Showing posts with label Paintings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paintings. Show all posts

Saturday, April 01, 2023

Vulcan's Aquarium











In reply to a recent enquiry, what exactly is 'the Aquarium of Vulcan' from which this blog is named, its useful to refer to the ancient Greek  literary figure of Athenaeus, author of the Deipnsophistae or 'Banquet of the Philosophers'  the allusive source of the little-known myth of Vulcan's love-gift to Venus.

But first, by far the better-known myth associated with Vulcan is that of the goddess Venus  caught in bed with Mars, trapped by her husband Vulcan throwing an 'invisible net' over the pair of lovers. The Roman poet Ovid supplied rich material for many Renaissance-era artists in his Metamorphoses including a description of how Vulcan responded when discovering Venus and Mars in bed together.

'At once, he began to to fashion slender bronze chains, nets and snares which the eye could not see. The thinnest threads spun on the loom, or cobwebs hanging from rafters are no finer than was that workmanship. Moreover, he made them so that they would yield to the lightest touch, and to the smallest movement. These he set skillfully around his bed.

When his wife and her lover lay down together upon that couch they were caught by the chains, ingeniously fastened there by her husband's skill, and they were held fast in the very act of embracing. Immediately, Vulcan  flung open the ivory doors, and admitted the gods. There lay Venus and Mars, close bound together, a shameful sight. The gods were highly amused; ... They laughed aloud, and for long this was the best-known story in heaven'. [1] 

Vulcan enmeshing Venus and Mars in his net was a popular subject for many Renaissance artists including Velasquez, Tintoretto, Piero di Cosimo, Van Dyck and Rubens. Northern Mannerists artists in particular, such as Wtewael, Spranger and Heemskercke were all attracted to the myth.

Tintoretto in his 'Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan' dated 1551-1552 (below) has Vulcan interrupting Venus and Mar's love-making without his net. Examining by invitation her beauty, in close proximity, Vulcan is momentarily distracted from detecting a seemingly timorous Mars hiding under a bed. 

The Dutch Northern Mannerist artist Joachim Wtewael (1566–1638) painted the moment in which Venus and Mars are surprised by Vulcan in three differing versions (below). The main protagonists of the celestial drama with their respective attributes can all be seen in Wtewael's elaborate staging, including Mercury with his caduceus, Saturn with his scythe along with Vulcan preparing to fling his net over the lovers.


Bartholomew Spranger (1546-1611) was a Flemish artist who worked as a Court artist for the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. The erotic content of  his 'Vulcan and Venus' (below) is overt with its emphasis upon the Beauty and the Beast aspect of the relationship. The art critic Linda Murray notes of the main  thematic and stylist traits of  Mannerist art - 

'Mannerism can be quite easily recognised and defined: in general it is equated with a concentration on the nude, often in bizarre and convoluted poses, and with exaggerated muscular development; with subject matter either deliberately obscure, or treated so that it becomes difficult to understand -the main incident pushed into the background or swamped with irrelevant figures serving as excuses for displays of virtuosity in figure painting; with extremes of perspective, distorted proportions or scale -figures jammed into too small a space so that one has the impression that any movement would burst the confines of the picture space; with vivid colour schemes, employing discordant contrasts, effects of 'shot' colour, not for descriptive or naturalistic purposes, but as a powerful adjunct to the emotional impact of the picture'. [2]  

Its a seemingly unequal pairing of a submissive Vulcan and dominant Venus in Spranger's interpretation of the two gods relationship.  


With its unusual perspective, depiction of ancient world mythology and eroticism, Maarten van Heemskerck's (1498-1574)  'Venus, Mars and Vulcan'  (below) is closely associated with Northern Mannerist art in subject-matter along with exploring expressions of sexuality. Confident in her seductive qualities, its a not-so demure-looking Venus who gazes into the viewer's eyes in Heemskerck's painting. 

The Graeco-Roman myth of  Mars trapped by Vulcan's net  is included in the hermetic phantasmagoria of the English physician-philosopher Thomas Browne's 'network' discourse, The Garden of Cyrus (1658) its full running title being The Garden of Cyrus, or the Quincuncial Lozenge, or Network Plantations of the Ancients, Naturally, Artificially, Mystically considered.

'As for that famous network of Vulcan, which enclosed Mars and Venus, and caused that inextinguishable laugh in heaven; since the gods themselves could not discern it, we shall not pry into it. Although why Vulcan bound them, Neptune loosed them, and Apollo should first discover them, might afford no vulgar mythology'.

And in fact the highly symbolic figure of Vulcan opens Browne's hermetic discourse, ('That Vulcan gave arrows to Apollo  and Diana') and ushers its apotheosis in which 'Vulcan and his whole forge sweat to work out Achilles his armour'. 

On a mundane level the appeal of the myth of Venus and Mars surprised by Vulcan may be viewed as social commentary upon the rise of adultery in urban Europe. During the Renaissance, with the increase and mix of population in European cities, opportunities for extra-marital affairs grew. The myth served well as a moral warning to its viewers.  Renaissance painters also seized upon the myth of Venus and Mars and its symbolism in order to comment upon war-torn Europe of the late 16th and early 17th centuries for from the union of Venus, the goddess of Peace and Mars, the god of war, a child named Harmony was born. From an esoteric perspective the union of Venus and Mars is a lesser example of the 'coniunctio' or union of opposites in alchemy which was more often symbolized by the luminaries Sol et Luna.

Although Vulcan was famed for his inventiveness, making armour for the hero Achilles and a chair for his mother-in-law from which she could not escape when sitting on, no painting has survived of  his constructing an aquarium for Venus. In any event, Casaubon's edition of Athenaeus's 'Banquet of the Philosophers' was not published until 1612 and therefore no painting of this subject before this date is possible.  There is however at least one Renaissance painting in which Venus is depicted visiting her husband Vulcan's forge, perhaps for the purpose of requesting a love-gift. 

In the Dutch painter Jan van Kessel's 'Venus at the forge of Vulcan'  of 1662 (below) the stark contrast between the naked vulnerability of Venus and the metallic accoutrements of protective armour scattered in its foreground is notable. 


Thomas Browne for one knew that a close relationship existed between the goddess Venus, water and fish. In his commonplace notebooks the following verse couplet can be found-

'Who will not commend the wit of Astrology ? 

Venus born of the sea hath her exaltation in Pisces'. 

Its possible that Thomas Browne knew of the myth of Vulcan's Aquarium for Isaac Casaubon's 1612 edition of Athenaeus's Deipnosophistae, or 'The Banquet of the Philosophers'  is listed as once in his library. Browne also wrote a short, humorous piece entitled 'From a reading of Athenaeus'. [3]

Athenaeus lived in Naucratis circa the late 2nd to early 3rd century CE In his day Naucratis was an important Egyptian  harbor and a dynamic melting-pot of Greek and Egyptian art and culture. Its also the setting of 'The Banquet of the Philosophers' in which characters such as physicians, philosophers, grammarians, parasites and musicians discuss topics as diverse as Baths, Wine, invented words, feasts and music, useless philosophers, precious metals, flatterers, gluttony and drunkenness, hedonism and obesity, women and love, mistresses and courtesans, the cooking of fish and cuisine in general, ships, entertainment, luxury and  perfumes.

In total the 15 books of the 'Banquet  of the  philosophers',  mention almost  800 authors. Over 2500 separate works are cited in it, making it a valuable source of numerous works of Greek literature which otherwise would have been lost, which includes three surviving lines on Vulcan's aquarium. 

