Category: Art - Meandering Through Time

Telling a Story in Marble - Gian Lorenzo Bernini

19/1/2019

From the English tales of the valiant King Arthur to the Greek story of Jason and his search for the Golden Fleece, we are bombarded with wonderful stories from our past that we don't necessarily believe, but love none the less. Books have been written and films made, images painted onto canvas and chiseled statues in marble, all give us a romantic ideal of a heroic time.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the seventeenth-century sculptor does this with marble, he has given us sculptures of mythical characters as Apollo and Medusa and his magnificent work, The Abduction of Persephone. This story is of a young innocent woman carried to the centre of the earth by a lustful Hades and of Demeter, the Greek goddess of the harvest and fertility of the earth and her search for her daughter.

Hades spots the beautiful Persephone and asks Zeus for her. Zeus knowing that Demeter would not allow it suggested that he take her without permission and this Hades does, swooping on the poor girl through an opening in the earth and carries her away kicking and screaming. On finding her daughter gone, Demeter searches and not finding her she leaves, in her wake, a barren land where nothing will grow. Over time Zeus sees how hungry his people were becoming and orders Persephone to be returned home. The quick-thinking Hades forces Persephone to eat from a pomegranate knowing full well that those who eat in the underworld were doomed to stay, but the strong-willed Demeter had other ideas and a deal was struck where her beloved daughter is allowed to leave if she returns for a few months every year. Once Persephone is home the barren lands became fruitful and the hungry fed.

This is a wonderful story that has its roots in the seasons. Demeter can easily be viewed as Mother Nature, her daughter Persephone's absence from the world is representative of autumn and winter and her return is seen as spring and summer.

How do you get some much passion, so much emotion out of one piece of marble?

Bernini's work is just simply divine.

Mona Lisa

21/8/2018

On the 21st August in 1911, Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous painting was stolen from the Louvre. It took more than two years before the authorities found out what exactly happened.

Vincenzo Perugia, an Italian petty criminal who worked at the Louvre, hid in the museum's gallery until closing time and then removed the Mona Lisa from its frame, probably smuggling it out the next day. Perugia was under the impression that the Mona Lisa had been stolen by Napoleon and by returning it to Italy he doing his patriotic duty, and therefore he asked for 500,000 lire as a reward.

Fellow Italian Alfredo Geri agreed to take a look at the painting and Perugia took the painting to Geri’s gallery where he was persuaded to leave it for an expert to examine it - by the end of that day the police had arrested Perugia.

Historians believe the woman in the portrait is Madam Lisa Giocondo, the wife of Gherardini, a wealthy Florentine silk merchant. Mona Lisa is certainly beautiful and has a smile that has enchanted many over the passing centuries, many of us asking "what is the secret behind her smile?

However, I am more interested in the fact that de Vinci used the Fibonacci sequence when he worked on this painting. Now, I understand the principle of this sequence and how it appears in nature, but what I don't understand is why an artist such as Leonardo De Vinci applied it to his works as we see here in the image below.

What was the point of doing something so complicated if the majority of people didn't understand said sequence or even knew it was there?

The Moustache

3/10/2017

Victorian artists, such as John Gilbert, were known for their pencil sketches of historical events, these illustrations would appear in the Illustrated London News. It was during this period that the moustache had a bit of a revival.

In the first of the above images, John Gilbert has a number of Yorkists, including a misshapen Richard of Gloucester mocking the body of John Clifford who you can see has a moustache, in his illustration of Shakespeare's Henry VI Part III. Also from the same play, another of Gilbert's illustrations depicts a moustached Earl of Warwick speaking to a messenger.

Both these images are confusing, very few men from this period shaved their beards and left only a moustache - although it wasn't unknown as you can see from the tomb of Edward, the Black Prince, he has a fine long moustache.

During the Elizabethan period many men wore beards, but during the reign of James I beards had had their day and moustaches became fashionable as the would, as previously mentioned, at the beginning of the Victorian era - Lord Bryon wore a splendid one.

If you want to read a bit more on the subject of facial hair Lucinda Hawksley's book Moustaches, Whiskers and Beards: A History of Facial Hair, is worth read. It looks at the worst and the most hilarious examples of facial hair.

www.lucindahawksley.com/moustaches-whiskers-beards/

The English Civil War

23/9/2017

In the book 1066 and All That, a humorous and satirical look at history, it states that the English Civil Wars were fought between the Cavaliers (Wrong but Wromantic) and the Roundheads (Right but Repulsive) and that Charles I thought that

"He was king and that was right, kings were divine and that was right, kings were right,
and that was right, and therefore everything was alright"

We may find the ideas of Divine Right ludicrous and amusing today, but what must be remembered is the cost of it to our ancestors.

