Preraphaelites, Grail Castles, dragons, and the treasure of the Knights Templar

On 3 October I went to the Preraphaelites exhibition at Tate Britain in London. A very impressive, very comprehensive exhibition featuring pretty much all the great works by the brotherhood. (So much so that it took up the whole day and we didn't get to see the Edvard Munch exhibition across the river- Preraphaelites win over Munch, it seems.) I made a souvenir slideshow for youtube which can be seen here:

Some of the exhibits were very up my street, especially those with a medievalist flavour. There were some specimens of the Holy Grail (Morris and Burne Jones) tapestries, the complete sequence of which I had seen previously in an exhibition in Birmingham.

Last week (7-13th) I went on a trip to Bavaria. Visited medieval Rotehenburg, which is a mixture of pretty quaintness with a slightly eerie atmosphere, like something out of a gothic novel. especially on a slightly gloomy day.

Also went to Nuremberg, and Ulm, and Blaubueren, where there is a pool of extraordinarily blue water, called the Blautopf, with a mill on it and overlooked on the other side by an abbey. It is the source of the river Blau, and is said to be the home of a water nymph (who pours a pot of ink into it on a regular basis).

Perhaps best of all Neuschwanstein Castle- the fantasy construction of the much misunderstood King Ludwig II.

Was treat to a spectacular glipmse of the beautiful castle above the mist, from the bridge that spans an awesome gorge between the mountains, ajacent. The castle itself contains exquisite murals featuring scenes from medieval legends, including Tristra and Isolde, Tannhauser, Lohengrin and Parsifal (Percival).

Very, very me, once again! And when I left the enchanted castle vanished completely.

On a slightly related note, I have gotten hold of the treasure of the Knights Templar. Eastgate resource have send me samples of the range of Templar-inspired jewelry that I designed for them. I have also seen a dragon. Nemesis Now have sent me pictures of the architectural dragon lamp that I designed for them, and I am very pleased with what they have produced. It has gone down well with the good people on Deviantart, too...

http://dashinvaine.deviantart.com/art/Dragon-Lamp-Nemesis-Now-332331562

Pre-Raphaelites at Ashmolean

If anyone is anywhere near Oxford over the coming months the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at the Ashmolean museum is worth checking out. If you like that sort of thing, it will be just the sort of thing you like. Focusses on the Italian subjects chosen by the likes of Rossetti, Hunt, Burne Jones and Rushkin and Noel Paton. Some brilliant paintings and drawings to be seen. One of the paintings that is really striking in the flesh is Burne-Jones' 'Fall of Lucifer', which anticipates the art movements and the tragic history of later centuries and is full of defiant melancholia. Another impressive exhibit was 'Dante meditating on Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta'.

The encounter with the shades of Paolo and Francesca is one of my favourite parts of the Divine Comedy, and is a subject I've attempted once myself in a picture. other things in the expo that were a pleasure to see were Italian landcapes and architecutal drawings by various artists (especially Ruskin in the latter case) which reminded me of my own visits to Venice, Verona and Florence.

Also had a brief look at the rest of the museum, which I haven't been too since I was little. Unfortunately the two main Egyptian galleries were closed for refurbishmet, which was disappointing especially as I'm having a bit of an Egyptian phase.