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What Women Want

28/1/2015

Apart from Dr Suzannah Lipscomb's The Last Days of Ann Boleyn which was shown in January, and Helen Castors She Wolves in 2012 there have been few documentaries on our screens about the lives and talents of women. We never seem to see much about the lives of women much past Elizabeth I.

However other two programmes I do recall are Lucy Worsley's Harlots, Housewives and Heroines: A 17th Century History for Girls which was a fascinating study of women in Restoration England and the most recent, last year in fact was The Story of Women and Art which was presented by Amanda Vickery.

In Lucy's programme it was Aphra Behn, the first professional female writer who I remember most and in Amanda's programme it was two women who lived on the peripheries of the art world but whose work was equal to their male contemporaries. These women were Angelica Kauffman and Anne Seymour Darmer.

Angelica Kauffman, was a woman who forged herself a successful career in the male dominated world of historical art. Angelica cleverly spotted a 'niche market' that was historical art through a woman's perspective. Secondly, there was sculptress Anne Seymour Darmer, an only child of doting parents, who employed noted sculptors to instruct her, but whose budding new career was damaged by her inheritance spending, drunken, womanising husband.

These two women were brilliant artists so why is it that we not know little about their talents? Florence Hallett, art writer and critic explains:

" the truth is that those of us who do not believe that women lack the talent to become artists have by and large fallen for a bigger and more pernicious lie, that women artists have barely existed at all, so successfully were they shut out from the male realms of education, training and business."

All these women had to work in a world that was predominantly male, and as it has quite rightly been put "misogynistic and medieval in its outlook."

Wouldn't it be nice to see a little bit, no a lot more of the achievements of women on our screens more often.

Thanks to both Lucy and Amanda, please keep up the good work.

Angelina Kauffman: A Self Portrait

Anne Seymour Darmer

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Amazing Women in History

18/1/2015

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In my blog Heroines: Amazing Women in History ( http://meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/blog/heroines-amazing-women-in-history) I wrote of Livinia Fontana, an Italian artist, who painted anything from portraits to female nudes to religious art, she was a confident woman who didn't work within the confines of what society saw as befitting her rank, free to paint and live her life as she pleased. The painting you see above is one of her works, magnificent isn't it?

Not only does this painting prove that Fontana was a very talented artist but it gives us a insight into the fashion of the time and the structure of Italian family life.

An art historian explains Fontana's painting in detail...

"..... divides the portrait into two even if asymmetrical and contrasting sections. The three children to the left gaze out directly at the viewer and are presented in a pyramidal structure. They appear still, well-behaved and sit attentively to the artist. Conversely, the positioning of the three boys to the right of the composition is less strict. They are shown as rather more playful and animated, and two of the boys look at each other as opposed to the viewer, creating a less formal mood.

The portrait is remarkable for its meticulous attention to the detail of the different hairstyles, including Bianca's floral hairband, the embroidered costumes and for the wide range of textures shown. The five boys wear outfits made from the same rich material while mother and daughter wear different dresses. All, however, wear clothes which makes use of quite pronounced dark and light fabrics and patterns. Mother and daughter also stand out from the boys by the elaborate jewelry they wear in the gold earrings and the pearls around their necks. While the cuffs of all the clothes differ slightly, all wear very similar sumptuous ruffs and particular attention has been paid to depicting the play of light and shadow on these.

Despite the elegance of the clothes and the formal setting, the portrait stands out for its sympathetic approach to the sitters and for the tender family context in which they are shown. As is the wont of young children, nearly all the figures are seen busying themselves by holding objects. The boy upper left is shown with a colorful bird tied to a little chain as his brother below him holds an inviting plate of fruit. In her right hand Verginia holds her mother's forefinger and with her left tenderly plays with the paw of the little dog, who comfortably seated on Bianca's arm, underlines her loyalty as a wife. To the right the middle boy's hands cannot be seen but the movement of his body suggests that behind his mother's back his hands are not idle. His two brothers both hold objects, the first a pen and inkpot and the second a medallion with the figure of a knight, the objects probably alluding to their future professions.

Though Bianca is shown here with five of her sons, particular attention seems to be drawn to the little girl, Verginia, for she is the only child whom Bianca is hugging and she is the only one to have her name inscribed above her head. It may well be that the portrait was painted specifically for her or in her honor, all the more so since we know that the painting has remained in the family of her immediate successors"

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Is Cornwall an Island?

16/1/2015

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With regard to my native Cornwall, should we consider ourselves so very special and so full of self importance that
we want to be separate from the rest of the country? Or should we be saying

"Welcome to our county, we are breathtaking in our beauty, fascinating in our customs and have a history to die for.
We are proud of ourselves and we are proud to be part of a United Kingdom."

