Welock Priory & Buildwas Abbey

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/buildwas-abbey/#Left

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/wenlock-priory/

Treasures of Heaven: British Museum displays the sacred relics of Medieval Chistendom

The British Museum has opened its latest Block Buster Exhibition entitled 'Treasures of Heaven' which is on display from 23rd of June until the 9th of October 2011 and will encompass for the first time, more than 150 objects of reverie and reliquary loaned from renowned world-wide institutions here in Europe and the U.S.

The website, which is prolific in its exhibition information for this event, describes the exhibition;

Treasures of Heaven

Saints, relics and devotion
in medieval Europe

This major exhibition brings together for the first time some of the
finest sacred treasures of the medieval age.

The exhibition features over 150 objects from more than 40 institutions including the Vatican, European church treasuries, museums from the USA and Europe and the British Museum’s own pre-eminent collection.

Where heaven and earth meet

It was during the medieval period that the use of relics in devotional practice first developed and became a central part of Christian worship. For many, the relics of Christ and the saints – objects associated with them, such as body parts or possessions – continue to provide a bridge between heaven and earth today.

Sacred containers

Relics were usually set into ornate containers of silver and gold known as reliquaries, opulently decorated by the finest craftsmen of the age. They had spiritual and symbolic value that reflected the importance of their sacred contents.

Over a thousand years of history

The earliest items date from the late Roman period and trace the evolution of the cult of the saints from the 4th century to the peak of relic veneration in late medieval Europe.

Relics featured in the exhibition include three thorns thought to be from the Crown of Thorns, fragments of the True Cross, the foot of St Blaise, the breast milk of the Virgin Mary, the hair of St John the Evangelist, and the Mandylion of Edessa (one of the earliest known likenesses of Jesus).

Witness a lost heritage

Treasures such as these have not been seen in significant numbers in the UK since the Reformation in the 16th century, which saw the wholesale destruction of saints’ shrines. The exhibition offers a rare opportunity to glimpse the heritage of beautiful medieval craftsmanship that was lost to this country for centuries.

The eclectic website includes a blog where you can follow the behind the scenes progress from curator James Robinson and his team, a multi-media presentation, an online book shop and ticket booking service, excerpts from the exhibition catalogue which are free to download and additionally there are links to networking sites such as twitter and Facebook.

All this pre-exhibition information that is available for the visitor seems to verify the latest developments in the management of 'the block buster' exhibition trend for eminent Museums and Galleries. It seems they are trying to turn the tide of 'Gallery Rage' experienced by a visitor who is often bustled into an exhibit where viewing is limited and of short duration due to the numbers of other visitors all crowding in.

As we saw with the National Gallery's preparation for the forthcoming Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition, it seems the more information and context the institution can provide to the the avid voyeur before their visit, the better their exhibition experience will become. Although the British Museum has not mentioned any restrictions on numbers allowed into the exhibition space at any one time, as the National Gallery have done, the hope seems to be that equipped with as much information about the objects and artefacts as possible, a visitor to the British Museum will enjoy a greater sense of the display and less a sense of being herded through a money making show.

After being open for a week, it seems that not only art lovers have been flocking to see these rare insights into the Medieval religious mind. Religious visitors too, are flocking to see the exhibition with one member of staff describing himself as being; "knee deep in archbishops".

http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/treasures_of_heaven.aspx

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2011/jun/30/treasures-of-heaven-kiss-relics?INTCMP=SRCH

http://blog.britishmuseum.org/category/exhibitions/treasures-of-heaven/

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/devotion-by-design

http://www.learn.columbia.edu/treasuresofheaven/relics/Arm-Reliquary-of-the-Apostles.php

http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/treasures_of_heaven/introduction.aspx

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2011/jun/20/treasures-of-heaven-british-museum-in-pictures

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/jun/28/british-museum-top-attraction

Tewkesbury Medieval Festival this Weekend!

This weekend sees the little town of Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, adorning its historic cap as it holds the largest medieval festival in Europe over a two day spectacular.

Tewkesbury is a small Gloucestershire market town standing at the confluence of the rivers Severn and Avon. It has a magnificent Abbey - now the Parish Church and the second largest in the country. It also has a wealth of medieval buildings and is so well preserved it is one of just six 'gem' towns in the country. Every summer the town centre is decorated with colourful medieval banners, based on those carried in the battle of Tewkesbury.

Now in its 25th year, this completely volunteer organised event, is more popular than ever with locals and historians alike, as the whole town becomes involved in the festival which, centers around the re-enactment of the Battle of Tewkesbury won in 1471.

The battle was the last in the battle of the Civil War of the Roses and took place on May 4th 1471. Both the Houses of York (the White Rose) and Lancaster (the Red Rose) fought viciously to prove who should be King.

The War of the Roses began because Henry VI was considered insane and the country was without a strong leader. Edward of York was believed to be the most able leader left and was was declared King in 1461. He had Henry locked in the tower of London so his wife Margaret of Anjou fled to France with their son who was also called Edward.

When Edward reached 18 Margaret decided to return to England and re-claim the throne for her son. She landed at Weymouth on April 14, 1471, and set off for Wales, where Jasper Tudor awaited with re-enforcements for her small army. As they approached the city of Gloucester they gathered further support for their cause but King Edward locked the City Gates to prevent their attack.

The next crossing point over the River Severn was Tewkesbury, and though the party hoped to cross the River to safety, Edward's army far outnumbered and out-skilled that of Margaret's, who were, in the end, bitterly defeated. It is said that many tried to flea the scene and cross the River Severn, only to be killed by Edward's men. This has lead the nearby Meadow to be known as 'Bloody Meadow'.

Margaret was lucky and escaped with some of her ladies to a Priory in Malvern, her son Edward however, was killed and buried in Tewkesbury Abbey. The Prince's last resting place is still marked today with a brass plaque, which sits directly beneath a ceiling boss of the Yorkist badge; The Sun in Splendour' within the Abbey.

The Festival promises to be very entertaining and interesting and i'm very much looking forwards to visiting this event for the first time. The website lists the events program:-

Saturday

• 11am - Festival opens.
• 11:45am - Mayors Party, with Colchester Watch arrives.
• 12 noon - Official opening by our patron, actor and historian Robert Hardy, outside the public information tent, next to the Black Bear Banner.
• 12 non - Archery competition for re-enactors, in the amphitheatre on Windmill Hill.
• 3pm - Falconry display on the battle arena.
• 3:15pm - Troops start to muster for battle.
• 4pm - Battle re-enactment.
• 6pm - Festival site closes and events move into town.
• 7pm - Re-enactment of the storming of the Abbey.
• 7.30pm - Trial and be-heading of captured Lancastrians followed by Compline (in the Abbey) and presentation of the Tewkesbury Indenture.

