The Fortnightly Flag #07 - The Romans and Elvis

The Fortnightly Flag

26th September 2017

 

 

 

The first of this season's Archaeologists' Meetings was a lecture by archaeologist Harvey Sheldon on "Roman pottery manufacturing in Highgate Wood."  He has worked on excavations on the site since the 1960s so knows whereof he speaks.  I was especially interested as I come from this part of North London.  The Brownies used to hold their district meetings in Highgate Wood.  I had no idea there were Roman kilns under our feet.  They were not discovered until 1966 by which time we had moved to Hertfordshire so this is the first I've heard of it.

 

 

 

So to St Albans to visit the Roman Museum (above) which has an impressive collection of Roman pottery mostly of local or London manufacture.  Also some well-preserved wall-paintings, naturalistic subjects on the distinctive Roman red ground with gilded borders, and a number of beautiful mosaics.

 

Then on to the Fighting Cocks (Ye Olde Fighting Cocks as it is rather unnecessarily known) which claims to be the oldest pub in England dating back to the 11th century.  I had always believed the distinctive hexagonal shape was down to it being used as a cockpit for centuries but it was apparently only used for cock-fighting in the 19th century when it took place in the bar.  Cock-fighting was banned in 1849 and the pub was briefly renamed "The Fisherman" but as this stretch of the River Ver is not popular with anglers it reverted to the name everyone knew it by.  Its distinctive shape is actually due it being originally a dovecote, sited near the Abbey.  It was moved to its present site and became a pub after the Reformation, so not the oldest pub at all but one of the oldest surviving timber-frame buildings.  Oliver Cromwell is said to have stayed for one night during the English Civil War (1642-1645).  What he thought of it is not recorded (Bed lumpy? Food terrible? Premier Inn?  We don't know.)  It is very picturesque so popular with local artists.  Here is a sketch I did some while back from the other side of the park - Multi-media on paper.

 

 



 

The Romans imported wine and drank a lot of it judging from the number of amphorae dug up but nothing keeps a Brit from his beer which leads us neatly to the St Albans Beer and Cider Festival which is next weekend 29 September - 2nd October at the Alban Arena.  £3 entry unless you are a member of CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) in which case admission is free.  300 different ales and ciders are on offer.  You are not advised to try them all.

 

 

Back in Wales the Porthcawl Elvis Festival is in full swing and the town centre is given over to all things Elvis-related.

 



 

 

Ladies of all ages strut their stuff in 1950s style prom dresses, chaps dust off their leather jackets and daft furry ears and Hawaiian garlands abound.  Elvis songs belt out of every doorway and confederate and US flags flutter all along John Street and The Esplanade.  I am not aware that Elvis had any connection whatsoever to South Wales so it's completely barking but good fun and rounds off the summer season nicely.



The Fortnightly Flag #06 Leonardo to Rembrandt

The Fortnightly Flag  All about Art
12th September 2017



Rembrandt's Lion

I was walking home one day past Habitat's showroom. The floor to ceiling glass shop-front was plastered with jazzy posters by modern artists in bright garish colours which interested me not at all. My eye was caught by a small print 8" x 6" of a chalk sketch of a lion. It stopped me in my tracks. I just had to go over and take a closer look.

When I looked at it closely I had to laugh. It was by Rembrandt. The other artists were all pretty good artists but when you can stop someone dead in the street you have really got 'it' whatever 'it' actually is.

I am reminded of this because I have just been to the National Portrait Gallery's new exhibition "The Encounter: From Leonardo to Rembrandt" #The Encounter  npg.org.uk/encounter

The title is a bit of a tease because the collection only includes two sketches by Rembrandt and Leonardo, one apiece, neither of which is particularly remarkable. Tehran's contribution is a page of small doodles, quite superior doodles to be fair but doodles nonetheless in no particular context, while Leonardo's sketch is a small male nude which is just an exercise in proportion. I wouldn't go just to see them.

However the rest of the exhibition is a good collection of drawings by other Renaissance masters, the theme being the relationship between the artist and the sitter so most of the sketches are preparatory drawings for portraits.

From an English perspective the collection of drawings by Hans Holbein the Younger of subjects from the Tudor court are fascinating.

Artists need two things - inspiration and technique and, as usual, I wanted to study the latter. The artists use Silverpoint (a silver point on prepared paper - we now use pencil because it's cheaper), black, red and white chalk and sometimes all three, pen and ink, and chalk with a colourwash to give more depth or to highlight a feature like a red cap.

I can't show you any of the Masters because photography is forbidden in the exhibition but to demonstrate how important classical drawing techniques are to modern artists here are a couple of my sketches which use them.

The Head of a Woman uses the colourwash technique but by way of a modern twist I added the colour digitally. The original drawing is just pencil on paper.

The discus thrower, from a statue in the British Museum, is charcoal, red chalk and pencil on paper which makes the sketch a bit more dramatic.

And all because I could not walk past Rembrandt's Lion.