[Photos] UK 05 - Arundel, Interior, Paintings and Sculptures.

[moonvoice]

We, by some miracle, managed to go to Arundel on the first day it was open after closing for maintenance over Autumn and Winter. We had no idea until we got there, but probably Mum and Simon knew when they suggested it to us.

It was really quiet. There was hardly anyone there, and no school children (which apparently can be a problem over the Summer months). The volunteers were all really generous with their time, and clearly loved their job, happy to talk at length about different items in a room, or when I asked, what other historical landmarks they enjoyed most in the UK. Many were happy to point out things that were easy to miss, though I spent so much time in every room (compared to everyone else) that I think they mostly appreciated having someone who wanted to actually *look* at things instead of just taking photos and walking away.

Idk it seems like these days - or maybe it's always been this way - people just want to go to significant places to get through it as quickly as possible, take some photos, and get out, just to prove they went.


When you're this rich, your castle really should have its own private cathedral, shouldn't it? (It has another cathedral outside of the castle walls, presumably for commoners).




Creepy. Definitely haunted.



Tbh, I was fucking enchanted by the artwork. I've done art history, and going through was like walking through one of my art history books. It was a bizarre, nostalgic experience.



Many of these paintings were nearly full-sized.





Benedict Cumberbatch is that you?



I think this may have been down or off a servant's corridor/passageway.



I marvelled at the tapestries. This was at the central staircase that tbh a lot of people didn't *stop* at which was insane to me because it was obviously meant to be an area of significance. One of the volunteers explained that the tapestry was actually just about to be sent off for restoration.





This gold was held in the preserved dining room.



The dining room.



These chairs almost look like you can sit on them, don't they? But no, there was rope. Actually, also this reminded me a great deal of my childhood. My Mum was a cleaner when I was a young child, and I have memories of her taking me and my younger sister to these extremely opulent homes (many for the Governor General, or visiting royalty etc.) to clean them. We had to sit and be absolutely still and not touch anything while she cleaned, and at most, we were allowed to sit in a chair like this. It's not like we were any less poor because she was cleaning a place so rich and splendid.

It felt special, but we never properly understood where we were financially because Mum went to great lengths to make our lives enriched anyway, and it wasn't until I was older that I came to understood where we sort of at in the pecking order (when Mum was cleaning our primary school, and doing ironing for other women who didn't want to do their own ironing, and working in a factory, just to help get us through school and put herself through TAFE). So I've seen what it means to watch someone *make* themselves through hard work, and I've seen also what that does to a person - going to work when sick, always. No time for rest, always. A hard slog, always. My Mum finds it really hard to relax now, and so do we, by association. Money is terrifying. Financial stability cannot be trusted.

If anyone tells me I don't understand what it's like to live with classism, I'll punch them in the mouth. Walking through this castle reminded me of my childhood, but in a really specific way.





It's such a bizarre feeling to look at a collection of materials in a photo and know that everyone is basically invaluable / priceless by museum/gallery standards.



The wood on this was carefully chosen / angled to create additional art.









This was flat out looted/stolen from Asia.



Queen Victoria's room.





Entry way into the private chapel.



And now we leave Arundel, and head up to Stratford-Upon-Avon! :)

Comments

[cmcmck]

I do like a nice bit of high Gothic. :o)

[moonvoice]

We have nothing at all like it here! A few of the volunteers were shocked to learn we had no castles, not even a tiny fort, lol.

[silverjackal]

Your comment made me LOL. A friend who is very much "from this country" was telling me enthusiastically about one of the cities that is essentially the oldest (as a city), and vastly older than the part of the country I live in. He went on about how much of it there was and how old it was "unlike Europe because it had never been bombed" and I had to suppress a hearty laugh at his expense. I explained that said old quarter of said city is a) not particularly old and b) not particularly large. While much as been destroyed through two world wars there are whole cities which are relatively ancient and *fine*. And yes, many castles and chateaus. It still disturbs me a little that there is virtually no material history here where I am from more than a century and a half ago (because while the area was occupied the people were nomadic and didn't have much imperishable material culture). In contrast the place I was born in dates back some thirteen centuries (in its' current incarnation), and I've lived literally walking along roads laid by the Romans.

[moonvoice]

While much as been destroyed through two world wars there are whole cities which are relatively ancient and *fine*.

Yeah! I tend to find it's so different energy wise too. The Indigenous Australians have rich history in the land, of course, but much of it is in the form of artwork upon rocks etc. or leftover tools from when they more actively flint-knapped and so on, so it's not like, architectural history in the same sense, and we're not really raised to experience that history of ecosystem and appreciate it in the same way. So to walk somewhere like, for example, Skara Brae, that has essentially remained for thousands of years (I mean, buried and then unburied) was pretty amazing. Or to walk through places in Chichester and know that historical buildings still last it's...really a unique experience for me?

But then I also liked in Wales seeing the contemporary standing stones. We saw 'historic' standing stones too, but the idea that people are continuing that sort of history into contemporary times was pretty cool.

[silverjackal]

I could swear I recognise a couple of the portraits as well, likely because they're relatively well known. The very first, of the child (dwarf?), and the lady in the white gown in particular. I especially love the wooded cabinet that is the stand for the armour. The effort that must have gone into creating it!

[moonvoice]

Yeah, some of the portraits have definitely been in some of my art books as examples of portraiture. That wooded cabinet was incredible, I stared at it for ages, like, the amount of time/patience/skill, sometimes the furniture pieces were as / if not more inspiring than some of the paintings.