Enjoying retirement
In The Red Rose County
Three days in Liverpool. We arrive by train and one of the first things you see on coming out of Lime Street is the magnificent set of public buildings. The only equivalent experience that I can compare it to is exiting Santa Lucia and being immediately on the stage set that is Venice. We were here for the 'Tudors : Passion, Power and Politics' exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery. But first a light lunch in the highly atmospheric cafe where F. had her first real plate of scouse (much enjoyed). As we had a timed ticket we had chance to have a quick look round the Decorative Art section. I love the local pieces they have in abundance from china......... to pottery......... dresses and fashion.........and much else, including a lot of modern pieces made in Liverpool by contemporary craftsmen. We also had a very brief look in the famous sculpture hall...... But then........the Tudors. This was a huge and significant exhibition with many pieces from the National Galleries but many also from elsewhere. The Tudors start of course with Henry VII. As someone who admires Richard III I find this portrait a bit worrying. Henry seems to be trying to come out of the confines of his frame to see what you are about. Having luckily won at Bosworth, mainly owing to the desertion of the Stanleys from White Rose to Red, he did one excellent piece of business and that was to marry Elizabeth of York, thereby uniting to a large degree the warring families. One thing I liked very much was seeing the transformation of Henry VIII from vigorous and brave Renaissance prince to the bloated monster we are all familiar with. Here he is with his first wife, Catherine of Aragon who, despite her treatment at his hands, would never utter a word against him. But we see too all of his wives including Anne of the Thousand days of course.... Jane Seymour and the rest.........interesting to see all of them one after the other, a whole procession of wives.... Now here's the Henry we all know....... and here's arguably where he made his biggest mistake..........executing his most loyal and shrewdest Minister Thomas Cromwell.......in this portrait he really did ask Holbein to paint him 'as is'. But the exhibition was about so much more than paintings. It had artefacts of all kinds. Beautiful illustrated manuscripts and books.... clothing.........here, for example, a very fine hat complete with ostrich feather (very expensive)........ But the highlight for me was something I didn't even know existed.....the Westminster Tournament Roll made in Sir Thomas Wriothesley's workshop in 1511. It consists of 36 parchment sheets joined together with animal glue, just under 18 metres long. It is only very rarely on public display. It is simply magnificent. and, wonderfully, there was a running commentary on screen to explain what was going on...... Here, as one of the Court trumpeters, is the African John Blanke. He had also been court trumpeter to Henry VII, and was so esteemed by Henry VIII that he gave him a pay rise and when he married in 1512 gifted him fine clothing. He was one of many Africans we now know about living in Tudor England, and there was a lot more diversity and acceptance than I ever thought. The young boy King Edward VI didn't reign long, but goodness did he found many schools... a lot of course with his name in the foundation. If Anne Boleyn was the thousand day Queen, poor Lady Jane Grey was the nine day Queen who we don't even recognise as one of our monarchs...... Edward VI had written his will, explicitly nominating Jane and her male heirs as successors to the Crown, and yet with the uncertainties of Tudor politics, the Privy Council changed sides and favoured the Catholic Mary. Bad mistake. Jane was recognised as one of the most cultured and educated people in Europe. Mary turned out to be a monster. This contemporary engraving shows just one of the hundreds burned at the stake in her reign...the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer....... Now here was another monster of sorts who we all think of as one of our greatest monarchs. And so she was in many ways. But I can never expunge from my mind when thinking about her just one of her letters where she implores the executioner to make one heretic suffer as much as possible when being burned.....easily done - a lot of the time by using damp wood or not stoking the fire and thereby prolonging the agony........... Her chief Minister William Cecil was undoubtedly the person who more than anyone kept the wheels turning in her reign and, cleverly, unlike her father, she let him get on with it. He died quietly in service, and was succeeded by his equally capable son. I thought this a most unusual portrait of Elizabeth, a very early portrait indeed, which prompted the French Queen to say that after all she had been told of how beautiful Elizabeth was, she can't have had very good painters. Very bitchy! This very striking portrait is of the Morrocan ambassador with whom Elizabeth had many dealings, one aspect of which was looking at the possibility of a joint invasion of Spain. There were large sections on coloured people in Tudor England and on the role of women, and very much else. All in all, a terrific exhibition. There was another exhibition on which we then moved to............contemporary Liverpool artists. As is the way with these things some good and a lot of rubbish........ Why on earth would you want to paint of all things a woman crouching and peeing? Obviously the Hockney wasn't part of this exhibition......we had moved to Modern Art, very good a lot of it was too...... A view from Laura Knight's window in Hampstead is very atmospheric.... We wandered through town. Here the library in the Rotunda, and The Empire Theatre where, with my first girlfriend, I saw Ken Dodd perform for hours on end. After midnight he told us that all doors were locked until he had finished! This was the view from our self-catering apartment...there is some lovely plasterwork on the building opposite. The Isle of Man ferry (we must go) looks like a superyacht........ Next day we went to Port Sunlight which never fails to impress The monument to Lord Lever was built following donations from 22,000 of his employees. The four figures at the base are done in a realistic style. Three figures face away from the art gallery, on the left is Industry, represented by a man holding a tool, in the middle is Charity, a woman cradling a child, and on the right is Education, a male scholar holding a book and pointing at a page. On the back, facing the gallery, is Art, a woman with a palette. The figures are intended to represent Lever's qualities and interests As usual we were hugely impressed with the quality of the objects on display. The artist of Boy Blowing Bubbles - Millais - wasn't at all impressed that Lever wanted to use this in his early advertising, but he acceded in the end. We ate later at a terrific find - Rudy's pizzeria. Great food, friendly service, magnificent value. We must seek out the one in Manchester. More strolling round Liverpool shows much more of interest in its buildings........ This garden area right behind Bluecoat School in the city centre is a real oasis. And when you visit the Georgian area............ you must visit the Philarmonic Dining Rooms (Phil for short)....what a wonderful pub. Something we missed on our last visit was the Maritime Museum, so we remedied that. The cafe was in an inspiring spot, but its offerings were distinctly uninspiring. But the museum itself was a revelation..... and the permanent exhibition on the Titanic was thoroughly engaging. The more modern section was of interest too, and there was a gripping section on ships' accidents.........and to be honest much else we didn't encompass in one visit. Having heard about Boujee on 'The Apprentice' we see it everywhere now particularly in Manchester. But if you're in to adult Barbie the it's in Liverpool too.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Keith & Frances SmithArchives
August 2023
Categories |