#lent term

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Miniature painting process: part II

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rip lord byron you would've loved crashing cars

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Display Reflections pt. II

Although I had initially planned to present my project outcomes in a formal, museological format, I instead opted to create an archive wall/ visual research map to reflect the research-oriented drive of the project at this stage, where the specific narratives will be further developed and concluded next term. Rather than adopt a minimal visual approach like in the previous term, the combination of artefacts, articles and academic sources gave the impression of a broader topic of research and I was able to show links between documents. I curated others’  writing as well as my own work, as I felt this further complicated the relationship between forgery and authentic, and served as informative/explanatory texts on specific historical concepts to the viewer. A list of works displayed:

Forged:

Hilliard, Nicholas (1588) William Guildford, Viscount Essex, watercolour on vellum, 60 x 49.5mm On loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Hilliard, Nicholas (c.1590-93) Gordon Percy, 2nd Earl of Salford, watercolour on vellum, 50 x 42mm On loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

De Passe, Simon (c.1616-1618) Portrait of William Guildford, line engraving, 18 x 11.5cm On loan from the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Unknown artist (1586) Earl of Salford in pink and gold doublet, watercolour and gold on parchment, 23.2 x 16.2cm On loan from the Northumberland Collection and Archive, Ashington.

Confession of the Essex Rebellion collaborators (1601), paper, 25.3 x 15cm On loan from the British Library, London.

Hodgman, Charlotte (2017) 'Elizabeth's Cannibal Courtier', BBC History Magazine, 1 February: 2.

Wikipedia (2017) Gordon Percy, 2nd Earl of Salford, Online: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Percy,_2nd_Earl_of_Salford

Genuine:

Lubbock, Tom (2006) 'Hilliard, Nicholas: Portrait of an Unknown Man Clasping a Hand from a Cloud (1588)', The Independent, 1 June.

Powell, Ken and Chris Cook (1977) English Historical Facts 1485-1603, London: Macmillan Press.

Routh, C. R. N. (1990) Who's Who in Tudor England 1485-1603, USA: Stackpole Books.

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A major new talent can be added to the rollcall of nonexistent artists: Naomi V. Jelish. Naomi is a 13-year-old prodigy. She has a collection of sketches currently on exhibit at the Saatchi Gallery in London. But Naomi doesn't actually exist. Naomi and her work are the fictional creation of 2

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The first accompanying documents for my painted miniatures were photoshopped academic/news sources on the ‘Tutthill Group’. My intention was to use the persuasiveness of the media to push outlandish stories and anachronisms to engage the viewer and provoke consideration on the authenticity. I experimented with a variety of formats and recorded their effectiveness after presenting them for group crit.

BBC HistoryExtra

In this edit I attempted to imitate the factual emphasis of history publications, however I was able to present the information in a semi-informal, culturally relevant vernacular (perhaps exaggerating this too much at points?) One of the more humorous edits for its outlandish story and presentation, yet there are significant truthful elements that can be cross-referenced.

Wikipedia

The format of Wikipedia, in particular its use of in-text hyperlinks, can be used to create convincing fakes by elaborating on established knowledge. I used Wikipedia’s simplistic writing style and attempted to merge mundane facts with dubious claims through the sterile, academic tone of address.

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The Tutthill Group

P.4&A-1974

Gordon Percy, 2nd Earl of Salford (13 May 1569- 25 February 1601) Provenance- Grandson of Thomas Percy (1504-1537) who was executed for treason against Henry VIII. Son of Guiscard Percy, whose brother Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland (1528-1572) was executed for treason against Elizabeth I in the Rising of the North. Early Life- Admitted to St. John’s College, Cambridge (1581-85). 'Tutthill Group'- As the most painted man in British Art; with 884 paintings across the collections of the National Portrait Gallery and British Library; he popularised the concept of the 'selfie', resulting in a catastrophic shortage of paper which led directly to the passing of the Paper Tax (15--) in an attempt to curb usage of the resource, and which is thought to have contributed to Shakespeare's lost plays as limited written copies were produced. Death- Salford was persuaded by the Viscount Essex to participate in the Essex Rebellion (1601) after the Viscount Essex entreated him "it will kill a few hours on Saterdaie, and verilie it will be a laugh". Along with others convicted of treason on 19 February 1601, Salford was sentenced to execution  by beheading on February 25th.

