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.


Saturday 8 May 2021

But which Queen is she?


The Observer last weekend had an interesting report about a well known miniature in the Royal Collection. The story was also picked up and summarised by ARTnews.

The Holbein miniature has long been identified as being of Catherine Howard, although that is more usually these days qualified as possibly of her rather than definitely. A new study suggests that the portrait is actually of Anne of Cleves, and makes a not improbable suggestion as to the context in which it might have been painted in the early days of that ill-starred marriage.



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