"Lodged within my heart" : a Turkish Epithalamium or Bridal Shower

Ancient Constantinople, style of Anton Schwarz, 1769-1839  © Durham University

300 years ago in May, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, wife of George I's ambassador to Constantinople, attended a Turkish "bridal shower" or epithalamium.

Pera, Constantinople, May 1718:
"I was three days ago at one of the finest [bagnios]  in the town and had the opportunity of seeing a Turkish bride received there and all the ceremonies used on that occasion…

All the she-friends, relations and acquaintance of the two families newly allied meet at the bagnio. . ..I believe there was that day at least 200 women.  Those that were or had been married placed themselves round the room on the marble sofas, but the virgins very hastily threw off their clothes and appeared without other ornament or covering than their own long hair braided with pearl or ribbon.  Two of them met the bride at the door, conducted by her mother and another grave relation.  She was a beautiful maid of about seventeen, richly dressed and shining with jewels, but was presently reduced by them to a state of nature.  Two others filled silver gilt pots with perfume and begun the procession,  the rest following in pairs to the number of thirty.  The leaders sung an epithalamium answered by the others in chorus, and the two last led the fair bride, her eyes fixed on the ground with a charming affectation of modesty. In this order they marched round the three large rooms of the bagnio.  'Tis not easy to represent to you the beauty of this sight, most of them being well proportioned and white skinned, all of them perfectly smooth and polished by the frequent use of bathing.  After having made their tour, the bride was again led to every matron round the rooms, who saluted her with a compliment and a present, some of jewels, others pieces of stuff, handkerchiefs, or little gallantries of that nature, which she thanked them for by kissing their hands.

I was very well pleased with having seen this ceremony and you may believe me that the Turkish ladies have at least  as much wit and civility, nay, liberty, as ladies amongst us."

From Letters from Turkey, Mary Wortley Montagu, published officially 1763.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu*    Charles Jervas  after 1716   © National Gallery of Ireland

*Cousin by marriage to Lady Elizabeth Montagu, the blue-stocking hostess (see May 2017 blog)

Lady Montagu's letters draw a wonderful detailed picture of her experiences in Constantinople, and on the journey via Vienna across Europe.  Intelligent, curious and engaging, she was clearly more successful in society there than was her husband's embassy to the Ottomans, and her letters reveal intimate details of women's lives in Turkish high society.   Accounts like hers of the exotic Mediterranean past later inspired both dress fashions and many late Victorian artists.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema's "Roman" baths,  1909  © Tate Britain

The historic Cagaloglu Hamam, Istanbul, built 1741

She also recorded this pencil inscription from a private bagnio at C,orlu.   Translated into English for her,  it is a fitting verse for lovers:

"We come into this world, we lodge, and we depart;

He never goes that's lodged within my heart."

An artist in love

This summer I plan to revisit Leighton House (after a long gap) to see the Alma-Tadema exhibition.  Like Lord Leighton, Dutch-born Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema was also known for his unique "artist's house" in Grove Road, St John's Wood, but his was amazingly and exotically splendid.

One of the more intimate of his paintings is this painted screen in the British Galleries at the V&A Museum,  showing the family of his second wife, Laura Epps.   As his dealer, Ernest Gambert wrote to Holman Hunt in 1869: "Tadema went last Boxing Day to a dance at [Ford] Madox-Brown's, fell in love at first sight with Miss Epps, a surgeon's daughter, is going to marry her as soon as she names the day.  It plays havoc with his painting; he cannot turn to work since."

The Epps Family, 1870  Lawrence Alma-Tadema and Laura Epps  © V&A Museum

Recently widowed, Alma-Tadema moved to London in 1870 and undertook to teach Laura Epps to paint (she had been taking lessons from Madox Brown); his method was to paint six large oil panels with portraits of Laura's parents, who were not keen on the proposed marriage, along with Laura's sisters and brother with their spouses and children dining..  Laura is on the right in a green, aesthetic style dress (as they were an artistic family) and Alma-Tadema himself is in the doorway.  Laura made additions to the panels, but the screen remained unfinished after their marriage in July 1871.

Although Laura later modelled for some of Alma-Tadema's historical paintings, work on the screen had served its real purpose, to bring the lovers together.

94 degrees in the Shade

I have been immersed in preparing a lecture and suddenly summer has arrived, so this painting captures today perfectly.

94 degrees in the Shade  Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema  

© Fitzwilliam Museum

It was painted in 1876 at Godstone in Surrey and shows Alma-Tadema's friend's son, Herbert Thompson, just before he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge.   Herbert went on to become a barrister, lecturer and an eminent Egyptologist.  The Fitzwilliam also has twin portraits of Herbert and his father, Sir Henry Thompson, an very eminent surgeon,  painted by their friend Alma-Tadema.  In 1877 he had joined father and son for a painting holiday on board their boat Gypsy, on the Thames, and painted Herbert's portrait  - wearing a very fetching smoking hat (below) - on one of the houseboat doors;  the  following year  he painted the father.   Both the Thompsons were art collectors,  especially of Whistler and Fantin-Latour, but here Herbert is pursuing lepidoptery (above).

Young Herbert Thompson  by L. Alma-Tadema © Fitzwilliam Museum