Dr Christina Faraday

@cjfaraday

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

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Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· 6h

However you're watching the eclipse, spare a thought for Taddeo Gaddi, author of the first real 'night scene' in Western art. Gaddi's obsession with light & celestial effects apparently caused him to stare too long at the 1330 eclipse, causing permanent sight damage. A warning from art history!

Taddeo Gaddi's Annunciation to the Shepherds Fresco from Cappella Baroncelli, Santa Croce, Florence, c.1330. Two shepherds are woken by a glow from an angel against a golden cloud in an otherwise dark sky. Around them in the rocky landscape are sleeping rams and a suspicious-looking dog.

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· 27d

A timeless Cambridge scene, one that Rupert Brooke would recognise: "Oh! there the chestnuts, summer through, / Beside the river make for you / A tunnel of green gloom, and sleep / Deeply above; and green and deep / The robot lawnmower glides beneath."

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Jul 2

Eng v SA and the batter’s names are Luus Brits…

Hastily snapped photo of women’s cricket match on tv

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Jun 12

Thrilled to review two terrific books in this week’s @newstatesman1913.bsky.social: A Golden World by @laurenworking.bsky.social and This Little World by @rentravailer.bsky.social - both expanding our ideas about “insular” Tudor England in fascinating ways.

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.

An open page of The New Statesman, at the book review ‘This sceptred but porous isle: Tudor and Stuart England was shaped by the people who left its shores and the objects that arrived here from afar by Christina J Faraday”

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Apr 16

Last few days to see Tudor Contemporary @heong-gallery.bsky.social at @downingcollege.bsky.social Cambridge! I'm running a Curator's Tour tomorrow lunchtime 12:30-1:15pm, and the show is open 12-5pm every day until Sunday. Don't miss it!

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.

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Apr 9

Extremely proud to share my brother @nearlyoscar.bsky.social’s brilliant, haunting book Fragile July, just out with award-winning indie @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social. The book is a prose-poem w/photos; it captures a time we both remember when things were weird. It might strike a chord with you too.

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.

The book held open at a spread with text only partially visible on the left, a photograph on its side on the right, the photograph in black and white showing a window with curtains, a radiator and the tops of some kitchen chairs. A wooden door into another room to the left. Beyond the window the silhouettes of trees.

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Mar 29

Looking for something to do this afternoon in Cambridge with little people? Try the @heong-gallery.bsky.social Tudor Contemporary Family Trail! Open 12-5pm!

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.

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Feb 20

TUDOR CONTEMPORARY now open at The Heong Gallery, Downing College, Cambridge. Free to visit, open Weds-Sun 12-5pm, until 19 April. Image: Mat Collishaw, Mask of Youth, 2018.

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Feb 18

TUDOR CONTEMPORARY opens at The Heong Gallery, @downingcollege.bsky.social, Cambridge in two days! I’m so excited to share these amazing artworks with you. Here’s a sneak peek - free to visit, runs to 19th April.

Close up of contemporary Bellarmine jug by Serena Korda, with grimacing bearded face, large green toads clinging to the sides.

Close up of Mat Collishaw’s Mask of Youth, a silicon animatronic face of Elizabeth I, with detail of slightly open mouth, wonky teeth and fine downy hairs on chin and upper lip.

Face and ruff of Natasja Kensmil’s Elizabeth I, painted photo negative style and almost monochrome except for red in the hair and mouth.

Close up of Korean photographer Chan-Hyo Bae dressed as Henry VIII, with blood running down the side of his face from beneath his red wig. The top of a gold throne in the background.

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Feb 17

Delighted with The Story of Tudor Art’s latest review in the current issue of the @lrb.co.uk! www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

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

$Close up of review paragraph reading: Two new books offer a welcome contribution to our understanding of this fractured legacy. Christina Faraday's lively history of the Tudor visual world examines not just the 'fine arts' of painting and sculpture, but the wider decorative arts, bringing in works as diverse as manuscripts, samplers, armour and candle-snuffers to tell the story of art between the accession of Henry VII in 1485 and the death of Elizabeth I in 1603. Elizabeth Goldring has produced a superb biography of Hans Holbein the Younger. While many important studies have focused on Holbein's work in either Basel or England, Goldring looks at his life as a whole and draws new information from scant archival sources.$

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Jan 26

Also: surely one of the creepiest lines in all of literature

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?"

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Jan 22

Announcing 🚨 TUDOR CONTEMPORARY 🚨 the first exhibition to focus on legacies of Tudor history in contemporary art, curated by yrs truly, opens at @heong-gallery.bsky.social at @downingcollege.bsky.social in Cambridge on 20th Feb, until 19th April. More info here: www.dow.cam.ac.uk/creative-art...

Mat Collishaw's Mask of Youth, an animatronic face of Elizabeth I, mounted on a mirror with its armature exposed.

The Singh Twins, Trade Wars, with a Mughal-inspired copy of the Pelican Portrait of Elizabeth I in the centre, surrounded by emblems of trade and colonial atrocities, with bananas and corporate symbols on a turquoise background beyond.

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Jan 21

They are much debated! Maybe also just hugely padded all over, which i imagine looking like the Horniman walrus or this William Larkin portrait (v much not an apprentice)

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

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Jan 15

Ah yes, I think we all have a friend like Polly Crisis, lurching from incident to incident, always asking your advice but never heeding it…

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

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Jan 7

Working on something really exciting at the moment. Announcement very soon but for now here's a creepy preview.

Close up of the eye, nose and cheek of a silicone mask, with real eyebrow and eyelashes, a robotic armature visible behind.