James Russell Lowell famously characterized the Deipnosophistae as -'the somewhat greasy heap of a literary rag-and-bone-picker like Athenaeus is turned to gold by time'. In the seventeenth century there was a revived interest in the Banquet of the Philosophers following its publication by the scholar Isaac Casaubon  (1559-1614) in 1612. The  commentary to the text was Isaac Causabon’s magnum opus. Incidentally it was the scholarship of Isaac Causabon which proved from his textual analysis of  the Corpus Hermeticum that it could not have been written by the mythic ancient Egyptian Hermes Trismegistus who anticipated the coming of Christ, as commonly believed, but in fact was a syncretic work of  Gnostic and Greek philosophy dated centuries after Christ's era, circa 200 and 300 CE.

By all accounts Athenaeus was a favourite author of Thomas Browne for he stated in his encyclopaedic endeavour Pseudodoxia Epidemica-

'Athenæus, a delectable Author, very various, and justly stiled by Casaubon, Græcorum Plinius (Greek Pliny) . There is extant of his, a famous Piece, under the name of Deipnosophista, or Coena Sapientum, containing the Discourse of many learned men, at a Feast provided by Laurentius. It is a laborious Collection out of many Authors, and some whereof are mentioned nowhere else. It containeth strange and singular relations, not without some spice or sprinkling of all Learning. The Author was probably a better Grammarian then Philosopher, dealing but hardly with Aristotle and Plato, and betrayeth himself much in his Chapter De Curiositate Aristotelis. In brief, he is an Author of excellent use, and may with discretion be read unto great advantage: [4]



From his reading of Athenaeus Browne knew of ancient world sexual activities -   

'The impudent wantonness of the ancients placed sponges in the natural parts of women that by expanding they might produce a lewd and as it were haunching movement in the female, whence a keener lust is provoked in the male. In the elaborations of coition almost nothing has been untried, so that the indecent egg of Marcellus Empiricus is no marvel. Away with these foolish toys of lust'. 

Its in book 2 of  'Banquet of the Philosophers'  that Athenaeus records how the blacksmith of the gods Vulcan set about creating sheets of glass which he bonded together with an early version of tungsten steel. Tungsten is one of the oldest elements used for alloying steel. It forms a very hard carbide and iron tungstite. High tungsten content in the alloy however tends to cause brittleness and makes it subject to fracturing rather than bending. Somehow Vulcan over came this weakness, its speculated through adding 'the salty sweat' of his workshop labourers to the molten crucible. 

The little-known myth is recounted in the Deipnosophistae after heated discussion upon the best sauces to prepare for fish.  The  courtesan and lute-player musician Callipygae recites three verses from a long-lost comedy, now known only by the title of The Chessmen of Odysseus. Its believed that the following lines specifically allude to Vulcan's aquarium -

 As the Pleiades ascended, Vulcan's workshop laboured,

the sound of hammer on anvil could be heard 

echoing through mountains

 until rosy dawn glowed furnace-like in the east. 

 Salty sweat streamed in torrents into hissing troughs, 

smelting and refining the dross. 

Crafted and ready 

to bind with ox-like ribs the thick and cloudy glass,

Vulcan's love-gift  for Venus. 

[6]  (Book 2 Lines 27-29 ) 

Aquariums are mysterious habitats which often evoke great underwater beauty. They function well as calming distractions and their psychological benefits include reducing stress. Looking into an aquarium, observing fish swimming care-free, helps people momentarily forget their worries. 

The symbol of the aquarium invites speculation and analysis. For the seminal twentieth century psychologist C.G. Jung -

'The protean mythologem and the shimmering symbol express the processes of the psyche far more trenchantly than, in the end, far more clearly than the clearest concept.' [7] 

Perhaps Venus made her request to test the fullness of Vulcan's forgiveness, or else to alleviate her boredom with Vulcan spending long hours away from her at the forge, or simply for her amusement and pleasure, its not really known. Nor is it known how many or what kind of fish she choose to place in her aquarium. But whether Vulcan manufactured his love-gift for Venus specifically for any of these reasons remains unclear. What is clear is that the fish in the Aquarium of Vulcan are far more playful than previously imagined. 


Notes

[1] Ovid Metamorphosis  Book 4 lines 180-190

[2] The High Renaissance and Mannerism Linda Murray Thames and Hudson 1977

[3]  1711 Sales Auction Catalogue page 7 no. 67

[4]  Pseudodoxia Epidemica . Bk.1 chapter 8

[5] From a reading of Athenaeus 

[6] Deipnosophistae Book 2 lines 27-29

[7] Collected Works of C.G.Jung vol. 13  Alchemical Studies (1967) para. 199

 





Friday, February 24, 2023

The comic genius of Jan van Haasternen


Celebrating the comic genius of  Jan van Haasternen on the occasion of his birthday, with a brief look at his artwork, alongside Dutch 'Golden Age' paintings.

 

Jan van Haasteren (b. February 24th 1936 - ) was born  in Schiedam in the region of South Holland in the Netherlands.  His early childhood years were lived through the second World War. He later attended technical school, where he learned to become a home decoration painter, and then studied Publicity and Advertising at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rotterdam. After his military service he began his career with a small Rotterdam-based advertising agency. He joined the Marten Toonder studios in 1962 and began freelancing in 1967. Throughout the 1960's and 70's Jan worked with a wide variety of  magazine advertising  agencies and comic strip publishers. 

Jan van Haasternen joined Jumbo puzzles in 1980 and has now supplied the jigsaw manufacturing company with over two hundred of his inventive, action packed tableaux in which almost anything and everything is happening at the same time. An early example of Jan's comic strip art style can be seen in his popular 'Baron von Tast'  series. (Below)




In 'The Bachelor' (below) an unmarried man engaged in domestic chores, tidies away his pet octopus. A mysterious hand grasps to stop the pendulum of a Grand-father clock which has the ages of 30, 40, 50 and 60 years inscribed upon its face.


Two regular characters in Jan's comic puzzles are featured in his earliest artwork for Jumbo. In 'The Classroom' (below) a teacher screams in fright at a mouse whilst a cat sleeps undisturbed on top of a locker. The school children are absorbed in their own fun and games and aren't concerned at all with their teacher's alarm !
 

'Get that cat !' an early artwork supplied by Jan for Jumbo puzzles (below) displays a variety of architectural styles which are the background to a pack of dogs gathered to catch a cat. They've surrounded a tree in which the cat sits, calm and safe above them all. A spotty Dalmatian dog and a tabby cat are the oldest characters regularly featured in Jan's puzzle art. 


With his industrious inventiveness,  ability to supply a near endless variations upon a theme, accompanied by a humorous multiplicity of action, its not too bold to state that Jan's skillful draughtsmanship, along with his astute observation of people, shares characteristics with artists of the 'Golden Age' of Dutch Art. Indeed, Jan's own hometown, Schiedam, was also the birthplace of the gifted 'Golden Age' artist Adam Pynacker. Like many Dutch artists of the seventeenth century, Adam Pynacker (1622-79) had a relatively short life. He's noted for painting in the fashionable and popular Italian style which often featured ancient ruins in a rural setting lit by a glowing, south of the Alps sunlight, as in his Landscape with a Goatherd (Below)


Adam Pynacker -Landscape with a goatherd

There's one Dutch painter in particular whose art shares fruitful comparison to Jan van Haasternen's, its by another Jan, the most Dutch of all Dutch names, the artist Jan Steen (1626-79). Jan Steen's paintings capture the lives of the ordinary Dutch citizens enjoying life, often drinking, music-making and playing pranks upon each other. The chaos and disorder often to be found in Jan Steen's paintings is not so removed from Jan van Haasternen's comic art, but without Steen's moralising. In  Jan Steen's 'A School class' the moral lesson that its bad teachers who make bad schoolchildren is underscored with anarchy and chaos reigning supreme in the classroom.


