Thomas More and Family (c. 1526–28)
Hans Holbein the Younger
The Old Lodge, Woodstock, England
Background: Ysabeau casually told Phoebe that More’s whole “sainted” family was somewhere in one of the Old Lodge attics. The evidence that Holbein produced such a work comes from his preparatory sketch of the family, which still survives, as well as copies of the final painting, which differ slightly from the sketch. Matthew’s copy of More’s family portrait includes depictions of More; his father and son; his second wife, Alice; and his daughters.
Holbein was recommended to Thomas More by his friend Erasmus, the humanist scholar based in the Netherlands. When Holbein first came to England in 1526, it is thought that he probably stayed with the Mores at their house in Chelsea, on the outskirts of London. Thomas More was later executed for treason when he refused to acknowledge Henry VIII as the new head of the Church of England, and he was venerated by Catholics as a principled martyr. Historians’ views about him differ widely, with bias on both sides. Many argue he was not the saint he had been made out to be. Ysabeau thought him an arrogant young man.
Other Old Masters
Portrait of the Minister Johannes Bogardus (c. 1610–11)
Frans Hals
Helderberg Huis, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Background: Frans Hals (c. 1582/3–1666), a Dutch portrait painter based in Haarlem, became famous for his looser painting style, which Ysabeau commented made his work look unfinished. His approach had a huge influence on art in his country in that period, and it was only natural that Matthew would have collected his paintings, having relocated to Amsterdam around this time. The painting that Ysabeau referred to of the “gloomy minister” is Hals’s lost Portrait of the Minister Johannes Bogardus, now known only from an engraving by Jan van de Velde, pictured here.
Bogardus was a preacher in Haarlem, having fled to the city from Bruges, Belgium, in 1584. He died in Haarlem in 1614. This was not the last work Matthew commissioned from Hals. In 1617 Matthew asked Hals to paint a group portrait of several members of the Knights of Lazarus, including Godfrey de Clermont and Gallowglass. It is reminiscent in style to Hals’s early masterpiece The Banquet of the Officers of the St. George Militia Company in 1616. This is so large it takes up an entire wall of Matthew’s house in Amsterdam.
Unknown Married Couple (c. 1750s)
Joshua Reynolds
Clairmont House, London, England
Background: This life-size double portrait of Ysabeau and Philippe de Clermont hung over a fireplace in Clairmont House. It made a strong impression on Diana when she first saw it, not just for its vividness but for the perception of the artist in capturing Philippe and Ysabeau’s relationship. The man, in a cream-and-blue silk suit with a sword hung from his belt, smiles as he glances sideways at his wife. She, dressed in a cream-and-gold silk dress, looks directly at the viewer, her hand resting gently in her husband’s fingers. At the end of The Book of Life, the picture was loaned out for a Joshua Reynolds exhibition, its place on the wall taken by Jack Blackfriars’s portrait of Diana and Matthew.
Joshua Reynolds (1723–92) was a prolific eighteenth-century English painter who became the first president of the Royal Academy of Arts in London and was knighted by George III. There are no records of Reynolds’s having created this painting, but three separate works of English gentry he produced at the time give a sense of the style, color, and elements in the painting.
Portrait of a Lady (c. 1665)
Sir Peter Lely
Gatehouse, the Old Lodge, Woodstock, England
Background: Diana saw this portrait of Matthew’s striking and terrifying sister, Louisa de Clermont, hanging above one of the mantelpieces in the modern-day Old Lodge. It depicts a dark-haired woman in a yellow gown, looking boldly out at the viewer. This is quite similar to Peter Lely’s Portrait of a Lady, probably Mary Parsons, later Mrs. Draper. Peter Lely (1618–80) was a famous painter of Dutch origin who lived most of his life in England. He painted for both the Crown and Parliament through the troubled period of the English Civil War and later the Restoration. By the end of his career, Lely had a large workshop of painters creating an enormous output. This lady captures the dangerous allure that Louisa would have held for humans.
