It is difficult to know what, exactly, to make of the sculptor Eric Gill, what with his indiscriminate sexual appetites and belief that all art was meaningless unless understood as an expression of religious conviction... In 1914 Eric Gill submitted a design – of George V astride a urinating horse – to ... Read More...
Atlas of Norbiton
Pocket guide to the Failed Life
From the Dabbler's rich archives, Toby Ferris examines the place of teeth in the art of fifteenth century Italy and Northern Europe... I have come to realise that if I am to make any real progress on my much anticipated, much delayed History of Whistling, I will first have to address ... Read More...
Lost in reproduction: a tiny Venus meets a colossal Samson. I was recently in Frankfurt for a few hours and visited the Städel gallery, where I reacquainted myself with Lucas Cranach’s Venus (1532), the painting used as the poster image for the Royal Academy Cranach show of 2008. She is an unforgettable ... Read More...
Today we recall a Christian who threw himself to the lions. It is a very terrible thing to be “framed up” and cruelly punished when one is entirely innocent. ... I always call mine a clerical Dreyfus case. Still, I feel sure things will eventually right themselves, for “though the Mills ... Read More...
The unexpected pleasures of the technical glitch. 2013 is Richard Wagner’s bicentenary, and I notice there will be a concert performances of several of his operas at the Proms in July, including a complete Ring cycle. I’ve seen concert performances of Wagner before and they are exhilarating, effective, moving, what you will; ... Read More...
Prepare to be re-oriented - we welcome back the Atlas of Norbiton, which today maps out benches and their historical ramifications. Years ago when I was teaching English in Rome I had an American colleague – William Smith III of Colombia, South Carolina – who one month, with still some days ... Read More...
If we listen at the tombs of the ancients what can we hear? In the suburbs of the small town of Tarquinia in Northern Lazio there is a necropolis of the former Etruscan inhabitants. Etruscan necropolises vary in form depending on local custom, rock-type, age and so on. The necropolis at ... Read More...
In this bulletin from Norbiton, Toby examines the place of teeth in the art of fifteenth century Italy and Northern Europe... I have come to realise that if I am to make any real progress on my much anticipated, much delayed History of Whistling, I will first have to address the ... Read More...
The country house as shipwreck... The location of artworks around the world is a form of historical record. You could if you wished read the flows of trade and money and power and financial clout over the ages by studying the bills of sale of oil paintings, statuettes, antiquities, in much ... Read More...
In which Toby at last discovers the acme of museums... I have finally located the Museum of Everything. It is in London, on Malet Place, and it is called the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. Museums, as we know, are compendiums of objects. But the further you travel – physically or conceptually ... Read More...