Tag: paintings

  Students from the Art History department at University College London visit the Wellcome Library for an MA course on “Early Modern Horror“. It is taught by Dr Maria H. Loh (far left), and looks with critical attention at sixteenth-… Continue reading

Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) was the promoter of a form of animal magnetism (named Mesmerism after him), at first in Vienna (1773-1777) and subsequently in France (1778-1784). His unique selling point was the supply of mesmeric fluid that served to… Continue reading

Austen (the surname of one of England’s best-loved novelists) and Austin (the capital city of Texas) are both abbreviations of the name Augustine. That name became popular from Saint Augustine of Hippo, Father and Doctor of the Church (354-430), philosopher… Continue reading

Everyone who visits Agra in Uttar Pradesh visits the Taj Mahal, the monument which was built from 1632 onwards by the sorrowful Shah Jahan (1592-1666), fifth Mughal emperor, in memory of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, after her death in childbirth.… Continue reading

It seems appropriate that in the 75th anniversary year of Henry S. Wellcome’s death, the Wellcome Library, named after him because it was created by him in his lifetime, has added the 750,000th work to its online catalogue (online at… Continue reading

Visitors to the Wellcome Library see in the entrance hall four paintings of the Works of Mercy by Frederick Cayley Robinson. They are allegories embedding the oppositions within themes relevant to the historic mission of hospitals: institutions and individuals, children… Continue reading

Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice: Scuola Grande and Hospital of San Marco, with the equestrian sculpture of Bartolomeo Colleoni in the foreground. Albumen print, 189-. Wellcome Library no. 665112i. A set of three volumes on art-collecting in Venice was… Continue reading

Isaac Newton by James Thornhill. Wellcome Library no. 45765i Stoke Court, at Stoke Edith in Herefordshire, was a large and imposing house built between 1696 and 1704 by the Foley family, descendants of the ironmasters Richard Foley (1580-1657) and Thomas… Continue reading

Maria Domenica Lazzari. Coloured engraving, ca 1840. Wellcome Library no. 260i   The previous posting introduced the two stigmatics of the South Tyrol and described the visit of T.W. Allies and his two companions to one of them, Maria Domenica… Continue reading

Maria Domenica Lazzari. Detail of Wellcome Library no. 708242i   Two watercolours and an engraving in the Wellcome Library show two remarkable people in what is now the the northernmost province of Italy, the South Tyrol (Bolzano-Alto Adige). In the… Continue reading