Cultureshock

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Video transcript

It’s not every day you discover you share an interest with a 19th century philanthropist.  Christian art from the later middle ages has always fascinated me – the symbolism and the hidden meanings ensure you’re never just looking at a pretty picture.  What stories they can tell!  This love of religious art was something that John Bowes, co-founder of The Bowes Museum, nurtured throughout his lifetime, over 100 years ago.  His collection in the Museum makes up a real treasure trove of saintly portraits, triptychs and altarpieces, amongst which is one particular painting, a painting which holds true resonance with me. Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen’s ‘The Crucifixion’ charts the story of Easter, from Palm Sunday to the Passion and Crucifixion of Christ in just one painting.  The colours are vibrant, the symbolism revealing and the artist’s composition cleverly leads the eye to the main focus of the painting – the figure of Christ on the Cross with Mary Magdalene knelt at its foot.  Dressed in Medieval finery, she forms the image that takes me back to my undergraduate degree.  It was 2003 and I was studying for my final year of History at Huddersfield University.  Back then, I was spending nigh on 12 hours a day in the uni library, with my packed lunch and tea in toe!  The reason for this dedication: my dissertation.  15000 words on the Cult of Mary Magdalene in the late Medieval period.  I put my life and soul into that thesis and shed many a tear on the phone with my Mum, with so much evidence to analyse and arguments to pursue, how was I ever going to get it done? But with a lot of perseverance, hard work and a few more late nights in the library, I did finish it.  Then the wait. Studying for my History Degree seems like a long time ago now, but I can still remember getting my results like it was yesterday.  I approached the table with great trepidation; my palms were sweaty, my heart beating 10 to the dozen and then I saw it – “Award for Most Outstanding History Dissertation” and my name next to it!  It was, and still is really, one of my proudest moments.  I’ve never won anything before so this experience with the Magdalene has shown my how hard work and sheer gut determination really do pay dividends.  The rest, as they say, is history.