Last year saw Cornwall's individuality recognised, with the Cornish being granted a minority status, but what affect
will this have and what will it lead to?
I read recently:

"Feel that, boy," said the grandfather as he clutched a handful of Cornish soil. "that's the beating heart of Cornwall."

This statement could not get any closer to the way I feel about this county if it plunged its hand into my chest and
squeezed every drop of blood from my heart. My photograph, taken a couple of years ago, has me standing on the
bank of the Tamar, Cornwall's 'border' established by King Athelstan in the 936. As a little girl, I thought this river cut
Cornwall off from England completely, thus leading me to believe Cornwall was an island. My ancestry dates back
to the year dot in Cornwall and that makes me feel special, but with age I realised that the county of my birth is
not an island and as much as I feel special, I am in fact, not.

An article the Guardian eloquently sums up many of the reasons I am proud to be Cornish, however this particular
statement worries me, the author writes:

"To many Cornish nationalists, this week's recognition of the Cornish people as a minority, alongside the Welsh and Scots,
is merely a step on the path to a devolved assembly, the re-establishment of the old Stannary Parliament" as does "the Cornish are not really English, and Cornwall is not really England."

With regard to Cornwall, but it applies generally as well, I don't think that nationalism is the way forward, there are more negatives aspects than there are positive. The main problem for me is that it supports the view that peoples only
responsibility is to their own and not the rest of the world, thus creating a "them and us" society. There is nothing wrong
with being proud of your nationality, as I am indeed proud to be Cornish, Cornwall is different, it has its own language,
its own customs and like the article says

"Cornwall's particularity lies in its abiding and diverse sense of place. No other region of England offers such a range of dramatic landscapes, nor carries such a freight of mythology and projection"

and this has been acknowledged in its new status. That should be enough. We don't want to encourage the
view charity begins at home or even worse I'm alright Jack!

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Coronation of Elizabeth I

15/1/2015

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The Golden Age Arrives

It was almost a month, following the burial of Mary, that Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, was crowned queen of England, her coronation took place on the 15th January 1559.

The day before, the crowded streets of London saw the fourth of five pageants take place where Elizabeth was seen by the public carried through the streets on a golden litter.

This fourth pageant represented the contrast between the previous reign of Mary's and the forthcoming one of the new queen. During the penultimate event a bible was presented to Elizabeth. Taking the bible, Elizabeth kissed it and laid it on her breast causing much whooping within the large crowd. This action would lead to the fifth pageant where Elizabeth would be portrayed as Deborah, an old testament prophet, who 'rescued the House of Israel' and went on to rule for forty years.

During this final festivity, Elizabeth said to the Lord Mayor:

"And whereas your request is that I should continue your good lady and be Queen, be ye ensured that I will be as good unto you as ever Queen was unto her people. No will in me can lack, neither do I trust shall there lack any power. And persuade yourselves that for the safety and quietness of you all I will not spare if need be to spend my blood. God thank you all."

Elizabeth had always been popular with the English people and this event, which turned out to be very successful, proved how happy the English people were to see her take the throne.

Elizabeth's coronation took place on the Sunday in Westminster Abbey, and was said to be a

"clever compromise between the Catholic practices that existed and the Protestant ones that she intended to introduce."

Although Elizabeth was crowned by a Catholic bishop in Latin, other parts of the service were read twice in both Latin and English. Following this Elizabeth stepped out from the abbey and faced her people with her crown, orb and sceptre as Queen Elizabeth I of England.

The original 1559 coronation portrait has been lost but we can see what Elizabeth looked like in her coronation robes in a copy dated 1600. It is in miniature form by an unknown artist which is held in a private collection.

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Coming to Terms with Shakespeare

11/1/2015

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It has taken me a while but I am now able to talk about William Shakespeare without harping on about the fact that he is solely responsible for Richard III's bad press. I can now read and enjoy his plays for what their are, just plays.

Shakespeare in his day was a poet with a living to make he certainly wasn't considered a historian by the people around him he was simply writing what Elizabethan theatre goers wanted to hear and see. The Elizabethans liked their

"villains to be villainous," the audience had a "constant demand for a really bloody gangster play just as today there is a similar demand for a sadistic gangster film. Shakespeare's Richard is nothing but a royal gangster who had been
   presented to him ready made by Tudor chroniclers"

said V E Lamb writing in 1959

Shakespeare wasn't concerned with historical accuracies, he just made the facts fit his plays. In The Betrayal of Richard III it is suggested that it was of no consequence to Shakespeare that he presents Richard as a monster, a grown man who was "reveling in the bloodshed at the Battle of Towton" when in fact he was an eight year old exiled in Utrecht, or that he makes Margaret of Anjou wander around the Palace of Westminster in 1483 foretelling Richards downfall when she actually had been in France since 1475. None of these were actual facts, Shakespeare simply used what he knew to make his plays more exciting. After all we have seen it done today, you have only got to watch any television series or film to see that. Shakespeare portrayed Richard III as the villain his public loved to hate, a murderous, lying, ruthless hunchbacked king.

