LA ANECDOTES OF PAINTING IN ENGLAND; WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE PRINCIPAL ARTISTS. BY HORACE WALPOLE. WITH ADDITIONS BY THE REV. JAMES DALLAWAY, AND VERTUE'S CATALOGUE OF ENGRAVERS WHO HAVE BEEN BORN OR RESIDED IN ENGLAND. A NEW EDITION, REVISED, WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES, BY RALPH N. WORNUM. IN THREE VOLUMES.— VOL. I. LONDON : BICKERS AND SON, I, LEICESTER SQUARE. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 THE GEm r'-f'i^^^ https://archive.org/details/anecdotesofpaint01walp_1 CONTENTS TO VOL. I PAGE Advertisement to Mr. Dallaway's Edition v Dedication vii Horace Walpole's Preface ix Horace Walpole's Advertisement xv List of Plates xxv List of Wood Engravings xxvi Names of Artists, arranged chronologically xxvii Chapter L — The earliest Accounts of Painting in England . . 1 IL — State of Painting from the Reign of Henry ITL to the End of Henry VI 21 IIL— Continuation of the State of Painting to the End of Henry VII 46 IV. — Painters in the Reign of Henry VIII 57 V. — State of Architecture to the End of the reign of Henry VIII 114 VI. — State of Painting under Edward VI. and Mary . . 135 VII.— Painters IN the Reign OF Queen Elizabeth .... 150 Supplement. No. I. — Account of John Thorpe, Architect .... 199 II, — King Henry the Eighth's Collection of Pic- tures AT Westminster 203 Chap. VIII. — Painters and other Artists in the Reign of James I. . 207 IX. — Charles I. His Love and Protection of the Arts. Ac- counts OF Vanderdort and Sir Balthazar Gerbier. Dispersion of the King's Collection and of the Earl OF Arundel's , 261 X.— Painters in the Reign of Charles 1 302 VOL. I. ADYERTISEMENT TO THE EDITION OF ME. DALLAWAY. The Proprietor of this edition, in offering it to tlie public in its present augmented state, feels himself justified in claiming their indulgence to the following observation. It is well known that the portraits which Walpole procured to be engraved for the former editions were not only sometimes taken from authorities inferior to others equally accessible, but that they were executed in a manner which, candour must allow, exhibited the parsimony, rather than the encouragement, of this otherwise noble patron of the arts. I!«J'either care nor expense has been spared to render the present engravings, as to number, exact imitation of the originals now selected, and high finishing, worthy of the work they embellish, and of the best modern artists, who have been engaged for that purpose. Walpole designated his volumes Anecdotes of Painting in England, b u found that he could not treat of the sister arts incidentally, as he had intended, with complete satisfaction. It has b een my endeavour to fill up his outline more methodically, and to expand his information, where he has been concise, upon a presumption that his readers pos- sessed a range of knowledge which equalled his own. I have theie- fore allotted a greater share to Architecture and Sculpture ; that a more general and equal view may be offered of the origin and progress of the sister arts in this kingdom, in marking their fate through successive eras, and as they have been highly favoured or barely tolerated, by its sovereigns. It is scarcely less difficult to offer any new remarks, than to condense what is valuable in those already made. Both will be attempted, and as succinctly as possible. My primary intention has been to extend an acquaintance with these subjects, by contributing to the original work various remarks, which have occurred to me, during the leisure of many years' pursuit of an inquiry, at least, interesting and delightful to myself. If, as Horace warns us, not to become obscure by brevity and conciseness ; I fear that to be copious and tedious, may not be far distant from each other. Without assuming a diffidence which common discern- ment would be prompt to detect, I have studiously abstained from vi ADVERTISEMENT. giving a peremptory or decisive opinion, if not depending on fact, concerning the ambiguous originality of any particular portrait, ex- cepting where I have followed a judgment much abler than my own. The additions will be rather Anecdotes of Portraits, than of those by whom they were painted. A certain risk may be incurred, of fatiguing such of my readers who little value minuteness of inquiry, and have no taste for cata- logues, however elucidated. I must nevertheless consider them as a part of Walpole's plan, and necessarily expletive of this work. There if, in fact, no method so satisfactory of ascertaining the excellence or fertility of the pencil of any able artist, as by collecting notices of his performance, and comparing them with each other — scattered abroad as the individual pictures are, and many of them no longer extant. So that valuable information must be drawn from many sources still existing ; and, what is m*st to the purpose, accessible. I consider myself as having been much favoured in that respect, and beg to express ray particular obligation, as it may be due. Mr. Park, the excellent editor of the Royal and Nolle Authors, has very truly observed, that Walpole requested information from those whom he thought best qualified to supply it ; and that when he had obtained and acknowledged it, he rejected it altogether, with the exception only of what was given by the poet (xray, or Mr. Cole. It is apparent, that the same inert or fastidious principle prevailed, when he left the Anecdotes completed by himself so as to form a portion of the posthumous edition of his works. Of what he then added, nothing has been altered or omitted. But it was very in- considerable. In Italy, Flanders, Holland, France and Spain, the biography of their painters is positively voluminous. We had none, before a few scattered notices of a few of the eatly writers were embodied by Walpole. The plan was his own, and the intelligence gratuitously given. Whatever was known on these subjects was confined to the memo- randa of a very few virtuosi and antiquaries, before his first volume appeared, at the commencement of the last reign. By him, the prospect was fi.rst opened, the sources of information pointed out, and a new interest in the works of our native or adopted artists was created, which, in its progress, was animated by taste, and fostered by industrious research. The praise and thanks of every lover of the arts are but a just tribute to the memory of Horace Walpole. , JAMES DALLAWAY. Herald's College, London, 1826. , TO THE RfGHT HONOURABLE MAEY LEPEL, BARONESS DOWAGEE HEEVEY OF ICKWOKTH. Madam, I SHALL only say in excuse for offering this work to your Ladyship, that if I could write anything really deserving your acceptance, I should not prefix your name to such trifles as the following sheets. But my gratitude for the goodness and unmerited distinction which your Ladyship has so long shown me, is impatient to express itself; and though in the present case I am rather an editor than an author, yet having little purpose of appear- ing again in the latter character, I am forced to pay my debts to your Ladyship with Mr. Vertue's coin. If his industry has amassed anything that can amuse one or two of your idle hours, when neither affection, friendship, nor the several duties which you fill with so much ease and dignity, have any demands upon you, 1 shall think his life was well employed ; I am sure my time will have been so. • Vlll DEDICATION. if I have made liim tolerable company to my Lady Hervey, who has conversed familiarly with the most agreeable persons dead and living of the most polished ages, and most polished nations. ' I am, Madam, Your Ladyship s most obedient Servant, HOEACE WALPOLE. HORACE WALPOLE'S PREFACE. When one offers to the public the labours of another person, it is allowable and precedented to expatiate in praise of the work. Of this indulgence, however, I shall not make advan- tage. The industiy of Mr. Yertue was sufficiently known ; the antiquarian world had singular obligations to him. The many valuable monuments relating to our history, and to the persons of our monarchs and great men, which he saved from oblivion, are lasting evidences of his merit. What thanks are due to him for the materials of the following sheets, the public must determine. So far from endeavouring to prepossess them in favour of the work, it shall be my part fairly to tell them what they must expect. In Italy, where the art of paintii g has been carried to an amazing degree of perfection, the lives of the painters have been written in numberless volumes, alone sufficient to compose a little library. Every picture of every considerable master is minutely described. Those biographers treat of the works of Eaphael and Correggio with as much importance as comment- ators speak of Horace or Virgil ; and indulging themselves in the inflated style of their language, they talk of pictures as works almost of a divinity, while at the same time they lament them as perishing before their eyes. France, neither possessed of such masters, nor so hyperbolic in their diction, contrives, however, to supply by vanity what is wanting in either. Poussin is their miracle of genius ; Le Brun would dispute precedence with half the Eoman school. A whole volume is written even on the life and works of Mignard. Voltaire, who understands almost everything, and who does not suspect that judgment in painting is one of his deficiencies, speaks ridiculously in com- mendation of some of their performers. This country, which does not always err in vaunting its own productions, has not a single volume to show on the works of its painters. In truth, it has very rarely given birth to a genius in that profession.' Flanders and Holland have sent us the greatest men that we can boast. This very circumstance may with reason prejudice the reader against a work, the chiel X PEEFACE. business of wliicli must be to celebrate the arts of a country which has produced so few good artists. This objection is so striking, that instead of calling it The Lives of English Painters, I have simply given it the title of Anecdotes of Painting in England, As far as it answers that term, perhaps it will be found curious. The indefatigable pains of Mr. Yertue left nothing unexplored that could illuminate his subject, and colla- terally led him to many particularities that are at least amusing : I call them no more, nor would I advise any man, who is not fond of curious trifles, to take the pains of turning over these leaves. From the antiquary I expect greater thanks ; he is more cheaply pleased than a common reader : the one demands to be diverted, at least instructed — the other requires only to be informed Mr. Vertue had for several years been collecting materials for this work : he conversed and corresponded with most of the virtuosi in England: he was personally acquainted with the oldest performers in the science : he minuted down everything he heard from them. He visited every collection, made cata- logues of them, attended sales, copied every paper he could find relative to the art, searched offices, registers of parishes and registers of wills for births and deaths, turned over all our own authors, and translated those of other countries which related to his subject. He wrote down everything he heard, saw, or read. His collections amounted to near forty volumes, large and small. In one of his pocket-books I found a note of his first intention of compiling such a work; it was in 1713; he continued it assiduously to his death in 1756. These MSS. I bought of his widow after his decease ; and it will perhaps surprise the reader to find how near a complete work is offered to him, though the research was commenced at so late a period ; I call it com- menced ; what little had been done before on this subject was so far from assistance, it was scarce of use. The sketch called An Essay towards an English School, at the end of the translation of Depiles, is as superficial as possible ; nor could a fact scarce be borrowed from it till we come to very modern times. In general I have been scrupulous in acknowledging both Mr. Vertue's debts and my own. The catalogues of the works of Hollar and Simon, and those of the collection of King Charles I, King James II., and the Duke of Buckingham, were part of Mr. Vertue's original plan, which is now completed by these volumes. The compiler had made several draughts of a beginning, and several lives he had written out, but with no order, no con- nexion, no accuracy; nor was his style clear or correct enough to be offered to the reader in that unpolished form. I have PREFACE. xi been obliged to compose anew every article, and have recurred to the original fountains from whence he drew his information : I mean where it was taken from books. The indigested method of his collections, registered occasionally as he learned every circumstance, was an additional trouble, as I was forced to turn over every volume many and many times, as they lay in con- fusion, to collect the articles I wanted ; and for the second and third parts containing between three and four hundred names, I was reduced to compose an index myself to the forty volumes. One satisfaction the reader will have, in the integrity of Mr. Vertue ; it exceeded his industry, which is saying much. 'No man living, so bigoted to a vocation, was ever so incapable of falsehood. He did not deal even in hypothesis, scarce in conjec- ture. He visited and revisited every picture, every monument, that was an object of his researches; and being so little a slave to his own imagination, he was cautious of trusting to that of others. In his memorandums he always put a quere against whatever was told him of suspicious aspect; and never gave credit to it till he received the fullest satisfaction. Thus what- ever trifles the reader finds, he will have the comfort of knowing^ that the greatest part at least are of most genuine authority. Whenever I have added to the compiler's stores, I have generally taken care to quote as religiously the source of my intelligence. Here and there I have tried to enliven the dryness of the subject by inserting facts not totally foreign to it. Yet upon the whole, I despair of its affording much entertainment. The public have a title to whatever was designed for them : I offer this to them as a debt — nobody will suspect that I should have chosen such a subject for fame. If the observation of a dearth of great names in this list should excite emulation, and tend to produce abler masters, Mr. Yertue, I believe, and I should be glad to have the continuation of the work do greater honour to our country. It would be difficult perhaps to assign a physical reason, why a nation that produced Shakspeare, should owe its glory in another walk of genius to Holbein and Yandyck. It cannot be imputed to want of pro- tection. Who countenanced the arts more than Charles the First ? That prince, who is censured for his want of taste in pensioning Quarles, is celebrated by the same pen for employing Bernini; but want of protection is the apology for want of genius : Milton and Fontaine did not write in the bask of court- favour. A poet or a painter may want an equipage or a villa by wanting protection ; they can always afford to buy ink and paper, colours and pencils. Mr Hogarth has received no honours, but universal admiration. But whatever has been the complaint formerly, we have xii PREFACE. ground to hope that a new era is receiving its date. Genius is countenanced, and emulation will follow. ISTor is it a bad in- dication of the flourishing state of a country, that it daily makes improvements in arts and sciences. They may be attended by luxury, but they certainly are produced by wealth and happiness. The conveniences, the decorations of life are not studied in Siberia, or under a ISTero. If severe morality would at any time expect to establish a thorough reformation, I fear it must choose inhospitable climates, and abolish all latitude from the laws. A corporation of merchants would never have kept their oaths to Lycurgus of observing his statutes till he returned, A good government, that indulges its subjects in the exercise of their own thoughts, will see a thousand inventions springing up, re- finements will follow, and much pleasure and satisfaction will be produced at least before that excess arrives, which is so justly said to be the forerunner of ruin. But all this is in the common course of things, which tend to perfection, and then degenerate. He would be a very absurd legislator, who should pretend to set bounds to his country's welfare, lest it should perish by knowing no bounds. Poverty will stint itself; riches must be left to their own discretion : they depend upon trade, and to circumscribe trade is to annihilate it. It is not rigid nor Koman to say it, but a people had better be unhappy by their own fault than by that of their government. A Censor morum is not a much greater blessing than an Arbiter elegantiarum. The world, I * believe, is not at all agreed that the austerities of the Presby- terians were preferable to the licentiousness under Charles II. I pretend to defend the one no more than the other; but I am sure that in the body politic, symptoms that prognosticate ill, may indicate well. AH I meant to say was, that the disposition to improvements in this country is the consequence of its vigour. The establishment of a society for the encouragement of arts will produce great benefits before they are perverted to mis- chiefs. The bounties bestowed by that society for facilitating the necessaries of life to the poor, for encouraging the use of our own drugs and materials, or for naturalizing those of other countries, are bestowed on noble principles and with patriot views. That society does not neglect even the elegances of life : arts that are innocent in tliemselves, and beneficial to the country, either by adding value to our productions, or by drawing riches as they invite strangers to visit us, are worthy the attention of good citizens ; and in all those lights that society acts upon a national and extensive plan. The art, that is chiefly the subject of these pages, is one of the least likely to be perverted; painting has seldom been employed to any bad purpose. Pictures are but the scenery of PREFACE. XIH devotion. I question if Eaphael himself could ever have made one convert, though he had exhausted all the expression of his eloquent pencil on a series of popish doctrines and miracles. Pictures cannot adapt themselves to the meanest capacities, as unhappily the tongue can. Nonsense may make an apprentice a Catholic or a Methodist ; but the apprentice would see that a very bad picture of St. Francis was not like truth : and a very good picture would be above his feeling. Pictures may serve as helps to religion ; but are only an appendix to idolatry ; for the people must be taught to believe in false gods and in the power of saints, before they will learn to worship their images. I do not doubt but if some of the first reformers had been at liberty to say exactly what they thought, and no more than they thought, they would have permitted one of the most ingenious arts implanted in the heart of man by the Supreme Being to be employed towards his praise. But Calvin, by his tenure, as head of a sect, was obliged to go all lengths. The vulgar will not list but for total contradictions ; they are not struck by seeing religion shaded only a little darker or a little lighter. It was at Constantinople alone where the very shopkeepers had subtlety enough to fight for a letter more or less in a Greek adjective^ that expressed an abstract idea. Happily at this time there is so total an extinction of all party animosity both in religion and politics, that men are at liberty to propose whatever may be useful to their country, without its being imputed to them as a crime, and to invent what they mean should give pleasure, with- out danger of displeasing by the very attempt. At this epoch of common sense, one may reasonably expect to see the arts flourish to as proiid a height as they attained at Athens, Eome, or Florence. Painting has hitherto made but faint efforts in England. Our eloquence and the glory of oui arms have been carried to the highest pitch. The more peace- ful arts have in other countries generally attended national glory. If there are any talents among us, this seems the crisis tor their appearance ; the Throne itself is now the altar of the Graces, and whoever sacrifices to them becomingly, is sure that his offerings will be smiled upon by a prince, who is at once the example and patron of accomplishments. The institution of a school of statuary in the house of a young nobleman^ of the first rank rivals the boasted munificence of foreign princes. When ^ In the decline of the Empire there were two sects who proceeded to the greatest violences against each other in the dispute whether the nature of the Second Person was 6/noou(Tios, co-essentialis ; or o^oiotaios, similis essentiae. ^ The Duke of Richmond. Charles, third Duke of Richmond, who died in 1806, Of this institution, in 1770, an account is given by Edwards, in his Intro duction to the Anecdotes of Painters, 4to. 1808. It continued for a very few years. — D • xiv PREFACE. we abound with heroes, orators, and patrons, it will be hard if their images are not transmitted to posterity under graceful representations. This is by no means said to depreciate the artists we have, but to inspire with emulation those arising. Eysbrack, Eoubiliac Scheemaker, Wilton, would do honour to any country : but hitherto their skill has been in a manner confined to private monuments. When we have subjects for history, the people should read on public edifices the actions of their ancestors and fellow-citizens in bas-reliefs : busts and statues should reward the gallant behaviour of the brave, and exhibit them as models. What made Eome more venerable than every street being an illustration of Livy ? Painting has been circumscribed within as selfish bounds as statuary ; historic compositions totally neg- lected. Reynolds and Eamsay have wanted subjects, not genius. There is another artist, who seems born for an age of naval glory, and is equal to^-it, Mr. Scott.^ Architecture, the most suitable field in which the genius of a people arrived at superiority, may range, seems reviving. The taste and skill of Mr. Adam is formed for public works. Mr. Chambers's treatise ^ is the most sensible book and the most exempt from prejudices that ever was written on that science. But of all the works that distinguish this age, none perhaps excel those beautiful editions of Balbec and Palmyra — not published at the command of a Louis quatorze, or at the expense of a cardinal nephew, but undertaken by private curiosity and good sense, and trusted to the taste of a polished nation. When I endeavour to do justice to the editions of Palmyra and Balbec, I would not confine the encomium to the sculptures ; the books have far higher merit. The modest descriptions^ prefixed are standards of writing : the exact measure of what should and should not be said, and of what was necessary to be known, was never comprehended in more clear diction, or more elegant style. The pomp of the buildings has not a nobler air than the simplicity of the narration ; but I must restrain myself, though it is pleasing to expatiate on the just praise of one's country ; and they who cannot per- form great things themselves, may yet have a satisfaction in doing justice to those who can. If Juvenal was honest in his satires, he would have been happy if lie could have lived to write the panegyric of Trajan. 1762. 1 Samuel Scott, a marine painter. He is noticed under the Reign of George III.