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Category Archives: M&G Collection Online

Object of the Month: October 2025

The Trial of Queen Catherine

Oil on canvas, 1880; signed lower left

Laslett John Pott, RBA

English, 1837–1898

 

The Victorian period is known for its diverse richness as an era of scientific and technological innovation, industry, the development of the novel, the rise of the middle class, incredible social reforms, the expansion of the British empire, and . . . the golden age of English painting.

For us to appreciate the breadth and influence of art during the time, Denys Brook-Hart writes, “the galaxy of artistic talent and endeavour which rose to its peak in the 19th century in Britain had not previously been rivalled in any other country or period. For proof of sheer quantity one needs only to mention the 25,000 professional artists who exhibited in London alone. For quality it is amply sufficient to quote the names of Turner and Constable in their places at the head of a long list of distinguished and truly marvellous artists, many of whom had the rank of genius.”

While being a member and/or an exhibitor of the Royal Academy (founded during King George III’s reign) was considered the height of honor, many other art societies developed before and during Victoria’s rule to train and exhibit artists. Approved by King George IV in 1824, the Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) was organized and began to exhibit annually. Painter Laslett John Pott later became an elected member.

Pott was a child prodigy. Biographers Clare Erskine Clement and Laurence Hutton relate that he “drew cleverly when not more than five years old.” His skill, particularly as a history painter, gave him opportunity to exhibit at least 40 paintings at London’s Royal Academy, beginning in 1860 when he was only twenty-three and including M&G’s painting, The Trial of Queen Catherine in 1880.

Here, Pott conflates two parts of the historical telling into one scene. According to the eyewitness account of Cardinal Wolsey’s gentleman-usher and biographer George Cavendish, Catherine was called to appear before the Legatine Court at Blackfriars where Henry sat upon a canopied dais to watch. Rather than addressing the court, which she felt would legitimize their purpose, she made a rational and impassioned appeal on knee to her seated husband only, then arose, curtsied to the king, and left the hall. The council summoned her to return, but she refused on the grounds that they had already decided against her. Cavendish recounts that later Wolsey met with Catherine for further discussion; however, she strongly and loudly rebuked him for his action motivated by political ambition.

The painting dramatizes the nobility of Catherine of Aragon. She holds her skirt as if she has just risen from kneeling and is preparing to leave after she finishes confronting those from church and state who would declare her marriage of twenty-four years to Henry VIII void—namely, Cardinal Wolsey (standing at the table) and the pope’s emissary, Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio (seated).

Catherine, the youngest daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, had married Arthur, heir to England’s throne, when she was fifteen. Four months later she was a widow. When she married the next heir to the throne, Henry, she was twenty-three, he only eighteen. Her primary duty as queen, to produce a male heir, was tragically unsuccessful; although she bore six children, none except Mary lived longer than a few months.

Henry argued that the marriage was null since he had violated church law by marrying his brother’s widow, although the pope had granted approval for the marriage. Now desperate for a male heir and enamored with the young Anne Boleyn, the king pressured Wolsey and Campeggio to convince Catherine to agree to their demands. After her refusal, Henry took matters into his own hands and declared himself, not the pope, head of the Church in England, annulled the marriage, and married Anne (who only produced a daughter—Elizabeth). Of course, Henry in pursuit of a male heir found reasons to escape his marriage to Anne, then Jane Seymour, and three subsequent wives.

 

Erin R. Jones, Executive Director

 

Sources:

Johnson, Jane. Works Exhibited at the Royal Academy of British Artists 1824-1893 and the New English Art Club 1888-1917w:  An Antique Collectors’ Club Research Project. 1974

Erskine, Clara and Hutton, Laurence. Artists of the Nineteenth Century and Their Works. A Handbook Containing Two Thousand and Fifty Biographical Sketches. Boston, 1875

Graves, Algernon. A Dictionary of Artists Who Have Exhibited Works in the Principal London Exhibitions of Oil Paintings from 1760 to 1880. 1884.

 

Published 2025

St. Bartholomew

St. Bartholomew

Jean Bellegambe

Below the image, click play to listen.

The Holy Family with St. John the Baptist: Michel Corneille, the Younger

In this beautifully tranquil scene, Michel Corneille includes a variety of traditional symbols highlighting Christ’s sacrifice for our sin.

Object of the Month: September 2025

Sea Captain’s Chest

Oak, Initialed and Dated: 1614

Dutch, 17th century

The Museum & Gallery’s renowned collection of art reflects timeless Truth communicated over centuries of storytelling by the most notable artists of their day. These artists sought to share transcendent spiritual realities, but each was limited to the historical “palette” available to them—levels of biblical understanding, historical and geographical knowledge, national boundaries and cultural context. While studying the artworks, we also learn of the cultural landscape of their time.

In a way that is unique in the art world, the Museum & Gallery’s important “canvasses” are not just on the walls. The nearly 150 pieces of medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque furniture expand our knowledge of the eras in which they were made and the distinctive purposes for which they were created.

