Author Interview: Jeannie Marshall's "All Things Move: Learning to Look in the Sistine Chapel"

About this episode

Hello, listeners! I’ve got a special surprise for you this week. I’ve been waiting to share this amazing conversation that I enjoyed recently with expat and author Jeannie Marshall about her lovely book, All Things Move: Learning to Look in the Sistine Chapel. What do we hope to get out of seeing a famous piece of art? Jeannie Marshall asked that question of herself when she started visiting the Sistine Chapel frescoes. She wanted to understand their meaning and context―but in the process, she also found what she didn’t know she was looking for. All Things Move: Learning to Look in the Sistine Chapel tells the story of Marshall’s relationship with one of our most cherished artworks. Interwoven with the history of its making and the Rome of today, it’s an exploration of the past in the present, the street in the museum, and the way a work of art can both terrify and alchemize the soul. An impassioned defense of the role of art in a fractured age, All Things Move is a quietly sublime meditation on how our lives can be changed by art, if only we learn to look. About the author: Jeannie Marshall is a writer who has been living in Italy with her family since 2002. A nonfiction author, j