Dr Bendor Grosvenor FRHistS

Suspect they won’t break it. Today was just expectation management ahead of the budget.

🙏

Thanks Beth, most highly recommend this book too!

Great interview in this week's episode with @bendorgrosvenor.bsky.social and @cjfaraday.bsky.social discussing her new book 'The Story of Tudor Art'. I'd add it to my Christmas list but wary that the last time Bendor recommended a book for Christmas, it turned into quite the adventure...

Excellent analysis of the China spy case, and the muddle we've got ourselves into on the definition of 'enemy'.

A private message from Pope to King!

Yes. V poor efforts!

For a David, I would certainly try!

Take it up with Wald!

I think personally that this is what museums have done ever since they were invented.

Ha, thanks!

Hurrah! Thanks Raymond(o)!

Aha, thanks!

🕵️‍♂️👨‍🎨

Yes indeed, a la Charles 2.

Thanks Denise!

Thanks Mark!

Yes, I saw that afterwards, fascinating!

Horrific. Causing great distress to many already.

A truly disgusting Tory proposal, point 3.

It’s getting quite tiresome, his Jackanoryness.

The Invention of British Art: Longlisted for The 2025 Berger Prize Buy The Invention of British Art: Longlisted for The 2025 Berger Prize First Edition by Bendor Grosvenor (ISBN: 9781783968091) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

By the way, if you want to know more about the extraordinary (and ironic) impact of the Sistine cartoons on British art, you can find it all in my book, available here!
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www.amazon.co.uk/Invention-Br...

The second shows the moment before the conversion of St Paul, a figure central to the breakaway Church of England. What better way to show, through art, a wish that King Charles III might yet go beyond today's service, and convert to Rome?
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So, we don’t need to be too conspiratorial to wonder if the two tapestries hung in today’s service have any meaning. The first showed a key moment of St Peter’s conversion, his transformation into Christ’s catcher of men, and thus the foundation of the papacy.
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And in a further British legacy of Raphael’s Sistine cartoons, when in 1715 James Thornhill came to paint the Dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, he based his images on the scenes of St Paul in the Raphael Cartoons then in the Royal Collection.
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For example, in Holbein’s frontispiece for the Coverdale Bible, we see Henry VIII beside St Paul (on the right with his sword). And *all* the apostles are shown holding keys to heaven, not just St Peter (that is, not just the Pope).
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Now, here is the interesting bit. After the Reformation, the Church of England viewed St Peter with some suspicion - he was too closely tied to the Papacy. Instead, they saw St Paul as an alternative model. Paul’s authority derived not from office, but revelation and faith.
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The second tapestry shows the Stoning of St Stephen. This is one of three tapestries for which King Charles owns no surviving cartoon. It shows the death of the first Christian martyr, at which St Paul was present before his conversion to Christianity.
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The Pope of course is the successor to St Peter. The Vatican is built around St Peter’s tomb, and St Peter’s iconography - the keys to heaven - has become a papal symbol.
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But let’s look at the tapestries on display today. The first was The Miraculous Draught of Fishes. This was Raphael’s most dramatic composition. It shows the key moment of St Peter’s conversion, after which Christ says to him, “from now on you will be catching men.”
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