06 works, Today, August 8th, is Martyr John Felton's day, his story illustrated #220

Daphne Pollen, (1904–1986)

Forty Martyrs of England and Wales

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

Daphne Pollen, 1904–1986, was born into a wealthy family.

 

Daphne attended the Slade School of Art, and developed a particular gift as a muralist. By 1923, aged only nineteen, she was working on an immensely ambitious work; a sixty-foot mural of ‘Christ Healing the Sick’ in the church of All Hallows, Poplar. The church was badly damaged in 1942 during the Blitz, and was demolished in 1952, so this work has been lost.

 

However, also in 1923, she went with her family to India to see Lutyens’ work at New Delhi, and found a fellow Slade alumnus was also travelling on the boat: Arthur Pollen. They fell in love, and in 1926, she married him, and converted to Catholicism. 

 

After her marriage, her practice as an artist declined as her domestic commitments increased, but such work as she did, like her husband’s, was focused on Christian themes, and Catholic church art in particular, though she was also a competent portraitist. ‘The Forty English Martyrs’ was painted in 1968. This was commissioned by the Society of Jesus at a time when Philip Caraman and John Walsh SJ were working towards the canonisation of the English martyrs.

 

The Pollens’ belief in the importance of religious art was transmitted to the next generation.  Both their sons, the architect Francis Pollen (he designed Worth Abbey in Sussex) and the stained-glass artist Patrick Pollen, worked regularly on religious subjects throughout their respective careers. More on Daphne Pollen 

John Felton (died 8 August 1570) was an English Catholic martyr, executed during the reign of Elizabeth I.

Bermondsey Abbey

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

Felton was a wealthy man of Norfolk ancestry, who lived at Bermondsey Abbey, a mansion built out of the materials of a great Cluniac monastery. He "was a man of stature". His wife had been a playmate of Elizabeth I, a maid-of-honour to Queen Mary. John Felton was a well-known Catholic.

Unknown English artist

Queen Elizabeth I, circa 1588

Oil on panel

38 1/2 in. x 28 1/2 in. (978 mm x 724 mm)

National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London

Felton was arrested for fixing a copy of Pope Pius V's Bull Regnans, excommunicating Queen Elizabeth, to the gates of the Bishop of London's palace near St. Paul's. 

A papal bull is a type of public decree, letters patent, or charter issued by a pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the leaden seal (bulla) that was traditionally appended to the end in order to authenticate it.

Pope Pius V's Bull Regnans

Elizabeth and her ministers were by no means indifferent to the potential political effects of the papal bull. In the Europe of the sixteenth century there were still Catholic powers who might be ready to execute the sentence of deposition that was in those days the corollary of excommunication.

Unknown artist

Mary, Queen of Scots, c 1578

Oil on canvas

Height: 79.1 cm (31.1 in); Width: 90.2 cm (35.5 in)

National Portrait Gallery, London

Posting the copy of the bull was a significant act of treason as the document, which released Elizabeth's subjects from their allegiance, needed to be promulgated in England before it could take legal effect. The reaction seemed soon to be justified: it was the publication in England of Pius's exhortation that gave the impetus to the Ridolfi plot, in which the Duke of Norfolk was to kidnap or murder Queen Elizabeth, install Mary, Queen of Scots, on the throne and then become de facto king by marrying her.

Scipione Pulzone (1550–1598)

Ritratto di Papa Pio V/Portrait of Pope Pius V, 16th century

Oil on canvas

Collection Palazzo Colonna

Felton had received the bulls in Calais and given one to a friend, William Mellowes of Lincoln's Inn. A general search of known Catholic houses in and near London was undertaken and the copy was soon discovered. After being racked, Mellowes implicated Felton, who was arrested on 26 May. Felton immediately confessed and glorified in his deed, "treasonably declaring that the queen … ought not to be the queen of England", but he was still racked as the authorities were seeking, through his testimony, to implicate Guerau de Spes, the Ambassador of Spain, in the action. 

Unknown artist

The drawing, 13th century

(The drawing of William de Marisco)

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

Loyset Liédet

A Traitor's Death

From a manuscript of Froissart

Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris

Loyset Liédet (1420 – after 1479, or after 1484), was an early Netherlandish miniaturist and illuminator, running a workshop which may have been of some size. Although he was very successful, and patronized by the leading collectors of his day, his work does not attain the standards of his finest Flemish contemporaries, with whom he often collaborated on large commissions.

Liédet was a prolific artist. Between 1454 and 1460 he worked in Hesdin where he produced 55 thumbnails for La Fleur des Histoires by Jean Mansel, commissioned by Philip the Good of the House of Valois-Burgundy. He also did some work for Charles the Bold. After 1467 he was found in Bruges, where he was a member of the Guild of Saint Luke. In all probability he continued to work in Bruges until 1479. More on Loyset Liédet

Felton was condemned on 4 August and executed by hanging four days later in St. Paul's Churchyard, London. He was cut down alive for quartering, and his daughter says that he uttered the holy name of Jesus once or twice when the hangman had his heart in his hand. He was beatified in 1886 by Pope Leo XIII. More on John Felton

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