Family tree

The large painting in the Banquet Hall is rendered in a rather slapdash manner and has several surprising mistakes and omissions. The castle depicted in the background has an incorrect number of windows, the main entrance is in the wrong position and there is an entire wing missing. The Duke’s wife is shown as having fair hair when all contemporary accounts talk of her blazing red locks and the couple seem to have the wrong number of children. The artist hasn’t really bothered to give them recognisable features and several of the smaller children are missing limbs. But each individual tree in the grounds is of the correct species and size and is placed in exactly the right position. And each tree is rendered with a clarity that goes down to the level of the separate leaves.

Thanks for all the stuff yesterday!