This essay exploring the physical utopia of Sir Thomas More is included in my most recent book The Modern Salonnière. The 34 other essays in…
View More The Utopia of Sir Thomas MoreTag: Hans Holbein the Younger
Hans Holbein the Younger was a prolific chronicler of the Tudor monarchy, his paintings of kings, queens and courtiers hung in some of the most honorable galleries and museums in the world.
Royal portraits of the Tudor era are just as likely to be signed by Hans Holbein the Younger as anyone else, examples of his handiwork serving as the visages of the rulers who reigned during Medieval times. In my diary entry Renovating During the Tudor Era, one of the painters most famous portraits of Henry VIII shows him robust, his robes trimmed in fur and his hat tipped jauntily. The profiles of Sir Henry Wyatt and his son Sir Thomas Wyatt also ornament the post, the elder Wyatt a Tudor courtier and a member of Henry VII’s privy council. He was the owner of one of the most prestigious castles during that era, Allington, which had an authentic tiltyard on its extensive grounds.
Renovating during this time was as much about sport as it was about comfort so any landowner who had property large enough and sophisticated enough to have a tiltyard had quite a standing. The pageantry surrounding the tournaments evolved into one of the most important opportunities for proving wealth and power that existed during the sixteenth century, the sport’s heyday. Henry Wyatt would become one of the largest landowners in Kent under the two Tudor kings he served, his stature high enough to have his portrait painted by a portraiture painter of monarchs.
The Architecture of Chivalry
This essay about the built legacy of Henry VIII is included in my new book The Modern Salonnière. The 34 other essays in the book…
View More The Architecture of ChivalryThe Nature of Noble Loyalty
It’s spring in London and the flowers are bursting forth on Cheyne Walk, which skirts the edge of the River Thames until it gives way…
View More The Nature of Noble LoyaltyHenry VIII’s Cult of Cloth
A trip to Frankfurt to attend Heimtextil a week from today has inspired me to share one of my favorite anecdotes about Henry VIII and…
View More Henry VIII’s Cult of ClothThe Built Legacy of Henry VIII
The 2016 Academy Awards are handed out this coming Sunday so I’m celebrating a film that showcases the built legacy of Henry VIII to delve back into…
View More The Built Legacy of Henry VIIIRenovating During the Tudor Era
Hindsight is 20/20, as they say. Looking back to the Tudor Era from this great distance, it’s easy to see how barbaric a sport jousting was.…
View More Renovating During the Tudor EraFurnishing Pastimes of Henry VIII
As I mentioned in my last Improvateur article presenting a brief history of Hampton Court Palace, I launched into a furnishings fantasy when I heard…
View More Furnishing Pastimes of Henry VIIIDecorating Hampton Court Palace
The premise of this article and the next one I’ll post here on The Diary of an Improvateur (next week) began with a rather capricious question:…
View More Decorating Hampton Court PalaceHorace Walpole Shops The Decorative Fair
The books I’ve been reading about Horace Walpole since I returned from my trip to London to attend The Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair in…
View More Horace Walpole Shops The Decorative Fair