Thursday 30 June 2022

The Glories of the Scots Kings


 
James IV and Margaret Tudor

In film and TV, Scots Royalty is often portrayed wearing drab cloth is dingy castles, and as backward or out of touch heathens! These images are totally untrue! Recently Stirling castle has been renovated to reveal a highly colourful and richly decorated ceiling in the Great hall.








The Scots Crown jewels
 and the Stone of Destiny were hidden after the incursions of Edward Longshanks.



The Scots welcomed Charles II back and  he was crowned at scone, after he promised to protect the Scots Presbyterian religion. But he went back on his word. 

For centuries Scots had close trading routes to Flanders and were highly influenced by European materials, style and fashions.

 

The Reformation, while bringing enlightened thought and education, also meant much of Scots Art was destroyed. But one remained hidden in  abasement according to artist Lauchlin Goudie.


 



This suppression of another nation’s culture and language is a way of destroying that nation. Russia presently in the process of flattening Ukrainian buildings but its also about crushing Ukraine’s’ culture and language. 


James V

 James V wears a gown with sleeves of cloth of gold, a fabric woven with expensive gold thread. Such a material, which could be melted down to release the precious metal, was a conscious demonstration of wealth and kingship. The collar is encrusted with hundreds of pearls – a style of which the Scottish king appears to have been fond. His wardrobe inventory of 1539 describes a gown with a hood and collar ‘stitched with 49,500 pearls’. The large-scale undulating design seen on the sleeves falls into the category of motifs later classified as pomegranate. Pomegranate patterns for fashionable clothing were increasingly replaced by smaller-scale designs during the sixteenth century, although later artists such as Anthony van Dyck continued to use them as backdrops in their portraits.  #¥esScots