— W. 2 On Civil Architecture, folio, 1759. ^ By Mr. Wood. HORACE WALPOLE'S ADVEETISEMENT PREFIXED TO THE FOUETH VOLUME OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION. This last volume has been long written, and even printed. The publication/ though a debt to the purchasers of the pre- ceding volumes, was delayed from motives of tenderness. The author, who could not resolve, like most biographers, to dispense universal panegyric, especially on many incompetent artists, was still unwilling to utter even gentle censures, which might w^ound the affections, or offend the prejudices of those related to the persons whom truth forbade him to commend beyond their merits. He hopes, that as his opinion is no standard, it will pass for mistaken judgment with such as shall be displeased with his criticisms. If his encomiums seem too lavish to others, the public will at least know that they are bestowed sincerely. He would not have hesitated to publish his remarks sooner, if he had not been averse to exaggeration. The work is carried as far as the author intended to go, though he is sensible he could continue it with more satisfaction to himself, as the arts,^ at least those of painting and architec- 1 It was not published till October 9, 1780, though printed in 1771. Walpole means the last volume of the Anecdotes of Painting. The volume of the Engravers had been published in 1762. Farther information respecting the Anecdotes and their appearance, may be collected from Walpole's correspondence, and which is of course the most authentic. In 1770, to Mr. Cole : "The last volume of mj Anecdotes is completed." In 1780 : " The first edition of the Anecdotes was of 300 of the two first volumes ; and of as many of the third volume, and of the volume of Engravers. Then there was an edition of 300 of all four." " I am ashamed at the price of my book, though not my fault ; but I have so often been guilty myself of giving ridiculous prices for rarities, though of no intrinsic value, that I must not condemn the same folly in others." With regard to certain microscopic criticisms, Walpole observes : "I took my dates and facts from the sedulous and faithful Vertue, and piqued myself on little but on giving an idea of the spirit of the times, with respect to the arts, at the different periods." — D. 2 Sculpture should not have been passed over in silence, with any just apprecia- tion of the talents of Nollekens, Banks, or Bacon, which were exhibited before the year 1780. The present age has estimated the merit of these artists individually ; as a classic. Banks has deserved the palm. Flaxman had not distinguished him- self at that period. — D. XVI ADVERTISEMENT. ture, are emerging from the wretched state in which they lay at the accession of George the First. To architecture, taste and vigour were given by Lord Burlington and Kent. They have successors^ worthy of the tone they gave; if, as refinement generally verges to extreme contrarieties, Kent's ponderosity does not degenerate into filligrain. But the modern Pantheon uniting grandeur and lightness, simplicity and ornament, seems to have marked the medium,^ where Taste must stop. The architect who shall endeavour to refine on Mr. Wyat, will perhaps give date to the age of embroidery. Virgil, Longinus, and Vitruvius^ afford no rules, no examples, of scattering finery. This delicate redundance of ornament growing into our archi- tecture might perhaps be checked, if our artists would study the sublime dreams of Piranesi, who seems to have conceived visions of Eome beyond what it boasted even in the meridian of its splendour. Savage as Salvator Eosa, fierce as Michael Angelo, and exuberant as Eubens,* he has imagined scenes that would startle geometry, and exhaust the Indies to realize. He piles palaces on bridges, and temples on. palaces, and scales Heaven 1 "Walpole here clearly alludes to the external ornaments upon the walls of the Adelphi buildings, and the gateway which leads to Sion-house, by the Adams. The works of Robert and James Adam were published in numbers, four of which had appeared before 1776, and contained architectural plans and descriptions of Sion-house, Caen-wood, Luton- Park house, and Lansdowne-house, Berkeley-square ; the two last mentioned were built for the premier, Lord Bute, who greatly patro- nised them. None of these structures " degenerate into filligraine," but display decorations selected from entablatures of classic antiquity. The house at Keddle- stone, which they designed for Lord Scarsdale, abounds in parts copied from the finest examples of Palmyra and Spalatro. — D. 2 This temple of elegance and pleasure was so nearly destroyed by fire, about thirty years ago, that it has not been since applied to its original destination. The walls only remain. The architect had not exceeded his twenty -first year, (1764) when he astonished and delighted the world of architectural science and taste. Praise so bestowed, seconded, as it certainly was, by superior merit, soon placed James Wyatt in a very eminent rank among English arcliitects ; and he was consequently engaged, during a long period, till he had reached the age of seventy years, in M^orks most distinguished by taste, magnificence, and boundless expense. The future historian of the arts, in the reigns of George the Third and Fourth, will find in them an ample field for the display of his powers of description and criticism. — D. ^ " Eum Architectum oportet usu esse peritum et solertem, qui demere aut adji- cere prescriptis valet." Vitruvius. — D. * GioA^ANNi Battista Piranesi (died at Rome 1778, aged seventy-one), whose works are well known. They consist of nearly twenty large volumes in folio, con- tai}iing, upon an average, fifty plates each. The Antiquities of Rome, are in a bold and free style of etching, peculiar to himself. His views of ruins are, many of them, the eft'ort of his own imagination, and strongly characterise the magnifi- cence of His ideas. Gilpin, {Essay on Prints, p. 118,) speaking technically, says that " his great excellence lay in execution, of which he was a consummate master. His faults are many. His horizon is often taken too high — his views are frequently ill-chosen — his objects crowded ; his forms ill-shaped — of the distribution of light and shade he has little knowledge," &c., &c. — D. ADVEETISEMENT. XVll with mountains of edifices. Yet what taste in his boldness ! what grandeur in his wildness ! what labour and thought both in his rashness and details ! Architecture, indeed, has in a manner two sexes; its masculine dignity can only exert its muscles in public works and at public expense ; its softer beau- ties come better within the compass of private residence and enjoyment. How painting has rekindled from its embers, the works of many living artists demonstrate.^ The prints after the works of Sir Joshua Eeynolds have spread his fame to Italy, where they have not at present a single painter that can pretend to rival an imagination so fertile, that the attitudes of his portraits are as various^ as those of history. In what age were paternal desjDair and the horfors of death pronounced with more expres- sive accents than in his picture of Count Ugolino P When was infantine loveliness, or embryo passions touched with sweeter truth than in his portraits of Miss Price and the baby Jupiter ?4 What frankness of nature in Mr. Gainsborough's landscapes ; ^ 1 The prints after the designs of Sir Joshua Eeynolds amount, according to the most authentic catalogue, published in Nortlicote's Life of Sir Joshua Eeynolds, to those of historical and fancy subjects, 132 ; Portraits 150, and chiefly in mezzo- tinto. A complete collection of prints from his entire works is now (1828) in the course of publicatio-n, by W. Eeynolds. — D. ^ Sir J. Eeynolds has been accused of plagiarism for having borrowed attitudes from ancient masters. Not only candour but criticism must deny the force of the charge. When a single posture is imitated from an historic picture and applied to a portrait in a different dress and with new attributes, this is not plagiarism, but quotation : and a quotation from a great author, with a novel application of the sense, has always been allowed to be an instance of parts and taste ; and may have more merit than the original. When the sons of Jacob imposed on their father by a false coat of Joseph, saying, ''Know now whether this be thy son's coat or not?" they only asked a deceitful question — but that interrogation became wit, when Eichard I. on the pope reclaiming a bishop whom the king had taken prisoner in battle, sent him the prelate's coat of mail, and in the words of Scripture asked his holiness whether that was the coat of his son, or not ? Is not their humour and satire in Sir Joshua's reducing Holbein's swaggering and colossal haughtiness of Henry VIII. to the boyish jollity of Master Crewe ? *■ One prophecy I will venture to make : Sir Joshua is not a plagiary, but will beget a thousand. The exuber- ance of his invention will be the grammar of future painters of portrait. ^ Ugolino and his children, in the dungeon ; purchased by a late Duke of Dorset for iOOl. Now at Knole, and engraved by Dixon. — D. * Infant Jupiter, purchased by the late Duke of Eutland for 100?. now at Belvoir- castle ; engraved by Smith, 1775. Miss Price, painted for Uvedale Price, Esq. of Foxley Herefordshire, engraved by J. Watson, 1770. — D. ^ Thomas Gainsborough, died 1788, aged sixty -one. " It is in his chaste and picturesque delineation of English kndscape, so exquisitely exhibited in his admir- able pictures of our domestic scenery ; the bewitching embellishments with which he has decorated them of groups of cottage children ; the charming rusticity of his husbandmen, their horses and their cattle ; and the characteristic simplicity of the * Master Crewe, painted for J. Crewe, Esq. now at Crewe-hall, Cheshire, iingraved by Smith, 1776. VOL. T. b xviu ADVEKTISEMENT. which may entitle them to rank in the noblest collections What genuine humour in Zoifanii's comic scenes;' which do not, like the works of Dutch and Flemish painters, invite laughter to divert itself with the nastiest indelicacy of boors I Such topics would please a pen that delights to do justice to its country ; but the author has forbidden himself to treat of living professors. Posterity appreciates impartially the works of the dead. To posterity he leaves the continuation of these volumes ; and recommends to the lovers of arts the industry of Mr. Vertue, who preserved notices of all his contemporaries, as he had collected of past ages, and thence gave birth to this work. In that Supplement will not be forgotten the wonderful progress in miniature of Lady Lucan,^ who has arrived at copying the whole, that his transcendent merit is peculiarly conspicuous. " [Bryan. ) Sir J. Reynolds observes of him, that "his grace was not academical nor antique, but select- ed by himself from the great school of nature." Two of his early landscapes are in the collection of J. Hawkins, Esq. of Bignor-park Sussex, and one of the finest of his later compositions was given by the late Sir G. Beaumont to the National Gallery. No less than sixty- nine of his works were exhibited in the gallery of the British Institution in 1814. — D. ^ J on ANN ZoFFANiJ, a native of Frankfort, came to England when about thirty years old. He soon acquired celebrity by his admirable portraits of favourite dramatie performers, Garrick, Foote and Weston, in their best comic characters. The first mentioned, indeed, had many of his pictures ; and may be considered as his patron. He painted Garrick's portrait with better success than Gainsborough had done — who excused himself, "from the difficulty of making a true likeness of those who had every body's face but their own." He may be called the " Histo- rian of the stage of Garrick." Those who remember that inimitable actor, will be grateful to Zoffanij, for the accuracy with which he has recorded all that it was possible to catch of his exquisite, but evanescent art. His pictures best known are the Royal Academy, representing thirty-six acui-ate portraits, and the Tribune of the Florence Gallery, into which he has introduced those of twenty English gentle- men. The late Mr. Townley had the interior of his statue room, with himself and D'Hankarville in conversation. An elaborate engraving of it has been completed within the present year, in which Mr. T. and the apartment which he delighted to embellish, are represented with no common truth of resemblance. Zoffanij after- wards went upon a speculation to India, where he painted groups, the chief of which v/ere Nabobs, both native and British, and returned with increased fortune but with talents and health much impaired. — D. • [Zoffanij was born at Regensburg, or more probably Frankfort, in 1735 ; he was by descent a Bohemian ; his father, an architect, settled in Germany. Zoffanij studied in Italy, and came to England shortly before the foundation of the Royal Academy, in 1768, of which he was one of the original thirty-six members. He went to the East Indies in 1781 or 82, and lived some years at Lucknow, and painted there three of his most celebrated works : "The Embassy of Hyder- beck to Calcutta;" "A Tiger-hunt;" and "A Cock-fight;" they have been scraped in mezzotinto by Earlom. He returned to London about 1796, with a considerable fortune, and died at Kew, in 1810. Fiorillo, GeschichU der Mah- lerey, <€-c.— We] 2 Margaret, Coi:ntess of Lucan, died in 1815. This singularly excellent talent of copying illuminations and miniatures was exerted in completing em- bellishments of Shakspeare's historical plays, in five folio volumes, now preserved in the library at Al thorp. From Dr. Dibdein's ^des AUhorpiunce, vol. i. p. 200, the following account of this monument of female genius is extracted. "During sixteen years, this accomplished lady pursued the pleasurable toil of illustration, ADVERTISEMENT. XIX most exquisite works of Isaac and Peter Oliver, Hoskins and Cooper, with a genius that almost depreciates those masters, when we consider that they spent their lives in attaining per- fection; and who, soaring above their modest timidity, has transferred the vigour of Eaphael to her copies in water colours. There will be recorded the living etchings of Mr. H. Bunbury,^ the second Hogarth, and first imitator who ever fully equalled his original ; and who, like Hogarth, has more humour when he invents, than when he illustrates ;^ probably because genius can draw from the sources of nature with more spirit than from the ideas of another. Has any painter ever executed a scene, a character of Shakspeare, that approached to the prototype so near as Shakspeare himself attained to nature ? Yet is there a pencil in a living hand as capable of pronouncing the passions as our unequalled poet : a pencil not only inspired by his insight into nature, but by the graces and taste of Grecian artists ; but having commenced in her fiftieth and finished in her sixty-sixth year. Whatever of taste, beauty and judgment in decoration by means of portraits, landscapes, houses and tombs — flowers, birds, insects, heraldic ornaments and devices, could dress our immortal bard in a yet more fascinating form, hns been accomplished by a noble hand which undertook an Herculean task ; and with a truth, delicacy and finish of execution which have been very rarely imitated, " The colophon of the fifth volume is illustrated by a drawing of the portrait of Lady Lucan, in her sixty - sixth year, attended by Genius, Affection and Perseverance, by her daughter Lavinia, Countess Spencer. The colophon is inscribed : — Margaret Cottxtess of Lucan : su^ LXVL Genius, Affection and Perseverance Record the Completion of this beautiful v)ork. Happily conceived, cordially undertaken, and Zealously pursued. Begun in mdccxc. Finished in mdcccvi. See Lord Orford's Works, 4to. 1798, vol. ii. p. 425.— D. ^Henry William Bunbury died in 1811, aged 61. The productions of his pencil were from early infancy the delight and admiration of his friends, and afterwards of the public. The original vein of true humour in most of his draw- ings, and the grace which he displayed in others, were such as to render his works justly popular in his day. His is no common instance of the union of talents of such a various and opposite character, in the same artist, had to so great an extent. It must, in candour, be allowed, that Walpole's criticism, if it were just when applied to his illustrations of Tristram Shandy, were not less so with reference to his elucidation of scenes in Shakspeare. Who w^ould suspect the ascetic Barry of paying a compliment so refined and elegant as the following, to Mr. Bunbury? " As to Mr. Bunbury, who had so hap- pily succeeded in the vein of humour and caricature, he has for some time past altogether relinquished it for the more amiable pursuit of beautiful nature : this is indeed not to be wondered at, when we recollect that he has in Mrs. Bunbury so admirable an exemplar of the most finished grace and beauty continually at his elbow."— fForA;5, vol. ii. p. 386.— D. ^ For instance, in his prints to Tristram Shandy. h 2 XX ADVERTISEMENT. it is not fair to excite the curiosity of the puVic, when both the rank and bashful merit of the possessor, and a too rare exertion of superior talents, confined the proofs to a narrow circle. Whoever has seen the drawings, and bas-reliefs, designed and executed by Lady Diana Beauclerc/ is sensible that these imperfect encomiums are far short of the excellence of her works. Her portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire, in several hands, confirms the truth of part of these assertions. The nymph-like simplicity of the figure is equal to what a Grecian statuary w^ould have formed for a dryad or goddess of a river. Bartolozzi's print of her two daughters after the drawing of the same lady, is another speci- men of her singular genius and taste. The gay and sportive innocence of the younger daughter, and the demure application of the elder, are as characteristically contrasted as Milton's L' Allegro and II Penseroso. A third female genius is Mrs. Darner, daughter of General Conway, in a walk more difficult and far more uncommon than painting. The annals of statuary record few artists of the fair sex, and not one that I recollect of any celebrity.^ Mrs. Darner's busts from the life are not inferior to ^ Lady Diana Spencer, the wife of Topham Beauclerk, of literary distinction, died in 1808, at the advanced age of seventy-four. In so high estimation were the graphic performances of this honourable lady held by Walpole, that he constructed an hexagon tower in 1776, and designated it the "Beauclerk Closet." " It was built (he says) purposely for the reception of seven incomparable drawings by Lady Diana Beauclerk for scenes in the ' Mysterious Mother.' — Thesesublimedraw- iugs, the first she ever attempted, were all conceived and executed in a fortnight. " — Walpole's Works, 4to. vol. ii. p. 504. — Description of Strawherry-Mll. She pursued this style of art almost exclusively afterwards, and in 1796, gave designs for a translation of Burger's German poem of Leonora, by her nephew W. R. Spencer, Esq., published in folio. In 1797, she added a series of designs for a splendid edition of Dryden's Fables, folio. These will confirm Walpole's par- tiality, by proofs of an elegant and fertile imagination and classic taste.— D. ^ Walpole's observation is not strictly correct. The celebrity of Propertia de' Rossi, of Bologna, is sufficiently knowu from Vasari's account of her, and her sin- gular talents as a female sculptor. (Tom. i. p. 171, Edit. 1568,) where is a portrait engi-aved in wood, but of uncertain resemblance. D'Argenville ( Vies des fameux Sculpteiirs, tom. ii. p. 3) relates an afi'ecting anecdote of her. She was tlie victim of an unfortunate attachment, and died at an early age, in 1530 ; immediately upon the completion of a beautiful bas-relief in white marble, the subject of which was Joseph and Potiphar's wife. The Honourable Anna Seymour Damer, to whom Walpole bequeathed his villa at Strawberry-hill, and its rare contents. Since the year 1780, she has produced several specimens of sculpture, both in marble and terra-cotta, progressively in- creasing in number and excellence. She first acquired the elements of the art from Ceracci, and afterwards perfected herself in the practical part, in the studio of the elder I3acon. Sculptures and Models by the Hon. Anna Seymour Damer. Two Kittens in white marble, and an Queen Charlotte. Landgravine of Osprey Eagle in terra-cotta. Straw- Hesse Homberg. berry-hill. A group of two Sleeping Dogs in white A Dog in marble, presented to the late marble, presented to her brother in- ADVEETISEMENT. xxi the antique, and theirs we are sure were not more like. Her shock dog, large as life, and only not alive, has a looseness and softness in the curls that seemed impossible to terra-cotta : it rivals the marble one of Bernini in the royal collection. As the ancients have left us but five animals of equal merit with their human figures, namely, the Barberini goat,^ the Tuscan boar, the Mattel eagle, the eagle at Strawberry-hill, and Mr. Jennings's, now Mr. Duncombe's, dog, the talent of Mrs. Darner must appear in the most distinguished light. Aided by some instructions from that masterly statuary Mr. Bacon, she has law, the late Duke of Richmond. Bust of Herself, given to the late R. P. Goodwood, Sussex. Knight, Esq. with an inscription — A mirble of her own favourite Italian Hang sui-ipsius effigiem. Ad vota Greyhound. veteris amici Richardi Payne Models in terra-cotta, of other Dogs. Knight, sua manu fecit Anna Sey- His late Majesty, in marble, larger than mourDamer, now in the British Mu- life. Regi ter's Ofiice, Edinburgh. seum, with his collection. Engraved Bust of C. J. Fox, in marble, presented for this work. in person to Napoleon, in 1815. Isis, Bust in Greek marble. T. Hope, Esq. Two colossal heads in Portland stone. Lady Viscountess Melbourn, bust in representing Tame and Isis, as key- marble. Earl Cowper. stones of the centre arch of Henley Lady Eliz. Forster, (afterwards D. Dow. Bridge, Oxfordshire. of Devonshire). D. of Devonshire. Bust in stone (on a monument in Sund- Honourable Peniston Lamb, as Mercury, ridge Church, Kent), of her mother, bust in marble. the Countess of Ajdsbury, who was re- Paris, a small bust, in marble. married to General Seymour Conway. Sir Humphry Davy, bust in marble. Bust, heroic size, of Lord Nelson, pre- Two Basso-relievos from Coriolanus and sented to the City of London. Marc Antony, for the Shakspeare Gal- Model in terra-cotta, for a Bust of Sir lery, models in terra-cotta. Joseph Banks (in bronze). British Thalia. Bust in Marble. Museum Caroline, Countess of Aylsbury. Ditto. A head of a young Bacchus, (Portrait of Field-Marshal Seymour Conway. Ditto Prince Lubomirski). Bodleian Gal- in terra-cotta. lery, Oxford. The late Queen Caroline. Ditto. Mrs. Siddons, in the character of the A Muse, head in bronze. Tragic Muse. Bust. Bust of Lord Nelson, model for cast in Bust of Herself, in marble. Gallery at bronze, sent as a present to the king Florence. of Tanjore. The Editor has been favoured with this accurate list of Mrs. Damer's perform- ances by her relative. Sir Alexander Johnston, late President of His Majesty's Council in the Island of Ceylon. The King of Tanjore, a Hindoo sovereign of great power and influence in the South of Asia, had discovered to Sir Alexander in various communications with him, an ardent desire to disseminate among his Court, a knowledge and love of the arts, as practised in Europe. This circum- stance having been made known to Mrs Damer, she completed a bust of Nelson (the last-mentioned) for the acceptance of the Royal amateur, and which Sir Alex- ander presented to him. It would be a subject of proud congratulation to Mrs. Damer, if this able speci- men of her singular talent, should first tend to disseminate through that remote nation, a desire of acquiring statuary by British artists, and an eventual imitation of it.— D. [Mrs. Damer died May 28th, 1828. See Cunningham's Lives, vol. iii. — W.] 1 The " Stanza dei Animali," in the Pope's collection at the Vatican, would con- test this criticism. The Townleian eagle and greyhound in the British Museum, are perhaps not inferior to those five, mentioned above. — D. XXll ADVERTISEMENT. attempted and executed a bust in marble. Ceracchi, from whom first she received four or five lessons, has given a whole figure of her as the muse of Sculpture, in which he has happily preserved the graceful lightness of her form and air.^ Little is said here but historically of the art of gardening. Mr. Mason, in his first beautiful canto on that subject, has shown that Spenser and Addison ought not to have been omitted in the list of our authors who were not blind to the graces of natural taste. The public must wish, with the author of this work, that Mr. Mason would complete his poem, and leave this essay as unnecessary as it is imperfect.^ The historic compositions offered for St. Paul's by some of our first artists, seemed to disclose a vision of future improve- ment — a period the more to be wished, as the wound given to painting through the sides of the Eomish religion menaces the arts as well as idolatry — unless the Methodists, whose rigour seems to soften and adopt the artifices of the Catholics, [for our itinerant mountebanks already are fond of being sainted in mezzotinto, as well as their St. Bridgets and Teresas] should borrow the paraphernalia of enthusiasm now waning in Italy, and superadd the witchery of painting to that of music. Whit- field's temples encircled with glory may convert rustics, who have never heard of his or Ignatius Loyola's peregrinations. If enthusiasm is to revive, and tabernacles to rise as convents are demolished, may we not hope at least to see them painted ? Le Sueur's cloister at Paris makes some little amends for the imprisonment of the Carthusians. The absurdity of the legend^ of the reviving canon is lost in the amazing art of the painter ; and the last scene of St. Bruno expiring, in which are expressed all the stages of devotion, from the youngest mind impressed with fear, to the composed resignation of the prior, is perhaps ^ This statue has been lately contributed to the Museum by Mrs. Damer. Ceracci, was a young Italian sculptor of rising talents. Sir J. Reynolds sate to him, for the only bust in marble which was ever executed of that illustrious painter, Ceracci was in France during the Revolution, and having been impli- cated in the plot to destroy Buonaparte, suffered under the guillotine. North- cote. — D. [Giuseppe Ceracchi, according to some accounts, was born in Corsica ; according to Cicognara, at Rome, about 1760, He practised his art in London, Vienna, America, Italy, and France, where he was guillotined in 1801. A marble statue of Mrs. Damer, from a model by Ceracchi, was placed after her death in the hall of the British Museum. — W.] 2 The first book of the English Garden was published by Mason in 1772, the second in 1777, the third in 1779, and the last in 1783, 8vo., with a Commentary by W. Burgh, Esq.— D. 3 Eustache Le Sueur, 1617 — 1655. The History of St. Bruno was painted upon board, consisting of twenty-two pictures, originally hung up in the Cloister of the Chartreux, at Paris. They have been transferred to canvas, and are now a chief ornament of the Royal Gallery of the Louvre.— D. ADVERTISEMENT. XXIU inferior to no single picture of the greatest master. If Raphael died young, so did Le Sueur ; the former had seen the antique, the latter only prints from Raphael : yet in the Chartreuse, what airs of heads 1 what harmony of colouring ! what aerial perspec- tive ! How Grecian the simplicity of architecture and drapery ! How diversified a single quadrangle, though the life of a hermit be the only subject, and devotion the only pathetic ! In short, till we have other pictures than portraits, and painting has ampler fields to range in than private apartments, it is in vain to expect the art should recover its genuine lustre. Statuary has still less encouragement; sepulchral decorations are almost disused ; and though the rage for portraits is at its highest tide both in pic- tures and prints, busts and statues are never demanded.^ We seem to wish no longer duration to the monuments of our ex- pense, than the inhabitants of Peru and Russia, where edifices are calculated to last but to the next earthquake or conflagration. October 1, 1780. 1 At tlie date of this Advertisement, NoUekens and Bacon liad finished many busts, and several of their most admired emblematical statues, for sepulchral monuments . — D. LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS-VOL. I. PLATES. PAGE The Honourable Horace Walpole facing the titl>> The Honourable Anna Seymour Darner xx Henry the Fifth, his Queen and Family 32 Marriage of Henry VI. 34 John Mabuse 50 Marriage of Henry VII 54 Hans Holbein 66 Sir Antonio More 139 Joas Van Cleeve 144 Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devonshire ...... 146 Cornelius Ketel 158 F. Zuccaro, and M. Garrard 161 Nicholas Hillisrd 171 Isaac Oliver , . . .176 Sir Nathaniel Bacon ' . . . 190 Paul Vansomer 209 The Countess of Arundel, from the Original Painting at Worksop Manor 210 Cornelius Janseu . . 