There’s a rather moving sculpture of Lady Godiva in the Maidstone Museum. Your first reaction is to wonder: “What is it – she – doing here?”
And if you’ve seen the Godiva in Broadgate, Coventry, you’ll be struck by significant differences and another question. “Does this woman – girl, really – come from the same story?”
The Maidstone Godiva – let’s call her the Maid – is pale and marbled (in plaster, actually), slightly larger than life-size, on a horse of course but also mounted on a plinth and therefore hard to miss. And the first thing about her that you can’t help but notice is how grateful she would be to be missed. She is clearly self-conscious and even the horse’s head is bowed.
The Maid is vulnerable and unhappy. Her eyes are closed, her head is lowered. Her right hand supports her forehead and helps to bring her long flowing locks into a defensive curtain. Her legs – she rides side-saddle – are interlocked where the toes of her right foot curl around her left calf, perhaps for balance, perhaps for security. Her hair obscures one side of her face and cascades across her lap. Her left breast – indeed the left-hand side of her body – is exposed. The horse looks powerful but restrained, as if sensing the rider’s distress.
The Coventry Godiva – Diva, let’s say – is in bronze, also larger than life. She is much more recent – mid-20th century, where the Maid is Victorian. She has a name; the statue is called Self Sacrifice, having always been intended for prominent public display. Equally oddly, for almost 20 years of her career in central Coventry she sheltered beneath a canopy.
The Diva rides side-saddle but sits upright. She looks ahead, expressionlessly, making no attempt to conceal herself. Her left hand touches the reins, her right stretches out behind her to steady herself. She seems proud of her body and, if not at ease, not entirely uncomfortable.
The Diva’s hair, as long as the Maid’s but straighter, frames her face and falls across her left breast and between her thighs, which are parted. Her posture on the prancing horse looks precarious.
Both are young. No doubt they were betrothed – a deceptively gentle word – at an early age. Godiva, an 11th century Anglo-Saxon, is said to have been the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia. She appealed on behalf of the townspeople of Coventry against a tax Leofric proposed. He accepted her plea, on condition that she ride naked through the streets of Coventry. The townsfolk undertook to stay indoors behind shuttered windows, in solidarity with her. A tailor called Tom drilled a hole in his shutters and became the original Peeping Tom.
The story seems contrived and unwholesome, like an upskirting shot on the Internet. Leofric, Tom and even the sculptors take a timelessly prurient interest in what the tabloid era would call ‘posh totty’. Godiva may actually have been young, beautiful and completely naked, but in essence she is another stereotype of an era when story-tellers were exclusively men.
But if sniggering at a glimpse of female nakedness is the topic, it would be dishonest not to identify the artists involved. Their names belong to a particularly English linguistic tradition. The Maidstone Godiva is by John Thomas (1813-62). The Godiva stepping out in central Coventry is by Sir William Reid Dick (1879-1961).
Maidstone United, a Football League club from 1989-92, play on a 3G artificial surface at the Gallagher Stadium north of the town centre. It’s a short walk from Maidstone East railway station.
But if you arrive by train – or any other way – take a walk down through the centre of the town and back along the River Medway. Through Brenchley Gardens there is, as noted, an excellent local museum and art gallery. At Jubilee Square, the town makes a transition from a rather characterless shopping area to an authentic medieval quarter. The Archbishop’s Palace dates from the 14th century – the last time Oldham Athletic won two matches in succession – and was the residence of Archbishops of Canterbury. Across the Millennium Footbridge, a riverside walk will take you northwards towards Whatman Park, where another footbridge brings you out alongside the football ground.
Maidstone United 0 Oldham Athletic 0
Gallagher Stadium, 19 November 2022