Origins of Sirens
On October 25th, 2022, I gave a lecture at Metropolitan State University on the Origins of Sirens. In the presentation, I trace how...
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Carolyn Whitson
- Aug 16, 2022
- 5 min
Time Travel through the French Monuments Museum in Paris
I love when a museum makes learning fun. The French Monuments Museum (FMM, for brevity here) in Paris gives a presentation that is...
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Carolyn Whitson
- Jul 10, 2021
- 4 min
The Lion King, Part 2
The use of lions in medieval religious and political art hews closely to the traditions inherited from around the Mediterranean. Lions...
65 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
- May 19, 2021
- 9 min
Chasing a Ghost Along the Pilgrimage Trail
When I began to study medieval art in graduate school, I found myself often puzzling over murky, low-contrast images in black-and-white,...
70 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
- Apr 22, 2021
- 5 min
What Lies Beneath, Part 2
For such a small patch of excavated floor, the mosaic pavement in the abbey at Bobbio (under the current basilica) has a number of...
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Carolyn Whitson
- Apr 16, 2021
- 6 min
What Lies Beneath, Part 1
The lovely town of Bobbio has always been small and out of the way, but in the early 600s, this was exactly what the Irish abbot St....
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Carolyn Whitson
- Apr 9, 2021
- 7 min
Fabulous Fakes
Many's the time I've gotten excited by the prospect of visiting a medieval church, only to find that "medieval" mostly referred to the...
92 views1 comment
Carolyn Whitson
- Feb 18, 2021
- 5 min
Pre-Romanesque Churches in Asturias
Few 9th century churches survive anywhere in Europe, but in Northern Spain are a few precious remaining examples. Santa Cristina de Lena...
52 views0 comments
Carolyn Whitson
- Feb 15, 2021
- 8 min
Early Christian Churches in Rome, Part 2
Here, I continue to point out some features of church architecture, generally before 1100. Please see Part 1 post for more on this...
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Carolyn Whitson
- Feb 14, 2021
- 5 min
Early Christian Churches in Rome, Part 1
What follows here are some features of churches from roughly 350-1100 in Rome. Most of my photo studies are of Romanesque and Gothic,...
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Carolyn Whitson
- Jan 22, 2021
- 4 min
San Juan de La Pena, Service and Miracles
Up in the remote hills in northern Spain, the monastery of San Juan de la Pena contains the ruins of a tiny cloister, with magnificent...
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Carolyn Whitson
- Jan 22, 2021
- 3 min
Chartres Cathedral--another temple to Mary the Queen
Chartres isn't very far from Paris, by modern standards, and its veneration of Mary is an occasion for comparisons to Notre Dame de Paris....
394 views3 comments
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