On my one and only, very brief visit to Rome, I didn't have time to visit the Borghese. Here's why I mind. Cardinal Scipione Borghese (1577-1633) and the Borghese Collection…
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This essay is adapted from Chapter 36 of Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide. I’ve kept cross-references to other chapters in the book. Sculptor: Jeronimo Suñol. Pedestal: Napoleon Le Brun.…
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This essay is adapted from Chapter 35 of Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide. I’ve kept cross-references to other chapters in the book. Sculptor: Gaetano Russo. Dedicated: 1892. Medium and size:…
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Available as a printable PDF and as a video. In the past few months, sculptures in Charlottesville, Baltimore, New York, and elsewhere have been lightning rods for love and for hate…
This essay is adapted from Chapter 28 of Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide. I’ve kept cross-references to other chapters in the book. Sculptor: Paul Manship. Dedicated: 1934. Medium and size:…
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The Musee d'Orsay opened in 1986, in the former Gare d'Orsay in Paris - a Beaux Arts stone-and-steel railway terminal. The museum mostly houses French painting, sculpture, furniture, and photographs…
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Even in an era when scientific discoveries were being made with astonishing rapidity, man's first piloted flight in 1783 ranked as an awe-inspiring event. The Montgolfier brothers began experimenting with…
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These comments were originally posted on the Harry Binswanger List in 2003, in response to a discussion on whether Greek sculptures were esthetically inferior because they were painted. I've added…
Most of the greatest ancient Greek works that remain in the hands of the Greek government are on display at the National Archeological Museum in Athens. Here are some of my…
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My favorite short story by Dorothy Canfield Fisher is "The Washed Window," which centers on Booker T. Washington. Fisher's story was published in 1955, forty years after Washington's death. I…
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