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!