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| Hans Holbein the Younger, Portrait of Henry VIII, 1540, oil on wood, Palazzo Barberini, Rome |
"..One easily imagines Henry glittering in the torch light at Whitehall Palace..." (I was invited to preview the exhibition “Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits from Holbein to Warhol,” from the National Portrait Gallery, London, at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Here is fun background to some of the show's portraits.)
A Few Words About "Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits from Holbein to Warhol" from the Natural Portrait Gallery, London" at MFAH
Standing in
front of Hans Holbein the Younger’s 1540 portrait of Henry VIII, I couldn’t help but think of Walter Pater. Irrespective
of Pater’s reputation for corrupting lower class boys, probably unfair given Victorian
piety and prudery, I'm drawn to his aestheticism. Practice sharp and eager observation, Pater
urged, to recognize moments of perfection.
To mouth old Walter’s aesthetic approach these
days can get you impeached, downright disparaged, nevertheless I glean
perfection in Holbein’s offsetting of ultramarine blue pigment with crimson and
gold tones. The result is jewel-like and
hypnotic. It’s Holbein’s handling of
the effects of luminosity on the surfaces of Henry’s costume, however,
that reveals infallible skill at pictorial representation. Look closely at his treatment of light reflected
on intricate gold silk brocade in Henry’s doublet, and on faceted sapphires in Henry’s
necklace. Resplendent! One easily imagines Henry glittering in the
torch light at Whitehall Palace.
An
inscription on the portrait informs that Henry was forty-nine when Holbein painted
it, the king would soon enter a pathetic state of obesity and sickness, with
military failures. Thus Holbein's illusionistic portrayal of brute force.
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After Allan Ramsay, King George III, 1761–62, oil on canvas, National Portrait Gallery, London. © National Portrait Gallery, London |
One of my favorite
stories about King George III comes from Winston Churchill’s four-volume
“History of the English-Speaking Peoples.”
Churchill’s narrative echoed dismay that after two Hanoverians occupied
the English throne, Teutonic accents aside, doubt persisted that George III was
an “English” monarch. According to Churchill,
George’s mother cut through the baloney.
“George, be King!”
The royal
image bombed. For all its grandeur,
authority, and formulaic propaganda, Allan Ramsay's portrait of George III failed miserably to
convey the notion of god-saved imperium to those annoying American colonists. As if disobedient offspring and lunacy aren’t
burdensome enough, poor George suffered unreasonable demands about taxation and
representation.
He lost the god-forsaken
colonies, which is why some scholars call his royal portrait, intended as a
visual representation of his majesty and the everlasting glory of his realm, “unpersuasive.” On the other hand, there’s no denying the skill
with which Ramsay rendered ermine and silk damask, and deftly
applied greenish pigment to form the contours of George’s double chin. Mad George managed to reign for sixty years, and Churchill labeled him one of the
“most conscientious sovereigns who ever sat on the English throne.” George’s portrait is in fact a notable focal
point in “Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits from Holbein to Warhol,” from the National Portrait Gallery, London, an
exhibition which documents 500 years of the British Monarchy at Museum of Fine
Arts, Houston (MFAH) through January 27, 2019.
As usual, I don’t intend to describe the show, will simply offer a few
bits of fun background material, for instance, George III gave Buckingham
Palace to his wife Charlotte as
a gift.
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“Princess Margaret,” 1930-2002 Lord Snowdon, 1967 Gelatin silver press print. |
George III buggered-up Princess Margaret’s
plans. Worried his dimwitted children would
make unsuitable matches, King George enacted the Royal Marriages Act of 1772 which
gave the sovereign, and to a certain extent Parliament, “marriage approval”
over heirs to the throne. Hark forward
to 1953. Bored after Elizabeth’s
coronation, Margaret expressed desire to marry divorced Peter Townsend, fully
aware that just seventeen years earlier Parliament had unequivocally told her
uncle Edward VIII that as King and Defender of the Faith of the Church of
England which did not recognize divorce, he could not marry Wallace Simpson. It was suggested that millions of Englishmen
had sacrificed their lives for their country, surely Edward could sacrifice the
American hussy. H. L. Mencken described
the constitutional crises that led to Edward’s 1936 abdication as “the greatest
story since the resurrection.”
As third in
line for the throne, small wonder that Parliament requested Margaret renounce
her royal status to marry. Ultimately, the
princess came to her senses and chose “duty” over love, and announced, “Mindful
of the Church’s teaching that Christian marriage is indissoluble, and conscious
of my duty to the Commonwealth,” I decided not to marry Peter Townsend.
Antony Armstrong-Jones’s 1967 photograph gives
us a ravishing Princess Margaret. A mere
“commoner,” photographer Armstrong-Jones snagged the title Lord Snowdon when he
married Margaret in Westminster Abbey in 1960, their wedding televised for three
million of her majesty’s subjects.
