Hagia Sophia: Theocracy in the Age of (Post-)Secularisation
Jul 24th, 2020 | Dr Matthew Dal Santo
Yesterday at dawn, July 24 2020, Muslim prayers resounded in Istanbul’s famous Hagia Sophia for the first time since the great domed building’s secularisation on the orders of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, “founding father” of modern Turkey, in 1935. Its eighty-five years as a museum will be over. Outside Turkey, the...
Death in Venice: How has La Serenissima managed infectious diseases through the ages?
Jul 9th, 2020 | Robert Veel
With the unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic, increased attention has been paid to plagues of the past. Journalists knowingly remind us that the term ‘quarantine’ derives from the Venetian word quarantena, a period of forty (quaranta) days of enforced isolation, and critics claim that not much has changed in terms...
The Architectural Gem of Le Musée du Petit-Palais
Jun 25th, 2020 | Dr Michael Adcock
Travellers visiting Paris are eager to visit the capital’s great museums, such as the famous Louvre Museum and the renowned Orsay Museum. There are, however, some two hundred and fifty museums in Paris which are superlative ‘hidden gems’. In these times of restricted travel, cultural historian Dr. Michael Adcock invites...
Where art meets science: Restoring masterpieces by Nelli, Rembrandt, Pollock and Van Gogh
Jun 12th, 2020 | Dr Nick Gordon
Most of the art you see in galleries and museums has survived because of restoration and conservation work. This work is absolutely necessary because a work of art is subject to quite complex chemical, physical and mechanical processes that degrade the materials from which it is made. In this article,...
Lake Mungo & the Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage Area
May 28th, 2020 | Dr Chris Carter
Lake Mungo and the Willandra Lakes Region are home to some of Australia’s oldest cultural artefacts. Although “Mungo Man” and “Mungo Lady” are the most famous, they are but two among many of discoveries that give us insight into the deep history of Indigenous Australia and the way the land...
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