A Carrack at Sea
Anthony Barton (fl.2011)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
2011 - 2012
Materials
Linseed oil paint on linen
Measurements
1840 x 1130 mm
Place of origin
York
Order this imageCollection
Tudor Merchants House, Pembrokeshire
NT 445725.2
Summary
Linseed oil paint on linen, A Carrack at Sea by Anthony Barton, 2011/12. Painted wall hanging. A painted cloth wall hanging to look like a tapestry that was imitated in the late 15th century, depicting a large ocean-going ship symbolising the escape of Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke (c. 1431 – 1495) and his nephew Henry (afterwards Henry VII) from Tenby in 1471, during the Wars of the Roses. The vessel in which they escaped to Brittany belonged to Thomas White, then Mayor of Tenby. This ship is closely based on a contemporary carving of a carrack and sits in the sea surrounded by fish and fantastic seas creatures. The painted cloth is a coarse linen painted with linseed oil paint. Painted or 'stained' cloths, were a popular and very much cheaper alternative to tapestries, often recorded between the later 14th and the later 17th centuries, with a peak of popularity during the Tudor period. Like the tapestries they imitated, they might depict foliage patterns, hunting scenes, religious and subjects or 'histories'.
Provenance
The cloths were devised by Anthony Barton of York and Charles Kightly and painted by Anthony Barton in 2011-2012. The painted cloths comissioned for the Tudor Merchant's House are not copied from originals, but are intended to represent the kind of painted cloths which the so far unknown inhabitant of this house might have displayed on his walls in around 1500. They depict two important events in Tenby's imediate past history.
Makers and roles
Anthony Barton (fl.2011), painter Anthony Barton (fl.2011), designer Charles Kightly, designer