The Datebook datebook_winter_spring2019_digital_ARTWORK | Page 12

By Richard Fitzwilliams
The Favourite
F
ew monarchs would have had
more reason to bemoan their
plight than Queen Anne, who lost
seventeen children, mostly
through miscarriages and who
fought a ceaseless battle
against ill-health. Olivia Colman
gives a superb performance and
invests her with a good deal of
humanity despite her neuroses,
tempers, obesity and frailties.
Her “children” are her seventeen
rabbits, one for each lost child.
The film centres on her relationship
with Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough
(Rachel Weisz) who initially
Rachel Weisz as Sarah, Duchess
of Marlborough (left), and Olivia
Colman as Queen Anne.
Richard Fitzwilliams
with the Queen. Nicholas Hoult is
excellent as the conniving Tory
leader and the intrigues of the rival
politicians add a comic touch to the
court scenes.
Emma Stone as Abigail Hill, later Lady Masham.
exercises almost total control over the
Queen and also over affairs of state.
Anne is emotionally dependent on her
and her hold over her is also sexual.
Her husband the Duke is fighting a
war against the French which needs
to be funded and is supported by the
Whig Party under Lord Godolphin
(James Smith), but opposed by the
Tories under Robert Harley (Nicholas
Hoult) whom Anne favours. Sarah is
also embezzling vast sums which are
being appropriated by the
Marlboroughs as they build Blenheim
Palace.
We see some events from the
viewpoint of Abigail (Emma Stone), a
cousin of Sarah’s, who has fallen on
hard times and whom she employs
as her maid but who later fatefully
supplants her in Anne’s affections.
Sarah’s reaction after a bizarre
incident involving Abigail, which
nearly leads to her own death,
causes the breakdown of her
friendship with Anne. This destroys
her influence as well as her
husband’s career.
Rachel Weisz plays Sarah as
ruthless, ambitious and
temperamental. It is a superb
portrait of a powerful woman who
faces a devastating fall from grace.
As Abigail, who becomes Lady
Masham, Emma Stone is
marvellous as a beautiful but
callous schemer who stops at
nothing to increase her influence
The film looks marvellous. Sandy
Powell’s costumes are gloriously
colourful and it is much enriched by
music from famous composers of
the period. The sumptuousness of
the decor adds poignancy to the
loneliness and unhappiness that can
accompany power.
Anne is a trapped in a gilded cage,
though she is able to ride and,
somehow, survives as queen despite
her incapacities. A highly intelligent
script highlights the conflict between
her private struggles and her public
duties. Director Yorgos Lanthimos
quirkily divides the film into titled
sections. Anne deserves some pity
in this mendacious world and this is
an irresistibly voyeuristic portrayal of
it which is also full of pathos.
The BP Exhibition – I Am Ashurbanipal King
of The World, King of Assyria – British Museum
T
he grandiose title of this
exhibition and many of its
contents are reminiscent of
Shelley’s portrait, in his poem
Ozymandias, of the shattered
stone statue which once
symbolised supreme power and
ruthless brutality but had
declined to nothingness.
Ashurbanipal is now little known
but he was ruler of the Neo-
Assyrian Empire, then the world’s
largest, from 669 BC to his death
around 631 BC, though this was
due to unknown causes. It is
extraordinary that, within twenty
years, this vast empire had
collapsed owing to overexpansion
and civil war with its capital,
Nineveh, being totally destroyed.
Relief depicts King Ashurbanipal and his wife Ashursharrat feasting in the
royal gardens of his North Palace at Nineveh, being fanned by attendants,
while the head of Te-umman the Elamite King, a war trophy, hangs from a
tree on the left of the panel. 645 BC. British Museum.
Daesh (ISIL) has recently demolished
many important archaeological sites
during its recent occupation of parts
of Iraq. A section here is devoted to
this and to current efforts to save
important Iraqi cultural sites. stories of Ashurbanipal’s victories;
there seemed no limit to his military
glory though he never actually led
his armies into battle. There are
also many graphic scenes of his
prowess hunting lions in wonderfully
vivid and animated reliefs which
have justly become famous.
This is an exhibition on a grand scale
and which, like its predecessor in the
Sainsbury Wing, The Scythians, uses
technological advances in display to
great effect. The reliefs tell the What makes the reliefs
comprehensible is the illumination
of selected sections with enlarged
written text alongside. Some of the
bloodiest, including the slaughter of
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captives and the displays of severed
heads, show the horrible fate which
faced many of those defeated by his
armies. We also see examples of
reliefs in their original colours and
many artefacts including ornate
objects in gold and some highly
imposing sculptures. We get a
flavour of the furnishings of his
sumptuous palace too. There is also
an unforgettably macabre relief of
him and his wife celebrating after
one of his victories whilst the
severed head of the vanquished
Votive bronze decorated
helmet offered to the god
Haidi, by king Arguisti 1st,
Copper-alloy, 786 BC – 764
BC. History Museum of
Armenia, Yerevan.
King of Elam is hanging from a
nearby tree.
Ashurbanipal also boasted of his
learning which was clearly
exceptional as he had the largest
library in the ancient world. Many of
the tablets are on show here. This
exhibition shows the cultural
richness and sophistication of
Assyrian society as well as its
obsession with size whilst also
emphasizing the way it exulted in
cruelty and barbarism.