The Domestication of Majesty: Royal Family Portraiture, 1500-1850

Schama, Simon

doi:10.2307/204129

Cited by 44 publications

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“…Indeed, no firm distinction existed between the image and the political reality' . 33 Just as popular images of the princess with her dolls and dogs made her an effective symbol of Everygirl, these pictures worked to cast her as a leader by virtue of inherited character, rather than merely dynastic succession. The model of father instructing daughter in the responsibilities of the throne was a powerful one, implying that the continuity of the nation could be assured through a familial bond:…”

Section: What Am I Going To Do? (391)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Every Little Girl Can Grow up to Be Queen: The Coronation and the Virgin in the Garden

Feingold

2013

Literature & History

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A. S. Byatt's The Virgin in the Garden is a bildungsroman that explores its heroine, Frederica Potter's, complicated coming of age during 1953, the year of the Coronation of Elizabeth II. Likewise, the Coronation itself can be considered a bildungsroman of Elizabeth, and of Britain. Both novel and Coronation link the development of individual young women to that of the nation: on the one hand, they are constrained by an ideology of domesticity that channels them into marriage and motherhood; on the other, they derive symbolic – and perhaps some real – power through the way national myths of identity revolve around their likeness.

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Section: What Am I Going To Do? (391)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Every Little Girl Can Grow up to Be Queen: The Coronation and the Virgin in the Garden

Feingold

2013

Literature & History

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“…Each historical period also favours certain ways of characterizing and depicting leadership and status. From the theatrical poses of van Dyck, for example, the eighteenth-century rulers in Britain favoured the commission of portraits in domestic settings and displaying the family's attributes, while stressing the status of the sitters or providing a moral example (Schama, 1986).…”

Section: Portraits and The 'Routinization Of Charisma'mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Screaming Pope: Imagery and leadership in two paintings of the Pope Innocent X

Acevedo

2011

Leadership

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The image of authoritarian figures and leaders inspired many of Francis Bacon’s paintings. Among these, his interpretation of the Portrait of Pope Innocent X (1650) by Velázquez represents an exemplary way of revealing the complex dilemmas incorporated within a leader. However, whereas in Velázquez’s portrait the Pope appeared regal, serene and inquisitive, Bacon’s Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X (1953) seems to explore the isolation conferred by his authority. The obsession of Bacon with this painting may suggest a wider challenge to contemporary organizational mythology — top managers, businessmen, politicians, CEOs, bankers, etc. — experiencing a sort of leadership crisis, in a moment when their public image is being questioned and their social status threatened. Is it, then, possible to visualize how our contemporary images of power may become transfigured, challenged and contorted? The dialogue between these two representations of Innocent X inspires questions about the representation and re-interpretation of authority and leadership and it aims at responding the question of What do images of leaders as depicted by portraiture contribute to our understanding of leading and leadership? This paper follows the analytical framework proposed by Guthey and Jackson (2005, 2008) concerning a ‘visual genealogy’ (Schroeder and Zwick, 2004) of images of leaders. The notion of establishing a ‘genealogy’ of representations of leadership draws upon the work of Michel Foucault, concerning the ways through which Western culture creates subjects and, most specifically, how images of leadership are created through portraiture and art. The interest in the Pope acknowledges the significance of his figure as leader of the Catholic Church, one of the most important institutions in European history; here, however, the intention is to establish a dialogue between Bacon’s view on leadership in the figure of Innocent X, on the one hand, and on the other the original portrait by Velázquez, both seen in the context of contemporary discussions about leadership and charisma. Here, portraiture is approached as an aesthetic expression that can be used as a means of enquiring into certain aspects of leadership (Taylor and Hansen, 2005). Both perceptions coincided in their interpretation of leadership as focused on the charismatic individual; yet each of these two representations evidences a rupture, a questioning of this view. Velázquez, in a troppo vero (too real) depiction of the Pope, shows an efficient and cruel leader while offering his personal interpretation of the politics of his time. Bacon’s interpretation goes further, by representing a powerful yet isolated leader, whose excessive individuality has produced a cage in which he remains trapped. Separated from his subjects, this view resembles the excessive attention that the individual is given when understanding leadership and its potential problems. This paper adds to the exploration of aesthetic expressions as a means of enquiring into organizational and social issues, for example, the case of leadership. It evidences the potentialities of considering specific artistic expressions, such as portraiture, as heuristic devices towards understanding some of the processes through which leadership is socially constructed, and the mechanisms promoting one notion or another of leadership in different historical periods.

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“…Minor changes, various scholars have noted, are indicative of major institutional social, political, philosophical and cultural transformations (Brilliant, 1991; Burke, 2001, pp. 69–71; Schama, 1986).…”

Section: Pictures Of ‘Scarlet and Ermine’mentioning

confidence: 99%

Judging pictures: a case study of portraits of the Chief Justices, Supreme Court of New South Wales

Moran

2009

International Journal of Law in Context

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The Domestication of Majesty: Royal Family Portraiture, 1500-1850

Cited by 44 publications

References 0 publications

Every Little Girl Can Grow up to Be Queen: The Coronation and the Virgin in the Garden

Every Little Girl Can Grow up to Be Queen: The Coronation and the Virgin in the Garden

The Screaming Pope: Imagery and leadership in two paintings of the Pope Innocent X

Judging pictures: a case study of portraits of the Chief Justices, Supreme Court of New South Wales

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