Sunday

• 9:15am - Eucharist led by the Vicar of Tewkesbury Abbey at the Kings Camp.
• 11am - Festival site opens.
• 11.30am - Guided walk around the battle field.
• 12 noon - Archery competition.
• 1.30pm - Guided walk around the battle field.
• 2pm - Falconry display on the battle arena.
• 3pm - Battle re-enactment.
• 5pm - Festival ends.

Battlefield walks

Regular guided tours of the battlefield, are conducted during the festival, with a full description of the events leading up to the Battle of Tewkesbury, the conduct of the battle, and the aftermath. These walks are taken at a leisurely pace, and last about two hours.

The walks are organised by the Tewkesbury battlefield Society, which exists to promote knowledge of the battlefield.

Program of events and activities

Tewkesbury Medieval Festival includes a huge re-enactment of the Battle of Tewkesbury, featuring around 2000 warriors, including knights in full armour, gunners, with cannon and hand guns, archers, with the traditional English Longbow, and men at arms with swords, spears and other weapons of the period, all brought to life with a lively and informed commentary, and taking place on part of the site of the original battle of 1471.

The battle in full swing

When not fighting many of them will be living for the weekend as soldiers on the march, sleeping in authentic medieval tents, eating food of the period, cooked over open fires in copies of medieval pots and pans, and preparing for the battle as they would have done in 1471.

Many of the traders on our market are just as authentic, dressed 15^th century traders, they use well researched skills to do everything from making swords and armour, to preparing ginger bread and hand stitching beautiful gowns and colourful tunics.

Medieval entertainer

Outside of the battlefield

Throughout the summer the main streets of Tewkesbury are decorated with banners displaying the arms of some of those who fought in the battle and the event co-incides with the town's entry into The Heart of England in Bloom. Look out too for colourful floral displays and specially decorated windows.

A number of events connected with the festival also take place in the town. Notably the parade including the Colchester Watch, with their Mayor and ours mustering in the Black Bear at ten to ten to march to the site, our tithe collectors will be demanding money of the traders.

There is always a worry that events such as this might verge into the romantic elements of Medieval history, with a possible New Age feel but i shall report back next week and we shall see!

Please visit the website to make a donation, view maps and see the history of the Battle and Festival in full:-

http://www.tewkesburymedievalfestival.org/index.html

Medieval Treasure Found in Lancashire

A lucky metal detectorist from Lancashire has unearthed a medieval pilgrimage relic which will take its place amongst some of the most rare and revered Medieval Relics in an Exhibition at the British Museum.

The exhibition 'Treasures of Heaven' which opened last week and is on until 9th October, will for the first time bring into context, these sacred and mystical treasures from the Middle Ages.

The Guardian's Maev Kennedy reports;

The badge made of silver found by Paul King, a retired logistics expert, is a humble object to earn a place in an exhibition called Treasures of Heaven, but it is unique. It will sit among gold and silver reliquaries studded with gems the size of thumbnails – or the sockets from which they were wrenched by thieves – once owned by emperors, popes and princes.The badge, the only one of its kind ever found in Britain, provides a link 500 years ago between this corner of rural Lancashire and the great pilgrimage sites of mainland Europe. It shows one of the companions of St Ursula, one of the most popular mystical legends of medieval Europe...

King, a member of the South Ribble metal detecting club, found the silver plaque at the end of April in a field some miles from his home in Walton-le-Dale, where he had already found several hundred Victorian coins, but returned with the blessing of the landowner for a sweep with his new more high-powered metal detector.

"I knew immediately she was something special," he said. "I think she was hidden deliberately – she was folded over, not damaged by a plough strike in any way. It is extraordinary and moving to think how much history is locked up in this little piece of metal."

Though there are many variations, the story of St Ursula which was recorded by Jacobus de Voragine’s in his Legenda Aurea (Golden Legend) of 1266, is that Ursula was a British Princess who was offered her hand in marriage by a pegan king. It is said that Ursula managed to delay the betrothal for 3 years during which time she had pleaded with her father to let her go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Ursula was accompanied by 10 ladies in waiting and each lady had 1,000 virgins who accompanied them on their Holy pilgrimage across Europe.

After meeting Pope Cyriacus in Rome the ladies returned home and in Cologne, were stopped, besieged and eventually beheaded by the Huns. The Legend says that St Ursula was shot with an arrow, which is why most depictions of the Saint portray her holding a single arrow in one hand to demonstrate her means of Martyrdom.

The Legend says that some date this event to 238 but that the year 452 is more likely.

The story originated in a local tradition in Cologne that some number of Christian virgins had been martyred by the Romans in the early years of the city. The earliest testimony to these virgins is a stone inscription from the fourth century, now in the choir of the Church of St. Ursula in Cologne. It speaks only of an unspecified number of virgin martyrs "from the East." But in the ninth century a number of liturgical sources mention these Colognese virgins, reporting their number variously as five, eight, or eleven. Scholars are uncertain as to how the number eleven was chosen and then multiplied by a thousand.

Maev Kennedy writes further;

Although a church in Cologne holds her shrine and a whole chapel still decorated with the supposed bones of her companions, there were so many bones that the relics spread across Europe and beyond. Some of the most beautiful reliquaries, life sized busts of fashionably dressed young women, were made to hold the bones. The badge from Lancashire is a representation of just such a shrine - and so close in style and early 16th century date that it may come from the same Bruges workshop as the one in the exhibition on loan from the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

The Metropolitan reliquary, of a gently smiling young woman with her hair in a modish plaited style, is so alluring it has become the exhibition poster. The badge would have been bought as a souvenir by the Lancashire pilgrim from just such a shrine.

British Museum curator James Robinson said he was "beside myself with excitement" when he saw an image of the find. "To be honest if I hadn't been working on the exhibition it might have taken me a while to clock it – as it is I recognised her immediately as one of the companions of St Ursula. I hesitate to call it a miracle, but it is a most extraordinary coincidence that this should turn up just at this time."

He believes it is even possible that a similar reliquary may have been the centre of a shrine in Britain, destroyed as the cult of relics was condemned as idolatrous and blasphemous by religious reformers.

"The badge may be the only fragile, ephemeral piece of evidence for a cult of St Ursula in the north of England, that might have had at its centre a bust reliquary of continental manufacture."

The exhibition will include reliquaries which the faithful believed once held the breast milk of the Virgin Mary, the umbilical cord of the baby Jesus, the arm of Saint Luke - holding a golden pen to symbolise the gospels he wrote - and many still containing fragments of wood claimed to come from the cross on which Christ died. A carved icon of the Virgin which according to tradition was taken from the neck of the dead emperor Charlemagne, was one of the treasures of Aachen cathedral until it was given as present to Napoleon's Josephine. Some of the loans have never before left the churches or villages where they have been venerated for centuries. Many were believed to have miraculous powers, and made the places that held them wealthy pilgrimage sites - as Canterbury cathedral was for the relics of the martyred Thomas a Becket, and Santiago de Compostela in Spain remains to this day.

