It's been a year since my last tweet. My Patreon supporters already know I'd planned to come back this month.
I was very, very ill for the entirety of 2019.
Now things are even more complicated. Multiple members of my family are healthcare workers in places impacted by COVID 19. My sibling’s family has COVID 19, are in military quarantine. One is in active respiratory distress.

Anonymous (Great Britain)
The Postillion
England (1730)
Oil on Canvas, 73.5 x 62.5 cm.
Erddig Park (The National Trust), Servant’s Hall.
(A postillion rides at the head of a carriage or chaise and is part of a lord’s traveling retinue.) So the text in that box was added a bit later than it was painted but I've transcribed it as best i can here: medievalpoc.tumblr.com/post/696156408…
Basically, it’s a set of rather flippant verse that explains that although no one remembers much about him (including, apparently, his name) +

Giuseppe Castiglione, also known as Lang Shining (郎世寧), was born on July 19, 1688, in the central San Marcellino district of Milan, Italy. At the age of 27, he received instructions to go to China where he served as an artist at the imperial court of three emperors. While in China, Castiglione took the name Lang Shining (郎世寧), and adapted his Western painting style to Chinese themes and taste. This painting of Xiang Fei (A woman) in European Armour was made c.1760, and resides in National Palace Museum, Taipei.

Anton Domenico Gabbiani
Portrait of Three Musicians of the Medici Court
Italy (c. 1687)
oil on canvas, 141 x 208 cm.
Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence One of the more frustrating trends I’ve noticed in archives & museum collections is how many paintings that, based on the text descriptions, you would have absolutely no clue that a person of color is in it.

Portrait of Elihu Yale, the 2nd Duke of Devonshire, Lord James Cavendish, Mr. Tunstal, and a Page
England (c. 1708)
Oil on Canvas, 201.3 x 235.6 cm.
Yale Center for British Art
collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/… So, a lot of people have misunderstandings about the role of pages like the one in this painting. Yes, there’s a massive class difference between the page pictured, and the pampered children of the gentry visible behind the page that would never be bridged.

I happened across some discussions about me pretty much by accident, and honestly I encourage ppl to think critically about what I post. But. If the fact that I make errors leads you to believe this info is inherently "untrustworthy", please reconsider ur concept of education Something that keeps me so fired up about doing this is that I get to learn as much as I teach here. Another is that I'm basically liveblogging the process of research. I'm fine if ppl want to follow without that kind of engagement, but the idea is you can do this too.

Tabernacle in the Namban Style
Japan, Spain (c. 1580-90s)
Urushi, wood, mother-of-pearl and silver. 34,4 x 57,8 x 32,2 cm.
Monasterio de la Encarnación, Madrid.
Patrimonio Nacional. Spain. "The namban liturgical lacquers that have survived to the present day in churches, monasteries and convents [...] provide tangible evidence of the cross-cultural interaction that occurred between the East and West, during the so-called ‘Christian century’ in Japan."

I <3 Hispano-Moresque ware! This style of pottery was created in Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain), and incorporated/blended Islamic & European elements. It was the most elaborate and luxurious pottery being produced in Europe until the 15th century. This lusterware is interesting from a lot of different angles: the political events that led to its creation, the science that goes into its production, and its social & economic functions. Also VERY PRETTY, like most everything from medieval Iberia: metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ccmi/h…

I usually try to keep my space free of....this sort of thing, but I have to say. This sounds like it's being read directly from hate mail i get from nazis. That is *terrifying*. Not only is this conceptualization of "loss of culture" overtly racist, it's COMPLETELY IMAGINARY.

https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1017550019551850496

"The myth of the monochrome Middle Ages, in which the medieval is originary, pure, and white, transcends geographical and temporal boundaries. It is attached, through supposed biological descent, to white bodies, wherever and whenever they go[...]"
inthemedievalmiddle.com/2014/08/re-mak…

A lot of people assume that European illuminated manuscripts must have very limited representation of human figures with dark or brown skin, and that's not really true. Historia de Proeliis (Montbaston, France c. 1340) is one with a significant percentage medievalpoc.tumblr.com/post/175746030… More from @BLMedieval Royal 19 D I, Historia de Proeliis (Montbaston, France c. 1340). The manuscript's images (and much of the text) are online here: bl.uk/catalogues/ill…

"Whitewashing Ancient Statues: Whiteness, Racism And Color In The Ancient World" by @SarahEBond
Most of of the ancient statues we admire today were originally painted in bright shades of blue, red, yellow, brown, and many other hues
forbes.com/sites/drsarahb… So, a lot of people don't realize that those "pure, white" statues we're all accustomed to seeing as window dressing in anything taking place in "Roman times", were originally painted in a very bright and eye-catching way. I've definitely heard people describe it as "garish".

The Aethiopica is a Greek romance by Heliodorus of Emesa that became massively popular across Europe c. 1550-1650, and many artworks were commissioned depicting scenes from the play, including ten large canvasses by Dutch artist Karel Van Mander III c. 1645. The story begins with a common medical belief of the time, called Maternal Impression: the idea that a pregnant woman's emotional responses to things would affect the child she bore. It was generally used to explain various disabilities and other congenital conditions.

And this is why I'll keep this up...because honestly, the majority of people feel super comfortable asserting this as if its a fact, mostly based on ubiquitous casting of white actors in fantasy fiction TV & films.

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In the 13th century Bruges was refered to as "Venice of the North" because sea trade was restored in 1134 after a storm. It became the crossroads of the northern Hanseatic league & crucial for Portuguese traders en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruges#Go…

How about today we do a thread about Facebook Memes, the Sudarium and Saint Veronica, what medieval Europeans thought Jesus looked like, why 19th century Europeans decided to that earlier depiction of Jesus as dark skinned were a problem, and how they decided to explain it away? Preemptively, I'll tell you I used to have a pinned tweet: “I am not a biblical race-prover”. This discussion pertains to depictions of biblical figures in visual culture & literature, how they vary with region and the passage of time, & sociopolitical reasons for those changes.

I saw this posted on Facebook, and that it was an image that had "gone viral" (to quote a friend) in less than a week. I couldn't confirm any of the statements made in the text, even whether or not this particular work was in the museum claimed. The truth was more interesting. Most of the images in the Coptic Museum, Cairo, date from 6th-10th century, and honestly they're breathtaking, gorgeous works:
coptic-cairo.com/museum/selecti…

I hope people realize I'm still getting harassment and death threats because someone asked me a question about a video game on tumblr back in 2013 or so and I answered it honestly. Not only that, I get another wave of it every single time anyone writes an article about that particular game, since the developer decided I was somehow, uh, "attacking"....someone or something by answering a history question.

#1800sWeek!
Okay! So! Works like these fall under the category of "Orientalism". They do not accurately represent any culture or people, and were created as sort of Western fantasies of "The Middle East" and/or "Asia". The history of the term and the concept are complicated. In 1978, Edward Said redefined the term Orientalism to describe a pervasive academic & artistic Western tradition of prejudiced interpretations of the Eastern world, shaped by the cultural attitudes of European imperialism in the 18th and 19th centuries. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientali…

Interesting how some people think that decolonizing science&academia basically means/they take it as they're gonna get Reverse Colonized 😐 It's like your whole discipline has white fragility now? because not only is it as if your concept of self has extended to your field-