Dr Christina Faraday

@cjfaraday.bsky.social

4691 Followers 867 Following

Historian of art & ideas, Cambridge FSA FRHistS. Sometimes on the radio. 📕 The Story of Tudor Art out now views own 🥦👻🎻 https://www.christinajfaraday.com/

A video of a Cambridge lawn, gothic buildings and the river Cam visible in the background, across which a small white robot lawnmower makes its way.
Hastily snapped photo of women’s cricket match on tv
This week’s New Statesman, with a pink cover showing a hand around the neck of a lion wearing a crown, and two books, A Golden World by Lauren Working and This Little World by Nandini Das, on a white garden table against a backdrop of raspberry plants.
Mat Collishaw's Mask of Youth (2018), a realistic face of Elizabeth I at the age of 55, without hair, ears or neck, mounted on a robotic armature affixed to the wall.
A book laid on a brightly patterned red and orange table runner, in bright sunshine. The book has a dark brown cover of the corner of an empty room. Bare floorboards and bare brick walls and a large sash window to the right. Light streams in but nothing can be seen outside. The title Fragile July appears in a light orange serif font in the top left, Oscar Nearly in white below.
Advert for free family event for Tudor Contemporary, title in gold frame surrounded by cutout images including a portrait of Elizabeth I by The Singh Twins, Chan Hyo Bae as Henry VIII, Serena Korda’s Bartmann jug.
Close up of contemporary Bellarmine jug by Serena Korda, with grimacing bearded face, large green toads clinging to the sides.
A photo of the review in the LRB paper with an image of Holbein’s Lady with a Squirrel and the top of the Elizabethan portrait of Moroccan Ambassador Al Annuri
Cropped page from Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, reading: "What?" Theodora was saying. "What, Nell? What?" "God God," Eleanor said, flinging herself out of bed and across the room to stand shuddering in a corner, "God God—whose hand was I holding?"
Mat Collishaw's Mask of Youth, an animatronic face of Elizabeth I, mounted on a mirror with its armature exposed.
A full length swagger portrait of Richard Sackville in a white doublet with black embroidery, large cape, black hose and huge pom-poms on the slippers. A red curtain, Persian rug and red draped table in the background
Guardian headline “We are living in a time of polycrisis, if you feel trapped- you’re not alone” with a light display of a woman sitting at a garden table with a cat surrounded by silhouettes of bombs, phones and lightning strikes
Close up of the eye, nose and cheek of a silicone mask, with real eyebrow and eyelashes, a robotic armature visible behind.
A still from The Traitors with Claudia Winkleman and subtitles “players, welcome to my old art gallery”
The reverse of the embroidery in the first post.
An embroidery on cream coloured linen in leaf green, teal and purple threads. A border in purple with elongated hexagons with spurs in each corner. At the top a diagram with a point expanding to a square with arrows at the corners. The phrase ‘the work is mysterious and important’ in the middle. Underneath an outline of the Cambridge Centre for Mathematical Sciences with birds flying above.
A video in which four rolled up pieces of paper are set on fire and one by one lift into the air, except the first one which falls over, and the last one which has to be relit and then makes a respectable dash to the edge of the table.
An etching, silhouetted wildflower leaves in green, the outline of a butterfly in dark red, and a sun outlined in yellow above, with several layers of scratching, interference and shadow impressions giving the image atmosphere and depth. The Czech Museum stamp or watermark in the bottom right corner.
Screenshot of a Telegraph article with the headline “The King is a better Christian than the Pope and Archbishop”
A black and white photo of Kermit in a policeman outfit talking to Gonzo as Lord Summerisle, with the following exchange: G: Aha, sergeant Kermit! A pleasure to meet you at last! How are you enjoying your visit to our island paradise? K: frankly I am appalled by the lack of morality I find around every corner of this heathen island! G: did you try the crazy golf yet?
A photo of the cover of the December 2025 Apollo Magazine with a close up of a painting by Lippi of Joseph with grey hair and a halo, leaning on a staff, caption in white on his blue cloak reading “Getting Lippi in Rome” with a sub caption “the ghostly world of M R James”
A blurry photo of someone in a large fossil diplodocus costume, their legs in the front legs
Screenshot of the Sunday Feature webpage on the BBC website, listing the episode information.
