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The World encompassed by Sir Francis Drake

Roland Pym (b. Cambridgeshire 1920)

Category

Art / Oil paintings

Date

1951

Materials

Oil on canvas

Measurements

1860 x 4825 mm

Place of origin

England

Order this image

Collection

Buckland Abbey, Devon

NT 810051

Summary

Oil painting on canvas, The World encompassed by Sir Francis Drake by Roland Pym (b. Cambridgeshire 1920), signed bottom right. The cartographical scene shows the route of the Golden Hind which set sail from Plymouth in December 1577 and circumnavigated the globe.

Full description

This mural depicts Sir Francis Drake’s circumnavigation of the globe 1577-1580. It was painted by Roland Pym (1920 – 2006) as part of a commission by Plymouth City Council and Lord and Lady Astor to celebrate the opening of Buckland Abbey to the public. The series of murals also include one depicting Drake’s ship The Golden Hinde, and two scenes of the Spanish Armada. Pym’s mural commemorating Drake’s circumnavigation of the globe takes its title from 'The World Encompassed'. This was a pamphlet published by Francis Drake (1588 -1637), the 1st baronet in 1628. It was edited from an original account by Chaplain Francis Fletcher (c.1555-1619) who was part of the voyage. Drake published the work when tensions between England and Spain were again mounting and aimed for “the stirring up of heroic spirits to benefit their countrie.” Pym also turned to other historical imagery to influence his mural and appears to have studied maps, drawing and engravings – in some instances even copying elements directly. A particular source was the 'Collected Travels' (1590-1634) published by Theodor De Bry and sons. Many of the engravings published in the De Bry volumes were based on watercolours by John White (c.1539-1593). He was an artist and cartographer who joined many voyages between 1576 and 1590. He also sailed to Roanoke with Richard Grenville (1542-1591), who owned Buckland Abbey before Francis Drake. The De Bry volumes became hugely popular and were the only way for most Europeans to experience the world. Yet many scenes were embellished or entirely invented. Indigenous peoples were drawn as ‘savages’ – inferior in their beliefs, dress and customs. This helped to advertise North America as a land ready and in need of European settlement, and of a people willing to submit themselves to European rule. Whilst Pym appears to have taken a great deal of time to research historical sources, he then used them entirely uncritically. “The image is rife with anthropological inaccuracies, and the Native American figures embody a patchwork of popular iconographies about groups like the South American Tupí and Arawak, and the California Coast Miwok/Pomo: patterned mantles, copper or gold jewellery, feather-work and ‘crowns’ made from parrot and ostrich feathers, and gestures of awed submission and tribute-offering. In reality, Drake relied on local indigenous knowledge to survive and chart these journeys, and to acquire the commodities brought back to England. Drake conducted further voyages to the Caribbean, stopping by the short-lived English colony in Roanoke, North Carolina, to bring back its struggling colonists in 1586. The crew brought Native American staples like corn and tobacco back with them – but also watercolours of Algonquian peoples by the watercolour painter John White, and the ethnographic observations of Walter Ralegh’s friend, Thomas Hariot. Given his involvement with these places and people, might Drake have brought Native American objects or systems of knowledge back to Buckland Abbey?” [Dr Lauren Working is Lecturer in Early Modern Literature and a member of the interdisciplinary Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies at York. Her research focuses on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century literary sociability, material culture, and empire.]

Provenance

Object transferred to National Trust ownership in 2009, previously on loan to Buckland Abbey from Plymouth Museum since 1989.

Marks and inscriptions

Roland Pym (bottom right)

Makers and roles

Roland Pym (b. Cambridgeshire 1920), artist

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