King, who has always been interested in history and spends days researching his finds in museums and archives, reported it under the Portable Antiquities scheme which encourages metal detectors to report all their archaeological finds, but she proved to be silver and so legally treasure which must be reported. When valued - the price will be shared between King and the landowner - Robinson hopes the British Museum will acquire her to find a permanent resting place in its medieval galleries

The Lancashire St Ursula badge and the Exhibition 'Treasures of Heaven' can be seen at the British Museum. For further information please see the below links:-

http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/treasures_of_heaven/introduction.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Ursula

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/jun/20/badge-dug-field-medieval-treasure?INTCMP=SRCH

http://www.aug.edu/augusta/iconography/ursula.html

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/online/exhibitions/faith/stursula.asp

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/goldenlegend/index.htm

New Turin Shroud Speculation; Was Giotto its Creator?

The Shroud of Turin, has for centuries, created a mass of speculation and myth around its creation and authenticity; the latest of which, seems to disallow for any recent research into the carbon dating of the cloth of the Shroud, and instead propels renaissance artist Giotto into the spotlight as its cunning creator.

The commonly known 'lunatic fringe' of researchers into the relic's provenance have, in the past, linked Leonardo Da Vinci to the Shroud, suggesting that the image on the cloth is an early photo-generated image from Leonardo's experimental art studios...

This new theory seems to be clinging onto the already disproved argument, that the images on the cloth are made with paint. Artist and restorer Luciano Buso claims to have solved the allusion of the Shroud, and in good old fashioned speculative enthusiasm, has used mysterious hidden names and secret numbers to determine his conclusion.

For those who are unclear as to the history of the Shroud, here's a quick run down of recent research into its authenticity; Said to be the very cloth that Christ was swathed in after Crucifixion, the Shroud of Turin currently lies in Turin's Cathedral as a very real relic of Christianity.

In 1979, a world renowned forensic, Walter McCrone, claimed that he had found paint on the fibers of the cloth. This backed up the local legend that the Shroud had first appeared in 1356 in the hands of a French knight. The Shroud was subsequently called a fake by a local Bishop who claimed at the time, that an artist must have ''cunningly painted it''. Later in 1988, a series of very controversial carbon 14 dating tests were carried out on the edge of the cloth, after stipulations agreed with the Church, so as not to damage the relic. These carbon dating results showed that the fibers of the cloth dated to the Middle Ages between 1260 and 1390.

Skepticism as to the reliability of the dating methods used during the carbon dating experiment circulated and came to a head in 1998 after a photograph of the Shroud proved the image on the cloth to be an exact negative of a human face, and was therefore unlikely to have been painted on. This then called into question how the image was formed and furthermore, whether the carbon dating for the edges of the cloth were accurate.

The image was believed to be a chemical reaction from an embalming ointment applied to the skin of a person, which had 'caramelised' and reacted to the cloth over time.

The bloodstains

The bloodstains on the Shroud of Turin are composed of hemoglobin and give a positive test for serum albumin. Numerous tests confirm this.

The images

The Shroud of Turin's images are superficial and fully contained within a thin layer of starch fractions and saccharides that coats the outermost fibers of the Shroud. The color is a caramel-like substance, probably the product of an amino/carbonyl reaction. Where there is no image, the carbohydrate coating is clear. There is also a very faint image of the face on the reverse side of the Shroud of Turin which lines up with the image on the front of the cloth. There is no image content between the two superficial image layers indicating that nothing soaked through to form the image on the other side.

Until recently, it was widely believed that the images on the Shroud of Turin were produced by something which resulted in oxidation, dehydration and conjugation of the polysaccharide structure of the linen fibers. This is incorrect. The coating, whether imaged or clear, can be reduced with diimide or removed with adhesive leaving clear cellulose fiber.

The images as they appear on the Shroud of Turin are said to be negative because when photographed the resulting negative is a positive image.

The Turin Shroud was examined with visible and ultraviolet spectrometry, infrared spectrometry, x-ray fluorescence spectrometry, thermography, pyrolysis-mass-spectrometry, laser­microprobe Raman analyses, and microchemical testing. No evidence for pigments (paint, dye or stains) or artist's media was found anywhere on the Shroud of Turin - www.shroudstory.com

The carbon dating to the Middle Ages is also questioned as the medieval fibers which were tested have now been found to be mixed with earlier fragments of cloth in a commenly used repair method called 'invisible mending'. This is where new fibers of the cloth are woven with the old fibers so minutely that a repair is not visible to the untrained eye.

So, Mr Buso's theory, as you can see, is somewhat out of date. Nevertheless, if the Shroud is believed to be medieval, and that the image has been painted onto the cloth, and it has been proven that the image on the Shroud is in the negative, then it must have taken an extraordinary artist to complete the task, and Mr Buso believes that artist to be Giotto.

Nick Squires from the Telegraph reports:

Luciano Buso claims to have found Giotto di Bondone's signature hidden in the 14ft-long, sepia-coloured burial cloth, as well as the number 15.

The historian believes that the number is a reference to 1315, and that the artist was commissioned in that year to come up with an exact copy of the relic because the original was badly damaged after centuries of being hawked around the Holy Land and Europe.

Mr Buso, who has laid out his controversial thesis in a new book, said the idea that the existing shroud was created in 1315 agrees with modern carbon dating tests which dated the fabric to the early 14th century.

He told The Daily Telegraph that he believes the original was indeed the sheet used to cover Christ's body but that it disintegrated, or was lost or burned, sometime after the copy was made.

After months of analysis, he claims to have found several 15s and Giotto's name hidden in the imprint of Christ's face and hands – a means by which the artist stamped his mark on his work.

Jonathan Jones of the Guardian responds as to why Giotto could have been up to the task;

Well, Giotto had the genius for it, that much is true. He could probably have knocked up a shroud or two in his lunchtime, if he felt like it. But why would he want to? Nothing in what is known of his life or art suggests any such activities or interests. "Cimabue used to think he led the field," says his contemporary Dante in The Divine Comedy, referring to the great Florentine painter who discovered the artist's talent. But now Giotto has eclipsed him.

Giotto was the most emotionally eloquent painter of his age; he gave people expressions, gestures and statuesque figures that convey, to us as much as to his contemporaries, the deepest human passions. This was a time of great new energies and ideas. Towns and cities were full of pride and wealth, an urban world beautifully captured in Ambrogio Lorenzetti's depiction of medieval Siena. Meanwhile, the vision of Saint Francis of Assisi liberated religion from obscurities and spoke directly to hearts and souls. Giotto's art is as lucid as a Franciscan sermon, and it depicts the ordinary, unaffected faces of merchants, artisans, women and priests. You see its power in his portrayal of the death of Saint Francis in a fresco in the church of Santa Croce, Florence.

