PERHAPS I should not have decided to write about the rediscovered Bronzino portrait that Sotheby's will offer in New York on January 26 (Fig 1). The 30/in by 21/in half-length painting of a man with a quill and a sheet of paper could be the personification of writer's block. That seems to be implied by the Latin lines he has managed to get down, which translate as:
The image thinks to write but in fact it does not write It writes of its own accord, but it does not act of its own accord Therefore, it does so unwillingly and writes as little as possible It intends, further, to write, so that it is not necessary...
It has been suggested that this is an early self-portrait of the Mannerist master who was court painter to Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici. The written words do imply that and there is also something akin to the Surrealism of Magritte's Ceci n'est pas une pipe. However, Bronzino, the nickname of Agnolo di Cosimo (1503-72), possibly referred to red hair, whereas this subject is dark. If a selfportrait, the meaning would be still more convoluted, as the 'writer' may have prevaricated, but the painter evidently did not.
The painting's history is quite as fascinating as any meaning it may have. An early owner was Sir William Temple (1628–99), diplomat, politician, adviser to Charles II, essayist and influential gardener and writer on landscape gardening. He introduced the word and concept of sharawadgi, or Chinese gardening, to England. Later, it belonged to Hugh Blaker (1873–1936), who regarded himself as an artist, but was far more notable as a collector and dealer. He advised the sisters Gwendoline and Margaret Davies in building the great collection that they eventually left to the National Museum of Wales.
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin January 11, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Country Life UK dergisinin January 11, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
