Mark De Vitis – The Conversation

Pass-Room Bridewell, from Ackermann’s Repository, 1808. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

July 17, 2024

Trying to stay warm in bed this winter? In pre‑industrial Europe they did it with ten in the bed

Mark De Vitis, University of Sydney

As you snuggle up in bed tonight, spare a thought for how people kept warm while sleeping in Early Modern Europe.

Detail of ‘Smell’ c1500, from The lady and the unicorn series. wool and silk, 368 x 322 cm Musée de Cluny – Musée national du Moyen Âge, Paris Photo © RMN-GP / M Urtado

February 7, 2018

Explainer: the symbolism of The Lady and the Unicorn tapestry cycle

Mark De Vitis, University of Sydney

The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries, woven around 1500, have been called the ‘Mona Lisa of the Middle Ages’. While they make for breathtaking viewing, their threads are encoded with much meaning.

Detail from Rachel Ruysch, Still life with flowers in a glass vase, 1716, oil on canvas, 48.5 x 39.5 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

December 12, 2017

Here’s looking at Rachel Ruysch’s Still life with flowers in a glass vase

Mark De Vitis, University of Sydney

During her lifetime, the paintings of Dutch artist Rachel Ruysch sold for higher prices than those of Rembrandt. Why, then, have her talents not been more widely acknowledged in the centuries since?

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