Dr Christina Faraday
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cjfaraday.bsky.social
Dr Christina Faraday
@cjfaraday.bsky.social
4.6K followers 850 following 460 posts
Historian of art & ideas, Cambridge
FSA FRHistS. Sometimes on the radio.

📕 The Story of Tudor Art out now
views own 🥦👻🎻
https://www.christinajfaraday.com/
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cjfaraday.bsky.social
Announcing 🚨 TUDOR CONTEMPORARY 🚨 the first exhibition to focus on legacies of Tudor history in contemporary art, curated by yrs truly, opens at @heong-gallery.bsky.social at @downingcollege.bsky.social in Cambridge on 20th Feb, until 19th April. More info here: www.dow.cam.ac.uk/creative-art...
Mat Collishaw's Mask of Youth, an animatronic face of Elizabeth I, mounted on a mirror with its armature exposed. The Singh Twins, Trade Wars, with a Mughal-inspired copy of the Pelican Portrait of Elizabeth I in the centre, surrounded by emblems of trade and colonial atrocities, with bananas and corporate symbols on a turquoise background beyond.
January 22, 2026 at 2:44 PM
cjfaraday.bsky.social
They are much debated! Maybe also just hugely padded all over, which i imagine looking like the Horniman walrus or this William Larkin portrait (v much not an apprentice)
A full length swagger portrait of Richard Sackville in a white doublet with black embroidery, large cape, black hose and huge pom-poms on the slippers. A red curtain, Persian rug and red draped table in the background
January 21, 2026 at 9:14 PM
cjfaraday.bsky.social
Ah yes, I think we all have a friend like Polly Crisis, lurching from incident to incident, always asking your advice but never heeding it…
Guardian headline “We are living in a time of polycrisis, if you feel trapped- you’re not alone” with a light display of a woman sitting at a garden table with a cat surrounded by silhouettes of bombs, phones and lightning strikes
January 15, 2026 at 8:11 PM
cjfaraday.bsky.social
Working on something really exciting at the moment. Announcement very soon but for now here's a creepy preview.
Close up of the eye, nose and cheek of a silicone mask, with real eyebrow and eyelashes, a robotic armature visible behind.
January 7, 2026 at 11:39 AM
cjfaraday.bsky.social
Claudia Winkleman putting her History of Art BA (Cantab) to good use! #TheTraitors
A still from The Traitors with Claudia Winkleman and subtitles “players, welcome to my old art gallery”
January 3, 2026 at 8:24 PM
cjfaraday.bsky.social
The reverse, for the embroidery nerds out there. A combination of back stitch, running stitch and satin stitch.
The reverse of the embroidery in the first post.
January 1, 2026 at 4:18 PM
cjfaraday.bsky.social
I made this for the tv-loving pure mathematician in my life. The choice of quotation reflects my (lack of) understanding of what he does rather than his own (obviously), but I included a diagram from one of his papers and the things in the corners are called tropical cubic curves.
An embroidery on cream coloured linen in leaf green, teal and purple threads. A border in purple with elongated hexagons with spurs in each corner. At the top a diagram with a point expanding to a square with arrows at the corners. The phrase ‘the work is mysterious and important’ in the middle. Underneath an outline of the Cambridge Centre for Mathematical Sciences with birds flying above.
January 1, 2026 at 4:16 PM
cjfaraday.bsky.social
Watch as we nearly set fire to the kitchen with @nearlyoscar.bsky.social’s indoor fireworks / our new year wishes. Happy 2026!
December 31, 2025 at 10:14 PM
cjfaraday.bsky.social
Ludmila Jiřincová (1912–1994), Butterfly and Bees above Wildflowers, undated etching on paper. Czech National Museum, Inv. No. KNM GRA Jiřincová 354a.
An etching, silhouetted wildflower leaves in green, the outline of a butterfly in dark red, and a sun outlined in yellow above, with several layers of scratching, interference and shadow impressions giving the image atmosphere and depth. The Czech Museum stamp or watermark in the bottom right corner.
December 30, 2025 at 7:15 PM
cjfaraday.bsky.social
I seem to have woken up in 1529…
Screenshot of a Telegraph article with the headline “The King is a better Christian than the Pope and Archbishop”
December 29, 2025 at 8:49 PM
cjfaraday.bsky.social
A black and white photo of Kermit in a policeman outfit talking to Gonzo as Lord Summerisle, with the following exchange: G: Aha, sergeant Kermit! A pleasure to meet you at last! How are you enjoying your visit to our island paradise? K: frankly I am appalled by the lack of morality I find around every corner of this heathen island! G: did you try the crazy golf yet?
December 10, 2025 at 9:18 PM
cjfaraday.bsky.social
THE STORY OF TUDOR ART - came out in September. The first book on English art across the whole 16th century, for the royal court and beyond it. Extremely Christmassy - a great gift - doesn’t even need wrapping because the dust jacket is red and shiny gold. 🌟🌹👑♥️
December 7, 2025 at 6:12 PM
cjfaraday.bsky.social
A bit of a departure for me in @apollo-magazine.com’s December issue, where I look at what M. R. James's ghost stories can tell us about the pleasing terror of studying art and objects...
