Victoriana

Matthew Williams, Curator of Cardiff Castle, described the prejudices against Victoriana and the changing tastes which have helped come to its rescue. Think oversize furniture, excessive decoration, mahogany, rosewood, walnut, veneers, gilding, showy craftsmanship and clutter ; features which became objects of derision by the 1920s. Nancy Mitford’s first book was a send up of Victoriana and the pre-Raphaelites. Collecting was seen as amusing in the 1930s but national museums were not interested and few bothered to write scholarly articles. The British often like to furnish their homes with echoes of the past but Victoriana was passed by. During this period Victorian art, furniture and textiles were of little value as collectors’ items. After the War people began to look again at the artefacts of the nineteenth century empire. In part this interest was utilitarian. There was a furniture famine. Victorian wardrobes and cupboards were relatively cheap: if they were too big they could be cut down to size by the forefathers of the DIY age. Improvements in paint technology made it possible to re-vitalise dull Victorian browns. Respectability emerged alongside. The first exhibition of Victorian and Edwardian decorative arts was held in 1952 at the V & A, reviving now familiar names of the period. A nineteenth century gallery was opened in 1960. American interest gave strength to the market. In1958 the Victorian Society emerged to help prevent the demolition of municipal and domestic buildings of the era. By the early 1970s Victorian art and design had become a serious subject for study. Television played its part. Series such as The Forsyte Saga had an impact on people’s perceptions of the period as a social history time capsule, both above and below stairs. William Morris wallpapers and textiles became a backcloth to suburban bliss. At a local level, Matthew Williams reminded us that we have National Trust properties such as Knightshayes and Tyntesfield in the south west, the former having been restored to its Victorian roots, the latter an unusual survivor in its original tapestry.

Sculpture in the Landscape

Dr Laura de Beden, landscape architect and garden designer, gave her audience new insights into ‘Sculpture in the Landscape’, ranging from ancient menhirs on the moor to angels of the north, from classical rural scenery to humble domestic gardens. She defined a sculpture as an object in space, created by the artist as a filter for human interpretation and meaning. It should add energy and narrative to its surroundings. Positioning is of the essence. The Greeks and Romans used statues and temples to honour their gods, capturing the spirit of the place, especially in relation to natural beauty. During the Renaissance the classical theme was dominant but statues in gardens were seen as art which paid homage to their owners rather than religion, with references to cultural life and secular success. Classical figures continued to represent civilisation in the natural world until the twentieth century blitz when Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and others produced and placed sculptures to challenge the viewer : interpretation and touch gave power to the individual but you were not expected to feel at ease with what you saw. Sculptures in the landscape might create intellectual, emotional and spiritual responses. They can be affected by the changing effects of light. Different materials can react in different ways to their environment. Movement might be conveyed through crafted fountains and waterfalls, given an added resonance in hot countries where water is a precious gift. Sculptures might lead our eyes to a view, provide a subtle guided path through a garden, interact with plants in terms of colour, contrasting shapes or surfaces – and sometimes bring us to a sudden halt with an unexpected surprise. Dr de Beden’s lively and enthusiastic lecture conveyed her love of sculpture in a way that will certainly help her audience to a better appreciation of the ‘objects in space’.

Contemporary Silver

Giving a glittering start to our 2010 - 2011 lecture season Rosemary Ransome Wallis led us through the world of fine silver from medieval times to the present day. In this world Rosemary is clearly the expert’s expert. Curator as well as a (Lady) Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths in the City of London – which received its first Royal Charter in 1327 to ensure that “all those who were of the Goldsmith’s craft were to sit in their shops in the high street of Cheap. No silver plate – or vessels in gold or silver - to be sold in the City except in the said street or the King’s Exchange” – she is responsible for some 8,000 gold and silver objects in the Company’s magnificent collection. We were told how and why control was exercised over the craft and how the production of silver items evolved and developed over the centuries, seeing slides of some amazing pieces of antique silver and learning about the difference between designer craftsmen and artist craftsmen, hearing how the world of silver was influenced by many wider architectural and design movements, before concentrating on just a selection of modern designers and artists who have given Britain a leading position globally in the second half of the 20th century: among them were Malcolm Appleby who uses techniques such as engraving, mixing metals, texturing and hammering to combine surface quality with form so that the decorative process becomes complementary to the final form; Simon Benney, who gives an illusion of depth to his work by adding texture and uses colour by means of enamelling to highlight the detail; Toby Russell who develops his ideas three dimensionally using card models rather than drawing, and then folds silver sheet along scored lines to create the most amazing shapes and reflections. And it is by no means just a man’s field: among the many female designers is Lexy Dick who models figurative pieces in wax for casting, usually involving animals, real, heraldic or mythical,and whose bowl supported on seahorse tails produced for the Emperor Hirohito was among the delightful slides illustrating this fascinating talk.

