Tag Archives: kings college cambridge

A painting full of meaning with a pair of severed feet

Posted on by
1

DURING MY CHILDHOOD, my parents took my sister and me to Florence (Italy) every year. We spent a great deal of our time there looking at renaissance and earlier paintings. Apart from their beauty, my father was particularly interested in the symbolic meanings of things included in the paintings. On a recent visit to the chapel of King’s College in Cambridge, we saw a painting that reminded me of my father’s love of interpreting symbols in old paintings of religious subjects.

The painting is “Madonna in the Rosary” painted by Gert van Lon, who was born in Geseke, Germany in about 1465. The painting was created between 1512 and 1520 for a nunnery in the German town of Soest. The crowned Madonna and Child is surrounded by an oval frame of painted roses. There is a pair of angels in the top left and right corners of the picture, and two kneeling nuns (holding rosaries) in the lower left and right corners. The thing that both puzzled and surprised me are two severed feet, each with their toes pointing at the nuns. Each foot has a red spot, denoting a wound made by a nail on the Cross. Each foot has been depicted as if it had been cleanly and recently sawn from the legs to which they were attached.

In an article published about this painting in The Burlington Magazine (June 2012) by Jean Michel Massing and Aurélie Petiot, the severed feet are representations of the wounds of Christ. The baby Jesus is held in the Madonna’s left hand and there is a bowl of cherries in her right hand. According to the authors of the article:

“In religious symbolism the cherry stands for the heavenly reward for piety, while its sweet-sourness alludes, in typological terms, to the joys and sorrows of the Virgin.Mother and Child…”

And the garlands of roses surrounding the Virgin and Child represent Hail Marys. They are separated by the feet, already mentioned, and by a pair of hands that also represent Christ’s wounds. Each of the sawn-off hands has a nail wound. My late father, who subscribed to The Burlington for many years, would have loved explaining all of this to us.

The painting, so I learned from the article, was donated to King’s College by Charles Robert Ashbee

(1863–1942). He was an architect, social reformer, designer, and important member of the Arts and Crafts Movement. He had studied as an undergraduate at King’s College between 1883 and 1886. It was Ashbee who designed the wooden frame surrounding the painting.

Although I have visited King’s College Chapel many times, it was only on my recent visit in August 2023 that I first noticed Gert van Lon’s painting that is both beautiful and full of meaning.

A Hungarian pensioner at Kings College Cambridge

Posted on by
Reply

DURING A RECENT VISIT to Cambridge, we spent some time in the magnificent chapel of King’s College. It is difficult to avert one’s eyes from the masterpiece of gothic fan-vaulting that forms the ceiling of this edifice, but it is worth doing so because the chapel is filled with other wonderful things. These include a painting by Rubens, another by Gert van der Lon, and yet another by Girolamo Siciolante de Sermoneta. The brass lectern that stands in the choir was made in the early 16th century and is surmounted by a small statue of King Henry VI. There are many other items of great historical interest to be seen including the stained-glass windows, which have survived since the 16th century. Interesting as all of these are, what caught my attention was something in a small side chapel – The Chapel of All Souls.

This chapel was converted in the 1920s to house a memorial to those members of King’s College (academics, students, choristers, and servants) who died during WW1. The names of those who perished are listed on engraved stone panels on one wall of the small chapel. Amongst these names is that of the famous poet Rupert Brooke (1887-1915). 

On another wall of the chapel, separate from the list of names, I spotted an inscription carved into the stone. It reads:

“Pensioner Ferenc Békassy”

Ferenc Istvan Dénes Gyula Békássy (1893-1915) was a Hungarian poet born in Hungary. In 1905, he was enrolled at Bedale’s School in Hampshire. In 1911, he began studying history at King’s College Cambridge. He was what is known as a ‘pensioner’. In Cambridge University usage, this word was used for a student, who has no scholarship and pays for his tuition as well as his board and lodging. During his time at the college, he was elected a member of The Apostles and courted the same woman as Rupert Brooke. He composed poetry both in Hungarian and English.

Just before the outbreak of WW1, Ferenc returned to Hungary, where he enlisted as a hussar in the Austro-Hungarian Army. On the 22nd of October 1915 he was killed in action whilst fighting the Russians in Bukovina. He was buried on his family’s estate in Hungary.

After the war, the memorial in King’s College Chapel was established. Because it was considered objectionable for the name of an enemy soldier to be listed amongst those who fought and died for Britain, his name was not included on the memorial. Instead, it was placed on another wall nearby.

Though separated from Rupert Brooke’s name by a few feet, this small chapel serves as a memorial to two great poets, who were killed in their prime.