Tudor Barge Design?

Very little coming up on JSTOR, and not particualrly mentionned in Royal River catalogue.

Are there references in the Royal Accounts regarding construction and decoration of barges?
Were artists such as Giovanni da Maiano ever employed in deocrating specifically barges? (re-visit biogrphical sources)
Were there are any authoratative texts that circulated europe-wide on barge design?

Dissertation thoughts - Maritime Theme

1) Comparison of medieval and early modern MARITIME CODES AND STATUTES?

Braudel draws on these at vol.1, p.248, his source being J.M.Pardesssus, Collection de lois maritimes, 1837 (BL holds copies)

Were these in Latin? Does Pardessus have one for England?


2) Activity of watermen in Plantaganet London? Can their records be used to shed light on the movements of Humph DoG and his Italian humanists collaborators?

3) Royal River Cat. – Tudor & Stuart Sections


- comparisons between Livery companies and Florentine/Venetian guilds?

- how early did liv.co.s barges feature wooden carved saints, and how did reformation affect this practise?

Follow-ups

1) Find GdM original invoice to Wolsey at the PRO

according to Sir Henry Ellis (1846) Original letters illustrative of English history...., 3rd series, vol.1, London, Richard Bentley, p.250 (letter # 96)

the original document's reference is:
STAT. PAP. OFF. WOLSEY'S CORRESP
viii. Pt.i. 22. Orig


2) Is GdM really in the royal accounts in 1519?

Beard in 1929 (p.85) claimed the GdM is mentioned as:

"in charge of certain great water-wheels at Tournay" in 1519
"decorating trappers and saddles at Guines" in 1520

...without giving any references to the source PRO docs.

apart from tacit approval from Remington in 1936 in the Met Museum's Bulletin no-one else more recently has seemed to consider this evidence worth mentioning.

Is this a mistake / fanciful thinking / a lie?


3) Read Bober and Rubenstein's "Renaissance Artists and Antique Sculpture"

Full ref. is:

Bober and Rubinstein (1986) Renaissance Artists and Antique Sculpture: A Hanbook of Sources, London, Harvey Miller/Oxford, OUP.

If that doesn't nail down sources, try also Bober's earlier "Drawings after the antique: sketchbooks in the British Museum".

4) Return to the Vyne for another look at "Probus"

But first:
- try and establish once and for all whether the Whitehall busts were glazes
- read the recent Maurice Howard Tudor history of the Vyne in full


5) In Florence

Visit Maiano (1 mile SW of Fiesole)
Locate da Maiano workshop (via Castellacio no longer exists)
See site of San Marco sculpture garden
BdM's work:
- portals in Palazzo Vecchio
- Pietro Mellini bust in Bargello
- Santa Croce pulpit and Mellini floor tomb
- Strozzi chapel (SMN?)
- Giotto bust (Duomo)


If the above leads to significant change of thoughts, re-draft, and also amend items on this list:

> Re-insert the Marcantonio Charles V engraving. Place in the section about the impact of his accession in order to strengthen the argument that this event could have inspired both commissions.
> Consider mentioning the Hans Kraft/Durer Nuremberg medal (as at the V&A, A.380-1910) in the same sentence - illustrates nicely that this impact with pan-European.

How to do an ECA in 6 weeks

Handed in my ECA at Walton Hall on the day of the deadline.

Walking back in time, this is how long I spent (approximately) working on it:

Fixing pro-forma 1 hour
Capitalisation 30 mins
Final bibliography 2 hours
- next time, use Excel as before
- but, use the Table, Convert, Table to Text function once in Word
Final complete run-through and re-drafting 4 hours
Fixing Appendix B 3 hours
10.5 hours

Reading
- Gwyn (biography of Wolsey) 1 week
- Foyle (Wolsey's Hampton Court) 1 week
Planning
- Timeline + other reading 4 days
- Constructing argument and selecting sources 8 days
Drafting in sections 3 days
Re-writing coherently in full to word limit 3 days
Reviewing and re-writing 3 days
Final presentation (as above) 1 day
36 days (5 weeks + 1 day)

But to this add at least 1 week in pre-preparation mode, i.e. 2-3 days pulling together key bibliography for the pro-forma exercise, 2-3 days preparing July presentation, 1 day Ju

Lambeth Palace library

Fjfkdlvkdsk

Gothic/Classical 1520s English bedpost at the V&A

Saw this item in the British galleries yesterday. Interesting combination of the old and the new, and very prominent are the roundels at mid-post.

Not visible from the photograph are the posts capitals. The upper one is not carved at all (the V&A speculate the carver was to begin a classical one but gave up!), whereas the bottom one, whilst remaining square in X-section, is decorated with Gothic tracery.