211 Daniel My tens 215 Peter Oliver 221 The Earl of Arundel 292 Sir Peter Paul Rubens 302 Abraham Diepenbeck 315 Sir Anthony Vandyck 316 Cornelius Polenburg . 342 John Torrentius 344 George Jameson, his Wife and Son 346 WOODCUTS. PAGE Arms and Quarterings of the Author iv View of Strawberry Hill viii Strawberry Hill xxiii Anns of Rubens, Vandyck, and Inigo Jones ...... xxiv M. and S. Ricci, and Baker ......... xxxii Effigies of Henry the Third and Edward the Confessor ... 20 Henry the Seventh's Chapel, and Tomb ...... 49 Henry VIII 57 Holbein's Gate 114 Henry the Eighth's Gateway, Windsor Castle 134 Portrait of Henry Cornelius Vroom 167 Monument of Queen Elizabeth 198 Queen Elizabeth 206 Henry Gyles and John Rowell 230 Nicholas Stone, Senior and Junior 238 Henry Stone 245 Holland House 260 Abr.iham Vanderdort 266 Sir B. Gerbier D'Ouvilly ..... ... 274 George Geldorp 339 Henry Steenwyck .343 Burleigh Hou e 351 VOL t xxvi NAMES OF ARTISTS, RAXGED ACCORDING TO THE TIMES IN WHICH THEY LIVED. IN THE REIGN OF KING JOHN. Elyas, architect. HENRY III. Odo, goldsmith. Edward Fitzodo, or Edward of West- minster. Master William, painter. Master Walter, painter. Peter Cavalini, sculptor. RICHARD II. John Sutton, carver. B. and Godfrey, of Wood-street gold- smiths. HENRY IV. John Sifernas, monk, illuminator. John Thornton, glazier. Thomas Occleve, poet and painter. HENRY V. Richard Frampton, illuminator HENRY VI. William Seburgh, painter. Thomas Porchalion, statuaiy. John Essex, marbler. William Austin, founder. Thomas Stevens, coppersmith. John Bourde, marbler. Barth. Lambspring, goldsmith. John Prudde, glazier. John Brentwood, painter. Kristian Coleburne, painter. Richard , carver. Brother Rowsby, monk and architect. EDWARD IV. Master Cumings, sculptor. HENRY VII. John Mabuse, painter. John Rous, antiq. and painter. HENRY VIII. Johannes Corvus, painter. Jerome di Trevisi. Antony Toto, painter, Barth. Penne, painter. Gerard Luke Horneband, pointer. Susannah Horneband, paintrcss. Andrew Wright, painter. John Brown, painter. Lucas Cornelli, painter. Hans Holbein, painter. Pietro Torreggiano, sculptor. Laurence Yniber, carver. Humphrey Walker, founder. Nicholas Ewer, coppersmith. John Bell, painter. John Maynard, painter Robert Vertue, mason. Robert Jenings, mason. John Lebons, mason. William Vertue, mason. John Hylmer, carpenter. Humphrey Cooke, carpenter. Robert Cook, painter. James Hales, carver. Jolm Waste 11, mason. Francis Williamson, glass-painter Simond Symonds, glass-painter. Barnard Flower, glass-painter. Galyon Hoone, glass-painter. Richard Bownde, glass-painter, Thomas Reve, glass-painter. James Nicholson, glass-painter. John Mustyan, arras-maker. John de Mayne, seal -engraver. Richard Atsyll, graver of stones. Master Newton, painter. Levina Tirlinks, paiLtr^ss. xxviii NAMES OF ARTISTS. Theodore Bernardi, painter. Benedetto da Rovezzano, sculptor. Antonio Cavallari, sculptor. Architects in various Reigns. Gmidulphus. Peter of Colechurcli, William de Sens. Helias de Berham. Isembert de Xaintes. William of Wykeliam. William Rede, Bishop of Chichester. Holbein. John of Padua. Sir Richard Lea. EDWARD VI. and MARY. Marc Willems, painter. Hans Hucet, painter. John Bossam, painter. Antony Deric, medallist. Guillim Stretes, painter. Sir Antonio More. Joas Van Cleve. Nicholas Lysard. E. Courtenay, Earl of Devonshire. QUEEN ELIZABETH. Lucas de Heere, painter. Co]"nelius Ketel. Frederic Zuccherc. Marc Garrard. H. Cornelius Vroom, Petruccio Ubaldini. Nicholas Hilliard, painter in miniature. Isaac Oliver. Tyrrell, carver. Robert Aggas, painter. Hieronymus Custodio, painter, Levinus Vogelarius. James Morgues, painter. John Shute, painter and architect. Antonius Van Den Wynegaarde. Tho. and John Bettes, painters. Will, and Fran. Segar, painters. Lyne, P. Cole, Arnolde, painters. Jacques de Bruy, painter. Peter Golchi, painter. Hieronymo de Bye, painter. Peter Vandevelde, painter. Rogers, Clia. Switzer, Cure, engravers. Nicholas Lockie, painter. Master Stickles, architect. Barth. Cainpaine, or Campion, chaser. Martin and Metcalf. Richard Stevens, painter, statuary, and medallist. Horatio Palavicini, arras maker. Randolph, painter. Rob. Adams, architect. Valerio Vincentino, engraver of stones. Dr. J. Twisden, painter. Sir Nath. Bacon, painter. John Holland, painter. Theodore Haveus, architect. Ralph Simons, architect. IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. Paul Vansomer. Cornelius Jansen. Theodore Russel. Daniel Mytens. Christopher Roncalli. Sir Robert Peake. Peter Oliver. Glass Painters. Isaac Oliver. Bernard Van Linge. Baptista Sutton. Henry Giles. William Price. William Price, jun. Other Artists. Edward Norgate. Solomon de Cans. Sir Francis Crane, Statuaries. Maximilian Colte. Epiphanius Evesham. Nicholas Stone. Henry Stone. John Stone. Nicholas Stone, jun. Architects. Bernard Jansen. Gerard Chrismas. John Smithson. Butler, Stephen Harrison. Medallists. Charles Antony. Thomas Antony. Thomas Bushell, Nicholas Briot, CHARLES I. Abraham Vanderdort. Sir Balthazar Gerbier. NAMES OF ARTISTS. XXIX Henry Vanderborcht. Sir Peter Paul Rubens. Abraham Diepenbeck. Sir Anthony Vandyek. David Beck. George Geldorp. Isaac Sailmaker. Bradshaw. B. Van Bassen. Cornelius Poelenburg. Henry Steenvvyck. John Torrentius. J. C. Keirincx John Priwitzer. George Janiesone. William Dobsou. Gerard Honthor.st. John Van Belcamy). Horatio Geutilesclii. Artemisia Gentileschi. Nicholas Laniere. I'rancis Wouters. Weesop, John De Critz. Adrian Hanneman. Cornelius Neve. K. Coker. Matthew Goodricke. Adrian Stalband. Portman. Greenbnry. Horatio Paulin. Povey. Hamilton. Edward Bower. Holderness. T. Johnson. Reurie. Francis Barlow. Sir Toby Matthews. Sir James Palmer. Samuel Butler. Francis Cleyn. John Hoskins. Alexander Cooper. Anne Carlisle. John Petitot. P. Bordier. Statuaries and Caryeks. Andrew Kearne. ^ John Schurman. Edward Pierce, sen. Edward Pierce, jun. Hubert Le Soeur, Enoch Wyat. Zachary Taylor. John Osborn. I Seal Cutters. Martin Johnson. Green. Christian Van Vianen, chaser. Francis Fanelli, sculptor. Theodore Rogiers, chaser. Medallists. Thomas Rawlins. John Vavin. Architect. Inigo Jones. INTERREGNUM. General Lambert. Robert Walker. Edward Mascall. Heywood. Medallists. Peter Blondeau. Thomas Violet. Francis Carter, architect. IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. Isaac Fuller. Cornelius Boll. John Freeman. Remee Van Lemput. Robert Streater. Henry Anderton. Francis Vanzoou. Samuel Van Hoogstraten. Balth. Van Leniens. Abraham Hondius. William Lightfoot. Sir Peter Lely. Joseph Buckshorn. John Greenhill. Davenport. Pr. Henry Lankrink. Jolm Baptist Caspars. John Vandcr Eyden. Anne Killigrew. Bustler. Daniel Boon. Isaac Paling. Henry Paert. Henry Dankers. Parrey Walton. Thomas Flatman. Claude Le Fevre. Le Fevre de Venise. John Hayls. Henry Gascar. Simon Varelst. Antonio Verrio. James Huysman XXX NAMES OF ARTISTS. Michael "Wright, Edmund Ashfield. Peter Roestraten. Gerard Zoust. William Reader, John Loten. Thomas Manby. Nicholas Byer. Adam Coloni. John Grilfiere. Gerard Edema. Thomas Stevenson. Philip Duval. Edward Hawker. Sir John Gawdie. B. Flesshier. Benedetto Genavo, Gas])ar Netscher. Jacob Pen. Sun man. William Shcphard. • Steiner. Peter Stoop. Waggoner. Alexander Souville. William Yandevelde. John Vosterman. William Wissing. Adrian Henny. Herbert Tuer. Tempesta and Tomaso. Samuel Cooper. Richard Gibson. William Gibson. Edward Gibson. John Dixon. Alexander Marshal. William Ha.ssel. Matthew Snelling. Mary Beale. Charles Beale. Elizabeth Neale. Statuaries, Carvers, Architects, AND Medallists. Thom.as Burman. Bowden, Latham, and Bonne. William Emmet. Caius Gabriel Gibber. Francis du Sart. Grinling Gibbons. Lewis Payne. John Webbe. William Winde. Marsh. Monsieur Ponget. Sir Christopher Wren. The Rotiers. Du Four. George Bower. I IN THE REIGN OF JAMES II. William G. Ferguson. Jacques Rousseau. Charles de la Fosse. N. Heude. William de Keisar. Nicholas Largilliere. John Sybrecht. Henry Tilson. Fancati. Statuaries, &c. Thomas Beniere. Quellin. Thomas East. IN THE REIGN OF WILLIAM III. Sir Godfrey Kneller. I John Zachary Kneller. John James Bakker, Jacob Vander Roer. John Pieters. John Baptist Monoyer. Henry Vergazon. Philip Boul. Edward Dubois. Simon Dubois. Henry Cooke. Peter Berchett. Louis Cheron. John Riley. John Closterman. William Deryke. Dirk Maas. Peter Vander Meulen. Paul Mignart. Egbert Hemskirk. Frederic Kerseboom. Anthony Sevonyans. Sir John Medina. Marcellus Laroon. Thomas Pembroke. Francis Le Piper. Thomas Sadler. Godfrey Schalken. Adrian Vandiest. Gaspar Smitz. Thomas Van Wyck. John Van Wyck. Sir Martin Becknian. Henry Van Straaten. J. Woolaston. 4 John Schnell. Sir Ralph Cole. Hefele. Bishop of Ely, Bishop of Elphin. Susan Penelope Rose. Mary More. NAMES OF ARTISTS. xxxi Statuaries, Carvers, Architects. John Biishnell. Thomas Stauton. D. Le Marchand. William Talman. Sir William Wilson, m THE REIGN OF ANNE. Pelegrini. Marco Ricci. Sebastian Ricci. Baker. James Bogdani. William Claret. Thomas Murray. Hugh Howard. James Parmentier. John Vander Vaart. Rodolphus Shmutz. Preudhomme. Colonel Seymour. Charles Boit. Lewis Crosse. Statuaries, Architects, &c. Francis Bird. Sir John Vanbrugh. Roberti. Bagotti. John Croker. IN THE REIGN OF GEORGE I. Louis Laguerre. Lanscroon. Michael Dahl. Peter Angelis. Antony Russel. Luke Cradock. Peter Casteels. Jacopo Dagar. Theodore Netscher Charles Jervas. Jonathan Richardson. Giuseppe Grisoni. William Aikman. John Alexander. Sir James Thornhill. Robert Brown. Antonio Bellucci. Balthazar Denner. Francis Ferg. Thomas Gibson. Thomas Hill. P. Monamy. James Van Huysum, James Maubert. John Pesne. John Stevens. I John Smibert. Trevett. Henry Trench. Peter Tillemans. John Vandrebank. Samuel Barker. Peter Van Bleeck. H. Vandermijn. Enoch Zeeman. Antoine Watteau. Robert Woodcock. Isaac Whood. Isaac Vogelsang. Zurich. Christian Richter. J. Antoine Arlaud. Mrs. Hoadley. Architects, &c. Mr. Archer. Wakefield. Nich. Hawksmoor. James Gibbs. Colin Campbell. John James. Carpentiere. Christian Reisen. IN THE REIGN OF GEORGE II. Hans Huyssing. Charles Collins. Cooper. Barthol. Dandridge. Damini. Jeremiah Davison. John Ellis. Philip Mercier. J. Francis Nollekins. Robinson. Andrea Soldi. Chevalier Rusca. Stephen Slaughter. James Worsdale. Ranelagh Barrett. John Wootton. Joseph Highmore. Thomas Hudson. Francis Hayman. Samuel Scott. Mr. Taverner. George Knapton. Francis Cotes. William Oram. John Shackleton. Giacomo Amiconi. Brunetti. I James Seymour. J. Baptist Vanloo. Joseph Vanaken. XXXll NAMES OF ARTISTS. Clermont. Antonio Canaletti. Antonio Joli. (i-eorge Lambert. Thomas Worliilge. William Hogarth. Painters IN Enamel and Miniature. J. S. Liotard. C. Frederic Zincke. Jean Rouqnet. Groth. Bernard Lens. Joseph Goupy. Jiimes Deacon, JarvLS Spencer. Stat IT ARIES. J. Michael Rysbrach. L. F. Koubiliac. Gnelfi. L Delvaiix. J. Francis Verskovis. Medallists. John Dassier. J. Christopher Tanner. Laurence Nattier. Architects. Giacomo Leoni. J. Nicholas Serv^andoni. Thomas Ripley. Batty Langley. H. Earl of Pembroke. R. Earl of Burlington. Charles Labelye. William Kent. Heuiy Flitcroft. M. IIICCI. BAKER. ANECDOTES OF PAINTING, CHAPTER I. THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF PAINTING IN ENGLAND. They who undertake to write the history of any art are fond of carrying its origin as far back as possible. When this tends to show the improvements made in it, by com- paring latter works with the first rude inventions, it may be of service ; but it often happens that the historian thinks the antiquity of a discovery reflects honour on his country, though perhaps his country has been so careless, or has wanted genius so much, as to have refined very little on the original hints. Some men push this farther, and venerate the first d awnings of an art more than its productions in a riper age. The inventor may have had more genius, but the performances of the improver must be more perfect. Mr. Vertue had taken great pains to prove that painting existed in England before the restora- tion of it in Italy by Cimabue. If what we possessed of it in those ignorant times could be called painting, I sup- pose Italy and every nation in Europe retained enough of the deformity of the art to contest wdth us in point of antiquity. That we had gone backwards in the science farther almost than any other country, is evident from our coins, on which there is no more of human similitude than an infant s first scrawl of the profile of a face ; and so far therefore as badness of drawing approaches to antiquity of ignorance, we may lay in our claim to very VOL. I. B o THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF ancient possession. As Italy has so long excelled us in the refinement of the art, she may leave us the enjoy- ment of original imperfection. However, as Mr. Vertue s partiality flowed from love of his country, and as this is designed for a work of curiosity, not of speculation and reasoning, I shall faith- fully lay before the reader such materials as that labori- ous antiquary had amassed for deducing the History of English Painting from a very early period. The^ first evidences in favour of the art are drawn from our records,^ which Mr. Vertue had carefully consulted. There he found the following entries :^ " MCCXXVIII. Ao. 12. Hen. III. m. f. Rex thes. et earner, suis salutem. Liberate cuidam pictori 20s. ad cameram niagni scaccarii depingendam." ^ 1 Dr. Thorpe, M. D. , when writing his history of the town and diocese of Rochester, discovered at the west-end of that cathedral two busts, of Henry I. and his queen in stone, which' had 'never been observed before. 2 Since the first edition of this work I have been informed by a curious gentleman, that the earliest place in a catalogue of English painters is due to St. Wolstan, bishop of Worcester in 1062, or at least to Ervenius, or Erwen, his master. William of Malmesbury, who wrote the life of Wolstan in three books, gives the following account : ** Habebat tunc [Wolstanus] magistrum Ervenium nomine, inscribendo et quidlibet coloribus effingendo peritum. Is libros scriptos, sacramentarium et psalterium, quorum principales litteras auro ef&giaverit, puero Wolstano dele- gandos curavit. Ille preciosorum apicum eaptus miraculo, dum pulchritudinem iiitentis oculis rimatur, scientiam litterarum internis hausit meduUis. Verum doctor ad sseculi spectans commodum, spe majoris premii, sacramentarium regi, tunc temporis Cnutoni, psalterium Emmse reginse contribuit. Perculit puerilem auimum facti dispendium, et ex imo pectoro alta traxit suspiria." If this passage is not sufficient authority, as I think it is not, to prove St. Wolstan a painter, at least it is decisive for Ervenius, who was certainly an illuminator of MS3. — [Aelfsin, an Anglo-Saxon monk of the tenth century, appears also to have some (ilaim to a place in a catalogue of early English painters. There is a curious example of Anglo-Saxon drawing in a MS. by Aelfsin in the British Museum, MSS. Cott. TUiis, D. xxvi. It represents St. Peter seated on a throne, and a monk offering him a book. The saint, who is of a colossal size compared with the monk, holdi? in his right hand the two keys; his left is in the attitude of benedic- tion. It gives a good specimen of the state of the art at that period. — W.] 2 There are two records more ancient than any that follow ; but they relate to architecture, not painting ; however, as not foreign to this work, I shall insert them here : They are both of: the reign of King John : "Anno, 1209, Vicecomites Loud, et Midi, alio caverunt Elyae ingeniatori x marcas, ad reparationem domorum regis apud Westmonast. per breve 11. Archie}). Cautuar." Anno, 1210, Willelmus Puintellus redd. comp. del2r6/. 135. 6tZ. quos " recepit de thesauro ad operationes turris Londoniie." William Puintell might be only a surveyor, but Elyas was certainly an architect. 4 "1228, the 12th year of Henry III. membrane f. The'kingto his treasurer and chamberlains health. T\ay to a certain painter ^0 shillings for painting the great Exchequer chamber." — I). PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 3 This does not express the kind ; whether the chamber was to be painted with figures, ornaments, &c., or whether the quidam pictor was not a mere house-painter ; prob- jibly an artist of higher rank, as twenty shillings would have been a great price in that age for painting wainscot. However, the next record is more explicit, and ascertains the point in question. " MCCXXXIII. Liberate Ao. 17. Hen. IIL m. 6. Mandatum est Vice- comiti Southton. quod cameram regis lambruscatam ^ de Castro "VVinton. depingi faciat eisdem historiis et picturis quibus fuerat prius depicta. Et custmn, &c. computabitur. Teste rege apud Kideministr. iii. die Junii." ^ There are more remarkable circumstances than one in this venerable scrap : as, the simplicity of the times ; the king sending a precept to the sheriff of Hampshire to have a chamber in the royal castle painted ; and his majesty, like the Roman general who threatened his soldiers if they broke any of the antique Corinthian statues that they should pay for having others made, giving orders to the same sheriff to have the chamber repainted with the same pictures and histories with which it had been adorned before ; and which, by the way, implies that history-painting had been in use still longer than this date, which was the earliest Mr. Vertue could discover.^ " Liberat. Ao. 17. Hen. III. m. 10. Mandatum est custodi domorum regis de Wudestok, quod in rotunda capella regis de Wudestok bonis coloribus depingi faciat, niajestatem domini et iiii Evangelistas, et imagineni sancti Edmundi ex una parte, et imagineni sancti Edwardi ex alia parte, et ib fieri faciat duas verimas* novas." ^ 1 Lamhruscatam, wainscoted, from the French, Lambris. ^ " 1233, payments Anno 17. Hen. III. m. 6. Precept to the Sheriff of Southampton, that he shall cause the king's chamber wainscot, in the castle of Winchester, to be painted with the same pictures as formerly ; and that he shall account for the cost. Witness the King, at Kidderminster, June 3." — D. 3 Some have ascribed the introduction of painting into this island to Venerable Bede. Verimas, a barbarous word, not to be found even in Dufresne's glossary. One cannot help observing the absurdity of those times, in couching orders in a lan- guage which they could not write, and addressed to persons by whom it was not understood. ' ' The word * verimas ' is not barbarous only, but unknown. The transcriber from the Close Rolls was not aware that the word is really venestras ov fenestras," by which no one will be puzzled. — D. 5 "Payments, 17 Henry III. m. 10. Order to the keeper of the king's palace at Woodstock, that he cause the round chapel there to be painted with tlie figures of our Lord, and the four Evangelists, and of St. Edmund, on one part, and that of St. Edward on the other part, and that he should have two windows made there." — D. B 2 4 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF "Rot. Clans. 20. Hen. III. m. 12. Mandatum est thesaurario regis, quod magnam cameram regis apud Westm. bono viridi colore depingi faciat ad modum curtanae et in magno gabulo ^ ejusdem camerae juxta hostium (ostium) depingi ludum ilium ' Ke ne dune ke ne tine, ne pret ke desire ^ et etiam parvam garderobam regis viridi colore ad modum curtanae depingi faciat : ita quod rex in prinio adventu suo illuc inveniat predictas cameram et garderobam ita depictas et ornatas, sicut predictum est." ^ "Rot. Clans. Ao. 20. Hen. III. m. 12. Mandatum est H. de PateshuU thesaurario domini regis, quod borduram a tergo sedis regis in capella sancti Stepliani apud Westm. et borduram a tergo sedis reginae ex alia parte ejusdem capella e interius et exterius depingi faciat de viridi colore : juxta sedem ipsius reginae depingi faciat quandam crucem cum Maria et Johanne ex opposite crucis regis, quae juxta sedem regis depicta est. T. vii. die Febr." * The next record, whicli has been mentioned by Stowe, gives directions for repairing the granary under the Tower, and all the leaden gutters, and for leading the whole thoroughly on that side, per quas gentes videre possint, and for white-washing the chapel of St. John, and for making three glass windows in the same chapel, in which were to be represented a little Virgin Mary holding the child, and the Trinity, and St. John the Apostle. It gives orders too that (Patibulum) a cross should be painted behind the altar, bene et bonis coloribus ; and wherever it could be done most conveniently, there were to be drawn in the same chapel two images of St. Edward holding out a ring and delivering it to St. John the Evangelist. " Et dealbari faciatis," adds the record, totum veterem murum circa sepe- dictam turrim nostram. Et custuni quod ad hoc posueritis, per visum et 1 "In magno gabulo," the great west window above the entrance. — D. ^ Qui ne donne ce qu'il tient, ne prend ce qu'il desire : or, as it is expressed iu anotlier record, Qui non dat quod habet, non accipit ille quod optat. 3 " Close RoU, 20 Hen. III. m. 12. Order to the king's treasurer, that he cause the king's great chamber at Westminster to be painted with a good green colour, so as to resemble a curtain, and in the great window of the said chamber, this motto to be painted : ' He who gives not what he has, receives not what he wishes for ; ' and likewise, the king's small wardrobe, with green like a curtain ; and that the king, on his hrst coming there, may find the said chamber and wardrobe so painted, as beforesaid." — D. * " Close Rolls, 20 Hen, III. m. 12. Order to Henry de PateshuU, treasurer of our Lord the King, that he have the bordure behind the king's seat in the chapel of St. Stephen, Westminster, and the bordure of the queen's seat, in the otlier part of the said chapel, painted with green colour, both withinside and out ; and that he cause a crucifix with Mary and John, to be painted near the said seat of the Queen, and opposite to the cross painted near the king's seat." Witness, &c, 7th of February."— D. PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 5 testimonium legiilium hominum, computabitur vobis ad scaccarium. Teste rege apud Windesor. x. die Decenibr.^ It is evident from this and some following passages that as painting on glass ^ was then known, the art of painting in general could not be at a very low ebb.^ Then follows another regarding the same place : " Rex eisdem saiutem. Pmecipimus vobis quod cancellum beatae Marine in ecclesia sancti Petri infra ballium turris nostrae London, et cancellum beati Petri in eadem ecclesia, et ab introitu cancelli beati Petri usque ad spatium quatuor pedum ultra stallos ad opus nostrum et reginae nostrae in eadem ecclesia factos bene et decenter lambruscari faciatis, et eosdem stallos depingi, et Mariolam cum suo tabernaculo et ymagines beatorum Petri, Nicolai et Katerinae, et trabeni ultra aitare beati Petri, et parvum patibulum cum suis ymaginibus de novo colorari, et bonis coloribus refrescari, et lieri faciatis quandam ymaginem de beato Petro in solempni apparatu archiepiscopali in parte boreali ultra dictum aitare, et de optimis coloribus depingi ; et quandam ymaginem de sancto Christofero tenentem et portantem J esum, ubi melius et decentius fieri potest, et depingi in praedicta ecclesia. Et fieri faciatis duas tabulas pulcras et de o^Jtimis coloribus et de historiis beatorum Nicolai et Katerinae depingi ante aitaria dictorum sanctorum in eadem ecclesia ; et duos cherumbinos stantes a dextris et a sinistris magni patibuli pulcros fieri faciatis in praedicta ecclesia cum hilari viiltu et jocoso ; et praeterea unum fontem Enarmoreum cum colompnis marmoreis bene et decenter incisis. Et custum, &c. Teste ut supra." * ^ "That ye cause to be whitened all the old wall round our tower above mentioned. And the cost that ye shall make upon it, shall be accounted to you, at our Exchequer, upon the view and oath of lawfiii men. At Windsor, 10 Deo." — D, ^ In Aubrey's MS. survey of Wiltshire, in the library of the Royal Society, he pays, on the authority of Sir W. Dugdale, that the first painted glass in England was done in King John's time. Vol. ii. p. 85. Some of the most ancient and beautiful stained glass in the kingdom remains in the Chancel of Chetwood in Buckinghamshii'e, which is undoubtedly of the date of 1244. The design or pattern is precisely that usually wrought in mosaic, as at that time newly introduced into England by Italian artists. Lysons's Magn. Brit. vol. i. p. 488.— D. 3 [See an interesting work on glass-painting, lately published by Mr. Winston, Inquiry into the Differences of Style Observable in Ancient Fainted Glass. Oxford: 1847.— W.] 4 "The King to the same, &c. We order that you have the chancel of the l)lessed Virgin Mary in the Church of St. Peter, in the baily of our Tower of London, and the chancel of St. Peter, within the said church, to bo well and properly wainscoted for the space of four feet beyond the stalls, erected for the use of ourself and queen, and that the said stalls be painted with a small figure of the V. Mary, standing in her shrine (or niche) ; the figures of the Saints Peter, Nicholas, and Catherine, the beam beyond the altar of St. Peter, and the small cmcifix with its figures, to be painted anew with fresh colours. And that ye cause to be made an image of St. Peter, in his pontificals as an archbishop, on the north side beyond the said altar, and the same to be painted with the best colours : and also an image of St. Christopher holding and carrying Christ, in the best manner that it can be painted and finished in the said chapel. And that ye likewise cause two fair pictures to be painted with the best colours, of the histories of St. Nicholas and Catherine, at the altar of the said saints, in the said church ; with two fair cherubims standing to the right and left of the crucifix ; and having a cheerful countenance ; and also a marble font, having pillars of marble neatly curved. And the cost, kc. dated as above." — D. 6 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF The next aorain specifies the sum to be expended on paintings at Westminster : "Rot. Liberat. Ao, 21. Hen. III. m. 5. Rex tliesaurario et camerariis suis salutem. Liberate de thesauro nostro Odoni aurifabro custodi operationis nostrae Westm. quatuor libras et undecim solidos ad picturas faciendas iu camera nostra ibidem. Teste rege apud Westm. ii. die Augusti." ^ Tlie next contains the first mention we have of a Star Chamber. " Liberat. Ao. 22. Hen. III. m. 3. IVIandatum est vie. Soutliampt. quod cameram apud Winton colorari faciat viridi colore, et stellari auro,^ in quibus depingantur liistoriae veteris et novi testamenti." ^ The next precept is very remarkable, as implying the nse of oil-colours/ long before that method is supposed ^ " Roll of Liveries, 21 Hen. III. m. 5. The king to his treasurer and chamber- lains, &c. Pay from our treasury to OJo, the goldsmith, keeper of our works at Westminster, four pounds and eleven shillings, for making the pictures (statues) in our chamber there. Witness, &c. 2d August." — D. ^ "Stellari auro, set witli stars of gold." This alludes to the fashion of studding the ceiling and frequently the side walls of rich chambers, with stars of gold, upon a ground of green or blue, in compartments. Representations of such chambers occur in several of the illuminated MSS. preserved in the British Museum." — D. 3 "The same, 22d. Henry III. m. 3. Precept to the Sheriff of Southampton, that he cause the chamber at Winchester to be painted of a green colour, and with stars of gold {and compartments ?), in which may be painted histories, from the Old and New Testament."