New Season 2010 - 2011

Dr David Howells has taken over as chairman of KEDFAS and will be overseeing the New Season of Lectures, Visits and Study Days. There have been some other changes to the committee, Lucy Taylor taking on Thursday membership and guests secretary, David Lavender taking on Lecturers Hospitality Co-ordinator.

Libertas-Harp Concert June 2010

Our 2009/2010 lecture season ended on – literally – a high note. In the lovely setting of Libertas at Buckland-tout-Saints, by kind permission of Johnny and Rosalind Spears, we were treated to “An Hour with the Harp and David Watkins”. Professor Watkins fell in love with the harp in his late teens and has devoted his life to it ever since. His knowledge was encyclopaedic; his musicianship superb; his enthusiasm infectious and his audience enraptured.

The origin of the harp was the bow and arrow. Its music was so important to the ancient Egyptians’ journey to the next world that harpists have been found walled up in Pharaonic tombs. Later, harp music helped set the tone at Roman orgies. Our own King Alfred played a harp … for more relaxing reasons. Harps were used symbolically in some of Hogarth’s paintings. Marie Antoinette was mainly responsible for their introduction into France. The instrument was steadily developed and refined over the centuries, adding texture to music and becoming integrated into orchestras from around 1850. Mr Watkins described it as imparting a sense of musical sculpture, claiming (by which time we were all utterly convinced) that the harp is the only instrument that communicates directly with the heart.

The modern harp now has seven pedals, each with three alternative positions, making it an extremely complex instrument to play, though the professor made it appear utterly simple as he illustrated his talk by playing several pieces for us, ranging from some of the earliest published harp music, dating from the 16th Century, to some of his own landscape-inspired compositions. At the end of the talk, most unusually, we were all invited to try playing his harp ourselves: heavenly, in both senses of the word! Our 2010/2011 lecture season starts in September with a talk by Rosemary Ransome Wallis on the development of Contemporary Silver in the 20th and 21st Centuries.

Tarts in Art

Practitioners of the oldest profession did not regularly find themselves on canvas but Linda Smith, our lecturer on the topic of ‘Great Tarts in Art’, took us on a pictorial romp through the late seventeenth century and to more recent times. Charles II imported the French custom of introducing his mistresses into Society. Barbara Villiers might have been rude, vulgar and promiscuous but she was made Duchess of Cleveland for her efforts. A contemporary favourite became Duchess of Portsmouth but it was Nell Gwynn who graduated from the London stage to become the most popular model of British values of the time. Paintings of Restoration beauties, often showing them as shepherdesses, reveal a fashion for languishing eyes and the hint of a double chin. Into the next century we find Stubbs painting a respectable family group, prior to the wife wandering from the stable and producing a son who later became the prime minister Lord Melbourne. Gainsborough portrayed the durable mistress of the ambassador to France, as well as a courtesan who divided her loyalties between the Prince of Wales and some of the French revolutionary hierarchy. At the top of the tree the fees were high. Kitty Fisher, painted by Nathaniel Hone and of nursery rhyme fame, charged a nightly rate of 100 guineas; a syndicate had a sort of annual time share for 2000 guineas. Careers tended to be relatively short but Elizabeth Armistead ruled the roost for ten years and was painted by Joshua Reynolds after marrying into the aristocracy. A contemporary used blackmail when past her prime : the Duke of Wellington refused to pay up. There was a darker side. Hogarth saw related disease as a metaphor for the wider corruption in eighteenth century society; the urban world captured by Manet in France suggested uncertainty and a lack of depth in relationships; Lautrec lived amongst poor prostitutes and showed sympathy for their life in the shadows; Grosz’ 1920’s ‘fat cat’ patrons symbolised the rot in European civilisation. Even Lady Hamilton died in poverty.

The Terracota Army

Qin Shin Huangdi was obsessed with immortality and sent teams throughout China to search for thee elixir of life. He died in 210BC. As a teenage king he began the 56 square kilometer walled burial ground outside Xian, using 700,000 conscripts and completed it 30yrs later. Dr Anne Birchall, the first western archaeologist to visit the site after its discovery in 1974, reminded us that the first Emperor of China has left us with a number of questions as well as answers. Although the Qin dynasty was short lived it brought all of China together and founded a style of government that survived until the 20th century. As well as military success, the Emperor built palaces, roads and sections of the Great Wall of China; he standardised coinage, script and measures. Xianyang was the first capital. He encouraged writings in agriculture, divination and medicine, but ordered that all previous books be burned using outspoken scholars as tinder. Large enough to house three jumbo jets, the underground vaults contain evidence of the emperor's plans for the afterlife: thousands of warriors, wearing terracotta leather jerkins, probably painted in green with rustic red or trendy lilac. Weapons including crossbows, arrows dagger axes and swords, wooden chariots and pottery horses, all alongside aids to relaxation- acrobats, musicians and bronze waterbirds. Dr Birchall emphasised that although the warriors faces and headgear had a variety of features they are only ten different factory assembled (with personal touches). She told how there are as yet many more areas for excavation and the story is not yet complete.

