© COPYRIGHT by Danielle Therese Grega 2017 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED For my family, especially Marion Grega. MYTHOLOGIZING MARY: WILLIAM ALLAN’S THE MURDER OF DAVID RICCIO AND SCOTTISH NATIONAL IDENTITY IN THE 1820S BY Danielle Therese Grega ABSTRACT This thesis analyzes Sir William Allan’s history painting The Murder of David Riccio (1833) in relation to the formation of Scottish identity at a pivotal moment in the nation’s history. The painting represents the death in 1566 of Mary Stuart’s trusted secretary at the hands of her husband Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, while the pregnant queen watches the grisly killing unfold. I argue that Allan uses the historical figure of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, as an allegory of Scotland. At the time Allan painted this work, artists across Europe were grappling with the problem of how pictorially to define “the nation”; often, they used female figures as allegorical representations of that abstract concept. Placing Allan’s painting in its historical and political context, I relate it to the artist’s Unionist political beliefs. In my interpretation, the painting attempts to forge a distinctly Scottish identity by celebrating one of the nation’s foremost leaders, while also legitimizing its union with Great Britain. I show that gender ideology plays a key role in this complex balancing act. By representing Mary as a passive and compliant figure, Allan makes Scotland the feminized partner to its more “masculine,” powerful partner, Britain. Allan thus mobilizes Mary as a symbolic figure who reconciles the nation’s particular character and autonomous past with its identity as a part of the United Kingdom. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project would not have been possible without the guidance, support, and patience of my advisor, Dr. Juliet Bellow. I found support and encouragement in the larger faculty of American University, specifically from Drs. Joanne Allen, Kim Butler-Wingfield, Helen Langa, Andrea Pearson, Ying-Chen Peng, Anne Richter, and Samuel Sadow. I am also indebted to Leah Haines and Ginny Lefler, both of whom offered revisions, encouragement, and optimism that were truly invaluable. Thank you to the Mellon Foundation as well as Dr. Romeo A. Segnan for funding a research trip to Scotland so that this project could contain the most accurate formal analysis and historical research possible. I would also like to thank Jeff and Janine Grega, who have constantly and infallibly believed in the worthiness of my pursuits. Lastly, I would like to thank the family and friends without whose support this project would not have been realized: Kaitlyn Cava, Felicia Grega, Emily Grega, Taylor Kendra, Noelani Kirschner, Bryan McGinnis, Jacob Miller, and Rachel Salmon. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... iii! ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. iv! LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ......................................................................................................... vi! INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1! CHAPTER 1 THE EVOLUTION OF MARY STUART’S IMAGE ............................... 10! CHAPTER 2 AN ALLEGORY OF THE UNION: PARTNERSHIP AND POLITICS ......................................................................................................................... 23! CHAPTER 3 THE MURDER OF DAVID RICCIO AND THE SPECTATOR’S EXPERIENCE .................................................................................................................. 31! CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 43! ILLUSTRATIONS ........................................................................................................... 44! BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................................... 45! ! v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Illustration Figure 1: Hans Eworth, Elizabeth I and the Three Goddesses, oil on panel, 1569. ...................... 44! Figure 2: Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Marie Antoinette and her Children, oil on canvas, 1787 ..... 44! Figure 3: Andreas Möller, Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria in 1729, 1729. ...................... 44! Figure 4: Adam Blackwood, The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, woodcut opposite page 12 in Adam Blackwood, Histoire et martyre de la Royne d’Escosse…Avec un petit livret de sa mort, 1589. .................................................................................................................... 44! Figure 5: Unknown artist, The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, watercolor, 1613 ............... 44! Figure 6: Gavin Hamilton, Mary, Queen of Scots Resigning her Crown, 1765. .......................... 44! Figure 7: Antonio Zecchin after John Francis Rigaud, The Sheriff Entering the Chapel of Mary, Queen of Scots the Morning of her Execution, stripple engraving, 1791. ........................ 44! Figure 8: Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 1830. .................................................. 44! Figure 9: Sir William Allan, John Knox admonishing Mary, Queen of Scots on the Day her Intention to Marry Darnley was Made Public, 1823. ........................................................ 44! Figure 10: Sir William Allan, Lord Patrick Lindesay of the Byres and Lord William Ruthven Compelling Mary, Queen of Scots to Sign her Abdication in the Castle of Lochleven, 1824................................................................................................................................... 44! Figure 11: Sir William Allan, The Murder of David Riccio, oil on canvas, 1833. ...................... 44! Figure 12: Attributed to Arnold Bronckorst, James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, Regent of Scotland, 1580, oil on panel, National Galleries of Scotland. .......................................... 44! vi INTRODUCTION This thesis analyzes Sir William Allan’s history painting The Murder of David Riccio (1833) in relation to the formation of Scottish identity at a pivotal moment in the nation’s history. The painting represents the death in 1566 of Mary Stuart’s trusted secretary at the hands of her husband Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, while the pregnant queen watches the grisly killing unfold. I argue that Allan uses the historical figure of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, as an allegory of Scotland. At the time Allan painted this work, artists across Europe were grappling with the problem of how pictorially to define “the nation”; often, they used female figures as allegorical representations of that abstract concept. Placing Allan’s painting in its historical and political context, I relate it to the artist’s Unionist political beliefs. In my interpretation, the painting attempts to forge a distinctly Scottish identity by celebrating one of the nation’s foremost leaders, while also legitimizing its union with Great Britain. I show that gender ideology plays a key role in this complex balancing act. By representing Mary as a passive and compliant figure, Allan makes Scotland the feminized partner to its more “masculine,” powerful partner, Britain. Allan thus mobilizes Mary as a symbolic figure who reconciles the nation’s particular character and autonomous past with its identity as a part of the United Kingdom. One aim of this project is to restore the importance of William Allan’s career as a painter of ambitious paintings that depict Scottish history. Allan has been all but forgotten by historians of European art. A modern critical assessment of his work was not undertaken until 2001, when Jeremy Howard and Bertha Walker organized the exhibition William Allan: Artist Adventurer, for the Edinburgh City Art Centre. As the works in that show attest, Allan’s importance as an art- historical figure stems from his role as one of the first painters of Scottish history. In 1814, when Allan returned to Scotland from his travels abroad in eastern Europe and Russia, Scotland had no 1 resident history painters at all.1 His obituary in The Scotsman noted that for most of his life he was one of “the only practicing history painter[s] in the country.”2 Allan’s artistic career was thoroughly intertwined with politics and affairs of state. After showing an aptitude for art at an early age, Allan was apprenticed to a coach-painter before studying under John Graham at the Trustee’s Academy, along with David Wilkie, John Burnet and Alexander George Fraser.3 Allan then studied in London at the Royal Academy from 1803 to 1805, furthering his training in history painting. However, the lack of major patrons for large- scale history painting made it impossible for Allan to sustain a career as an artist in London. He departed for St. Petersburg in 1804, receiving a global education by traveling through the southern parts of the Russian empire, including extended stays in the Ukraine, Crimea, Kuban, and Caucasus regions for several years.4 During this period, he experienced firsthand Napoleon Bonaparte’s attempt to invade Russia, presumably also witnessing Russian pride at its army’s ultimate victory over the French. Nationalism and its representation would occupy the better part of Allan’s life from then on. Allan’s career coincided with a period of political turmoil and realignment, in which many European countries came to