art
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A caricature is putting the face of a joke on the body of a truth–Joseph Conrad If Joseph Conrad was correct (and I believe he was), whatever could someone in the late 15th c have been trying to tell us about Henry VII in this amusing manuscript doodle? Especially as it came from the Archbishop’s…
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HENRY “TUDOR” IN THE 21ST CENTURY?
“Tudor” justice, “wives”, Abraham Lincoln, Agrippina, Alexander the Great, Anastasia, Anne Boleyn, Augustus, Caligula, Catherine of Aragon, Catherine Parr, Christina of Denmark, Edmund “Tudor”, Elisabeth of Austria, Elizabeth I, executions, facial reconstruction, Grace Kelly, Henry VII, Henry VIII, Isabel of Castile, Jane Austen, Julius Caesar, Louis XIV, Louis XV, Madame de Pompadour, Marie Antoinette, Mary Stuart, Nefertiti, parsimonyWith advanced computer technology, more artists and other interested people are doing their own ‘facial reconstructions’ of famous historical figures, often giving them modern hair styles and clothes to let people see how they might have looked if they lived in the present day. The following article has 30 such images, and is interesting because…
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Recently I came across a Victorian piece of art by Ford Madox Brown which is supposed to depict Elizabeth Woodville first appearing before Edward IV with her two small children. It’s rather odd piece and not particularly flattering–I am guessing that the artist was not a Woodville fan? Here, a rather plain-looking Liz W. has …
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We’re often told that the medieval period was one of bright colours. The interiors of castles and great houses were painted with vivid scenes, and the churches and cathedrals were brilliantly decorated. It’s one thing to know this, but quite another to actually see what it might have been like. The above illustration of…
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The image above is not one that I’ve seen before – but that’s just me, no doubt you all recognise it. It’s from the Album amicorum of “a man named Michael van Meer, who seems to have lived in Hamburg and travelled to London around 1614–15”. Unlike imagined reconstructions, this drawing was made of the…
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The four 15th-century Devonshire Tapestries, which depict a Boar and Bear Hunt, a Swan and Otter Hunt, a Deer Hunt and a Falconry Hunt, were accepted by HM Government in lieu of tax payable on the estate of the 10th Duke of Devonshire and allocated to the Victoria and Albert Museum. To see the Boar and…
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Here is an interesting link about the death of Henry VII. It includes an illustration from the TV series The Spanish Princess, in which Henry seems to have sprouted a beard. Really? I don’t think so, somehow. All his portraits show him clean-shaven, including one painted when he was getting on in years. But…
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NEW BONES FROM THE TOWER–HOW LONG BEFORE THEY BLAME RICHARD FOR THESE TOO?
“Princes”, Anne Neville, Beaker Era, Bronze Age, Charles II, denialists, Edward of Warwick, Elizabeth Roberts, Elizabeth Woodville, First Battle of St. Albans, George Duke of Clarence, Henry Pole the Younger, Henry VII, human remains, Jane Shore, John Ashdown-Hill, John Everett Millais, Margaret of Salisbury, mtDNA, Osteology, radio carbon dating, Richard III, Tower of London, Weir, Will SlaughterRecently, archaeologists working at the Tower of London discovered the remains of two people, an adult woman age 35-45 and a child of about seven. Proper modern carbon dating has taken place and it is determined that the pair are from between 1450-1550. Osteological examination shows no signs of trauma on the bones, although the…
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A ‘new’ late 16th century portrait of Richard III has recently emerged and gone on display at Hever Castle, home of the Boleyn family–and with it appeared the not-so-cuddly figure of the perennially grumpy and bombastic Tudor historian, David Starkey. Since he is not an art expert, the reason why he was commenting is slightly…
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