The English Civil Wars put family against family and father against son and no better example of this is William Frederick Yeames's painting where a little boy in a royalist household is being spoken to by parliamentarians who ask the question "And When Did You Last See Your Father" which quite naturally puts the child in a difficult position and his family in a dangerous one.
While researching my 17th century Cornish ancestors I wondered if any of them found themselves in this position, for many were loyal to their king - however a few were not, I have discovered it certainly placed friend against friend. Sir Bevill Grenville of Stowe in Cornwall was a Royalist whose allegiances were torn when his friend St John Eliot of St Germans was incarcerated, on more than one occasion, in the Tower of London for his views on parliamentary rights. Eliot eventually died in the Tower and King Charles refused his son permission to bury his father in his homeland cruelly stating

"Let Sir John Eliot be buried in the church of that parish where he died."

These men were dealing directly with the fall out of King Charles I's ideas of the Divine Right of Kings and his attempt to enforce it in the wars that raged between 1642 and 1651. These wars resulted in the loss of over eighty thousand lives plus the hundreds of thousands who died from war related diseases, ultimately though King Charles I would be held responsible and he would pay with his life.

My research into this period is presently focusing on my family in the years 1636 to 1646, this family lived in the Cornish village of St Columb Major. You can see some of the architecture from that period in two of the images below.

In 1641 the marriage of my ancestor took place just five days before parliament passed the Triennial Act, an Act that was drawn up to prevent kings from ruling without Parliament, and in 1645 Royalist troops, under Sir Thomas Fairfax, camped just outside St Columb Major.

Portrait of Henry VII

18/6/2017

This painting of Henry VII is an important and rare work, it is thought to be derived from the preparatory work of court artist Hans Holbein. A declaration by Mansion House Antiques & Fine Art dates it as the sixteenth century. Including the frame, which is a 'hand sculptured wooden gilt frame, enhanced with carved tulips, fruit flowers, English roses, acorns an inter-twining ribbon', it measures 63 inches by 51 inches, the artist is unknown.

You will recognise the sitter of this oil painting as King Henry VII and you will no doubt think 'where have I seen him before?' If you haven't already remembered, Henry's image forms part of what is known as The Whitehall Mural.

It was at the palace of Whitehall that Holbein created his largest and most important royal commission, in which Henry VIII was portrayed with his Queen Jane Seymour and his parents, Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. It was probably painted on the wall of Henry's privy chamber and no doubt dominated it. It is said to have faced the door and any visitor would have been immediately overwhelmed by the life-size image of Henry VIII confronting them, one visitor wrote

"was so lifelike that the spectator felt abashed, annihilated in its presence"

It is not known when the mural was commissioned, but it is thought to have been during Henry's marriage to Jane Seymour and completed after her death in 1537. The Palace of Whitehall burned down in the January of 1698 and Holbein’s mural burned along with it.

Thirty-one years before the fire, Charles II commissioned Remigius van Leemput to copy of the mural, and thank goodness he did.

John Singer Sargent and the National Trust

12/1/2017

12th January 1856: The Birth of John Singer Sargent and the founding, by three Victorian philanthropists Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, of The National Trust. Bringing the two events together is actress Ellen Terry.

Ellen Terry is shown here in the role of Lady Macbeth in a painting by John Singer Sargent. Terry first performed this role in 1888 and it was here that Sargent was inspired by Terry's appearance and persuaded her to sit for the portrait. Oscar Wilde, who saw Terry's arrival at Sargent's Chelsea studio, remarked.

'The street that on a wet and dreary morning has vouchsafed the vision of Lady Macbeth in full regalia magnificently seated in a four-wheeler can never again be as other streets: it must always be full of wonderful possibilities.'

The dress itself is now the property of the National Trust and is one of the most important items they hold. The emerald and sea green gown is made up of the iridescent wings of the Jewel Beetle which the insects naturally shed as part of their life cycle.

Below is Terry wearing the dress in the above mentioned play.

Today it is well over one hundred years old, sadly due to over handling, the fabric is now very weak and a shadow of its original self.

The National Trust in England, Wales and Northern Ireland "look after a quarter of a million hectares of land, 775 miles of coastline, and thousands of archaeological monuments and historic buildings, large and small. Every year many millions of people enjoy the special places in our care."

The Arrest of Lord Hastings by John Gilbert

31/12/2016

Below you can see a rather amusing depiction of Richard III by Victorian artist Sir John Gilbert. Gilbert has Richard looking
like an old man whose lost his walking stick. As usual Richard is depicted as malicious, here he has an evil eye, he is
crooked and sinister but with a penchant for black fur and funny hats, and it seems unable to walk unaided!

Christies of London had it up for auction and its final selling price was £2875.

The painting is oil on canvas and is entitled The Arrest of Lord Hastings, it is signed by the artist and is dated 1871.