Looking at these paintings and considering the claim that Giotto created the Turin Shroud, the question is why our culture needs such a daft story to get us talking about him. Giotto was a deeply serious artist. His achievement, fulsomely recognised in the Renaissance, was to ground painting in the observation of nature, to free it from obscurities, to make it human and real. Beside his paintings, the idea of Giotto taking time off to concoct a relic seems silly. He was too well-known, too ambitious and too profound to either want to do it or get away with it unnoticed.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/8561812/Turin-Shroud-the-creation-of-a-Renaissance-artist.html

http://www.shroudstory.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shroud_of_Turin

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2011/jun/09/giotto-paint-turin-shroud

A Medieval Lute Luxury: The Gift of Music CD Review

Another lovely CD from The Gift of Music website - www.thegiftofmusic.com

They have a great variety of heritage music on offer, this being one of them. I think the website and musician describe the ambiance of the CD the best;

Travels with my Lute - Lynda Sayce Ref: CDG1114

Travels with my Lute

Fine Renaissance music

The gentle lute: played by one of Britain's leading virtuosos, Lynda Sayce, this programme draws together the best lute music of the Renaissance, contrasting the different regional musical styles which emerged during the golden period of lute composition. Played on a variety of different lutes as appropriate.

Italy
six course lute
1 Fantasia Marco da L'Aquila (fl. XVIth century)
Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Mus Ms 266
2 Calata alla spagnola detto terzetti Joanambrosio Dalza (fl. 1508)
3 Pavana alla Ferrarese
4 Saltarello
5 Piva
Dalza, Intabulatura di Lauto. Libro Quarto. Venice 1508
6 Fantasia Petro Paulo da Milano (fl. XVIth century)
7 Tocha tocha la canella Anonymous/ Giovanni Antonio Casteliono
Giovanni Antonio Casteliono, Intabolatura de leuto de diversi autori. Milan 1536
8 Ricercar (Ness 51) Francesco da Milano (1497-1543)
Intabolatura de lautto Libro Settimo. Recercari novi del divino M. Francesco da Milano. Venice 1548
9 Ricercar (Ness 40)
Intabolatura de lauto di M. Francesco Milanese et M. Perino Fiorentino. Libro Terzo. Venice 1547


Germany
bass lute
10 Preambel in Re Anonymous
11 Mein Vleis und Mue Ludwig Senfl (c.1486-c.1543) anon. setting
Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Mus. Ms. 1512
12 Elslein liebstes Elslein mein Ludwig Senfl
Hans Newsidler, Ein Newgeordent künstlich Lautenbuch. Nuremberg 1536
13 Der Beyrisch Bok Tantz weyss/Der Hupff auff Hans Newsidler (c.1508-1563)
14 Vita in ligno moritur, prima pars Ludwig Senfl
15 König Ferdinandus Tantz/Der Hupff auff Hans Newsidler
Hans Newsidler, Das Ander Buch. Ein new künstlich Lauten Buch. Nuremberg 1549
16 Ein Welscher Tantz Wascha Mesa/Der Hupff auff
Hans Newsidler, Ein Newgeordent künstlich Lautenbuch. Nuremberg 1536


France
six course lute
17 Fortune laisse moy Pierre Attaignant (ca.1494-1551/2)
Pierre Attaignant, Tres breve et familiere introduction. Paris 1529
18 Basse dance 'La Maddalena' - recoupe - tordion
Pierre Attaignant, Dixhuit Basses Dances garnies. Paris, 1530
19 Mille regretz Josquin des Prez (c.1440 - 1521)
1st setting: Pierre Phalèse, Hortus Musarum. Louvain 1552
2nd setting: Pierre Phalèse, Des Chansons Reduictz en tabulature de Luc, Livre deuxiéme. Louvain 1546
20 Tant que vivray Claude Sermisy (1490-1562)
Pierre Phalese, Des Chansons Reduictz en Tablature de Luth, Livre Premier. 2nd edition. Louvain 1547
21 Passemeze Adrian le Roy (c.1520-1598)
A briefe and easye instrution. London 1568 (English translation of a lost French lute book of 1557)
22 Bransle Guillaume Morlaye (c.1510-c.1558)
Uppsala, University Library, MS 412
23 Branle gay Adrian le Roy
Adrian le Roy, Premier livre de tablature de luth. Paris 1551

England
seven course lute
24 Passamezzo Pavan (bass lute) John Johnson (c.1540-1594)
Cambridge, University Library, Ms Dd.2.11
25 Galliard: Muy Linda Anthony Holborne (fl.1584-1602)
Cambridge, University Library, Ms. Dd.5.78.3
26 Almain: The night watch
Willey Park, Shropshire, private library of Lord Forrester, John Welde lute book
27 Jig: Wanton
Cambridge, University Library, Ms. Dd.5.78.3
28 Fantasia a 5 John Dowland (1563-1626)
Cambridge, University Library, Add. Ms 3056
29 Lachrimae
Cambridge, University Library, Ms. Dd.5.78.3
30 Galliard
London, British Library, Hirsch Ms 1353
31 Mr Dowland's Midnight
London, Royal Academy of Music, Ms 603, (The Margaret Board lute book)

Lynda Sayce, lute


CCL CDG1114
P & C 2005 Classical Communications Ltd
Cover image: Young Lute Player by Vittore Carpaccio, detail from
The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple 1510 from S.Giobbe altarpiece, Venice
Lebrecht Music & Arts Photo Library
Made in Great Britain

Inside book:

Travels with my lute
Fine Renaissance music

Lynda Sayce

The lute encapsulates the spirit of the renaissance. It was immortalized in poetry by Ronsard and Shakespeare, and on canvas by Holbein, da Vinci, Titian and Raphael. It was played by Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, Martin Luther and Galileo. Its huge and magnificent repertory is one of the artistic glories of the 16th century, and, true to the spirit of the age, it was constantly being reborn as different cultures adopted it and made it their own.

The earliest lute manuscripts date from years around 1500, when lutenists had only recently adopted the new-fangled technique of plucking with the fingers. The lute was originally played with a plectrum, which largely confined it to playing single lines. Plucking with the fingers made polyphony possible on a single lute, and suddenly lutenist-composers had a subtle and versatile instrument of unrivalled emotive power, uniquely possessing both the chromatic capability of keyboard instruments, and the dynamic and tonal flexibility of the harp. This description of the playing of Francesco da Milano, known as 'il Divino', gives some idea of the lute's power:


The tables being cleared, he chose one and, as if tuning his strings, sat on the end of a table seeking out a fantasia. He had barely disturbed the air with three strummed chords when he interrupted conversation which had started among the guests. Having constrained them to face him, he continued with such a ravishing skill that little by little, making the strings languish under his fingers in his sublime way, he transported all those who were listening into so pleasurable a melancholy that ... they remained deprived of all senses save that of hearing, as if the spirit, having abandoned all the seats of the senses had retired to the ears in order to enjoy the more at its ease so ravishing a harmony; and I believe ... that we would be there still, had he not himself - I know not how - changing his style of playing with a gentle force, returned the spirit and the sense to the place from which he had stolen them, not without leaving as much astonishment in each of us as if we had been elevated by an ecstatic transport of some divine frenzy.

