Cathy's Art Diary

Wonderful exhibition at the British Library looking at the lives of Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. This is a large and quite dense show but it has everything you would want to be there if you know this period and it is such a thrill to see them together. It takes you through the lives of both queens comparing and contrasting as it goes along. Being the British Library there are a lot of documents but they are explained well and there are some iconic pieces such as the attached, the only contemporary copy of Elizabeth’s Armada Speech, and the Tide Letter, which Elizabeth wrote to her sister Mary I asking for clemency as she was sent to the Tower of London which   she wrote slowly in the hope of missing the tide and delaying imprisonment for another day. There was also the letter Mary wrote to Elizabeth telling her about the death of Rizzio. There were a good selection of portraits some of which I hadn’t seen before and some great objects such as the hanging Mary made wh...

Small exhibition at the Queen’s House focusing on the Armada Portraits of Elizabeth I. Unfortunately one of the original three pictures, the National Portrait Gallery one, has gone on tour to Japan but it will be back again in the Spring so I’ll have to go again. It was still interesting to see the other two, from the National Maritime Gallery’s own collection and from Woburn, together to make comparisons. There were good information boards which highlighted who probably owned the pictures and the symbolism in them. It is now known who painted them but they are all based on an approved miniature by Hilliard. They were nicely displayed in an installation style room with a soundscape called “A Proposal for Radical Hospitality” by Peter Adajye based on African call and response which used the acoustics of the room and created a good ambiance for viewing the pictures. Reviews Times Guardian Evening Standard Closes 2021

Fascinating exhibition at Hampton Court Palace focusing on an altar cloth which may have been a dress worn by Elizabeth I. This was just a small show but was packed with information about the altar cloth and the convincing reasons why it may well have been reworked from a dress worn by Elizabeth I. The cloth belonged to a church in Becton and was probably donated in memory of Elizabeth’s lady in waiting, Blanche Parry.   The pattern cutting in the reworking of the piece indicated it would have been a dress. Most interesting was the evidence around the materials used such as real silver thread which would only have been used at court. I was amazed to see the books from which the embroidery patterns were taken including the design for the sweet frogs in the design in “Four legged animals” by Nicolaes de Bryn. The textile was shown with the Rainbow portrait of Elizabeth by Gheerarts the Younger in which she is wearing a remarkably similar undergown. When you looked at ...

Stunning installation at the Queen’s House in Greenwich by Mat Collishaw in response to the Elizabeth I Armada Portrait. Following the restoration of the portrait the museum is commissioning a series of contemporary art works in response to it and this is the first. The following ones will have a lot to live up to! This is an eerily real robotic face of Elizabeth I set up on a mirror opposite the portrait. When I first encountered her she was static but then you realised her face was gently moving, turning to look at you, blinking and changing expression. The skin quality was amazing and the detail was stunning even down to the white hairs on her upper lip. The idea is that the face is the same age as in the portrait ie 55 but I have to say she was looking very good for 55! The artists, Mat Collishow, was inspired by watching the restoration of the picture when layers of varnish so this face is stripped of make-up and the trappings of monarchy. Thank you to the lov...

Fascinating talk by Anna Whitelock at the National Portrait Gallery looking at the role of the bedchamber and the women of the bedchamber in Elizabethan England. She discussed the importance of Elizabeth’s body to the state and how it was presented but also the importance of the women who spent so long with her to help create this image of the Queen. She described a feminised court where women were in a strong political position because of the access they had to the queen. She also described the role the women of the bedchamber played in upholding the queen’s virtue at a time when rumours of her possible indiscretions where circulating in Europe.  

Fascinating exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery looking at Elizabeth I and the people living during her reign which places portraits alongside since artefacts from the time. It was arranged by class of people starting with the Queen herself but then moving through the gentry, the yeomanry, the middle classes and artists with a small section on the poor. The exhibition was a really touching look at a group of people and how they wanted to express themselves to the generations, like us, who follow them. I loved the portrait of Elizabeth Vernon either dressing or undressing which showed a real insight into the clothes and accessories of the time but it was magical to have it hung by examples of the accessories such as an almost identical comb and even pin cushions. My favourite section was the one on middle classes where the artefacts were show in cases like contemporary shop windows. That room also brought back together people who knew each other in life and als...

Small temporary exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery bringing together 2 portraits of Elizabeth I, The Phoenix portrait from the gallery’s own collection and the Pelican from the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. This was a rare chance to see these works together. The gallery had studied them closely while they were there and decided that they are by the same artist who was probably Nicholas Hilliard. I loved comparing the jewellery and think the collar is the same in both pictures and also appeared on other pictures around them. It had different pearls hanging from it but was the same basic collar. Reviews Guardian