No. 141 The Trusty Servant
Philip Steadman’ s( Coll, 55-60) recent book, Canaletto’ s Camera explores the ways in which the great Venetian artist Antonio Canaletto( 1697-1768) made use of the camera obscura as an aid to drawing and painting. It surveys Canaletto’ s contacts with contemporary Venetian and Paduan scientists, in particular Francesco Algarotti who wrote on Newton’ s philosophy and the camera obscura.
Using a reconstructed eighteenthcentury design of camera obscura, the author and his colleagues have made drawings of views that Canaletto painted in London. Steadman has recreated both a veduta( a real view) and a capriccio( a fantasy) using Canaletto’ s processes of‘ photomontage’. The experiments are detailed in the book, shedding new light on the artist’ s procedures, and emphasising how weak and permeable the boundary is between the two types of picture.
308 pages; UCL Press; ISBN 978-1800088399
Rupert Younger( F, 79-84) has published his third book, Forked Tongues, which explores the dark arts of the character assassin. What started out as an attempt to explain the collapse in contemporary political and diplomatic discourse turned into a deeper dive into how character assassination has been used as a political, economic and social tool for millennia. In the book, Rupert maps three personality types – Narcissists, Machiavellians and Psychopaths against Dante’ s descent into Hell before setting out ten strategies to consider when targeted by a character assassin.
326 pages; Olympia Publishers; ISBN 978-1835437483
OW Sport
Cambridge Basketball Blue While at Win Coll, Alexandra Bunn- Livingstone( B, 22-24) played with the senior team and played in many games alongside her male contemporaries. Alexandra is now at Cambridge University and is playing for the Women’ s first team.
OW Golfing News For the second year running, the OW Golfing Society team reached the final of the Halford Hewitt Cup, the annual golf tournament held each year at Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club in Kent.
64 alumni teams represented their schools and Winchester reached the final against a very strong Rossall team. Winchester had won 5 knockout matches to that point, including very satisfying victories over Harrow and Eton in the quarter and semi-finals. These two latest appearances in the final follow the OW victory in the 2018 tournament, the first for 60 years.
OW Soccer News Lekan Olagunju( F, 17-19) writes:
Off the back of a positive season for both the 1s and 2s in the 24 / 25 season, the OWs were hoping to use that platform and go even better in the 25 / 26 season. However, a lack of early-season availability meant that both teams faced a daunting challenge in 2026 to avoid relegation. Without drawing out the tension but suffice it to say that both the 1s and 2s will find themselves playing in a division lower next season.
Despite a sour end to the year, there was still much to celebrate during the season:
• we marked the 150th anniversary of OWFC at Win Coll with games against the school 1st( for Maclure Pot) and 2nd XIs. Both Old Wykehamist teams won their fixtures against the school but it was a great show of the future talent ready to come through the OW ranks once they’ ve left school. It was a great day out for all the players and the spectators, who all had deep connections with the club and came to watch and celebrate;
• Gabriel Tiplady( E, 06-11) & Lekan Olagunju hit 100 appearances for the Club in the first game of the season;
• the main headline for the season was the ever-present and Mr. Reliable, James Essex( I, 06-11), who scored his 200th goal for the Old Wykehamists.
As always, we welcome any keen footballers to get involved in OW football.
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