The Political Nature of Rainbows
As part of her research, Loh studied the rainbows found in a 17th-century emblem book written for King James VI and I and his son Prince Henry. In this type of book, created for courtly audiences, hand-drawn illustrations would run alongside popular mottos and poetry as a type of memory aid.
Loh is interested in how the book of emblems might tell a larger story—how a tiny illustration of a rainbow might illuminate a moment of profound transformation.
When artist Henry Peacham made this emblem book for the king, he drew on another text: King James VI’s recently-published Basilikon Doron, published during James' tumultuous accession to the English throne.
As he pronounced himself the "King of Great Britain" to unite the separate kingdoms of England, Ireland, and Scotland, he was met with resistance in Parliament. At the same time, conflicts between Catholics and Protestants in the region roiled.
“James is trying to hold all of these things together,” says Loh. For him, the image of the rainbow in the emblem book would have been a hopeful symbol, but also a heavy burden. As a ruler, James would have felt responsible to deliver the peace promised by the image of the rainbow.
Looking Into the Past
Just as the rainbow today communicates the hopes, dreams, and fears of a time and place, it once illuminated a moment of profound transformation in the British monarchy.
Historical objects like the book of emblems, Loh says, are like time machines, offering connections to both the present and the past. “To be able to think about all these different histories through one object is, in a sense, what art is there for. It might be beautiful, it might be ugly, but it is there to give us an insight into another time and place that is beyond ourselves and our own moment,” she says.
Maria H. Loh’s lecture, Rainbow Power, was delivered as the annual Thomas and Barbara Gaehtgens lecture at the Getty Research Institute and can be viewed in its entirety below:
