Research for Rahere
![Grid with a red background, showing three pages of sketches inside the church of St Bartholomew The Great, around the oldest part of it.](https://www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Collage_2024-03-16_12_17_35_Watermarked-200x300.jpg)
I had another chance to go to the Church of St Bartholomew The Great in Spitalfields recently, and managed to get in a solid couple of hours of sketching and thinking while I was about it. I did attract a bit of attention – someone came and asked whether they could take my photo as I sketched, and even photographed the sketch itself, but it was in the morning on a cold and wet Saturday, so there wasn’t too much activity. By the time the tour groups started to come in and obscure what I wanted to sketch, I was becoming chilled and clumsy and in need of food and a hot cup of tea.
I might use that coloured tile pattern in the border of Rahere’s panel, instead of a plain colour. I think I’d want to make the colours closer, to create the effect of a rich damask-type fabric, but I feel a bit wider variation is needed among the four panels. I want each of them to stand alone, but if they end up displayed together, they need to look happy…
I had been wondering whether it would be legitimate to include scallop shells in the borders, to reference pilgrimage, since most often I have heard of the scallop shell being associated with the Camino to Compostela. Plainly the makers of the pews thought so!
I’m still trying to work out what to set behind Rahere. Arches? A single arch, maybe, with the gold underside couching within. That may be a bit too reminiscent of a halo, and no-one, as far as I know, has ever even suggested Rahere as a candidate for sainthood. If Kipling’s version of him has any veracity (it’s certainly not based on research – you might call it a possible emotional truth), he’s very much in the category of people who make for an challenging example – speaking truth to power is not a gift we all have, although we may all agree that it is important that it happens.
In truth I think he’s more valuable as an example to follow without the accolade. He is credited with founding an institution which continues to provide healthcare, 900 years after foundation, he is still remembered, and no one suggests that what he did is the less valuable for the lack of a sainthood.
As you see – he is still remembered.
If I have got it right, the shell was carried by pilgrims to use as a drinking cup whenever they found a well or creek.
I am sure you will soon feel what is the right way to portray Rahere.
Nice to be there early and have the space and quiet to sketch
Nice sketches. It will be interesting to see how you use them in your embroidery.
I really enjoy the ‘gathering’ process. Your sketches are so beautifully done and very engaging; you have lots of options there.
I also enjoy the research part of a project what that research reveals makes the stitching so much more interesting.