Lost in The Ashmolean
Oxford is a very special place. It makes its own island of enlightenment with open minded and educated inhabitants. It is a middle-sized town, so it's nowhere near as crowded and noisy as bigger cities. That's how I like it. Some could even say it's small, but despite that there are excellent events happening often like world-class concerts of classical music or excellent theatre performances. And there is The Ashmolean Museum. It is the University of Oxford’s museum of art and archaeology, founded in 1683. It offers a fantastic collection of arts and artefacts with exhibitions that dwarf many renowned museums around the world. The Ashmolean would fit perfectly in London, Paris or New York and small Oxford is very lucky to have it. I think it deserves it nevertheless.
Kasia works there and because I visit fairly often I thought that I would like to present some of my favourite art pieces and tell a bit more about them. The photographs I took are inspired by a fantastically good app called Daily Art. Please check out in your app store. If you are interested in art and would like to admire and learn about it, DailyArt is a must. The pieces I chose show Italy because this is where we're going next month. We will spend our holiday in a little villa in Tuscany and we'll be making daily trips to Lucca, Siena, Pisa and of course Florence, so I am hoping to admire beautiful, sunbathed hills and cypress trees under the blue sky, drink good wine, eat olives and, of course, see a lot of wonderful architecture and art. I got in touch with DailyArt and I possibly will take some photographs for them. Apparently The Ashmolean is very supportive and send high-quality images on request, whereas Italians are not nearly as good, so I hope I can support DailyArt with my images instead.
Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes (1750-1819), Rome at Sunrise The white building in the foreground is the Ospedale di San Michele, with, behind it, the bell tower of the church of Sant'Alessio on the Aventine Hill with scudding clouds on a windy day. Although the view is of Rome, that's how I think of hills of Tuscany and I can't wait!
Studio of Giovanni Paolo Panini (1691-1765), The Piazza del Popolo, Rome. Travellers arriving from the north would enter Rome through the Piazza del Popolo. Facing them were twin churches, S. Maria di Montesanto on the left and S. Maria dei Miracle. The red granite obelisk, which looks like a tribute to Bill Clinton, is Egyptian and was moved from the Circus Maximus to the Piazza in 1589. High on the left, the Villa Medici and SS Trinita ai Monti can be seen. This is closely based on a painting by Panini of 1741, now in Kansas (how the heck did that happen?) I like how it reminds me of works by Canaletto, I was originally surprised it wasn't his. Unfortunately we won't get to Rome in our little excursion. One day maybe?
So what do you think? Would you like to see more of The Ashmolean's artwork here? Let me know.