St Maurice Black or White?

Had an excellent day at the Victoria and Albert museum Spotlight on the Diaspora  gave my St Maurice presentation twice. Met some lovely people. Here's the transcript of my talk.  The second time was a literally last minute, hurried affair, without my most important prop the image of Magdeberg's St Maurice  - given as the Victoria and Albert attendants were closing the museum down around us - for those who had missed the first.

All the Victoria and Albert staff were brillant very flexible , enthusiastic  and supportive made my presentation(s) go so well so, a big thanks to them all.

Apart from how well the idea that the Victoria and Albert's St Maurice was really black was aceppted - despite its apparent whiteness - and why. My other take away was VuVox billed as:

A Virtual Gallery in Four Pictures [from Spotlight on Africa and the Diaspora] [time] 13.30 – 16.30[venue] Digital Studio [Sackler Wing]Use your camera or one of ours to take your own creative photographs of your 4 favourite Spotlight objects.  Then upload your images and design your own virtual gallery with a story or captions. 

The result you see above - a cross between a collage, a video , a picture and a panorama - a VuVox aka collvidpicpan - the one above is my first attempt. I believe this to be a brilliant idea, much better more accessible, a creative alternative to Prezi, Apple's Keynote or Microsoft's PowerPoint for making web based presentations.

All in all a good day.

Does Saint Maurice have to be black to be Saint Maurice?

Victoria and Albert  St Maurice v Magdeberg Cathedral St Maurice

I was delighted when I was invited by the Victoria and Albert Museum to comment on the image  of St Maurice as part of their Spotlight on Africa and the Diaspora program . The St Maurice In Magdeberg cathedral was one of the earliest (to me) and most dramatic images of a Black In Renaissance in Europe I discovered when I started this blog.

I was surprised when I saw the actual St Maurice I’d been invited to discuss with a V&A curator, this was not a St Maurice image in the Magdeberg style , this image was the like no St Maurice I’d seen so  far (see images below) - this St Maurice  looked distinctly  European.

Sixteenth Century St Maurices from German Influenced Areas

Subsequent research gave possible reasons as to why in Germany at that time an apparently white St Maurice could be appreciated when the overwhelmingly accepted image was black. Nevertheless this white St Maurice forced me to consider, did St Maurice need to be look black for me to see him as black, the V&A's St Maurice has curly hair but no other visible signs of blackness, is that enough, to be black do you have to look black ?

Discussing the question with friends - black and white - brought up the same question but this time colour inverted - do you have to look white to be white? That's what I wrote about in my response to V&A's St Maurice in the brochure to support the Spotlight on Africa and the Diaspora program:

I must have said something right (or controversial) as I've been invited to present the V&A's St Maurice and my response in front of the piece - for 40 minutes on the 19th November.

This invitation has prompted me to dig deeper into the background of the V&A's St Maurice, its creator and his times, I plan to write about my findings in the next post.