St Bede on Candlemas

Following on from my post yesterday for Candlemas I see that Christopher Howse wrote about the feast on its eve in his regular Saturday column Sacred Mysteries in the Daily Telegraph. 

In it, as he so often does, he links the celebration of the feast to its place in the history of the Church. In particular he highlights the writings of St Bede and the great age of Northumbrian Christianity in the seventh and eighth centuries. Thus he links the universally applicable theology of the only British Doctor of the Church, St Bede, to a surviving codex in the form of a spectacular and expensive copy of the Bible made in that Northumbrian monastic world and sent as a gift to the Pope. That in turn is an indicator of the fact that the Christians of Northumbria were very conscious of, and loyal to, their Catholic heritage.

The article can be seen at Sacred Mysteries: Candlemas as the homecoming of Jesus

Candlemas - Oriel and the English Oratory

Today is the Feast of Candlemas, the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple and the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is also the ceremonial conclusion to Christmastide and its imagery of light in midwinter.

Over the years that I have been writing this blog, I have posted nearly every year about Candlemas, about its traditions and depiction over the centuries and also about two special, personal links to the day based on my life in Oxford.

Candlemas is the annual feast of my college Oriel, as it falls only a few days after the anniversary of the establishment of the college or House of Blessed Mary the Virgin in Oxford by King Edward II in January 1326, and is the first feast of Our Lady to occur after that date. This year marks the 699th anniversary of the foundation and next year will see the celebration of the septuacentenary. 

The other link is that today is the 177th anniversary of the establishment of the Oratorians in England by St John Henry Newman in 1848. Not only did he place his new foundation under the patronage of Our Lady but it is surely a conscious homage to his time as a Fellow of Oriel and that was attracted him to the Oratorian pattern of life was it similarity to the Senior Common Room in the college.

So today is an especially good one upon which to pray for Oriel and for the English Oratorians.

Rather than attempt to re-write previous pieces I will give links to my previous posts for this day.

They can be seen at Candlemas, from 2011, Candlemas, from 2012, Candlemas, from 2013, Candlemas Day and Celebrating Candlemas from 2014, Candlemas, Candlemas at the Oxford Oratory, and Medieval Images of Candlemas from 2015, Candlemas, from 2016, The Ceremonies of Candlemas from 2021, Candlemas from 2022, Candlemas from 2023, and, with continuing originality, Candlemas from last year.

I regret that in some of the older posts the images will no longer display, due, I assume to copyright reasons, but readers should be able to find the images online from the titles. There are still a fine selection of images of the Presentation and Purification which repay careful study.

May I wish a joyful Candlemas to all my readers and fraternal good wishes to my fellow Orielenses and Oratorians.

The Royal Martyr

Today is the anniversary of the regicide of King Charles I in 1649.

A devotional image of the Royal Martyr from the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century and now in the National Portrait Gallery

Image: NPG

Last year I posted about a number of links to sites concerning the cult and commemoration of the Royal Martyr and it seems appropriate to link to that again. The links can be seen by going to King Charles the Martyr

An additional example of a relic is linked to in another post from last year at Charles I King and Martyr

Heligoland

If you are someone to whom the name of Heligoland merely recalls the Shipping Forecast - it is indicativecof a certain kind of desperation when you listen to that as a landlubber - then a new video from The History Chap is quite an eye opener.

I knew something of the history of this British North Sea - or perhaps I should call it the German Ocean as it was often then termed - which was administered from 1814 until 1890 when it was ceded to the German Empirein return for Zanzibar and parts of Kenya and Uganda.

In many ways I regret this exchange. Heligoland could well have continued to develop into something like the Channel Islands or Gibraltar, combining local and British identities in an engaging cultural synthesis.

What was new to me was its role as a refuge for German liberal exiles, and of the writing there of at least one famous set of verses. In that respect it is similar to Victor Hugo’s exile in first Jersey and then Guernsey.

The video can at Heligoland, The Tiny Forgotten Outpost of the British Empire

Identifying the Bosham home of King Harold II

GBNews reported yesterday the findings of an archaeological investigation at Bosham, on the shore of Chichester Harbour in West Sussex, which appears to have revealed conclusively the site of the house occupied for in the mid-eleventh century by Earl Harold Godwinson. According to the BayeuxTapestry, which depicts and names the house at Bosham, this was where the Earl spent time before his fateful journey to Normandy and his meeting with Duke William II. That resulted in his oath to support the claim of the Duke to succeed King Edward the Confessor as English monarch.