P.3-1974

Reuben 'Reubs' Tutthill, Earl of Grimsby (2 September 1568- 24 April 1635) Provenance- Unknown. Early Life- Admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge (1580-84) 'Tutthill Group'- Grimsby was active as an artist depicting members of Elizabeth's court between 1586- 1603, and later King James' court until his death in 1635. Many of his paintings and sculptures belonged to the Earl of Salford's collection, and contained hints of contemporary aesthetics which Grimsby himself predated by 400 years.

P.21-1942

William Guildford, Viscount Essex (6 June 1560- 25 February 1601) Provenance- Great Grandson of Edward Guildford (1474-1534), Grandfather was the brother of Jane Guildford (1508-1555) who married John Dudley (1504-1553), making Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester his uncle, to whom he became ward as his father Samuel Guildford died shortly after his birth in 1562. Robert Dudley married Lettice Knollys, mother of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex (1565-1601) in 1578, and Essex became his step-brother. Early Life- Admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge (1572-76). 'Tutthill Group'- In 1584, Guildford accompanied an expedition to the British settlement at Raonoke in North America, and on his return to England engaged in "habits of the foren and sauage peples of the west". Hilliard's 1588 portrait miniature of Guildford was previously known as  Portrait of an Unknown Man Clasping a Hand from the Clouds, however art historians have since abandoned the tenuous explanation of the imagery as symbolic of love/devotion and deduced that the image actually illustrates Guildford's flirtation with cannibalism, for which he was infamous at Elizabeth's court. Death- The accused confessed to high treason on 19 March 1601, "for the lulz" and Guildford was sentenced to execution. 

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Photographs from the V&A, room 90A: Miniatures.

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Historical Fiction

The genre of 'historical fiction' appears to be a literary equivalent to what I wish to explore through the visual arts. Mary Renault's The Persian Boy begins from a highly researched and factual basis by exploring the life of Alexander the Great (on whom there are many contemporary sources), however she (intriguingly) chooses for her narrator the Persian eunuch Bagoas, who is attested for only twice in antiquity: 1) in Plutarch's Alexander:

"[Alexander's] favourite Bagoas, won the prize for song and dance, and then, all in his festal array, passed through the theatre and took his seat by Alexander's side; at sight of which the Macedonians clapped their hands and loudly bade the king kiss the victor" [67.4]

and 2) in Athenaeus' The Deipnosophists, Book XIII:

"Dicæarchus, in his treatise on the Sacrifice at Troy, says that [Alexander] was so much under the influence of Bagoas the eunuch, that he embraced him in the sight of the whole theatre" [13.80]

From this she combines popular historical fact with the suggestion of an individual's existence to create a convincing biography that is nonetheless fictional. Other examples of the genre I have been influenced by include Schiller's play Don Carlos, which recreates the turbulent interactions of Phillip II of Spain's court and Don DeLillo's Libra, which provides a fictional conspiracy behind the JFK assassination and speculates that Lee Harvey Oswald was manipulated by the CIA. However, I find Renault's approach most interesting as it imagines far more than it recounts- by virtue of focusing on an unremarkable and barely noted individual, and this also expands the possibilities for falsification as there is less corroborative evidence, and therefore Renault's fiction is less likely to be distinguished from her facts. There is also a playfulness in 'manufacturing' a historical personality almost entirely, and having the fiction substantiated by the likes of Plutarch and Athenaeus.

Renault, Mary (1972) The Persian Boy, London: Longman. DeLillo, Don (1989) Libra, New York: Viking Penguin. Schiller, Friedrich (1787) Don Carlos, Hamburg.