Painters and Painting in Tudor and Stuart Britain

Overview

This module will consider the remarkable works of art that survive from the British Tudor and Stuart periods, which include not only the celebrated paintings of artists such as Sir Anthony van Dyck but also the less well-known but equally intriguing canvases of painters such as Sir Nathaniel Bacon. Portraiture - ranging from grand full-lengths to exquisite miniatures - will be a principal subject, and the course will consider the genre from a wide variety of perspectives: artistic, historical and political.

The course will consider the changing status of the artist in Britain at the time, discuss the huge impact and success of migrant artists in this period, examine the workings of artistic patronage, and explore the relationships between the visual arts and contemporary literature. Painters and Painting in Tudor and Stuart Britain will also address the particular practical and intellectual challenges faced by those who study the art of the period.

Reading

Some preparatory reading

• Mary Edmond, 'Limners and Picturemakers', Walpole Society, 1978-80, vol.47, London 1980, pp.60-242.
• John N King, Tudor Royal Iconography, Princeton, 1989
• David Howarth, ed., Art and Patronage at the Caroline Courts, New York and Cambridge, 1993.
• Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England 1530-1630, ed. Karen Hearn, Tate Gallery exhibition catalogue, 1995.
• Katherine Coombs, The Portrait Miniature in England, London, 2nd edition.
• R. Malcolm Smuts, ed., The Stuart Court and Europe, Cambridge, 1996
• R. Malcolm Smuts, 'The Structure of the Court and the Roles of the Artist and the Poet under Charles I', in The Court Historian, vol.9, no.2, Dec. 2004.
• Susan Foister, Holbein and England, New Haven and London, 2004

Outline

Possible seminar outline

• Secrets and Lies: Decoding Tudor and Stuart Portraits
• Portrait Miniatures
• Edward VI: Images of a Tudor Monarch: Repetitions, Copies and Replicas
• Migrant Artists in 16th and 17th Century Britain
• Visit to Tate Britain to view Tudor and Stuart Paintings
• Pregnancy Portraits
• Elizabeth I and the Spanish Armada: Misunderstanding Elizabethan Icons
• Sir Nathaniel Bacon: amateur painter?
• Anthony van Dyck and Britain