The identification of a late Anglo-Saxon aristocratic house would be very unusual in itself, but the fact that belonged to a figure as important as the future King Harold II makes this an extremely significant discovery indeed.

The GBNews report can be seen at Bayeux Tapestry mystery: Lost site depicted in medieval embroidery   revealed after 900 years

That is a press release from Newcastle University, the base for some of the academics who, together with others from Exeter, carried out the research, which adds more specific detail to the account at Archaeologists find ‘lost’ site depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry

Wikipedia has an account of Bosham, and the significant Anglo-Saxon work in the church at Bosham

More on French Royalism

Image: Wikipedia 

I have posted twice in recent days about commemorations in France of King Louis XVI, and of course once ventures onto the Internet the algorithm starts finding related videos.

Here then are a few more, starting with a Requiem Mass celebrated in Grenoble, which can be seen at Messe de requiem pour Louis XVI - Mardi 21 Janvier 2025 - Collégiale Saint André de Grenoble

The Count of Paris - King Jean IV - is shown attending a Mass at Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, which was the parish church for a couple of centuries for the Louvre, and he is briefly interviewed by the presenter, at Je vais à l’Hommage au roi Louis XVI et j'interview le comte de Paris ! 

There is an interview with the then Prince Jean from 2018, before the death of his father, which  can be seen at Interview Prince Jean d'Orléans, Comte de Paris - Complément d'Enquête

There is a recent two part interview with the Count which can be seen at Prince Jean de France : La question de la République est posée - Les Conversations n°51 - TVL and at Prince Jean : un roi pour la République ? (2ème partie) - Les Conversations de P.-M. Coûteaux n°52

Finally there is his equivalent of a reigning monarch Christmas or New Year broadcast on which can be seen at Voeux de Noël 2024 | PRINCE JEAN D'ORLEANS, COMTE DE PARIS

Vive Le Roi !

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Sta Maria Novella in Florence

Recently I came upon a video about the great Dominican church of Sta Maria Novella in Florence. It can be seen at Santa Maria Novella - Florence - Churches and Museums - Virtual Walk 

The Wikipedia account of the church is detailed and can be seen at Santa Maria Novella

Despite its Renaissance facade the building is late medieval Florentine gothic. Inside it is  decorated with many works by major artists of the early generations of later fourteenth and fifteenth century Florence. 

It was at this time that Sta Maria Novella was of great importance not just as the Dominican church in so important a centre as Florence, but as the administrative centre of the Catholic Church. From 1418-20 the newly elected Pope Martin V resided in a hastily constructed palace attached the north east of the church. This was a lengthy pause on his journey to Rome. This Papal building now serves as the provincial police academy. 

One of the people who either lived with the Pope or must have frequented the palace was Richard Fleming, who had been appointed as a Chamberlain to the new Pope immediately upon his election in 1417 at Constance. It was doubtless here that in 1420 Pope Martin “with wonderful piety”, as Fleming was to recall it later when he wrote his own epitaph, consecrated as a bishop on his appointment to the diocese of Lincoln. 

Amongst the paintings in the church is the famous fresco by Andrea di Bonaiuto da Firenze which is sometimes termed The Triumph of the Church but is more accurately The Allegory of the Active and Triumpthant Church and o the Dominican Order. This was painted in 1365-7. It must have been seen by Richard Fleming when he was in residence at Sta Maria Novella.

In addition to the figures mentioned in the main Wikipedia article it includes in the foreground a young man wearing the Garter of a Knight of the Order, and thought to be the earliest representation of the insignia. Given the date of the work the most likely candidate must be Lionel of Antwerp, first Duke of Clarence, who married a Visconti and died soon after in Italy in 1368.

Regular readers of this blog will recognise that part of the painting forms the masthead at the beginning.

Image:  Wikipedia

Robert Waterton

Last Friday was the six hundredth anniversary of the death at his manor house at Methley in the West Riding of Yorkshire of Robert Waterton. His splendid tomb, together with that of his second wife, remains as one of the great treasures of the church at Methley.

 

The tomb of Robert and Cicely Waterton in Methley Church 

Image: John Kirk on Find a Grave

Waterton, born sometime in the 1360s at Waterton in the north-west of Lincolnshire, was a member of a family whose lives and careers were shaped by service to the house of Lancaster. Although there is some uncertainty about the exact family relationships, and confusion in older works as to the number of Robert’s marriages, such that he has been identified as being both a father and a non-existent son, his life is otherwise well documented in the surviving records of the Crown and the Duchy of Lancaster. 

