Creation of an open forum for debate and discussion on 'Making Art in Tudor Britain'
Lead Research Organisation:
National Portrait Gallery
Department Name: Curators
Abstract
Context of the research:
The National Portrait Gallery holds the largest public collection of Tudor and Jacobean painting in the world. This collection is one of the most significant resources for the understanding of visual culture in the English Renaissance. Research in this field has frequently focused upon the identification of authorship or sitters and the circumstances of production of individual images. More general, fundamental questions about the categorisation of art, workshop practices, patterns of patronage, the demand for different types of imagery across the period, and the relationship of the native school with foreign émigré artists remain largely unanswered.
From April 2007 we are launching a new research project entitled 'Making Art in Tudor Britain'. Using scientific techniques such as x-ray, dendrochronolgy, infra-red reflectography, paint sampling and microscopic analysis, we will undertake a comprehensive study of more than ninety paintings from the period 1500 - 1620, principally from Gallery's collection but also using comparative examples from other collections. Based in the Gallery's Conservation Studio, three researchers (the principal investigator and two conservators) will focus on around 25 paintings per year in chronological order. The results of this project will unlock a significant body of new primary evidence that will help to transform understanding of Tudor and Jacobean portraiture and artistic practice in this period.
During the first year of this project we plan to host a series of workshops to share our initial research findings, broaden debate about the interpretation of technical analysis on works of art, and develop a forum to explore new strategies of interpretation in this field. The Gallery plans to work collaboratively with conservators, conservation and material scientists, historians and art historians to widen understanding, and inspire more interdisciplinary research in this area.
The first year of this five-year project has attracted short term funding from charitable trusts. However, a project of this scale requires significant funding outside the reach of the Gallery's current support and we intend to apply to the AHRC for a research grant for this project in 2008 to support the remaining years of work.
Aims and objectives:
Our aim is to stage three interdisciplinary workshops over a six-month period to establish debate on our initial methodology, develop networks of support, share and exchange new research, and initiate additional research.
Visiting specialists from the UK, France, Canada and the Netherlands will contribute to these seminars. Economic, social and art historians will also attend and consider parallels with other areas of artistic production, practice, patronage and consumption.
Potential applications and benefits:
How we interpret our findings will be critical. The results of this groundbreaking work will be presented through seminars and case studies on the Gallery's website together with public lectures.
Presentation notes from the workshops will be made available to the wider research community and the general public via the Gallery's website. The workshops will also provide important supporting material for a small in-focus display at the National Portrait Gallery of our initial research findings and interpretation. The PI will also produce an article on the research findings and a summary of workshops in a peer reviewed journal. A key benefit of the workshops will be to identify a body of scientists, painting conservators, historians, art historians and other academics to provide interpretative support to the project team throughout the course of the five-year project.
Subject to further funding, the project will continue for a further four years and towards the end of this period there will be a significant exhibition at the Gallery and a multi-author publication on Tudor and jacobean artistic practice.
The National Portrait Gallery holds the largest public collection of Tudor and Jacobean painting in the world. This collection is one of the most significant resources for the understanding of visual culture in the English Renaissance. Research in this field has frequently focused upon the identification of authorship or sitters and the circumstances of production of individual images. More general, fundamental questions about the categorisation of art, workshop practices, patterns of patronage, the demand for different types of imagery across the period, and the relationship of the native school with foreign émigré artists remain largely unanswered.
From April 2007 we are launching a new research project entitled 'Making Art in Tudor Britain'. Using scientific techniques such as x-ray, dendrochronolgy, infra-red reflectography, paint sampling and microscopic analysis, we will undertake a comprehensive study of more than ninety paintings from the period 1500 - 1620, principally from Gallery's collection but also using comparative examples from other collections. Based in the Gallery's Conservation Studio, three researchers (the principal investigator and two conservators) will focus on around 25 paintings per year in chronological order. The results of this project will unlock a significant body of new primary evidence that will help to transform understanding of Tudor and Jacobean portraiture and artistic practice in this period.
