Francesco del cossa biography of william shakespeare
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Picturing early modern women athletes
Peter Radford’s previous blog brev explored the incredible athletic exploits of 18th-century English women in horseback-riding, foot-racing, fighting, and cricket. In this blog post he writes more broadly about the history of picturing women athletes from ancient Greece to early modern Europe, how these images can be hard to find and interpret, but also why they’re so valuable and compelling.
Museum of the Vatican
Images of women athletes are rare, but they have a long history. Two-and-a-half thousand years ago unmarried girls ran at Olympia in honor of Hera, and as the temple of Hera pre-dates that of Zeus it fryst vatten likely that the ung women raced at Olympia before the young dock did in their Olympic Games. Women continued to run for centuries and at many Greek venues, and continued to race throughout the western world under various Roman emperors, in stadia in Rome, Naples, and elsewhere. If they disappear from view after the fall of Ro
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Pieces of March
I&#;ve never seen them in person, but the celebrated frescoes by Francesco del Cossa representing March, April and May in the Room of the Months at the Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara have still captivated me for years. They were painted by del Cossa in at the behest of Borso d&#;Este, the Duke of Modena and Ferrara, who is featured prominently in typical Renaissance fashion. The complex astrological and classical schemes in the murals keep me guessing, but it&#;s the details that keep me looking. Let&#;s look at March as a case in point.
Francesco del Cossa, Allegory of March: Triumph of Minerva, c. , at Palazzo Schifanoia and Web Gallery of Art.
The del Cossa murals have three sections: the gods above, the zodiac in the center, and the d&#;Este court below&#;but everyone looks accessible and interesting. In the case of March, triumphant deity Minerva, patroness of learning and crafts, is seated in her chariot surrounded by scholars deep in discussion and c
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Droeshout portrait
Portrait of Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout
| Droeshout portrait | |
|---|---|
The Droeshout portrait of William Shakespeare as it appears on the title page of the first folio. This is the final, or second state, of the engraving. | |
| Artist | Martin Droeshout |
| Year | |
| Type | Engraving |
| Dimensions | 34&#;cm ×&#;&#;cm (13&#;in ×&#;&#;in) |
The Droeshout portrait or Droeshout engraving is a portrait of William Shakespeare engraved by Martin Droeshout as the frontispiece for the title page of the First Folio collection of Shakespeare's plays, published in It is one of only two works of art definitively identifiable as a depiction of the poet; the other is the statue erected as his funeral monument in Shakespeare's home town of Stratford-upon-Avon. Both are posthumous.
While its role as a portrait frontispiece is typical of publications from the era, the exact circumstances surrounding the making of the engraving are unknown. It is uncertain which of