She was no oil painting
QUESTION was Who or what the inspiration behind Quentin Matsys’s extraordinary 1513 painting The Ugly Duchess? FLEMISH artist Quentin Matsys (1465–1523) was born in Louven and worked as an ironsmith in Antwerp, where he painted fine works of art.
Legend has it that he abandoned his career as a blacksmith to woo his wife, who found painting a much more romantic profession.
His portrait of An Old Woman, popularly known as The Ugly Duchess, was for many years thought to have been a copy of a drawing by Leonardo Da Vinci but modern analysis of the painting suggests this was not the case and that Leonardo had been inspired by the lesser known man.
It has been long assumed to have been a portrait of Margaret, countess of Tyrol and princess of Carinthia, also known as Margarete Maultasche (pouch-mouth) but contemporary pictures of Margaret show her as being quite attractive.
Her unfortunate soubriquet may be a product of her having been a powerful woman and the fact that she secured a divorce from John Henry, Margrave (governor) of Moravia, causing scandal.
However, she lived 150 years before Matsys so he must have painted her from imagination.
In 2008, Michael Baum, emeritus professor of surgery and visiting professor of medical humanities at University College London, and his student Christopher Cook, proposed that the woman had an advanced form of Paget’s bone disease (osteitis deformans), a chronic condition characterised by the distortion of bone.
The National Gallery in London, which owns the painting, accepted their conclusion and it remains one of the gallery’s most popular pieces. The painting inspired Victorian illustrator John Tenniel to make the Cheshire-cat-owning Duchess one of the most grotesque characters in his illustrations of the Lewis Carroll classic. Hillary Owens, Cheltenham,
Gloucestershire.
QUESTIONa Was the shot put
discipline in the Ancient Olympics? THE shot was one of the original field events in the Modern Olympics in 1896 but there is no evidence that it was part of the Greek games. Homer does though make mention of rock throwing competitions by soldiers during the Siege of Troy. There was also evidence of stonethrowing events in the Scottish Highlands fronm the first century, so perhaps this was the starting point. And in the Middle Ages soldiers hurled cannonballs. By the 19th century shot put events were taking place in Scotland and they were asthem similated into the British Amateur Championships in 1866. By the time the Olympics were revived it was an obvious fit to include shot put.
Tom Kenny, Dublin.
QUESTION A malekites? Who were the Why has Adolf Hitler been described as a descendent of the Amalekites? THE Amalekites were an ancient group of nomadic marauders.
At the time of the exodus of Israel from Egypt, they were centred on Kadesh-barnea in the Negeb desert, south of Palestine.
Their camps are thought to have radiated out into the Sinai Peninsula and northern Arabia.
They lived by plundering their more peaceful neighbours.
The first meeting between the Amalekites and Israelites took place soon after the exodus from Egypt, at Rephidim, near Mount Sinai.
The Amalekites made an unprovoked attack on Israel, harassing their rear and cutting off the weak.
Joshua commanded Israelite forces, with Moses holding up his rod to indicate that God was with and the Amalekites were soundly defeated.
Because of their hardened and unreasonable hostility toward God’s people and because they ‘did not fear God’, He decreed their utter extermination.
A final reference to this nation may be in connection with Haman, the son of an ‘Agagite,’ who was executed with his sons in the days of Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus of Persia. Haman was probably a descendant as Agag was the title or name of certain Amalekite kings.
No further mention of Amalek is made in the Bible. The Amalekites disappear; just punishment for this Negeb tribe listed in Psalm 83:7 as a hardened enemy of God and his people.
So the enmity of the Amalekites toward the Israelites can be traced from the time Israel had just escaped from the terrors of Egypt and were lost in the wilderness.
Down through many centuries, it made a deep and lasting impression. The utter extermination of the Amalekites served as an everlasting warning to opposers of God’s purposes and people.
Nick Welham, New Milton, Hants. THE Amalekites were a tribe of nomads who earned the enmity of the Israelites for harrowing and killing them on their escape from Egypt. Samuel 15:2-3 is one of the most notorious passages of the Bible: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt.
‘Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’
This encouragement to commit genocide was often used by the late Christopher Hitchens when refuting the idea of a merciful god.
To many Jews, Amalek is the embodiment of evil; hence the connection with Hitler.
This notion was supported by conservative Rabbi Jack Reimer, Bill Clinton’s rabbinic counsel during his presidency, in a controversial 2006 speech which compared Islamic fundamentalism with the biblical nation of Amalek.
‘I am becoming convinced that Islamic fundamentalism is the most dangerous force that we have ever faced and that it is worthy of the name: Amalek.
‘We must recognize who Amalek is in our generation, and we must prepare to fight it in every way we can. And may God help us in this task.’
Mr P. M. Sutton, Glastonbury, Somerset.
QUESTIONDid
the British Board of Film Classification ban the film Pastor Hall in case it upset Hitler? FURTHER to the earlier answer, Pastor Hall’s battle with the censors did not end in Britain. The film was initially refused by US film companies on the grounds that it was anti-Nazi.
Samuel Goldwyn reviewed the film on June 9, 1940, and said: ‘The purchase and release of a purely British picture of this strictly anti-Nazi character would very likely give rise to the accusation of deliberate propaganda on the part of the American picture industry.’
He advised it should not be released in the US.
Ultimately, he was thwarted by James Roosevelt, eldest son of the President, who acquired the film for his new company, Globe Productions.
The film was eventually released that August with a prologue delivered by James’s mother Eleanor, in which she spoke out against aggression, oppression and restrictions to freedom of worship, though avoiding any reference to Germany or Hitler. Some scenes were censored, particularly the whipping and punishment of concentration camp prisoners.
The words ‘damned’, ‘hell’ and ‘Good Lord’ were also removed throughout.