Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Wednesday 25 December 2013

O Come Let Us Adore Him


A Holy, Blessed and Joyful Christmas to you all


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Meister_Theoderich_von_Prag_%28Umkreis%29_001.jpg/399px-Meister_Theoderich_von_Prag_%28Umkreis%29_001.jpg

Image:Wikimedia
 

My choice of a Christmas image this year is the votive panel of John Ocko of Vlasim, Archbishop of Prague and dated to circa 1370. Not only does it contain an image of the Virgin and Child but seems to capture so many of the themes I have touched upon in my posts over this last year, so it seemed an appropraite image to use. The Virgin and Christ Child are flanked by the kneeling figures of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, sponsored by his Burgundian patron St Sigismund, and his son, King Wenceslas IV of Bohemia and also King of the Romans, sponsored by St Wenceslas. In the lower register the kneeling figure of Archbishop John is surrounded by his patrons. 


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