Masaccio's panel of Saints Jerome and John the Baptist for Santa Maria Maggiore

Tired, or simply out of sorts? Saint Jerome (in a crimson cassock) and John the Baptist (bareheaded). Masaccio, 15th century. I could not pass by a depiction of two Church Fathers with such eloquent glances. Curiously, Jerome holds a reliquary or a model of a church resembling the famous Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, while John holds a cross with a base in the form of a column (in Italian also "colonna"), which most probably points us to Pope Martin V, who came from the Colonna family and sponsored the creation of this panel, part of a triptych for that very Santa Maria Maggiore. All in all, rather a fine piece of product placement

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

Masaccio's panel of Saints Jerome and John the Baptist for Santa Maria Maggiore

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s