Jan Steen - A School Class (circa 1670)


The prosperous times of the Dutch Republic resulted in an estimated million paintings being bought and owned by ordinary citizens in a short, historical era. The art genres of landscape, portraiture, still life, maritime scenes and depictions from mythology and the Bible were all popular, as was a genre known as 'merry group' art, such as in Jan Steen's, 'As the Old Sing, So Pipe the Young' dated circa 1668-1670 (above).

Sometimes allusion to famous Dutch or Flemish art is easily detected. Michel Ryba's 'The Seasons' (detail below) explicitly alludes to Pieter Breugel's famous painting known as ' The Hunters in the Snow' (1565).




The Dutch nation have long been renowned for their peaceful and tolerant attitude whilst living in close proximity to each other. In Pieter Bruegel the Elder's 'Dutch Proverbs' (below) over 126 proverbs are referenced, including, 'Horse droppings are not figs' meaning appearances are deceiving, 'There's more in it than an empty herring' meaning, there's more than meets the eye, 'to hang one's cloak according to the wind' meaning to adapt one's viewpoint to the current opinion, and 'he who has spilt his porridge cannot scrape it all up again'. (Don't cry over spilt milk.) The sheer profusion of people in Bruegel's 'Dutch proverbs' is suggestive of the thriving, dense population of the Netherlands during the Renaissance and equally true of modern-day Netherlands.




Jan's view of art and of the public viewing of art in galleries is encapsulated in a puzzle below.



Jan van Haasternen's comic art for Jumbo puzzles often involves a crowd of participants, male and female, young and old, cheerful and annoyed, engaged in a multiplicity of antics and pranks, not least in his 'Acrobat Circus' (Below). Several regulars characters in Haasternen's puzzles including a bishop (swinging on a rope) a convict, a pink octopus and Jan's signature motif, a shark's fin cutting through the action, can be spotted. By the way double-clicking on these images enlarges them for greater detail, especially if using a lap-top.

'Acrobat Circus'

'St. George and the Dragon'


'The Holiday Fair'


'Sportsday' 

The outdoor scene 'Winter Games' (below) is one of my personal favourites. Its exemplary of Jan's superb draughtsmanship skills, bringing alive a wide expanse with great depth of field perspective. As ever Jan's signature motif, a shark's fin can be spotted by the sharp-eyed, silently cutting its way through the hilarious action.













In 2013 Jan van Haasternen became a Knight  of the Order of Orange-Nassau for his contributions to Dutch comics culture and for his role as an inspirer of comic artists and illustrators. And in 2021 he and other members of Studio Van Haasteren (notably Dick Heins and Rob Derks) were awarded the P. Hans Frankfurther Prize for special merits. 

But perhaps the greatest award and achievement of the comic genius of Jan van Haasternen is the simple fact that Jan's puzzles gave cheer to countless puzzlers, young and old, during the long days and nights of the global pandemic (2020-22). At a time when many were time rich as never before, socially isolated and in need of mental stimulation, jigsaws, not least by Jan van Haasternen occupied the minds of many world-wide, effectively offering escape from gloomy days, giving a challenge and a chuckle during their construction, along with a real sense of accomplishment upon completion. 

I'm confident that admirers of JvH jigsaws will today raise a glass on the occasion of the artist's 87th birthday, and toast with me to the good health of the comic genius, Jan van Haasternen. 

See also




Thursday, June 09, 2022

The joy and alchemical play of jigsaws


During the pandemic of 2019-2022 many people worldwide discovered the joy of jigsaws. Faced with restrictions in social activities and confined indoors during lockdowns, the opportunity to escape from uncontrollable events and immerse oneself in a puzzle enticed many. Consequently,  the past two years has seen a boom in the manufacture and sale of jigsaws globally in order to supply an unprecedented demand.

It was the Englishman John Spilsbury (1739-69) a London cartographer and engraver who is credited with inventing the jigsaw puzzle. Spilsbury created the first puzzle sometime in the 1760's as an educational tool. He affixed a map  of the world to wood and hand cut each country out using a marquetry saw. Spilsbury's 'dissected maps' were used as teaching aids for geography.  The technical name of the jigsaw enthusiast as a dissectologist originates from Spilsbury's 'dissected maps' as does dissectology, the study of jigsaws. Because the word 'dissection' has an unfortunate association to surgery, the Anglo-Saxon of  'jigsaw builder' is preferred nomenclature here.

Scenic postcard views of mountains and lakes along with lighthouses, windmills and castles have long been the staple diet of jigsaws. The fantasy castle of King Ludwig of Bavaria, Neuschwanstein Schloss, the artistic inspiration for the Disney Castle logo is often reproduced as a jigsaw puzzle, as are the romantic destinations of Paris and Venice. Michael Ryba's interpretation of King Ludwig's castle and relationship to the German composer Richard Wagner is wittily expressed in the Heye brand 2000 piece puzzle entitled 'Bavaria' (below).



Established in Poland in 1985 the Trefl brand of puzzles have a matted finish with chunky, tactile pleasing pieces. Below-  Dolomite mountain range, Italy.  Trefl 500 pieces

Its good to see that the Falcon brand includes a puzzle of the Norfolk Broads, an extensive network of shallow lakes and rivers which are famously alluded to in the David Bowie song, 'Life on Mars' (1973) - 'See the mice in their million  hordes/From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads'. Norfolk-based jigsaws include - Cromer beach and pier, Norwich market place, windmills (below) and Sandringham House, residence of Queen Elizabeth II  (1926-2022).  

The earliest jigsaw puzzles were hand-cut from wood and expensive to make, needing skilled workmanship for each individual jigsaw. The 20th century saw the rise of manufactured, mass-produced cardboard puzzles. The popularity of the jigsaw puzzle during the 1930's Depression as an inexpensive form of entertainment can be gauged from the novelist Daphne du Maurier's best-selling gothic love story Rebecca (1938). In du Maurier's fictitious first-person narration, jigsaws are flexible as metaphors, expressive of comprehension and error, along with revealing identity. 

In  Rebecca Du Maurier's anonymous narrator states-

'What he has told me and all that has happened will tumble into place like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle'.

'The jig-saw pieces came tumbling thick and fast upon me'.

'They were all fitting into place, the jig-saw pieces. The odd strained shapes that I had tried to piece together with my fumbling fingers and they had never fitted'.

'The jig-saw pieces came together piece by piece, and the real Rebecca took shape and form before me'.[1]

Georges Perec (1936-82) was a film maker, essayist and author of the acclaimed novel 'La vie, mode d'emploi' (Life: A user's manual). Jigsaws are integral to the very structure as well as the central story of Perec's novel. Its narrative moves from one room to another, the reader learning about the residents of each room, or its past residents, or about someone they have come into contact with, thus building a picture of an instant in time. La Vie, mode d'emploi  is an extraordinary novel, containing painstakingly detailed descriptions and hundreds of individual stories. 

The central story of Perec's Post-modern masterpiece concerns itself with the Englishman Bartlebooth who devotes ten years acquiring the skill of painting in water-colours, then ten more years painting every harbour and port he visits while on a world-cruise. Each of Bartlebooth's finished water-colours are methodically dated and posted to a jigsaw maker in Paris. Upon returning to Paris, he devotes the remaining years of his life attempting to complete every jigsaw made from his paintings in precisely the same chronological order of his travels. 

