Getting Research Rolling

Last week Weyland started preschool and I started research. Finally!

I joined the The Medieval Dress and Textile Society and will attend their Autumn meeting Saturday. The topic is linen undergarments, including those German bra-like garments everyone has been buzzing about. Since I have been known for my reconstruction of undergarments…or at least the display of said product…I have great interest in the presentations.

I joined the Monumental Brass Society, and will attend their November meeting. I need to decide which of the many books about brasses I wish to buy. UNC’s Art Library had a good collection, so I checked out what I wanted. Now I want to own some of the books. My next difficulty is to figure out where to preview copies of the books, because even ones I’ve seen — and there are many that I have not — I need to open to know whether they contain material relevant to my research. So many incredible libraries around, and yet I don’t know where to start.

I need to pay for membership in the Church Monuments Society, because I’ve already gotten a wealth of information from members (I emailed my research proposal to the main contact person, who forwarded it). I have seen images of a great many memorial brasses from 1480-1520, but the art on them is not only a flat line drawing, it often poorly conveys a three dimensional perspective, and proportionally crafted human figures were clearly not a primary concern. Carved tombs, if I can find them, are a better source for costume information. Because the images I want are not the standard “pretty view of the face” and because printing photographs is more difficult than black and white artwork (like a brass rubbing), I haven’t seen many useful images of monuments. I’ll have to go out and see those tombs myself, which means figuring out which churches have carvings I’d like to see. This is quite a daunting task, since I can only name one place with women’s tombs of my era: Westminster Abbey, which has both Elizabeth of York and Margaret Beaufort. I can’t take photographs there, and I have to pay to get in, so I’ll let that visit wait a little while. Some day when I need to soak up beautiful architecture, I’ll go.

But since the point of being in England was to SEE THINGS I also went out last Thursday to the National Portrait Gallery. The image I wanted most to see, Elizabeth of York’s portrait, is off display. However, I walked into the early Tudor gallery just after a class of 11-year-old students, and their teachers were leading a most interesting and in-depth presentation. So I lingered, and lingered, and listened. I was impressed by how much the children knew about Tudor history and how many visual cues they were able to read from the paintings.

I read all the wall plaques in the room. I stood really close to the cartoon of Henry VIII so that I could see the pin-prick holes they would have dusted chalk through to transfer the outline onto a wall. Then I went downstairs to the digital area and read ALL the information online about the portraits of Henry VII and the young Henry VIII. And then I went back upstairs and looked at everything they mentioned, found the little daubs of paint and the irregular gilding they had described. I just LOVE these details, when people analyze pigments and tree rings to figure out when painting were painted! Makes me wonder why I wasn’t an art history major. I noticed (for the first time, which is sad, as the information is on the NPG website) which of the “early Tudor” portraits are actually copies from the late 16th through 18th centuries — and immediately these images got mentally marked “less reliable” in my mind.

Then I sought the other object I’d come for, the reproduction of the effigy from Elizabeth of York’s tomb. It took help from two staff members to find it, perched high in a recess above the front stair, but once I found it, I stared at it. Stood, and stared. Thanks to the stairs I could view it from many different angles, including from above. So I stood, soaking it in, describing the angles of the gable hood in my mind until I couldn’t focus any more. And then I’d move to another spot. I even left, wandered idly through other galleries, other centuries, and returned.

I made a few connections about how the hood goes together. I am also getting a sense of why the French hood and gable hood could be contemporary styles that switched back and forth depending on who was queen. I have always looked at them as being SO DIFFERENT…and I think this is because I’ve seen far too many portraits that were painted late 16th century or later (and thus painted by people who had never seen the actual garments) and because I didn’t reject ENOUGH of the design that the Tudor Tailor proposed for reproducing the early style hood. I’ve always questioned their pattern a bit, differing on how far this edge should extend, or what angle these two pieces should join…not just completely saying “sure, it looks good, works on stage — but it is just plain WRONG if you’re trying to reproduce the actual bonnet.” Need to adjust my head…sort out the images I know and put the ones that aren’t painted by contemporaries further in the back…. Which is why I’m bopping around doing all this looking at stuff!

Right now I’m seeking portraits in museums. No good telling everyone that I have to work from funerary monuments because there aren’t any portraits if I don’t go LOOK at the museums with the most likelihood of having such early Tudor portraits. A family trip to Hever Castle should happen soon, just so that I can check out the Tudor paintings they have there. Because THOSE aren’t available online in any decent size!

I’m at the point where I can say: I’m sure there are things out there that I want to see, but for the most part I don’t know where they are. This is particularly true of sculpture — I do know vaguely where to find many of the brasses published in books. I need to comb libraries and websites to figure out where the churches are that I want to visit, and then secure permissions and plan trips to see them.

I got a great thrill during the visit two weekends ago to the Tower of London. In the chapel, built early in Henry VIII’s reign, is a tomb to a husband and wife. Although I couldn’t linger long — had to clear out for the next tour group — I was able to walk up to within inches of the monument and study it. Garrett asked me as we walked out whether I had learned anything, and I gave him an enthusiastic yes — the monument shows two pieces of embroidery down the lappet on the hood, one along the front edge, the other along the back. Different patterns of embroidery. I couldn’t take photos, but I got the address that I should write to request permission to photograph.

Having a great time. Learning lots. (Learning more about living in London than about costuming, but still, learning lots!)