Decades later, the English traveller Fynes Morison noted that

The Italians, and especially the Venetians, have in all tymes excelled [in the Art of Musick], and most at this day, not in light tunnes and hard striking of the stringes, (which they dislike), ... but in Consortes of grave soleme Musicke, sometymes running so sweetely with softe touching of the stringes, as may seeme to ravish the hearers spiritt from his body...

The Germans, on the other hand, 'like them better who strike hard upon the strings, then those who with a gentile touch make sweeter Melody, which they thincke fitter for Chambers to invite sleepe, then for feasts to invite mirth and drincking.' Appropriately enough, German lute collections are replete with lively dances, and German paintings and engravings show a definite preference for large lutes, well-suited to vigorous playing, but also prized for their exquisite sonority. Sadly the wonderful German lute repertory is rarely heard today, because it was written in a particularly tortuous notation system which had no stave but used the entire alphabet twice over, plus several numbers and a few Greek letters too.

The lute was the pre-eminent courtly instrument of mid-16th France, ennobled in verse by the great French poet Ronsard, who hailed it as 'the glory and trophy of Phoebus', capable of curing lovesickness and envious cares. The influential Ronsard admired chanson composers, and Josquin above all, so not surprisingly arrangements (called intabulations) of vocal music are extremely important in French lute collections.

The final flowering of renaissance lute music occurred in England in the latter half of Elizabeth I's reign. English taste eschewed vocal intabulations in favour of dance forms and variation sets. John Johnson (d.1594) was the first major English lute composer. Both he and Anthony Holborne (d.1602) served Elizabeth, the former as one of her 'Musitians for the three lutes', the latter as a gentleman usher. Ironically the greatest English lutenist, John Dowland, was repeatedly denied a court position, perhaps because of his Catholicism but more likely because of his difficult personality. He and Francesco da Milano may be considered the alpha and omega of the renaissance lute, both in terms of their international fame and the longevity of their music.

Lynda Sayce

Lynda Sayce read Music at St. Hugh's College, Oxford, then studied lute with Jakob Lindberg at the Royal College of Music, and also took continuo classes with Nigel North. She holds a Ph.D for her research on the history of the theorbo, which is to be published as two books in 2005-6. Lynda has contributed articles to Early Music, the Revised New Grove Dictionary of Music, and the art journal Apollo, and has edited many music publications. She performs regularly with leading period instrument ensembles, including The King's Consort, the Academy of Ancient Music, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the Musicians of the Globe. For many years she was lutenist with the award-winning ensemble Charivari Agréable. She appears on more than 100 CD recordings, and has broadcast on radio and TV stations throughout Europe, and in the USA, Japan and South America. On this recording Lynda plays lutes by Ivo Magherini (6 course and bass) and Michael Lowe (7 course).

For further information on Lynda and her work, please visit www.theorbo.com

Leonardo in London; Quick or You'll Miss It. Be Prepared!

The Guardian have reported on the forthcoming exhibition, (mentioned previously in this blog) of Leonardo Da Vinci, to be held in the National Gallery, London, as 'the most complete display of Leonardo's rare surviving paintings ever held'. Questions are being asked however, as to whether the 'Block Buster' exhibitions of recent times have come to an end, with the National Gallery placing a limit on admissions. Stephen Moss asks whether the packed crowds, limited viewing of art works and timed entry will become a thing of the past in favour of a more civilised and heightened experience of exhibition viewing.

In the past 12 months or so it has been notable, the comments made by exhibition reviewers and visitors a like, as to the monstrous conditions one has to put up with just to see a temporary show. Pushing swarms of visitors, waiting in line to see a masterpiece, hundreds of camera flashes going off at the art works peril; as if some kind of celebrity were in front of the jostling crowds. It has come to be an expected side effect of wanting to go to see any major exhibition in the U.K and has even been coined with its own terminology; Gallery Rage!

The recent Gauguin exhibition at the Tate Modern has caused a stir in the ethos of the Gallery Block Buster mentality. Although the exhibition (see links below) provided a record high in business for the museum, it was also the most reported on for over crowding and disgruntled visitors who paid, queued and did not see paintings due to the rest of the art loving mass accompanying them in the Gallery.

Stephen Moss reports;

The problem lies with the whole notion of the "blockbuster", which is just a desperately hoped-for money-spinner for cash-strapped galleries. Colin Tweedy, chief executive of Arts & Business, argued recently that the era of blockbuster shows was coming to an end. And he welcomed their phasing out. "The blockbuster model is killing art," he said. "It is not the right way to see great artists. In the next five years, museums will stop doing these exhibitions because they are too much trouble. The blockbuster is an old model. The creators of culture have to think in a different way."

Art shows are like any other aspect of the cultural business. Galleries put together a show, try to create a buzz, hope the exhibition will come to be seen as an "event". The hucksterism is pretty disgusting when you think about it. They've introduced timed tickets to try to even out the peaks and troughs in attendance, but timed tickets are pretty disgusting too. They assume that a two-hour stint is the norm and won't let you back in if you fancy having lunch and then taking another look.

This is, as Tweedy says, no way to see art. It is a branch of commerce devised for the benefit of the gallery, and playing on the exhibition-goer's fantasy that by spending two hours in the company of Gauguin or Leonardo he or she can get a meaningful take on the artist. Far better to go and look at a couple of Gauguins in a gallery and live with them for a while, or go regularly to see the couple of Leonardos in the National Gallery's permanent exhibition.

Galleries which stage blockbuster shows are peddling a myth, and they know it. Like Tweedy, we should welcome the fact that the age of the blockbuster is ending. We need to study more carefully paintings that are readily to hand.

The bad publicity received by the Tate Modern seems to have been a lesson learned for the National Gallery, who have opted to reduce the maximum persons allowed entry per hour, from 230 to 180, but this exhibition will draw crowds of art lovers from all over the world, whether limited numbers or not.

The exhibition is the first and best opportunity to view not one, but seven of the artists masterpieces in one exhibition. The curator of the exhibition, Luke Syson, describes it as an achievement for any Gallery to get just one of Leonardo's 14 authenticated paintings, let alone seven, which he states is 'miraculous'.

In his Guardian article; 'Leonardo da Vinci show at National Gallery to limit visitor numbers', Mark Brown interviews the National Gallery's director, Nicholas Penny, who called the exhibition;

"a great triumph in diplomacy" with paintings leaving galleries in Italy and France for the first time....