He seems to have been especially close to the future King Henry IV and in July 1399, together with two hundred foresters, met the returning Duke of Lancaster at Spurn Point, thus participating from the very beginning in the rising which rapidly unseated King Richard II.

Following the accession of King Henry IV Waterton as Steward of the Honour of Pontefract was probably one of the few people who knew with certainty the fate of the former king in Pontefract Castle. He was to be prominent in King Henry’s suppression of revolts against him. and a trusted and close counsellor, serving as Master of the Horse. His effigy suggests he cultivated his beard to resemble that of his master.

Although credited by Shakespeare as being a knight in “Richard II” he never received the accolade and was never more than an esquire, despite his wide ranging influence and responsibilities.Having had custody at Pontefract of the captive boy King James I of Scots he was to serve King Henry V as the custodian, at various times in the next decade in the same castle or his own house at Methley of numerous prisoners taken at Agincourt. These included the most prestigious of all Charles Duke of Orleans, the Duke of Bourbon, Arthur of Richmond, later Constable of France and Duke  of Brittany, and Marshal Boucicault, who died at Methley in 1421. Even though the King worried at times about their security he clearly trusted Waterton, and they maintained a correspondence that survives in part. The Waterton household appears to have been cultivated and affluent in these years, and based in Robert’s newly built Methley Hall. The social standing and cultured chivalric interests of his illustrious ‘guests’ must have made it an interesting community.

Waterton’s second wife, Cecily, was the sister of “my” Bishop Richard Fleming, whose earlier career Waterton clearly assisted. 

In many ways I feel Robert Waterton has been a constant companion to me since I was a schoolboy forming an interest in the later medieval period. It was therefore a privilege to advocate his inclusion, and to write the entry for him in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography published in 2004.

If you have online access to the ONDB I would recommend you to read my article, although unfortunately it harder to be edited down from what I had originally submitted.

There is an excellent account of him also by Dr Sarah Rose which pay particular attention to his role as a custodian of French prisoners and also the child Richard Duke of York for King Henry V. That can be read at Robert Waterton and Henry V Summary The ... - Lancaster EPrints

Wikipedia has a biography of Waterton which is useful but it perpetuate the mistake but split him into two differentindividuals. It can be seen at Robert Waterton

The church at Methley deserves to be better known for its collection of tombs; in addition to that of Waterton and his wife that is that of their daughter and son-in-law Lord Welles, who by his second marriage was to become the stepfather of Lady Margaret Beaufort, as well as of the Savile family who have owned the estate since the late sixteenth century.

Robert Waterton is a quintessential example of a Lancastrian retainer from the time of John of Gaunt and King Henry IV. In succeeding generations his son-in-law. grandson and great grandson and at least one other relative died violent deaths in the service of the Lancastrian dynasty. Such was the bond of service the Lancastrians could command.

As the inscription on the tomb requests:

Pray for the soul of Robert Waterton & Cecily  his wife,

That God will take to his kingdom their poor & endless life

Commemorating King Louis XVI

Since I posted about the Solemn Requiem celebrated fo King Louis XVI on the anniversary of his death and linked to the video of the Mass I have found some other related videos that may be of interest. They represent both the Orleanist and the Legitimist traditions within French Royalism.

From the Orleanist side there is film of the Count of Paris - King Jean IV - attending a Mass on the anniversary at Le comte de Paris commémore le roi Louis XVI | 21 janvier 2025

His wife, the Countess of Paris, is seen in another video attending Mass elsewhere and being interviewed about King Louis XVI. That can be seen at La comtesse de Paris rend hommage au roi Louis XVI

Meanwhile on the Legitimist front there is a longer video covering a march by young French Royalists in Paris on, I assume, one evening before the anniversary, and on the Sunday beforehand a Mass at the Chapelle Expiatoire erected on the site of the original burial place of the murdered King and his Queen. This was attended by the Duke of Anjou - King Louis XX - and can be seen at Marche pour Louis XVI et commémoration du Roy Martyr en à la Chapelle Expiatoire and at Louik XX commémore Louis XVI à Paris - 19 janvier 2025

Another commemorative event in what is now the Place de la Concorde ( formerly the Place Louis XV, and then the Place de la Revolution ) where the King was killed is covered at Commémoration: 232 ans de la décapitation de Louis XVI - 21 janvier 2025

Now I would not go so far as to predict an imminent restoration, but the presence of so many young people for what many might dismiss ae a minority interest, is striking. Nevertheless given the mess the current government(s) and, indeed, present constitution has got France into the French could certainly do a lot worse than restoring the monarchy - though that would require deciding which of the two claimants to recognise as the undoubted King.