Take for instance this Dutch Sea Captain’s Chest. Made from dense, rot-resistant Northern European oak, constructed with sides that splay outward as they rise toward the domed lid (in order to fit against a ship’s interior hull) and including a second, smaller compartment inside, the chest is bound with thin iron strapwork that serves as structural reinforcement, security, and decorative purposes. Engraved on the substantial lock are the year (1614), month (December) and initials of its maker or owner (CNDE). While most sailors had a small, simple sea chest, a captain’s sea chest would reflect the greater size of his responsibility, his social position, and the types of things that would be needed during an 8–10-month voyage (charts and maps, important trade documents, the sailors’ pay, and personal possessions). Such chests were a necessity, but they also came to be artworks in their own right.

This M&G chest hails from the Dutch Golden Age, which extended from the 17th through the early 18th centuries. This era witnessed an explosion of Dutch arts, trade, wealth and world standing. Rembrandt (1606-1660) and Vermeer (1632-1675) both lived in the 1600s, and they recorded the wealth and complexity of their society. Many of their patrons and subjects were astoundingly wealthy noblemen and merchants. None of this would have been possible without Dutch sea trade and the ships’ captains, who facilitated it.

The main engine of Holland’s wealth and global importance was the Dutch East India Company (or Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, VOC). Founded in 1602 and liquidated in 1795, the VOC was the most significant of the early European trading companies operating in Asia, and a little background is in order.

In 1579 the Treaty of Utrecht united the Low Countries (the seven northern provinces) in their struggle for independence from the Spanish/Hapsburg rule, forming what would become the Republic of the United Netherlands. Even before this union the mariners and merchants of these provinces were the most prolific and successful in the region. In 1599, likely using information gained through espionage, the first Dutch fleet attempted to break Portugal’s monopoly of the Asian spice trade. The endeavor was only mildly successful financially, but it showed what might be done.

By 1602, so many Dutch companies were competing for the spice trade that the price and glut of spices in Europe became an issue. In a single act of fiat, the Dutch government amalgamated these companies into a single entity, the United Dutch East India Company. The government gave the company a monopoly on the spice trade via the Cape of Good Hope, and it would become a behemoth.

By the middle of the 1600s the Dutch East India Company would own 150 ships, have 50,000 employees worldwide, field a private army of 10,000 soldiers, and maintain outposts from the Persian Gulf to Japan. This, the world’s first truly multinational company, had the right to wage war, create new colonies, make treaties, punish and execute criminals, and coin its own money. Between 1602 and 1796—a time when a round-trip voyage from Amsterdam to Jakarta required at least 8-10 months—the Dutch East India Company conducted more than 5,000 voyages between Holland and Asia.

In a single object, M&G’s Dutch Sea Captain’s Chest embodies a Golden Age of art, exploration, and trade.  Similar chests would have been familiar to Rembrandt, Hals and Vermeer, and it’s fitting to have such a chest in the Collection. If we listen, they illumine us about both their own cultural moment and the influence that culture continues to have upon the world as we know it.

 

Dr. Stephen B. Jones, M&G volunteer

 

Resources:

Museum of Western Australia

en.unesco.org

World History Encyclopedia

 

 

Published 2025

 

Madonna and Child: Ambrosius Benson

In this lovely painting, Ambrosius Benson captures the innovative spirit of the Renaissance and Reformation painters.

Egyptian Pottery Offering Tray

Egyptian Pottery Offering Tray

Egyptian, 11th dynasty

Below the image, click play to listen.

 

Object of the Month: August 2025

Lamentation over the Dead Christ

Oil on panel, c. 1610–12

Abraham Janssens

Flemish, c. 1575–1632

 

When the word “baroque” is mentioned, there are two names that people associate with this art history movement—Italian artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio and Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens. Both artists dominated Europe with their dramatic scenes, rich colors, chiaroscuro, accomplishments, and larger-than-life personalities. In the shadow of these masters and their artistic masterpieces, other artists have done their best to imitate or infuse their own style with these titans’ techniques. One such artist is fellow countryman to Rubens, Abraham Janssens.

Janssens’s work had impressive range. Throughout his career, his subject matter included biblical, historical, and allegorical scenes as well as occasional portraits. His stylistic changes are perhaps the most interesting. The first paintings of his oeuvre would be labeled Flemish Mannerist. Then after a trip to Italy in the early 1600s, he began to adopt a more Caravaggesque approach. Finally, his work became more Rubenesque after Rubens returned home and began to command the Flemish art scene. Janssens’s shift in his different styles can be seen in one specific subject matter—the Lamentation of Christ.

The Lamentation of Christ is an extra-biblical subject that portrayed groups of people mourning around the dead Christ. As mentioned in the gospels (Matthew 27:59-61, Mark 15:46-47, Luke 23:53-56, and John 19:38-42), this group usually included His mother, Mary, and various others. It is the perfect subject matter to compare Janssens’s stylistic shift since it shows strong emotion, sculptural figures, and a dramatic biblical narrative.