The show will focus on Leonardo's paintings and drawings while he was court painter to Milan's ruler, Ludovico Sforza. The National Gallery already has the recently restored Virgin on the Rocks and is being loaned astonishing works to exhibit alongside, including Portrait of a Musician from Milan, Saint Jerome from the Vatican and La Belle Ferronière from the Louvre. There will also be what Syson called "one of the most beautiful pictures that was ever painted by anybody anywhere" as the show's centrepiece – Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, or The Lady with an Ermine, which is regarded by many as the first truly modern portrait and is being loaned by the National Museum in Krakow...

Then there are the drawings. More than 50 are being borrowed including 33 owned by the Queen that were purchased during the reign of Charles II and left in the bottom of a chest until they were rediscovered in 1778, during the reign of George III.

Those visitors hoping to catch a glimpse of the Mona Lisa however, will be dissapointed as the Mona Lisa was painted during Leonardo's time in Florence and therefore does not fall under the exhibition's brief of Leonardo's court paintings at Milan. Brown adds;

Not that anyone would ask the Louvre for a loan. "The collecting staff there would rather rush round naked than lend it," said Syson

Due to the recent back lash aimed at the Tate for the Gauguin debacle, the National Gallery understandably wants to prepare visitors for the exhibition; what to expect and how to get the best experience out of the event as possible;

"There is going to be tremendous demand and we have taken a number of unusual steps to try and ensure people are not too disappointed," said Penny. "It is very important that people study our website before they come to the exhibition. They can download all the information that people stand and read beforehand. The whole experience can be properly prepared for."

...The show opens in November, but the gallery is giving people plenty of time to book in advance by opening sales on Tuesday. Those hoping to buy tickets on the day are being told they face disappointment. The show will run for only three months because, understandably, the other galleries want their paintings back, but it will be open until 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays and 7pm on Sundays. Opening times will be extended further in the last two weeks.

So with all this in mind; forewarned visitors, pre-planned limited numbers and an advertising machine mill stating 'this is not a block buster' that works at drawing visitors just as well as the block buster 'must - see' campaign does, how will the average art lover prepare themselves for the trial of the gallery visit? The Guardian's Tim Dowling has the answer!

In his article; 'How to beat gallery rage' Mr Dowling gives a few tips on handling the masses;

▶ Go at odd hours. Try first thing in the morning or last thing at night (blockbuster shows sometimes stay open until 9 or 10pm in order to accommodate everyone). Even if it's still crowded, it will be less fraught.

▶ Approach the exhibit non- sequentially. Visitors tend to bunch up at the first few works of art, driven by a sense that they have to see everything in order. Jump ahead to less crowded works, or even follow the whole route backwards. This should stop you suffering from gallery rage, although you may cause some.

▶ Skip the audio tour. The evil voices in your headphones will only tell you to go where everyone else on the audio tour is going. This invariably leads to traffic problems around paintings about which the audio guide has something to say.

▶ Re-contextualise the event. Pretend you've come to see a performance installation about crowd control and the limits of human endurance and that the art on the walls is, if anything, a needless distraction.

▶ Wear a high-visibility vest. It makes you look official; people will be afraid to jostle you.

▶ Cultivate a taste for the overlooked, the offputting, the little understood and the poorly reviewed. Your best hope of seeing a one-off collection of masterpieces in peace comes whenever some critic has the foresight to describe the show as "badly curated".

▶ Take advantage of adverse conditions. Even over-subscribed exhibitions become suddenly accessible during freak snowstorms, transport strikes and violent protests. Watch the news, pick your moment and bring extra water in case you get beaten up or kettled on the way home.

▶ Stay home and watch TV. Someone has to. Don't worry about being a philistine; just be thankful you live in a country where museum overcrowding is an actual problem.

And remember;

don't play the galleries' game by falling for the idea that these big shows are "must-sees". For a start, you can barely see them.

Tickets for the Exhibition go on sale on 10th May 2011, better be quick!

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/leonardo-da-vinci-painter-at-the-court-of-milan

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/may/09/blockbuster-exhibition-national-leonardo?intcmp=239

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/may/09/leonardo-da-vinci-national-gallery?INTCMP=SRCH

http://www.guardian.co.uk/search?q=how+to+beat+gallery+rage&target=guardian

Little Apology & Sneak Peak!

Just a note to apologise for the absence recently but fear not! I have not given up or gone away, well i did, but it was all in search of blogging adventures and I will report to you shortly!

Here's a sneak preview of whats to come...

Castle of the Month for Febuary:- Caernarfon, Wales

Castle of the Month for March:- Raglan, Wales

A Caravaggio spotlight into his dark past ...&...

A review of the T.V series and Book entitled Medieval Lives by the talented Terry Jones!!

Also, if your very lucky, you may get a personality of the month for this month too! But only if your good.

Keep Watching...........

Jan Gossaert's Renaissance Exhibition Reviews

Jonathan Jones and Laura Cumming, both of the Guardian Arts online, write the following reviews on the exhibition, which i am about to visit this weekend! I will let you know my thoughts next week!

Jonathan Jones writes;

In 15th-century Flanders, late medieval painters performed miracles that in some ways left their Italian contemporaries far behind, offering microscopically precise views of towns and interiors, discovering the magic of human character in lifelike portraits. So why aren't there crowds in front of Van Eyck's mesmerising Madonna of Chancellor Rolin to match those in front of the Mona Lisa?

This seems especially odd when you consider the work of Jan Gossaert, one of the first Flemish artists to visit Rome and take on the challenge of the classical nude. He started his career at the time Michelangelo was unveiling David, but gave the majestic human body portrayed in stone by the ancients and rediscovered by Italians his own rollicking, saucy finesse in paint. Throughout this exhibition, you see his northern gothic tendencies, his delight in twisting architectural forms and luxurious draperies, intertwine with the Renaissance passion for human proportions, Greek myth and drawing – skills that he learned by travelling to Rome and sketching ancient sculpture there.

The exhibition is called Jan Gossaert's Renaissance, and that title invites us to ponder two questions – what was the Renaissance, and what was it for him? Neither is easy to answer. The Renaissance began as a movement by Italian intellectuals to rediscover the true meaning and value of ancient Greek and Roman civilisation. But, as this show reveals, by the early 1500s the Renaissance was spreading far beyond Italy and changing as it travelled. It includes wonderful works by Albrecht Dürer and Jacopo de' Barbari as well as Gossaert, that reveal how the classical ideal mutated and interbred with more folkish ideas when it crossed the Alps. There is even a hair-raising print by Dürer that uses the new Renaissance convention of the nude to portray a coven of witches, weaving their enchantments while their master the devil grimaces at the door.

