Rationale: why go broad?

1. too broad and nobody will understand the point (because there won't be one);
2. too narrow, and we'll only gain a small audience;
3. therefore topic must be capable of layering or forking to provide additional avenues - the more so if a second part is to build upon this first stage;
4. for this reason at least some of the themes for Stage One must be extensible into Stage Two;

By including elements such as the following, both form and status are given to the paintings we shall instance in the project: form because the importance of sea-power is thereby emphasised down the ages; and status because the well-nigh-endless series of 19thC paintings of sailing vessels will be shown to fit into the fabric of British history and naval power, the more so when the user knows the reason for their commissioning, and the "uses" to which they were therefore put.

Several of the following suggestions, if accepted, will require the authors to use exemplary material from outside the NMM as well as from its collections; but this is of course in accordance with how any lecturer or author would proceed in order to build up as complete a picture as possible of the topic. By adding such breadth, the works in the NMM are placed in a broader context; the presentation is seen as non-parochial; and the student gains. At the very least, such external material should be in the form of web-links. For a parallel example why, when examining the works of Rubens in the National Gallery, are links not provided to other works in other collections?

Another argument is the very focussed nature of the NMM's collections of paintings. Certainly, this means that there are wonderful materials to use in any project; but (in contradistinction to the National Gallery, for example) this can lead to a perceived lack of variety. Hence going outside the NMM collections seems to me essential to broaden the catchment of people who will use the final project.

But the clinching argument seems to me the low level of general knowledge concerning Britain and the Sea that we might expect some of the intended audience to possess. If they haven't got the background, then they cannot really appreciate the detail to be contained in the essays. Most of them will be more familiar with road and air transport than with the sea; and their knowledge of history might in some areas be very uncertain. Hence I am really suggesting a project certainly on Britain and the Sea, but packaged within a broader framework which addresses very general themes in marine painting, naval history, archaeology, science and trade.

To suggest such a focus might seem to be going beyond the brief provided; but I believe such breadth is essential if the project is to be of broad utility.

Broad Themes to Cover

1. audience and market for marine painting?
2. sources of British interest in maritime painting;
3. exploration -> maps and chronometers;
4. sciences and sea -> botany, geology, ethnography etc;
5. settlement -> colonies, Royal Navy for protection;
6. trade and war -> struggle with Dutch, American colonies;
7. iconography of marine painting -> control and possession; contention with foreign powers; internal/external propaganda;
8. how to depict sea battles? i.e. no decisive moment as needed for history painting on land;
9. maritime painting at the Royal Academy and the French Salons;
10. maritime painting and the propaganda of the Napoleonic Wars;
11. the foundations of the Royal Navy;
12. a Royal Navy view of British international politics at the time of (a) the Spanish Armada; (b) the Dutch wars; (c) the Napoleonic Wars; (d) World War I; (e) World War II;

- which might shake down to areas like the following:

1. The battle-scene as a tried-and-tested art form: maritime battle scenes going back to the Egyptians and Cretans;
2. sea-power and defence: we include an updated version of Mahan's Influence of Sea Power on History;
3. Invasion threats: perhaps a piece on the ships in the Bayeux Tapestry;
4. Archaeological dimension: what do we know about the design of ships and how they were used, before the few survivals we have such as Victory? The answer lies in the archaeology of the material objects, supported by pictures of ships. i.e. we emphasise that the art-historical objects are also important documents;
5. Foreign perspectives: are also necessary: we cannot set British maritime art in perspective without knowing about "the competition"; so we need essays on e.g. French marine painting in the 18th-19th centuries, Maritime art and the rise of the Dutch Republic, etc; if dealing with the Armada, we need to realise that Philip's focus was much broader than just Britain;
6. Naval strategy: what were the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty seeking to achieve? How do British attitudes to strategy compare with those of France or Spain, or the Turks?
7. Integrate marine art into the life of the nation, by including essays which extend the purely naval side, thus:
   1. Sutton Hoo Ship Burial -> surviving Viking longships -> Bayeux Tapestry -> Battle of Britain Tapestry -> National Gallery floor mosaic (or am I mis-remembering???)
   2. Crusades -> Defeat of the Turks -> Siege of Malta -> Preparation and defeat of the Armada -> Rise of Britain and United Netherlands as sea powers;
   3. Mary Rose -> Elizabethan navy -> defeat of the Armada;
   4. Death of Nelson -> Funeral of Nelson -> Burial of Nelson -> Commemmoration of Nelson in Trafalgar Square;
   5. Travel -> Tradescant Collection (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) -> Renaissance Cabinets of Curiosities -> exploration and origins of ethnography -> drawings and paintings of the Antipodes;
   6. Criminality & poverty -> emigration -> colonies -> revolt & war;
8. is marine painting a peculiarly northern art-form? why so little from Spain and Portugal, with their large maritime empires? (the very question demonstrates my ignorance; but it is an interesting question!);
9. perhaps chart the rise of specialist marine artists, and discuss their clients, and reasons for their popularity;
10. perhaps try and answer the question: Has marine art suffered a decline from the heydays of the 18th-19th centuries? Or has the emphasis simply changed to photography and video?

Include Greenwich wherever possible!

1. World Heritage Site;
2. The site of the NMM;
3. It houses three historic buildings/ensembles, namely Flamsteed House, the Queen's House, and the Royal Naval Hospital;
4. Such ensembles with such dates and such a magnificent layout are rare elsewhere (Bordeaux? Invalides? Lisbon? all different), so a lot should be made of them, as the greatest Baroque ensemble in Britain;
5. Each is a good lead-in to one or more essays: Flamsteed House for navigation; the Queen's House for Royalty and the Sea; and the Naval Hospital for several; The Queen's House and the Hospital are architecture of the first rank;
6. Greenwich town itself is a good example of a prosperous Georgian naval community, with lots of surviving properties of high quality (and a great parish church): many other such communities got bombed flat (Portsmouth, Plymouth; although others, such as Fareham, Hants, survive), so Greenwich is special;
7. The Cutty Sark might be added, as a lead-in to fast 19th trade; it is also a beautiful ship!

How many study links?

1. One way of mitigating the amount of background actually to be contained within the project is to offer links to suitable primary and secondary sources;
2. primary source sites should include the The Historical Manuscripts Commission, collections of British documents, and also pointers to European documents; collections relating to individual countries such as France, collections dealing with specific periods such as the Brigham Young site dedicated to World War I, and perhaps the PRO Virtual Museum;
3. secondary sources could include enectronic versions of books such as Hakluyt's Discourse of Western Planting (1584) (on colonies), newspapers from Drake to Trafalgar,
4. Good maps are essential, so use gateways
5. Links to museums and galleries are also helpful, such as the V&A and the National Art Library, or perhaps just point via a gateway such as the 24-Hour Museum; , , , ,