Gastone's History of Rome - Hannibal Crossing the Alps (with Elephants)

Talking the Punic Wars with Gastone in Rome .

Starring Hannibal (perhaps the greatest General ever?) and his elephants crossing the Alps, the Carthiginians, Carthage (or Cartago in Italian) and some Guerilla Warfare. Would Carthage manage to defeat the Romans?

Listen in… it’s pretty dramatic!

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We are building up our virtual tours and workshops for adults and kids. Do get in touch for more information!

Thanks all and stay safe xxx

Puppet Myths - The Cornucopia and the Titans

Video below!

Welcome to the first two handed (woo hoo!) Puppet History and the first Greek Myth Puppet History telling the story of the Titans and the origin of the Cornucopia (or the horn of plenty - you see it a lot in art).

WARNING: This is a Greek Myth, if you don't know your Greek Myths they can be pretty weird, and there's a bit of violence - so in this episode there is some eating of children, and vomiting. Nice huh? (Story chosen by my 4 year old)

As always there's a large dose of artistic licence and things to bear in mind with this episode

• apologies, at one point I call Rhea Hestia - she is Rhea;

• Amalthea the goat and Zeus actually lived in a cave on Mount Ida on Crete, but my 4 year old and me decided we preferred an island (we have cabin fever);

• and the Gods didn't destroy the Titans - they defeated and imprisoned them (That’s another story).

So if you are doing serious research, then maybe don't start here! Apart from that I hope you enjoy! Those Greek myths are pretty weird, huh?!

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Gastone’s Rome – Romulus and Remus and the Foundation of Rome

Today Gastone is telling us stories about the foundation of Ancient Rome in his beautiful garden in the Campagna Romana, a perfect location for ancient Roman discussions!

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We have more on the story of Romulus and Remus and the foundation of Rome from last week – we’ll hear about the mysterious Vestal Virgins, Mars, the fearsome God of War as well as kidnappers, robbers and murderers – who said founding the greatest Empire the world has ever known (feel free to argue this) was going to be a peaceful affair?!

(this also calls me (Sarah) to do a painting sometime soon of the Rape of the Sabine Women in the National Gallery by Rubens… that’s to come!)

Have a lovely Saturday everyone, and stay safe xxx

1. Sarah's Art History - Byzantine and Margarito

We’re talking about Margarito of Arezzo, The Virgin and Child Enthroned with Scenes from the Lives of the Saints, 1260s so watch the video and here are some activities you might want to do….

Activities

• Read the information on the National Gallery website about this painting. Choose 1 most interesting fact each. Let me know!

• Choose your favourite tiny detail that you think other people might not notice.

• If you want to know about art in the west you need to know the biblical stories, they were the main subject matter of painting for many years. So use this to explore the birth of Christ (nativity) and generally Christ’s life – this will be sooooo useful for understanding paintings. If you want to broaden this out, compare his life and teachings with the other major religious teachers – the Old Testament Jewish figures, Buddha, Mohammed, etc (this could be art of a longer project).

• Or you could focus on researching the Virgin Mary, or the saints – Benedict has some giggly bits for teenagers, St Margaret is pretty interesting too.

• Look up the Saints in this painting and find out what they are saints of (sometimes surprising things!). Saints always have a symbol (s) that they hold – what are the symbols of the Saints in this painting? Can you draw your own saints with their symbols? If you want further reading the historic Golden Legend by Jacopo de Voragine has all the apocryphal stories of the lives of the saints… it’s on my shelf as yet unread!

• Prepare a little play from the life of Christ. Kids choose. Any scene, any how. Wear costumes! Use props! Send me a video!

• Design a different throne for Mary and Jesus to sit on. Send me a picture!

Next time:

We will be looking at The Wilton Dyptich, late 1300s (we don’t know who painted it), also at the National Gallery. Look it up at www.nationalgallery.org.uk (copy the painting info and national gallery in google and it should be the first link) but also find a good image of it in google/bing search to look at with me online.

Questions:

1. How many angels are there with wings?

2. How many Kings with Crowns?

3. Can you find the mushrooms (close looking please!)

Thanks for watching. Do like, follow, share! And Happy Mother’s Day and see you next time!

Sxxx

How do you remember all those Kings and Queens? Series on the lives and deaths of British Monarchs

Ok, so I am going to begin a series of blogs on the British Monarchy… so if you fancy an overview then stick with me. And for starters I am going to go through how you remember all those kings and queens – as we have had quite a few!

My puppets of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon - he's probably the most famous King of England... but who came before him and who came after him? Read on to find out!

One of the reasons I became a guide was because in my mid-20s I was a little ashamed that I knew very little about British history. I didn’t know what the main periods were and in terms of Kings and Queens I only really knew about Henry VIII (only that he had 6 wives and executed some of them), Elizabeth I (because she was hardcore) and our current Queen Elizabeth II, and I knew that plague was a dangerous thing giving you buboes (big boils) in your armpits and boils (the type of things kids remember). So I trained to be a Professional Blue Badge Tourist Guide for London, the best tourist guiding qualification in the world (we think!) and it forced me to learn my history. And now you can learn it too!

So, first things first, I had to learn all my Kings and Queens. Now there are quite a few…you could go all the way back to the Anglo-Saxon period (from the end of Roman rule in the 400s to 1066) – but for some of that period the realm was divided into kingdoms (think Game of Thrones) and there were loads of rulers so it can get quite confusing - so for the sake of simplicity and so we cover the more famous monarchs I am going to start this with the invasion of William of Normandy in 1066, who ruled the whole of England and from whom you can draw a continuous line (albeit a bit fragmented sometimes) from him to our current Queen Elizabeth II.

So, since 1066 and William of Normandy there have been some 45 rulers of this fair realm (hold your horses those of you who are sticklers for accuracy… the number is variable depending on what and who you are counting, so I am giving a rough number… don’t want people to switch off straight away!). So 45 odd rulers are quite a lot to remember, especially in order, so where do you start? Well you learn this poem:

Willie, Willie, Harry, Steve

Harry, Dick, John, Harry 3;

One, two, three Neds, Richard 2

Henry four, five, six... then who?

Eddie, Eddie, Dick the bad,

Harrys twain  and Ned the Lad;

Mary, Bessie, James the Vain,

Charlie, Charlie, James again...

William, Mary, Anna Gloria,

Four Georges, William and Victoria;

Eddie 7 and Georgie 5,

Eddie 8 and Gerogie 6,

And now Elizabeth alive!

And once that is in your head, then you can workout which is which, work out your Royal Houses and start adding some interesting information about each of them until you know them all and you start giving me and my guides a run for their money (some on our Royal London Tour and test us!)!

So, have fun learning it (stick the poem on your fridge!) and more posts to come on our English, and British, Monarchs. See you soon!

After a Tour...

To keep the memories of history fresh for your kids, why not get them painting the things they saw? This is my daughter's Great Fire of London (she's 2 1/2).... and I'll remember if she doesn't!