The Tudors: art and majesty in Renaissance England

Abstract

Ruling successively from 1485 through 1603, the five Tudor monarchs changed England indelibly, using the visual arts to both legitimize and glorify their tumultuous rule-from Henry VII's bloody rise to power, through Henry VIII's breach with the Roman Catholic Church, to the reign of the "virgin queen" Elizabeth I. With incisive scholarship and sumptuous new photography, the book explores the politics and personalities of the Tudors, and how they used art in their diplomacy at home and abroad.0Tudor courts were truly cosmopolitan, attracting artists and artisans from across Europe, including Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/8-1543), Jean Clouet (ca. 1485-1540), and Benedetto da Rovezzano (1474-1552). At the same time, the Tudors nurtured local talent such as Isaac Oliver (ca. 1565-1617) and Nicholas Hilliard (ca. 1547-1619) and gave rise to a distinctly English aesthetic that now defines the visual legacy of the dynasty. This book reveals the true history behind a family that has long captured the public imagination, bringing to life the extravagant and politically precarious world of the Tudors through the exquisite paintings, lush textiles, gleaming metalwork, and countless luxury objects that adorned their spectacular courts.00Exhibition: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA (10.10.2022-08.01.2023) / The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, USA (26.02-14.05.2023) / FAMSF, San Francisco , USA (24.06-24.09.2023).

Contents

Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Lenders to the exhibition -- Contributors -- Note to the reader -- Genealogy of the Tudor dynasty -- Preface : an insular art? / Elizabeth Cleland and Adam Eaker -- Inventing a dynasty -- England, Europe, and the World : art as policy / Elizabeth Cleland -- Courtly splendor -- Furnishing the palace / Elizabeth Cleland -- The Tudor art of the gift / Adam Eaker -- Honing the Tudor aesthetic / Elizabeth Cleland -- Courtly identity -- Hans Holbein and the status of Tudor painting / Adam Eaker -- Fashioning the courtier / Adam Eaker -- Icons of rule / Adam Eaker -- The Tudor legacy -- Iterations of Elizabeth : a seventeenth-century legacy / Sarah Bochicchio -- The Tudor afterlife / Marjorie E. Wieseman -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Photography credits