Vive Le Roi!

A thirteenth century ring from Fishlake in Yorkshire

Quite by chance I came upon an online article from 2023 on the BBC News website about the purchase for Doncaster Museum of a medieval ring found by a metal detector in 2020 at Fishlake, a village which lies a few miles north east of the city-

The striking gold ring dates, as his thought from the thirteenth century but its bezel is a first century Roman intaglio. The reuse of such stones was by no means uncommon in the medieval era. Around the stone is an inscription indicating that the ring was commissioned as a love token or friendship item. Photographs of the ring would suggest that it had been worn for a considerable time as the hope of the rain has become distorted. It is still a very impressive piece and when originally made would doubtless have resembled the type we are used to seeing in modern costume dramas set in the mediaeval centuries.

The BBC article can be seen at Treasure: Medieval ring found by detectorist bought 'for the people of Doncaster'

The ring is also featured on Detecting Finds at 

"Exciting find" goes on display

An article from the Yorkshire Post has additional images and can be viewed at Medieval ring fit for a king found by metal detectorist in Yorkshire village

Fishlake, as its name suggests, is in the formerly marshland area around the outfall of the rivers Don and Trent into the head of the Humber. Until it was drained in the early seventeenth century it had a distinctive and prosperous fenland-type economy, to which a series of impressive mediaeval parish churches, including that at Fishlake itself, still bear witness. Partly used as a hunting area known as Hatfield Chase it was used on occasion by royalty in the period. King Edward iII’s second son William was born at nearby Hatfield in 1336 when his parents were staying there for Christmas. He died very shortly afterwards and was buried in York Mister in February 1337. By the fifteenth century the Chase had become the property of the Dukes of York. With such royal and aristocratic connections, the discovery of such an impressive piece of jewelry should not perhaps be so surprising. Inevitably, its history is lost to us, and we can only speculate as to who commissioned and owned it or how it came to be lost.

Cimabue at the Louvre

A few days ago I posted about the restoration of Cimabue’s Maesta in advance of a major exhibition, which opens today, about the thirteenth century artist and his importance in the development of Italian and European art.

France 24 has two articles about the exhibition which concentrate on the recent discovery and identification of another work by Cimabue. It was found in 2019 when it was hanging, unregarded on the kitchen wall of a house in Compiegne, and potentially about to be thrown out as rubbish. Spotted as being of possible interest, it was identified and sold to a foreign buyer for €24 million and then, to prevent its export, acquired by the Louvre, I don’t think you would risk that as a plot in a novel these days. Now restored, the painting, The Mocking of Christ, is one of three panels known to survive from an eight part diptych, and is one of the highlights of the new exhibition.

The articles discuss its history, such as it can be recovered, its significance in the history of art, and shows it before and after cleaning, at From kitchen wall to the Louvre: Cimabue show sheds new light on ‘father of Western painting’ and at Long-lost masterpiece ‘the Holy Grail’ for curators and collectors alike

Solemn Requiem Mass for King Louis XVI

YouTube has a video of the Solemn Requiem for King Louis XVI offered today at the church of Saint Eugène et Sainte Cécile in Paris on the 232nd anniversary of his judicial murder in 1793.  

The video can be seen at Messe solennelle de Requiem pour Louis XVI - REQUIEM ÆTERNAM

St Sebastian - the emergence of an iconography

Today is the joint feast of the martyrs St Fabian and St Sebastian. 

Wikipedia has an account of his legend and his cult and patronage, as well as his iconography and its varied interpretations down to the present in Saint Sebastian

I have posted in past years in particular about the iconography of St Sebastian, which is one that in its established form in later medieval and Renaissance art is very distinctine and recognisable indeed.