Unfortunately the marriage went down the toilet, and by the time of
their 1978 divorce, Margaret’s and Anthony’s extramarital affairs had stirred up
scandal. Add to the princess’s woes, on-going
parliamentary grumbling about lowering her salary, she was over-paid for royal
duties, which she found tiresome. Margaret
was in fact fond of horse breeding. And she adored scotch.
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| Robert Elliot, Winston Churchill, 1943, bromide print, National Portrait Gallery, London. © Estate of Robert Elliot / National Portrait Gallery, London |
When I came
upon Robert Elliot’s 1943 photograph of Churchill, I wondered if Churchill felt
vindicated when Hitler “swallowed up the rump of Czechoslovakia,” to borrow from
biographer Roy Jenkins. All along, Churchill
knew Hitler was a liar and a lunatic, who mocked the pacifists and appeasers. Intelligence dispatches and unofficial secret
reports kept Churchill informed that Germany had been illegally re-arming for
years, and that Hitler intended nothing less than to dominate Europe. Further the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force
were in sorry states indeed. From his isolated
backbench position, he pleaded with the bloody fools in government to address
the loathsome menace and to arm England against inevitable tyranny, and by the
time Churchill was given power, the Admiralty in 1939 and the government in
1940, he worried it was too late.
How does one
inspire countrymen and allies to grievously fight to the death? With fiery oration. When Churchill addressed the nation on the
BBC, he said, “We have differed and quarreled in the past; but now one bond
unites us all - to wage war until victory is won, and never to surrender
ourselves to servitude and shame, whatever the cost and agony may be.” Immediately after becoming Prime Minister he told
the House of Commons, our policy is “to wage war by sea, land and air, with all
our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a
monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human
crime.” Our aim is “victory, victory at
all costs, victory in spite of terror, victory however long and hard the road
may be; for without victory, there is no survival.”
Biographer William Manchester perceived Churchill as a moral counterforce to contemptible self-serving government appeasers. By contrast with Churchill, who believed in absolute virtue and absolute evil, the appeasers who cozied up to the Third Reich wanting a buffer against bolshevism, rationalized Nazi criminality, sold out allies, and led England to the gallows. That is, until the House of Commons in a revolt of conscience, wrenched power from them, and summoned Churchill who had foretold all, and who had tried year after year, alone and mocked, to prevent the war.
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Consciousness Screwing with Us: Rice University’s 2023 Archives of the Impossible Conference
Garland Fielder Weighs In on Architectural Design and the Creative Process
A Talk with Angie Dumas About Her Blog "Da'Stylish Foodie" - Interview
Eating Garlic Beef at Mai's Vietnamese Restaurant - Mai's Immigrant Story
Discovering S.P.Q.R. and Miraculous Oil at the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere
Visiting Azienda Agricola Casamonti in the Chianti Classico - Wine and Cinta Senese Pigs
My Visit to the Houston Farmers Market
Visiting ShyKatz Cafe on Galveston Island, Historical Architecture
Eating Oysters at Topwater Grill in San Leon at Galveston Bay
A Tribute to Legendary Wildcatter Jim Bob Moffett
A Talk with Food Guru George Graham about Acadianatable.com - Graham’s New Cookbook “Fresh From Louisiana: The Soul of Cajun and Creole Home Cooking” - Interview
Ryan Baptiste - The Light Beyond The Blight - Redbud Gallery - Echoes of New Orleans
https://www.boudinandbourbon.com/2020/06/ryan-baptiste-light-beyond-blight.htmlhttps://www.boudinandbourbon.com/2020/05/bar-boheme-houston-bars-drag-brunch.html
https://www.boudinandbourbon.com/2020/04/billeauds-too-calvin-trillin-and.html
Martha Stewart Visits Lucullus Antiques - Patrick Dunne - New Orleans
Jimmy Domengeaux Chats about His Louisiana Wetlands Photography Exhibition – Interview
https://www.boudinandbourbon.com/2019/10/jimmy-domengeaux-chats-about-his.html
Avesta Persian Grill's Pomegranate Walnut Stew, Cyrus the Great, Tajikistan
Long Live Irma Thomas - Essay
A Closer Look at Christy Karll’s Painting “Swerve” – Interview
A Closer Look - Beef Empanadas with Olives - Seco’s Latin Cuisine - Essay
Giacomo Restaurant's Foradori, Rotaliano, Trentino 2015" - Red wine produced by Elisabetta Foradori in Trentino Italy - A Closer Look
https://www.boudinandbourbon.com/2018/06/giacomo-restaurants-teroldego-foradori.html
