Museum Secrets - Part 2

Dear Everyone,

The Professor has a thing for museums. This attraction is described in Gabriel's Inferno and it will be explored in the sequel.

Last week, I tweeted about some of the great museums of the world. Today, I'd like to provide a link to two of those museums.

The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia is an incredible repository of art and artifacts. It also has an excellent website that provides visitors with a virtual tour.

One of my favourite pieces in the Hermitage is Rembrandt's The Prodigal Son. (You can read my previous post on this painting here.)

The British Museum in London boasts another incredible collection. My favourite piece is the Rosetta Stone. It enabled researchers to translate Egyptian hieroglyphics because the Egyptian text was also recorded on the stone in Greek. (Parenthetically, it should be noted that the Museum's elegant gift shop is not above embracing kitsch. I was able to purchase a very nice mouse pad and paperweight of the Rosetta Stone.)

As we approach the end of March, I'm pleased to announce that the cover to the sequel to Gabriel's Inferno will be revealed soon. We're still expecting a release date before summer. I'll be posting more information in the next couple of weeks and there will be opportunities for you to win a copy of the sequel. (You can read a teaser for the book here. A second teaser will be posted on the Bookish Temptations site in April.)

Finally, I want to congratulate my friend E.L. James on the sale of her Fifty Shades Trilogy to Vintage Books and the forthcoming sale of the film rights to those books.

Thank you, readers, for your support of me and my writing.

All the best and thanks for reading,

SR

www.sylvainreynard.com

Great Museums of the World - part 1

Dear Everyone,

The Professor enjoys museums. One could argue that he enjoys them too much ...

Setting aside the romantic aspects of museums, I'd like to focus on a few treasures from two of my favourites.

The first is the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence. They have one of the finest collections of Italian Renaissance art in the world, as well as a collection of Dutch and Flemish masters. The contrast between the two kinds of artwork is striking, almost jarring.

My favourite room in the Uffizi is the Sandro Botticelli room. (You can read a previous post of mine on Botticelli's illustrations of Dante's Divine Comedy here.) One of my favourite paintings is Botticelli's Primavera.

However, there are two other works in the Uffizi that fascinate me. First, Filippo Lippi's Madonna with Child and Two Angels, which is mentioned in Gabriel's Inferno (You can read about it here.)

Second, the Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci. (You can view a stunning image of it here.)

Another favourite museum of mine is the Prado in Madrid. There's an extensive Spanish collection here, of course, with many European masterpieces.

Let me draw your attention to three of my favourites. First, Francisco de Goya's moving and dramatic The Third of May 1808.

Second, Diego Rodriguez Velazquez's Las Meninas.

Finally, Orazio Gentileschi's St. Francis supported by an Angel.

In the age of the internet, one doesn't need to travel in order to visit the great museums of the world. Both the Uffizi and the Prado have websites that offer virtual tours. The Web Gallery of Art offers a searchable database of images, if you have a particular piece in mind and you want to know to which museum it belongs.

I also want to recommend the television series "Museum Secrets," which goes behind the scenes at major museums. Their programs and their secrets are fascinating.

I'll be posting about other museums later this week. You can also follow me on Twitter.

All the best and thanks for reading,

SR

www.sylvainreynard.com

Reader Supported Listening

Dear Everyone,

A few weeks ago, I asked readers to tell me what songs they would place on the soundtrack to Gabriel's Inferno. I was pleasantly surprised when I received tweets and messages from readers around the world, recommending various music. I've included references to several songs in the novel, but I was interested in hearing what the readers thought would make a good soundtrack.

The song that stood out amongst the recommendations was No Light, No Light by Florence + The Machine. Rebecca C. sent the song to me, which you can listen to here.

The lyrics that caught my attention: "No light, no light in your bright blue eyes. I never knew daylight could be so violent. The revelation in the light of day ..."

I'm still meditating on the violence of daylight.

Readers recommended many different kinds of music and I found myself introduced to several new bands. Here's a list of some of the songs:

"Sinister Kid" by The Black Keys. "That's me, that's me - the boy with the broken halo. The devil won't let me be ..."

"Broken" by Livingstone. "Broken in silence, I adore you ..."

"Fix You" by Coldplay.

"If You Only Knew" by Shinedown.

"Arms" by Christina Perri.

"A Drop in the Ocean," by Ron Pope. *I enjoyed listening to this song very much.

"Sigh No More," by Mumford and Sons.

"Entre tus alas," by Camila.

"In the End," by Snow Patrol.

"For The First Time," by The Script.

"I Love You," by Sarah McLachlan.

"Cloudbusting," by Kate Bush.

"Amazed," by Lonestar.

Thank you to everyone who sent a suggestion. I invite more musical recommendations in the comments below.

In light of the Professor's passion for museums (and their inherent seductive possibilities), I'll be posting a series of entries on the museums of the world, beginning tomorrow.

All the best and thanks for reading,

SR

www.sylvainreynard.com