I read recently that the English take their religion from Milton and their history from Shakespeare how true is that. Not only have I fallen into that trap, but many accredited historians have done the same such as James Gairdner, a British historian who studied the early Tudor period relating to Richard III, Henry VII and Henry VIII. As an introduction to his work entitled Lancaster and York he writes

"For the period of English history treated in this volume we are fortunate in possessing an unrivalled interpreter in our great dramatic poet Shakespeare. A regular sequence of historical plays exhibits to us not only the general character of each successive reign but nearly the whole chain of leading events from the days of Richard II to the death of Richard III at
   Bosworth. Following the guidance of such a master mind we realise for ourselves the men and actions of the period in a
  way we cannot do in any other epoch"

James Gairdner by Frank Baxter. Plaster bust dated 1900

There are many of us who are in someway to blame for Richard III being portrayed for over 500 years as a wife poisoning, niece lusting, nephew murdering tyrant. The Tudor usurpers who needed to blacken his name so that they could hold onto his crown, historians like Gairdner for perpetuating the lie and the likes of me, only a few years ago, for not thinking for myself. I should have read and listened to all points of view before making my mind up, but I see now that we cannot wholly blame William Shakespeare for Richard's undoing.

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Cornishware: Made in Cornwall?

5/1/2015

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Image the scene, the Cornish splits you made earlier are quietly rising in the oven, you look out of your cottage window and marvel at the meadow awash with summer flowers as you fill your Cornishware jug and bowl with jam and cream.

This alternate blue and white striped tableware is just perfect because Cornishware is the epitome of the Cornish life style mentioned above and after all, the inspiration for this collection is Cornwall's the blue skies and the crested waves of is beautiful clear sea.

You will be surprised to learn then, that apart from the artistic link to Cornwall's sky and waves, this kitchenware's only real link to Cornwall is the Cornish china clay it was once made from. The lorries of T G Green and Co, took the ideal, along with the clay, to the coal fired kilns of its potteries in Derbyshire because they considered it cheaper to transport the clay to the midlands, rather than manufacture in Cornwall.

Instead of sitting at our kitchen table in Cornwall we now find ourselves in the Lincolnshire town of Boston, where the founder of T G Green was born in 1822. Thomas Goodwin Green was the son of a struggling corn merchant and one of nine children whose family eventually moved to London. It was here that Green met Mary Tenniel, the sister of John Tenniel, the talented illustrator of Alice in Wonderland and Punch magazine. Their early relationship was somewhat stained due to the fact that she was either pushing too hard for marriage or that he was involved with the daughter of a fencing instructor, either way Mary Tenniel lost patience and left, the broken hearted Green caught the next boat to Australia. It was in Australia that Thomas made the beginnings of his fortune, initially putting up telegraph poles then in the construction business, but eventually he returned to England and to Mary Tenniel.

It was while on honeymoon in Scarborough that the ever ambitious Green met Henry Wilemanin, the owner of a number of potteries in Swadlincote and one in Church Gresley that he wished to sell. Sensing an opportunity, Green travelled to Derbyshire and in 1864 he purchased Wilemanin's business and a family home in Barton under Needwood. Six children were born to the couple and while Mary tended to the children Thomas purchased a large piece of land on which he built bottle kilns and workshops. Over time production increased as did his workforce, and it was at this point that the company changed from making their product in the local brown clay to the more delicate white of the Cornish enabling the company to concentrate on making a more refined product. Within thirty years Green had made his fortune with goods coming out of his factories stamped Church Gresly Potteries, Burton on Trent.

In 1903 Greens factory was damaged by a large fire and the introduction of a purchase tax on pottery products saw a down turn in production, but by installing electricity and gas in his factories he was able to use quicker and more effective boilers. He replaced the old bottle kiln with the new automated tunnel kiln and once again production increased. The date that Cornishware made its first appearance in Greens potteries is not known, but it was probably during the 1920's, as a range of goods appears in their trade catalogue of 1924, by the 1930's sales had really taken off and a thriving export business established. T G Green Cornishware range included wonderful lettered jars to hold flour, sugar salt, raisins tea and coffee, customers were given the opportunity to name their own, such as the one seen below named Viota, which is a brand of cake mix. The customers request slip was sent to the factory where they were fired and return to the shop. Green saw his products sell in English shops all over the country from Woolworths to Harrods.