— D. * John ab Eyck, the supposed inventor of painting in oil, which he was said to discover in a search for varnish, died in 1441.* In the record before us both oil and varnish are mentioned, and the former might indeed be only used in the com- position of the latter. Mr. Raspe, in his curious treatise published in 1781, has l»roved that oil-painting was known long before its pretended discovery by V^an Eyck. — [The above remark renders this the most fit place for some obser- vations on both the origin of oil-painting and the particular invention of the Van Eycks.] The oil-painting " invented" by John, or rather Hubert Van Eyck,+ was really varnish-jKiinting, and was incidentally discovered in experimenting for a good varnish for tempera pictures. In the life of Antonello da Messina, Vasari says, "At last, having tried many things, separately and compounded, he discovered that linseed and nut-oils were the most siccative : these, therefore, he boiled with other mixtures, and produced that varnish which he, and indeed every painter in the world, had long desired." Van Eyck, however, continues Vasari, found that by mixing his colom's with these prepared oils (that is, the varnish), instead of the common tempera vehicle, his pictures required no varnishing at all, or that they were then quite as brilliant without varnish as they had previously been loitli. Hero there is evidently no question of the mere immixture of colours with oil ; this was an old practice, and is mentioned by many old writers ; but, as Vasari says in the life of Agnolo Gaddi, even this simple method was not used in Italy for figure painting. The general term oil-painting was therefore sufficiently * [John Van Eyck died in the latter part of 1445, or possibly in the beginning of the following year. He was still living in 1445, but he was dead before Feb. 24, 1446. This is shown by a lottery notice of his widow. — See de Bast, Iiessager des Sciences et des Artes. Gand, 1824. — W.] + [See the Editor's Epochs of Painting Characterized, ch. xxiii.--W.] PAIXTING IN ENGLAND. 7 to liave been discovered. It is dated in his 23d year, 1239, and runs in these words : " Rex tliesaurario et camerariis suis salutem. Liberate de thesauro nostro Odoni aurifabro et Edwardo filio suo centem et septemdecem solidos et decern denarios _pro cleo Vernici, et colorihus emptis, et picturis factis in camera reginae nostrae apud Westm. ab octavis sanctae trinitatis anno regni nostri xxiii usque ad festum sancti Barnabae apostoli eodem anno, scilicet per xv, dies,"^ There is another mandate of his 25th year, for two windows with pictures in the hall, and with the motto above mentioned, of which I do not know that any of our antiquaries had taken notice. The two following precepts are so connected with the characteristic to justify Vasari in using it in contradistinction to the common pre- vailing method of tempera painting ; especially after the very particular ex- planation of the Van Eycks' method given in the notice of Antonello da Messina. — [We have mention of the use of oil in varnishing as earl}'- as the fifth century. Mr. Eastlake, in his Materials for a History of Oil Painting, p. 20, quotes a passage from Aetius, an old Greek medical writer of that period, which notices the em- ployment of walnut-oil by gilders and encaustic painters, on account of its drying property, and its long preservation of gildings and pictures. There is mention also of linseed-oil vari/ish in the eighth century, and this was in common use in the twelfth ; and in tlic two following centuries linseed-oil appears to have been abundantly employed at Westminster and Ely, even in pamting. The earliest Avriters who mention the mixture of oil with colours for painting, (chiefly decorative) are Eraclius, Theophilus Presbyter, Peter de St. Audemar, (the author of an unpublished MS. in the Ptoyal Library at Paris,) and Cennino Cennini. The first named is the author of a treatise entitled De Colorihus ct Artihus Romanorum, published by Raspe in his Critical Essay on Oil Painting, London, 1781 : there is a MS. of this work in the British Museum. The second is the author of the well-known Divcrsarum Artium Schedula, or, De omni Scientid Artis Pingendi, first published by Lessing, at Brunswick, in 1781, in the sixtli number of his Bcitrdge zur Gcschichte imd Litter atur ; partly also by Raspe; again in 1843, at Paris, by le Comte Charles de I'Escalopier, Theophile, Pretre ct Maine, Essai sur clivers Arts ; and recently in Latin and English by Mr. R. Hen- drie, jun., from a MS. in the British Museum, TJte Arts of the Middle Ages ; or, Essay on VarioiLS Arts, by the monk Theophilus. The treatise of Cennino Cennini, which explains the practice of the fourteenth century in Italy, was first published in Rome in 1821, Trattato delta Pittiira, &c. ; and an English trans- lation by Mrs. Merrifield was published in London in 1844. Sloane MSS. 1754, an old manuscript of the thirteenth century, also contains frequent mention of the use of oil in painting. All these works, unless that of Cennini must be con- sidered an exception, treat of a period antecedent to the Van Eycks ; their invention, therefore, was something quite distinct from the mere immixture of oil with colours : and the general adoption of their method in the latter part of the fifteenth century in preference to the old tempera painting, evidently shows that it was a discovery of considerable importance. What it was has been already explained ; the curious reader, however, will find this subject very ably and thoroughly elucidated in Eastlake's Materials for a History of Oil Painting, — W.] ^ " The King to his treasurer and chamberlains. Pay from our treasury to Odo the goldsmith, and Edward his son, one hundred and seventeen shillings and ten pence for oil, varnish, and colours bought by them, and for pictures made in the Queen's chamber at Westminster, to the octaves of the Holy Trinity, (May 25,) in the 23d year of our reign, to the feast of St. Barnabas, (June 11th,) in the same ?ear, namely for fifteen days." — D. 8 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF foregoing, that though rehiting only to building, not to painting, I shall insert them here, as their most proper place : Ao. 28. Hen. III. Mandatum est vicecomiti Kanciae quod sub omni qua poterit festinatione emi faciat et cariari usque Westmon. 100 navatas grisiae petrae ad operationes quas ibi sine dilatione fieri rex praecepit ; et talem et tarn festinantem diligentiam ad hoc mandatum regis exequendum ponat, quod se inde rex commendare debeat ; et ne W. de HaverhuU thesaurius et Edwardus, quibus operationes praedictas rex injunxit faciendas, culpam dila- tionis in se refundere possint, si praedictae operationes contra voluntatem regis differantur." ^ Hex dedit et concessit Deo et beato Edwardo et ecclesiae Westmon asterii ad fabricam ipsius ecclesiae 2,591 iibras, in quibus regi tenetur Licoricia, quae fuit uxor David de Oxonio Judaei. Et rex vult quod pecunia ilia reddatur ad novum scaccarium, quod rex ad hoc constituit apud Westmonasterium, archi- diacono W estmonasterii, et Edwardo de Westminstre, quos ejusdem scaccarii thesaurarios assignavit. Teste rege apud Windsore," ^ The miserable Latin of these orders is not the most curious part of them. The hundred barge-loads of grey stone to be purchased by the sheriff of Kent might be either from a Kentish quarry, or be imported from the coast of France. The king s great impatience about his new works, and the large fine from a Jew's widow which he bestows on his, new edifice, are very observable. But the most memorable is the origin of the Exchequer, which seems by this precept to have been instituted solely ioi the carrying on the new building at Westminster. The next is in the year 1248. " Eex vicecomiti Southamtonise salutem. Praecipimus tibi quod de exitibus comitatus tui depingi facias in capella reginae nostrae apud Wintoniam super gabulum versus occidentem ymaginem sancti Christoferi, sicut alibi depingitur ; in ulnis suis deferat Christum ; et ymaginem beati Edwardi regis, qualiter tradidit annulum suum cuidam peregrino, cujus ymago similiter depingatur. Teste rege apud 'Windesore vii. die Mail." ^ ^ " 28 Henry III. Precept to the Sheriff of Kent, that with all possible speed, he cause to be purchased and conveyed to Westminster, one hundred barge loads of grey stone, for the works which the king has ordered to be done there, and that lie use such speed and diligence, that the king should commend him for the same ; so that neither W. de Haverhill, the treasurer, nor Edward, to whom the king has entrusted these works, may have any blame on account of delay, if they should be delayed contrary to the will of the king." — D. 2 " The King gave and granted to God and St. Edward, and the church at Westminster, towards the building of the said church, 2,5911. in which sum Licoricia, the widow of David, a Jew of Oxford, was bound. And the King wills, that the said money shall be returned into the new Exchequer, which the King has established for this purpose at Westminster, to the Archdeacon of Westmin- ster, and to Edward of Westminster, whom the King has appointed to be the treasurers of that. Exchequer. Witness, &c." — D. ^ " A.D. 1248. The King to the Sheriff of Southampton. We enjoin you, that PAINTIiVG IN ENGLAND. 9 Anotlicr : " Eex custodi manerii de Wudestoke praecipit, lit inter alia fieri faciat duas fenestras de albo vitro, et fenesti-am aulas versus orientem, similiter cum pic- tura ejus aulas emsndari faciat. Quoddam etiam scaccarium fieri faciat in eadem aula, quod contineat liunc versum, Qui non dat quod habet, non accipit ills quod optat.'^ ^ " Claus, 33. Hen. III. m. 3. Eex injunxit magistro Johanni de sancto Omero quod garderobam cameras rsgis apud Westm. perpingi faccrst sicut pictura illius garderobas inchoatur, st quod facsrst ununi Isctrinum ponendum in novo capitulo Westm. ad similitudinem illius quod est in capitulo sancti Albani, vel decentius et pulcrius, si fisri poterit ; et ad haec facienda colores et maeremium, et necessarias liberationes usque ad adventum regis London, si invsniri faceret. Et custum ad haec oppositum, cum rex illud scivsrit, rsddi facist. Et mandatum est abbati Westm. Edwardo filio O.donis, et Philippo Luvsl, quod libsrationss st alia necessaria supra inveniri fac. Tests rsgs apud Windssore. xxiii. die Septembr." In Henry's 34th year Edward of Westminster is ordered to have painted in the chapel of St. Stephen the images of the apostles round about the said chapel, by the follow- ing precept : " Claus. 34. Hen. III. m. 7. Mandatum est Edwardo ^ de Westm. quod in capella beati Stephani depingi faciat imagines Apostolorum in circuitu ejusdem out of the receipts of your county, you cause to be painted in the chapel of oui Queen, at Winchester, over the great west window, the image of St. Christopher, as he is elsewhere painted, bearing Christ in his arms ; and the figure of St, Edward the King, when he gave his ring to a pilgrim, whose figure should be painted in like manner. Witness, &c. at Windsor, 7th May." — D. ^ The King to the Keeper of the manor of Woodstock. ' ' Precept, that amongst other things, he will cause to be made two windows of white glass : and the window of the hall towards the east he shall cause to be amended, and likewise the paintings in the said hall. And he shall also have made a chequered table, upon which shall be painted this verse : ' He who gives not what he has, receives not what he desires.' " — D. 2 Close Eolls, 33d of Henry III. m. 3. The King enjoins Master John of St. Omer, that he shall cause the wardrobe of the king's chamber at Westminster to be painted, in the same manner as the painting of the said wardrobe is begun, and that he shall make a new reading desk, to be placed in the new Chapter-house at Westminster, like that which is in the Chapter-house at St. Alban's ; or more hand- some and fair, if it can be so made,; and that he provide for this work, colours and timber and other necessaries, before the coming of the king to London. And the king, when he is made acquainted with the amount, will order it to be paid. Precept to the abbot of Westminster, Edward Fitz-Odo and Philip Level, that they shall find these deliveries and other necessaries. Witness, &c. at Windsor, 23d September."— D. ^ This Edward of Westminster is the same person with Edward Fitz-Odo men tioned in the preceding order, and 1 suppose son of Odo Aurifaber recorded above. It appears by Dart's History of the Abbey that he was master of the works ; and Dart quotes the records in the Tower on the authority of Strype. The whole passage is worth transcribing, as it shows the passion of Henry for adorning his new foundation there, called then, the new work at Westminster.* " In the 28th of his reign he commanded Edward Fitz Odo to make . a dragon, in * Deuchesne, Antiq. Franc, vol, i. p. 145, says the Louvre was so called from I'ccuvre, the new worlc. 10 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF capellae ; et judicium in occidentali parte ejusdem ; et iconem beatae Mariae virginis in quadam tabula similiter pingi faciat ; ita quod haec parata sint in adventu regis. Teste rege apud Brugwauter xiii. die Augusti.'' ^ The next, dated in tlie same year, exhibits a donation of three oaks for making images. Claus. 34. Hen. III. m. 7. Mandatum est custodi parci regis de Periton quod in eodem parco faciat habere sacristae Glaston. tres quercus ad imagines inde faciendas et ponendas in ecclesia sua Glaston. de dono regis. Teste rege apud Glaston. xv. die Augusti." ^ The following is not less curious : *' Glaus. 34. Hen. III. m. 12. Mandatum est R. de Sandeford magistro militiae templi in Anglia quod faciat habere Henrico de warderoba, latori presentium, ad opus reginae ^ quendam librum magnum, qui est in domo sua London. Gallico ydioraate scriptum, in quo continentnr gestn regis Antiochiao et regum aliorum, &c.'* Teste rege apud Westm. xvii. die Mail." ^ manner of a standard or ensign, of red samit, to be embroidered with gold, and his tongue to appear as though continually moving, and his eyes of sapphire, or other stones agreeable to him, to be placed in this church against the king's coming thither. "And the queen set up in the feretry of St. Edward the image of the blessed Virgin Mary ; and the king caused the aforesaid Edward Fitz-Odo, keeper of his works at Westminster, to place upon her forehead for ornament, an emerald and a ruby, taken out of two rings which the bishop of Chichester* had left the king for a legacy." Dart, vol. i. p. 26, edit. 1742. 1 " Close Rolls, 34 Henry III. m, 7. Precept to Edward of Westminster, that in the Chapel of St. Stephen he shall have painted, around the walls, the figures of the Apostles, and the Day of Judgment in the western part of the same, and that he shall cause the figure of the Blessed Virgin to be painted in the same manner upon a pannel : so that these things may be ready at the king's coming. Witness, &c. at Bridgewater, 13th August." — D. 2 "Id. Precept to the keeper of the park at Periton, that he shall deliver from the said park three oak-trees to the sacristan of the abbey of Glastonbury, that images may be made out of them, to be placed in the church of Glastonbury, as of the royal gift. Witness, &c. at Glastonbuiy, 15th August." — D. The beauty of Eleanor of Provence, queen of Henry III., is thus celebrated by Langtoff in his Chronicle, published by Hearne, vol. i. p. 213 — *' Henry king, our prince, at Westmynster kirke The erlys doubter of Province, the fairest may o lif,t Her name is Helianore, of gentille norture, Bizond the se that wore was non suilk creature," ^ "Gesta regis Antiocliiaj et regum aliorum." Richard the First performed scarcely credible feats of valour, at the siege of Antioch, during the Croisade. King Henry III. greatly admired his uncle's heroic character. The book above-mentioned was compiled and illuminated by his order, and in the Pipe roll of the 21st of his reign, it is ordered that these exploits should be the subject of paintings on the wainscot of a room in the royal palace at Clarendon, " hysteria Antiochise in oadem depingenda, cum duello regis Ricardi." Arcliccolog. vol, iii. p, 187. JVarton's Hist, of Poetry, vol. i. p, 114, — D. 5 "Id. Precept to R, de Sandford, Master of the Knights Templars in England, that he cause to be delivered to Henry of the wardrobe, bearer of these presents, in * Ralph de Neville, bishop of Chichester, who had been lord chancellor of Eng- land, ob. 1244.— D. t "May 0 lif," — "maid alive," Hearne's Glossary. PAINTING m ENGLAND. 11 The two next specify tlie use that was to be made of the above-mentioned book, which, I conclude, contained an account ^ of the Crusade, the history of which the king orders to be painted in the Tower and at Westminster, in a low chamber in the garden, near what in the writ is named the King's Jewry ,^ and which room his majesty orders to be thenceforward called the Antioch chamber ; the origin, probably, of what is now styled the Jerusalem chamber. " Claus. Ao. 35. Hen. III. m. 11 . Mandatum est Edwardo de Westm. quod depingi facial historiam Antioch.'^ in camera regis turris London, sicut ei dicet Tiiomas Espernir, et custum, quod ad hoc posnerit, rex ei faciet allocari. Teste rege apud Winton. v. die Junii." ^ " Ibidem, m. 10. Mandatum est Edwardo de Westm. quod Judaismum regis apud Westm. et magnum ^ cellarium vinorum regis lambruscari, et bassam cameram in gardino regis, et parvam turellam ultra capellam ibidem depingi, et in eadem camera unum caminum fieri faciat, quam quideni cameram An- tioch vokimus appellari." ^ aid of the Queen, a certain great book, Avhich is in his house in London, written in the French language, in which are contained the gests of the King of Antioch, and of other kings. Witness at Westminster, 17th May." — D. ^ The Emperor Frederic II. had sent to King Henry a large account of his war in the Holy Land, in a letter under his own seal. See note to Tindal's Rapin, under the year 1228. 2 This Judaism, or Jewry, was probably an exchequer or treasury erected by Henry for receiving the sums levied on the Jews, from whom he extorted a third part of their substance to carry on the war with France. Rapin, ubi supra. ^ This order for painting the history of Antioch, in the Tower of London, bears date fourteen years subsequently to that for the same subject at Clarendon, of v/hich it was probably a copy, ' ' sicut ei dicet Thomas Espernir, " the inventor of it— D. * " Close Eoll, 35 Henry III. m. 11. Precept to Edward of Westminster, that he cause to be painted the history of Antioi^h, in the king's chamber, in the Tower of London, ns Thomas Espernir shall say to (or direct) him ; and the cost which he shall incur shall be allowed by the king. Witness, &c. at Westminster, 5th of June."— D. ^ There are two records among the foregoing, which, though not relating to my subject, but to the wine-cellar, and even to the composing of wines for his majesty, are so curious that I am persuaded the reader will be glad to see them. " Claus. Ao. 34. Hen. III. m. 19. De potibus delicatis ad opus regis faciendis. Mandatu"^} est custodibus vinorum regis Winton. quod de vinis regis quae habent in custodiji sua liberent * Eoberto de Monte Pessulano tanta et talia, qualia et quanta capere voluerit, ad potus regis pretiosos delicatos inde faciendos. Teste rege apud Lutegareshall xxvi. die Novembr, " " Claus. 36. Hen. III. m. 31. Mandatum est custodibus vinorum regis de Ebor. quod de melioribus vinis regis quae sunt in custodia sua faciant habere Roberto de Monte Pessulano duo dolia albi vini et Garhiofilacum, et unum dolium rubri vini ad claretum + inde faciend. ad opus regis contra instans festum Nativitatis Do- miuicae. Et mandatum est Rob. de Monte Pessulano quod festinanter accedat ad Ebor. et garliiofilac. et clarat. predict, faciat sicut annis preteritis facere consuevet." ^ Ibid, m, 10. Precept to the said Edward, that the king's Jewry at West- * See more of him in Pegge's Life of Roger Weseham. t A composition of wine andhon^jy, V. His. de I'uncienne Chevaierie, vol. i. p. 49. 12 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF These tliat follow all relate to various paintings. " Ibidem, m. 5. Maudatum est Simoni Capellano et aliis custodibus opera- tionum Windesor. quod claustrum regis in castro Windesor. paviri et lambrus- cari, et Apostolos depinrji faciant, sicut rex ei et niagistro Willielmo pictori suo ibidem injunxit. Teste rege apud Havering, xx. die Augusti." ^ "Liberat. 36. Hen. III. m. 15. Rex Vicecomiti Nottinghamiae salutem. Praecipimus tibi quod in camera reginae nostrae aput Nottingham depingi facias historiam Alexandri circumquaque ; et custum quod ad hoc posueritis computabitur. Teste rege apud Nottingham xv. die Januarii."^ " Liberat. 36. Hen. III. m. 15. Mandatum vie. Northampton, quod fieri faciat in castro North, fenestras de albo vitro, et in eisdem historiam Lazari et Divitis depingi." ^ " Claus. 36. Hen. III. m. 22. Mandatum est Radulpho de Dungun, custodi librorum^ regis, quod magistro Willielmo pictori regis habere faciat colores ad depingendum parvam garderobam reginae, et eniendandum picturam magnae camerae regis et camerae reginae. Teste rege apud Westm. xxv. die Febr. Per regem." ^ The six next precepts appertain to various arts, not to painting in particular. " Claus. 36. Hen. III. m. 31. Mandatum est Edwardo de Westm. quod cum festinatione perquirat quendam pulcrum gladium, et scauberd. ejusdem de serico, et pomellum de argento bene et ornate cooperiri, et quandarn pulcram zonam eidem pendi faciat, ita quod gladium ilium sic factum habeat apud Ebor. de quo rex^ Alexandrum regem Scotiae illustrem cingulo militari deco- rare possit in instanti festo Nativitatis Dominicae. Teste rege apud Lychfeld. xxi. die Novembr. Per ipsum regem." ^ minster, and the king's great wine-cellar should be wainscoted ; and that the low chamber in the king's garden, and the little turret beyond the chapel there, should be painted, and that in the same chamber a chimney should be made, and that we will that the said chamber shall be called the Antioch Chamber.'" — D. 1 " Ibid. m. 5. Precept to Simon the chaplain, and other masters of the works, at Windsor, that they have the king's cloister in the castle paved and wainscoted, and the Apostles painted there, as the king has given orders to William, his ])ainter. Witness, &e. at Havering, 20th of August." — D. 2 "Payments, 36 Henry III. m. 15. Precept to the Sheriff of Nottingham- shire, that he cause the queen's chamber in the castle of Nottingham to be painted all aroimd with the history of Alexander, and the king will account with him for the cost. Witness, &c. at Nottingham, 15th January." — D. 3 " Ibid, to the Sheriff of Northampton, that he cause a window of white glass to be made in the castle of Northampton, and that the history of Dives and Lazarus be painted thereupon." — D. ^ It would be a great curiosity if we could recover a list of his majesty's library. It probably contained some illuminated MSS. as the librarian had the keeping of the colours too. The original copy of Matthew Paris with miniatures, in the British Museum, was certainly a present to this king from the author. ^ " Close Roll, 36 Hen. III. Precept to Ralph de Dungun, keeper of the king's books, that he should supply William the painter with colours for painting tho queen's little Avardrobe, and to restore the paintings in the king's and queen's chambers. Witness at Westminster, 25th February." — D. ^ Alexander 111. king of Scotland, married Margaret, daughter of Henry, at York. " " Ibid. m. 31. Precept to Edward of Westminster, that he will procure with- out delay, a certain handsome sword, and have made a scabbard of silk, with the PAINTING EN ENGLAND. 13 " Glaus. 36. Hen. III. m. 30. Mandatum est J. de Somercote ^ et Kogero Scissori, quod sine dilatione fieri faciant unum lectum pretiosum, ita quod illud decenter et ornate factum habeat apud Ebor. ad danduni illud Alex, regi Scotiae illustri in instanti festo Nativitatis Dominicae." ^ " Ibidem. Mandatum est I. de Somercote et B.ogero Scissori, quod de melioribus samittis quos invenire poterunt sine dilatione faciant quatuor robas, duas videlicet ad opus regis, et duas ad opus reginae, cum aurifraxis semilatis, et varii coloris, et quod tunicae sint de molli-oribas samittis quam pallia et supertunicae ; et quod pallia furrentur cum ermino, et supertunicae de minuto vario ; ita quod rex habeat praedictas robas ornate factas apud Ebor. ad hoc instans festum Nativitatis Dominicae. Teste rege apud Lychfield xxi. die Novembr." ^ " Ibidem. Mandatum est I. de Somercote et Eogero Scissori, quod preter illas duas robas quas rex fieri precepit ad opus suum, fieri faciant ad opus regis tres robas de queintisis, videlicet unam robam de meliori samitto violaceo, quam invenire poterunt, cum tribus parvis leopardis in parte anteriori, et aiiis tribus parte posteriori ; et duas de aliis melioribus pannis qui inveniri poterunt ; ita quod robas illas decenter et ornate factas rex promptas habeat apud Ebor. in festo Nativitatis Domini." ^ " Glaus. 39. Hen. III. Kex concessit magistro Johanni de Gloucestre cementario suo, quod toto tempore vitae suae quietus sit de omnimodo Tal- lagio et Theionio ubique per totam potestatem regis." ^ " Glaus. 