Posted inModern Era

Biagio da Cesena, the Cardinal Caricatured by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel for Criticizing Nudity in His Paintings

There are historical figures who have gone down in history more for some inconsequential anecdote than for the significance they had in the context in which they lived. This is what happened with a priest who lived between the 15th and 16th centuries, was the master of ceremonies for Pope Leo X, organized three conclaves […]

Posted inMiddle Ages

Cyriacus of Ancona, the Italian Humanist Considered the Father of Archaeology Who Identified the Pyramids and the Parthenon

Although the German Johann Joachim Winckelmann is generally considered the father of modern archaeology, it’s important to note that this science didn’t suddenly appear in the 18th century but had roots hundreds of years earlier, particularly in the Italian Renaissance, which revived Greco-Roman artistic and cultural classicism. Consequently, one might call one of those multidisciplinary […]

Posted inModern Era

The Shield-Lantern, a Renaissance Gadget to Fight at Night Blinding the Adversary

The Kunsthistorisches Museum or Museum of Art History in Vienna is one of the most important of its kind in the world. It houses significant collections of art, archaeology, numismatics, and applied arts, including the imperial treasury and the most outstanding collection of works by Rubens, Velázquez, Dürer, Caravaggio, Brueghel, and many others. It also […]

Posted inArt

Cesare Borgia, Machiavelli’s model for his Renaissance prince and alleged inspiration for Leonardo’s face of Christ

Cesare Borgia, commonly known as the Duke of Valentinois, gained his state through his father’s fortune, and lost it with that same fortune, despite employing every imaginable means and doing everything that a prudent and skillful man should do to establish himself in a state acquired with the help of arms and the support of […]