Art historian with an interest in visual messages
Dame Hilary Mantel DBE FRSL. Source Wikipedia. Immediate source: https://us.macmillan.com/author/hilarymantel In June 2024 The Wolf Hall Weekend will celebrate Dame Hilary Mantel's magnificent trilogy describing Thomas Cromwell’s rise and fall as Henry VIII's chief administrator at the beautiful 16th century Cadhay House, Devon.[1] Sir Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch’s superb biography of Cromwell, published in 2018, was described… Continue reading Celebrating Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall Trilogy
For those not familiar with the genre of the portrait miniature, let us first consider why and when these portraits became popular in England, and the various artists creating these images for the Tudor court. The half millennium saw a marked change from the religious themes of the medieval period to secular subjects inspired by… Continue reading The origins of the Tudor portrait miniature
This is a work of fiction, but the images referred to all exist as did all the characters and the executions to which they refer. Like other writers of historical fiction, I have taken events as my skeleton and dressed it with the clothes of a possible event, placing imagined words into the mouths of… Continue reading Another Execution! – MV Taylor
This article focuses on those who created the portrait miniatures from the mid 1520s until 1603 and how, thanks to the talents of the artists employed at the Tudor court, we are able to identify some aristocratic sitters of the 16th century. Links to images and articles are in bold italics. Portraits of the aspiring… Continue reading Illuminators of the Tudor Court
Today we are used to seeing the English royals on TV, in photos on social media, and on the front of our newspapers. Back in the 16th century the royal family were rarely seen in public, therefore their faces were mostly unknown except by the social elite of the court. If I were to ask… Continue reading Thomas Cromwell (1495-1540): Creator of the “Tudor Brand”
Melanie V Taylor 