, but it’s one of those series that lingers in your mind, not always for its plots, which are sometimes silly, but for its enigmatic central characte…
by Hilary White
The Faith bounces back from Ireland to Scotland to Britain
Part 2 of A Short Biographical History of Early British and Irish Christianity In these hot August days, with the Italian summer roaring back with vengeance for our mild June and July on its mind, I’m finding myself leaning more toward simpler stories. We’ll hold off resuming our work on the Big Editorial Plan for cooler weather, when people are back at work and at their computers, and home from the holidays. Plenty of time for in-depth discussions of the development from early Italo-Byzantine painting to Romanesque, when we’re all a bit more lively and clear-headed and aren’t thinking so much about the beach.
by Hilary White
From Roman Martyrs to Irish Monks to Viking Flames
Part 1 of a Short Biographical History of Early British Christianity While we’ve been focusing in these last couple of months on the goings on in Byzantium, Spain and Italy, big stuff was going on elsewhere. In the furthest reaches of the old Roman Empire, over the alps and across the cold waters of the Fretum Britannicum
by Hilary White
The Forgotten Desert Monks Who Built the Foundations of the West
Syrian hermits in Umbrian caves; pre-Benedictine monastics in Italy shaped the ideas of Western spiritual life It’s easy to imagine Western monasticism beginning with St. Benedict, quietly writing his Rule in his old age at Monte Cassino. But by the time Benedict set down his compilation of ancient monastic ideals in the 6th century, Italy had already seen at least two hundred years of monastic life. It may have been disorganised and diverse, shaped by desert traditions from the East and improvised forms of asceticism, but it was a thriving tradition, deeply embedded in ancient Christian thought, throughout the peninsula.
by Hilary White
The Carolingian Revolution meets the Byzantine South
How did we get to Romanesque? Charlemagne’s coronation in St. Peter’s in Rome on Christmas Day in the year 800 was the culmination of a labyrinth of political paths, an ultimate, deliberate response by the pope to the chronic instability of the Eastern Roman Empire, and the pope’s i…
by Hilary White
The Memory of Southern Italy's Greek Colonies
Why is Sicily so... Byzantine? Join us below the fold today as we explore the remarkably long-lived Greek Colony of southern Italy, originally established in the Archaic Greek era, that gave rise to the Greco-Italian culture of modern day Puglia, Sicily and Calabria, including still-existing Byzantine Christian communities.
by Hilary White
The Bike, the Work and the Road Ahead
Many thanks - and Magna Graecia next week! This post is for everyone. I’m sorry to have missed this week’s scheduled paid subscriber piece. Between the heat, some ongoing health challenges and a few major behind-the-scenes developments, I wasn’t able to get our post on southern Italy’s ‘Greek Colony,’
by Hilary White
Kingdom of Asturias; the Christian Art of Early Medieval Spain
Asturian Pre-Romanesque, a unique Christian artform In April, we explored a little of the history, and the art, of the Christian Visigothic Kingdom of the Spanish peninsula, and talked about what happened when the forces of the Umayyad Caliphate invaded in 711. Today we will follow the Christian refugees north into the mountains, where a handful of survivors regrouped in the remote, forested mountains of Asturias.