Friday Art & History Feature - Amelia Edwards

Amelia Edwards 1890 in America (public domain)

This fascinating woman was born the same day as me and is truly inspirational to me.

Amelia Edwards was an English novelist, journalist, world traveler and Egyptologist.

Born on June 7th, 1831, to an Irish mother and a British solider father, she wrote her first poem at the tender age of 7, first story at 12. Over the years, she wrote many poems, stories and five full-length novels, the most famous been Barbara's History (1864).

Philæ from the South (1890) (from A Thousand Miles up the Nile) (Travelers in the Middle East Archive)

Using the proceeds from her writing, Amelia left London to travel. She traveled to Egypt int he winter of 1873 and became fascinated with the land, its culture and history. She spent some time there, and, on her return to England, wrote a beautiful description of her travels on the river Nile. The travel account was later published as A Thousand Miles up the Nile (1877). The travel memoir included Amelia's own drawings.

Great Rock-Cut Temple, Abou Simbel, Nubia (1890) (from A Thousand Miles up the Nile) (Travelers in the Middle East Archive)

 Amelia became a great advocate of research and preservation of ancient cultural monuments. "...Every day, more inscriptions are mutilated–more paintings and sculptures are defaced. ... When science leads the way, is it wonderful that ignorance should follow?" (A Thousand Miles Up the Nile, 1891 edition, pp. 353.) She was the co-founder of the Egypt Exploration Fund (first established in 1882), which survives to this day as the Egypt Exploration Society. The other co-founder was Reginald Stuart Pole. She also toured the United States and gave many lectures on the topic so close to her heart.

Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards by Percival Ball, marble, 1873 (National Portrait Gallery, London)

Amelia died in April of 1892 of influenza and was buried in St. Marie's Church in Bristol. She never married. Her entire collection of Egyptian antiquities was bequeathed to University College London, as well as money to found an Edwards Chair of Egyptology.

Amelia Edward's obelisk tombstone

Resources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Edwards, http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/edwards/edwards.html

Friday Art & History Feature - European Castles

I'm fascinated with ancient castles and palaces, and Western Europe is ripe with them. Here are some of my favorite castles (most of which I'm yet to visit).

France

Chateau de Chambord in Loire Valley

Chateau la Rochefoucauld

Chateau de Chenonceau in Loire Valley

Italy

Castello di Soave in Verona

Fenis Castle in Aosta Valley

 

Castel Sant'angelo in Rome, which I had the pleasure of seeing

Spain

Coca castle in Segovia

Alcazar Castle in Segovia

Castillo de Loarre

England

Bodiam Castle

Alnwick Castle

Herstmonceux Castle

Windsor Castle

Ireland

Burnratty Castle

Blarney Castle

Dublin Castle

Kilkenny Castle

This is just a very small sampling of the unbelievable number of beautiful castles located in Western Europe.

Do you like castles? Which ones are your favorite?

Friday Art & History Feature - J. M. W. Turner

The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last Berth to be broken up

J.M.W. Turner - Joseph Mallord William Turner - was a preeminent British Romantic painter of oil and watercolor landscapes. He is well known for bringing the art of landscape to the level of epic proportions. His use of light and color is spectacular and his style is a forerunner to Impressionism.

Self Portrait c. 1799

Born in 1775 in London into the family of a barber and a daughter of butchers, he showed early artistic inclinations with his sketch drawings of countryside, where he stayed with his maternal uncle. His father encouraged his talent and proudly displayed the drawings in his shop window, even selling them for a few coins. Turner's early exercises were focused on mastering perspective and included many architectural structures. In 1790, at the age of 15, he entered the Royal Academy of Arts.

St Erasmus In Bishop Islips Chapel Westminster Abbey

A Storm on the Lagoon of Venice

In the following years, Turner traveled extensively all over Europe and studied at the Louvre in 1802. As he became older, the artist became more and more eccentric with few close friends. It is interesting to note that his father, who stayed with him for 30 years, was one of his closest friends and eventually an assistant. Turner was struggling with bouts of depression after his father passed away. He never married. He did have a relationship with a widow, older than himself, by the name of Sarah Danbury. She had two daughters by him.

Rouen Cathedral

He died in December of 1851. The words "the sun is God" are attributed to him as said right before he died. Turner was very successful and prolific during his lifetime. He left over 19,000 watercolors, drawings and oils to Britain.

A First Rate Taking in Stores

Fishermen at Sea

Dawn in Northam Castle

Venice

Friday Art & History Feature - Fashion and Jewelry of Renaissance Italy and England

I love looking at the fashion and jewelry of epochs gone by. Today, I thought I'd share two of my favorite periods in history, fashion-wise: Renaissance Italy and Tudor England. I have especially enjoyed watching this fashion on two of the Showtime series - The Tudors and The Borgias.

Italian Renaissance

Portrait of Lucrezia Panciatrichi by Angelo Bronzino

Bella by Titian

Lady With A Unicorn by Raphael Sanzio. Thought to be a portrait of Julia Farnese, mistress of Rodrigo Borgia.

Joanne Whalley as Vannozza dei Cattanei on the Showtime the Borgias

Holliday Grainger as Lucrezia and Francois Arnaud as Cesare on the Showtime the Borgias

Tudor Era - England

Annabelle Wallis as Queen Jane on the Showtime Tudors

Anne Boleyn

Fashion of which periods of history and regions of the world do you enjoy looking at?