In the preamble to La vie mode d'emploi Georges Perec makes a pertinent point about jigsaws, namely, that its how a jigsaw is cut which makes it easy or difficult to complete. 

'Contrary to a widely and firmly held belief, it does not matter whether the initial image is easy (or something taken to be easy - a genre scene in the style of Vermeer, for example, or a colour photograph of an Austrian castle) or difficult (a Jackson Pollock, a Pisarro, or the poor paradox of a blank puzzle), its not the subject of the picture, or the painter's technique, which makes a puzzle more or less difficult, but the greater or lesser subtlety of the way it has been cut; and an arbitrary cutting pattern will necessarily produce an arbitrary degree of difficulty, ranging from the extreme of easiness - for edge pieces, patches of light, well-defined objects, lines, transitions -to the tiresome awkwardness of all the other pieces (cloudless skies, sand, meadow, ploughed land, shaded areas etc.) [2] 

Its interesting to note that the logo of the world-wide collaborative project known as Wikipedia consists of an incomplete globe made of jigsaw pieces. The incomplete sphere symbolizes the room to add new knowledge as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. 


Many sub-genres of puzzles exist. Sentimental and kitsch depictions of puppies, kittens, cakes and cottages abound in jigsaw reproductions as well as art-works such as Botticelli's 'Birth of Venus', Monet's 'Poppies'  and Bosch's 'Garden of Heavenly Delights'. The  primitive artwork style of Charles Wysocki (1928 - 2002) whose work depicts an idealized version of American life of yesteryear and Thomas Kinade (1958 - 2012) a painter of pastoral and idyll scenes with warm, glowing colouration (Gibsons brand) are both well-loved by American jigsaw builders. Puzzles composed purely of brand labels are also popular in America, a  long lasting aftereffect of the 1950's when advertising companies gave away free puzzles with their products.

Featuring the comic art-work of Graham Thompson (b. 1940), the so-called Wasgij puzzle (the word 'jigsaw' spelt backwards) challenges the jigsaw builder to have eyes at the back of their head in order to construct a mirror or 'what-happened-next' picture of the action depicted, a far more difficult task than simply referencing a box top picture.  

Remembering the trauma of the world-wide health crisis in the past two years its little wonder that comic jigsaws retain their popularity. The prolific Dutch cartoonist Jan van Haasteren (b. Schiedam, Netherlands 1936) has now supplied Jumbo puzzles with over 200 titles. Haasteren's artwork is instantly recognisable, not least for the same characters re-appearing in his puzzles. These include - a crook and tax official, Police Officers,  a mother-in-law, Santa Claus, a cat and mouse, an octopus and crab, along with his trade mark, a Shark fin. 

In Haasternen's 'Winter Sports' (below) various activities associated with snow and ice are depicted.  Its a typically busy, crowded scene of masterful draughtsmanship,  reminiscent of a canvas by Breughel. 


The  British artist Mike Jupp (b.1948) is a best-seller of the Gibsons brand of jigsaws, a British family business since 1919. Mike Jupp became a freelance artist in 1974, moving into film and TV design in 1980. He spent some time in Holland before he relocated to America where he became a storyboard artist and scriptwriter. In the late 1990's Jupp applied his talent and sense of humour to creating designs for jigsaws. Jupp delights puzzlers with his I Love series, where he captures the comical and silly side of everyday life. Almost every inch of I Love Spring includes some kind of cheeky humour. There can also be seen - an International Worker's march, Druids, a Maypole dance, Morris men, a Wedding and Hell's Angels. In the foreground of I Love Spring (below) a young man falls off his ladder when spying a girl in a bubble bath. 


The French cartoonist Jean-Jacques Loup (1936-2015) studied at the National School of Fine Arts in Lyon and worked as a cartoonist in Paris from 1969 until his death. A prolific contributor to a wide variety of magazines and publications, Loup was also an architect and a jazz pianist. In his 'Apocalypse 2000' (below) Loup humorously mocks the fears and apprehensions associated with millenarian expectation including, an alien spaceship invasion, a falling meteorite, an earthquake and a plague of frogs. Many differing reactions to the World's End can be seen - Holding a playing card a man prepares to commit suicide, a woman prays on her knees, a priest thrusts a crucifix at a hairy demon who rolls around laughing at him, Hare Krishna followers chant, others are seen screaming or running away. Drinkers in a bar look on, slightly perturbed at all they're witnessing. 

The cartoonist Loup along with the Argentinian cartoonist Guillermo Mordillo (1932-2019) were both widely published throughout the 1970's. Their artwork is featured on a handful of Heye puzzles, one of the most exciting of all puzzle manufacturers in the artistic scope and range of their jigsaws.   


Recent study at the University of Michigan, USA, has found that jigsaws improve visual-spatial reasoning along with IQ. They also help reduce memory, relieve stress and lower blood pressure and heart-rate. Scientific research also suggests that the simple satisfaction of placing a puzzle piece in its correct place, releases a micro-dose of the 'feelgood' neuro-chemical' dopamine which is associated with well-being and happiness. An even bigger 'feel good' chemical reward is released upon completion of a puzzle. 

Long acknowledged as sharpening cognitive faculties through the correct identification of shape and colour, requiring hand and eye coordination through dedicated sessions of time, jigsaws teach and develop patience, concentration and logical thinking. When finally completed they reward their builder with a  real sense of achievement and improved self-esteem. Whether of kittens or puppies, a favourite place visited, a comic cartoon or Leonardo da Vinci's 'The Last Supper', a completed jigsaw remains the builder's very own accomplishment. In an age of ubiquitous electronic entertainments its an achievement  which is made through finely-tuned hand and eye coordination in conjunction with the much under-valued virtue of patience. 



       The alchemical play of jigsaws


Constructing a jigsaw may be viewed as a reduced or simplified form of the alchemical opus. To begin with,  the jigsaw builder, just like the alchemist,  dedicates themselves for an unknown duration of time, often in solitude, sometimes facing self-doubt or a sense of futility, even risking sanity, in order to complete a 'Great Work'. Hope and despair are experienced by both alchemist and jigsaw builder alike in their endeavour to make the invisible become visible. 

Ancient alchemical texts frequently warn the adept of the many difficulties and dead-ends to beware of during the 'Great Work'; so too the jigsaw builder can expect setbacks, even disaster if their work-space is tampered or interfered with. The vision shared by alchemist and jigsaw builder upon completion of their task is one of unity, created from the chaos of the massa confusa or unsorted heap of puzzle pieces.

It was the seminal Swiss psychologist C.G. Jung (1875-1961) who first identified distinct similarities between alchemy and the creative process. Jung's observations on the spiritual and psychological meaning of creativity are applicable to the artist more than jigsaw builder, nevertheless his following remark invites comparison with jigsaw building - 

'the first part was completed when the various components separated out from the chaos of the massa confusa were brought back to unity in the albedo and "all become one". [3]

The dark, initial state which the alchemist called the nigredo stage was also known as the massa confusa or chaos, the not yet differentiated, but capable of differentiation disorder which the adept gradually reduced to order and unity. Hidden and invisible within the chaos of the massa confusa lay the vision of unity which the alchemist aspired to make visible. For the jigsaw builder, contained within the thousand piece heap, which on first sight can arouse despair, there lays invisible within, the vision of a completed jigsaw.

