#royal museums of arts and history

[fashionsfromhistory]

Day Dress

c.1880

Belgium

Royal Museums of Arts & History, Brussels, Belgium (Inventory number: C 816)

[theancientwayoflife]

~ The royal belt of Calakmulhul.

▪︎ Towards mid-November 1988, researchers from the Calakmul Project discovered in Building III a crypt that housed the remains of an ancient sovereign accompanied by a modest funerary trousseau. Among the objects deposited in the tomb were three green stone masks. One must have been placed on his face, the other two smaller ones were interpreted as medallions or pectorals.

The belt was part of the dignitaries' attire, as can be seen in some steles. It was made up of a small mask from which three green stone axes hung. The masks represented deities or embodied ancestors. The axes, when hitting each other, generate a tinkling sound that is heard like the murmur of the wind. By wearing the belt, the rulers were transfigured into the axis mundi , in the center of the Universe.

[diemelusine]

Archduke Ernest of Austria (c. 1580) by Alonso Sánchez Coello. Museo del Prado.

[escapismsworld]

Right Gauntlet for King Philip of Spain (1527-1598), Worcester Art Museum.

[dwellerinthelibrary]

Sekhmet sees what you did there.

When: Late Period

Where: Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels

[swimminginlakes]

More interior pics from the kunsthistorisches museum in Vienna.

Absolutely loved this place.

Every piece of this building is pure art, filled with more and more art. Amazing ✨

[baebeylik]

Map of the Ottoman Empire. James Wyld. 1854.

Part of the Royal Collection Trust in London.

[half-a-life]

The palace was built as a city hall during the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century. The building became the royal palace of King Louis Napoleon and later of the Dutch Royal House.

The palace is used by the monarch for entertaining and official functions during state visits and other official receptions, such as New Year receptions.

The three floors are crowned by a dome with a weathervane in the shape of a ship. It is decorated with marble inside. Astride the rear of the building is a 6-metre-tall statue of Atlas carrying the Globe on his shoulders.

The Royal Palace houses one of the most complete collections of furniture and decorative and applied arts in the world, well preserved in the Empire style (about 2000 items).

Royal Palace of Amsterdam

Amsterdam, Netherlands 🇳🇱

[clove-pinks]

HMS Victory, newly restored in 1928 and receiving visitors in Portsmouth, by William Lionel Wyllie, RA (British, 1851-1931).

[panicinthestudio]

Nuxalk totem pole leaves B.C. museum to begin trek home, February 13, 2023

The Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria has repatriated a totem pole to the Nuxalk Nation on the central coast of B.C., after it was taken from their land more than 100 years ago. Members of the community say they hope the decision will make it easier to repatriate more of their items that are still in the museum.

 CBC

Further reading:

CBC: Hugs, smiles and tears greet Nuxalk totem pole as it leaves Victoria, B.C., museum, February 23, 2023

[thepastisalreadywritten]

London (CNN) — An art historian has identified a missing portrait of King Henry VIII after spotting it on social media.

British fine art researcher Adam Busiakiewicz was idly scrolling on X when he was stopped in his tracks by a post from somebody he follows.

The post was a photograph shared by Tim Cox, Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire, an honorary position representing the British Crown in the central English county.

It showed a gathering at a reception in Warwick’s Shire Hall, where Warwickshire County Council is based.

But Busiakiewicz wasn’t interested in the people smiling at the camera.

His focus was on the background where, hanging on a wall, was what he suspected was a missing portrait of the Tudor monarch Henry VIII.

In a post published on his blog earlier this month, Busiakiewicz said he had been “scrolling at speed” when he spotted the painting “with a distinctive arched top��� on the wall.

He was immediately reminded of a series of 22 portraits commissioned by a local politician and tapestry-maker during the 1590s.

According to Busiakiewicz, Ralph Sheldon (1623–1684) commissioned the pictures – which were mostly of kings, queens and “significant contemporary international figures” – to hang in his home, Weston House in Warwickshire.

