Cathy's Art Diary

Well-constructed online lecture from the National Churches Trust looking at the 15th and 16th century phenomena of cadaver tombs in England. I have always been fascinated by these tombs since seeing that of Alice de la Pole in Ewelme as a child. Morgan Ellis Leah from the Trust’s engagement team described a selection of them and developed the argument that in England these were not corpses and a memento mori but instead represented the starvation of the soul and show emaciated bodies. She looked at the turbulent history of the period due to wars, poor crops an economic crisis post Black Death. She pointed out that one effect of the plague was a shortage of chaplains which led to people relying on themselves for spiritual support and turning back to old ideas. She also talked about the tradition of eating at burial sites dating back to the Romans and idea of Sin Eating as well as the inclusion of dishes and food in Saxon burials.

Insightful online lecture/discussion from the Victoria and Albert Museum on how the tombs for the Doges reflect their history. Toto Bergamo Rossi, head of Venetian Heritage and the author of a book of the same title as the lecture, and Bruce Boucher from the Sir John Soane Museum, took us through the tombs of the Doges in chronological order. I’m pleased to say, as a frequent visitor to the city, I recognise most of them. It was a bit of a whirl wind overview but there were great illustrations and it built an interesting narrative. The talk also fit in well with a recent course I’d done on sculpture after Donatello. I liked their descriptions of the pieces and how they relate to one another within churches.

Fascinating online lecture from the Churches Conservation Trust looking at how love and marriage were reflected in medieval tomb monuments. Jessica Barker from the Courtauld Institute took as her starting point The Arundel Tomb in Chichester Cathedral which shows a couple holding hands. Although this is a 19th century reconstruction she felt this is how it would have originally have looked as there are many other examples of this around the country. She discussed a number of these and suggested that the hand holding was not a romantic gesture but a sign of a legal contact as often the women had bought land to what were controversial marriages. She also looked at tombs reflected ideas of marriage at the time giving two examples of brass memorials to merchants which give heavy emphasis to the children born to the marriage as a sign of a life well lived in the absence of rank and wealth. I liked the section which discussed two tombs commissioned by women, the wonderful Alice Chauce...

Fascinating online lecture from the Churches Conservation Trust tracing the location of all the tombs of English monarchs. Aidan Dodson from University of Bristol, took us though the tombs from Saxon times until George VI. He described where they were and why and their basic design. He was also full of some grizzly details from the tombs that have been reopened. It was a slightly train spotting approach to the tombs and I would have liked to know a bit more about their design, how that changed and what it represented however I was left with an urge to travel round England looking for them!