Our window on to the Henrician court There is a great deal of historical fiction written – some of it excellent and some of it not so good. If you ask an academic about their opinion of a historical novel it produces a raised eyebrow, often with a sniff and the dismissive response of “it’s fiction!”.… Continue reading Hans Holbein the Younger and Thomas Cromwell as depicted in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy
Some seventeen years or so ago when I was studying for my MA in Medieval and Early Modern Studies, I heard a reference to a 16th century woman artist, Levina Teerlinc, on the radio and was inspired to research her life and works for my dissertation. During this research I came across a portrait of an… Continue reading Levina Teerlinc (?) Henry VIII’s court artist from 1546 – 1576
In the 19th century the Swiss historian Jacob Burkhardt (1818-1897) pioneered academic scholarship of art and cultural history, demonstrating how a knowledge of the art, literature, architecture and sculpture, politics and the social minutiae of any period would better inform students, and the public's knowledge of the past. Even today there are many who think that art… Continue reading The difficulty identifying 16th portraits of ‘Unknown Ladies & Gentlemen’
In 1492 Christopher Columbus (1451 – 1506) sailed under the Spanish flag and discovered a whole new land. Six years later the Portuguese explorer, Vasco de Gama (1460 – 1524) reached India’s Malabar coast, which had been a centre of trade between Arab and far eastern merchants for at least fifteen hundred years. Columbus’s voyage west… Continue reading Monkey business at 16th century royal courts
Articles in various publications have looked at Franny Moyle’s suggestion that Holbein left clues regarding the identification of one of his sitters of his miniatures being of Henry VIII’s fourth wife, Anna, Duchess of Cleves and not Katherine Howard as suggested by George Vertue writing in the 18th century. The recent article about Moyle’s theory… Continue reading How we know the Tudor Royals from 1485 – 1558; and who painted them.
Melanie V Taylor 