A photo of the cover of the December 2025 Apollo Magazine with a close up of a painting by Lippi of Joseph with grey hair and a halo, leaning on a staff, caption in white on his blue cloak reading “Getting Lippi in Rome” with a sub caption “the ghostly world of M R James” Double page spread of Apollo “Raising the Dead” in gothic writing against a sepia photo of the entrance to the Fitzwilliam Museum in the late 19th century when M. R. James was director, against a patterned red tablecloth. A photo of the end of the article reading: “Baxter was only too literal in his desire to “look through dead man's eyes” filling the binoculars with liquid made from boiled bones. But the dead, who 'didn't like having their bones boiled, finally come to carry Baxter off 'whither he would not'. An unfortunate end for Baxter, but what greater fantasy for students of the past than seeing history first-hand? Historians of all kinds - but especially art historians - devote their lives, by different means, to exactly this cause. What else is Michael Baxandall's famous concept of the 'period eye' - his attempt to recover the culturally shaped modes of vision specific to certain times and places - than a more respectable attempt to look through dead men's eyes? James was writing at a time when professional historians were anxious to distance their quasi-scientific approaches from the whimsical studies of antiquaries. But his stories reveal that he understood only too well what many students of art and history feel when faced with the remains of the past. The creeping feeling that we are never quite alone with the objects we study, that we are always somehow accompanied by the people who once made, viewed and used them, and that their intentions and desires are still deeply embedded in the objects that survive them. Drawing out these intentions, accounting for the humanity of the long dead, is a task that can cause the scholar considerable anxiety - accompanied or not by the fear that, should we get it wrong, the dead will find a way to return, to put us right.” Christina J. Faraday is an affiliated lecturer in history of art at the University of Cambridge and author of The Story of Tudor Art (Head of Zeus).
November 25, 2025 at 11:41 AM
cjfaraday.bsky.social
Saw possibly the greatest Halloween costume ever the evening…
A blurry photo of someone in a large fossil diplodocus costume, their legs in the front legs
October 31, 2025 at 10:17 PM
cjfaraday.bsky.social
My episode of @bbcradio3bot.bsky.social Sunday Feature goes out this Sunday at 7:45pm (or catch up later on BBC Sounds). All about the musical aspects of my favourite Tudor picture, The Henry Unton Memorial Portrait at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Screenshot of the Sunday Feature webpage on the BBC website, listing the episode information. A detail of the Unton Memorial Portrait showing his house. Unton is hosting a dinner party with musicians in a broken consort, with wind and string instruments, and in an upstairs room plays the viola da gamba in a small group, music books on the table.
October 31, 2025 at 12:15 PM
cjfaraday.bsky.social
Perfect Hallowe'en-e'en post - my author copies of The Haunted Library, @blpublishing.bsky.social's latest Tales of the Weird volume, out on 13th November. My story 'The Advent Visitor' appears alongside some true classics of the genre...
Two copies of The Haunted Library on a table with richly patterned table cloths in red and white. The book cover is green and black, with a figure holding a candle looking up at a domed library. The Haunted Library book open at the contents page: The Devil's Manuscript S. LEVETT-YEATS The Tractate Middoth M. R. JAMES The Whisperers ALGERNON BLACKWOOD Fingers of a Hand H. D. EVERETT Mr. Tallent's Ghost MARY WEBB The Book MARGARET IRWIN The Library HESTER HOLLAND Midnight Express ALFRED NOYES Herodes Redivivus A. N. L. MUNBY W. S. L. P. HARTLEY What Shadows We Pursue RUSSELL KIRK The Work of Evil WILLIAM CROFT DICKINSON Revenant as Typewriter PENELOPE LIVELY The Advent Visitor C. J. FARADAY
October 30, 2025 at 11:29 AM
cjfaraday.bsky.social
It's Halloween-een so let me tell you a real life ghost story from my research. It concerns this guy, William Windover, successful merchant from Salisbury in England, and owner of one of the most impressive desk tidies in all of art history.
An early 17th century portrait of a man wearing black with a ruff and a big black hat. Flanked by four coats of arms for different Livery Companies and his merchant's mark, with the mottos 'I bred him', 'I fed him', 'I made him free', 'yet known by me'. In the foreground a very elaborate desk tidy with pens and ink wells. He holds a letter and a pen.
October 30, 2025 at 11:26 AM
cjfaraday.bsky.social
Had a blast at Cheltenham Literature Festival talking to @tracyborman.bsky.social and Julia Wheeler about The Story of Tudor Art!