43. Hen. III. m. 10. Mandatum est magistro Johanni de Glouc. cementario suo, et custodibus operationum Westm. quod quinque imagines pommel of silver, well and fairly ornamented, and a rich belt to hang therefrom : so that the said sword may be delivered to him at York, with which Alexander, the illustrious king of Scotland, may be decorated, together with a military girdle, at the feast of the Nativity of our Lord next ensuing. Witness at Lichfield, 21st November." — D. 1 In the same year J. de Somorcote had a patent to he Warden of the mint. Gustos Cambii per totum regnum. ^ " Ibid. m. 30. Precept to John de Somercote, and Eoger the Tailor, that without delay they make a bed of great price, so that it may be delivered at York, to be presented as a gift to Alexander King of Scotland, at the feast of the Nativity next ensuing. 3 "Ibid, Precept to John de Somercote and Pioger the Tailor, that, without dela^'", they make four robes of the best satin that can be procured, viz. two for the service of the king, and two for the queen, with fringes laid thereon of gold and various colours : and that the tunics shall be of softer satin than the clokes and surcoats : that the clokes be furred with ermine, and the surcoats with minevre, so that the king may have the said robes handsomely made, and delivered to liiiu at York. Witness at Lichfield, 21st November." — D. ^ The lions in the arms of England were originally leopards. In the romance of Eichard Cuer de I^yon, " Upon his shoulders a scheld of stele, With the Lybbards painted wele. " Barrington on the Statutes, p. 227. Menestrier, De I'Origine des Amoires, L. i. p. 68, &c. — D. 5 " Und. Precept to the same, that beside those two robes which the king has ordered for his own use, that they likewise make for him three robes of embroidery or fancy work, viz. one robe of violet-coloured satin, the best that can be procured, wrought with three leopards in the fore and as many in the hinder part : and two robes of other cloth, the best that can be found. So that the king may receive them duly finished, at York, on the feast of the Nativity." — D. ^ "Close Roll, 39 Henry III. The king granted to' John of Gloucester, his plasterer, that for the whole term of his life he shall be free from all taillage and tolls, everywhere throughout the realm." — D. 14 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF regum incisas in franca petra, et quandam petram ad supponendum pedibus unius imaginis beatae Mariae, faciatis habere custodibus operationum ecclesiae sancti Martini London, ad easdem operationes, de dono regis. Teste rege apud Westm. xi. die maii." ^ Then comes a record intituled : " Pro rege de coloribus ad picturam Windesor. Claus. Ao. 44. Hen. II L m. 6. Mandatum est Edwardo de Westm. quod colores et ad picturam neces- saria sine dilatione faciat habere fratri Willielmo monacho Westm. pictori regis, ad picturas regis apud Windsor inde^ renovandas, prout idem frater Willielmus predicto Edwardo dicet ex parte regis. Et hoc sicut regem diligit, non omit tat : et cum rex sciverit custum quod ad hoc posuerit rex breve suum de liberate sibi habere faciet. Teste rege apud Windsor xiii. die Augusti." ^ The next is inscribed De pictura Eap. Guldef. and con- tains the following orders : " Liberat. Ao. 44. Hen. III. m. 11. E,ex vicecom. Surr. salutem. Precipimus tibi quod exitibus comitatus tui picturas magnae aulae nostrae de Guldeford, prout necesse fuerit, sine dilatione emendari, et in magna camera nostra ibidem ad caput lecti nostri super album murum quoddam pallium depingi, et tabulas et fruntellum altaris magnae capellae nostrae ibidem sine dilatione fieri facias, prout injunximus Willielmo Florentino pictori : et custum quod ad hoc posueris per visum et testimonium proborum et legalium hominum conf. &c. Teste meipso apud Westm. xxx. die Octobr." ^ I conclude that master William, William the monk of Westminster, and William of Florence, were the same person. What arts we had, as well as learnings lay chiefly among the religious in those ages. One remark I am surprised Mr. Vertue did not make, when he was assign- ing greater antiquity to painting in England than in Italy, that this William of Florence was an Italian. ^ Close Roll, 43 Henry III. m. 10. Precept to master John of Gloucester, his plasterer, and the master of his works at Westminster, that they make five statues of kings carved in freestone, and a pedestal for the image of the blessed Virgin, to be delivered to the masters of the works of the Church of St. Martin in London, as the king's gift. Witness, &c, 11th of May." — D. 2 Hence it appears that Windsor had been a place of note even before the reign of Hen. III., consequently long before it was beautified by Edward III. 3 " Close Roll, 44 Hen. III. m. 6. For the king. Precept to Edward of West- minster, that without delay he shall deliver to brother William, Monk of West- minster, colours and other things necessary for painting, for restoring the king's paintings at Windsor, accordingly as William the monk shall instruct the said Edward on the part of the king. And this, as he loves the king, he may not omit : and when the king knows the cost he has incurred, he will send his writ for payment thereof. Witness, &g. 13th of August." — D. * " Payments, 44 Henry II. m. 11. Precept to the Sheriff of Surrey, that out of the issues of the said county you cause the paintings of the great hall at Guildford to be repaired, as it may be necessary, without delay, and in our large chamber there to be painted upon the white wall, at the head of our bed, a certain cloth or pall : and that immediately the pictures and frontispiece of the altar of the great chapel be made, as we have directed William of Florence, and the cost shall be paid upon the view of honest and lawful men, &c. Witness, &c. at Westminster, 30th October."— D. PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 15 The two following are little remarkable, except that in the last we find the name of another painter. " Liberat. Ao. 49. Hen. III. m. 7. Eex Thes. et camerariis suis salutem. Liberate de thesauro nostro pictoribus camerae nostrae apud Westm. septem. libras et decern solidos ad picturas ejusdem camerae nostrae retro lectum nostrum ibidem faciend." " Liberat. Ao. 51. Hen. III. m. 10. et 8. Eex Ballivis civitatis London, salutem. Mandamus vobis quod de firma civitatis praedictae habere faciatis magistro Waltero pictori nostro viginti marcas ad picturas camerae nostrae apud Westm. inde faciend, et hoc nullo modo omittatis. Et computabitur vobis ad scaccarium. Teste rege apud Westm. vii. die Januar." ^ Among these records I find the following curious me- morandum of the sums expended on the king's building at Westminster to the forty-fifth year of his reign. " Summa cust. operationum Westm. ab inceptione usque in die dominica proxima post festum divi Michaelis anno regni regis Henrici xlvto. Et cclx. librae restant solvendae pro stipendiis alborum cissorum et minutorum operariorum, et pro franca petra et aliis emptionibus quae non computantur in hac summa : xxix millia, cccxlvZ. xixs. viiid" ^ The last piece I have to produce relates to works to be done for the Prince and his consort Eleanor ; with the addition of the salary of master William, who was allowed six pence a day, as surveyor of the works at Guildford : " Liberat. 52. Hen. III. m. II. Eex vicecom. Surr. et Suss, salutem. Pre- cipimus tibi quod de exitibus com. praedictorum infra curiam nostram manerii nostri de Guldeford quandam cameram cum stadio et camino, garderoba, et camera forinseca, et quandam capellam ad caput ejusdem camerae, cum stadio et fenestris vitreis easdem cameram et capellam decentibus, ad opus karissimae filiae nostrae Alianorae consortis Edward i primogeniti nostri, et unam cameram cum stadio et camino camera forensica, et fenestris vitreis eandem cameram decentibus, ad opus militum karissimae consortis nostrae Alianorae reginae Anglia, et quoddam appenticm.^ ibidem de novo sine dilatione fieri, et her- barium ejusdem reginae nostrae reparari et emendari facias, secundum quod Willielmo Florentino pictori nostro injunximus, et idem Willielmus plenius tibi scire faciet ex parte nostra; et custum, &c. per visum &c. computabitur." ^ 1 " Payments, 49 Hen. III. Tlie king to his treasurer and chamberlain. Pay from our treasury at Westminster to the painter of our chamber at Westminster, seveli pounds and ten shillings for pictures at the back of our bed, in our said chamber." 2 "Ibid. 51 Henry 111. m. 10. and 8. Precept to the bailiffs of the City of London, that ye pay out of the fee-farm of the said city, to master Walter, our painter, twenty marks for pictures in our great chamber at Westminster : and that ye by no means omit to do it. And it shall be accounted with you in the Exchequer. Witness, &c. 7tli of January." — D. ^ " The sum total of the works at Westminster, from their beginning to the Sunday next after the feast of St. Michael, in the forty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry. And 260Z. remain to satisfy the wages of the freestone cutters, and of other workers in the minuter parts of the building, and for freestone, and other purchases which are not computed in this sum, 29,345/. 195. 8d." — D. ^ Sic originale. 5 "52 Henry III. m. 11. The king to the Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex. 16 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF " Rex eiciem vicecom. salutem, Precipimus tibi quod de exitibus com, prae- dictorum facias habere Willielmo Florcntino custodi operationura nostrarum manerii nostri de Guldeford singulis diebus sex denarios pro stipendiis suis, quam diu fueris vicecomes noster eorundem comitat. et praedictus Willielmus custos fuerit operationum praedictarum, sicut eos temporibus retroactis ante turbationem habitam in regno ibidem percipere consuevit : et custum, &c. Teste rege apud Westm. xxxix. die Jan." ^ Besides the palaces above mentioned, this prince laid out also large sums in repairing and beautifying Kenilworth castle, ceiling the chapel with wainscot, painting that and the queen's chamber, and rebuilding the wall on the out- side, as it remained to the time of Sir William Dugdale.^ 1 cannot pass over the Princess Eleanor, so much celebrated by our legendary historians for sucking the poison out of her husband's wound, without mentioning the crosses erected to her memory, which Yertue with great probability supposed were built on the designs of Peter Cavallini, a Eoman scul23tor, and whom, from various circumstances, he discovered to be the architect of the shrine of Edward the Confessor.^ The reader, I am persuaded, will be pleased to see how in- geniously my author traced out this hitherto unknown fact. Precept, that out of tlie issues of the said counties ye cause a certain chamber to be erected within the castle of our manor of Guildford, with a raised heartli and cldmuey, a wardrobe and necessary closet, and with glazed windows, and a small oratory at the end of the said chamber, for the use of our dearest daughter, Eleanor the wife of our eldest son Edward : and also another chamber as above, for the body guard of Eleanor our dearest queen consort, with a penthouse leaning thereto, and that they be made anew, without farther delay. And that ye cause the queen's inclosed herb garden to be repaired and amended in the manner which we have enjoined William the Florentine our painter, and of which the said William will inform you farther upon our part. And the cost, &c." — D. ^ " The King to the same. Precept, that out of the issues of the said counties you shall pay to William the Florentine, Master of our works at Guildford, on each day, six pence, for his wages, as long as you shall remain Sheriff of the said counties. And that the said William shall be master of the aforesaid works, as he was before the late troubles in the realm. And the cost, &c. Witness at West- minster, 29th January." — J). 2 See his Warwicksh. p. 244. In the same reign John of Hertford, Abbot of St. Alban's, made great additions to his convent, and in one of the chambers placed A NOBLE picture. See Willis's Mitred Abbeys, voL i. p. 21. One Lambbirt, builder or repairer of the same church, heaped his own rebus, a lamb and a bird, among the ornaments. Alen Strayler was illuminator to that Abbey. In the reign of Edward II. John Thokey, Abbot of Gloucester, had embellished the wainscot of his great parlour with the portraits of all the preceding monarcbs. This circumstance is related in his life. MSS. Cotton. Domitian VIII. p. 128. — D. 3 [The only three remaining crosses, those of Northampton, Geddington, and Waltham, are engraved in the Monumenta Vctusta, vol. iii., and in Britton's^rc/ii- iecttiral Antiquities, vol. i. — W.j PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 17 The original inscription on the tomb ran thus : Anno milleno Domini cum septuageno Et bis centeno, cum completo quasi deno,^ Hoc opus est factum, quod Petrus duxit in actum Komanus civis : Homo, causam noscere si vis. Rex fuit Henricus, sancti praesentis amicus. The words Petrus duxit in actum Romanus civis werci discernible till very lately. Some old authors ascribe the erection of the shrine to Henry himself; others to Eichard de AVare the Abbat, elected in 1260. It is probable that both were concerned. The new Abbat repaired to Rome immediately on his election, to receive consecration from Urban IV. At that time, says Vasari, flourished there Peter Cavallini, a painter and the inventor of Mosaic, who had performed several costly works in that city. About four years before the arrival of Abbat Ware, that is in 1256, had been erected a splendid shrine^ for the martyrs Simplicius and Faustina, at the expense of John James Capoccio and his wife, adorned with twisted columns, and inlaid with precious marbles exactly in the taste, though not in the precise form of that of St. Edward. Nothing is more probable than that a rich abbat, either at his own expense, or to gratify the taste of his magnificent master, should engage a capital artist to return with him and undertake the shrine of his master s patron saint, and the great patron of his own church. Weaver says expressly that the abbat brought back with him from Rome work- men and rich porphyry stones for Edward the (Confes- sor's secretary, and for the pavement of the chapel.^ This ^ [That is, in 1279 or 1280 ; when Pietro Cavallini was in his twenty-first year only, according t-o the most generally received date of his birth, 1259. See Manni, Notes to Baldinucci, and Lanzi, Storia Fittorica,, etc, Cavallini was a distin- guished painter, architect, and worker in Mosaic ; but what knowledge we have of him is too vague either to corroborate or refute the conjectures of Walpole : he is said to have died in 1344. Vasari, Vite de Fittori, and what information is given cannot be considered as irrelevant to the history of painting in England before the use of oil, and pictures upon panel or canvas, were in fact known. The designs and portraits were then transferred and enlarged ; but miniature limnings were their true prototype. — D. [Palaeography, or the study of ancient MSS. has engaged much attention since the publication of the last edition of this work, in England and in other countries. The whole subject, both as regards caligraphy and illumination, is thoroughly illustrated by Champollion Figeac and Aime Champollion, Fils, in the magni- ficent work lately published in Paris, by Silvestre. This work contains fac- similes from most of the principal illuminated MSS. in Europe, most ably exe- cuted; it is entitled, "PALi^OGRArniE Universelle; ou, Collection de Fac- similes d'Ecritures de tons les Peuples, et de tons les Temps, par M. Silvestre," 4 vols, folio, with 300 coloured plates (Paris, 1839-42); and an English edition, with notes by Sir Frederick Madden, has been issued by the publishers of the present work. Besides the Bibliographical Decameron of Dibdin, in our own language, we have now the beautiful work in colours of Mr. Shaw, Illuminated Ornaments selected from MSS. and early printed books j from the sixth to the seventeenth century, drawn and engraved by Henry Shaw, with descriptions and an introduction by Sir F. Madden, keeper of the MSS. in the British Museum, folio, London, '1833. The celebrated work, also, of d'Agincourt, Histoire de I 'Art par les Monumens, published in 1823, contains 1 [A small 4to. describing this missal, with four facsimiles, cleverly etched in outline, was published in 1794, by the late Mr. Gough. It is now, as already men- tioned, in the possession of Sir John Tobin, at Liverpool. — W.] HENRY III. TO THE END OF HENRY VT. 45 many specimens of designs from valuable Greek and Latin MSS., especially from those in the library of the Vatican at Rome. There is a concise review of this subject in the article Paleography, in the supplement to the " Penny Cyclopaedia." — W.] Another mode of painting, which had risen to considerable perfection, as early as the reign of K. Edward III. deserves a particular notice ; especially as the most remarkable specimen of it had not been discovered when Walpole published this work. The subjoined notes concerning these portraits, extracted from the memoir by Sir H. Englefield, accompany several copies of fine en- gravings of the paintings on the walls of St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, discovered in 1800, and published by the Society of Antiquaries. Imperial folio. It is a source of no small regret that the originals were destroyed. Upon the north side of the high altar are seven arcades, each having a figure in the armour peculiar to the fourteenth contury, who is represented as kneeling.! These are the portraits of K. Edward III.^ with his five sons, ac- companied by their tutelar Saint George. Under each of these his name has been inscribed in French, of which those of the king and the saint only were legible. There can be no doubt that they were intended for the Royal family; and it is much to be regretted that the faces of the four younger princes should have been obliterated, while every other part remains in nearly a perfect state. The emblazoned coat armour is resplendent in colours and gold. Of the King's portrait, the face may be called handsome ; and with great probability as true a likeness as the art of that day could effect. He was then forty-four years old. His son the Prince of Wales was twenty-five or six, and is re- presented as a beardless young man, with a decided resemblance to his father. A helmet ensigned with a coronet, distinguishes him. None of the figures exceed eighteen inches in height, PL XVI. PI. XVII. On the other side of the altar, under the gTeat East window, are delineated the Queen Philippa and the Princesses kneeling, which are higher by two inches than the figures on the other side. These figures are habited in rich kirtled surcoats, but are stiff and meagre, as those of the king and his sons ; and the heavy, plaited tresses which load their heads are nearly as adverse to grace as the mailed gorgets of the men. These two compartments have been very beautifully copied in colours as a facsimile, for the Anti- quarian Society, by the late R. Smirke, and are exhibited in their library. There is besides a series of scriptural subjects : 1. Presentation of Christ in the Temple. _ 2. History of Job. 3. History of Tobit and the Angel. Mr. Smirke in his annexed account observes that, " the great beauty and variety of design, both in the tunics of the angels, and the mantles they hold ; and the extreme richness and elegance of the embroidery, with which the drapery of all the figures is bordured, and otherwise decorated, shows that the art of em- broidery had attained to a very high perfection at that early period. Splendour of dress in the higher orders, and particularly in all the functions of religion, was a characteristic of the times, and numerous artists were employed in em- broidery. Some of these were of so great eminence, and (though rather of a later date than this we now treat of) had attained such excellence in finishing not only arabesques and flowers, but historical subjects worked with the needle in silk and gold, as to be recorded in history with the painters of their time ; and Lanzi speaks distinctly of individual artists who not only possessed un- usual dexterity but knowledge of design." — D. ^ The following patent seems to ascertain the chief artist employed in this ela- borate work. " Hugoni de S^*'' Albano magistiso .victorum pro (Japelia S" Steph. Westmonast." — Eymer, vol. v. p. 670. 2 [There is a portrait, said to be that of Edward III. at Hampton Court ; For- trait Gallery, No. 825.— W.] 46 CHAPTER III. CONTINUATION OF THE STATE OF PATNTINa TO THE END OF HENRY VII. Whether it was owing to the confusions of his reign, or to his being born with little propensity to the arts, we find but small traces of their having flourished under Edward lY. Brave, aspiring, and beautiful, his early age was wasted on every kind of conquest; as he grew older, he became arbi- trary and cruel, not less voluptuous nor even^ more refined in his pleasures. His picture on board,^ stiff" and poorly painted, is preserved at Kensington^ — ^the whole length of him at St. James's, in a night-gown and black cap, was drawn, many years after his death, by Belcamp,^ of whom an account will be given hereafter. A portrait,^ said to be of his queen, in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, com^eys no idea of her loveliness, nor of any skill in the painter. Almost as few charms can be discovered in his favourite ^ His device, a falcon and fetter-lock, with a quibbling motto in French, had not even delicacy to excuse the witticism. — "Edmund of Langley did bear also for an impress a falcon in a fetter-lock, implying that he was shut up from all hopes and possibility of the kingdom, when his brother John (of Gaunt) began to aspire thereto. Whereupon he asked (on a time) his sons, when he saw them viewing this device, set up in a window : what was the Latin for a fetter-lock, whereat when the young gentlemen studied, the father said, 'Well, if you cannot tell me, I will tell you. Hie hocc hoc taceatis/ as advising them to be silent and quiet ; and wherewithal said, ' Yet God knoweth, what may come hereafter.' This his great-grandson, Edward IV, reported, when he commandedthathis younger son, Richard, Duke of York, should use this device, with the fetterlock opened, as Roger Wall, a herald of that time, reporteth." — Camden's Remains, p. 215. Sandford, p. 357. — D. 2 Partrait painting, which Avas the true likeness of an individual represented^ and of the size of life, cannot be said to have been practised in England before this reign. There are preserved at Kensington (which being a royal collection has superior pretensions to originality) several of these heads, which have, cer- tainly, a few contemporaneous copies. Edward IV. — others at Q. College, Cam- bridge, and at Hatfield, exactly like. — Richard III. with three rings, one of which he is placieg on his finger,— others at Hatfield. — D. ^ [The collection of pictures at Kensington was removed in tlie reign of William IV. to Hampton Court— W. [Now at Hampton Court : Queens Audience Chamher, No. 524. — W.] ^ There is another at Queen's College, Cambritlge, of A\hich she was second foundress; it Goems to be of the tinic, but is not handsome. STATE OF PATXTING, ETC. 47 Jane Shore, preserved at Eton, and probably an original, as her confessor was provost of that college, and by her inter- cession recovered their lands, of which they had been despoiled, as having owed their foundation to Edward's competitor. In this picture her forehead is remarkably large, her mouth and the rest of her features small ; her hair of the admired golden colour :^ a lock of it (if we may believe tradition) is still extant in the collection of the Countess of Cardigan, and is marvellously beautiful, seeming to be pow- dered with golden dust, without prejudice to its silken de- licacy. The king himself, with his queen, eldest son and others of hiscourt,^ are represented in a MS. in the library at Lambeth, from which an engraving was made, with an ac- count of it, and prefixed to the Catalogue of E;oyal and Noble Authors. It was purchased of Peach am, by Sir Robert Cotton. Richard III. the successor of these princes, appears in another old picture at Kensington. In the Princess Dowager's house at Kew, in a chamber of very ancient portraits, of which most are imaginary, is one very curious, as it is probably an original of the Duke of Norfolk,^ killed at the battle of Bosworth. Names of artists in these reigns, of which even so few authentic records exist, are not to be expected — one I have 1 This picture answers to a much larger, mentioned by Sir Thomas More : who, speaking of her, says, " Her stature was mean ; her hair of a dark yellow, her face round and full, her eyes grey ; delicate harmony being betwixt each part's propor- tions, and each proportion's colour ; her body fat, white, and smooth ; her counte- nance cheerful, and like to her condition ; the picture which I have seen of her was such as she rose out of her bed in the morning, having nothing on but a rich mantle, cast under one arm and over her shoulder, and sitting in a chair, on which one arm did lie." The picture at Eton is not so large, and seems to have been drawn earlier than that Sir Thomas saw ; it has not so much as the rich mantle over one shoulder. There is another portrait of Jane Shore to below the breasts, in the provost's lodge at King's College, Cambridge : the body quite naked, the hair dressed with jewels, and a necklace of massive gold. , It is painted o,n board, and from the meanness of the execution seems to be original. ^ Portraits of Edward IV. and V., Eichard III., and Henry VII. are painted in distemper, in the Koyal Chapel at Windsor. King Edward IV- with his Queen, and her two sons and five daughters, are still to be seen in stained glass at Canter- bury ; and in a less perfect state, in the church of Little Malvern Priory, Worces- tershire. These were not imaginary, but from drawings or patterns made from the life. At Donnington, the ancient seat of the Earls of Huntingdon, are portraits, on panel, of Edward IV. and George, Duke of Clarence. — D, ^ The original is in the possession of the Duke of Norfolk, from which there are several very early copies belonging to tlie other ;ioble branches of the house of Howard. — D. 48 STATE OF PAINTING found, the particulars of whose works are expressed with such rude simplicity, that it may not be unentertaining to the reader to peruse them. They are extracted from a book belonging to the church of St. MaryRatcliffe, at Bristol: — " Memorandum, That master Cumings hath delivered the 4th day of July in the year of our Lord 1470 to Mr. Nicholas Bettes vicar of Ratcliffe, Moses Couteryn, Philip Bartholomew, and John Brown, procurators of Ratcliffe beforesaid, a new se- pulchre wel] gilt, and cover thereto, an image of God Almighty rysing out of the same sepulchre, with all the ordinance that longeth thereto ; that is to say, A lath made of timber, and iron work thereto ; Item. Thereto longeth Heven, made of timber, and stained cloth. Item. Hell, made of timber and iron work, with devils, the number thirteen. Item. Four knights armed, keeping the sepulchre, with their weapons in their hands, that is to say, two spears, two axes, two paves. Item. Four pair of angels' wings, for four angels, made of timber and well painted. Item. The fadre, the crown and visage, the bell of a cross upon it well- gilt with fine gold. Item. The Holy Ghost coming out of heven into the sepulchre. Item. Longeth to the angels for chevelers."