Melbourne Art Journal
Number 4 2000
Contents
Editorial
Dagmar Eichberger
A Renaissance Princess named Margaret. Fashioning a Public Image in a Courtly
Society
(Margaret Manion Lecture 1999)
Margaret of Austria (1480–1530), daughter of Emperor Maximilian I
and aunt of Emperor Charles V, governed the Burgundian Netherlands for almost
twenty-five years. As Regent of the Netherlands she successfully turned her
residence in Mechelen into a international centre of politics, music and art.
This lecture investigates how a well-educated and widely-travelled gentlewoman
presented herself in public through the discerning use of heraldry and the
visual arts. Margaret of Austria was well acquainted with the portrait conventions
of her time. She commissioned numerous images of herself for distribution
and public display. After the death of her second husband she employed two
distinct portrait types which represented different aspects of her role as
woman of influence and political standing. In some instances she wished to
be depicted as the loyal consort of Duke Philibert of Savoy. On other occasions
she preferred to use the single portrait type which stressed her role as dowager
duchess and Regent of the Netherlands. Her ongoing search for appropriate
role models took her beyond simple portraiture and into the realm of more
symbolic representations. On two occasions she asked to be portrayed in the
guise of a saint. This modern device was employed to add new layers of meaning
to traditional portraiture. Towards the end of her career Margaret of Austria
commissioned her court painter to portray her as Caritas. This choice can
be read as an expression of her deeply felt religiosity and, perhaps even
more importantly, as evidence for her identification with a particular element
of good government.
Vivien Sobchak
What is Film History?, or the Riddle of the Sphinxes
(Joseph Burke Lecture 2000)
Mark P. McDonald
Pedro Perret and Pedro de Villafranca y Malagón. Printmakers to the
Spanish Hapsburgs
This article examines the careers of two printmakers, Pedro Perret (1555–c.1625)
and Pedro de Villafranca (c.1615–1684), both of whom secured royal appointments
as engravers to the Spanish court. The Flemish-born Perret was called to Madrid
in 1583 and in 1595 was appointed Engraver to the Privy Chamber. He produced
reproductive engravings, views of the Escorial, and original compositions,
and helped to establish a Spanish tradition of engraved portraits. The Spanish-born
Villafranca was trained both as painter and engraver, and was strongly influenced
by Diego Velázquez. His appointment as Engraver of Royal Works in 1654,
the first court appointment of an engraver since Perret, was in part owed
to his ability to manifest Velázquez’s style in his engraved
portraits.
Tonia Eckfeld
The Virtuous Wife. Portrait of an Imperial Concubine in the Tang Dynasty
Tomb of Crown Prince Li Xian
The painted mural decoration of the Tang dynasty (618-906) tomb of Crown
Prince Li Xian (Zhanghuai, 654-684) progresses from south to north, from outdoor
scenes of hunting and court protocol, to the seclusion of an inner court where
the images are primarily of women. The tomb murals were painted in two phases:
the first in 705-706 when the tomb was constructed, and the second in 711
when the tomb was renovated. The murals dating from the first phase of the
tomb’s decoration include women providing services and entertainment,
while those dating from the second phase of activity display figures of higher
status and level of propriety. This article establishes that the change in
the representation of women between the two phases was the consequence of
a change in the function of the tomb from one designed for the sole occupancy
of Li Xian (interred in 706) to one occupied jointly by Li Xian and his principal
wife, Consort Fang (interred in 711). It is argued that the earlier paintings
were intended to contribute to the posthumous rehabilitation of Li Xian, while
the later ones, which include a portrait of Consort Fang, were designed to
enhance her reputation and that of her surviving son.
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