Resources & Recommendations #6

to listen

The Black Art Visionary Who Secretly Built the Morgan Library

The hidden story of Belle da Costa Greene (1879 - 1950) is a wild one. A brilliant scholar and authority on illuminated manuscripts, da Costa Greene was responsible for building John Pierpoint Morgan’s peerless collection, which includes drawings by Leonardo, three Gutenberg Bibles and original scores by Mozart. What is less well known is the fact that da Costa Greene was Black, and passed as white for her entire adult life, guarding the secret.

Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

to watch

The Raphael Cartoons: Making the tapestries | V&A

Another informative process video this month, this time coming from the V&A and providing an overview of the three-year process that led to the creation of Raphael’s famous tapestries for the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Palace.

to read

Drawn to greatness – the personal collection of Katrin Bellinger

In 2022 Susan Moore, art market correspondent and associate editor of Apollo, sat down with the dealer-turned-collector, Katrin Bellinger to discuss her personal collection, and the reasons behind its thematic focus: depictions of the artist at work.