Taking a picture of Robert Dudley...

[fajrdrako]

These pictures are not mine. These pictures are by gillo, who kindly uploaded them last night and said I could use them. (How did I acquire, among my friends, these people who have been so wonderful in showing me their local sights? and so knowledgeable about them? and so deft and knowledgeable at explaining them? Good karma? Random luck?)

In case anyone fears I have not been taking photos, I have picture proof. Here, courtesy of gillo, is a picture of me trying to get a picture of the effigy of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who was Elizabeth I's dear friend and might have been her husband or lover. Quite the tomb, isn't it? The person beside Robert is his wife Lettys, who had her effigy set a little higher than Robert so people could actually see her, too.

And this is pretty much the picture I was trying to take when gillo took the picture of me taking the picture: Robert's face. He was 56 when he died. Here is a longer view of the same chapel which also has tombs of the Earls of Warwick (including one found in Shakespeare, and the one who was Robert Dudley's brother), and a beautiful but sad effigy of Robert's young son.

And there is this wonderful painting: no, not wonderful in an artistic sense, but in a conceptual sense. It covers much of a higher wall is the same chapel, and was meant to be done in the same style as the Sistine Chapel. Yes, the Renaissance really did come to Warwickshire. But sadly, they didn't have Michelangelo on their team.

This is all in St. Mary's Church, which burned down in 1695 (don't quote me on that date) and was rebuilt so often, it's hard to tell by looking what style it's in. There are Norman bits (my favourite part), Victorian bits, and everything in between and since.

It also has this magnificent ceiling in the chancel, with flying ribs.

St. Mary's Collegiate Church, Warwick. A fascinating place.