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Walls of Truth

This is a short story I wrote in commemoration of all those who have died fighting for the rights of free speech, religious conviction, to be who they want to be free from criticism or persecution and for all those who protect the weak and vulnerable.

It is free to download as it is morally right to profit from the sacrifice of those who died fighting for our freedom and all those people who have been persecuted and died for no reason other than the ravings of despotic leaders and their equally evil henchmen.

I am humbled that a hard copy of this story was deemed worthy for inclusion in the library of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum.

Research

Susanna & the Elders series by Artemisia Gentileschi

I wrote a short piece when the exhibition at the National Gallery, London opened in the autumn of 2020, and this is a more detailed article on my thoughts on Artemisia’s Susanna and the Elders paintings, examining what inspired Artemisia and other artists in their portrayals of this Old Testament story, and how these portrayals resonate with a modern audience.

The Joyous Event of 1549 (?)

My research into this painting runs to some 16,000 plus words. While the panel is held in a private collection the owner has had a website created in order to promote discussion.

This last piece has been revised (July 2024) to remove the elements put in for benefit of educating the owner and has been posted on Academia.edu.

The original 2021 document was read by Prof Manfred Sellink, and Prof Stijn Bussell who is an expert on the Joyous Event of 1549. My thanks to them and the other academics who have taken the time to read it and for their comments.

A suggested identity of Nicholas Hilliard’s Young Man Holding a Hand From a Cloud

Since 2006, following my discovery of puzzling images of Elizabeth I on the front of an early KB27 roll during her reign while doing research for my Master of Arts dissertation, I have been researching this Hilliard portrait as and when time has permitted. I was advised to write my subsequent theory that this was a portrait of a man calling himself Arthur Dudley and claiming to be the illegitimate son of Elizabeth I and her favourite, Sir Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, as a novel. The Truth of the Line came out in 2013 and since then has undergone a substantial re-write in the light of my further research into this portrait miniature.

The motto, Attici Amoris Ergo, has puzzled latin scholars for years, but perhaps they were over thinking the linguistic skills of both the artist and the sitter. My heartfelt thanks to Professor Mary Beard for her recommendation I read The Murder of Regilla: A Case of Domestic Violence, by Professor Sarah Pomeroy, which was key to my analysis of the motto.

Last November I sent this piece to Dr Mark Evans, late of the V&A, who suggested I send it to his replacement. He warned that it was rare for the museum to accept unsolicited research from independent researchers. For various health reasons I was unable to follow up this suggestions until this July (2024) and was delighted when the museum accepted my research and added my paper to their curatorial collection. The full article is posted on www.Academia.edu.

My theory regarding Arthur Dudley was cited in Christie’s auction catalogue of November 2013 when the copy of Hilliard’s enigmatic portrait came up for auction as Lot 42 as one of the many miniatures being sold by the estate of the late Mrs T S Eliot and reached a hammer price of £47,500. More recently my novel was cited in Chris Padmore’s essay on Levina Teerlinc in a book of essays titled Authorising Early Modern Women: From Biography to Bio-Fiction; edited by James Fitzmaurice, Naomi Miller & Sara Jayne Steen, published by Amsterdam University Press.

A further thanks to all those who have read this analysis and have urged me to continue when I felt like giving up.

© Website MVT 2017 – 24.