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Jan 3

Claudia Winkleman putting her History of Art BA (Cantab) to good use! #TheTraitors

A still from The Traitors with Claudia Winkleman and subtitles “players, welcome to my old art gallery”

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Jan 1

The reverse, for the embroidery nerds out there. A combination of back stitch, running stitch and satin stitch.

The reverse of the embroidery in the first post.

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Jan 1

I made this for the tv-loving pure mathematician in my life. The choice of quotation reflects my (lack of) understanding of what he does rather than his own (obviously), but I included a diagram from one of his papers and the things in the corners are called tropical cubic curves.

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.

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Dec 31

Watch as we nearly set fire to the kitchen with @nearlyoscar.bsky.social’s indoor fireworks / our new year wishes. Happy 2026!

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Dec 30

Ludmila Jiřincová (1912–1994), Butterfly and Bees above Wildflowers, undated etching on paper. Czech National Museum, Inv. No. KNM GRA Jiřincová 354a.

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.

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Dec 29

I seem to have woken up in 1529…

Screenshot of a Telegraph article with the headline “The King is a better Christian than the Pope and Archbishop”

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Dec 10

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?

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Dec 7

THE STORY OF TUDOR ART - came out in September. The first book on English art across the whole 16th century, for the royal court and beyond it. Extremely Christmassy - a great gift - doesn’t even need wrapping because the dust jacket is red and shiny gold. 🌟🌹👑♥️

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Nov 25

A bit of a departure for me in @apollo-magazine.com’s December issue, where I look at what M. R. James's ghost stories can tell us about the pleasing terror of studying art and objects...

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”

Double page spread of Apollo “Raising the Dead” in gothic writing against a sepia photo of the entrance to the Fitzwilliam Museum in the late 19th century when M. R. James was director, against a patterned red tablecloth.

A photo of the end of the article reading:

“Baxter was only too literal in his desire to “look through dead man's eyes” filling the binoculars with liquid made from boiled bones.
But the dead, who 'didn't like having their bones boiled, finally come to carry Baxter off 'whither he would not'.
An unfortunate end for Baxter, but what greater fantasy for students of the past than seeing history first-hand?
Historians of all kinds - but especially art historians - devote their lives, by different means, to exactly this cause. What else is Michael Baxandall's famous concept of the 'period eye' - his attempt to recover the culturally shaped modes of vision specific to certain times and places - than a more respectable attempt to look through dead men's eyes?
James was writing at a time when professional historians were anxious to distance their quasi-scientific approaches from the whimsical studies of antiquaries. But his stories reveal that he understood only too well what many students of art and history feel when faced with the remains of the past. The creeping feeling that we are never quite alone with the objects we study, that we are always somehow accompanied by the people who once made, viewed and used them, and that their intentions and desires are still deeply embedded in the objects that survive them. Drawing out these intentions, accounting for the humanity of the long dead, is a task that can cause the scholar considerable anxiety - accompanied or not by the fear that, should we get it wrong, the dead will find a way to return, to put us right.”

Christina J. Faraday is an affiliated lecturer in history of art at the University of Cambridge and author of The Story of Tudor Art (Head of Zeus).

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Oct 31

Saw possibly the greatest Halloween costume ever the evening…

A blurry photo of someone in a large fossil diplodocus costume, their legs in the front legs

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Oct 31

My episode of @bbcradio3bot.bsky.social Sunday Feature goes out this Sunday at 7:45pm (or catch up later on BBC Sounds). All about the musical aspects of my favourite Tudor picture, The Henry Unton Memorial Portrait at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Screenshot of the Sunday Feature webpage on the BBC website, listing the episode information.

A detail of the Unton Memorial Portrait showing his house. Unton is hosting a dinner party with musicians in a broken consort, with wind and string instruments, and in an upstairs room plays the viola da gamba in a small group, music books on the table.

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Oct 30

Perfect Hallowe'en-e'en post - my author copies of The Haunted Library, @blpublishing.bsky.social's latest Tales of the Weird volume, out on 13th November. My story 'The Advent Visitor' appears alongside some true classics of the genre...

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.

The Haunted Library book open at the contents page:
The Devil's Manuscript S. LEVETT-YEATS
The Tractate Middoth M. R. JAMES
The Whisperers ALGERNON BLACKWOOD
Fingers of a Hand H. D. EVERETT
Mr. Tallent's Ghost MARY WEBB
The Book MARGARET IRWIN
The Library HESTER HOLLAND
Midnight Express ALFRED NOYES
Herodes Redivivus A. N. L. MUNBY
W. S. L. P. HARTLEY
What Shadows We Pursue RUSSELL KIRK
The Work of Evil WILLIAM CROFT DICKINSON
Revenant as Typewriter PENELOPE LIVELY
The Advent Visitor C. J. FARADAY

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Oct 30

It's Halloween-een so let me tell you a real life ghost story from my research. It concerns this guy, William Windover, successful merchant from Salisbury in England, and owner of one of the most impressive desk tidies in all of art history.

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.

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Oct 18

Had a blast at Cheltenham Literature Festival talking to @tracyborman.bsky.social and Julia Wheeler about The Story of Tudor Art!

Christina Faraday in front of a light blue Cheltenham Literature Festival sign, with golden fallen leaves in the background.

Christina Faraday, Tracy Borman and Julia Wheeler on stage, seated on sofas and a chair, with a photo and the event sign behind them, three books on a table: Christina Faraday’s The Story of Tudor Art and Tracy Borman’s Holbein: The Ambassadors and Stolen Crown

Christina Faraday by a book table in the Waterstones tent. The book table is covered in The Story of Tudor Art books with a bright red cover, Christina’s t-shirt also has the book cover on it.

Dr Christina Faraday@cjfaraday· Oct 11

RIP Diane Keaton, your coolness made me feel much better about getting glasses.