europaconcorsi - 6/30/08
Painting for Eternity. The Tombs of Paestum
With its three large Doric temples, Paestum became a well-known site early on thanks to engravings by Piranesi (1777/78) and Goethe's impressive descriptions in his Italienische Reise (1787). However, many people are unaware that Paestum contains one of the greatest treasure troves of ancient fresco paintings: During excavations in the 1960s, around 200 richly painted tombs from the Lucanian period (4th century B.C.) were discovered. The Martin-Gropius-Bau dedicates an exhibition to these rare examples of ancient tomb art. Around 45 painted tomb slabs of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Paestum will be shown at the exhibition in Berlin, including seven complete tombs.
http://europaconcorsi.com/events/66677
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Idaho Statesman - 06/29/08
How are things going at the Capitol?
Thousands of square feet of wall space in the Capitol are covered with distemper. More familiar as canine affliction, distemper is also a decorative technique dating back to ancient Egypt. Some call it "the poor man's fresco." Rich men had the real thing, like da Vinci's "Last Supper," where the artist mixed pigment with water, or egg on plaster
http://www.idahostatesman.com/102/story/428370.html
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The Sunday Times - June 29, 2008
The pioneers of Italian living
They always cite my wedding, nearly 10 years ago, to Kenton Allen, head of comedy talent at the BBC, as the time they became fully fledged members of the community. We had 120 guests crammed into the tiny, fresco-covered village church. We dined on roast sucking pig while a big band played around the swimming pool. Half the village drove the guest buses to and from Cortona; the other half did the flowers, the food, our hair or turned up to look at these foolish English in their big hats at the church. Old Cerrotti said: "Ah, so they do live here, after all."
http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/overseas/article4219881.ece
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The Norman Transcript - 6/23/08
The Romans are here
There are busts, bas relief, sarcophagi, bronze and terra-cotta statuettes dating from the early first century B.C. to the sixth century A.D. Jewelry, glass and metal cups and vessels, mosaics, fresco paintings and a cache of more than 100 major silver pieces from Pompeii provide interesting distractions among the marble statues and busts. Some of the exhibits weigh as much as 6,000 pounds.
http://www.normantranscript.com/localnews/local_story_174234432.html
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guardian- 6/21/08
Inside Michelangelo's mind
Early on, Graham-Dixon offers an arresting interpretation of the ceiling: "The fresco cycle as a whole radiates a powerful and sometimes oppressively strong sense of introspection. Looking at it feels almost nothing like looking at the real world. It feels, instead, like looking inside the mind of the man who created it." But that does not mean Michelangelo instantly seized on the Sistine ceiling as a personal obsession. Quite the reverse: he had no wish initially to accept his commission from the so-called "warrior pope", Julius II.
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2286744,00.html
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artnet - 6/21/08
Artnet News
Examples include silver wine cups decorated with episodes from the Labors of Herakles, a mirror with a scene of cupids fishing, a mosaic portraying the setting for Plato's Academy, a dining room fresco decorated with images of Apollo and the muses, a marble of Artemis, a portrait of Homer, an equestrian statue of Alexander the Great and a monumental sculpture of Aphrodite. Guest curator for the show is George Mason University art history prof Carol Mattusch. The show subsequently appears at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the co-organizing institution, May 3-Oct. 4, 2009.
http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/news/artnetnews/artnetnews6-19-08.asp
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