The City Mourned an Artist

The City Mourned an Artist

by | Jun 13, 2026 | Journal

Rome, April 7, 1520Raphael Sanzio died yesterday. Thirty-seven years old, on his birthday, of a fever. Rome has gone into a mourning I have not seen extended to an artist before and do not expect to see again in my lifetime, which is a more complicated statement than...
The Workshop on the Via dei Servi

The Workshop on the Via dei Servi

by | May 27, 2026 | Journal

Florence, October 14, 1471He was not yet thirty and already the most unsettling mind in any room he entered. I watched him from across Verrocchio’s workshop today, where he was bent over a drawing of a water wheel, cross-hatching shadow with his left hand in a...
The Bonfire of the Vanities

The Bonfire of the Vanities

by | Apr 23, 2026 | Journal

Florence, 1497I was in Florence when Savonarola organized the Bonfire of the Vanities. I stood in the Piazza della Signoria and watched it burn. Mirrors. Books. Musical instruments. Paintings. Cosmetics. Games. Anything that could be construed as bringing pleasure to...
Berlin, 1927

Berlin, 1927

by | Apr 6, 2026 | Journal

Berlin, 1927I was in Berlin in the late 1920s. I want to record what it felt like from the inside, because I think the texture of it is relevant to the present moment and I have not found a way to describe it precisely in any of the forms I have used for...
What Leonardo Taught Me About Light

What Leonardo Taught Me About Light

by | Feb 27, 2026 | Journal

Milan, circa 1495I was in Verrocchio’s workshop before Leonardo was well known and I was in Milan when he was painting the Last Supper and I want to record something specific about what it was like to be in proximity to a mind like his, because it is relevant to...