{"id":18688,"date":"2018-04-10T18:07:25","date_gmt":"2018-04-10T17:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=18688"},"modified":"2018-04-10T18:07:25","modified_gmt":"2018-04-10T17:07:25","slug":"ihbc-evaluation-cpd-boost-1573-watercolour-of-stonehenges-ancient-ruins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=18688","title":{"rendered":"IHBC \u2018Evaluation\u2019 CPD boost: 1573 Watercolour of Stonehenge\u2019s \u2018Ancient Ruins\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"logo\"<\/a>The developing practice of drawing Stonehenge \u2018from life\u2019 can be seen in a watercolour by Flemish painter Lucas de Heere, dating from circa 1573, with \u2018a more topographical approach\u2019 to depicting heritage comes to the fore in the evolution of heritage investigation.<\/h3>\n

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Open Culture writes:<\/p>\n

While the search for answers may be irresistible, we may never know exactly what the builders of Stonehenge intended. But we learn much by studying how others have approached the ancient monument in the past. Existent studies of Stonehenge with illustrations date back to the 14th century. These Medieval representations tried to situate the stones in a \u2018Christian view of world history,\u2019 as Art History professor Sam Smiles writes at the British Library.<\/p>\n

A century later, drawings of the stones show more of an interest in its architectural features. One manuscript includes \u2018a tiny illustration of four trilithons (two vertical stones supporting a lintel).\u2019 Remarkably, writes Smiles, \u2018the artist has understood how the lintels were fixed to the uprights by a mortise and tenon joint.\u2019 The drawing may represent t\u2019he earliest surviving representation of Stonehenge based on direct observation.\u2019<\/p>\n

The practice of drawing Stonehenge from life continued, and in the watercolor above by Flemish painter Lucas de Heere, dating from circa 1573, we see \u2018a more topographical approach.\u2019 Related to other similar images created around the same time, the painting shows us an early example of what came to be called \u2018chorography,\u2019 which archaeologist Michael Shanks describes as referring to \u2018antiquarian works that dealt in topography, place, community, history, memory.\u2019<\/p>\n

Rather than considering it only as a mystical or sacred site or an architectural marvel, de Heere\u2019s depiction of Stonehenge folds both of these interests into a larger concern with English landscape and history, of the kind exemplified by William Camden\u2019s 1586 Britannia, a chorographical survey of Britain and Ireland. Works like de Heere\u2019s and Camden\u2019s are part of the \u2018Re-Discovery of England\u2019 as historian R.C. Richardson argues, that took place under the reign of Elizabeth I, and which produced a new national history, \u2018designed to extend the boundaries of knowledge and understanding.\u2019<\/p>\n

As chorography developed as a discipline, Stonehenge and other ancient monuments continued to exert a fascination for their historical, topographical, and archeological features. By the \u2018last quarter of the 18th century, \u2018 Smiles tells us, \u2018prehistoric monuments began to be regularly included in topographical surveys,\u2019 such as Thomas Hearne\u2019s 1779 Antiquities of Great Britain, which included the engraving just above as its final plate. Learn more about the development of topography and its interest in ancient British monuments, and see many more of these historic images, at the British Library\u2019s site.<\/p>\n

An Artist Visits Stonehenge in 1573 and Paints a Charming Watercolor Painting of the Ancient Ruins<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n