First, is Janssens’s Lamentation of Christ painted between 1600 and 1604. This work shows typical Mannerist characteristics with its bright colors and elongated figures. There is emotion, but it is not the intense drama of the Baroque. Since Janssens was in Rome from 1598-1601, it is interesting to note that he did not immediately adopt Caravaggio’s style. According to 17th-century Dutch painting scholar, Justus Müller Hofstede, most of Caravaggio’s early innovations in Italian painting (ca. 1593-1598) such as half-figure compositions, still-life painting, and secularization of religious themes were already in use in Antwerp. Hofstede concludes that Caravaggio’s early pioneer work wouldn’t have impressed Janssens.

It wasn’t until 1607 that Janssens began incorporating Caravaggio’s technique. This style is wonderfully shown in the Museum & Gallery’s Lamentation Over the Dead Christ, painted between 1610-1612. There is a marked stylistic shift to baroque characteristics compared to the first Lamentation. There is a sculptural, monumental quality to his figures, which would become a trademark of Janssen’s career. The lighting is harsh and dramatic and reminiscent of Caravaggio’s best works. This Lamentation also shows an extreme depth of sorrow. The furrowed, anguished brow on Mary is a contrast to the first Lamentation’s rather passive Mary.

Finally, Janssens began adapting to a Rubenesque approach. His later The Lamentation over the Dead Christ painted in 1621-22 includes similar elements from M&G’s Caravaggesque example. However, it does not have the same harshness or extreme sorrow. You can see Rubens’s influence in the rich coloring and more dramatic movement throughout the composition. Janssens still maintains his trademark stiffness and sculptural feel to his figures. According to historian Irene Schaudies, it is Janssens’s focus on his figures looking like classical statues rather than painting from empirical observation like Caravaggio and Rubens that kept Janssens in their shadow. Nevertheless, by looking at these three paintings, one can appreciate what a master Janssens was with his different stylistic portrayals of one of the most emotive scenes in Scripture.

 

KC Christmas Beach, M&G summer art educator

 

 

Published 2025

Samson Slaying the Philistines: Orazio de’ Ferrari

Orazio de’ Ferrari skillfully captures one of the Old Testament’s most powerful stories.

Pavel Ovchinnikov

Christ, the Pantocrator

Pavel Ovchinnikov

Below the image, click play to listen.

 

Object of the Month: July 2025

Procession to Calvary

Oil on Panel

Otto van Veen

Flemish, c. 1556–d. 1629

 

Otto van Veen was a classically trained humanist artist or pictor doctus, a concept created by the ancient writer Horace in his Ars Poetica signifying the attempt by artists to regain the social standing of the ancients. Otto van Veen succeeded. A renowned court painter to several rulers, he led the Antwerp art scene, diminishing only when his pupil Peter Paul Rubens returned from his travels in 1608. He paid tribute to Horace by creating two series of emblematic art which coupled Horatian proverbs with an illustrative image. A Romanist painter, he continued the traditions of the church through his work, including this one in M&G’s collection.

Using the usual cast of characters—Roman soldiers, weeping women, Simon of Cyrene, and a jeering mob—van Veen pictures the procession to Calvary just outside the city gate. A woman in the foreground holds up a piece of cloth to Christ who has stumbled under the cross and brought the procession to a momentary halt. St. Veronica offers her veil to Christ to wipe his brow. Traditionally, He accepts her kindness and a likeness of His face appears on the veil when it is returned to her. Scholars debate whether the woman is named Veronica or that the replication of Christ’s “true image”—vera icon—contributed to her name. She is part of a trio of women; the others have children with them, which reminds the viewer that Christ welcomed little children to come to Him. Just slightly behind these women are Mary with clasped hands in her usual blue robe and John, already attentive to her wellbeing.

Van Veen visually divides the scene with the positioning of the cross. On one side is the sympathetic crowd; on the other is the iron hand of Rome. The right side of the panel draws the viewer’s eye to the white horse ridden by a Roman soldier and the muscular figure pulling Christ up the hill with a rope. The dress of this man and the man behind the cross who whips Simon and Christ indicates that they are not part of the military structure of Rome. Instead, they seem to be commoners employed by Rome for the occasion. Combining this fact with the intense, backward gaze of the prominent soldier on horseback creates a personal interaction between the viewer and the scene. The sinfulness of every man compels an atonement be made for a restoration of relationship with God. In the foreground, the open area at this stopping point on the way to Golgotha provides room for the viewer to be included in the picture’s events and to consider which “side” of the scene he will be part of: sympathetic or condemnatory.

 

Dr. Karen Rowe Jones, M&G board member

 

Published 2025

Additional Resources:

For additional information on an etching by N. Muxel made after Otto van Veen’s Procession click here.

To see an image of Otto van Veen’s Christ Meeting St. Veronica from the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium click here.

 

 

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