^ Henry VII. seems never to have laid out any money so willingly as on what he could never enjoy, histomb^ — on that he was profuse ; but the very service for which it was intended probably comforted him with the thought that it would not be paid for till after his death. Being neither ostentatious nor liberal, genius had no favour from him : he reigned as an attorney would have reigned, and would have preferred a conveyancer to Praxiteles. Though painting in his age had attained its brightest epoch, no taste reached this country. Why should it have sought us? the king penurious, the nobles humbled, what encouragement was there for abilities? what theme for the arts ? barbarous executions, chicane, processes, and merce- nary treaties, were all a painter, a poet, or a statuary had to ^ This memorandum is copied from the minutes of the Antiquarian Society, under the year 1736. Two paves : a pave (in French, pavois or talevas) is a large buckler, forming an angle in front, like the ridge of a house, and big enough to cover the tallest man from head to foot. The bell with the cross: probably the ball or mound. Four Chevelers : chevelures or perukes. ^ The whole chapel, called by his name, is properly but his mausoleum, he building it solely for the burial-place of himself and the royal family, and accord- ingly ordering by his will that no other persons should be interred there. See Bart's Antiquities of Westminster Abbey, vol. i. p. 32. The tomb was the work of one Peter, a Florentine, as one Peter, a Koman, made the shrine of Edward the Confessor. 3 Raphael was born in 1483. TO THE END OF HEXKY VIT. 49 record — accordingly, not one that deserved the title (I mean natives) arose in that reign. The only names of painters that Yertue could recover of that period were both foreign- ers, and of one of them the account is indeed exceedingly HENRY VII. 'S CHAPEL AND TOMB. Blight ; mention being barely made in the register's office of Wells, that one Holbein lived and died here in the reign of Henry VH. Whether the father of the celebrated Holbein/ I shall inquire hereafter, in the life of that painter ; but of this person, whoever he was, are probably some ancient lun- nings^ in a cabinet at Kensington, drawn before the great master of that name could have arrived here. Among them is the portrait of Henry VH. from whence Vertue engraved ^ [There were many painters of this name and of the family of the celebrated Holbein, whose father and grandfather were both named Hans, but there is no evidence of their having been in England : they resided chiefly at Augsburg and Frankfort. See note, p. 66.— W.] 2 Two miniatures of Henry VII., each in a black cap, and one of them with a rose in his hand, are mentioned in a MS. in the Harleian collection. VOL. I. E It 50 THE STATE OF PAINTINa. his print. The other painter had merit enough to deserve a particular article ; he was called JOHN MABUSE, or MABEUGIU3,i and was born at a little town of the same nam e, in Hainault,^ but in what year is uncertain, as is the year^ of his death. He had the two defects of his contemporary countrymen, stiffness in his manner and drunkenness. Yet his industry Avas sufficient to carry him to great lengths in his profession. His works were clear and highly finished. He was a friend rather than a rival of Lucas* of Leyden. After some prac- tice at home he travelled into Italy, where he acquired more truth in treating naked subjects than freedom of ex- pression. Indeed, Raphael himself had not then struck out that majestic freedom, which has since animated painting, and delivered it from the servility of coldly copying motion- less nature. Mabuse so far improved his taste as to intro- duce among his countrymen poetic history, for so I should understand^ Sandrart's varia poemata conficiendi, if it is meant as a mark of real taste, rather than what a later^ author ascribes to Mabuse, that he first treated historic subjects aliegorically.^ I never could conceive that riddles and rebuses (and I look upon such emblems as little better) 1 [ Jan de Mabuse, or Maubeiige, sometimes called Jan Go ssaert: lie occasionally signed himself Joannes Malbodius, — W.] ^ Le Compt says it was in Hungary. 3 Le Compt and Descamps say it was in 1562 ; a print of him published by Galle, says, " Fuit Hanno patria Malbodiensis obiit AntAverpiae anno 1532, in cathedral! aede sepultus :" but Vertue thought part of this inscription was added to the plate many years after the first publication ; and Sandrart, whom I follow, says ex- pressly that he could not discover when Mabuse died. Vertue conjectured that he lived to the age of fifty-two. — [From the picture of the children of Henry VII. at Hampton Court, Mabuse must have been in England as early as 1498 or 99, at latest, and it is not probable that he was then much less than thirt}'' years of age ; he was therefore born about 1470, 1532 appears to be the correct date of his death.— W.] ^ Lucas made an entertainment for Mabuse and other artists, that cost him sixty florins of gold. — [This was at Middelburg, in 1521 ; he gave in that year similar entertainments to the artists of Ghent, Antwerp, and Mechlin, Albert Diirer was at that given at Antwerp : he notices the circumstance in his Biary. — W.] ^ Page 234. ^ DescamiJS, Vies des Peintres Flamands, p. 83. [Sandrart says he was one of the first — historien voll nackender bilder zu machen, uud allerley Poetereijen darein zu setzen — to paint historical pictures full of naked figures, and to introduce into them all kinds of Foete-reyeu (alle- gories ?)— W.] ME A IB W m TO THE END OF HENRY VII. 51 are any improvements upon history. Allegoric personages are a poor decomposition of human nature, whence a single quality is separated and erected into a kind of half deity, and then to be rendered intelligible, is forced to have its name written by the accompaniment of symbols. You must be a natural philosopher before you can decipher the voca- tion of one of these simplified divinities. Their dog, or their bird, or their goat, or their implement, or the colour of their clothes, must all be expounded, before you know who the person is to whom they belong, and for what virtue the hero is to be celebrated, who has all this hieroglyphic cattle around him. How much more genius is there in expressing the passions of the soul in the lineaments of the counten- ance ! Would Messalina's character be more ingeniously drawn in the warmth of her glances, or by ransacking a farmyard for every animal of a congenial constitution ? A much admired work of Mabuse was an altar-piece at Middleburgh,^ a descent from the cross : Albert Dtlrer went on purpose to see, and praised it.^ Indeed their style was very like : a picture of Mabuse now at St. James's is generally called Albert's. The piece at Mid- dleburgh was destroyed by lightning. A. great number of Mabuse's works ^ were preserved in the same city in 1 Painted for the abbot Maximilian of Burgundy, wbo died 1524. ^ [Albert went to see it during his journey in the Netherlands in 1521. He notices this picture in his Diary, and observes that it was better painted than drawn. See his Journal of his Tour, in the JReliquien von Alhrecht Dilrer. Niirnberg, 1828.— W.] ^ Mr. Bryan {Diet, of Painters, 4to, 1816,) has observed, "that to appreciate the extraordinary merit of John de Mabuse, it is necessary to have seen his genuine pictures, instead of the wretched remains of gothicity, which are fre- quently ascribed to him. His colouring is fresh and clear, his design as correct as that of Albert Diirer, and much in the style of that master, and his pictures are of a finish so precious and polished, that they are not surpassed by the sur- prising productions of Mieris and Gerard Douw. One of his most admired works Was a picture of the descent from the cross, painted for a church at Middleburgh, which was considered one of the most surprising productions of the age. His most capital and distinguished performance was a picture painted for the altar- piece of the Abbey of Grammont ; it represents the Wise Men's Offering, a com- position of several figures admirably grouped, with a fine expression of the heads ; and the draperies and ornamental accessories, coloured and finislied in the most beautiful manner. It appears by the registers of the abbey, that this picture occupied the painter for seven years, and that he was paid two thousand golden pistoles for his labour. When Albert and Isabella were governors of the Netherlands, they purchased it of the monks, and placed it in the private chapel of their palace. After the death of Prince Charles of Lorraine it was sold with E 2 52 THE STATE OF PAINTING the time of Carl Vermander. M. Magnus at Delft had another descent from the cross by this master. The Sieur ^ Wyntgis at Amsterdam had a Lucretia by him. But one of his most striking performances was the de- collation of St. John, painted in the shades of a single colour. The Marquis de Veren took him into his own house, where he drew the Virgin and Child, borrowing the ideas of their heads from the Marquis's lady and son. This was reckoned his capital piece. It afterwards passed into the cabinet of M. Frosmont. I While he was in this service, the Emperor Charles V. was to lodge at the house of that lord, who made mag- nificent preparations for his reception, and among other expenses ordered all his household to be dressed in white damask. Mabuse, always wanting money to waste in debauchery, when the tailor came to take his measure, desired to have the damask, under pretence of inventing a singular habit. He sold the stuff, drank out the money, and then painted a suit of paper, so like damask, that it was not distinguished, as he marched in the proces- sion, between a philosopher and a poet. Other pension- ers of the Marquis, who l^eing informed of the trick, asked the emperor which of the three suits he liked best : The Prince pointed to Mabuse s, as excelling in the whiteness and beauty of the flowers ; nor did he till convinced by the touch, doubt of the genuineness of the silk. The Emperor laughed much — but, though a lover of the art, seems to have taken no other notice of Ma- buse ; whose excesses some time after occasioned his being flung into prison at Middleburgh, where however he continued to work. Vermander had seen several good drawings by him in black chalk. At what time Mabuse came to England I do not find ; the rest of his pictures, and afterwards brought to this country. It is now in the possession of the Earl of Carlisle." — D. [This picture, which is still at Castle Howard, is, in the opinion of Dr. Waagen, one of the master-pieces of the early Flemish School of Painting. It is about 6 feet high by 5 feet wide, and contains about thirty figures. See Waagen, Kunstwevkc and Kiinstler i)i Eiujland. — W. V Mint-Master of Zealand. TO THE END OF HENflY VII. 53 Yermander says expressly that he was here, and the portraits drawn by him are a confirmation. The picture of Prince Arthur, Prince Henry, and Princess Margaret, when children, now in the china-closet at Windsor, was done by him.' A neat little copy of, or rather his original design for it, in black and white oil-colours, is at the Duke of Leeds', at Kiveton.^ Sandrart speaks of the pictures of two noble youths drawn by him at Whitehall. Over one of the doors in the King's ante-chamber at St. James's is his picture of Adam and Eve, which for- merly hung in the gallery at Whitehall, thence called the Adam and Eve gallery.^ Marten Papenbroech, formerly a famous collector in Plolland, had another of them. It was brought over as a picture of Eaphael in his first manner, in the time of Yertue, who by the exact descrip- tion of it in Yermander discovered it to be of Mabuse. It was sold however for a. considerable price.'^ In a MS. ^ Tliese paintings are extremely interesting, as being the first attempt in portrait, with any effort or success in art, which had appeared in England, at the end of the fifteenth century. One of the four must have been original ; and there is a circumstance which may be added to the greater excellence of that at Wilton, that it bears a date, 1495^* The children are represented as being dressed in black, playing with fruit, Avhich is spread upon a green cloth, covering the table. Though in the early dry manner, the infantine faces are well drawn, and the carnations bright. There is much good colouring, particularly in the head of Prince Henry, which having a half reflected light, presented a considerable difii- culty to the artist. Each of these pictures is on panel, with a small diff"erence in point of size. The Wilton, is one foot three inches and a half, by one foot one inch — the MetMien, twenty inches by fourteen. It is one of G. Vertue's histori- cal engravings. — D. 2 There is another of these in small, in Queen Caroline's closet at Kensington ; another, very good, at Wilton ; and another in Mr. Methuen's collection. One of these pictures, I do not know which of them, was sold out of the royal collection, during the civil war, for ten pounds. The picture that was at Kiveton is now in London, and is not entirely black and white, but the carnations are pale, and all the shadows tinged with pure black ; but that was the manner of painting at the time ; blues, reds, greens and yellows not being blended in the gradations. 3 Evelyn, in the preface to his idea of the perfection of painting, mentions this picture, painted, as he calls him, by Malvagius, and objects to the absurdity of representing Adam and Eve with navels, and a fountain with carved imagery in Paradise — the latter remark is just ; the former is only worthy of a critical man- midwife. — [This picture is now at Hampton Court, where there is. also a picture of the Virgin and Child, enthroned, with St. Michael and St. Andrew on the sides, which is attributed to Mabuse. — W.] * It is now at the Grange, in Hampshire, the seat of the Lord Chancellor Henley, [at whose sale it produced 101. IQs. ! — D.] * [If this date be correct Henry was only four years old when the picture was painted. The Strawberry -hill copy of this picture, which formerly belonged to Cosway, was sold at the sale in 1842 for thirty guineas, to J. Dent, Esq. The picture noticed in the text is at Hampton Court. — W. 54 THE STATE OF PAINTING catalogue of the collection of King Charles 1. taken in the year 1649, and containing some pictures that are not in the printed list, I find mention made of a,n old man's head by Mabuse ; Sir Peter Lely had the story of Her- cules and Deianira by him.* The only Mvork besides that I know of this master in England is a celebrated picture in my possession. It was bought for 200Z. by Henrietta Louisa, Countess of Pomfret, and hung for some years at their seat at Easton Neston in Northamp- tonshire, whence it was sold after the late Earl's death. The Earl of Oxford once offered 500/. for if^ It is painted on board ; and is four feet six inches and three quarters wide, by three feet six inches and three quarters high. It represents the inside of a church, an imaginary one, not at all resembling the abbey where those princes were married. The perspective and the landscape of the country on each side are good. On one hand, on the fore ground, stand the king and the bishop of Imola, who pronounced the nuptial benediction. His majesty'^ is a trist, lean, ungracious figure, with a downcast look, very expressive of his mean temper, and of the little satisfaction he had in the match. Opposite to the bishop is the queen,^ a buxom well-looking damsel, with golden hair. By her is a figure, above all proportion with the rest, unless intended, as I imagine, for an em- blematic personage, and designed from its lofty stature to give an idea of something above human. It is an elderly man,^ dressed like a monk, except that his habit 1 See Catalogue of his collection, p. 48. No. 99. 2 I have since bought a small one of Christ crowned with thorns, by him, with his name, Malbodius, on it ; and Mr. Easpe mentions another at Rochester : Assay on Oil Painting, p. 56. 3 1 gave eightyifour pounds. — [It was purchased at the Strawberry-hill sale, in 1842, by J. Dent, Esq., for fifty guineas. — W.] * He is extremely like his profile on a shilling. 5 Her image preserved in the abbey, among those curious but mangled figures of some of our princes, which were carried at their interments, and now called the ragged regiment, has much the same countenance. A figure in Merlin's cav.e was taken from it. In a MS. account of her coronation in the Cottonian library, mention is made of her fair yellow hair hanging at length upon her shoulders. ^ This allegoric figure seems to agree with the account of Descamps, mentioned above, and Mabuse might have learned in Italy that the Romans always re- presented their divine personages larger than the human, as is evident from every model whereon are a genius and an Emperor TO THE E^^D OF HENRY VII. 55 is green, his feet bare, and a spear in liis hand. As the frock of no religious order ever was green, this cannot be meant for a friar. Probably it is St. Thomas, represented, as in the martyrologies, with the instru- ment of his death. The queen might have some devotion to that peculiar saint, or might be born or married on his festival. Be that as it may, the picture, though in a hard manner, has its merit, independent of the curiosity.^ John Schorel studied some time under Mabuse, but quitted him on account of his irregularities, by which Schorel was once in danger of his life.^ Paul Van Aelst excelled in copying Mabuse's works, and John Mostart assisted the latter in his works at Middleburgh. In the library of St. John's College,^ Cambridge, is an original of their foundress, Margaret of Eichmond, the king s mother, much damaged, and the painter not known, Mr. West has a curious missal (the painter unknown) which belonged to Margaret, Queen of Scotland, and was a present from her father, Henry VII. His name of his own writing is in the first page. The queen's portrait praying to St. Margaret, appears twice in the illuminations, and beneath several of them are the arms and matches ^ [Besides the pictures here mentioned by Mabuse, there are in England a Madonna and Child, in the collection of Sir Thomas Baring at Stratton ; and a St. Jerome at Althorp. — W.] 2 Jan van Schoorel (1495 — 1562) was one of the first Italianizers of Flemish art. He studied under Albert Diirer at Niirnberg after he left Mabuse : he studied also at Venice and at Rome, and he visited Jerusalem. He was one of the earliest to pay much attention to landscape-painting. — W.] 3 Of Prince Arthur there are several portraits extant, which claim originality, and those taken of him when a youth. One was at Mr. Sheldon's, at Weston, Warwickshire. But the most likely to have afforded a true resemblance, is in stained glass, now carefully preserved in the Church of Great Malvern, Worcester- shire. Both he and his friend, the celebrated Sir Eeginald Bray, are represented in their tabards of coat armour, kneeling at an altar. These have been published in coloured etchings by Carter. At Strawberry Hill are Prince Arthur and Catherine of Arragon, brought from Colonel Middleton's in Denbighshire, and at Lee Court, Kent, Margaret, Queen of Scotland. At Kensington (now at Hampton Court) is a tripartite picture, probably intended for an altar-piece at the Royal Chapel at Stirling, on panel, painted certainly after the departure of Mabuse from England. 1. Margaret, Queen of James IV. King of Scots and her husband. 2. The same with his brother Alexander Stuart, praying before Saint Andrew. 3. The Queen kneeling before St. George, who is habited in the plate armour of the time. At Knowsley, the Earl of Derby has a head of Margaret Countess of Richmond, wife of the first earl, a circumstance which favours its originality. — D. 56 STATE OF PAINTING TO THE END OF HENRY VII. of tlie house of Somerset, besides representations of the twelve months well painted.^ In this reign died John Kous,^ the antiquary of Warwickshire, who drew his own portrait and other semblances, but in too rude a manner to be called paintings. 1 It was sold for 32?. 10.s. at Mr. West's sale in 1773.— D. 2 If the drawings which are seen in a MS. {Brit. Museiim, Cotton MSS., Julius E 4t,) oi which there are no less than fifty -five excellently done in trick, and nncoloured, in the Life of Kichard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, were the genuine work of the author John Eous, the heiTnit of Guy's Cliff, near Wanvick, Walpole has disparaged his talents. Among the Norfolk MSS. Herald's College, is a long roll, about nine inches wide, in which are delineated the whole series of the Earls of Warwick, with their arms emblazoned, down to E, Beauchamp. It must be confessed that though a curious, it is an inferior performance. A similar roll was in the possession of the late Earl of Sandwich, from which was taken the etching in the Historic Doubts. At Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk, Sir R. Bedingfield's, are por- traits upon panel of William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, King Edward IV., and Henry VII. when young, apparently ancient or original. These several proofs are adduced, that portraits in oil, taken from the life, had a date in this kingdom some years earlier than has been generally allowed. A portrait of Henry the Seventh, soon after his accession to the throne, (now in the possession of Mr. Gwennap, London, ) is attributed, from its excellence, to Mabuse. It has a distinguished peculiarity : on the button of the hat is represented, and of course veiy minutely, a memorable circumstance of Welsh history, the Chief, Eice ap Thomas, prostrating himself on the ground, and the Earl of Eichmond, on his landing, as passing over his body, in consequence of a vow. Of the same monarch and his queen there are two large portraits in stained glass, now in St. Margaret's Church, Wcptminster. They were intended as a present by the magistrates of Dort, in Holland, and probably the work of Adrian de Vrije, an eminent Dutch artist. — D. 57 CHAPTER IV. PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 1509. The accession of this sumptu- ous prince brought along with it the establishment of the arts. He was opulent, grand, and liberal — how many invitations to artists ! A man of taste encourages abilities ; a man of expense, any performers ; but when a king is magnificent, whether he has taste or not, the influence is so extensive, and the example so catching, that even merit has a chance of getting bread. Though Henry had no genius to strike out the improvements of latter ages, he had parts enough to choose the best of what the then world exhibited to his option. He was gallant, as far as the rusticity of his country and the boisterous indeli- cacy of his own complexion would admit. His tourna- ments contracted, in imitation of the French, a kind of romantic politeness. In one^ which he held on the birth of his first child, he styled himself Cceur Loyaiy' In his ^ See a description and exhibition of this tournament among the prints pub- lished by the Society of Antiquaries, vol. i. 2 This singularly curious roll of vellum was contributed to the library of the College of Arms by Henry, Duke of Norfolk. It is in length seventy feet, eighteen inches broad, and contains 170 figures and seventy-three horses in procession, with the lists, combat, and triumphal return. Some readers will approve of the following extract, which offers a nearer view of the forms and circumstances by which these gorgeous ceremonies were conducted : — " At the beginning of the roll, is the Koyal cognizance, the red rose impaled with the pomegranate of Arragon — on a scroll, ' Vive le noble roy Henry viij.' Then follows the procession, with names in French superscribed, * Le maystre des armurez du Roy,' with men carrying the tilting spears, capped with horn or cornel — Les trompettes — Les Gorgyas de la cour, who are eight of the young nobility upon horses superbly caparisoned — Les Officiers d'armes, five heralds and pursuivants with Wriothesley Garter, represented as a very old man introducing the four knights with their 58 PAINTERS IN THE KEIGN OF HENRY VIII. interview with Francis 1. in the Vale of Cloth of Gold, he revived the pageantry of the days of Amadis. He and his favourite Charles Brandon, were the prototypes of those illustrious heroes with which Mademoiselle Scucleri has enriched the world of chivalry. The favourite's motto on his marriage with the monarch's sister retained that moral simplicity now totally exploded by the academy of sentiments — " Cloth of gold do not despise, Though thou be matched with cloth of frize ; Cloth of frize, be not too bold, Though thou be matched with cloth of gold." i oeauvoirs close, riding under superb pavilions of estate, with the letter K pro- fusely scattered about them, and their ' Noms de guerre ' or chivalrous names superscribed. ' Joyeulx Penser ' — ' Bon vouloir ' — ' ValiantlDesire ' — and ' Noble Coeur Royal,' who was the King in person. They are followed by Les selles des armes, horses richly caparisoned for the tilt, Les pages du Roy, mounted on nine horses bearing the cognizances of York, Lancaster or Beaufort, France, Grenada, and Arragon, with those of France and England. La selle d'honneur, covered entirely with ermine. Le grand escuyer et