Hard to discern are whether the roundels are all'antica or not. I believe at least one of the portraits is wearing a Greco-Roman helmet... the others I'm not so sure.

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O80447/bedpost/

Holbein design for chimneypiece

Seen at V&A's Horace Walpole exhibition. Features two roundels with antique busts.

Lent from BM:

http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_object_details.aspx?objectid=720874&partid=1&IdNum=1854%2c0708.1&orig=%2fresearch%2fsearch_the_collection_database%2fmuseum_no__provenance_search.aspx

1520's Roman-influenced painting at Romsey Abbey

Saw this retable at the weekend, the photos aren't great but you can just about make out Roman candelabras in between each of the saints

Roundels in the Barry Rooms of the National Gallery

Went to a talk today given by Alan Crookham (NG Archivist). He explained that the Barry rooms, opened in 1876, featured lunettes by the Wyern / Wien / Wyan company (need to read his book to get the correct spelling!) and, although he wasn't sure, he thought the 8 roundels of great painters that run above the arches of room 36 were perhaps also designed and made by that firm.

These roundels, whilst not in terracotta, are especially Roman in style, being surrounded by a laurel wreath.

Interestingly of course, Edward Barry, the architect of the rooms, was the younger brother of Charles Barry Jr, of Dulwich College and Park fame. Obviously an interest in the didactic quality of the roundel medium was popular in the family!

Chateau de Gaillon

Re-constructed around 1502 by Cardinal Georges d'Amboise on an Italian Renaissance model.

Gaillon is about half-way from Le Havre to Paris... i.e. here:


http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=Gaillon&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl

The Chateau's website is here:

http://www.chateaugaillon.com/chateau_de_gaillon_version_angla.htm

Unfortunately it is not currently open to the public due to the ongoing restoration, and visitors are only able to see the exterior. This is a shame as the roundels that I think Foyle refers to are clearly an interior courtyard feature, as this photo shows.

V&A terracotta

Whilst in the library on Tuesday and admiring the resplendent terracotta work out the window, I noticed opposite my desk a bust of Godfrey Sykes, who apparently "contributed to the decoration of the quadrangle". Perhaps this means he was a terracotta sculptor... one to follow up. NB / he died in 1866.

The Vyne, Hampshire - Emperor Probus

Visited this excellent NT property yesterday - mainly to see the terracotta bust of Emperor Probus by Giovanni Maiano. According to the room guide the bust was bought by John Chute following the 1759 demolition of Whitehall's Holbein Gate, and brought to his home at the Vyne, where it was installed in his Orangery / Stone Gallery. The connection was that Probus (276-282) was the emperor who introduced the grape vine (cf. Vyne) to England.

However, the guide mentioned that this traditional provenance has been queried recently by the Trust's curators. To find out more I should contact the NT.

Measuring the bust, we found it to be about 4 sheets of A4 square, i.e. approx. 4 feet x 4 feet.

Hampton Court Tapestries 16 May

Findings from today's brisk research trip to establish which Tudor tapestries are currently on the walls at Hampton Court. I observed the following:

Great Hall
6x Abraham Cycle (1540s per Book 2, Ch.3) - Brussels stamp observable on only 2 though
NB/ a 7th Abraham tapestry is separately on show in the first room of the Mary apartments, as part of the light-show display that attempts to digitally enhance its colours.

3x Greek mythology [possibly Jason and Medea? Not sure, scenes of: a debate between a King and Queen with large moored navy in background; King as supplicant to Queen in woods setting; contest of arms between two Gods at sea]
NB/ a 4th in apparently the same cycle is separately on show in the Great Waiting Chamber, this depicts the same King watching as the Queen appears to faint/die and is supported by her ladies.

Various Tudor/Royal/Beaufort Armorial Bearings (e.g. Royal Arms, Tudor Rose, Fleur-de-lis, Beaufort Gate)
All about 2/3 feet high; strips of various lengths: 6ft, 12 ft etc.

Great Watching Chamber
1x Triumph [of Fame/Fate? Not sure, frieze includes Scipio, Pompey etc. at front, Alexander in middle, Priam and Paris at back apparently sinking into the ground, and contemporary-looking figures such as courtiers, bishops and popes, being trampled underfoot!]
1x Hercules [possibly the death of Heracles, as he is standing within a pyre, in front of an altar] (note French captioning at top; also that this one has been cut almost in half on the left side)
2x Allegorical Courtly Scenes
3x Wolsey Armorial Bearings [a) Family arms, b) Canterbury (Blue background) and Archbishopric of York, c) Another diocese in the style of Canterbury (? - Yellow background) and Archbishopric of York]

Elsewhere
Tapestries continue in Mary II's apartments, including a Judas Tree, 2 Acts of the Apostles, and 7-piece Alexander set. All carry the Brussels stamp and makers marks.