Miniatures of an Unknown Couple (c. 1590)
Nicholas Hilliard
Les Revenants, France
Background: Marcus was stunned when he discovered these two miniatures at Sotheby’s (not to mention being quite taken with the employee who showed them to him). A wedding gift to Diana and Matthew from their friend Mary Sidney, the paintings capture the two of them as the mysterious Roydons of the sixteenth century and convey an intimacy that suggests they were meant only for the eyes of husband and wife. The woman has long golden hair tinged with red, her face framed by an open-necked ruff against a vivid blue background, common to Hilliard’s pieces. Her eyes are pale, and she smiles gently at the viewer. The miniature of the man shows him with black hair brushed back from his face, his white linen shirt open, and his long fingers holding a jewel suspended from a chain. Flames twist in the background behind him, a symbol of passion. They are a beautiful memento of Diana and Matthew’s journey to Elizabethan England.
When I started writing A Discovery of Witches, I knew precisely which image captured the elusive creature Matthew Roydon: this portrait of an unknown man caught in flames. We once thought Nicholas Hilliard painted it, but now we’re not so sure and believe it might have been painted by his apprentice Isaac Oliver. Like Matthew himself, this man among flames is caught in a world of secrets and unmet desires. Yet when his calm eyes meet ours, we can’t help wanting to know him better.
Like many writers, I try to make every detail of my books as accurate as possible. Even so, I make mistakes! But what does “accurate” mean for fiction? As a historian, I have a clear idea of what I’m trying to achieve (and yes, even historians make mistakes). When writing history, nothing can be fudged—you have to be as transparent as possible about every missing link, slip, possible error in your writing. In fiction, a little historical fudge is sometimes necessary to make a story work. Take this miniature of a woman by Nicholas Hilliard, for instance. It features in the story and looks just like Diana. But even though it was right in many ways, it’s supposed to be Elizabeth of Bohemia and, based on clothing, was painted a bit later than 1590. So I chose a different image and worked with that. But it wasn’t entirely satisfying. Then I went back to this image. It’s not dated. It’s not positively attributed in Hilliard’s hand as being Elizabeth of Bohemia. It doesn’t look like any other picture of Elizabeth of Bohemia. Who is it really? Could it be Diana? In the end, I returned to this image and decided that, within the confines of Shadow of Night, it could serve as a miniature of Diana in 1590—that a little historical fudge was okay. If I were writing a scholarly article on portrait miniatures, would I make this claim? No. But that’s one of the joys of writing fiction!
The Trees Have Ears and the Field Has Eyes, triptych altarpiece (late fifteenth century)
Hieronymus Bosch
De Clermont Family Chapel, Sept-Tours, France
Background: “The forest has eyes, and the woods have ears; therefore I will see, be silent, and hear”; this proverb is depicted in the exterior image of the altarpiece that was a gift to Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. Made up of three hinged wood panels, the triptych is characteristically rich in Bosch’s strange imagery. The exterior is covered in a velvety black pigment, with a wizened tree spanning the front panels, a wolf crouched in its roots, an owl perched in the branches, and eyes shining out from the background. Behind the dead oak tree is a forest of other trees that, on closer inspection, have ears growing from them. The interior three panels show three interrelated scenes: fallen angels, the dead rising for the Last Judgment, and, in the center, the resurrected Lazarus climbing from his coffin. Rudolf II wa
s delighted with Matthew de Clermont’s gift of this Bosch altarpiece when Matthew and Diana visited his court in Prague. It didn’t mean he would give them what they wanted in return, however.
Hieronymus Bosch—or Jeroen, as Mathew knew him—was a painter from the Netherlands in the late fifteenth century (c. 1450–1516) whose work became famous for its bizarre combinations and fantastical, often macabre scenes. Bosch did several large altarpieces, his most famous perhaps The Garden of Earthly Delights. His drawing The Trees Have Ears and the Field Has Eyes, perhaps a sketch for part of the de Clermont altarpiece, is now in the Kupferstich-Sammlung der königliche Museum, Berlin. Matthew revealed to Diana that Bosch had once seen him feed, which was why the image of Lazarus on the altarpiece looked very like him; Bosch subsequently believed that all creatures had a dual nature of half human, half animal. The piece made its way back into de Clermont hands following the death of Rudolf ii and the dispersal of his prized art collection.
