{Hampton Court}

{Hampton Court from the grounds}

A few weeks ago I went to Hampton Court Palace, renovated for Henry VIII. If you've read The Other Boylen Girl or watched the film, visions of court intrigue, political ambitions and love affairs will spring to mind. As a court art historian, I'm intrigued by all of those things, in addition to thinking about how people at court moved around the spaces, engaged with one another and with the splendid objects which surrounded them... and when visiting a Renaissance palace, the court life that I have read described on the pages in the secondary literature, or in primary sources, suddenly becomes no longer words but spaces, people, and things.

I had been to Hampton Court when I was in my late teens, but have always wanted to go back to see, in particular, Andrea Mantegna's Triumphs of Caesar, which have nothing to do with Henry VIII, but were painted for the Gonzaga of Mantua (a court I'm very familiar with as an Italian Renaissance specialist).

The palace and the Triumphs did not disappoint, as the pictures reveal: 

{spring flowers are out!}

{me in front of Mantegna's Triumphs}

{the great hall}

{the chapel}

{warm kitchen fire}

{we took a break & had a yummy pub lunch}

{me, in the grounds}

{gorgeous gardens}

I'm off to Paris next weekend--more on that soon!

xo, L