The alchemical discourse The Garden of Cyrus by the English physician-philosopher Sir Thomas Browne (1605-82) has a number of associations to the jigsaw.  Long viewed as one of the most difficult puzzles in the entire canon of English literature, most readers of The Garden of Cyrus have struggled and floundered attempting to piece it together, thwarted by the combination of its esoteric theme, dense symbolism and the near breathless haste of its communication. Very few have ever completed Browne's jigsaw puzzle of an essay, yet alone stepped back upon completion to admire the beauty of its hermetic vision.

Composed from numerous 'stand-alone' notebook jottings, not unlike solitary pieces of a puzzle, Browne cites evidence of the inter-related symbols of  Quincunx pattern,  number 5 and  letter  X  in topics equal in diversity as jigsaw subject-matter, including- Biblical scholarship, Egyptology, comparative religion, mythology, ancient world plantations, gardening, generation, geometry, germination, heredity, the Archimedean solids, sculpture, numismatics, architecture, paving-stones, battle-formations, optics, zoology, ornithology, the kabbalah, astrology and astronomy, in order to prove  to his reader the interconnectivity of all life. Predominate themes of the discourse include - Order, Number, Design and Pattern, all of which are related to jigsaws.

Fascinated by all manner of puzzle throughout his life, whether hieroglyph, riddle, anagram or mystery in nature,  Browne in The Garden of Cyrus connects the quincunx pattern found in mineral crystals in the earth below to star constellations in the heavens above; thus a primary objective of  his discourse  ultimately is none other than advocation of intelligent design. In Browne's hermetic vision, the cosmos itself is a fully interlocking jigsaw, designed through the 'higher mathematics' of the 'supreme Geometrician' i.e. God.

If anything however, its perhaps more the art and design of the jigsaw cutter which Browne celebrates. He's credited by the Oxford Dictionary as the first writer to use the word 'Network' in an artificial context in the English language, (in the full running title of the discourse, The Garden of Cyrus, or the Quincuncial Lozenge, or Network Plantations of the ancients, artificially, naturally, mystically considered).  The frontispiece to Browne's discourse resembles some kind of grid cutter for an unusual jigsaw or a gaming board for Go or Backgammon.

Its Latin quotation reads -'What is more beautiful than the Quincunx, which, however you view it, presents straight lines'.

Browne also mentions various leisure-time activities in his discourse. Archery, backgammon, chess, skittles and knuckle stones are all fleetingly alluded to as examples of pleasure and play. 

Upon completion of a puzzle, sooner or later its broken into separate pieces and returned to its box awaiting to be completed once more,  a cycle not unlike the cycle of birth, death and rebirth  or 'Eternal Return' which alchemists alluded to in their writings, including Thomas Browne at the conclusion of his discourse.  

'All things began in order, so shall they end, and so shall they begin again; according to the ordainer of order and mystical Mathematicks of the City of Heaven'.

One particular jigsaw shape  of interest to Browne in his quinary quest is the so-called 'dancing man'  or 'T-man' piece with its 4 + 1 structure (below left). Its a reduced form of ' Square man' by the Roman architect Vitruvius of the human form as drawn by the Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci in his Vitruvian man (below, right) which is alluded to in The Garden of Cyrus thus -  

'Nor is the same observable only in some parts, but in the whole body of man, which upon the extension of arms and legs, doth make out a square whose intersection is at the genitals. To omit the phantastical Quincunx in Plato of the first Hermaphrodite or double man, united at the Loynes, which Jupiter divided. [4]




Adding in a little referenced footnote - 'elegantly observable in the Mesopotamian silhouette figurines, not unlike conjoyning tiles found in parlour amusements amongst us'. [5] 

One is tempted to speculate that Thomas Browne's allusion to 'conjoyning tiles' may be some kind of precursor to the jigsaw puzzle, pre-dating fellow Englishman John Spilsbury's 'dissecting maps' by a full century. 

In any case, the technical inventiveness in manufacture, the wide variety of artistic subject-matter and development of skills such as shape identification along with the therapeutic qualities of jigsaw puzzling would doubtless have been approved of by Browne.  With his predilection for the microscopic in nature one imagines the seventeenth century physician-philosopher engaged in the challenge of constructing a miniature jigsaw, employing his 'occular observation' with tweezers and magnifying glass in order to construct  it ! 


Photos

Top - Wooden 60 piece puzzle of elephant. Wentworth. Completed  January 2022 

'Bavaria' Ryba, 2000 pieces Heye. Completed July 2022

Dolomite Mountains, Italy, Trefl 500 pieces, Completed  March 2022

Norfolk Windmill and river Falcon 500 pieces. Completed Feb. 2021. 

Winter Sports by Jan van Haasteren Jumbo 1000 pieces. Completed  February 2022

'I Love Spring' by Mike Jupp Gibsons 1000 pieces. Completed May 2022

'Apocalypse 2000' by Jean Jacques Loup Falcon 1000 pieces. Completed  June 2022

Colour Wheel. 1000 pieces. Made in China. Completed September 2022

The Table of the Muses.  USA Springbok 1968. Completed November 2022

N.B. The Wikipedia  entry on puzzles has numerous links to articles about jigsaws.

Notes

[1]  Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier  First published by Victor Gollancz 1938 chapter 20.

[2] George Perec  La vie mode d'emploi  First published in France in 1978 by Hachette/ Collection P.O.L. Paris and in Great Britain in 1987 by Collins Harvill 

[3] C.G. Jung Collected Works  Vol 14.  Mysterium Coniunctionis  An enquiry into the Separation and Synthesis of psychic opposites in alchemy translated by R. F. C. Hull 1963 paragraph 388

[4]  Thomas Browne : Selected Writings edited by Kevin Killeen Oxford University Press 2014 . Quote from chapter 3 of The Garden of Cyrus 

[5]  An unpublished footnote from a source equal in veracity to Fragment on Mummies.




Sunday, September 13, 2020

The River, the City, and the Artist.



One of Europe's oldest cities, Norwich has a long and illustrious history. Like many great cities, it was founded on the banks of a river. Vital to Norwich's development and growth in trade and commerce, transport and culture, in the nineteenth century the river Wensum became a popular setting for artists of the Norwich School of Painters. 

In the briefest, highly selective sketch of Norwich's history - 

Norwich's  origins can be traced back to three Danish-Saxon fishing communities which once dwelt upon the terraced shingle banks of the Wensum known as Conesford, Westwic and Norwic which unified under the name of of Norwic (North port or settlement)  to become Norwich. Fully established as a town by the 10th century CE Norwich had its own mint which issued coins with the word NORVIC inscribed upon them. Following the Norman conquest of 1066, stone quarried from Caen in Normandy was transported across the North Sea and river to build and construct the City's two Norman architectural jewels, its Castle and Cathedral. 

The City's independence and trading status were enhanced under a Charter granted by King Richard I (the Lion heart) in 1194 for an annual payment to the King which freed the City and its citizens from all rents, tolls and taxes previously paid and permitted them to elect their own Reeve, (the senior official responsible under the Crown who often acted as chief magistrate). King Richard's Charter, granted in reward for Norwich's contribution to his ransom when kidnapped whilst returning from the Crusades, effectively allowed the City to be self governing, giving Norwich the same rights as London.

From the 13th century onward Norwich became a manufacturing city, exporting a wide variety of goods including pottery, wool and textiles, via the river Wensum. The river effectively connected the City to trade as far afield as Scandinavia and Russia, Germany and the Baltic North Sea cities as well as the Netherlands and Flanders. 