Gossaert fixed on the image of Adam and Eve as a way to explore nudity within the intensely Christian cultures of the north, where women still wore wimples and Martin Luther was wrestling with his conscience. Inspired partly by Dürer's astonishing drawings, prints and paintings of Adam and Eve – also on show here – he takes a sophisticated, relaxed pleasure in these Edenic bodies. Gossaert is an incredibly fleshy painter, a consummate sensualist whose greatest talent is to play with the possibilities of the nude form, make skin ripple and tauten. In one of his drawings, Eve offers Adam the apple not in a coy proposal, but in a passionate embrace that is clearly leading them into a sinful experience: the Fall as foreplay. Nor did he confine his eroticism to the Garden of Eden. In small paintings done for his employer, the erotically uninhibited Philip of Burgundy, he delights in the lewdness of pagan Greco-Roman myth. He paints Venus nude except for fine jewels and headgear, the ornaments heightening the profanity.

This show is a cabinet of curiosities. Gossaert is almost Warholian in his fascination with surface, a rich observer of the physical world who hesitates to go beyond. Even his portraits are sensual studies of faces rather than introspective studies of character. These portraits are fascinating in their concentration on the creamy skins, curling facial features and bright eyes of their subjects, as if he were studying them as physiognomic specimens. Even his religious paintings – above all his mighty picture of St Luke, patron saint of artists, and his sumptuous Adoration of the Magi – are opulent feasts of surface effects. His work holds in balance the tensions between visionary revelation and realism, design and colour, painting and sculpture, showing the ambiguities of his world, on the cusp of the middle ages and modernity. In Gossaert's Renaissance, the classical ideal is always playfully involved with a messy life. You feel he would have been good to talk to and meet, a good teacher, someone who enjoyed a glass and a joke – a true Renaissance man.

Laura Cumming writes;

Jan Gossaert is not a name on everyone's lips. It feels safe to say that he is no longer famous at all. Presumably the National Gallery aims to revive the Flemish painter's dormant reputation with this immense survey, organised jointly with the Metropolitan Museum in New York and accompanied by a catalogue raisonné so weighty one wouldn't invest in it lightly. But this is one of those occasions where scholarship doesn't have all the answers, notably to the simple question of why Gossaert's peculiar pictures should be admired in the first place.

For the claims made about him these days are vast: Gossaert (c.1478-1532) is startling, a pivotal old master, the man who changed the course of Flemish art. His portraits are favourably compared to Dürer, Memling and Holbein. He goes way beyond the tradition of Van Eyck. He is Rubens a century in advance.

The last holds true, in a sense. For if Gossaert is known for anything in particular, it is for being the first Flemish artist to visit Italy and bring the sultry south back to the north. He goes to Rome in 1508 and returns with visions of bare flesh, erotic vigour and Adam and Eve in the exact transition from innocently naked to suggestively nude. His figures are sturdy, intertwined, earthy.

They pleased his notoriously lusty patron, Philip of Burgundy, who commissioned many Gossaert girls for his walls. They scandalised the British, for example the diarist John Evelyn, who was shocked by the explicit belly buttons of Adam and Eve (surely the first man and woman came without them, begotten not made, from the mind of God). Certainly they broke the ice.

There is a tremendous drawing here of the first couple spaced out like drug addicts. Adam is slack-jawed, nearly drooling as he rests his head on Eve's breast, clinging to her like a drowning man. He is stubby, wasted, bent like a pretzel. She is lithe and upright, but entirely mesmerised by the apple. The fall of man is epitomised as eternal insatiable hunger.

This is Gossaert at his best, unbridled and free, working away in ink and white gouache on a sheet of gray paper, and there are other drawings here that reveal a mind alive to physical release as well as repression, to coyness, discomfort and many nuances of sex. These show Gossaert's workings very well.

Indeed as far as art history is concerned, this exhibition is exemplary. It has more than 80 works from all over the world, including the National Gallery's own large group. It puts them in context and alongside comparable works by other painters. The restoration, cleaning and firming up of attributions are plainly scrupulous. But compared to the drawings, the paintings are indifferent and unfulfilled. They leave me completely cold.

Take the portraits. It is as if the sitters were never in the room with Gossaert at all, these images are so devoid of personality. Or as if whatever interest these people once held has slowly evaporated during the lengthy business of describing eyebrows, hands or hats. The pictures have a concise, mechanical look, with a workmanlike attention to detail, that comes over well in reproduction but has no charisma whatsoever on the wall.

Gossaert goes in for architectural devices; the frame within a frame, the ledge and sill, the figure apparently leaning forward out of one into the other. The attempt at animation doesn't work. Neither does the effort to describe appearance or character. One merchant looks much like another, bar marginal adjustments of props or pose. All three children of Christian II are identically bug-eyed and sickly, like some unfortunate three-headed monster.

Perhaps the cleaning has been too brutal, for Gossaert seems to lack a sense of touch or relish. Look at the painting chosen to promote the show, Washington's Portrait of a Man (c.1530), and it is hard to differentiate the textures of the red sleeve from the red sealing wax, or the forehead from the fingernails, or the fur from the hair. This is arguably his finest portrait, yet Gossaert is no more or less attentive to the merchant's inner being than the paperwork festooning the walls.

The man is one more item to add to the inventory of objects; and in the gallery, likewise, the wall text lists them all over again in lieu of something, anything, to say.

Every Gossaert makes one long to be looking at some other northern painter – Van Eyck, Van der Weyden, Memling, Brueghel. It is hard to fix upon any particular painting to praise. His masterpiece, for many people, is the National Gallery's own The Adoration of the Kings (1510-15) with its mise-en-scène of angels, three-storey ruins and adoring sovereigns, partly famous for including what may be the first black figure in northern painting.

All you can see and more! The Adoration is dense with detail: a golden bowl full of gold coins and the reflections therein, the underside of baby Jesus's plump little foot, the checkerboard tiles, the green hills far away. It is positively Flemish in its fascination with the look of things.

But the meaning of the scene, its atmosphere of awe and tenderness, its juxtaposition of poverty, wealth and faith, its portents for the future, its religious significance – none of this is in the painting's content. What strikes is the placing of people and objects like elements in a child's wooden nativity set, the virtuosity of detail, the emphatic perspective now tellingly exposed as the receding lines of the underdrawing have become visible beneath the oil paint.

The National Gallery's recent policy of avoiding blockbusters in favour of shows that focus on aspects of its own collection is in many ways admirable. To summarise: work with what you've got. But what they've got here is not going to catch a light, no matter how superb the scholarship, when the art itself lacks fire. There hasn't been a Gossaert survey for almost 50 years, and now one understands why.