Diana Interrupted at Her Toilette by Actaeon (1590s)
Bartholomew Spranger
Armorer’s Tower Storeroom, Sept-Tours, France
Background: Bartholomeus Spranger (1546–1611) was an influential Flemish artist of the late sixteenth century, as well as a sculptor, draftsman, and etcher, who became known for his distinctive style and the openly erotic nature of his works. He was a star of the imperial court, and Diana was lucky enough to see one of his new paintings of Venus rising from her bath among Rudolf’s art collection. Tadeáš Hájek reported uncomfortably that the picture was “very large and . . . ah, detailed,” with a striking resemblance to the emperor’s mistress. Diana later heard that Rudolf had instructed Spranger to produce a new study of Diana interrupted at her toilette. There are no records of Spranger’s having created such a painting, but in fact Philippe de Clermont purchased it after Rudolf’s death, and it remains in storage. It would look similar to Spranger’s famous image of Venus and Adonis (without the lovers’ embrace).
Diana Bishop and Matthew Clairmont (2010)
Jack Blackfriars
Clairmont House, London, England
Background: Jack’s artistic talent is channeled into exorcising the terrors he has suffered for centuries. The macabre murals he produced in New Haven revealed some of the terrible demons that haunt him. With this painting of Diana and Matthew, Jack showed his newfound stability, as well as love and devotion for his parents. Diana sits in an Elizabethan chair, with Matthew standing behind her. They both look at the viewer as he reaches over her shoulder to clasp her raised left hand, their fingers intertwined. Diana’s left wrist is exposed, revealing an ouroboros circling her pulse, the symbol of the Bishop-Clairmonts. The painting hangs in the spot above the mantelpiece where Philippe and Ysabeau’s portrait once was.
Objects
A Silver-Gilt Mousetrap (late sixteenth century)
Attributed to Nicholas Vallin
Les Revenants, France
Exquisitely worked silver-gilt mousetrap, featuring a watchful cat with lethal teeth and a mouse perched on its nose. The piece is engraved with Hippocrates’ aphorism Ars longa, vita brevis (Art is long, but life is short). The rest of the aphorism appears around the base: Occasio praeceps, experimentum periculosum, iudicium difficile (Opportunity is fleeting, experiment dangerous, and judgment difficult). Though the piece is not signed, it is reliably attributed to Nicholas Vallin.
Background: In sixteenth-century London, Diana was concerned that Matthew’s library would be eaten by the vermin that ran rampant in the attic. She commissioned the craftsman Nicholas Vallin, known now for his exquisite clocks, to devise a trap based on a design from a pamphlet she found in John Chandler’s shop in Cripplegate. The pamphlet was “Booke of Engines (and traps to take Polcats, Buzardes, Rattes, Mice and all other kindes of Vermine and beast whatsoever, most profitable for all Warriners, and such as delight in this kinde of sport and pastime)” by Leonard Mascall, 1590.
The trap’s cost was three times what an Elizabethan servant might make in a year, and Matthew reserved the right to tease Diana about it for the next sixty years. Loyal vampire Alain kept it hidden for centuries, ensuring that it passed back to Diana on her return to the present day.
Diana-and-Stag Automaton (late sixteenth century)
Joachim Friess
Armory Tower Storeroom, Sept-Tours, France
The goddess Diana, riding sidesaddle on the back of a stag with a pair of hunting dogs at her feet. Silver and gilt, enameled, and set with jewels, about 15 inches high by 10 inches wide.
Background: Matthew was not pleased when Diana received this suggestive gift from Rudolf II. The automaton he gave her would have been similar to a later piece, currently owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, made by Joachim Friess around the year 1620. You can even watch it in motion.*
Automata were popular in the period and were made in many European cities. This one was intended for use in a drinking game known as Trinkspiel. The automaton was wound up and run down the table; when it stopped in front of a gentleman, he had to remove the stag’s head and drink the contents of its hollow body. If it stopped in front of a lady, she had to do the same with one of the two hunting dogs.