During the first year of this project we plan to host a series of workshops to share our initial research findings, broaden debate about the interpretation of technical analysis on works of art, and develop a forum to explore new strategies of interpretation in this field. The Gallery plans to work collaboratively with conservators, conservation and material scientists, historians and art historians to widen understanding, and inspire more interdisciplinary research in this area.
The first year of this five-year project has attracted short term funding from charitable trusts. However, a project of this scale requires significant funding outside the reach of the Gallery's current support and we intend to apply to the AHRC for a research grant for this project in 2008 to support the remaining years of work.
Aims and objectives:
Our aim is to stage three interdisciplinary workshops over a six-month period to establish debate on our initial methodology, develop networks of support, share and exchange new research, and initiate additional research.
Visiting specialists from the UK, France, Canada and the Netherlands will contribute to these seminars. Economic, social and art historians will also attend and consider parallels with other areas of artistic production, practice, patronage and consumption.
Potential applications and benefits:
How we interpret our findings will be critical. The results of this groundbreaking work will be presented through seminars and case studies on the Gallery's website together with public lectures.
Presentation notes from the workshops will be made available to the wider research community and the general public via the Gallery's website. The workshops will also provide important supporting material for a small in-focus display at the National Portrait Gallery of our initial research findings and interpretation. The PI will also produce an article on the research findings and a summary of workshops in a peer reviewed journal. A key benefit of the workshops will be to identify a body of scientists, painting conservators, historians, art historians and other academics to provide interpretative support to the project team throughout the course of the five-year project.
Subject to further funding, the project will continue for a further four years and towards the end of this period there will be a significant exhibition at the Gallery and a multi-author publication on Tudor and jacobean artistic practice.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Tarnya Cooper (Principal Investigator) |
| Title | Concealed and Revealed: The Changing Faces of Elizabeth I |
| Description | Analysis undertaken as part of the 'Making Art in Tudor Britain' project revealed some of the changes that had occurred to portraits. This display presented a selection of portraits of Elizabeth I in order to discuss these changes, which ranged from pentimenti - such as the change from a snake to a flower in the queen's hand - to pigment degredation, such as red lake in fleshtones. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2010 |
| Impact | This display generated considerable press interest. One of the portraits of Elizabeth I is now on long-term loan to Kenilworth, with interpretation that derives from the displa. |
| URL | http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/display/20101/concealed-and-revealed-the-changing-faces-of-elizabeth-i... |
| Title | Database of research on 120 paintings dating from 1500-1620 |
| Description | Online database incorporating a summary of the overall research results on each painting, along with detailed discussion of the results from each analytical technique used. Each entry also includes a selection of twenty images and a comparative image viewer that allows for close analysis of images such as x-radiograph mosaics and digital infrared reflectograms. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2012 |
| Impact | Sharing the research in this way has helped to create links with academics in other disciplines, such as dress history. It has also been used as a teaching resource at a number of universities as it encourages students of both history and art history to consider the material history of paintings and to think crticially about ideas of authorship and authenticity. |
| URL | http://www.npg.org.uk/research/programmes/making-art-in-tudor-britain/matbsearch.php |
| Title | Double Take: Versions and Copies of Tudor Portraits |
| Description | This display brought together five pairs of near identical portraits in order to explore how and why multiple versions and copies of portraits were made in the sixteenth century. Portraits of prominent Tudor sitters from the Gallery's collection: Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, Archbishop William Warham, the merchant Thomas Gresham and Lord Treasurer Thomas Sackville, were paired with portraits loaned from other collections. The results of analysis undertaken as part of the 'Making Art in Tudor Britain' project were used to explore the process by which these works were made. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2012 |
| Impact | Works brought to the Gallery for the display were analysed in the Gallery's conservation studio, extending the reach of the 'Making Art in Tudor Britain' project beyond the Gallery's collection, and providing crucial contextual information. |
| URL | http://www.npg.org.uk/research/programmes/making-art-in-tudor-britain/case-studies/double-take-versi... |