My post from 2016, using examples posted by John Dillon on the Medieval Religion discussion group site, illustrates this process very well and it can be seen at St Sebastian

Last year I added to this fine collection a link to  an article on the New Liturgical Movement about a Florentine tryptophan from the late fourteenth century. That, with the link, can be seen at St Sebastian

This year I can add another St Sebastian triptych, or at least what remains of it, scattered across two continents and a number of galleries, which is always a thing to be deeply regretted, and which date from 1497-99. It is the work of Josse Lieferinxe

He was an artist from Hainault who then worked in Provence. The commission was for a confraternity based in a now destroyed church in Marseille. Formerly known only as the Master of St Sebastian he has now recovered something of his identity due to academic research.

The triptych is discussed in considerable detail in an informative article that can be accessed at Preventative Medicine: Josse Lieferinxe’s Retable Altar of St. Sebastian as a Defense Against Plague in 15th Century Provence - Persée

One of the panels, depicting St Sebastian interceding for the victims of plague, can be seen at Josse Lieferinxe - Saint Sebastian Interceding for the Plague Stricken - Walters

St Sebastian pray for us

St Fabian pray for us

Medieval shoes

The January sales offer the chance of obtaining all kinds of bargains, and those of you who are perhaps looking for new shoes may care to spare a thought at for the fashion conscious of the mediaeval era and the difficulties they could face in the quest for style.

The BBC News website reported the other day about surviving examples of later mediaeval footwear, notably the fashion for long point of shoes and the difficulties they caused, as well as the reaction of the most censorious members of society. It can be seen at How pointy shoes created a moral panic in medieval London

This appears to be derived from a recent and similar online piece from the Museum of London which can be seen at Why Were Medieval Europeans So Obsessed With Long, Pointy Shoes?

Wikipedia has quite detailed and informative articles about the fashion culprits at Poulaine and it’s all important accomplice at Patten (shoe) 

On the same subject other articles have recorded archaeological evidence, which I think I have linked to previously, from skeletons of the period that show an increased incidence of bunions. These can be seen at 

Medieval pointy-toed shoes led to Cambridge bunion surge and at Fashion for pointy shoes unleashed a wave of bunions in medieval England

Wearing fashionable footwear is something that is not infrequently cited as a cause of orthopaedic difficulties in later life, and clearly our ancestors were as prone to this as we may be today. 

Restoring Monreale

  

Just before Christmas the BBC News website reported on thealerestoration work that has been undertaken on the late twelfth century mosaics that decorate the interior of the cathedral at Monreale in Sicily. This has involved auto cleaning but also conserving and restoring the spectacular series which cover the whole interior of the building.

The article can be seen at It's pure beauty' - Italy's largest medieval mosaics restored

The restoration project is also covered in slightly more detail on the Medievalists.net site at Medieval Cathedral Transformed with Stunning New Lighting

Wikipedia has a history and description of the cathedral at Monreale Cathedral and a separate article about the mosaics, which are the especial glory of the building, can be seen at Monreale Cathedral mosaics

The cathedral started as an abbey founded by King William II following a dream or vision in which the Virgin Mary appeared to him and suggested he should found the church. It was rapidly promoted to being a cathedral with an Archbishop, and was to be the burial place of the King and of his father.

Cathedrals with monastic chapters were rare on the continent, but quite frequently to be found in medieval England. The fact that the King’s consort, Joanna, was a daughter of King Henry II and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine may have influenced the decision, as may the known presence in Sicily of English clergy and administrators.

A further link to England is the prominent figure amongst them mosaic saints of St Thomas of Canterbury, who had been martyred only a very few years before the establishment of the monastery at Monreale.

Festum Asinorum

Today, being Januar 14, as I was reminded by a note on The Pillar website, was for several centuries in the medieval era the Feast of the Ass, the Festum Asinorum. This was intended as a commemoration of the Flight into Egypt.

It appears to be particularly associated with northern France, although that may be a reflection of what records survive.

Wikipedia gives an account of the events associated with it at Feast of the Ass

Linked to it is the concept and history of the Feast of Fools which marked the days after Christmas Day itself, with role reversal celebrations in cathedrals. This apparently originated in southern France. The article can be seen at Feast of Fools

Although banned by the Ecumenical Coucil of. Basel in 1431, and by the University of Paris in 1444, the customer was along time a dying, surviving at Amiens until at least 1721. It occurs to me that this was perhaps a consequence of the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges in 1438.

In England the best recorded evidence for such events is the tradition, now quite frequently revived, or the Boy Bishop.