Two copies of The Haunted Library on a table with richly patterned table cloths in red and white. The book cover is green and black, with a figure holding a candle looking up at a domed library.
An early 17th century portrait of a man wearing black with a ruff and a big black hat. Flanked by four coats of arms for different Livery Companies and his merchant's mark, with the mottos 'I bred him', 'I fed him', 'I made him free', 'yet known by me'. In the foreground a very elaborate desk tidy with pens and ink wells. He holds a letter and a pen.
Christina Faraday in front of a light blue Cheltenham Literature Festival sign, with golden fallen leaves in the background.
Black and white photo in two matched halves, left half Christina Faraday in check shirt with big glasses, looking up; right half Diane Keaton looking much cooler in similar check shirt and glasses.
A black and white photo of Oscar Wilde photoshopped into a colour image of a tube train at Kennington station with a plate of chips and ketchup in his lap and a bottle of coke in his hand.
Page from a book, with the words: ""Well, so you have; every night for the last four terms. If you want to know what I think, Jennings, I'd say you were suffering from a pretty chronic attack of beginning-of-term-itis." "Uh?" "Oh, it's nothing serious. It's just that you haven't switched over properly from holidays to term time." The specialist frowned thoughtfully at his patient. "You'll feel less chronic tomorrow when you've got over the ghastly shock, and after that you'll settle down to a calm and peaceful term with everything running smoothly." A rash prophecy, if ever there was one! Jennings' feeling of strangeness passed quickly enough..."
A video of the cover of The Times newspaper, flipping to the book section and a review of The Story of Tudor Art.
Aliki Braine, in red cardigan, blue shirt and jeans, and Christina Faraday, in colourful trousers, black shirt, burgundy shoes, sitting in armchairs in a recording studio with tv cameras in the foreground, a curtained backdrop tinted red, plants and a bookcase with art books, including The Story of Tudor Art, facing outward.
Screenshot of a Call for Papers titled Art Writing: Beyond the Crisis? Text: At a time when the discipline of art history is seeking ever greater diversity in both subject matter and practitioners, this same diversity has not penetrated to the level of art writing. As Brad Haylock and Megan Patty (2021), James Elkins (2021) and others have noted, channels for criticism are diminishing, acceptable styles of formal art historical writing are narrowing, and movements such as literary studies' 'postcritique' appear to have passed art history by. At the margins of mainstream art history, however, new approaches have been taking root since the 1980s, proliferating in the twenty-first century. These combine creative writing, criticism and scholarship-often seen as separate or even antagonistic disciplines - to push the boundaries of what art writing can look like (e.g. Greg Tate (1986), Gary Indiana (1985-1988), Jill Johnston (1994); Elkins (2023); Gloria Kury (2015); Janet Malcolm (2014); A.V. Marraccini (2023)). Underlying such experiments is a desire to reflect the increasing diversity of voices within the discipline, question old assumptions, engage new audiences, and reinspire old ones.
A wall of bookshelves over an antique table next to an open window, with houseplants, armchair and orange cushion. A bright green tree outside the window.
Christina J Faraday standing in front of a projector screen, many bookshelves behind. She’s wearing a black T-shirt with the red book cover on it, and colourful trousers. Rows of people to the right, a table of books to the left.
Screenshot of a page from Apollo magazine including a feature on The Story of Tudor Art: “This lively analysis of the culture of Tudor England covers all manner of objects, including paintings, jewels and ordinary household objects. Faraday’s revelations – that tapestries were seen as the highest art form in Tudor society, for instance – breathe new life into the familiar stories of Holbein, Hilliard et al.”
Christina Faraday is sitting on the floor with her new book The Story of Tudor Art. A bookcase is behind her. She wears a black sweatshirt with the red cover of the book printed on it.
A screenshot of the BBC news article “All you need to know to visit Cheltenham Lit Fest”. First paragraph reads “A TV legend, a former X Factor judge and a Tour de France record holder will all front events at this year's Cheltenham Literature Festival.” And hand written tacked onto the paragraph the words “, and also Dr Christina Faraday.”
