Holbein’s epic The Ambassadors is seen as one of the most mysterious paintings in Western art. But understand the circumstances in which it was made, in 1533, and the meaning becomes clearer. Let me try a thesis on you. Long 🧵
1/ First, some thread info - the painting is in the National Gallery in London, worth a visit! My research is taken from my new book (The Invention of British Art). And the pictures are mostly from Google’s excellent high-res image, zoom in here:
2/
artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-amba…

In case you're wondering where all the arts TV has gone on the BBC, then today's Annual Report is both revealing and depressing. A short 🧵
1/ First, Arts and Music spend is down again, from £39m in 2022/3 to £34m in 2023/4. This is a 12% cut. It is true overall 'content spending' is down (due to Licence Fee freezes) but only by 3.5%.
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Image fees - EXCELLENT news: the National Galleries of Scotland no longer claim copyright in digital images of historic artworks. These high-res images are therefore now in the public domain, and free to use. 🧵 I asked the NGS, under the Freedom of Information Act:
"On what legal basis NGS claims copyright in digital images of out of copyright, two-dimensional artworks (e.g. paintings, drawings or prints) in its collection?"
>

Finally made it to the new Burrell Collection in Glasgow. Wow, what a triumph of museum renovation and curation. > The lighting is superb, in all settings and for all types of objects. A rarity.

🚨 Image fees and UK museums - a breakthrough moment. The system is collapsing. There is now no reason to pay fees for historic artworks (2D) in most cases.

The UK's art history tax is over. Scholars, the public *and museums* will be better off. A 🧵 The collapse is due to UK copyright law, and in particular a Court of Appeal ruling which clarifies - there is *no copyright*​ in museum photos of paintings/drawings which are themselves out of copyright. >

Image Fees - there's an important development after a recent Court of Appeal ruling. It's Good News for historians and art historians (and art lovers generally).
Long thread. > Those of us who've had to pay image fees will know the system relies on museums claiming copyright in their photos - irrespective of whether the art they're photographing is itself in copyright.

(In the UK, copyright lasts for 70 years after the death of the artist). >

I've been waiting all day for something vaguely intelligent from leading unionists, but nope - nothing. Instead, their now familiar "no" has been upgraded to "never". > I can't quite believe it. Today was a massive opportunity for someone on the Unionist side to reach out. For example >

Still surprised at the inability of many pundits, military figures and politicians to accept the scale of Russia’s defeat in Ukraine? In Britain, at least, we’ve a longstanding blindspot when it comes to assessing Russia’s true strength. It goes back to the 19th century. 1/4 In 1878, for example, Disraeli persuaded himself that Russia was not only about to seize Constantinople, but then take Suez. Impossible, but he almost went to war over it. It risked being WW1, three decades early. 2/4

How did we end up with an overconfident amateur crashing the UK economy in one statement? Many reasons, but a big one is a glitch in our constitution which goes back to the Civil War. 🧵 Originally our system of government was established with two separate arms, the executive, the crown, and the legislature, Parliament.

Between Putin calling for a ceasefire and Ukraine requesting NATO membership, I think we can see a path to a resolution of this war? It would certainly involve a lot of painful compromise for Ukraine. Though ultimately it will gain something it didn’t have before, the most effective guarantee against further Russian aggression it could ever realistically have.

If Labour's poll leads stay that high, it'll soon be every Tory MP for themselves time. Not impossible, with defections and resignations, that her Commons majority disappears. Let's speculate for fun:

~20 Red Wall defections to Labour,
~10 south & south west seats to Lib Dem,
quiet promise of a peerages to ~10 more to sit as independents.

That gives you a Labour-led coalition.

I find the quiet from governments such as our own and the US on this quite interesting. I think we can assume they have intelligence on exactly what has happened.

https://twitter.com/carlbildt/status/1575014968952504321

We will have been in 'you do that, we'll do this' territory for some time, behind the scenes. But now it's out in the open.

