Godiva of Coventry

 

I imagine this as a companion to the Guy of Warwick print. Both characters are engaged in risky acts of heroism, Guy risking life and limb and Godiva risking her reputation. I’m always thinking as I draw and compose and cut these things, telling myself stories about what I’m doing. Putting myself in the heads of the people I’m working on. The larger and more elaborate the composition, the more I’m thinking and explaining things to myself. 

Here are some of the things that went through my mind that impacted on the over all design. 

I wanted an elevated viewpoint, partly to help compositionally and partly representing a Peeping Tom’s eye view. That viewpoint also helped me add other people, so it was not just Godiva and the horse. 

Nuns seemed right to me, but they had to be blindfolded. I imagined Leofric (like all governments) tied in knots by his own edicts. So yes, nuns could lead the horse, but they couldn’t be allowed to see. Luckily Dobbin is the milkman’s horse, so knows the way. I also wanted the nuns to show their character in how they go about their task. The one holding the cross to her breast and putting her whole faith in God (who is maybe acting through the horse). The other feels her way along the wall while trying to see what she can of the ground from under the blindfold. I didn’t use it as a specific reference, but there’s a definite influence of Pontormo’s Annunciation with the nuns. That abstract shape of the robes, with the bare foot extending out the bottom. 

I got a slightly damaged 1/12 scale model horse cheap from ebay that I used with one of my poseable figures as the model for Godiva. This enabled me to get the perspective/foreshortening to my liking. I gave Godiva a bit more weight around the middle than the figure, cuz maybe she’s already had kids, so she could talk to Leofric with the authority of the mother of his heir, whereas a younger, probably more compliant Godiva wouldn’t have challenged him.