| Title | Hans Holbein Re-made: Copies and versions of portraits from the Tudor court |
| Description | This display examined the creation of copies of the German artist Hans Holbein the Younger's portraits of the Henrician court in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century. 7 of the Gallery's portraits after Holbein were included in the display, which presented research undertaken as part of the 'Making Art in Tudor Britain' project. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Impact | This display generated some press interest and was also presented in a lecture at the Gallery. |
| URL | http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/display/2014/hans-holbein-re-made-copies-and-versions-of-portraits-fro... |
| Title | Hidden: Unseen paintings beneath Tudor portraits |
| Description | This display examined some expected findings from the 'Making Art in Tudor Britain' project and provided crucial information about images other than portraits that were produced in sixteenth-century England. A small portrait of Francis Walsingham was paired with a small devotional painting from the National Gallery similar to that discovered beneath the portrait; a portrait of Thomas Sackville was paired with an engraving from the British Museum of the same composition as that discovered beneath the portrait; a portrait of an unknon man was displayed unframed in a case with a mirror in order to see both sides. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2013 |
| Impact | This display generated considerable press interest and consequently interest in researchers from around the world, including scientists in Australia who are developing processes to use a synchotron to examine paintings. |
| URL | http://www.npg.org.uk/research/programmes/making-art-in-tudor-britain/case-studies/hidden-unseen-pai... |
| Title | Les Tudors |
| Description | Collaborative exhibition staged at the Musee du Luxembourg, Paris by the National Portrait Gallery and the Reunion des Musees Nationaux - Grand Palais. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2015 |
| Impact | Exhibition visited by over 120,000 people and received widespread press and media coverage. |
| URL | http://en.museeduluxembourg.fr/exhibitions/tudors |
| Title | Painting The Boy King: New Research on Portraits of Edward VI |
| Description | This free display at the National Portrait Gallery was presented between 24 May and 7 December 2008 and shared some of the early research findings. Four portraits of Edward VI had been scientifically examined to explore the circumstances of their production and when they were made. Some of the results presented in this display revealed the different ways that artists were experimenting in order to present a nine-year-old boy as a powerful and believable ruler. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2008 |
| Impact | A case study on the portraiture of Edward VI was published on the research pages of the Gallery website. It also informed the research for the 2014 exhibition 'The Real Tudors: Kings and Queens Rediscovered'. |
| URL | http://www.npg.org.uk/research/programmes/making-art-in-tudor-britain/case-studies/matb-case-study-3... |
| Title | Picturing History: A portrait set of early kings and queens |
| Description | This display presented a set of sixteen portraits of kings and queens of England, along with one loan, and much of the interpretation was conceived and written by one of the PhD students attached to the 'Making Art in Tudor Britain' project through funding from The Leverhulme Trust. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2011 |
| Impact | The display generated some press interest and was also displayed at the National Portrait Gallery's regional partner, Montacute House in 2012/3. |
| URL | http://www.npg.org.uk/research/programmes/making-art-in-tudor-britain/case-studies/picturing-history... |
| Title | The Real Tudors: Kings and Queens Rediscovered |
| Description | A large display presenting the most comprehensive selection of portraits of the Tudor monarchs that has ever been gathered together. This presented the results of the 'Making Art in Tudor Britain' project and was accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, and an app that allows for interaction with a number of the technical images taken from a portrait of each of the Tudor monarchs. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Impact | The display generated considerable press interest and also requests for a number of lectures and tours. It also prompted the development of a new learning programme for school groups for the duration of the display. The exhibition will also travel to Paris in an extended form as 'Les Tudors' at the Musee du Luxembourg in spring 2015. |
| URL | http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/realtudors/display.php |
