James Metcalf on the fictionality of the latest archaeological page-turners
Stephen Puddicombe looks at the unusual appeal of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot
Ciaran Rafferty investigates the science of book classification
We’ve got mistaken identities, Tudor Trilogies, and digital art for all you lean mean culture vultures this week.
The National Portrait Gallery in London will soon be host to Imagined Lives: Portraits of Unknown People. This isn’t, unlike The First Actresses, an exhibition to sell itself on the celebrity status of its stars, or, like Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at The Court of Milan, one that uses the pulling power of its artist to draw the crowds. It is, instead, a collection that features fourteen anonymous muses. Over the past five centuries, the identities of these sitters have either been lost or mistaken, some of them having been misidentified as famous figures. Maddeningly mysterious, the paintings’ subjects prompt unanswerable questions. Who are they? What secrets are written behind their half-smiles? And what mysteries lurk behind their stares?
The paintings are set side-by-side with stories. These are told by multiple writers-turned-biographers, from Joanna Trollope, through to John Banville, and Terry Pratchett. Their aim is to get under the skin of their characters; to flesh out their lives and personalities. Terry Pratchett imagines the portrait of an explorer who presented Queen Elizabeth I with a skunk, whilst Alexander McCall Smith, examining the painting ‘False Mary’, sees a merchant’s daughter engaged as the Queen of Scots’ body double. From December 3rd, this exhibition will tell the stories of these enigmas of paint and print.
Bookworms will be hungry to hear that Hilary Mantel, author of the Man Booker prize-winning Wolf Hall, has promised readers a further two sequels. These will continue the narrative of Thomas Cromwell who, from being an impoverished blacksmith’s son, became the most powerful of all Henry VIII’s ministers, before his execution in 1540. The book’s sequel, Bring Up the Bodies, set to be published next May, will be followed hot on its heels by the third instalment, The Mirror and The Light.
Tangling Tudor history, intrigue, religion and brutality, the historical novel will tell of the three-week ‘destruction of Anne Boleyn.’ The first in the trilogy, Wolf Hall, having been described as ‘an extraordinary piece of storytelling’, is critically acclaimed. The Chair of Booker Judges, James Naughtie, praised the way in which the author ‘created what one of the judges has said was a contemporary novel, a modern novel, which happens to be set in the 16th century.’
We’ve already had books turning digital, letting us hoard miniature libraries on slim ebook readers. Now art is following suit, blurring the lines between technology and culture. S[edition] is offering a new way of owning a famous artwork, but for a fraction of the price. Digital editions of works by contemporary artists can be downloaded onto the screens of mobile phones or iPads. For Harry Blain, this is a ‘21st Century adaptation of woodcuts and etchings.’ Promoting accessibility, it sells the work of artists including Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin. For its makers a revolutionary concept, it is also one that has raised questions about commercialism, and the devaluation of art. You, too, can possess the image of a diamond-encrusted skull in your pocket for just five hundred smackers. Bargain.
Check back with The Yorker next week for another bite of the week’s cultural highlights
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