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.

There’s a problem

I just completed the part of my essay where I compare the piece to the Ugborough Adoration with the a view to showing how similar they are, ending with the claim that the Ugborough’s fourth panel should be a black magus looking a bit like the one in the piece. I was now about to go to talk about the quality of the painting or the lack of quality as Devon roodscereen paintings are universally condemned….

Pevsner said with the exception of Ashton…the standard of [Devon rood-screen] painting is deplorable

The V&A’s Gothic Art in England states Devon rood-screen panels ..can at best be called crude or vigorous

Edward Long the figure drawing in Devon is generally speaking rather clumsy

I would have agreed but there is small glimmer of some of the most delicate brash work creating a fine Gothic foliage in the cushion the V&C sit on in the Ugborough Adoration.

It’s shown in detail below and comapred with the throne that piece’s V&C sit on.

Ugborough Detail

The piece’s work shown below is crude with broad brush strokes lacking the subtly , flow and gentleness of the Ugborough’s floral work.

Piece's Same Detail

It could be argued that the piece was once as detailed and floral but when it was repainted in the 17^th century the artist brushed over the detail.

But what troubles me if the Ugborough artist had seen the piece or in deed was one and same artist why do such wonderful detail work and leave the rest of the piece looking so ‘deplorable’, ‘crude’ and ‘clumsy’ ?

Ugborough hides a secret!

Of the three Adorations I photographed in Devon Ugborough was in the worse condition – very damaged and very dirty . But this hid the most wonderful discovery the Ugborough artist had seen the Victoria & Albert (V&A) piece copying his style or the same artist could have done both. I say this after careful comparison of each of the five subjects – Virgin & Child (V&C) , star and three ‘kings’.

The one that first caught my eye was the odd pose of the second king in the V&A piece his legs stick out of his orange gown , through the Ugborough grime you can just make out the same legs and gown – same pose. Further looking and you can see the postures and gestures are identical – he looks to the third king and points to towards the V&C.


The first kings adopt similar poses along with red crowns respectfully place on the floor as they pay homage to the Christ the King of Kings. The Star is in the same place in both Adorations and share essentially the same physical presentations – a long comet like tail pointing to the baby Jesus.

The V&Cs are seated on similar thrones however while the V&A piece points to the Star to indicate Christ’s divine status , the Ugborough Virgin seems to point to the baby Jesus as if saying ‘Here is Christ the King’. The Virgins’ clothes are also similar.


The third kings’ comparison is problematic – in the V&A it’s the Black Magi , in the Ugborough it’s a Saracen sword in one head a cut off head in the other (according to a label on the panel).. I would believe that this panel is a replacement - it was originally a Black Magi like the V&A!

The Adoration's Traditions

Having spent the last month or so researching roodscreens I now plan to turn my attention to the Adoration and the presence of the Black Magi as the piece is an abstraction of The Adoration story – V&C, The Star of Bethlehem and the three Kings - in four panels.

One word that sticks out above all others in my readings on the Adoration aka The Epiphany aka The Story of the Three Kings aka The Nativity whatever you prefer to call it, that word is - tradition.

‘Tradition’ ,as I see it, is a euphemism for:

[W]e know the story isn’t really true or ever actually hppened, as we have no proof and if you stress us we believe it’s a total fabrication but can’t say so too loudly as this may offend too many people.

The Adoration has several traditions developed from the story in Mathew's Gospel (Mat 2:1 ff)

For the detail see the Encyclopaedia Britannica on the Magi

Here are the ‘traditions’ I’ve noted…..:

• The Star of Bethlehem

The star was only visible by those who knew where to look and what to look for as Herod asked the ‘wise men’ confidentially where the star was (Mat 2.4) despite the fact he knew the star was in the ‘east’ (Mat 2.2). Herod would have had his own astronomers so knowing the ‘star’ was in ‘east’ should have been enough as it would have been a new celestial event so, it wasn't very bright.

For the detail see the Encyclopaedia Britannica on the Star of Bethlehem

• There Wise men

There were three gifts gold, and frankincense, and myrrh (Mat 2.11) which through ‘tradition’ meant there were three wise men, the Eastern Orthodox church has 12 wise men - another 'tradition'.

• Magi

Magi - the plural of Magus - astrologers from the Persian court, for the detail on Magus see the Encyclopaedia Britannica

• Kings

They first became ‘kings’ in about 200 AD thanks to one of the Elders of the African Christian Church ,a Carthaginian called Tertullian who read Pslam 72 9:10 as foretelling of the Adoration (Trexler, pg12). It wasn’t until 6th century it became a ‘tradition’.(The Oxford Companion of Christian Art).

• Three Kings

It was difficult to reconcile three kings from one country so they became three generations as well as being given names : Gaspar (aka Caspar aka Jasper) - the old white bearded king ; Balthasar - the middle black bearded aged king ; the third Melchoir - the beardless, fickle, foppish youthful king. Al being in ornate attire.

• Symbolism (Hall’s Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art)

Gold – Homage to Christ’s kingship
Frankincense – homage ot Christ’s divinity
Myrrh - used in embalming foreshadowing Christ’s death
Submission of temporal power (earthly kings) to divine spiritual power (Christ the King of kings)
Gentiles – the wise men were the first non Jews to visit Christ
Three kings – three parts of the known world (Europe Asia and Africa)

It’s that last symbol I’ll consider in my next post.

The Devon Panels and Adoration

I’ve now had a week or so to consider my photographs. Technically I’m very disappointed in the quality of my pictures when compared to the V&A’s photograph. My lighting is inconsistent, while my compositions leave much to be desired. If I have any saving grace it was the lighting conditions inside the churches were very challenging : flash was both inappropriate and when used produced poor results. I was far too keen to ‘see’ the Adorations - more attention should have been given to preparing the camera….next time I’ll be ready.

After much cropping I’ve reduced my 800 plus Roodscreen Adoration pictures to four – one each from Plymtree, Buckland and Ugborough and for comparison a panel from Brampton .

To compare them with the V&A piece see the video..........

So, you can see from the video I would argue that the piece was almost certainly once part of a Devon Roodscreen, well from just looking at it. Specifically, I would argue along the following lines to show it was in fact a Devon piece....

• Material and size
  

It’s oak – all the Devon screens were made of oak and there all 36 to 39inches wide and about 36 inches high ( a rectangle - a metre and a bit wide by just under a metre high!)

• Carving and Tracery

Taking the blank Brampton as the base the essential features are four ogee arches each with tri foil tracery on a quatrefoil predella with a leaf at its centre – each of the arches has these features as do all other three screens.

• Colours

The Brampton screen has had its colour removed, the others have varying degrees of polychromy. Looking carefully at the predella quatrefoil evidence of red and green alternating from one predella to the next can be detected particularly in the Buckland Adoration. However a word of caution should be noted as they have all be retouched restored reworked at some time so, sadly, one can be too sure what the original looked like. The piece was repainted in the seventeenth century according to its supporting documentation.

The carvings at least cam from the same late fifteenth early sixteenth century workshop or someone or group can be traced to a common source or tradition from Devon.

• Paintings

The common workshop style in the carvings cannot be detected in the paintings although they share common composition – V&C – Old King, Middle Aged King, Third King – their execution is sadly uniformly very poor and they share no common calligraphy. The paintings all appear to have been done by different – not very good – artists. All the my readings so far are uniformly scathing about Devon screen paintings ‘Deplorable’ - Pevsner ; ‘Crude’ ; V&A Gothic Exhibition and I must admit they are poor including the piece.

That’s all I want to say on the V&A piece my next posts will be about the Magi and that third King,