Norwich's trade and commerce with the Netherlands and Flanders in particular was vigorous throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Dutch and Flemish (modern-day Belgium) influences in fields as diverse as horticulture, architecture, textiles in particular wool, painting, religious denomination, civic social policy and not least, migration over the centuries have all been significant in contributing to Norwich's economic well-being and cultural heritage. 


 

Like many cities in medieval Europe, Norwich built a wall around itself for defense, taxation of goods and control of entry to trade in the City. The city walls were built circa 1280 to 1340. At around 4 kilometres in length they enclosed an area larger than the city of London. Norwich's city walls were supplemented by Cow tower and Bishop gate bridge strengthening defenses at its weakest point, the exposed bend of the river which  semi-circles around the Cathedral. The Wensum was integral to the defense of medieval Norwich. Its semi-circular bend from New Mills at the north of the City to Carrow south-east of the City effectively functioning as a wall. 

The medieval river-gate at Carrow is unique to European city defenses. Consisting of two 'Boom' towers'  one standing on each side of the river, by placing either a timber 'boom' or chains between them, effectively prevented any vessel from sailing further upstream. Their ruins at Carrow bridge, along with a long stretch of the city's medieval walls nearby, survive to the present-day.  

                                         


It would have been after passing between the 'Boom-towers' water-gate at Carrow (historical photo above) that visitors by river to Norwich would have seen the city's many churches towers, (Norwich has the large number of  medieval churches in Northern Europe).  The city's two largest architectural structures, the  Castle  perched upon earthwork mound and Cathedral with flying buttresses and spire pointing heavenwards would have been visible many miles from the low viewpoint of water before arriving at the walled city.   


A spectacular section of the old city wall  survives to this day. It  rises sharp up the valley with the Black Tower at its summit. The  surviving section  is a remarkable display of medieval engineering skill and dramatic to view. Poorly signed, this section of the City's medieval walls remains unknown to many locals even.

Tragically, shortly after the completion of the City wall, Norwich, like almost every other city in Europe suffered from the pandemic of the Black Death which peaked from 1347 to 1351. The Black Death was the second disaster affecting Europe during the 14th century, the Great Famine occurring 1315–1317. The Black Death plague is estimated to have killed between 30% to 60% of Europe's population. Norwich was not exempt from this death-toll with over half its population dying from the disease. It was against the background of the Black Death that the city's Christian mystic Julian of Norwich (1343–c.1416) wrote her Revelations of divine Love, the first book to be written by a woman in English,which continues to grow in popularity for its spiritual message. 

A major contributing factor to Norwich's identity occurred during the Elizabethan era when Protestant refugees from the Spanish Netherlands were invited to settle in Norwich to invigorate the City's declining textile industry. In 1565 some 30 households of master weavers and their families, 300 people in total, traveled from the Netherlands to Norwich seeking refuge from Spanish Catholic persecution. Reports of the City's religious tolerance resulted in many more religious refugees migrating from the Netherlands and contributing to Norwich's manufacturing industries of weaving and wool. At one time almost one third of Norwich's population consisted of skilled artisan refugees, a crucial factor in shaping the City's identity. 'The Strangers' as they were known, brought with them their pet Canary birds. Fancy breeds of the Canary bird were  bred in in the city  and in the early 20th century  they became emblematic of Norwich football team. The Canaries holds claim to having the world's oldest football supporter's song, On the ball, City. 

England's first provincial newspaper the Norwich Post was printed in Norwich in 1701. Succeeded by the Norwich Mercury in 1737,  its reflective of the city's high literacy rate as well as its radical politics. Support for the French revolution was initially high in Norwich, its leading intellectual William Taylor even visiting Paris in order to  kiss the soil of Liberty. Norwich's radical and sane politics continues to the present-day. In the 2016 advisory Referendum it voted for the UK to Remain in the European Union. 

Its been said that prosperity and literacy were the two factors which were the driving forces between 1750-1850 which contributed to Norwich's theatrical, artistic, philosophical and musical life. Together, they cross-fertilised Norwich's cultural life in a way that was unique outside London. 

In contrast to its close continental connections Norwich was, and still is, geographically remote from any other English town in transport links, a situation which was not improved until the mid-nineteenth century with the advent of the railway. Indeed, its been said  that it was sometimes quicker for a Norwich citizen to travel via river, sea and canal to Amsterdam than to London until the arrival of the railway. Travelling to London involved traversing marsh and forest on poor roads with the risk of robbery and overnight hostelry and rest for horses. In contrast, travelling to Amsterdam involved transportation via tidal river, sea and canal, its primary hazard being crossing the North Sea.

Whether because of its radical politics or more likely a received perception of the City as a 'back-water', Norwich was not officially recognized  as a seat of learning until 1963 when elected as the host city to the University of East Anglia. The University was named  'East Anglia' as representative of the region as a whole rather than its host city, resulting in few even today knowing its location. The University  didn't however hesitate to adopt Norwich City's  'Do Different' motto as its own. 

Currently teaching over 17,000 students statistically UEA is the British University with the highest percentage of students nationwide who choose to settle in the city of their graduation, a major contributing factor to the City's 9% population growth in the past decade. Prestigious UEA alumni include the geneticist, Paul Nurse, awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Medicine and novelist, Kazou Ishiguru, awarded the Nobel prize for Literature in 2017.  

With its many continental connections and influences its not too surprising that Norwich is one of the most European influenced of all English cities. The City's 'Do different' mindset is in evidence today in its growth as a regional retail centre, as a place of academic excellence and as a place which has a unique blend of international and local artistic life. 

2. Norwich School of Painters



John Thirtle's (1777-1839) watercolour Rainbow effect, King Street, (40 x 63 cm) depicts the City's busy river. The low eye-level of Thirtle's water-colour creates the effect of the viewer as part of the river-traffic. A rainbow, reflected in water following an evening downpour makes for a dramatic moment.  Observation of Nature, including atmospheric effects such as weather and changes of daylight being of particular interest to the Norwich School of artists.

In the foreground of Thirtle's water-colour there can be seen the river vessel most commonly associated with Norfolk, the wherry, a low draught, single sail craft capable of transporting heavy loads. In the background can be seen  a segment of the city wall rising steep up the  wooded valley with the Black tower at its summit. This section of the old city wall as previously discussed, survives to the present-day. 

John Thirtle was one of a number of Norwich artists  associated with The Norwich Society of Artists  which was established by the two friends who married sisters, John Crome (1768-1821) and Robert Ladbrooke (1768 –1842). The Society was formed in 1803 in order to hold regular meetings and discussions to establish 'An enquiry into the Rise, Progress and Present state of Painting, Architecture and Sculpture, with a view to point out the Best Methods of study to attain the Greater Perfection in these Arts'.

The clear-cut world of Classical representation of form and content is finely balanced with Romanticism in many artworks of the Norwich School, not least in the bold and skillfully executed water-colours of J.S. Cotman (1769-1842) including his Trowse Hythe (Below). Trowse, on Norwich's outskirts, is where the smaller river Yare joins the Wensum and where the river Wensum mysteriously ends.  


