An adorned Black trumpeter encapsulated in posterity“The shrill trump, the spirit- stirring drum"
Othello, Shakespeare (1603). Hark ye John Blanke! John Blanke a Tudor royal trumpeter is pictured as an integral part of King Henry the IIIV’s procession. Hand on hip and cheeks puffed out, an adorned Black trumpeter encapsulated in posterity. A grand parade was a regular occurrence to showcase the wealth and grandeur of the royal courts. His appearance pervades the traditional notion of Tudor Britain. The 1511 Westminster Tournament Roll is a painted almost 60 feet long and 143⁄4 inches wide. Blanke is a pillar, along with his fellow trumpeters, at the front and the back of the roll. Blanke wears a white shirt under a knee-length two-tone puff-sleeved tunic and a pair of scarlet red hosiery. However, unlike the other riders, he wears a jade green bonnet embroidered with illuminated gold thread in an elaborate pattern. In the Tudor period, individuals wore their wealth. The type of cloth they wore clearly signified social status. Sumptuary restrictions were placed on a range of fabrics including cloth of gold, velvet, silks, furs and damask and even on buttons and swords. Yet, on the 14th of January 1512, a certification was made by Henry VIII to the King’s Great Wardrobe to deliver to Blanke, a gown of violet cloth, a bonnet and a hat, as a gift for his marriage. Interesting, because Henry VIII and the rest of the royal family were the only ones who were permitted to wear certain rich colours. The image of Blanke in art history produces an aesthetic and experiential space of possibility and fixed ideas of the history of Britain. The fragments of historic tapestry open a space of experience towards transformations of knowledge, history and experience of race, self, and community. Serena Lee Associate Lecturer of Contextual Studies London College of Contemporary Arts. |
The John Blanke Project | Serena Lee |