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sister_luckWe went to a local castle plus museum several Sundays ago and I got a kick out of this:
I think mostly for the use of descriptive adjectives - the 'press' in 1642 knew how to sell a story.
Also, Flemish tapestries proving that there were people of colour in Europe in the Middle Ages because this apparently surprises many folks - compare the website dedicated to People of Color in European Art History.
(Sidenote: I got a little bit angry this week at school textbook telling my students that "for many British people, the first black person they saw was one of the West Indian bus drivers that had been recruited by London transport" because this was taken to mean that before that Britain had been entirely white. I assume that the writers probably wanted this to be about regular contact in every-day situations but even then I doubt that this is true, especially for London and other big cities with ports and such.)
There were two tapestries depicting the same situation, but what with an excited little kid running around I forgot to look at the notes, so I don't know which important people are meeting here:
I must confess that the animal in the middle first caught my eye - is it a lion or a dog?
The dark-skinned boy I noticed much later.
Apparently, this person is at least canonical, if not historical, because he shows up in the second tapestry, too:
Close-up:
Here is the main image in its completeness:
I kind of feel I should be able to research the scene, but my google-fu isn't strong enough (and I don't have the time to really dig into it). Forgive me for this rather ignorant post, please.
I think mostly for the use of descriptive adjectives - the 'press' in 1642 knew how to sell a story.
Also, Flemish tapestries proving that there were people of colour in Europe in the Middle Ages because this apparently surprises many folks - compare the website dedicated to People of Color in European Art History.
(Sidenote: I got a little bit angry this week at school textbook telling my students that "for many British people, the first black person they saw was one of the West Indian bus drivers that had been recruited by London transport" because this was taken to mean that before that Britain had been entirely white. I assume that the writers probably wanted this to be about regular contact in every-day situations but even then I doubt that this is true, especially for London and other big cities with ports and such.)
There were two tapestries depicting the same situation, but what with an excited little kid running around I forgot to look at the notes, so I don't know which important people are meeting here:
I must confess that the animal in the middle first caught my eye - is it a lion or a dog?
The dark-skinned boy I noticed much later.
Apparently, this person is at least canonical, if not historical, because he shows up in the second tapestry, too:
Close-up:
Here is the main image in its completeness:
I kind of feel I should be able to research the scene, but my google-fu isn't strong enough (and I don't have the time to really dig into it). Forgive me for this rather ignorant post, please.