le maystre des pages. The barriers and scaffold are next represented. The point of time is the victory of Noble Coeur Loj'al {the king) over one of the Venans or Comers, whose spear he had just broken. In the centre of the gallery sits Queen Katherine, under a tester of estate, accompanied by the ladies of her court, and on either side, in separate compartments, several of lier nobility. Les Venans, are nine knights in closed helmets ; and upon the horse trappings of one of them are three escallops, which denote him to be Lord Scales or Uacre of the North. " The scene is now changed — and after the trumpets is L'yssue du champ, or the triumphal return ; in which sixteen of the young nobility, gorgeously apparelled, lead the procession. L'heaulme du Roy, ensigned with the crown imperial, is next borne. The Queen is drawn as sitting in state, attended as before, but on a smaller scaffold : then follows the King in a magnificent robe, holding part of a broken spear, in token of his victory : over him is written, Le Roy desarnie. The whole is then closed by a crowd of attendants." — D. 1 In the royal collection at Windsor were formerly four large historical paint- ings of very great interest and curiosity. * I. The Fmbarcation of Henry VIII. at Dover, May 31, 1520, previously to his interview with Francis I. In this picture is an exact representation of the celebrated ship, called the " Harry Grace Uieu," a most curious specimen of early naval architecture in England. It has the peculiarity of four masts, Archosologia, vol. vi. pp. 179—220. II. Le Champ de Drap d'Or. — The interview between Henry VIII. and Francis I. between Guisnes and Ardres, near Calais, on the seventh of June, in 1520. It contains every circumstance of the interview, in progression, from the commencement to the conclusion of the interview. A gi-eat uncertainty has hitherto prevailed concerning the artist of this elaborate work. An anecdote of this picture is worthy notice. After the death of Charles I. the Parliament appointed commissioners to dispose of his collection, and an agent from France was in treaty for this particular picture. Philip, Earl of Pembroke, resolved to * [Now at Hampton Court, where they are accredited to Holbein, but with the exception of one, the Family of Henry VIIL, they do not show the slightest evidence of the hand of this painter. They were most probably executed before Holbein's visit to this country. — W.] PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENEY VIII. 59 Francis the first was the standard which these princely champions copied. While he contended with Charles Y. for empire, he rivalled our Henry in pomp and protection of the arts. Francis handled the pencil himself. I do not find that Henry pushed his imitation so far ; but though at last he wofully unravelled most of the pursuits of his early age, (for at least it was great violation of gallantry to cut off the heads of the fair damsels whose true knight he had been, and there is no forgiving him that destruction of ancient monuments, and Gothic piles, and painted glass by the suppression of monasteries ; a reformation, as he called it, which we antiquaries almost devoutly lament,) yet he had countenanced the arts^ so long, and they acquired such prevent the conclusion of the bargain, and found a secret opportunity to cut out the head of King Henry from the canvas, and to conceal it in his pocket-book. The agent, after such a mutilation, declined the purchase ; and it was reserved in that condition until the Restoration. The succeeding Earl of Pembroke delivered the dissevered part to King Charles II. at the first levee he attended ; and it was care- fully reinserted into its place. By looking at the picture in a side light, the restoration is readily discerned. Each of these pictures is five feet six inches in height, and eleven feet three inches wide. Described in Arcliceologia, vol. iii. pp. 185—229, hij Sir Joseph Ayloffe. III. The Battle of the Spurs, which was fought at Guiuegaste in France, in 1513, and was so called from the French having made more use of their spurs than their swords. IV. K. Henry VIII. with Q. Katherine Par, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth, W. Somers the jester at one door, and a female dwarf at the other. The King sits on his throne, with one hand laid on the shoulder of the Prince. The scene is an open colonnade, looking through to a garden, and it is evident that the painter must have drawn his lines from one of Henry's palaces. At Apuldurcombe in the Isle of Wight, is a small picture on a panel, much in the manner (if not an original) of Mabuse, of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and Mary his wife. Queen Dowager of Louis XII. King of France. Another is in the possession of Sir S. Egerton Brydges, Bart., in which is intro- duced the Duke's fool, as whispering these monitory verses in his ear. The intro- duction of privileged jesters who called themselves, and were called, Fools, into family pictures, is not unfrequent in this and the subsequent reigns. — D. ^ It has been allowed by all who have written concerning the age or the cha- racter of Henry VIII., that in the early part of his reign he discovered a considerable intention to patronise the arts. Mabuse had long before quitted England, and Henry was induced (and the desire of rivalling Francis 1. in all that should pro- mote splendour was a paramount motive) to ofi'er liberally both to Raphael and Primaticcio, if they would visit England, and embellish his palaces. Wolsey's influence at Rome would seem to have forwarded these views ; it is yet certain that the offer was rejected. There are, however, satisfactory proofs that some of their eminent "scholars enjoyed the patronage of that monarch. Walpole has mentioned them only cursorily. The records of grants issued to them from the Treasury confound their real designation and names. Before the most unfortunate conflagration of Cowdray -house, Sussex, in 1793, there were several portraits of great curiosity which were destroyed by that cala^ mity. They were painted by some of those artists who had preceded Holbein. 1. Sir William Fitzwilliam, K. G. the Founder, represented as walking by the sea> 60 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. solid foundation here, that they were scarce eradicated by that second storm which broke upon them during the civil war, — an era we antiquaries lament with no less devotion than the former. Henry had several painters in his service, and, as Francis invited Primaticcio and other masters from Italy, he endea- voured to tempt hither EaphaeP and Titian. Some per- formers he did get from that country, of whom we know little but their names. Jerome di Trevisi^ was both his painter and engineer, and attending him in the latter quality to the siege of Boulogne, was killed at the age of thirty-six. Joannes Corvus was a Fleming. Vertue dis- covered his name on the ancient picture of Fox, bishop of Winchester, still preserved at Oxford. It was painted in the beginning of the reign of this king, after the prelate had lost his sight. The painters name Joannes Corvus (otherwise unknown) Flandrus faciehat, is on the frame, which is of the same age with the picture, and coloured in imitation of red marble with veins of green. ^ Others of Henry's painters are recorded in an office- book,^ signed monthly by the king himself, and containing payments of wages, presents, &c., probably by the treasurer of the chambers^ Sir Brian Tuke. It begins in his twenty- first year, and contains part of that and the two next years complete. There appear the following names : — side, holding a staff with a head of gold emblazed with his arms in fifteen quarter- ings. 2. The same, together with Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, with whom he was sent as ambassador to France in 1536, to treat with Francis I, 3. Sir Anthony Browne, with a cap and feather, and a gillyflower fastened in the band ; a medal of St. George depending from the neck. Of the celebrated fresco-paint- ing, likewise destroyed, a farther mention will be made, — D. ^ Raphael did paint a St. George for him, which has since been in Monsieur Crooat's collection. See Recueil des plus beaux Tableaux qui sont en France^ p. 13. — [Now in St. Petersburg. — W.] 2 He is mentioned by Ridolfi in the lives of the painters. Some sketches of sieges at that time, probably by his hand, are preserved in a book in the Cotton libray. — [Girolamo da Trevigi was born at Trevigi in 1508 ; his family name was Pennacchi. He was an imitator of Raphael, and was an excellent portrait painter. After practising as a painter in fresco and in oil with considerable distinction in various cities in Italy, but more especially at Bologna, he entered the service of Henry VHI. and was killed before Bologna in 1544. He was employed by Henry chiefly as architect and engineer, at a fixed salary of 400 crowns, about lOOZ. per annum. See Vasari ; Ridolfi; Lanzi.— W.] 3 There are two or three pictures of the same prelate in the college, but this is probably the original : it is Hat, and a poor performance. 4 It was in the collection of Mrs. Bridgman, of Hanover Square. PAINTERS IN THE REEGN OF HENRY VIII. 61 " An° reg. xxii. Nov. 8. Paid to Anthony Toto ^ and Barthol. Penne,^ painters, for their livery coats xlvs. An°. reg. xxiii. Jan. xv. day. Paid to Anthony Toto paynter, by the king's commandment, xxV In another book of office/ Vertue found these memo- randums : " March 1538. Item, to Anthony Toto and Bartilmew Penn, painters, 12 pomids, 10 shillings, their quarterly payments between them ; also presents on new-year's day, 1539. To Anthony Toto's servant that brought the king at Hampton Court a de- picted table of Colonia 7 shillings and 8 pence. Feb. An*^. reg. xxix. Gerard Luke Horneband painter, 56 shillings and 9 pence per month." Toto was afterwards serjeant painter, and in Eymer are his letters of naturalization under this title : " An°. 30 Hen. VIII. 1543.* Pro pictore regis de indigenatione." Felibien mentions this painter, and his coming to Eng- land f speaking of E-idolphi, fils de Dominique Ghiiian- daio, he says, " Chez lay il y avait Toto del Nuntiato, qui depuis s'en alia en Angleterre, ou il fit plusieurs ouvrages de peinture et d architecture, avec lequel Perrin fit amitie, et a Ten vie Tun de I'autre s'efforcoit a bien faire." But Toto's works are all lost or unknown, his fame, with that of his associates, being obscured by the lustre of Holbein. Penne or Penn, mentioned above, is called by Yasari, not Bartholomew, but Luca Penni ; he was brother of Gio. ^ Anthony Toto was known among his countrymen as "Toto del Nunziata." Lanzi speaks of him as one of the best Italian artists who came to England, " che gl' Inglesi computano fra' miglior Italiani che dipingessero in quel secolo nella lorisola." — There is no certain dooument to fix his arrival to a period earlier than 1531 ; and he remained in England twenty years. In the accounts of Sir T, Carwarden, Master of the Revels in 1551, is this entry, "To Antony Toto, Serjeant 2)ainter, 11. 135. Ad. towards his pains and charges in the setting forward the painter's work." — Archoeolog. vol. xviii. p. 324. — D. [This painter is almost unknown in Italy. — -W.] 2 Bartholomew Penne, an Anglicised name, probably intended for " Luca Penni." Vasari says, that Luca was associated in several considerable works with Perino del Vaga. He arrived here about 1537, having previously accompanied II Eosso, or, as he is more frequently called, Maitre Roux, to the Court of Francis the First. This fact is stated in the grant, and according to Lanzi " passato per ultimo in lughilterra, dipinse pel Re e per privati, e piu anche disegnoper le stampe." He is said not only to have designed for engravers, but to have engraved himself. There is no certain date of his death, or of his leaving this country. He had tra- velled much, and was retained by Francis I. for some years, to decorate his palace at Fontainebleau. — \) ^ In the library of the Royal Society. * Fceclera, vol. xiv. p. 595. ^ Tom. ii. p. 158. 62 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OP HENRY VIII. Francesco Penni, a favourite and imitator of Raphael. Luca, or Bartholomew (for it is undoubtedly the same person) worked some time at Genoa and in other parts of Italy, from whence he came into England, and painted seve- ral pieces for the king, and for some merchants here.^ In a small room called the confessionary, near the chapel at Hampton Court, Vertue found several Scripture stories painted on wainscot, particularly the Passion. He and Sir James Thornhill agreed that they were much in the style of Raphael, particularly the small figures and landscapes in the perspective, and not at all in the German taste. These Vertue concluded to be of Luca Penni. To some of these painters Vertue ascribes, with great probability, the Battle of the Spurs, the Triumphs of the Valley of Cloth of Gold, and the Expedition^ to Boulogne, three curious pictures now at Windsor :^ commonly sup- posed by Holbein, but not only beneath his excellence, but painted (at least two of them), if painted, as in all likelihood they were on the several occasions, before the arrival of that great master in England. Of another painter mentioned in the payments above we knoAv still less than of Toto. He is there called Gerard Luke Horneband. Vermander and Descamps call him Gerard Horrebout, and both mention him as painter to Henry VIII. He was of Ghent, where were his principal works, but none are known in England as his.^ In the same book of payments are mentioned two other painters, Andrew Oret, and one Ambrose, painter to the Queen of 1 Vasari adds that Luca Penni addicted himself latterly to making designs for Flemish engravers. This is the mark on his prints, that is, Luca Penni Eomauo. ^Ca* 2 It is not very surprising that a prince of seemingly so martial a disposition should make so little figure in the roll of conquerors, when we observe, by this picture, that the magnificence of his armament engaged so much of his attention. His ships are as sumptuous as Cleopatra's galley on the Cydnus. 3 This bad judgment was made even by Mr, Evelyn in his Discourse on Medals. * Susanna, the sister of Luke Horneband, painter in miniature, was invited, says Vasari, into the service of Henry VIIL and lived honourably in England to the end of her life. — [Gerard Horebout was born at Ghent, about 1498, and settled in this country, where he died in 1558, as court painter to Philip and Mary. He was the father of Luke and Susannah Horebout. The latter is said to have married an English sculptor, of the name of Whorstley, and to have died at Worcester. See Immerzeel, Lcvens en Werken der Hollandsche Kunstschilders, ko, . — W.'\ PAINTEHS IN THE REIGN OF HENHY VIII. 63 Navarre. The former indeed was of no great rank, re- ceiving 30^. for painting and covering the king's barge ; the latter had 20 crowns for bringing a picture to the king's grace at Eltham. Henry had another serjeant-painter, whose name was Andrew Wright ; he lived in Southwark, and had a grant^ of arms from Sir Thomas Wriothesly Garter. His motto was, En Vertu Delice ; but he never attained any renown : indeed, this was in the beginning of Henry's reign, before the art itself was upon any respectable footing : they had not arrived even at the common terms for its productions. In the inventory^ in the Augmentation Office, which I have mentioned, containing an account of goods, pictures, and furniture, in the palace of Westminster, under the care of Sir Anthony Denny, keeper of the wardrobe, it appears that they called a picture, a table ivith a picture / prints, cloths stained with a picture ; and models and bas reliefs, they termed pictures of earth ; for instance : " Item, One table witli tlie picture of the Duchess of Milan, being her whole stature. Item, One table with the history of Filius Prodigus. Item, One folding table of the Passion, set in gilt leather. Item, One table like a book, with the pictures of the King's Majesty and Queen Jane. Item, One other table with the whole stature of my lord Prince his grace, stained upon cloth with a curtain. Item, One table of the history of Christiana Patientia. Item, One table of the Passion, of cloth of gold, adorned with pearls and rubies. Item, One table of russet and black, of the parable of the 18th chapter of Matthew, raised with liquid gold and silver. Item, One table of the King's highness, standing upon a mitre wdth three crowns, having a serpent with seven heads going out of it, and having a sword in his hand, whereon is written, Verbum Dei. Item, One cloth stained with Phebus rideing with his cart in the air, with the history of him. Item, One picture of Moses made of earth, and set in a box of wood."'* ^ Frofii a MS. in the possession of the late Peter Leneve Norroy. In the British Museum, among the Harleian MSS. is a grant of arms and crest to the Craft of Painters, dated in the first year of Henry VII 1. 2 See note to the first Supplement in this volume. ^ {Tabula 'picta (a panel painted) was the common Latin expression for an easel picture, among the Ptomans and in later ages. — W.] ^ In an old chapter house at Christ Church, Oxford, I discovered two portraits admirably painted, and in the most perfect preserA'^ation, which certainly belonged to Henry VIII., the one an elderly, the other a young man, both in black bonnets. 64 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VILL Another Serjeant painter in this reign was John Brown/ who, if he threw no great lustre on his profession, was at least a benefactor to its professors. In the 24th of Henry he built Painter s Hall for the company,^ where his portrait is still preserved among other pictures given by persons of the society. Their first charter, in which they are styled Peyntours, was granted in the 6th of Edward lY., but they had existed as a fraternity long before. Holme Clarenceux, in the 1st of Henry VH., granted them arms, viz. azure, a chevron, or, between three heads of phoenixes erased. They were again incorporated or confirmed by charter of the 23d of Queen Elizabeth, 1581, by the title of Painter-stainers. In this reign flourished LUCAS COKNELII,^ who was both son and scholar of Cornelius Engelbert, but reduced to support himself as a cook, so low at that time were sunk the arts in Leyden, his country. He excelled both in oil and miniature, and hearing the encouragement bestowed on his profession by Henry VIIL, came to Eng- land, with his wife and seven or eight children, and was made his majesty's painter. Some of his works in both kinds are still preserved at Leyden ; one particularly, the and large as life. On the back of the one is this mark, No.^^^22 ; on the other, No. J^^^ 25. In the catalogue of King Henry's pictures in the Augmentation Office, No. 25, is Frederic, Duke of Saxony ; No. 26, is Philip, Archduke of Austria, in all probability these very pictures. They have a great deal of the manner of Holbein, certainly n6t inferior to it, but are rather more free and bold. Frederic the Wise, Duke of Saxony, died in 1525, about a year before Holbein came to Eng- land, but the Archduke Philip died when Holbein was not above eight years of age : Holbein might have drawn this prince from another picture, as a small one of him, when a boy, in my possession, has all the appeai-ance of Holbein's hand. Whoever painted the pictures at Oxford, they are two capital portraits. ^ His arms were, argent, on a fess counter- embattled, sable, three escallops of the first ; on a canton, quarterly gules and azure, a leopard's head caboshed, or. 2 Camden, whose father was a painter in the Old Bailey, gave a silver cup and cover to the company of Painter-stainers, which they use on St. Luke's day, at their election, the old master drinking out of it to his successor elect. Upon this cup is the following inscription : ' ' Gul. Camdenus Clarenceux, filius Samsonis, pictoris Londinensis, dedit.'^ — Maitland. ^ See Sandrart, p. 232. — [Lucas Cornelisz, that is, the son of Cornelis (Engel- brechtsz), was born at Leyden, in 1495 ; he died, according to some accounts, in 1552, but on what authority is not stated.— W.] PAINTEES IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 65 story of the woman taken in adultery. His chief perform- ances extant in England are at Penshnrst, as appears by this mark on one of them, , that is, Lucas Cornelii pinxit. They are a series, in sixteen pieces,-^ of the consta- bles of Queenborough Castle, from the reign of Edward III. to Sir Thomas Cheyne, knight of the garter in the 3d of Henry VII I . Though not all originals, they undoubtedly are very valuable, being in all probability painted from the best memorials then extant ; and some of them, representa- tions of remarkable persons, of whom no other image re- mains. Of these, the greatest curiosities are, Kobert de Vere, the great Duke of Ireland, and George, the unfor- tunate Duke of Clarence. Harris, in his history of Kent,^ quotes an itinerary by one Johnston, who says, that in 1 629 he saw at the house of the minister of Gillingham, the por- trait of Sir Edward Hobby, the last governor but one, who had carefully assembled all the portraits of his predeces- sors, and added his own ; but at that time they were all lost or dispersed ; he did not know, it seems, that they had been removed to Penshurst ; nor can we now discover at what time they were transported thither. Many more of the works of Lucas Cornelii were bought up and brought to England by merchants, who followed Eobert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, into the Low Countries, and who had observed how much his master was esteemed here. However, none of these performers were worthy the patronage of so great a prince f his munificence was but ill bestowed, till it centred on — ^ One of them, I have heard, was given by Mr. Perry, the last master of Penshurst, to Mr. Velters Cornwall. It was the portrait of his ancestor, Sir John Cornwall. 2 Page 377. ^ Walpole's observation on the incompetency of the artists who were invited into England before Holbein must be rather taken in a comparative sense, because the fame they had gained before their arrival, in the schools of art where thej' had studied, and the value of their works in their own country, after death, absolutely excludes the idea of their positive inferiority. — D. VOL. I. 66 PAINTERS IN THE FvElGN OF HENEY VIII. HANS HOLBEIN. (1498—1554.)^ Few excellent artists have had more justice done to their merit than Holbein. His country has paid the highest honours to his memory and to his labours. His life has been frequently written ; every circumstance that could be recovered in relation to him has been sedulously preserved ; and, as always happens to a real genius, he has been compli- mented with a thousand wretched performances that were unworthy of him. The year of his birth, the place of his birth, have been contested ; yet it is certain that the former happened in 1 498, and the latter, most probably, was Basil. ^ His father was a painter of Augsburg, and so much esteem- ed that the Lord of Walberg^ paid a hundred florins to the monastery of St. Catherine for a large picture of the Saluta- tion painted by him. He executed too, in half figures, the Life of St. Paul, on which he wrote this inscription : " This work was completed by J. Holbein, a citizen of Augsburg, 1499.''* John Holbein, the elder, had a brother called Sigismond, a painter too. Hans, so early as 1512, drew the pictures of both, which came into the possession of San- drart, who has engraved them in his book, and which, if not extremely improved by the engraver, are indeed admirable performances for a boy of fourteen. I have said that in the register's office of Wells there is mention of a Holbein who died here in the reign of Henry Vn. Had it been the father, it would probably have been ^ [The addition of the dates of the Lirth and death of a painter, beneath his name, as in this case, has its advantages, though the information may be repeated in the text. They were omitted by Walpole, but Dallaway inserted them in his edition of the Anecdotes, &c. ; the same plan has been adopted in this edition, in which many erroneous dates have been corrected, and a great number added. — W.] ^ [According to more recent researches, Augsburg has been ascertained to have been the place of Holbein's birth, and he resided there the first eighteen years of his life. Holbein's father and grandfather were also both natives of Augsburg, and they both bore the name of Hans or Johannes. See Passavant,^ei^?^a^e zur Kentniss der alien maUrschulen Deutschlands, in the Kunstblatt for 1846, Nos. 45, 46.— W.] ^ [Herr von Walberg, — W.] ^ [This date belongs to another work. The inscription, which was on a frame, long since laid aside, was : " Praisens Opus complevit Johannes Holbein Civis Augustanus. This picture, painted about 1504-5, is now in the Royal Picture Gallery at Augsburg. — W.] PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIIT. 67 mentioned by some of the biographers of the son ; but I find it nowhere hinted that the father was ever in England. It is more likely to have been the nncle, who, we have seen, was a painter, and do not find that he vvas a very good one. He might have come over, and died here in obscurity/ Holbein s inclination to drawing appeared very early, and could not fail of being encouraged in a family^ so addicted to the art. His father himself instructed him ; and he learned besides, graving, casting, modelling, and architec- ture ; in the two latter branches he was excellent. Yet with both talents and taste, he for some time remained in indi- gence, dissipating with women what he acquired by the former, and drowning in wine the delicacy of the latter. At that time Erasmus was retired to Basil, a man whose luck of fame was derived from all the circumstances which he himself reckoned unfortunate. He lived when learning was just emerging out of barbarism, and shone by lamenting elegantly the defects of his contemporaries. His being one of the first to attack superstitions which he had not courage to relinquish, gave him merit in the eyes of Protestants, while his time-serving had an air of moderation ; and his very poverty that threw him into servile adulation ex- pressed itself in terms that were beautiful enough to be transmitted to posterity. His cupboard of plate, all pre- sented to him by the greatest men of the age, was at once a monument of his flattery and genius. With a mind so polished, no w^onder he distinguished the talents of young Holbein. He was warmly recommended to employment by Erasmus and Amerbach,^ a printer of that city. He painted the picture of the latter in 1519,^ who showing ^ [This inference is contradicted by facts. Sigmund Holbein settled at Bern, and made his will there in 1540, preAdous to a journey to his relations at Augsburg, where he probably died. Hans Holbein, the younger, was his principal heir. This will is still preserved at Bern. See Passavant, 1. 