Eventually, T G Greens became a limited company and Thomas handed over his business to his son Roger and his great friend one Henry King and retired in comfort to London. Thomas company survived and expanded making many different products from bowls, cups and saucers to rolling pins and the 1960's Greens design was updated by young designer Judith Onions, who restyled the range which is a much loved as Thomas's design and now both Greens and Onions designs have become popular with collectors.

In 2007 the factories closed down and in 2010 all that remained of Greens kilns at Gresley are crumbling chimneys and a few broken pots and a for sale sign attached above the door

"For Sale. Home of Cornishware"

For more images of what's left of T G Green and Co please click on the link

http://www.ukurbex.co.uk/tg-green-pottery-swadlincote-derbyshire/

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Towton 25

3/1/2015

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29th March 1461

It is very easy to view the medieval battle weary knight, riding into the distance on his worn out steed, scarred and blooded in a romantic light isn't it? We visualise our armoured hero, victorious, always living to fight another day. But at Towton, on the 29th March 1461, it is said that 28,000 men lost their lives, this should shock us but it doesn't really, does it?

When I think of this, I am guilty of visualising the smokey, body strewn, blood soaked battlefield scene of Kenneth Branagh's Henry V. With images like that, it is very hard for us to really understand the extent of these poor men's injuries. Today we have evidence of the wounds the medieval man inflected on one another and I would like to feature a man who died that day, whose real name we do not know, but who is known as Towton 25.

This soldier had survived battle before.

But at Towton he was not so lucky.

A closer look at the wounds this man received that cold Palm Sunday at Towton revealed:

"A healed skull fracture points to previous engagements. He was old enough—somewhere between 36 and 45 when he died—to have gained plenty of experience of fighting. But on March 29th 1461, his luck ran out. Towton 25 suffered eight wounds to his head that day. The precise order can be worked out from the direction of fractures on his skull: when bone breaks, the cracks veer towards existing areas of weakness. The first five blows were delivered by a bladed weapon to the left-hand side of his head, presumably by a right-handed opponent standing in front of him. None is likely to have been lethal.The next one almost certainly was. From behind him someone swung a blade towards his skull, carving a down-to-up trajectory through the air. The blow opened a huge horizontal gash into the back of his head—picture a slit you could post an envelope through. Fractures raced down to the base of his skull and around the sides of his head. Fragments of bone were forced in to Towton 25's brain, felling him. His enemies were not done yet. Another small blow to the right and back of the head may have been enough to turn him over onto his back. Finally another blade arced towards him. This one bisected his face, opening a crevice that ran from his left eye to his right jaw. It cut deep: the edge of the blade reached to the back of his throat."

What I am getting round to is sometimes we need to realise just how horrific medieval warfare was without looking at it through rose coloured glasses.

When I do it makes me want to cry!

In the link attached, Christopher Maudsley helps us see the reality of medieval warfare by featuring Towton 25 and his fellow warriors.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/christopher_maudsley/sets/72157633310702191

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Going, Going : Was Philip Larkin Right?

2/1/2015

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In the north of Cornwall, not far from the sea stood Binamy Castle, a mid fourteenth century moated castle the remains of which can be seen on what is known as Binamy Farm. Binamy Castle has had a place in my heart many many years, sadly the foundations of this once fine medieval building and the site on which it stood will soon be surrounded by a large housing estate.

Talk of the destruction of our countryside and its heritage has been a big issue for years, and still is. Philip Larkin wrote of it in his 1972 poem Going, going, which I read last evening.

Larkin's penultimate verse reads:

And that will be England gone,
The shadows, the meadows, the lanes,
The guildhalls, the carved choirs.
There'll be books; it will linger on
In galleries; but all that remains
For us will be concrete and tyres.

Scotney Castle

Larkin's poem has a hard hitting environmental message that rings to true for me, not only in its historical sense but in also in real time, I have watched houses springing up around me where there was once an apple orchard, large oak trees and a stream.

Larkin's was commissioned by the Department of the Environment to write a poem to feature in their report ‘How Do You Want To Live?’ His work was used but edited, and lines taken out as controversial or offensive but he later published it if full. His poem smacks of fatalism, it can be said that it is as much about growing old as it is about the environmental issues. Was Larkin right, of course he was, but has any action been taken to prevent or at least control this destructive disease, this creeping concrete? Has the words of this fine Poet Laureate made a difference.

I don't think so!

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The Golden Age Arrives

29th March 1461

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