These articles and others regarding this exhibition and Jan Gossaert can be found on the below links:-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/feb/27/jan-gossaert-renaissance-review?intcmp=239

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2011/feb/22/jan-gossaert-renaissance-national-gallery?intcmp=239

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/mar/04/jan-gossaert-renaissance-review?intcmp=239

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/feb/22/jan-gossaert-national-gallery-renaissance?intcmp=239

Jan Gossaert's Renaissance Exhibition at the National Gallery, London

For the first time in over 40 years, the National Gallery are showing an exhibition dedicated to this Northern Renaissance Master's work, which aims to re-examine the artists accomplishments and showcase some new discoveries through the use of new technology.

The National Gallery's website elucidates:

Working for wealthy and extravagant members of the Burgundian court in the Low Countries in the first three decades of the 16th century, Gossaert was especially noted for his sensuous nudes, painted to evoke the sheen of marble, and his stunning illusionistic portraits in which he plays intriguing spatial games.

The first northern artist to draw directly from antiquity in Italy (during a visit to Rome in 1508–9), Gossaert was a peerless exponent of the illusionistic properties of oil paint as practised by his countrymen from Jan van Eyck onwards.
About the exhibition

The exhibition features over 80 works, including many of the artist’s most important paintings, including the ‘Virgin and Child’, 1527, Prado, Madrid, and ‘Hercules and Deianeira’, 1517, Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham. It also features drawings and contemporaneous sculptures of the Northern Renaissance.

The National Gallery has one of the largest and finest collections of Gossaert’s paintings in the world – a highlight being The Adoration of the Kings (1510–15). This exhibition allows them to be set in the context of the full range of the artist’s work, from the fruits of his early visit to Rome to the unusually erotic presentation of the nude in his Adam and Eve series.

The Exhibition is held in the Sainsbury Wing until 30th May 2011 and tickets can be obtained from the Gallery or online at http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/jan-gossaerts-renaissance/*/tab/1

Personality of the Month: Caravaggio's Dark Past comes to Light

The BBC have reported that the celebrated Caravaggio's life was not all light and luminosity, as it unveiled a rediscovered police record of the artist from the early 17thC, which is now on display, among others, in an Exhibition of Documents in the State Archives in Rome.

The exhibition; 'Caravaggio in Rome. A Life from Life' is described by the State Archives in Rome's website as consisting of 'Unpublished documents, paintings and evidence gathers so far never on display in the State.'

An artist known for his brilliant use of chiaroscuro, Caravaggio's signature paintings displayed his talent in using a dramatic depth of darkness pared with the sharply piercing luminosity of pure light. He seems however, to have known what lay in such darkness as we hear of tales of madness and murder from the documents on display.

The BBC reports;

Caravaggio's friendships, daily life and frequent brawls - including the one which brought him a death sentence from Pope Paul V - are described in handwritten police logs, legal and court parchments all bound together in heavy tomes - and carefully preserved in this unique repository of Rome's history during the Renaissance and after.

The picture the documents paint is that of an irascible man who went about town carrying personal weapons - a sword and dagger, and even a pistol - without a written permit, boasting that he enjoyed the protection of the ecclesiastical authorities who commissioned some of his most famous works.

Among other misdemeanors, the documents report of Caravaggio's skirmishes with the police, being sued by his land lady for hiding his paintings in her ceiling and having a penchant for carrying around personal weapons with him, which included a dagger, a sword (not unreasonable for the times) and even a pistol.

The main attraction to the documents on display however are the manuscripts describing Caravaggio's more serious crime, when in May 1606, he murdered Ranuccio Tommassoni. The eye witness accounts detail how the seemingly impetuous brawl was actually carefully planned between eight, now named participants, who arranged the meeting. Also it is clear that the brawl was not over a lovers quarrel but the more likely gambling debts of the impassioned Caravaggio;

Caravaggio and his three companions, one a Captain in the Papal army, met their rivals at a pallacorda court in the Campo Marzio area, where the artist lived. (Pallacorda was a game played with a ball with a string attached - an early form of tennis, which some older Romans still remember seeing played in the streets of the capital in the mid-20th Century.)

Some biographers have suggested that there may have been an argument over a woman, but the text of the court report suggests the quarrel broke out over a gambling debt. Caravaggio killed Ranuccio and fled the city.

As well as enlightening the reader on Caravaggio's murder charge, the documents also illuminate the circumstances behind his early death at Porto Ercole in 1610. At 38 years old, Caravaggio was returning to Rome on the understanding that his friends had managed to secure a pardon for him from Pope Paul V and was believed to have died alone on a beach escaping his perusing creditors and the police. These manuscripts however, now seem to shed new light on Caravaggio's death.

After careful scrutiny the documents reveal that Caravaggio actually died in a hospital bed;

Only 38 years old, he was on his way back to the city from the south in the belief that his powerful friends had secured a pardon for his offences.

The artists life seem to have been well documented, not only by fellow artists and patrons alike, but by the Police also. A statement written by a waiter present at one scene of Caravaggio's temper is recorded in Police records;

Statement to police by Pietro Antonio de Fosaccia, waiter, 26 April 1604:

About 17 o'clock [lunchtime] the accused, together with two other people, was eating in the Moor's restaurant at La Maddalena, where I work as a waiter. I brought them eight cooked artichokes, four cooked in butter and four fried in oil. The accused asked me which were cooked in butter and which fried in oil, and I told him to smell them, which would easily enable him to tell the difference.

He got angry and without saying anything more, grabbed an earthenware dish and hit me on the cheek at the level of my moustache, injuring me slightly... and then he got up and grabbed his friend's sword which was lying on the table, intending perhaps to strike me with it, but I got up and came here to the police station to make a formal complaint...

The Police documents themselves of their dealings with Caravaggio are numerous;

Police Dossier - Artist Behaving Badly

• 4 May 1598: Arrested at 2- 3am near Piazza Navona, for carrying a sword without a permit
• 19 November 1600: Sued for beating a man with a stick and tearing his cape with a sword at 3am on Via della Scrofa
• 2 October 1601: A man accuses Caravaggio and friends of insulting him and attacking him with a sword near the Piazza Campo Marzio
• 24 April 1604: Waiter complains of assault after serving artichokes at an inn on the Via Maddalena
• 19 October 1604: Arrested for throwing stones at policemen near Via dei Greci and Via del Babuino
• 28 May 1605: Arrested for carrying a sword and dagger without a permit on Via del Corso
• 29 July 1605: Vatican notary accuses Caravaggio of striking him from behind with a weapon
• 28 May 1606: Caravaggio kills a man during a pitched battle in the Campo Marzio area

For more information on the tempestuous dark side to the master of light, please see the links below!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12497978

http://www.archiviodistatoroma.beniculturali.it/index.php?it/22/archivio-eventi/69/mostra-su-caravaggio-a-roma-una-vita-dal-vero-documenti-inediti-dipinti-e-testimonianze-sinora-mai-raccolte-in-mostra-allarchivio-di-stato