However, all the information captions and boards list these as being 17th or early-18th C works. Interesting though, that huge money was still being sent abroad once the Mortlake factory (1619-1703) was well established. Having seen tapestries of comparable size and quality in Urbino last week that were made there (and presumably purchased by the discerning Delle Rovere Dukes), it's not as if Mortlake was incapable of producing suitably grand tapestries for William and Mary. Perhaps the answer lies in these cycles all being diplomatic gifts from the Prince of Orange's Netherlandish peers.

Florence, 12 May 2010 - The Tombs

Saw tombs of Leonardo Bruni and Carlo Marsuppini that face each other across the nave at Santa Croce. Ostensibly very similar, the (otherwise crap) information boards in the church highlight the key difference between the two as being the lack of triumphant symbolism on Marsuppini's, presumably as he presided over a more genteel era (1444-53).

Bruni's tomb does indeed feature several nods to triumph and glory, i.e. Eagles, Lions, Winged Victories, Rampant Lion heraldry surmounting the arch, that are not present in Marsuppini's.

Next visit - must check whether Marsuppini's father's slab really is directly below his son's tomb - I read this (I think) in the Grove Art entry for Settignano.

Separately saw 3 other tombs in San Lorenzo, 2 celebrated, the other not so. Cosimo's brother Giovanni is in the centre of Botticelli and Donatello's old sacristy (tomb designed and made by ????); Piero the Gouty and his brother Giovanni are to one side in Verrocchio's "most beautiful tomb [of the Reniassance]" (San Lorenzo Audio Guide).

This IS amazing, I initially thought it was French Rococo!

Urbino, the Montefeltro and Rimini 6-8 May

This visit was primarily in conjunction with the TMA2 question relating to Joos van Ghent's Communion of the Apostles altarpiece in the Palazzo Ducale, but naturally I picked up some other nuggets that may prove relevant to the ECA along the way:

1) Maso de Bartolommeo's portal for the Dominican church opposite the Palazzo, 1449-54, provides a useful stylistic comparison point for the Bruni (1440s) & Marsuppini (1450s) Santa Croce tombs I'm going to see next week in Florence.

Maso was a Florentine sculptor-mason brought to Urbino to fashion this wonderful Corinthian edifice around the west front of the chiesa, coadiuvato [assisted (?)] by fellow Tuscans Pasquino da Montepulciano and Michele di Giovanni da Fiesole, per the church's information board.

2) Any investigation into early Tudor Italian-English intellectual exchanges (e.g. Henry VII monument; Bishop Fox at Winchester; Layer Marney tombs; Wolsey's HC terracottas) must of course take into account the Urbinate writer and historian Polydor Vergil. I came across this Accademia Raffaello publication whilst there:

PolidoroVergili e la Cultura Umanistica Europea, 2003, ed. by Rolando Bacchielli

which was the fruit of a conference held in 2000 by the academy in Urbino. 50/50 split of Italian/English language papers. BL holds a copy.

3) The Tempio Malatesta in Rimini was mind-blowing! Architectural re-design, facade, and exterior side-tombs by Alberti (1440s) interior sculpture all by Agostino di Duccio (1450s). Again, relevant to any study of mid-quattrocento monumental humanist-inspired sculpture.

Simply amazing!

Jennifer Scott, Curator, Royal Collection

Met Jennifer at a talk at the Queen's Gallery yesterday. Noticed she has just published her first independent book, on Royal Portraiture. This may be of great interest as it focuses on images in the Royal Collection that may not see the light of day too often.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Royal-Portrait-Image-Impact/dp/1905686137

A fresh assessment of the importance of portraiture in the image-making of monarchs from Richard II to the present day This book covers a far wider timescale than any previous studies of the subject, and is the first to focus on royal portraiture from within the Royal Collection.

She's talking about her book on 21 June at Millais House in South Ken (ArtFund HQ) - tickets £14

http://www.artfund.org/whatson/events.html

Eyckian Portraits of Englishmen (?)

Came across the portrait of 15thC Lancastrian diplomat Edward Grimston by Petrus Christus (dated 1446) yesterday at the National.... I'd never noticed this before! It's actually the property of the Earl of Verulam, Grimston's distant ancestor, but has been on loan to the NG since 1927.

I haven't rooted around much on the identification of its sitter, or provenance - Lorne Campbell's catalogue refers the reader in a note to articles by A.W.Franks and G.Scharf in vol.40 (1866) of Archaeologica - but what is unmistakable are the Lancastrian links the sitter is fondling. Whatever is known, its seems a firm enough identification... the ODNB entry for Grimston makes much of the fact that this is the earliest recorded portrait of a non-royal Englishman, barring the (debatable) case of Cardinal Henry Beaufort by van Eyck that is in Vienna.

