Word & Image: |
on exhibit January 23 - May 22, 2004 |
A Quest for OrderTrevelyon's seventy-page series on the early rulers of Britain starts with Brutus, the ancient Trojan and supposed founder of "Brutane," and continues over 2,000 years to Harold, last of the Saxon kings. The obvious visual repetition and re-combination makes the point that these are not portraits of individuals, but a continuous, orderly chain of history. Only the great King Arthur merits his own page, with an appropriately Protestant focus on his exploits against Rome. |
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| Trevelyon modeled his rulers on a series of woodcuts published by Gyles Godet but made one key adjustment: instead of five or six rulers jostling each other in the same cramped picture space, he provided self-contained frames for everyone. Thus Trevelyon brought order to potential chaos, a visual theme throughout the entire Miscellany with its emphatic borders, attention to groups and series, and recurring stock figures and motifs. | ||
Word and Image: The Trevelyon Miscellany of 1608
Exhibition HighlightsThomas Trevelyon: the man and his sources | History and Religion | Calendars and Calculations | Memento Mori | Proverbs | The Old Testament | Lettering | A Quest for Order | Women | Astronomy | Personifications | Embroidery
This page updated March 30, 2004