Its the sheer modernity of J.S. Cotman's art, in particular his water-colours which arrests the viewer today. Unsurprisingly Cotman's art received a mixed reception in his life-time. Curator and expert on the Norwich School of Painters Ms. Giorgia Bottinelli assesses J.S. Cotman thus- 

'One of the most original watercolourists of the nineteenth century, John Sell Cotman never achieved fame as an artist in his lifetime, something he so desperately craved and which fleetingly appeared to be within his grasp early in his career. On the whole his work did not appeal to the 19th century taste for the romantic and the picturesque: it was often controlled and unsentimental, with a focus on abstracted shape and inherent structure. It was not until the early 20th century and the rise of modernism that his work finally achieved the recognition it rightfully deserved'. [1] 


 

 
Several of John Crome's greatest art-works are set within only a short walk from his doorstep, the Colgate region of Norwich, including his late work Norwich river: Afternoon (above). 

Usually considered to be the leading light of the Norwich School of artists, John Crome was a shrewd, self-taught artist who survived the perils of bankruptcy, debt, imprisonment, madness, early death from disease, alcoholism and lack of patronage which others in the Norwich School suffered in their precarious careers as artists. In 1816, following Napoleon's defeat when  it was once more safe to visit France Crome did so, exhibiting and selling his paintings in Paris as well as purchasing paintings there.

John Crome studied the works of 17th Dutch masters closely in particular those by Hobbema, Cuyp, and Ruisdael to create art which celebrated the beauty of the Norfolk landscape. Far from merely imitating Dutch painting styles Crome learnt from the Dutch masters to develop his own unique style and today his paintings are ranked alongside Turner and Constable as amongst the finest in nineteenth century British art.  

The bright colouration and highly-polished finish of John Crome's Norwich river:Late Afternoon has often been commented upon. Its title reflects the close attention Norwich School artists played to qualities of light. 

Scientific analysis of  the canvas of Norwich river:Late Afternoon revealed that it was not in fact canvas but mattress ticking, a cotton or linen textile tightly woven for durability and to prevent feathers poking through the fabric. It was used to cover mattresses. Whether Crome's usage of mattress ticking was from necessity or experiment is not known. 

It was whilst working on a painting entitled A view of the Water Frolic, Wroxham Broad in mid-April 1821 that John Crome contracted a fever, dying later in the month. His last words were reputed to be, 'Oh Hobbema, my dear Hobbema, how I have loved you !'   



 Joseph Stannard's  Thorpe Water Frolic, Afternoon
(Height 109.8 x Width 175.8 cm. dated 1824). 

Joseph Stannard (born Norwich September 13th 1797 - died Norwich 6th December 1830) began exhibiting his paintings in 1811 when aged just 14. Like his younger brother Alfred, he was keen oarsman. He was also an  accomplished ice-skater who entertained Norwich folk with his skating skills during cold winters. Often in financial difficulties and/or poor health, Stannard's growing years were dominated by the Napoleonic wars which were prohibitive to travel in mainland Europe. When stability did return to Europe with the victory of Waterloo, he took the opportunity to visit Holland where  he viewed paintings by seventeenth century Dutch landscape masters Ruisdael, Berchem and Hobbema which deepened his interest in marine and seascape subjects; the marine artist Van de Velde in particular influenced him.

 In 1824 Joseph Stannard's fortune changed when the Norwich manufacturer, art collector and patron, John Harvey commissioned him to paint Thorpe Water Frolic:Afternoon.

Harvey was inspired with the idea of having a festivity on the river at Thorpe, just outside Norwich, from his witnessing water-festivities at Venice while on the Grand tour of Europe. The first water-frolic at Thorpe in 1824 attracted crowds of over 30,000 when the population of Norwich was little more than 10,000. Harvey's agenda was to establish Norwich as a sea-port for the export of his merchandise. 
 
Like all good sailors particular attention is paid to weather conditions and a vigorous cloudscape frames Stannard's water-frolic.There's an interesting inter-play between Stannard the sailor who has depicted the rigging and canvas sails of boats with every rope in its correct place and the medium of canvas on which he painted. The canvas of Thorpe Water Frolic, Afternoon is dominated by a large canvas, a sail catching the breeze.  Stannard's own boat The Cytherea is on the extreme right and was described in a contemporary newspaper report of the event -

'its colour is purple; the inside is adorned with an elegant gilt scroll, which completely encircles it; on the back-board where the coxswain sits, is a beautiful and spirited sea-piece, representing a stiff breeze at sea, with vessels sailing in various directions, painted in oils, and the spoons of the oars are neatly covered with gilt dolphins'.

Art historian Trevor Fawcett speculated- 'If the Thorpe water frolics were really great pageants, as the Norwich Mercury suggested, and if the multitudes who attended were all actors, then Stannard played his part thoroughly...[2]

Although there is a judicious amount of poetic licence in Stannard's Thorpe Water Frolic its also an important social document. Norwich's textile and loom workers, courting couples and rugged seamen all enjoying a care-free day on the river away from cramped working conditions are all depicted. They, along with Stannard in red, shielding his eyes to view his patron, are on the right bank of the river. Thomas Harvey standing in a gondola, the growing middle-class, civic dignitaries, naval officers and the aristocracy of Georgian England are on the left bank of the river. 


Joseph Stannard never became an official member of the Norwich School but nevertheless he clearly admired  and was influenced by John Crome and an enigmatic relationship exists between the two artists. As a precocious artist, Stannard's family requested Crome to teach young Joseph, but Crome quoted an astronomical fee which was seen as a blank refusal by the Stannard family. 

Curiously,  Stannard's Thorpe Water Frolic shares two details with John Crome's late work Norwich river:Afternoon firstly, of a small boy at the stern of a boat trailing a toy, and secondly of a woman dressed in bright yellow apparel, also at boat's stern. (The first recorded use of chrome yellow as a colour name in English was in 1818).

Norwich surely lost a great artist with Joseph Stannard's early death from tuberculosis aged just 33. However, his masterpiece, the river-scene Thorpe Water-Frolic:Afternoon remains a jewel in the crown of Norwich Castle Museum's extensive collection of paintings by the Norwich School.

Joseph Stannard has been assessed thus-

'As a draughtsman Joseph Stannard stands out as a major figure, there being almost a majestic grace and simplicity about his work. Whilst most of the Norwich School painters specialised in landscape, he retained an interest in seascape painting and achieved a quality which not only outrivalled most of his fellow painters, but most of the painters of the 19th century. The late Major boswell, whose family had dealt in the Norwich School paintings for generations, maintained that Joseph Stannard was the greatest genius of the School'. [3]
 
The Norwich School of Artists great achievement was that a small group of self-taught working class artists were able to feature urban Norwich with its churches, court-yards and cityscapes and rural Norfolk with its windmills, heath, marsh, woodlands and waterways as settings for their art.  Undaunted by meagre local patronage, together, leading artists Crome and Cotman, along with Joseph Stannard, established a school of landscape which continues to grow in reputation and stature.
  
The art historian Nikolaus Pevsner claimed that the picturesque was England's greatest contribution to European visual culture. Defined as visually attractive, especially in a quaint or charming way, English picturesque art is now, largely through the pioneering achievements of the Norwich School of artists, can now be recognised as Norwich's greatest contribution to European painting.

3. Just a little Browne and Norwich's future

According to the church historian Thomas Fuller (1608-61)  17th century Norwich was, 'either a city in an orchard, or an orchard in a city, so equal are houses and trees blended in it' . This blending of the urban with leaf continues in present-day Norwich with its reputation as one of greenest of English cities. Thomas Browne, the city's first botanist, natural historian, archaeologist and literary figure of significance, was a contemporary of  the historian Thomas Fuller, and indeed a book by Fuller is listed as once in Browne's vast library. 