From the Feast of the Ass there survives in seasonal usage  the familiar music for the hymn Orientis Partibus. The text and recordings of the hymn, arguably an inspiration for Carl Orff in composing Carmina Burana, can be found online at both Festum Asinorum and Orientis Partibus

More on medieval Greenland

Greenland is in the news, whether it, its people or its autonomous government want it to be or not. The background to the present furore can be read in an article from the Politico news website at Trump joins history’s long line of suitors coveting Greenland

I have posted in the past about research into the cause of the medieval eastern and western settlements in the south of the island. I came came upon a video about the medieval settlements in the territory which can be seen at  What Happened to Norse Greenland?

The Medieval Religion discussion group was sent an interesting link last week to an article about monastic foundations in Greenland and also later stories about monasteries in Greenland, which, according to the reports,  had thermal underfloor heating….. The far north seems to have been a fruitful breeding ground for rather fanciful stories of the unusual in that period. The link can be seen at Monastic orders in medieval Greenland

A New Years Gift from 1405

620 years ago King Charles VI of France received a New Year Gift from his Queen, Isabeau of Bavaria. The devotional image wrought in gold and enamel ornamented with precious stones and pears shows the King, in armour, together with his squire holding the royal helmet kneeling in prayer before the Virgin and Child who are accompanied by St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist, shown as children playing with their attributes of tha Lamb and a chalice, and with St Catherine of Alexandria. On a level beneath the King his groom is tending to the King’s horse.

The whole ensemble, known today as the Göldene Rössl is illustrated and described in a 2020 article from the Index of Medieval Art at The Index | » New Year’s Gifts, then and now

Such lavish devotional objects were very much the fashion at the French court in these years. The British Museum has a similar piece from the 1390s in the Reliquary of the Holy Thorn, described by Wikipedia at Holy Thorn Reliquary

The Louvre has another example of similar date from the later treasury of the Order of the Saint Ésprit.

Such gifts are perhaps to be seen as an antecedent of the Russian bejewelled Easter Eggs made by Fabergé.

Given their precious constituent materials it is hardly surprising that so few examples are still extant today. Indeed this 1405 gift survives because a few months later King Charles, short of cash, passed it on to his brother-in-law in Bavaria as part payment of his pension, and as a result the piece ended up at the great Bavarian Marian and Wittelsbach shrine at Altötting.

The delicacy of the workmanship is wonderful in its intricacacy and charming to the eye. As the photographs show the often rather tragic and forlorn King Charles, assailed by mental heath problems and ruling over a faction ridden realm, appears calm, if pale and slightly drawn, and suggests a vulnerability that was only too real in his own life. Even if he felt obliged to give his gift way one can hope it gave him some pleasure in January 1405.

Epiphany

Today is the Epiphany of Our Lord, a wonderful event in the earthly life of Christ, and a wonderful event in the annual life of the Church, full of meaning and one which has shown itself to be a rich source of inspiration to artists in fulfilling commissions over many centuries.

Two of the most famous, and which regularly features on Christmas cards are in Florence. The earlier in date is Gentile da Fabriano’s The Adoration of the Magi from 1423 which was commissioned by the Strozzi family for the church of Sta Trinità, but is now in the Uffizi. The second is Benozzo Gozzoli’s fresco cycle of the journey of the Magi, which was painted in 1459 on the walls of the private chapel of the Medici Palace.

Smarthistory has two illustrated pieces about these famous works Which placed them in their historical context and bring out some of the details which draw you ever deeper into homage of the Magi, with all their wealth, as depicted for two very wealthy and cultured Florentine banking families. In one aspect these paintings are extravagant celebrations of the wealth and lifestyle that the two families had or aspired to. They are an insight, a vision indeed, of an exclusive and privileged world for fifteenth century Florentines. Yet the very fact of their having commissioned them indicate an awareness on their part that they were fortunate and both able and anxious to place themselves as humble suitors before the infant King of Kings. One difference is that the Strozzi commission was for a parish church, but the Medici chapel was very much private sacred space.That also applies to Gozzoli’s painting of the Adoration which he painted in the cell created by Cosimo de Medici for private meditation at San Marco in Florence. This is also discussed in the relevant article. In temporal terms the Medici at least had made money out of the institutional Church,  yet both commissions suggest an awareness that all the good things in the Strozzi and Medici families came from God.

