Portrait, portrait on the wall
Breaking away from British history’s traditional realm of kings, queens and parliament, Robert Tittler explores in his new book the less polished characters he discovered hanging on walls in provincial English towns.
Through the lens of portraiture, he examines the social history of middling sorts of people – town councillors, merchants and professionals – in early modern Britain in his work entitled Portraits, Painters, and Publics in Provincial England, 1540-1640 (Oxford University Press, 202 pages). This is his 10th book and second since retirement.
It’s through 40 years of scholarly research trips, which have taken him to dozens of counties across Britain, that Tittler developed a fascination with portraits.
“These portraits were not valued for their aesthetic quality – in fact some were quite grotesque – but were a means of legitimizing social status or religious belief. They were a statement of identity,” says Tittler, distinguished professor emeritus in the Department of History at Concordia University.
“Lady Godiva – nude on horseback – replaced the Virgin Mary’s portrait in Coventry, asserting the split from the Roman Catholic Church during the Protestant Reformation,” says Tittler.
“As the movement swept through England, objects of worship were replaced with secular portraits or mythical figures. Conversely, a defiant Catholic family showed their continued allegiance to the pope by commissioning a portrait of the family in prayer.
“Just as we wear the jersey of our favourite hockey team, people would commission portraits of iconic figures such as Queen Elizabeth or classical heroes with whom they wished to be identified,” says Tittler, whose book further examines those who commissioned and painted the works.
Tittler is relieved to finally see nearly five years of work in print; “When it stops being fun, then I’ll stop doing it.”
For now, he’s still having fun. Since taking an early retirement in 2005, Tittler keeps a busy agenda, giving lectures and presenting conference papers at universities and in communities around Canada and the U.K. He is also an adjunct professor of art history at Carleton University.
Tittler says it’s important to remain close to younger scholars and is delighted to help the doctoral students who regularly contact him for research guidance. He also remains in touch with many of his own past students.
Tittler taught thousands during his 36-year career at Concordia. He was the last chair of Loyola College’s history department and, with the merger of Loyola and Sir George Williams University in 1974, he became the first co-chair of Concordia’s Department of History.
Related links
- Portrait, Painters, and Publics in Provincial England, 1540-1640
- Concordia Department of History
- Oxford University Press