New Haven Excursion - Part Two

On that bright, sunny Saturday after Thanksgiving, I decided to visit both the Yale Art Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art. The British Art museum was the second stop on my agenda. It was conveniently located across the street from the Yale Art Gallery (and across from a Starbucks too :-D). On street parking is very limited since it is a city, but parking in the Chapel-York Street garage was not a bad alternative. The outside of the building isnt anything to write home about - or in our case to blog about. Simply looks like an office building from the 1970s to me. What I liked though about the outside of the building was that you could see some of the pieces from the street.

The museum was recently renovated in a very modern style - warm wood combined with cold concrete. I prefer that the surroundings match the artwork that is on display so I wasn't enamored with the modern decor. The picture on the right (which was taken from the museums website http://ycba.yale.edu) shows the interior of the first floor. All around it are huge paintings of homes, people and animals. I was awed by the size of the paintings and by how graphic some of them were.

This trip, however, I encountered a snag. So far I have been able to photograph anything as long as I did not use a flash. In the Walpole exhibit, which consumed the entire third floor, I was not allowed to photograph anything. There were no signs posted, and while guards did see me holding a camera, none of them offered to advise me on the no photography rule. I found out by taking this picture of Cardinal Wosley's hat. His real hat. To anyone who watches The Tudors on Showtime, Cardinal Wosley, portrayed by Sam Neill, was responsible for getting Henry VIII

his divorce from Queen Catherine. While the show is fiction, Cardinal Wosley was not. He was the Chancellor of England under King Henry VIII and took care of many of the affairs of state while the young king did whatever took his fancy. In 1529, he was removed as Chancellor by a much more involved Henry VIII for his failure at getting a divorce for the king. Wolsey's task was to convince the pope to allow a divorce, which was forbidden in the Catholic Church. The reason the pope was against granting the divorce is because of Henry's marriage to Queen Catherine. Catherine was married to Henry's brother who was supposed to take the throne. The brother died, and in order to maintain the peace treaty with Spain, which was signed with the marriage of Catherine, Henry's father urged the Catholic Church to nullify the first marriage so that Henry could marry his brother's wife. The nullification was granted, and the marriage proceeded. Henry VIII wanted the divorce for a few reasons: 1) He did not have a male heir and believed he sinned when he slept with Catherine 2) He was not in love with Catherine, but with Anne Boleyn whom he wanted to marry. When Wolsey failed to secure his divorce, Henry removed him from Chancellor and blacklisted Wolsey anywhere else he went for employment. Wolsey, having no where else to go, went to York where he was appointed as the Archbishop of York back in 1514. In 1530, almost a year after he was ousted as Chancellor, Henry had him arrested and he died on the way from York to London where he was going to stand trial for treason - and most likely lose his head like so many others who were associated with Henry VIII.

I love this time period in history. Starting from the early medieval period through the Reformation in European history is just fascinating in all aspects to me. The piece I picked originally was a full suit of armor that was on display, but for some reason I told myself that I would go back and take a picture of it later in case I found something that drew me in stronger. When I saw the hat I knew I had to write about this. This hat, where only a think layer of glass stood between us, was a direct link to Henry VIII - one of the most notorious English kings in history. I was millimeters away from being able to physically connect with a piece of history - a real piece of history. Not a picture in a book or on a website, but the real thing just presented there for the world to see. How many people walk by it and not even stop for a glance? This is why museums are such an important part of our lives as people. They give us the opportunity to make connections which our collective pasts and presents.

After I took the photo is when a guard told me that the entire third floor, the entire first floor and parts of the second floor were no photography zones. I can understand copyrights and all that, and since the Walpole showing was a traveling exhibition I can understand why they would not allow photographs, but from that moment on through the rest of my time there, the museum took on an unwelcoming feeling that I did not experience at the other museums. This feeling dampened the rest of the tour for me. There was great artwork, and the entire Walpole exhibit was incredible, but not being able to take photos took away something for me.