AS a small boy, I was fascinated by an old stall-holder in the Strutton Grounds market off Victoria Street, SW1. He seemed to know all the countries of the world, but his knowledge came from books— he had never, in his long life, been even as far as St Paul’s. He was exceptional. In considering our ancestors, it is easy to assume that few, other than the rich, would have travelled far, but, at some periods, that was not really the case. During the European 15th and 16th centuries, for instance, with the exception of the peasantry unless they happened to become soldiers, many people— pilgrims and clerics, merchants and sailors, masons, musicians, artists, as well as armies—were frequently on the move.
Musical and artistic exchanges between Burgundian Flanders and Italy were particularly strong, following or combined with trading and financial links. They became more frequent still when the Duke of Burgundy became King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor as Charles V. It was natural enough for some of his subjects to move between his many realms, and, indeed, beyond them.
During much of the 16th century, it might have seemed that almost as much Flemish and French as Tuscan was spoken in the studios of Florence. A good example of a peripatetic Flemish artist is Pieter de Witte, who was born in Bruges in about 1548 and was taken to Florence 10 years later when his father, Elias, a weaver, was hired by the new Medici tapestry works and Italianised the family name to Candido.
Esta historia es de la edición August 30, 2023 de Country Life UK.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición August 30, 2023 de Country Life UK.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.