The de Clermont automaton was deposited in the armory storeroom by Gallowglass de Clermont at an unknown date, wrapped in a brown burlap sack. It is not, at present, in working order.
Compendium with Lunar Volvelle (late sixteenth century)
Erasmus Habermel
Les Revenants, France
Brass-and-silver compendium, an instrument that carries numerous devices for telling the time and performing astronomical calculations, in the de Clermont private collection. This compendium includes a sundial, a compass, an intricate lunar volvelle—whose gears could be set to tell the date, time, ruling sign of the zodiac, and phase of the moon—and, for unknown reasons, a latitude chart that includes the cities of Roanoke, London, Lyon, Prague, and Jerusalem. It also features an erasable tablet, made of specially treated paper that could be written on and then wiped off to make fresh notes.
Background: Erasmus Habermel (c. 1538–1606) was one of the sixteenth century’s most prominent mathematical instrument makers. Diana’s compendium, which Rudolf instructed Habermel to create for her, is based on a combination of devices. The general structure of it would be similar to a piece made by the instrument maker Johann Anton Linden in 1596 (now held at the British Museum), with the details in Habermel’s distinctive style. Other Habermel examples include a compendium once owned by Johannes Kepler, held at the National Technical Museum in Prague, and an astronomical compendium held at the Louvre in Paris. Alain returned Diana’s compendium to her in the present day, along with other significant items from her trip to the past.
Various members of Diana’s household supposed that the compendium was enchanted and called it the witch clock, but Diana and Gallowglass finally worked out that the compendium was searching for the missing pages of the Book of Life. And eventually the enchanted compendium did help Diana complete her search, pointing them to the daemon Timothy Weston’s house in Chipping Weston, Oxfordshire.
A Clepsydra or Water Clock (1560)
Design by Oronce Finé
Square Tower Attic, Sept-Tours, France
A clepsydra, or water clock, an ancient method of keeping time using the regulated flow of liquid into and out of a vessel, by the renowned mathematician and cartographer Oronce Finé. The clock was originally constructed and given to King François I of France. It was thought lost but has now been discovered in the de Clermont private collection.
Background: Oronce Finé (1494–1555) was born around the time of the European discovery of America and turned his intellect to the explorations of the era. He became a celebrated mathematician and cartographer, and his heart-shaped map projection influenced other famous cartographers, such as Gerardus Mercator. He was also interested
in instruments of many kinds, including astronomical equipment.
The water clock, based on the design from De solaribus of horologiis, & Quadrantibus, Paris, Guillaume Cavellat, S.D. (1560), is widely believed to have disappeared. In fact François lost it to the vampire Philippe de Clermont in a card game. Philippe instituted a happy tradition of winding the device and firing the guns for the delight of the children on Saturnalia. Sadly, the mechanisms did not always work as intended, especially not after Philippe started tinkering with them. The condition of the clock is very poor, and there are several pieces missing. It shows signs of fire damage.
White Queen Chess Piece, Silver (sixteenth century)
Unattributed
Les Revenants, France
Silver chess piece, slightly under four inches tall, depicting the Roman goddess Diana with her companion animal, the stag. Diana is in motion, one foot striding forward while she reaches over her shoulder to draw an arrow from her quiver. Her other hand rests on the antlers of the stag.
Background: To journey back to the past, Diana and Matthew needed three objects from the time and place to which they were traveling, this being one of them. It was taken from Matthew’s costly silver chess set in the sixteenth-century Old Lodge. This depiction of the Roman goddess is modeled on a slightly oversize marble sculpture held at the Louvre in Paris. The sculpture is known as the Diana of Versailles and is a first- or second-century Roman copy of a lost Greek original, in bronze. Interestingly, the bow has broken off, leaving the goddess in the same predicament that Diana Bishop found herself in just before killing Benjamin.
The World of All Souls Page 39
