Re: Edmund Blair Leighton

[Betty & David Eyer <Betty_and_David@compuserve.com>]

Poster: Betty & David Eyer <Betty_and_David@compuserve.com>

>> We have a century a 
research available to us that the victorians did not have, and many of 
the things they thought were so, just aren't.<<


Also, each time tends to interpret history as a reflection of its own
belief system, so that the belief system of the studied period becomes
distorted or obscured. The Victorians pretty much invented a tradition of
"Tuetonic" vs "Celtic" peoples and the modern concept of the Picts,
unsupported by any archealogical or eye witness evidence, as a reflection
of their growing nationalism and the need to define nationalist types.  
Witness the interest in peasant revolts during the revolutionary 1960's,
when scholars attributed modern concepts of privacy, self determination and
social justice to peasants of the Middle Ages in reflection of the
historians' own political orientation.  An interesting book on the
distortions of historians is "Inventing the Middle Ages" by Norman Cantor,
1991, ISBN 0-688-12302-3

Another reason the pre-Raphealites grate on my nerves is that well meaning
family and friends give you their art for presents because you are into
that Medieval Stuff.   Reminds me of all the black belts getting "Hai
Karate" cologne for Xmas years ago.  

Magdalena
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