Having just read up on that (Hunter, 1993, Art Bulletin), it seems that attribution is far from accepted: general opinion still seems to hold that this is a portrait by the Papal nuncio Cardinal Nicolo Albergati, whereas the writer doubts whether the sitter is Albergati based on his appearance, or indeed a cardinal at all on the basis of his costume... which of course also rules out Beaufort. Once again, we have a 15thC Northern work that lacks a consensus of opinion!

Obviously, there is reams of literature of Beaufort, one of the chief powers in the land throughout the reins of Henry IV, Henry VI, the infancy of Henry VI and that king's "Dual Monarchy" of England and France. As one of the wealthiest of all prelates, he was and is seen as as precursor to Cardinal Wolsey.

As for Grimston, there is understandably less to go on, but he does merit a page or so in the ODNB. I'll have to see if I can obtain that 1866 issue of Archaeologica.....

V&A Italian Cast Courts (2)

Also, something I didn't expect to see in the Italian Cast Court is a copy of Cardinal Wolsey's arms from Hampton Court. These were made in terracotta in Florence, possibly by a Lorenzo Giuntini in 1525 and installed by the Cardinal at his home in the Clock Court. They were covered over - but never removed - by Henry VIII after his requisition of the palace, and subsequently found during a 19th century restoration.

For more on the re-discovery, need to download the Gentleman's Magazine vol 24 from 1830-something.

Henry's arms are the ones presumably still there... I'm ashamed to say I can't remember! Need to look under the astronomical clock next time I'm there.

V&A Cast Courts - Italian Room open again

Good news in that the Italian Room at the V&A is open once more after having had a spruce-up. Could prove to be a great substitute resource if I choose to focus on a classic example of Renaissance sculpture/architectural sculpture.

Many of "the classics" are there, to wit:

• Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise
• Michelangelo's David & Medici Mausoleum sculptures (Lorenzo di Piero, Duke of Urbino & Giuliano di Lorenzo, Duke of Nemours, by 1534)
• Donatello's David / Cavalcanti Annunciation / Duomo Cantoria (arranged for comparison adjacent to that of Luca della Robbia)
• Mino di Fiesole's Bust of Piero the Gouty

Carlo Marsuppini's Santa Croce tomb by Desiderio da Settignano (1453-60) really caught my eye.

It is a visually jaw-dropping source of humanist iconographic and decorative imagery, and the cast is beautifully done. It is placed adjacent to the Santa Maria del Popolo tomb of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza by Andrea Sansovino (1505-9) which to my mind is a prime example of the influence of Nero's recently rediscovered Golden House in its grotesque work. Third in line, and not to be overlooked is the (far smaller) tomb of Tuscan lawyer/lecturer Filippo Decio (d.1534) from Campo Santo by the Pisan Stagio Stagi, demonstrating how this style filtered down and developed over the next generation.

A project comparing and contrasting these would be great fun; alternatively, the Sforza (and Decio) tombs could be used as a control for the Layer Marney sarcophagi and canopies mentioned a while back. I can see these replicas whenever I want FOC and in a quiet, brightly-lit environment with the National Art Library on-site. Would still more than justify a trip to Florence and/or Rome though!

Seilern Altarpiece - too cheeky to use a TMA as a "springboard"?

Having buried myself firmly in the literature on the Courtauld's Seilern altarpiece, I'm half-tempted to add this to the long list....... I just wonder if this is a bit of a piss-take given that 500 words of my first TMA is on its making?

Surely this depends on the marker - and something is telling me that the ECA is marked independently of one's tutor. So surely there's not a problem here, but best to check with Sue.

1 issue may actually be that the piece is dated too early - one element of the never-ending argument about this piece is its precise dating, which ranges from the early-1410s to well into the 1420s. I suppose there is sufficient support for a later dating for me to argue it qualifies!

In its favour, it's wonderfully accessible and there's a mountain of literature available, much of which is very recent. Recent bibliography as follows, from memory:

In 1996 (I think) Susan Foister and Susie Nash put together a selection of essays on Campin/Flemalle, with one focusing on this A/P

In 2002 Felix Thurlemann tried (and, I gather, failed) to end the arguing in his monograph on Campin

and the big one... Awaiting publication is Susie Nash's full-length book/monograph specifically on the Seilern A/P!! There seems to have been a hold-up here, it was due out last year. I contacted the publishers, they are none the wiser and are going to ask Susie what's going on. I like the fact that an internationally-known art historian is being badgered on my behalf.

I also note Susie is due to talk on the work at a Campin/van der Weyden symposium in Berlin on Friday 14 May. In September she is talking at Leuven on "Some new information on the construction of the Seilern Triptych...". (It must be these new discoveries that has forced her to put back publication, most interesting!)