From Humble Beginings-The National Portrait Gallery

Angela Cox's talk on the 150 year history of the National Portrait Gallery was entitled "From Humble Beginnings". Humble in some ways-opening with just 56 portraits, enough to fill the entrance hall and one floor of a London house-but grandiose in others: the paintings must have a strictly moral purpose; the sitter should be famous, for a suitable reason; he or she should have been dead for at least ten years so as to ensure that their fame was lasting and not merely transient; furthermore each image must be authentic and contemporary- none of those imaginary images created several centuries on: this must be the real thing! And to make sure that these rules were followed trustees were appointed from the good, including two future prime ministers Gladstone and Disraeli, both of whom attended diligently for the rest of their lives. The portraits must be in any medium provided that they fulfilled the basic requirements: oils and watercolours of course, and oil pastel; miniatures; sculptures; an exquisite self portrait by George Stubbs on a ceramic base made by Josiah Wedgwood; even a slightly gruesome collection of death masks. And photographs-which is a whole lecture in itself because as photography developed it started to raise the questions as "Why paint?" and "What is a likeness?" As portraiture developed to meet these new challenges so the Gallery's rules and functions developed to meet new ages and thinking. By the mid 20th century the old rules were found to be too restricting and irksome. The sciences and women were sorely unrepresented in the collection. The 10-year rule was preventing too many potential acquisitions. Things had to change. From the 1980's the Gallery started actively commissioning work. Horizons broadened. Recent work includes portraits of Viv Richards, Frank Bruno and other sportsmen, and an exuberant glass mosaic bust of designer Zandra Rhodes. The beginnings may have been humble, but 150 years on the National Gallery is justifiably proud.

The Exotic in English Architecture Feb 2010

Taste was not limited to tea in defining fashionable society's view of China and India in the mid 18th and 19th centuries. Chinoisie was chic. From the first Chinese house built in 1738 (and still standing after three moves) to furniture, wallpaper, pavilions, pagodas, boat houses gardens - and bizarre manifestations, such as the Duke of Cumberland's oriental yacht - the British Manufactured their images of the East. Although Frederick II of Prussia tried to keep up by building a tea house, the real royal hero was the Prince of Wales, later George IV, patron of the arts and Brighton's Pavilion. Bath moved into the second league as the place to be seen. In the 1780s Brighton was a small village but by the end of the Napoleonic wars it was clearly on the map and John Nash added both Chinese and Indian elements to the new Royal Pavilion and stables. Cartoonists caricatured George as a Chinese emperor enthroned in his fantasy world. His successor, William IV, also favoured Brighton but Victoria was not amused and sailed off to the Isle of Wight. Fortunately the town took over the Pavilion and preserved it until its recent revival. After Nelson had injured Napoleon's pride on the Nile, Egyptian artifacts also gained in popularity. Obelisks multiplied. An MP even prepared for the afterlife by building his own pyramid-shaped mausoleum. Modelled on the former Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, a house in Chapel Street, Penzance is a noble survivor of this vogue but Harrods probably has the last word. Thanks to Patrick Conner, a specialist on historical paintings illustrating the China trade and the impact of Oriental architecture in the West, we gained a fascinating insight into the exotic.

Annual General Meeting

A succesful AGM was held at the Thurlestone Hotel. The principal change to the committee was the retirement of Dr Malcolm Waite (2007-2010) and his replacement as Chairman by Dr David Howells. After the AGM, 45 members stayed on to enjoy a splendid lunch held at the Hotel.

Bath History and Development

Bath has the only true HOT spa in the country (others are merely warm or tepid, claimed our enthusiastic lecturer Jane Tapley as she gave us a fascinating talk on its history and re-development). Fed by rain which falls on the Mendips before passing through natures own 2 mile long water heater and emerging at a constant 46 degrees Celsius. Baths spring was a centre for worshiping Celtic gods before being discovered by the invading Romans, who built the baths as Britains first R & R or leisure centre in AD 80. They discovered curative qualities as well as pleasure in the waters and as Bath's fame spread wealthy visitors were attracted from as far as Rome itself. After 400 years the Romans left and the baths languished until the 17th century. Famous visitors then included Samuel Pepys and Beau Nash. In the 18th century Queen Anne found relief in the waters (from the considerable effects of her 17 pregnancies!). Bath became a fashionable place for the Georgians (who were said to wallow rather than swim in such hot water) before it declined in the 19th century. The Victorians revived Bath and reconstructed the buildings, and all was well until our own time when a case of meningitis led to the baths being closed. But now after several years of blood sweat and disastrous mistakes followed by more sweat and tears and expenditure of £45 million- plus a celebratory concert by the Three tenors- a magnificent new centre is welcoming crowds of visitors to indulge in the revived hot bath, open air pool on the roof (cooled down to 33 degrees and with its own jacuzzi) a mud bath and many other features. Perhaps best of all the water is not only purified but has had the smell of sulphur removed!