The Meeting of Dante & Virgil, Designed by Francesco de Rossi Salviati, Woven by Jan Rost & Workshop; Florence, Italy, now in Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, 1546-49 A rare and special object is on display at my hometown museum: the Minneapolis Museum of the Arts is exhibiting its own tapestry of Dante Meeting Virgil, from 1549. It was a product of an elite tapestry workshop owned by Cosimo de' Medici, fashioned at every step by top artists with the finest materials. Max Bryant, the...

Meldemann's Map, copy in Kupferstichkabinett of Berlin, original in Vienna Museum, acquired in 1835 from a private collection. No notes on the provenance of the museum's copy. Photographs of the copy are mine. The Western concept of what a map is, and what one can or should represent, has developed and expanded as ideas of time, reality, and accuracy themselves have evolved in our cultures. The map published by Nicolaus Meldemann of the failed Siege of Vienna by the Ottoman Turks in 1529...

A Young Christ hands the Law to his Disciples, 4th c., Basilica San Lorenzo, Milan I've wondered and read about the great changes Europeans underwent when they converted (usually at the command of their rulers) to Christianity. Polytheism presented divinities for several crucial aspects of their daily lives--and deaths. A change to monotheism required adherence to one god, who could not be represented in a graven image. The Christian conversion of a town or state gave the new authorities...