Well that’s it …...

...............just posted the essay; three copies

first class to Milton Keynes.

I feel a bit empty now, as the essay has consumed all my spare time for the past few weeks. A voyage of discovery which I found very fore filling.


So what’s next ?

The result comes out in December and my next course starts next February AA318 Art of the Twentieth Century But that’s another blog….BFN

The Conclusion - ‘not one of us’

To conclude, this investigation set out to answer three questions: what was work’s function; how did its image reach England; how was that  image viewed? On one level there are quite straight forward answers. The work was part of a Devon roodscreen as seen by comparisons with extant roodscreens. The movement of the image of the black Magus across Renaissance Europe is best explained by Burke’s   ‘communicative events’ idea witnessed in twelfth century Holy Roman Empire’s encounter with Islamic Spain, and the Empire’s subsequent cultural, economic and artistic  encounters between Germany, the Netherlands and England. The Adoration image spoke of the relationship between Church and State, Christ and Gentiles. There is however a fundamental paradox here as the only blacks known at the time were stereotypically slaves yet here was the image of a flamboyant, fashionably dressed black Magus/King at the physical and spiritual heart of the church, the epicentre of village life. Perhaps this image was how a definition of whiteness crystallised in Renaissance Europe as white Europe defined itself in terms of a white civilised Aristotelian taxonomy in direct contrast to the black barbarian , who even as king the black was different, exotic, ‘other’ – ‘not one of us’.

Blacks In Renaissance England

Despite the fact that no black King visited England during the period there was a well understood iconography associated and attitude towards blacks.

Prof Kath Lowe in her article in Black Africans in Renaissance Europe (BTW this is the book the Blog takes its name from the acronym of the book’s title) looked at travel journals, costume books, legal documents, paintings, jokes and books to understand how blacks were viewed –to determine what was the instinctive cultural response to blacks at the time.

There were two broad areas of difference - blacks were seen as slaves as these were the only blacks known to the majority and that they were culturally inferior. Aristotle argued there were the civilised and the barbarians, he determined a list of criteria by which the former could be accessed. Black Africans fail on every count for example the civilised wore clothes according to Aristotle , and the style and quality of their clothing, through sumptuary laws, reflected status in society. Black African went around naked so they must be totally uncivilised - barbarians!

Culturally blacks were stereotyped:

• They had body marks and wore gold jewellery
  
• They lacked appreciation of civility and civilisation being: lazy, irresponsible, sexually promiscuous, drunk and prone to criminality..and seen laughing public!
  
• They could only do certain jobs: those requiring physical work , horsemen, swordsmen, guards, musicians, dancers.

Some of these attribute can be seen in the black Magus reflecting the dichotomy in the image of the Black Magus as King and the reality of the black as a barbarian and slave.

The Essay's Home Straight....

On the home strech now VIEWING and CONCLUSION to go. then the COLLATING….PRINTING and BINDING these latter tasks are not without effort and carry their own issues. So I’ve drawn up a timetable to finish by 16 giving 3 day buffer as the deadline’s 19th mid night - Yes, midnight the OU anticipate late arrivals!

06 Sat plan VIEWING
07 Sun write VIEWING..think about CONCLUSION
08 Mon review VIEWING
09 Tues read MAKING LOCATING, VIEWING edit
10 Wed draft CONCLUSION
11 Thu think about CONTENTS..what’s in the APPENDIX ?
12 Fri The draft CONTENTS – ILLUSTRATIONS, BIBLOGRAPHY, edit TMA 03, VISIT HISTORY, APPENDIX
13 Sat Draft of complete ESSAY printed
14 th Sun CONCLUSION
15 Mon Read
16 Tue PRINT PRINT……4 copies complete
17 Wed POST

The Black Arrives in England...

I've spent so much time looking and looking and looking at the piece I've forgotten that there are three themes I'm supposed to be writing about MAKING, LOCATING and VIEWING the piece with particular reference to the image of the black Magus. So enough of the MAKING for now I'll look at LOCATING......

How did the image of black Magus reach South West England at start of the sixteenth century ?

Well thanks to Kaplan's The Rise of the Black Magus and Ladailas et al's The Image of the Black in Western Art I was able to trace the origin of the image and how it moved across Europe. So with deep respect and paying homage to The Reduced Shakespeare Company here goes......

1 12th C Spain Islamic court had musicians black

2 France Norman court copies Spainish Islam's black musicians

3 13th C Italy German court copy Norman court's black musicians and retainers

4 14th C Germany Cologne Magi Relics, St Maurice, Prestor John, Queen of Sheba, Rogier van Weyden all conflated and amplified with much bible study and 'tradition'

5 15th Netherlands : Hans Memling Adoration copies Weyden but with black third king producing THE seminal Adoration much copied and copied

6 16th England image bought and then brought image in from Netherlands

.....or put another way .......The French Norman's first saw black court musicians trumpeting and drumming to announce the arrival of Islamic rulers from Spain they copied them the Normans were then copied the Haphusaphen a German Dynasty who at one time during the 13th century 'owned' Scilliy they took the idea back to Germany. In Cologne they had the remains of the Magi as well as a saint St Maurice as the city's patron saint. Also at that time Bible studies into the Queen of Sheba seemed to show she was black and studies of the legendary priest and king Prestor John the black Ethiopian. In the 14th century these ideas and images were inflated and amplified making one of the kings black. In the 15th century the definitive image of the Magi was Rogier van der Weydens St Columbia Altar Piece with three white magi, his student the German born Flemish painter made the third king black took the idea to Netherlands were it was copied by painters and engravers and copied and copied and copied. There were markets in Antwerp at the time in which English people. traded.... the image made it way back to England as work bought and brought right from the Antwerp market or in the head of craftsmen or artists who reproduced it here in England as we know many foreign artist were at work in the England at that the time.