| Description | During the first year of the 'Making Art in Tudor Britain' project we held three AHRC funded workshops to establish debate on our initial methodology, develop networks of support, share and exchange new research and initiate new research. Workshop 1. 'Histories of Artistic Practice in Tudor England: The research landscape, methodologies and uses of technical evidence', explored the historical and intellectual contexts for technical analysis of paintings and examined the methodology of the Making Art in Tudor Britain project. It provided a useful foundation for creating an academic network to support the project. Two of the participating academics Maurice Howard and Aviva Burnstock went on to become co-investigators in successful funding applications to the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust for a major five year research project. Workshop 2. 'Tudor Artists or Artisans? Native practices, methods, materials and the context of craft production', resulted in a number of its participants contributing to a forthcoming Essay Volume 'Painting in Britain 1500 - 1630' edited by Tarnya Cooper et. al. and also a 2009 article 'Making Art in Tudor Britain: New research on Tudor Portraiture at the National Portrait Gallery', published in the British Art Journal. The workshop also helped to define the terms of the research project further. Workshop 3. 'Foreign Artists working in England in the early Sixteenth century', led to Tarnya Cooper and Hope Walker collaborating on an essay on Hans Eworth for the volume 'Painting in Britain', which brings together new archival research into the artist's life with an assessment of his technique. The workshops also led to the identification of new topics for international investigation, which were examined in the subsequent years of the 'Making Art in Tudor Britain' project. These included: the production of versions and copies of portraits; the transmission of techniques at patterns for portraits between workshops; the circumstances for the re-use of panels; and the identification of pigments that were available and commonly in use. |
| Exploitation Route | A key output from the AHRC funded workshops was the creation of an academic network to support the project and led to successful funding applications to the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust, the Mercer's Company and the Paul Mellon Center for Studies in British Art. This allowed for the development of a project team consisting of a Project Investigator, two Co-Investigators from outside the National Portrait Gallery, two research conservators, a Project Curator, a post-doctoral research assistant and two doctoral students. The results from the subsequent five years of research have provided a critical mass of data that can be used to interrogate broader questions and have inspired comparative research projects at the Yale Center for British Art and the North Carolina Museum of Art. This investigative approach on a critical mass of surviving British paintings from the period 1500 - 1620 has led to a re appraisal of many assumptions about artistic practices, a broader understanding of the meaning of authorship and the engagement of patrons at this period. The forthcoming essay volume with 25 interdisciplinary contributors will generate further scholarly engagement in this field. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://www.npg.org.uk/research/programmes/making-art-in-tudor-britain.php |
| Description | In April 2007 the National Portrait Gallery, London, launched a new research project entitled 'Making Art in Tudor Britain'. This seven year project involved undertaking a comprehensive technical study of more than 120 paintings from the Gallery's collection in the period 1500-1620 using scientific techniques such as x-ray, dendrochronology, infrared reflectography, paint sampling and microscopic analysis. The AHRC funded workshops in 2007-8 helped to generate the core research questions and served to explore methodologies, share our initial findings, broaden debate about the interpretation of technical analysis on works of art, and develop new strategies of interpretation. Extended abstracts of the papers presented at the workshops have been published on the research pages of the Gallery website, along with five case studies with interactive questions for a general audience to explore. The workshops inspired a spirit of collaboration among researchers in the field, both in the UK and internationally, which has underpinned the broader outputs of the 'Making Art in Tudor Britain' project. This has resulted in the sharing of research information between institutions, including the Royal Collection, the National Trust, the National Museums, Liverpool, the Yale Center for the Study of British Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. This has not only informed the presentation of works in the Gallery's collection - both on general display and in temporary exhibitions - but has also impacted on the interpretation of works within other collections, and encouraged further technical analysis and conservation projects. This has been shared with a broad public through the online database on the Gallery website (which was accessed over 74000 times in 2013) and also through numerous press reports. Exhibitions and displays at the Gallery that have arisen from the 'Making Art in Tudor Britain' project have been seen by over 500,000 people. The interdisciplinary nature of the research has also provided a model for the way in which the results of art historical, historical and scientific research can be interpreted in a broad context. This is being presented to the academic community in the form of an essay volume with contributions from many of those who first engaged with the project at the AHRC funded workshops. It has also resulted in engagement with new analytical techniques being developed in Italy, the Netherlands, and Australia and encouraged the transfer of knowledge for the development of new technologies in the United Kingdom. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2007 |
| Sector | Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural |