Esther Inglis's musical self portraits
Eleanor Chan delves into the world of a Huguenot bookmaker who used music as a code.
The Essay · BBC Radio 3
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Show Notes
1574, and a baby girl on board a ship fleeing from France, arrives in London. Esther Inglis went on to become a successful Tudor bookmaker and artist and Eleanor Chan argues that the inclusion of psalm music in the self portraits created by Inglis is a coded way of symbolising belonging at a time of religious strife. The essay draws on research done by New Generation Thinker Eleanor Chan, who has been working as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Manchester and the Warburg Institute.
Work by Esther Inglis is included in the exhibition Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520–1920 which runs at Tate Britain until October 13th 2024
You can hear more about Tudor music and art in a Free Thinking episode called a Lively Tudor World which features Eleanor Chan and Christina Faraday. It's available on BBC Sounds. You can also find Eleanor Chan's Essay about another Tudor composer - The discordant tale of Thomas Weelkes.
Producer: Luke Mulhall