Christina Faraday in front of a light blue Cheltenham Literature Festival sign, with golden fallen leaves in the background. Christina Faraday, Tracy Borman and Julia Wheeler on stage, seated on sofas and a chair, with a photo and the event sign behind them, three books on a table: Christina Faraday’s The Story of Tudor Art and Tracy Borman’s Holbein: The Ambassadors and Stolen Crown Christina Faraday by a book table in the Waterstones tent. The book table is covered in The Story of Tudor Art books with a bright red cover, Christina’s t-shirt also has the book cover on it.
October 18, 2025 at 5:16 PM
cjfaraday.bsky.social
RIP Diane Keaton, your coolness made me feel much better about getting glasses.
Black and white photo in two matched halves, left half Christina Faraday in check shirt with big glasses, looking up; right half Diane Keaton looking much cooler in similar check shirt and glasses.
October 11, 2025 at 8:48 PM
cjfaraday.bsky.social
Oscar Wilde could have ridden on the underground drinking a bottle of coke and eating chips with Heinz ketchup.
A black and white photo of Oscar Wilde photoshopped into a colour image of a tube train at Kennington station with a plate of chips and ketchup in his lap and a bottle of coke in his hand.
October 8, 2025 at 9:36 AM
cjfaraday.bsky.social
Term starts here tomorrow; solidarity to any colleagues experiencing a "pretty chronic attack of beginning-of-term-itis", à la Jennings.
Page from a book, with the words: ""Well, so you have; every night for the last four terms. If you want to know what I think, Jennings, I'd say you were suffering from a pretty chronic attack of beginning-of-term-itis." "Uh?" "Oh, it's nothing serious. It's just that you haven't switched over properly from holidays to term time." The specialist frowned thoughtfully at his patient. "You'll feel less chronic tomorrow when you've got over the ghastly shock, and after that you'll settle down to a calm and peaceful term with everything running smoothly." A rash prophecy, if ever there was one! Jennings' feeling of strangeness passed quickly enough..."
October 6, 2025 at 1:56 PM
cjfaraday.bsky.social
Exciting to see The Story of Tudor Art reviewed in today’s Times!
October 4, 2025 at 4:38 PM
cjfaraday.bsky.social
Had a ridiculously swish time recording for @nationalgalleryldn.bsky.social Members’ Book Club with Aliki Braine today, talking about The Story of Tudor Art!
Aliki Braine, in red cardigan, blue shirt and jeans, and Christina Faraday, in colourful trousers, black shirt, burgundy shoes, sitting in armchairs in a recording studio with tv cameras in the foreground, a curtained backdrop tinted red, plants and a bookcase with art books, including The Story of Tudor Art, facing outward.
October 2, 2025 at 7:06 PM
cjfaraday.bsky.social
The AAH 2026 Conference #callforpapers site is live, incl. our session 'Art Writing: Beyond the Crisis?'. Seeking 10-minute papers on examples of innovative art writing & what the discipline can learn from its choices of format, style, subject matter & audience. forarthistory.org.uk/art-writing-...
Screenshot of a Call for Papers titled Art Writing: Beyond the Crisis? Text: At a time when the discipline of art history is seeking ever greater diversity in both subject matter and practitioners, this same diversity has not penetrated to the level of art writing. As Brad Haylock and Megan Patty (2021), James Elkins (2021) and others have noted, channels for criticism are diminishing, acceptable styles of formal art historical writing are narrowing, and movements such as literary studies' 'postcritique' appear to have passed art history by. At the margins of mainstream art history, however, new approaches have been taking root since the 1980s, proliferating in the twenty-first century. These combine creative writing, criticism and scholarship-often seen as separate or even antagonistic disciplines - to push the boundaries of what art writing can look like (e.g. Greg Tate (1986), Gary Indiana (1985-1988), Jill Johnston (1994); Elkins (2023); Gloria Kury (2015); Janet Malcolm (2014); A.V. Marraccini (2023)). Underlying such experiments is a desire to reflect the increasing diversity of voices within the discipline, question old assumptions, engage new audiences, and reinspire old ones.
September 29, 2025 at 5:54 PM
cjfaraday.bsky.social
Sad to say goodbye to my amazing flat in Newnham Cottage, the C18th Cambridge villa where I’ve lived as a Research Fellow @caiuscollege.bsky.social. I’ll especially miss the beech tree’s fiery autumn display outside the window. So glad to have had such a stunning place to think & write for 5 years.
A wall of bookshelves over an antique table next to an open window, with houseplants, armchair and orange cushion. A bright green tree outside the window. A view of a bright orange and yellow beech tree out of a window, with curtains, houseplant and armchair. A view of Newnham Cottage, a yellow brick Cambridge villa, from the back lawn. An ironwork pergola over the floor length downstairs windows, blue wooden shutters against the windows. The branch of a redwood in the foreground. A brilliant blue sky. A mid brown G plan table, on top a pottery lamp with a red shade flanked by houseplants. Patterned placemats by Louise Bourgeois. Two pictures on the wall, on the left a small picture, pink and white with two abstract figures talking, on the right a black and white print by Amy Jeffs of Diana sending Brutus to Albion.
September 28, 2025 at 11:13 AM