The reason they had arched tops was because they “were once incorporated into an architectural frieze of the Long Gallery at Weston,” Busiakiewicz said.

In a press release sent to CNN, Busiakiewicz said the arched top was a “special feature of the Sheldon set,” while the painting’s frame was “identical to other surviving examples.”

The painting also showed the king holding a sword and wearing a feathered hat – just as he appeared in an engraving of the Long Hall made by antiquarian Henry Shaw in 1839.

The series of portraits was later dispersed at auction and “the majority remain untraced to this day,” according to Busiakiewicz.

After making his theory public, Busiakiewicz visited Warwick’s Shire Hall together with local historian Aaron Manning to see the painting close up.

“The portrait is large, and completely in-line with the other Sheldon portraits,” Busiakiewicz wrote in a later blog post, on July 22.

In a telephone call with CNN, Busiakiewicz revealed that this was not the first discovery he had made thanks to social media.

In 2018, he stumbled across a picture a friend had taken at a wedding and posted on Instagram.

It featured a portrait that he identified as the work of 17th-century female artist Joan Carlile (1606–1679).

“Social media is a crazy thing,” Busiakiewicz told CNN, “because some people use it to watch cat videos and follow what’s going on in the world, and then people like me just look at what people have hanging on their walls.”

A spokesperson for Warwickshire County Council told CNN in an email that Busiakiewicz and Manning approached them about the painting and arranged to come and see it.

“Adam and Aaron viewed the painting at Shire Hall, and have confirmed they think it is definitely one of the Ralph Sheldon commissions,” the spokesperson wrote.

“Since this discovery, the painting has been moved into our Museum Collections Centre to allow further research to take place.”

Busiakiewicz told CNN that the identity of the painter is not known, but the creator of the portraits is sometimes referred to as "The Sheldon Master.”

He is now working on trying to establish the painting’s provenance.

It was acquired by the council as recently as 1951 but there are gaps in the records.

“Provenance is always such a really tricky thing - it’s very hard sometimes to find, particularly when pictures are sold privately. But there’s no doubt that this is Ralph Sheldon’s painting of Henry VIII,” he said.

“Looking at paintings and pictures of paintings is my life and it’s great fun, particularly when you can in some way right a historic wrong, let’s say.

Pictures that are overlooked, pictures that aren’t appreciated as much as they might be.”

[fashionsfromhistory]

Tea Gown

c.1903-1905

Belgium

Royal Museums of Arts & History, Brussels, Belgium (Object Number: C.481)

[hayzeydayzey]

Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) artifacts and mementos! Sketched in purple/pink ballpoint pen.

[diemelusine]

Ophelia (1851) by John Everett Millais. Tate Britain.

[tentativelyteal]

Not me getting asked AT WORK BY A CUSTOMER for the name and sculptor of a bronze figure that is, I quote, 'in the background in a scene in Red, White & Royal Blue, you know, the movie?'

(Me, internally: yea we all know which scene you're talking about *screaming*)

Me, in my customer-facing role: Right, mmhmm mmhmm *looks at the picture in a very calm and collected way* yeah that's in the Sculpture galleries, Room 21

The sculpture in question, by the wayyy:

[barbucomedie]

Officer's Cavalry Sword from the British Empire dated between 1700 - 1730 on display at the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Museum in Edinburgh Castle, Scotland

Swords of this type were popular with both cavalry and infantry officers at this period. The weight of this example implies that it was carried by a cavalry officer, presumably of the Royal North British Dragoons, later 2nd Royal North British Dragoons, also referred to as the Scots Greys due to the grey horses they mostly used.

In the early 18th century the regiment were involved in the War of Spanish Succession (1701 - 1715) where they were part of heavy cavalry charges that were famous for breaking the French and their allies lines. At the end of the war they returned back to Scotland to the start of the 1715 Jacobite Rising under the Earl of Mar. After this and the 1719 Rising, the regiment became a policing force in Scotland in an attempt to suppress rebellion by stepping up the military presence in the Highlands.

Photographs taken by myself 2023