Some site changes and housekeeping

Cripta San Magno and Subiaco deep dive posts coming for paid members

Alert readers may have noticed I’ve made a few changes, most notably the name of the site, which I think, agrees a lot more now with what we’re actually doing here.

We’ll get into that…

But first, I can’t resist posting some eye-candy…

Trecento Triptych, Duomo of Anagni.

Last week, thanks to a friend who came to visit with a car, I was able to go see some of the more amazing bits of ancient Christian sacred art that are just hanging about - literally hanging… off the edge of a cliff - and got some magnificent photos and video clips. It was only sort of a holiday, with lots of fun socialising, but also loads of driving, photographing, filming and climbing stairs into secret, ancient stone crypts and magical places.

We went down to Angani, to see their famous cathedral, and hung out for an hour in the Cripta San Magno…

Duomo of Anagni. b. 1072-1104 with modifications in 1250. Love me some Romanesque churches…

They call it the “Sistine Chapel” of the middle ages, but I think it’s way better. Deep dive post coming for paid subscribers. Loads of pics, immersive video… Good stuff coming.

Got some amazing footage there of the Oratory of St. Thomas Becket too, a chapel built inside a 1st-2nd c. AD structure that had been a Mithraeum before Christianity. I didn’t even know it was there, so a bonus for me too. It was made a shrine to Thomas in the 12th century shortly after his martyrdom by Henry II, with a cycle of frescoes - now unfortunately very deteriorated and fragmentary - commemorating his life and death.

Me working last week at Subiaco. This is the famous “hanging” monastery with some of the most important medieval Benedictine frescos in the world. I had my gimbal, but the lady came along and told us we were allowed to take non-flash photos, but not to film. So all my footage is clandestine. So now I’ve got a boatload of de-shaking, clipping and editing to do. Know what I love? That this is my job now. I can hardly believe it.

After that we wound our way for an hour up into the hills and, not without some difficulty, found the monastery of the Sacro Speco, the place where St. Benedict lived in a cave as a religious hermit, after he fled Rome.

You’re not going to believe it…

A monastery literally just hanging off the side of a cliff, like a set of kitchen cabinets.

It was so fantastic I’m definitely going again as soon as possible.

A deep-dive post on Angani Duomo is coming in the next couple of days for the paid crowd…

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Now for some technical stuff of interest to members, paid and unpaid.

New Name: Not about me anymore.

You might have noticed some changes to the site, most notably the name. “The Sacred Images Project: Early Christian Art and Culture”.

I started it in 2021 without any clear idea what I wanted to do with it specifically. It was just a place I’d sometimes put personal news for friends and family.

When I came up with “World of Hilarity” - a riff on an old jokey nickname I’d been using as an online handle for decades - it was just on the spot and off the top of my head. It was fine until I started focusing really hard on the “niche” of sacred art, really getting into it. I knew I wouldn’t be able to monetise until I’d finished the bureaucratic processes of getting Italian residenza/ID/bank account that was just going to take as long as it was going to take. And it wasn’t until November, really, that I finally started connecting it directly to my painting and art study work.

Pretty pleased with myself over this one. I used an online logo-maker and I think it looks pretty good. The blue is as close as I could get to the Ultramarine pigment traditionally used for the Virgin’s mantle in Trecento and Renaissance painting, and the yellow is the gold leaf.

Now, and really just starting in earnest this past December/January, with a commitment to producing a minimum of two posts a week, working on courses etc. the thing really isn’t about me at all anymore. It’s not a personal blog, and I think the off-the-cuff placeholder name isn’t right for it now, and I was never that interested in having a publication all about me.

Also, I’m interested in getting other people involved as writers and collaborators, so I think it’s time to make a switch to something more topical.

Table of Contents

I thought it would be a good idea before too much more time passed, and the pile of articles to catalogue became a mountain, to set up a table of contents. All the things on the site relevant to our work are in there. The list at the top is linked to the sections, so you can just click and it will take you down the page, and all the articles and sections and things are click-able. It’s easy to find as a tab at the top of the front page.

Resources and Links

And I’ve put in a page, also linked as a tab at the top of the front page, where people can find further reading, online resources for learning more about our topics, websites and publications, as well as how-to instructors in traditional drawing and painting techniques and iconography. I get asked all the time where people can go to develop their skills, and I’ve picked the best I know about who offer instruction in English.

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Referrals and gift subscriptions

I’ve signed up for a thing that Substack offers to allow paid subscribers to give a month’s free subscription to friends who might be interested.

How to participate in the referrals programme

1. Share The Sacred Images Project. When you use the referral link below, or the “Share” button on any post, you'll get credit for any new subscribers. Simply send the link in a text, email, or share it on social media with friends.

2. Earn benefits. When more friends use your referral link to subscribe (free or paid), you’ll receive special benefits.

• Get a 1 month comp for 3 referrals

• Get a 3 month comp for 5 referrals

• Get a 6 month comp for 25 referrals

Read more about it at the Substack FAQ

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Gift subscriptions

Here’s the blurb you’ll see if you want to give a friend a month’s worth of paid membership as a gift.

Dear reader,

Thank you for being a member of the The Sacred Images Project community. As a paying subscriber, you’ve helped make the whole thing possible.

As a thank you, you now have three FREE 1-month gift subscriptions to give to family and friends (value of $9 each). Know someone who might love The Sacred Images Project? Click on the link below to share one of your gift subscriptions with them.

Thanks again for reading and sharing The Sacred Images Project.

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There’s other stuff in the works - I’m talking to some people about podcasts. I’ve got a snazzy new microphone and headset I’m excited about. The site allows you to create and offer voice-overs for articles if people would prefer to listen rather than read, so I’m learning all about that.

There is a chat feature that I think will come in handy for people doing the courses. (That’s really coming… I swear…) I’ve enabled paid members to start chats, but once a chat is started anyone can respond.

And don’t forget that the main Substack page, using the Notes feature, has loads of people, many of whom are also writing their publications, talking about all manner of things, without not a bit of the contentiousness you see on other social media platforms. You can join us - it’s free - and hang out.

And at some point… bloomin’ heck! … I’ve got to get back to my painting, drawing and commissions…It’s all a matter of time management, I know…I’m working on it.

Thanks to everyone for coming along with all this, especially to those who’ve signed up as a patron at my Ko-fi studio blog¹ and who’ve taken out paid subscriptions. It really does kind of floor me that that many people are keen and interested in it all, enough to help me keep going.

HJMW.

1. NB: if you’ve already signed up to be a monthly patron at the studio blog, drop me an email or a comment in a commbox somewhere and I’ll comp you a free subscription here. No need to pay twice.