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!