Nikolai Ge: One of the 19C Russian artists who starred in my doctoral thesis. He painted the stunning Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Aleksei Petrovich at Peterhof. He also painted numerous portraits and some powerful religious paintings, much influenced by his friendship with Lev Tol'stoi. I have a strong suspicion that What is Truth? influenced the descriptions of Yeshua and Pilate in Bulgakov's The Master & Margarita.
Raymond III of Tripoli (1140-87): a rather tragic and ambiguous figure in the history of Outremer, the only son of Raymond II of Tripoli (assassinated 1152) and Princess Audierne/Hodierna of Jerusalem, the "princesse lointaine" of the Jaufre Rudel legend. At various times regent and power-broker, closely related to the kings of Jerusalem, but never claimed the kingship, being somewhat hampered by his lack of direct heirs. He was a significant player in the destructive political in-fighting which followed the death of the child Baldwin V in 1186. He died of pleurisy (and perhaps a broken heart) a few months after the battle of Hattin.
Human rights: Since student days, I have been a member of Amnesty International, and a supporter of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. In many respects, this has stemmed more from my work as a historian than from purely contemporary concerns. As a First Year mediævalist, I sometimes ended up in tears over my text-books. Realising that some of the same things were still happening, same methods being used, in various parts of the world, I wanted to do what little I could, because there was nothing I could do for the people in the past that I cared about.
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One of the 19C Russian artists who starred in my doctoral thesis. He painted the stunning Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Aleksei Petrovich at Peterhof.
He also painted numerous portraits and some powerful religious paintings, much influenced by his friendship with Lev Tol'stoi. I have a strong suspicion that What is Truth? influenced the descriptions of Yeshua and Pilate in Bulgakov's The Master & Margarita.
Raymond III of Tripoli (1140-87):
a rather tragic and ambiguous figure in the history of Outremer, the only son of Raymond II of Tripoli (assassinated 1152) and Princess Audierne/Hodierna of Jerusalem, the "princesse lointaine" of the Jaufre Rudel legend. At various times regent and power-broker, closely related to the kings of Jerusalem, but never claimed the kingship, being somewhat hampered by his lack of direct heirs. He was a significant player in the destructive political in-fighting which followed the death of the child Baldwin V in 1186. He died of pleurisy (and perhaps a broken heart) a few months after the battle of Hattin.
Human rights:
Since student days, I have been a member of Amnesty International, and a supporter of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. In many respects, this has stemmed more from my work as a historian than from purely contemporary concerns. As a First Year mediævalist, I sometimes ended up in tears over my text-books. Realising that some of the same things were still happening, same methods being used, in various parts of the world, I wanted to do what little I could, because there was nothing I could do for the people in the past that I cared about.