In many ways Thomas Browne (1605-82) is one of most dazzling and valuable jewels in the crown of Norwich's cultural heritage. Known of world-wide, contributing to diverse fields of knowledge Browne's star is currently in the ascendent with a resurgence of interest in the physician-philosopher and his diverse literary works. Browne was also, as the archaeologist Alan Carter noted, one of the first to speculate upon Norwich's origins. In Urn-Burial  (1658) he alludes to coins minted in Norwich (the earliest with  the inscription name Norvic is dated 850 CE), to the city being established sometime after the Roman occupation of Britain, and to it being a place of size before  destruction by fire following a Viking raid by King Swen Forkbeard in 1004 CE-

'Vulgar Chronology will have Norwich Castle as old as Julius Caesar; but his distance from these parts, and its Gothick form of structure, abridgeth such Antiquity. The British Coins afford conjecture of early habitation in these parts, though the City of Norwich arose from the ruins of Venta, and though perhaps not without some habitation before, was enlarged, builded, and nominated by the Saxons. In what bulk or populosity it stood in the old East-angle Monarchy, tradition and history are silent. Considerable it was in the Danish Eruptions, when Sueno burnt Thetford and Norwich', [4]

More often than not Thomas Browne refers to the Wensum simply as 'the Norwich river'. Its been speculated that the word 'Wensum' is a corruption of the old English of 'wendsome' meaning winding, and this, as almost all old rivers, the Wensum certainly is, as can be seen in the photo below of the river Wensum at Drayton, a few miles north-west of Norwich. 


Geographically speaking, the Wensum is an old or senile river, that is a river with a low gradient and low erosive power and with having flood-plains. Today the Wensum is listed as a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest and as a Special Area of Conservation. Nevertheless it is under threat of environmental damage from a proposed Western Link Road (WLR) which will seriously damage river wildlife and its immediate environment with little, if any benefit to the easing of  traffic in the region whatsoever.[5]

On several occasions in his Natural History notes Thomas Browne refers to the network of shallow lakes in the north-east quarter of Norfolk as 'broad waters' . In all probability its from his description that the nomenclature of these shallow lakes  originated from to become  known as the Norfolk Broads. Today, the Norfolk Broads have National Park status and protection 'however it was not until the 1960's that aerial photography determined the Norfolk Broads were in fact not natural but man-made, the product of many years of digging for peat as a source of heat which following flood and inundation from the sea, formed the present-day Broads. 

On the river upstream between New Mills to Hellesdon Mills its possible to often spot the iridescent blue plumage and bullet-like flight of the kingfisher zipping low over the water. As a keen ornithologist who at one time or another kept an eagle, cormorant, bittern, owl and ostrich to study, Browne noted of Norfolk -

The number of rivulets becks & streams whose banks are beset with willows & Alders which give occasion of easier fishing & slooping to the water makes that handsome coloured bird abound which is called Alcedo Ispida or the King fisher. They build in holes about gravel pits.. their nests wherein is to bee found great quantity of small fish bones. & lay very handsome round & as it were polished eggs.

Browne was a keen botanist and noted of the aquatic plant Acorus Calamus  known as Sweet Flag (photo below).

                         

'This elegant plant groweth very plentifully and beareth its Julus yearly by the banks of Norwich river  chiefly about Claxton and Surlingham. & also between norwich & Hellsden bridge so that I have known Heigham Church in the suburbs of Norwich strewed all over with it, it hath been transplanted and set on the sides of Marish ponds in several places of the country where it thrives and beareth ye Julus yearly. [6]

The Sweet Briar bridge to Hellesdon (photo above) is a great example of the legacy from the 1930's. Constructed in 1932, Sweet Briar bridge, along with the acres of landscaped parks of Eaton and Wensum, innovative social housing at Mile Cross, libraries, and urban regeneration in general, were all constructed and achieved through the collective work-force of the unemployed of Norwich during the Great Depression of the 1930's era.



The river Wensum upstream of New Mills is navigable only to light, non-powered vessels and is at turns scenic, neglected and wild. Its only with one's eye at water level that one gains a perspective of  the sheer size and abundance of mature trees growing near the river. Approaching Hellesdon Mill two varieties of willow can be seen growing together. (above). 

The weeping willow is a naturally occurring mutation of Salix babylonica which was introduced to England from China in the early 17th century during a time of fascination with all things Chinese ts cultivated for it's beautiful appearance. The more common willow Salix fragilis, 'crack willow', is named for the loud noise it makes when it breaks.  Grown on the river-bank so that its binding roots protect the bank from erosion its used for commercial willow farming (withey beds) and is managed by pollarding. Some of humans' earliest manufactured items may have been made from willow. A fishing net made from willow discovered by archaeologists dates back to 8300 BCE and basic crafts, such as baskets, fish traps, wattle fences and wattle and daub house walls, were often woven from osiers or withies (rod-like willow shoots, often grown in coppices). [7]

The Dictionary of British Place-names states that the name Hellesdon comes from Hægelisdun (the spelling of the location 985 CE), meaning 'hill of a man named Hægel', with the spelling changed to Hailesduna by 1086. Hægelisdun is recorded  traditionally, as the place where King Edmund was killed by Viking invaders in 869 CE, although there remains no agreement on exactly where King Edmund died.

Its intriguing to think that momentous history such as King Edmund dying in battle near Norwich remains ultimately unknown, such speculation returns our far from exhaustive essay where it began, the remote in time origins of the city, whilst also  exploring the fascinating relationship between city, river and artist.

At the current time of writing, Norwich faces the same challenge as many cities throughout the world in the wake of the Pandemic (2020 - ?) how to make the city, in particular its centre, a safe place to visit, work, socialise and be entertained.  Norwich,  having survived war, plague, flood, fire, famine, rebellion and riot in its thousand plus year history, will surely become a busy, enterprising city, proud to 'Do Different'  once more in the near future.

                         

The Wensum river at 'The Willows', five minutes from my doorstep.

Books 

* The Anglo-Saxon origins of Norwich: the problems and approaches by Alan Carter Anglo-Saxon England Vol. 7 (1978), pp. 175-204  pub. Cambridge University Press
* The Norwich Knowledge: An A-Z of Norwich - the Superlative City Pub. 2011
by Michael Loveday. Highly recommended
* Norwich, the growth of a city.  Green and Young Norfolk museums Service 1981

* The Norwich School of Painters -  Harold Day pub. Eastbourne Fine Art 1979
* The Norwich School of Artists - Andrew Moore pub. HMSO Norfolk Museum Services 1985
*Romantic Landscape:The Norwich School of Painters -Brown/Hemingway/Lyles pub. Trustees of the Tate Gallery 2000
* A Vision of England : Paintings of the Norwich School ed. Bottinelli pub. Norfolk Museums 2013


Notes

[1] EDP May 20th The artist they called too colourful
[2] from article by Trevor Fawcett-Roper in Norfolk Archaeology 1976
[3] The Norwich School of Painters -  Harold Day pub. Eastbourne Fine Art 1979
[4] Urn-Burial (1658)
[6] Notes on Natural history of Norfolk especially its birds and fishes pub. Jarrolds 1905.
[7]  Info on Willow by Nik Thomson with thanks.



Archaeological maps of the development of early Norwich.



*All text identical to the Wikipedia entry on the Norwich School of Artists was penned by myself in 2003.

* Essay dedicated to the memory of the Norwich artist Joseph Stannard, b. Norwich, 13th September 1797 - 1830. Stannard's premature death surely lost the City a great artist.

Also in memory of Jennifer Carrier, long-time friend and Norwich 'old girl'.