Author Archives: Natalie Bennett

Ancient Avignon

February 8, 2007 – 10:33 pm

I started out my tour of Avignon at the logical chronological point, the archaeological annexe of the Musee Calvet, the grand collection officially founded in 1811 but owing quite a bit to an early 18th-century “cabinet”.

It is housed in a surprisingly attractive baroque church (no, I’m not generally a fan of the Baroque, but here at least the decoration overload is contained to a great cornice and the nave and chapels are attractively plain, a good setting for the collection). It did well to survive being a WWI storeroom, and then its use for a beekeeping trade fair (which must have been about the 20s. (It was dedicated for museum use in 1933.)

There’s a small ancient Egyptian collection, of no particular local relevance, but it then moves into Greek vases and Etruscan funerary sculptures reflecting early influences here, before moving into the Roman world.

woman (2)What’s striking about that last collection is how you have to read the labels to tell the origins of the piece – they might be from Rome itself, from the Balkans, from the east, but generally you can’t tell which – a reminder of how monocultural the Roman world was, in many respects. This is an unknown woman from the 3rd century AD, of Avignon – but really she could be of anywhere.

timakratea
The tombstones of children – which I commented on during my tour of Hadrian’s wall – here again are some of the little artistic masterpieces: this is that of Timakratea from Rhodes of the third or fourth century AD.

cupidandlocust

Nearby is a curious piece, of Eros chasing a giant locust, which has fastened onto a head of wheat. The museum’s commentary (it is well-equipped for the serious visitor with lots of take-away commentary in French and English) says that at first glance this is just a child at play – then as now, children often adopted locusts as “pets”, and it was supposed to be a friendly insect. Yet of course it was also a pest, enemy of crops, and one of Apollo’s role was a parnopios (locust-killer). So on this reading, Eros is trying to protect the wheat, to chase away the locust, so expressing his desire for good.
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One train, three “countries”

February 6, 2007 – 10:41 pm

Over on Comment is Free I’ve a piece recording thoughts on the train from Kings Cross to Inverness – it really does feel like you go through three “countries” – the South-East, the North-East and then Scotland (which of course might soon be an entirely independent country). It left me musing about the nature of citizenship. (And got some remarkably civilised, intelligent conversation.)

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The power behind the stage

February 6, 2007 – 9:57 pm

Thanks to an excellent new project at the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, they are making more of their articles available through a monthly online magazine. This month the focus is on Hogarth and his sitters and circle (linking with the just-opening Tate exhibition that I hope to get to see soonish).

Somehow you don’t think of Hogarth as a painter of women – big bluff men who’ve imbibed just a little too much Madeira seem to fit more, but there are a couple of women featured, one of them being Eva Maria Garrick, who was, it seems, another of those power behind the throne women, after having a successful independent career of her own as a dancer.

The marriage settlement, when it was reached, was a virtual guarantee of prosperity … Not only did she receive £10,000 from Garrick, together with £70 per year, but also the annual interest on Lady Burlington’s estates in Lincolnshire. There followed thirty years of contented marriage and forty-three of dignified widowhood. Eva Maria was Garrick’s constant companion at home and abroad, his supporter and adviser in theatrical affairs, a gracious hostess on social occasions, and a welcome guest in the grand houses the couple visited. Garrick’s social aggrandizement is inconceivable without her. Her taste and intelligence are discernible in the books and paintings they bought, in the way they furnished their houses, and between the lines of Garrick’s voluminous correspondence.

(They don’t say if these are going to stay on open access permanently, so it might be a good idea to nab them now if you don’t have access – although of course if you are in England and Wales you can get that through your local library.)

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The joys of France

February 6, 2007 – 9:44 pm

1. Food, glorious food

Stopping between trains at the Gare de Lyon, I nip out of the station to the nearest Chinese restaurant and have a delightful scallops fried with baby corn, spring onions and lemon grass – suddenly the whole point of Cantonese cuisine – usually in Anglo countries a stodgy, sweet mess – becomes clear.

Then on to Avignon, my “home” for the next week – I’m calling this my “Christmas holiday”, since I didn’t get one then, and I figured it might be good to get here before the tourist hordes in spring. Dinner on the Grand Square – a vegetable soup served with grated cheese that melts beautifully in it, a ham steak covered with a parsley and honey glaze, perfect pomme frites, and a yoghurt with delightfully tart fruit compote. Nothing flash, but all perfectly thought out and prepared (even if the waiter was surly since I insisted on eating outside, making him walk a bit further – no tip for him then.)

2. Public architecture that works

The grand new TGV station at Avignon is all straight flat planes of glass and concrete – built underneath the raised tracks but surprisingly airy and light. Do this in Britain and by now this would be a smelly, dirty, graffitied home to the homeless and worrying local youths – here it is bustling but friendly, with half a dozen shops seemingly doing a roaring trade.

In days ahead, I’ll probably be adding to this list…

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From the Inbox

February 6, 2007 – 1:26 am

* Join a course on Feminist Theory and the Joy of Science – no fees, no exams, you can just read along and join the discussion.

* Or you could take a short course in Byzantine history through 12 Rulers, by podcast … well there is one woman in there, Irene.

* A new online collection of Medieval and Early Modern legal documents – how’s your medieval Latin?

* With debates running hot about nationalism and identity on these isles, it is interesting to revisit the 16th-century version of these controversies among William Caxton, Polydore Vergil and John Leland.

* A little more anecdotal evidence of the medieval household as a joint economic enterprise: Yves and Marion, a bookselling couple in Paris in the 14th-century (French).

(Here’s Google’s attempt at translation, which might not leave you much the wiser… but the pictures on this site are always worth looking at.)

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Fleeing Christianity for Islam

February 6, 2007 – 1:14 am

Interesting example of the way the problem is with all religions, not just one of them: according to a piece on Women’s eNews, Coptic women in Egypt are fleeing to Islam, in the embrace of which they can find more freedom than in Christianity:

“A key reason for the so-called ‘kidnappings’ is that Coptic women have no right to divorce,” said Nahed Abul Komsan, head of the Cairo-based Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights, which is the leading women’s rights group in the country.
“This means that if their parents tell them they are going to marry their cousin, they have to submit to this and have no choice . . . So they turn to Islam, not because of a spiritual belief in the religion but because it gives them more of an opportunity to choose their life’s path,” she said.

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