The Hawstead Panels (detail). Used under license.
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The Hawstead Panels are a series of painted wooden panels of early 17th-century date. I've been looking at the panels since I was five years old, and they inspired my lifelong fascination with tarot.
The panels depict strange images and slips of text. They were painted anonymously, probably by an amateur. Created at a time when England was under Catholic rule, yet found in a Protestant household, the panels certainly will have come in to existence for some form of private spiritual reflection, although the precise details of this remain unclear. Details of public outcomes will be shared as the project develops.. |