The Strozzi Adoration is discussed at Smarthistory – Gentile da Fabriano, Adoration of the Magi (reframed)

The Medici chapel is described at Smarthistory – Benozzo Gozzoli, The Medici Palace Chapel frescoes

A card trick from the time of Shakespeare

The BBC News website has a story about a mathematician who, aided by his son, has worked out the mathematical basis of a card trick recorded in the 1590s. The trick is recorded in the diary of Philip Henslowe, who built and ran The Rose theatre adjacent to The Globe on Southwark’s Bankside.

 The article, together with the link to the problem-solver’s own description of the mathematics involved, can be seen at Weymouth mathematician solves Elizabethan card trick

Mathematics, beyond those things one needs to survive in daily life, was never my enthusiasm. I have friends who are enthralled by such things, but understanding such matters tends to leave me cold. However I do find it interesting that such mathematical processor were used to provide popular entertainment by at very least the later sixteenth century. The fact that mathematical calculation underlies, indeed is essential to, the creation of medieval castles and cathedrals, and significant parts of medieval science, philosophy and mystical theology, as well as the reception of the heritage of the Greco-Roman world is, of course, remarkable and fascinating. Like Philip Henslowe’s card trick it may well be something we take for granted, and not appreciating how skilled our ancestors were. Henslowe must have used mathematics to create and run his theatre. Whether he was interested in the card trick because of its mathematical basis or just as a party piece we do not know, but his record of it makes him and his world that little bit more immediate to us.

Cimabue’s Maestà cleaned and restored

This would have been a very suitable post for the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God on New Year’s Day as it is about one of the very greatest early Italian paintings of the Virgin and Child.

The Art Newspaper has a fascinating article about the cleaning and restoration of La Maestà, painted by Cimabue about 1280 for a friary church in Pisa which was plundered by the French in the Napoleonic period and is now in the Louvre. Newly restored it will be the centrepiece of an exhibition at the Louvre in coming months that investigates and re-evaluates Cimabue’s place in the development of Italian art.

The cleaning is a revelation as the before and after photographs show. Instead of the sombre tones which dominated the painting now it glows with warm colour, a rich blue and an exuberant rose, and radiates, for all its statuesque pose a calm joyfulness that had for years, maybe centuries, been hidden by varnish.

The illustrated article can be viewed at Was Cimabue the true father of the Italian Renaissance? New restoration reveals pivotal innovations

Carmina Burana

Happy New Year and may I wish all good things in 2025 to my readers.

Given the current state of the world and the uncertainties of one sort or another in so many countries and institutions we need our wits about us as we negotiate the path ahead.

It was certainly not consciously, and I doubt if it was unconsciously with that in mind either, but over Christmas I sought out on the Internet the 1975 production by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. This was made to mark the composer’s eightieth birthday. Ponnelle worked closely with Orff to realise his vision of a combination of music, dance, and movement. This is a much more effective way of presenting the piece than a concert version, however well or beautifully sung.

It was my introduction to Carmina Burana and I vividly remember seeing it on television when it was new and it remained in my memory. 

It can be seen at Orff’s Carmina Burana: the 1975 Jean-Pierre Ponelle TV production (with English subtitles)

The varieties of Fortuna, with her ever turning wheel, lies at the heart of Carmina Burana, and it is a fact of life, both public and private, that we forget at our peril.

Having replayed this several times and thoroughly enjoyed it with its verve and style

I then found that there is a second costumed film version with singers and dancers which was made in 1996. It can be seen at Carl Orff: Carmina Burana (Daniel Nazareth) 1996

This is very similar in many ways to the Ponnelle version, but is a film using locations for some scenes rather than being entirely studio based gives it a different feel. There is however very clear artistic homage in it to the earlier version.

The opening sequence and its reprise at the conclusion is perhaps less satisfactory than the rest of the film although one can see what the intention was of those who made it. Don’t let them put you off the rest of this visually striking and very entertaining production.

The rustic fertility rite in the second section brought to my mind a passage in that outstanding historian Norman Cohn’s Europe’s Inner Demons where he provides a critique of the highly individualistic ideas of the nineteenth century French historian Jules Michelet about ‘alternative religion’ in the medieval centuries.

Watching both of these versions made me wonder if they could be seen as “Montaillou - The Musical” or “Breughal: The Musical”?

That led me to pose the question to myself, and to my readers: Is your vision of the middle ages “Braveheart” or “Carmina Burana”, “Game of Thrones” or Boccaccio and Chaucer?

Whatever your answer enjoy these two splendidly joyful and splendidly earthy versions of Carmina Burana, its Goliard humour and its immensely tuneful score.