Antiques Magazine Archive, June 2015

"We must always remember with gratitude and admiration the first sailors who steered their vessels through storms and mists, and increased our knowledge of the lands of ice in the South."

Peoples of the past moved about their land in different ways, and this influenced the way they interacted. It is also very important for looking at how the maps they made symbolised how they identified with their local area. Often maps of previous centuries show villages that are now non-existent, or curiosities such as landmarks and waypoints that are rather humorous.

Writing about painting is a bit like writing about architecture. You have to absorb what the object is all about, in order to understand it. You have to know about who created it, why they created it, and who they created it for. Buildings are also much like portraits. They tell the story of a thing at a point in time, and they change with age. Our understandings of them change with age too. But like a fine architect, a fine artist’s reputation will endure, and this makes Old Master art all the more interesting.

On the website at the moment are three pieces of art (in two listings) that relate to two important artists of the early modern period.