An inscription on the back reads

''The Arrest of Lord Hastings''/'Gloucester: Thou art a traitor:/Off with his head! Now, by Saint Paul I swear,/I will not dine
until I see the same./Lovel and Ratcliff, look that it be done: The rest, that love me, rise and follow me.' Richard III Act III
Scene 4.'

This work was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1836, a water colour by Gilbert with a similar title "The Arrest of Lord
Hasting by the Duke of Gloucester" was also in exhibited 1836 but in a less than grand Suffolk street exhibition.

Would I have bought it if I had more money than I knew what to do with? I would not!

Would you?

William Hogarth

10/4/2016

William Hogarth, artist and satirist, was born in 1697 in London, his paintings gives us a glimpse of eighteenth
century England at a time when few had much and many had little and this comes across in many of his images.

Three of his most famous works are A Rakes Progress, Gin Lane and the one pictured here Marriage a la Mode

In Marriage a la Mode, Hogarth warns of the pit falls of marriage for financial gain.
It is one of six painting depicting the progress of a betrothed couple ending in the death of both of them. Symbolism is
abound here, from the paintings on the walls depicting doom to the reason this marriage is taking place......money!

The poor bride and groom have no interest in each other, the bride's bored with the situation and the bridegroom is more concerned with himself and his appearance. The soon to be father in law rests his bandaged foot on a stool and points to a family tree, he might as well shout

'Look at what you get for your money!'

Not one of my favorite artists, but none the less Hogarth was a talented artist and an intelligent and wise man.

Hogarth died on the 26th October 1764 and this was said of him.

Farewell great Painter of Mankind
Who reach'd the noblest point of Art
Whose pictur'd Morals charm the Mind
And through the Eye correct the Heart.
If Genius fire thee, Reader, stay,
If Nature touch thee, drop a Tear:
If neither move thee, turn away,
For Hogarth's honour'd dust lies here.

Margaret Roper, Daughter of Thomas More

13/6/2015

Margaret Roper was born in October 1505 and grew up to be a highly intelligent, well educated and knowledgeable woman, this was due as much to her willingness to learn as it was her father educating her to a standard very rare for a girl of this time. She studied Latin and Greek and read astronomy, philosophy, theology, geometry, and arithmetic.

Affectionately called Meg by her father, she was the favourite of all his children, he carried letters from her when he travelled, proudly reading them out loud to his friends. She had married in 1521 and lived in her fathers house with her husband William Roper, whose interest in the teaching of Martin Luther, caused friction within the household. When Margaret's became pregnant, More said

'if it be a girl' then it should make up for the inferiority of her sex by her zeal to imitate her mother's virtue and learning’.

Twelve years later Thomas More was arrested for his refusal to support the King's annulment and take the Oath of Supremacy, being found guilty the date of his execution was set for the 6 July 1535. Margaret was allowed to visit him whilst he was in the tower, but no one really knows what was said between the two of them.
Margaret's husband, who wrote a biography of More ten years after the her death, never mentions any dialogue between father and daughter during his time in the Tower of London.

Margaret struggled with her feelings whilst More was incarcerated and is said to have 'pushed through the crowd and the guard, embraced her father, and asked his blessing.' whilst he walked to the scaffold.

Charles Landseer's 1839 painting depicts the story, that is often repeated, of how Margaret retrieved More's head from a spike on London Bridge and kept it until the day she died.

Margaret lasted only nine years without her father, dying in 1544.

Margaret Roper work such as The Four Last Thynges and her 1523 translations of Erasmus's works are lost, only a few of her letters remain.

Death of Amy Robsart by William Fredrick Yeames.

8/9/2014

On the 8th of September 1560, Amy Robsart, wife of Robert Dudley was found dead at the bottom of the stairs at home in Oxford.

Robert Dudley, the younger son of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland was handsome and quite ambitious and was more interested in the opportunities that were offered as a member of the queens court than his young eighteen year old wife Amy Robsart. They had married on the 5th June 1550 at the royal palace of Sheen in Richmond. In the years that followed Dudley became the queens favourite and in 1558 she had bestowed on him the position of Master of the Horse, this, and the attention of the queen kept him away from Amy. Two years later, Amy sent away her servants from her house at Cumnor Place in Oxford and was later found dead at the foot of a flight of stairs with a broken neck and two wounds on her head. The coroner found that she had died from a fall downstairs; the verdict was 'misfortune' therefore an accidental death. At the time Dudley was suspected as having ordered her death.

Elizabethan murder mystery or misfortune?

What then is Yeames implying in his 1877 painting? Are the two men in the shadows responsible for her death having pushed her down the stairs? Certainly the younger man is shocked, maybe he wants to go to her aid but the older man is holding him back whilst looking for signs of movement? Or has the younger man just returned a few minutes after Amy's fall and has not yet realised that he standing with the murderer or are they both innocent of the alleged crime?

What do you think?