So, dear followers, I'm sorry to have to tell you we're entering the sh*t gets real stage.

For my latest @TheArtNewspaper column I wrote about this portrait at Burghley House in Lincolnshire, of Magdalen, Viscountess Montagu (1538-1608). Previously thought to be a posthumous portrait, I think it is probably by Hans Eworth, Mary Tudor's court artist. 1/ @TheArtNewspaper There's an intriguing detail, the jewel. I couldn't work out the scene, but my virtual priest @RobinGibbons2 identified it (without knowing the sitter's name) as the Noli me Tangere story. Christ leaves the tomb, Mary Magdalene on the right, a sleeping soldier on the left. 2/

Questions for the PM. On 8th December he said in the Commons about Downing St parties; "It goes without saying that if those rules were broken, there will be disciplinary action for all those involved." What disciplinary action will those involved face, and will he face it too? In the Commons on 1st December, the Prime Minister referred to an allegation from Ian Blackford MP that he "hosted a Christmas party in Downing St... that broke lockdown rules" as "total nonsense". The Met are investigating this party, but have yet to issue fines. Was he there?

There have been three major examples of a confrontation between Russia and ‘the West’ which began on or near Russia’s south western borders, like the Ukraine crisis today. Two ended in war, one didn’t. I did my PhD on the one that didn’t, so THREAD. 1 First, the three examples: the Crimean War (1853-56); the Great Eastern Crisis (1876-8); and World War One (1914-18). (Wasn’t WWI mainly to do with Germany, you say? Yes, but look where it started, Serbia, and Austria and Russia mobilising). 2

It’s the National Trust AGM today. The main debate will be about attempts by some to present the Trust as too ‘woke’, which is a shame, because really it should be about the panicked and needless restructuring last year, which saw 1700 staff lose their jobs. > In July last year the Trust said it had to restructure because it expected to ‘lose £200m’ due to Covid. That is, an actual loss, not just a decline in income. The Trust also assumed there would be no further government support. Many thought that was too pessimistic. >

Goodness, the Uffizi is jumping on the NFT bandwagon; €140,000 for what is basically a high-res photo of a Michelangelo. Madness. news.artnet.com/art-world/uffi… This is the company that sells them. I'm not sure which is sadder; the fact that people are falling for this, or directors like James Bradbourne trying to claim these are 'original artworks'. (The museums get 50% of each sale.) cinello.com/en/museums-and…

I never thought I would see this. The @NationalGallery charging £8 for a 30 minute online tour of the Artemisia Gentileschi exhibition.

1/3

nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/artem… Charging for this short film goes against everything the NG is supposed to stand for. It is our gallery, our art. We own it, we already pay for it. And especially now, in lockdown, when the NG should redoubling its efforts to share art online.

2/3

I've written more on the National Trust's new strategy for @TheArtNewspaper. The cuts at curator level are worse than I feared.

ALL specialist curators are to go - books, furniture, paintings, sculpture, etc. (Thread, 1/)

theartnewspaper.com/comment/nation… In the central ‘Curation and Experience’ team, about 79 posts have been summarily ‘closed’. These staff must now compete amongst each other for 53 new posts. 2/

The new @nationaltrust '10 Year Vision' is truly alarming for built heritage. Less focus on art history, objects put into in storage, fewer curators, and the end of what it calls the 'outdated mansion experience'. (Thread)
thetimes.co.uk/article/nation… I've seen the internal document referred to in The Times. It's written by the Trust's Visitor Experience Director, and is full of W1A-type talk. But the last two pages refer to country houses, and it's not good news. >

One of my favourite pictures in the Old Master suctions was this Sebastiaen Vrancx, who painted battle scenes. At first it just seems a violent mess, but > > it’s a powerful reflection on civilian suffering during war. The scene begins top left, with armoured troops attacking a village and its church, setting them ablaze and murdering the inhabitants.