At the completion of
my Byronic wanderings on the continent and my return to Albion’s glorious isle,
I am busy configuring next year’s diary, a veritable bedlam of research trips, Latin
classes, conference presentations and the odd fellowship. So, here’s a quick
distillation.
As well as actually
writing my thesis (a minor inconvenience at 90,000 words), I will start the
year teaching “Materials of Art and Architecture”, a means of inflicting my
know-it-all swottiness on a class of unsuspecting teenagers for an hour a week.
Once that ordeal is over and I have presented a paper of earth-shattering
wisdom at the Courtauld Institute of Art’s early modern postgraduate conference,
then comes the meat and two veg of PhD research, namely gallivanting around
international museums and enjoying a taste of the high life.
First up, Vienna to
see my Caravaggio and also a colossal Rubens retrospective at the Kunsthistorisches
Museum, The Power of Transformation.
Once I have had my fill of Rubens, opera, Käsekrainer and Mozarttorte, I will venture across the
pond to New Orleans, this year’s location for the Renaissance Society of
America’s annual meeting.
After a short stay in New York City, I am back in
Europe to complete an internship (“REP” in WRoCAH-speak) at the Museum of Fine
Arts Budapest, where they are preparing an exhibition on Flemish art for the
building’s grand opening.
After wallowing in the
city’s numerous thermal baths, not least the spectacular Rudas and Gellert and having
put my non-existent Hungarian to good use, I’m in for a short spell in Blighty
before packing my bags again for the AHRC’s International Placement Scheme in
Washington D.C. Basking in the magisterial presence of the White House and the
Lincoln Memorial, I will research the history of Antwerp and my church at the
world’s biggest library, the Library of Congress.
For my perusal around the
corner is the Folger Shakespeare Library, National Gallery of Art and numerous
other hallowed institutions.
Did anyone say baseball?
Did anyone say baseball?
