20 May 2021
Researchers discovered this image of Yolande of Anjou, the late wife of the Duke of Brittany. Yolande is shown kneeling and praying before the Virgin Mary. When the duke married Isabella Stewart, an image of Stewart was painted over that of Yolande.
(Image credit: Fitzwilliam Museum)
A hidden image in an ornately illustrated 15th-century prayer book reveals that the duke of Brittany at the time painted over an image of his dead wife with his then-current wife, researchers have found. The story behind the medieval wife swap is somewhat tragic.
This particular Book of Hours, as such Christian devotional books were called, was commissioned in 1431 by Yolande of Aragon (1381-1442), who was the duchess of Anjou, in France. She gave it to her daughter Yolande of Anjou (1412-1440) when the daughter married Duke Francis I of Brittany in 1431. The couple had a son who died in childhood, and Yolande herself died in 1440.
Dressed in a fur-trimmed scarlet robe with her hands clasped, the image of a duchess in a religious devotional book appears to be a duke’s tribute of love to his wife.Curators at the Fitzwilliam
Off with her head! Infrared technology shows how a 15th-century French king used a paintbrush to replace one wife with another theartnewspaper.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theartnewspaper.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
2005 Top 100 honoree and author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, smashed a set of 300-year-old Chinese vases after falling down a flight of stairs. The three vases were prize possessions of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England, for over 40 years and were valued at $175,000. The 42-year-old writer, a frequent visitor to the museum, claimed the incident was the result of a faulty shoelace. Flynn was quoted in The New York Times as saying, “I snagged my shoelace, missed the step and crash, bang, wallop there were a million pieces of high-quality Qing ceramics lying around underneath me.” Maybe Nick should invest in a pair of loafers! ♦
Exploring two landmark exhibitions.
This is an online event hosted on the British Library platform. Bookers will be sent a link in advance giving access and will be able to watch at any time for 48 hours after the start time.
Last year the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge staged the brilliant
Feast & Fast: The Art of Food in Europe (1500-1800), a multi-sensory exhibition showcasing multiple treasures and four spectacular historical reconstructions with food at their centre, including a Jacobean sugar banquet, a European feasting table and a Georgian confectioner’s workshop.
This year the Louvre-Lens is presenting
The Tables of Power: A History of Prestigious Meals, spanning 5,000 years of the culinary arts. Archaeological objects, paintings, sculptures, tableware, metalwork and fabulous objets d’art recount the history of the meal and rich exchanges between civilisations.