Wat Prayun Wongsawat

Every year for the past six I have accompanied my family and my wife’s relatives to this temple on the last day of Songkran (Thai new year). A short ceremony is held in front of our seated group performed, generally by 5 Buddhist monks, to commemorate and remember departed family members whose ashes are interred at the temple. Being Songkran it is the hottest time of year but we sit in the shade of the temple courtyard (below) and such is the design there is usually a cooling draft that prevents complete meltdown. It is very atmospheric and at the end of the ceremony the head monk sprinkles blessed water over the small congregation and wishes us a happy new year. I really have grown to quite enjoy it.

Wat Prayun Wongsawat is located near Memorial Bridge which spans the Chao Phaya in Bangkok. It was built during the reign of Rama III who reigned over Siam from 1824–51. He was the elder brother of King Mongkut (of “The King and I”  and Anna Leonowens fame) who ruled after him.

Since ancient times, Thai kings have supported Buddhism and built many temples. That’s why this country has such a great number of them. They are classified into two categories: royal temples and common temples. Royal temples are built or renovated by a king or built by a member of royalty and dedicated to a king. They are divided into first, second and third class temples in a descending order of significance. Wat Prayun Wongsawat is a second class royal temple.

The massive Chedi was restored in 2009 and very impressive it is too. You can get inside after a climbing two flights of stairs and a short crawl though a narrow opening.

Both the original building and reconstruction are really great engineering works. The problem was that after a century the wooden timber framing supporting the chedi was getting eaten through by boring insects and needed to be replaced. Huge cracks were appearing in the chedi which was in imminent danger of collapse.

It was saved by this timely restoration and the original  beams can be seen laid out around the courtyard (as seen in the photo above).

Wat Prayun Wongsawat is seldom visited by non-Thais. In fact I’ve never seen a tourist on my own visits here. Perhaps it is because it is not that easy to get to and well Bangkok has so many glorious and spectacular temples. I do like this one though for its peaceful atmosphere, its simplicity and dazzling white stucco facade. A wonderful part of the Bangkok skyline.

Maclise Meets His Waterloo

 

This wall painting, The Meeting of Wellington and Bluecher, is to be found in the Royal Gallery of the Westminster Palace (House of Lords),  London.  I have stood before it – you can’t miss it at 12 feet high and over 46 feet long. Actually the prevailing mood is grim and tragic. More abattoir than glorification of war. Both commanders look old and tired and all about are images of death and destruction. In the left foreground (see detail below) a French artillery officer lies across his gun, while beside him an English soldier is having his leg bound and another is being carried off.

At the time I saw this painting I never knew of the artist but I have just came across Daniel Maclise as I’m currently reading Claire Tomalin’s Charles Dickens: A Life. Maclise, who came of poor Irish parents, was a close friend of Dickens, who himself liked other self made men, and shared his taste for low life joining him for night-time jaunts through the rough parts of London, mixing with criminal classes, keeping an eye out for pretty street girls and drinking more than was good for them. Maclise also provided illustrations for several of Dickens’ novels.

In 1858 Maclise was commissioned to paint two giant frescoes for Westminster Palace, the painting above and The Death of Nelson on the opposite wall. These were the greatest achievements of his career but at the cost of shortening his life. The works took 7 years to complete and at one stage, he almost gave up. He begun in fresco, a process which proved unmanageable and Maclise wished to resign from his commission, but, encouraged by Prince Albert he studied a new method of water-glass painting, and continued in that medium. The sheer concentrated effort took its toll. He became reclusive, his health declined and he died in 1870.

Here is a photo of the Royal Gallery itself. You can get some idea of the scale of these paintings. I can’t help but feel that what with depictions of the battles of Waterloo on one side and Trafalgar on the other the English lords must take mischievous pleasure in showing their French visitors around.

Here is some iconic detail from The Death of Nelson. Admiral Nelson, mortally wounded in the hour of victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

Having learnt from his experience with the companion painting Maclise accomplished this one in “just” 18 months. Both paintings surely labours of love and death for the artist.

The Times article 20th April 2018 

A commission from Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s consort, to paint two giant murals of British military glories should have been the pinnacle of Daniel Maclise’s career. Instead the artist found himself being accused of incompetence after the works, hung in parliament’s Royal Gallery, quickly started to darken and fade.

 It now appears that Maclise was unfairly maligned. He had not failed to master his new technique: 19th-century pollution was to blame.

Research on the murals, each 50 sq m, depicting the battles of Waterloo and Trafalgar, has revealed that Maclise’s relatively untried technique of painting on dry plaster was sound. The darkening that occurred soon after the works were finished in the 1860s was the result of exposure to London’s filthy air. Dozens of interventions, such as adding wax coatings, over the following century compounded the problem.

“The story for many years has been criticism of Daniel Maclise for not being good enough,” Malcolm Hay, parliament’s curator of works of art, said. “Research has enabled that tale of woe to be turned round.”

Conservators from the Perry Lithgow Partnership and Opus Conservation have now embarked on a restoration programme. Caroline Babington, the parliamentary art collection’s care manager, said that different lighting in the gallery could also be transformative

Turner Heaving Coals

Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Actually this is entitled Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Moonlight. Turner painted this  moonlit view of ships on the River Tyne in 1835. I had to look this up but keelmen were stevedores who largely transferred coal from barges (keels) to oceangoing vessels.

Glorious really. Just sense your eyes being drawn through the ship cluttered river channel through to the distant irradiating sky and water.

This painting  was commissioned as a symbolic salute to commerce by Henry McConnel, a British textile manufacturer, as a pendent to Venice: The Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore shown below. What a contrast in mood if not meaning. The scene  basks in the warm Mediterranean sunlight and relates to  trade, seemingly ancient, of  luxury goods, of which no doubt silk formed part, whereas the Tyneside companion piece reveals sooty modern industry chilled by the colors of the North Sea winter’s night.

I think the patron had excellent  taste and can take some credit for the concept. Unfortunately he had to sell the pictures during a business downturn. He much regretted selling these Turners and tried, unsuccessfully, to buy at least one of them back. Luckily they remain together today and can be seen at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC (to avoid all doubt – there is a Washington close to the Tyne itself).

Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC