[A Very British Renaissance] 1. The Renaissance Arrives FOX's

We think of the Renaissance as something that happened only in Italy, or in continental Europe. Art historian Dr James Fox believes otherwise - that Britain had its own Renaissance - one that easily measures up to the explosion of art and ideas that happened on the continent.

He tells the story of the painters, sculptors, poets, playwrights, composers, inventors, explorers, craftsmen and scientists who revolutionised the way we saw the world.

In the first episode, he traces the story of how the arrival of a handful of foreign artists in the 16th century sparked a cultural revolution in Britain





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some notes:

Pietro Torrigiano (24 November 1472 – August 1528) was an Italian sculptor of the Florentine school. He was important in introducing Renaissance art to England, but his career was adversely affected by his violent temperament.

Hans Holbein the Younger (c. 1497^[1] – between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was a German artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known as one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century.^[2] He also produced religious art, satire, and Reformation propaganda, and made a significant contribution to the history of book design. He is called "the Younger" to distinguish him from his father, Hans Holbein the Elder, an accomplished painter of the Late Gothic school.

Nicholas Kratzer (1487? – 1550) was a German mathematician, astronomer, and horologist. Much of Kratzer's professional life was spent in England, where he was appointed as astronomer to King Henry VIII.

Born in Munich in 1487,^[1] Kratzer came to England in 1516 and established himself as part of the artistic and scientific circle around Sir Thomas More. Kratzer tutored More's children in mathematics and astronomy and More introduced him at court in much the same way as he had their mutual friend Hans Holbein. In the same manner as Holbein, Kratzer's talents obtained him a court position as astronomer and clock maker to the king.

Kratzer also collaborated with Holbein on producing maps, and in return the artist produced a portrait of Kratzer in 1528 that now hangs in the Louvre; it depicts the craftsman surrounded by the tools of his trade. His close relationship with Holbein and More also may be observed in his annotations of Holbein's draft for his portrait of the More family. Kratzer identifies the various family members and their ages for the benefit of More's friend, the theologian Erasmus.

 

John Damian was (probably) an Italian at the court of James IV of Scotland. His attempts at medicine, alchemy, flying, and his advancement by the King encouraged a satirical attack by the poet William Dunbar.

John's Italian name appears to have been Giovanni Damiano de Falcucci. In the records of the Scottish exchequer he is called the 'French Leech' or 'Master John the French Leech.' He first appears in the records in January 1501. He directed the building of alchemical furnaces at Stirling Castle and Holyroodhouse to produce the 'quinta essentia', the fifth element. John was then made Abbot of Tongland. Between 1501 and 1508 he received a great deal of money and other items from the king, to make the quintessence. These included aqua vitae (i.e. spirits of wine), quicksilver, sal ammoniac, alum, litharge, orpiment, saltpetre, silver, sugar, sulphur, tin, verdigris, vinegar and white lead.^[1] These are all standard alchemical substances of the medieval period.

John took a hand in court entertainments, organizing the dances in Edinburgh at New Year 1504.^[2] In 1507, John tried to fly from the battlements of Stirling Castle. He was unsuccessful luckily he didn't die but broke only his thigh. The records of Scottish exchequer list sums of money lost by the King playing cards with John and betting at shooting matches.^[3] John resigned as Abbot of Tongland in 1509, and James IV wrote to Pope Julius II asking that John's pension of 200 gold ducats should be paid.^[4] John Damian is still recorded at court a few months before the battle of Flodden.



1520 new generation : Thomas Wyatt (poet) -  revival of poetry - renaissance art !
bring Italian sonnet to England, making mistakenly a new art "English sonnet", less spiritual, but more painful, all bout loss, rejection, more human
("...I love someone, but I hate myself..."
Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503 – 11 October 1542)^[1] was a 16th-century English ambassador and lyrical poet. He is credited with introducing the sonnet into English literature

John Betts : English renaissance painting, more earthy, realistic beauty
John Bettes the Elder (active c. 1531–1570) was an English artist whose few known paintings date from between about 1543 and 1550. His most famous work is his Portrait of a Man in a Black Cap. His son John Bettes the Younger, with whom he is sometimes confused, was a pupil of Nicholas Hilliard who painted portraits during the reign of Elizabeth I and James I.^[

 
John Day (or Daye) (c. 1522^[1] – 23 July 1584) was an English Protestant printer. He specialised in printing and distributing Protestant literature and pamphlets, and produced many small-format religious books, such as ABCs, sermons, and translations of psalms. He found fame, however, as the publisher of John Foxe's Actes and Monuments, also known as the Book of Martyrs, the largest and most technologically accomplished book printed in sixteenth-century England

FOX's BOOK of MARTYRS:
This is a book that will never die -- one of the great English classics. . . . Reprinted here in its most complete form, it brings to life the days when "a noble army, men and boys, the matron and the maid," "climbed the steep ascent of heaven, 'mid peril, toil, and pain."

"After the Bible itself, no book so profoundly influenced early Protestant sentiment as the Book of Martyrs. Even in our time it is still a living force. It is more than a record of persecution. It is an arsenal of controversy, a storehouse of romance, as well as a source of edification."
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/foxe/martyrs/files/martyrs.html

Thomas Tallis
Thomas Tallis (c. 1505 – 3 December 1585 by the Gregorian calendar then in use^[1]) was an English composer who occupies a primary place in anthologies of English church music, and is considered one of England's greatest composers. He is honoured for his original voice in English musicianship.^[2]

After all traformation, now architecture:!

Sir John Thynne (c. 1515 – 21 May 1580) was the steward to Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (c. 1506–1552) and a member of parliament. He was the builder of Longleat House and his descendants became Marquesses of Bath.

Longleat House