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UBC Theses and Dissertations
Visions on the horizon of desire : a painting of Henry VII & his family in the presence of St. George & the dragon reconsidered Milne, Margaret Wood
Abstract
Bloodthirsty spectacle and devotional introspection commune together in a curious panel painting presently located at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh. In the foreground Henry VU and his entire family kneel in prayer seemingly oblivious to St. George and the dragon waging mortal combat directly above. In the immediate centre an iridescent angel confronts the viewer with his piercing eyes. This unique panel, commissioned by Henry VU in the final years of his reign between 1503-9, has proved an enigma. With its iconographic perversity (indiscriminate borrowing from disparate artistic traditions) and stylistic eccentricities (curiously flattened and spatially disjointed figures), the Holyrood panel pushes against the boundaries of earlier visual traditions whilst rejecting renaissance paradigms manifest on the continent at this time. The reign of Henry VII itself has been seen to straddle the unstable political and cultural terrain between the Medieval and the Early Modern era. Therefore this panel provides a unique opportunity to challenge established notions regarding the intersection between vision and politics within the early Tudor court. In this thesis then, I examine the visual peculiarities presented in the Holyrood panel in order to uncover alternative viewing frameworks operative within the English court at this time. I posit pilgrimage as the structuring frame for the image with allegory as its internal dynamic. Allegory is an interpretive mode impelled by desire, which recovers meaning through the assimilation of seemingly disjunctive forms. In order to explore these allegorical trajectories within the panel, I situate the unusual configuration of St. George within an historical symbolic field. I conclude that allegory is a viable mode of political persuasion, which interpolates a predetermined viewer (here the Garter lords and knights) into a contractual relationship. Commissioned by Henry VII at a time of dynastic uncertainty and immanent death, the Holyrood panel is a political strategy that attempts to secure Tudor succession.
Item Metadata
Title |
Visions on the horizon of desire : a painting of Henry VII & his family in the presence of St. George & the dragon reconsidered
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Creator | |
Publisher |
University of British Columbia
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Date Issued |
2001
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Description |
Bloodthirsty spectacle and devotional introspection commune together in a curious panel
painting presently located at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh. In the foreground Henry VU and his
entire family kneel in prayer seemingly oblivious to St. George and the dragon waging mortal
combat directly above. In the immediate centre an iridescent angel confronts the viewer with his
piercing eyes. This unique panel, commissioned by Henry VU in the final years of his reign
between 1503-9, has proved an enigma. With its iconographic perversity (indiscriminate
borrowing from disparate artistic traditions) and stylistic eccentricities (curiously flattened and
spatially disjointed figures), the Holyrood panel pushes against the boundaries of earlier visual
traditions whilst rejecting renaissance paradigms manifest on the continent at this time. The
reign of Henry VII itself has been seen to straddle the unstable political and cultural terrain
between the Medieval and the Early Modern era. Therefore this panel provides a unique
opportunity to challenge established notions regarding the intersection between vision and
politics within the early Tudor court. In this thesis then, I examine the visual peculiarities
presented in the Holyrood panel in order to uncover alternative viewing frameworks operative
within the English court at this time. I posit pilgrimage as the structuring frame for the image
with allegory as its internal dynamic. Allegory is an interpretive mode impelled by desire, which
recovers meaning through the assimilation of seemingly disjunctive forms. In order to explore
these allegorical trajectories within the panel, I situate the unusual configuration of St. George
within an historical symbolic field. I conclude that allegory is a viable mode of political
persuasion, which interpolates a predetermined viewer (here the Garter lords and knights) into a
contractual relationship. Commissioned by Henry VII at a time of dynastic uncertainty and
immanent death, the Holyrood panel is a political strategy that attempts to secure Tudor
succession.
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Extent |
24835227 bytes
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Genre | |
Type | |
File Format |
application/pdf
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Language |
eng
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Date Available |
2009-08-06
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Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
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DOI |
10.14288/1.0090128
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URI | |
Degree | |
Program | |
Affiliation | |
Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
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Graduation Date |
2001-11
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Campus | |
Scholarly Level |
Graduate
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Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.