A passion for history, a passion for art
(In no particular order…)
We are not makers of history……we are made by history.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Here is my personal take on some of the objects, events, rituals, people and words that have helped to make us!
This is not a Chronicle as you know it. This is an oxymoron, a ‘chronicle in no particular order’: and a personal one at that. I don’t plan to give an art history lesson that will help you pass an exam, but an amble through history led by the art and architecture that accents it to spark your curiosity. It is an art history miscellany that will encourage you to trek a winding path rather than the one well trod: the more alleyways and detours the better. For history and art are both about discovery, and whether your tool is a trowel, a paintbrush, the internet or a library, it is the process that is as important as the end result.
As an historian the idea of straight line chronology has always been drummed into me. As a primary school history teacher I ploughed my way through the Egyptians, Romans, Tudors, Victorians and the World Wars: the very word ‘Chronicle’ brings to mind a straight path, a time line from very very ancient to the present day.
But history, and especially art history cannot only be about dates: it is about finding connections, the enrichment of ideas and that wonderful melting pot of eccentricities born from a place in the past, a place that was once the present, that was once at the forefront of our understanding. And once you accept that we are the product of our past and it is because of our past (some of which today may seem barbarous and often downright offensive) that we have become who we are today then you are closer to understanding the importance of history and the artists who created influenced by that unique moment of time.
I do believe it is as important to learn from our mistakes as much as our triumphs, to observe objectively, and most of all to get beneath the skin of the people who have shaped our present. As such I shall not shy away from painful or uncomfortable subjects, but instead try to understand the mindset at the time and how their beliefs and knowledge might have influenced them. I genuinely believe erasing or whitewashing the errors of the past could be dangerous for the future: they need to be acknowledged and be part of our ethical and cultural growth.
For me it is often the overlooked, the odd and obscure, which interests me, the quirky or revolutionary. I find interest in the everyday objects, rituals and beliefs that shaped daily life and in the intricacies of existence and the routines followed and in finding not just similarities but differences, continuations as well as endings. It is as much the social, cultural and geographical motives behind the creativity as the art itself which piques my interest.
Having studied for an MA in Renaissance Art History means the Renaissance in Europe and Medievalism are my entry points but Renaissance means rebirth which by implication points to something that was lost coming again so to look at the Renaissance without considering the more distant past would be foolish. And equally one cannot consider the parents without the progeny: what comes after is a product of its parents.
History and art are all around us... whatever was created yesterday is history today, a visual stimulus. So enjoy the journey into the past, it will shape your future, have no doubt about it.