A close up of The Story of Tudor Art’s red and gold cover, then a flick through its pages, full of stunning illustrations.
A woodcut showing Cupid watching a man and a woman rolling together on the ground at the bottom of a hill, a town in the distance at the top. An empty speech bubble issues from the couple. Source: https://ebba.english.ucsb.edu/ballad/34937/citation
Close up of an overpainted medieval chancel screen: a medieval saint peers through the blackletter Bible text that was painted over her.
Against a white background. On the left a portrait of John Calvin in his sixteenth century clothes facing right, inside an outline of a house, labelled “Calvin”. On the right a portrait of John Calvin facing left, no house outline, labelled “Calvout”.
Large sixteenth century oil painting of four figures kneeling in a church before an altar on which Jesus appears holding the cross, and next to a tomb for Lord Darnley. Baby King James VI, Darnley's son, kneels in front with a crown and prayer desk, his grandparents and uncle kneel behind him wearing black. In the bottom left an inset scene showing his mother Mary Queen of Scots's surrender to the Lords of Scotland at Carberry Hill.
Illuminated manuscript, double page spread. On the left the nativity, Mary lying down with an orange blanket with the ox and the ass looking into the manger. On the right page the apostles gathered around a rock with black footprints on it, Christ’s feet and the bottom of his robe disappearing into the clouds above.
Black and white cartoon with a woman telling her father “the day is here, the day the Middle Ages are over at last!”. Her boyfriend arrives: “knock knock, The Renaissance is here! I bought celebration ruffs!” He says he read about his new beard style because they’ve invented the printing press. The father looks angry in his ruff: “Bah, paper news! I get my news from balladeers. A plague on all of this.” His daughter says “Daddy plague will be looked DOWN UPON from now on.”
Red book cover with gold lettering reading “The Story of Tudor Art” and instead of the O’s there are portrait miniatures of Elizabeth I and Nicholas Hilliard.
Red book cover with gold lettering, titled The Story of Tudor Art. Instead of O’s, two portrait miniatures with Elizabeth I and the artist Nicholas Hilliard. In white at the bottom the words “A history of Tudor England through its art and objects”
Distant view of hoardings outside a building site with large photo of architect's impression of the future site.
Artwork of a small child leaning against a wall with a blanket over its head, feet visible beneath and those of a cat or fox-like creature plus tail next to it.
A turquoise glazed Iranian storage jar with two handles standing on a tablecloth with a large red floral pattern on white
View of a long dining table in the middle of the National Gallery set with a white tablecloth, pink flower arrangements and a table setting labelled Titian.
Screenshot of a Google search for 'hylacomulus pronunciation', AI Overview reads: 'The pronunciation of Hylaeosaurus (a related dinosaur genus) is "hai-lee-o-SAWR-us". While "Hylacomylus" is not a recognized dinosaur name, "Hylaeosaurus" is. The pronunciation of "Hylaeosaurus" is "hai-lee-o-SAWR-us" with emphasis on the "SAWR" syllable.' and then helpfully adds 'You can watch this video to learn how to pronounce Bithiah'
Aircraft hangar in an RAF museum with antique planes parked and suspended from the ceiling.
Guardian headline: “Marked decline in semicolons in English books, study suggests”
The proof of The Painted Room by Inger Christensen being held up against a window and a pot plant. The book has a brown cover with writing on bending golden bands, through which glimpses of faces from Mantegna’s Gonzaga frescoes can be seen.
Advert for Southern Outfall. Superimposed on an image of a man in orange high visibility clothes doing tai chi and an orange tunnel, text reading ‘a site-wide work at Crossness Pumping Station Saturday 3rd May 11-4pm’
19th century copy of a 17th century portrait of the 3rd Earl of Southampton standing against a window with a black and white cat. In the background an image of the Tower of London.
Watercolour of an imagined Pictish Woman with blue woad-dyed skin and colourful tattoos, carrying weapons, by English amateur artist John White, c.1585.
Renaissance painting of the Dead Christ laid the tomb, heavily foreshortened so it appears that we are standing just by his feet. Two weeping followers creep into the frame by the right side, the drapery has an almost sculptural quality.