1. — W.] 2 Holbein had two brothers, Ambrose and Bruno, who were also painters at Basil. 2 See an account of him in 'Palmer's History of Printing, p. 218. 4 [It was in this year, 1519, that Holbein settled in Basil ; but he appears, from, the dates of still existing pictures painted there, to have paid it two previous visits — first in 1513, and afterwards in 1516. His last works executed at Augsburg are dated 1516. Passavant, l.l.^ and Hegner, Hans ffolhcin der Jungere. Berlin, 1827.— W.] F 2 68 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. him the Morice Encomium of the former, Holbein drew on the margin many of the characters described in the book. Erasmus was so pleased with those sketches that he kept the book ten days — -the subsequent incidents were trifling indeed, and not much to the honour of the polite- ness of either. Holbein, rudely enough, wrote under the figure of an old student, the name of Erasmus. The author, with very little spirit of repartee, wrote under a fellow drinking, the name of Holbein. These are anecdotes certainly not worth repeating for their importance, but very descriptive of the esteem in which two men were held of whom such anecdotes could be thought worth preserving.-^ Supported by the protection of these friends, Holbein grew into great reputation. The Earl of Arundel,^ return- ing from Italy through Basil, saw his works, was charmed with them, and advised him to go into England.^ At first Holbein neglected this advice : but in 1526, his family and the froward temper of his wife increasing, and his business declining, he determined upon that journey. At first he said he should quit Basil but for a time, and only to raise the value of his works, which were growing too numerous there ; yet before he went he intimated that he should leave a specimen of the power of his abilities. He had still at his house a portrait that he had just finished for one of his patrons — on the forehead he painted a fly, and sent the picture to the person for whom it was designed. The gentleman, struck with the beauty of the piece, went eagerly to brush ofi*the fly — and found the deceit. The story soon spread, and as such trifling deceptions often do, made more impression than greater excellences.* Orders 1 In the Morice Encomium, published at Basil, by M. Patin, 1656, with cuts from Holbein's designs, there is a large account of him collected by Patin, and a catalogue of his works. On those drawings were written the following lines : " Rex Macedon Coo tumidus pictore, cani se Maeoniae doluit non potuisse sene. Stultitiae potior sors est : banc alter Apelles Pingit, et eloquium laudat, Erasme, tuum. Seb. Feschins Basil." 2 Others say it was the Earl of Surrey who was travelling into Italy ; and that Holbein, not recollecting his name, drew his picture by memory, and that Sir Thomas More immediatly knew it to be that lord. 3 [This story appears to be unauthenticated. — W.] 4 [This anecdote is told of many painters.— W.] PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY Vlil. 69 were immediately given to prevent the city being deprived of so wonderful an artist — but Holbein had withdrawn him- self privately. Erasmus^ had given him recommendatory letters to Sir Thomas More, with a present of his own pic- ture by Holbein, which he assured the chancellor was more like than one drawn by Albert Diirer.^ Holbein stopped for a short time at Antwerp, having other letters for P.^gidius, a common friend of Erasmus and More. In those letters the former tells ^gidius that Holbein was very desirous of seeing the works of Quintin Matsis,the celebrated blacksmith painter, whose tools, it is said, love converted into a pencil.^ Of this master Holbein had no occasion to be jealous : with 1 Erasmus wrote to Peter ^gidius to introduce Holbein, when at Antwerp on his way to England. " Qui has reddit, est qui me pinxit, ejus commendatione te non gravabo, quanquam est insignis artifex. Si cupiat visere, Quintinum (Matsys) ejus poteris commonstrare domum. Hie {Basic) artes frigent, petit Angliam, ut corrodat, aliquot Angellotos," alluding to an English gold coin, then called "Angels," current in the reigns of Henry VIL and VIII. — D, 2 At Lord Folkston's, at Longford in Wiltshire, are the portraits of Erasmus and Aegidius, said to be drawn by Holbein ; they belonged to Dr. Meade, and while in his collection had the following lines written on the frames, and still remaining there ; on that of Erasmus, " E tenebris clarum doctrinae attoUere lumen Qui felix potuit, primus Erasmus erat." On Aegidus, ^ *' wiEgidium musis charum dilexit Erasmus ; Spirat ab Holbenio pictus uterque tuo." The latter is far the better ; that of Erasmus is stiff and flat. However, this is believed to be the very picture which. Erasmus sent by Holbein himself to Sir Thomas More,* and which was afterwards in the cabinet of Andrew de Loo, and from thence passed into the Arundelian collection. But I should rather think it is the picture which was in King Charles's (see his Catal. No. 13, p. 154), where it is said to have been painted by George S])enco, of Nuremberg. Quintin Matsis, too, painted ^Egidius, with which Sir Thomas More was so pleased that he wrote a panegyric on the painter, beginning, " Qaintine, o veteris novator artis, Magno non minor artifix Apelle." iEgidius held a letter in his hand from Sir Thomas, with his handwriting so well imitated, that More could not distinguish it himself. Quintin, too, in the year 1521, drew the picture of the celebrated physician, Dr. Linacre. ^ [Quinten Matsys or Metsys, the Smith of Antwerp, was one of the most remark- able painters of his time. He was born at Antwerp in 1450, and died there in 1529. The story of his love adventure, and his forsaking the anvil for the easel, is alluded to in the following expressive words on the monument erected to him at Antwerp, a century after his death — " Connubialis amor de Mulcibre fecit Apellem."— W.] * This identical portrait, which is exquisitely finished, of a small size, belongs to the Hon. H. Howard, of Greystoke Castle, Cumberland, where it is now preserved. It was bequeathed by Alathea, Countess of Arundel, to her grandson, Charles Howard, the immediate ancestor of the late Duke of Norfolk. — D. 70 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. great truth, and greater labour, Quintin's pictures are in- ferior to Holbein's. The latter smoothed the stiffness of his manner by a velvet softness and lustre of colouring; the per- formances of his contemporary want that perfecting touch; nor are there any evidences that Quintin could ascend above the coarseness or deformities of nature. Holbein was equal to dignified character. He could express the piercing genius of More, or the grace of Anne Boleyn. Employed by More. Holbein was employed as he ought to be ; this was the happy moment of his pencil ; from painting the author, he rose to the philosopher, and then sunk to work for the king. I do not know a single countenance into which any master has poured greater energy of expression than in the draw- ing of Sir Thomas More at Kensington : it has a freedom, a boldness of thought and acuteness of penetration that attest the sincerity of the resemblance. It is Sir Thomas More in the rigour of his sense, notin the sweetness of his pleasantry. Here he is the unblemished magistrate,not that amiable phi- losopher, whose humility neither power nor piety could elate, and whose mirth even martyrdom could not spoil. Here he is rather that single, cruel judge, whom one knows not how to hate, and who, in the vigour of abilities, of knowledge, and good, humour, persecuted others in defence of super- stitions that he himself had exposed ; and who, capable of disdaining life at the price of his sincerity, yet thought that God was to be served by promoting an imposture; who triumphed over Henry and death, and sunk to be an ac- complice, at least the dupe, of the Holy Maid of Kent ! Holbein was kindly received by More, and was taken into his house at Chelsea. There he worked for near three years, drawing the portraits of Sir Thomas, his relations, and friends. The king, visiting the chancellor, saw some of those pictures, and expressed his satisfaction. Sir Thomas begged him to accept whichever he liked ; but he inquired for the painter, who was introduced to him. Henry im- mediately took him into his own service, and told the chan- cellor, that now he had got the artist, he did not want the pictures. An apartment in the palace was immediately allotted to Holbein, with a salary of 200 florins, besides his PAINTERS IN THE EEIGN OF HENRY VIII. 71 being paid for his pictures : the price of them I nowhere find. Patin says that after three years Holbein returned to Basil to display his good fortune, but soon returned to England. It is not probable that he lived so long with Sir Thomas More as is asserted. He drew the king several times, and I suppose all his queens, though no portrait of Catherine Parr^ is certainly known to be of his hand. He painted too the king's children, and the chief persons of the court, as will be mentioned hereafter. The writers of his life relate a story, which Vermander, his first biographer, affirms came from Dr. Isely of Basil and from Amerbach : yet, in another place,Vermander complaining of the latter, to whom he says he applied for anecdotes relating to Holbein and his works ; after eight or ten years could get no other answer than that it would cost a great deal of trouble to seek after those things, and that he should expect to be well paid. The story is, that one day as Holbein was privately drawing some lady's picture for the king, a great lord forced himself into the chamber. Holbein threw him down stairs ; the peer cried out ; Holbein bolted himself in, escaped over the top of the house, and running directly to the king, fell on his knees, and besought his majesty to pardon him, without declaring the offence. The king promised to forgive him if he would tell the truth ; but soon began to repent, saying he should not easily overlook such insults, and bade him wait in the apartment till he had learned more of the matter. Immediately arrived the lord with his complaint, but sink- ing the provocation. At first the monarch heard the story with temper, but broke out, reproaching the nobleman with his want of truth, and adding, " You have not to do with Holbein, but with me ; I tell you, of seven peasants I can make as many lords, but not one Holbein — begone, and remember, that if ever you pretend to revenge yourself, I shall look on any injury offered to the painter as done to 1 Mr, Dawson Turner, of Yarmouth, Norfolk, has a portrait attributed to Hol- bein, of this queen, from which an engraving has been lately taken for Mr. Lodge's Portraits of Ilhistrious Personages. It differs considerably from the beautiful miniature of her (formerly) at Strawberry-hill. — D, 72 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OP HENRY VIII. myself/' Henry's behaviour is certainly the most probable part of the story/ After the death of Jane Seymour, Holbein was sent to Flanders to draw the picture of the Duchess Dowager of Milan/ widow of Francis Sforza, whom Charles V. had recommended to Henry for a fourth wife, but afterwards changing his mind, prevented him from marrying. Among the Harleian MSS. there is a letter from Sir Thomas Wyat to the king, congratulating his majesty on his escape, as the duchess's chastity was a little equivocal. If it was, considering Henry's temper, I am apt to think that the duchess had the greater escape. It was about the same time that it is said she herself sent the king word, " That she had but one head ; if she had two one of them should be at his majesty's service."^ Holbein was next despatched by Cromwell to draw the Lady Anne of Cleve, and by practising the common flatteiy of his profession, was the immediate cause of the destruc- tion of that great subject, and of the disgrace that fell on the princess herself He drew so favourable a likeness,* that Henry was content to wed her ; but when he found her so inferior to the miniature, the storm which really should have been directed at the painter, burst on the minister ; and Cromwell lost his head, because Anne was a Flanders mare, not a Venus, as Holbein had represented her. Little more occurs memorable of this great painter, but ^ Lovelace, in h.is collection of poems called Lucasta, lias an epigram on this subject, but it is not worth repeating. 2 Christiana, daughter of Christiern, King of Denmark, Lord Herbert says that Holbein drew her picture in three hours, p. 496. 3 Vertue saw a whole length of this princess at Mr. Howard's, in Soho Square. Such a picture is mentioned to have been in the royal collections. * This very picture, as is supposed, was in the possession of Mr. Barrett, of Kent, whose collection was sold a few yea-rs ago, but the family reserved this and some other curiosities. The print among the illustrious heads is taken from it : and. so far justifies the king, that he certainly was not nice, if from that picture he con- cluded her handsome enough. It has so little beauty, that I should doubt of its being the very portrait in question — it rather seems to have been drawn after Hol- bein saw a little with the king's eyes. I have seen that picture in the cabinet of tlie present Mr. Barrett, of Lee, and think it the most exquisitely perfect of all Holbein's Avorks as well as in the highest preservation. The print gives a very inadequate idea of it, and none of her Flemish fairness. It is preserved in the ivory box in wliich it came over, and which repre- sents a rose, so delicately carved as to be wortliy of the jewel it contains. Now (1826) in possession of his great nephew, T. Brydges Barret, Esq. — D. # PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 73 that in 1538, the city of Basil, on the increase of his fame, bestowed an annuity of fifty florins on him for two years, hoping, says my author, that it would induce him to return to his country, to his wife and his children.^ How large soever that salary might seem in the eyes of frugal Swiss citizens, it is plain it did not weigh with Holbein against the opulence of the court of England. He remained here till his death, which was occasioned by the plague, in the year 1554, in the fifty-sixth year of his age.^ Some accounts make him die in the spot where is now the paper-office ; but that is not likely, as that very place had been King Henry s private study, and was then appointed for the reception of the letters and papers left by that prince, and of other public papers. Vertue thought, if he died in the precincts of the palace, that it was in some slight lodgings there, then called the Paper Buildings, or in Scotland Yard, where the king's artificers lived ; but he was rather of opinion that Holbein breathed his last in the Duke of Norfolk's house, in the priory of Christ Church,^ near Aldgate, then called Duke's Place, having been removed from Whitehall, to make room for the train of Philip, to whom Queen Mary was going to be married.^ The spot of his interment was as uncertain as that of his death. Thomas, Earl of Arundel, the celebrated collector in the reign of Charles I. , was desirous of erecting a monument for him, but dropped the designfrom ignorance of the place. Strype, in his edition of Stowes Survey , says that he was buried in St. Catherine Cree Church, which stands in the cemetery of that dissolved priory, and consequently close to his patron's house. Who his wife was, or what family he left, we are not [Or ratlier, remain with. Holbein visited Basil in 1538, for tlie last time ; lie returned, apparently in the same year, to England. — W.] 2 [Van Mander, Ret ScMldcr Boelc, &c. 1604. Haarlem. Sandrart, L'Academia Todesca, or Tcutsche Academic dcr Edlen Bau — Bild — und Mahlery — Kunste^ vol. ii. Niirnberg, 1675. Vita Johannis Holhenii Gcradi Littrij, 8vo. 1676. C. de Mechel, (Euvres dc lean Holbein, ou Recueil dc Gravures d'ap^es ses plus beaux Ouvrages. Basle, 4to. 1780. Hegner, Hans Holbein der Jungcre. Berlin, 1827.— W.] 3 There was a priory given at the dissolution to Sir Thomas Audley, from whose family it came, by marriage, to the Duke of Norfolk, but this was not till four years after the death of Holbein ; consequently Vertue's conjecture is not well grounded. 4 Holbein was not likely to be in favour in that reign, being supposed a Pro- testant. 74 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. told ; mention of some of his children will be made in the list of his works. Holbein painted in oil, in distemper, and water-colours. He had never practised the last till he came to England, where he learned it of Lucas Cornelii, and carried it to the highest perfection. His miniatures have all the strength of oil colours, joined to the most finished delicacy- He generally painted on a green ground ; in his small pictures often on a deep blue. There is a tradition that he painted with his left hand, like the Roman knight, Turpilius,^ but this is contradicted by one of his own portraits that was in the Arundelian collection, and came to Lord Stafford, in which he holds his pencil in the right hand.^ It is impossible to give a complete catalogue of his works ; they were extremely numerous ; and, as I have said, that number is increased by copies, by doubtful or by pretended pieces. Many have probably not come to my knowledge ; those I shall mention were of his hand, as far as I can judge. From his drawings for the Morim Encomium there have been prints to many editions, and yet they are by no means the most meritorious of his performances. At Basil, in the town-house, are eight pieces of the history of Christ's Passion and Crucifixion.^ Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria, offered a great sum for them.^ Three of the walls in the upper part of the same edifice are adorned with histories by him. In the library of the University there is a dead Christ, painted on board in the year 152L In the same place, the Lord s Supper, much damaged. Another there on the same subject, drawn by Holbein, when very young. Christ scourged ; in the same place, but not very well painted. ^ [Pliny mentions some works by him at Verona, which were painted with his left hand. Hist. Nat. xxxv. 7.~W.] ^ It is evident thai: Holbein did not confine himself to work exclusively with his left hand, but that he used either hand at pleasure. Both Leonardo da Vinci and himself were ambi-dextrous. — D. 3 Engraved in Mechel's work : which contains likewise Le Triomphe des Rich- esses et de la Pauvrete, hereafter noticed. — D. 4 [30,000 florins.— W.] PAINTEES IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 75 Ibidem, A board painted on both sides ; a schoolmaster teaching boys. It is supposed to have been a sign to some private school, 1516. Ibidem, A profile of Erasmus writing his Commentary on St. Matthew. Ibidem, The same in an oval ; smaller. Ibidem, The portrait of Amerbach. Ibidem, A woman sitting with a girl in her arms, and stroking a little boy. These are said to be Holbein's wife and children. This has been engraved by Joseph Wirtz. Ibidem, A lady of Alsace, with a boy. Ibidem, A beautiful woman, inscribed Lais Corinthiaca, 1526. Ibidem, Adam and Eve, half figures, 1517. Ibidem,Two pictures in chiaro ^scuro, of Christ, crowned with thorns, and the Virgin praying. Ibidem, One hundred and three sketches on paper, col- lected by Amerbach ; who has written on them Hans Holbein genuina. They are chiefly designs for the Life of Christ, and some for the family of Sir Thomas More. Many of them are thought to have been patterns for glass painters. I have heard that at Basil there are paintings on glass, both by Holbein himself and his father. Ibidem, Two death's heads near a grate. Ibidem, The portrait of John Holbein (I do not know whether father or son) in a red hat, and a white habit trimmed with black. The portrait of James Mejer, consul or burgomaster of Basil and his wife, 1516, with the sketches for both pic- tures. In the museum of Feschius. Erasmus, in the same place. In the street called Eissengasse is a whole house painted by him on the outside, with buildings and history. For this he received sixty florins. The Emperor Charles V. Le Blond, a Dutch painter,^ 1 So I find liim called in the list of Holbein's works prefixed to the English edition of the Morics Encomium ; Sandrart mentions another x^erson of almost the same name, who he says was the Swedish minister in Holland, and that he, San- drart, gave him an original portrait of Holbein. He adds, that Mons. Le Blon 76 PMNTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. gave a hundred crowns for this at Lyons in 1633, for the Duke of Buckingham. Another portrait of Erasmus, bought at Basil by the same Le Blond for a hundred ducatSc This was engraved in Holland by Vischer. It is mentioned in the catalogue of the duke's pictures, p. 17, No. 6. To this was joined the portrait of Frobenius. Both pictures are now^ at Kensington ; but the architecture in the latter was added afterwards by Stenwyck. A large picture, containing the portraits of the Consul Mejer and his sons on one side, and of his wife and daugh- ters on the other, all praying before an altar. This was sold at Basil for a hundred pieces of gold ; the same Le Blond in 1 633 gave a thousand rix- dollars for it, and sold it for three times that sum to Mary de Medici, then in Holland.^ Another portrait of Erasmus ; at Vienna. Another there, supposed the father of Sir Thomas More. This was reckoned one of his capital works. Two pieces, about five feet high, representing monks digging up the bones of some saint, and carrying them in procession ; at Vienna. A picture, about four feet square, of dancing, hunting, tilting and other sports ; in the public library at Zurich. The inside of a church, the Virgin and apostles ; angels singing above ; in the collection of Mr. Werdmyller at Zurich. The portrait of an English nobleman, in the same cabinet. The portrait of Conrad Pelican, professor of Theology had another picture by Holbein of a learned man, and Death with an hour-glass, and a building behind ; and that Le Blon, being earnestly solicited, had sold to J. Lossert, a painter, for three hundred florins, a picture of the Virgin and Child by the same master. I^e Blon had also some figures by Holbein, particularly a Venus and Cupid, finely modelled. Tliere is a print of the Swedish Le Blon, after Van- dyke, by Theo. Matham, thus inscribed — Michel Le Blon, Agent de la Eeyne et Couronne de Suede chez sa Majestic de la Grande Bretagne. ^ But the Erasmus is thought a copy : the true one King Charles gave to Mons. de Liencourt, see Catal. p. 18. The Frobenius was given to the King by the Duke of Buckingham just before he went to the Isle of Rhee. — [These pictures are now at Hampton-court.— W.] 2 [This work is considered Holbein's master-piece. It is now in the Gallery at Dresden, and there is a copy or duplicate of it in the Gallery at Berlin. It is engraved by Catherine Patin ; in wood by Unzelmann in Count Raczinsky's Eis- toire de VArt Moderne en Allcmagne ; and there is a beautiful lithograph of it by Hanfstangel. Meyer was a burgomaster of Basil. — W.] PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 77 and Hebrew at Zuricli ; in the house of Mr. Martyn Werdmyller, senator of Basil. Christ in his cradle, the Virgin and Joseph ; Shepherds at a distance ; in the church of the Augustines at Lucerne. The Adoration of the Wise men, ibidem. Christ taken from the cross, ibidem. The San eta Veronica, ibidem. Christ teaching in the Temple, ibidem. Christ on the cross ; the Virgin and St. John ; with inscriptions in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. All the prophets, in nine pieces, each a yard long ; painted in distemper. These were carried to Holland by Barthol. Sarbruck, a painter, who made copies of them, preserved in the Feschian museum. The picture of Queen Mary ; Dr. Patin had it and the following : An old man with a red forked beard, supposed to be a grand master of Khodes. The Dance of Death, in the churchyard of the Predicants of the suburbs of St. John at Basil, is always ascribed to Holbein, and is shown to strangers through a grate. And yet, as Vertue observed, our painter had undoubtedly no hand in it. Pope Eugenius I V. appointed the Council of Basil in 1431, audit sat there fifteen years, during which time a plague raged that carried off all degrees of people. On the cessation of it, the work in question was imme- diately painted as a memorial of that calamity. Holbein could not be the originaP painter, for he was not born till ^ [It is now generally allowed that Holbein never painted any Dance of Death ; but he is the author of a series of designs known as the " Triumph of Death," cut in wood and first published at Lyons in 1538 : they were engraved afterwards by Hollar and others. These are, however, quite distinct from tlie designs alluded to in the text. The cuts are attributed by some to Holbein himself, and by others to Hans Liitzelburger. See Kumohr, Hans Holbein der Jungere in seinem Ver- JiaZtniss zum Deutschen Formschnittwesen, 1836, and Nagler Neues Allgemeines Kiinstler Lexicon, article Liitzelbiirger. — W.] At Munich Mr. Dibdin saw a series of these figures, which are (he says) indis- putably the oldest of their kind extant, as old probably as the middle of the fif- teenth century. The figure of Death is always entwined by a serpent, and when before a Pope is represented as playing upon bagpipes." {Bihliograph. Tour^ vol. iii. p. 278.) The fact appears to be that Holbein was not the inventor of the original idea, but that he very greatly improved it. The earliest edition of the Dance of Death known, was published at Lyons in 1538. Warton, in his Essay on Spenser, (vol. ii. pp. 115 — 121,) gives an admirable critique on this subject, 78 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 1498 ; nor had he any hand in the part that was added in 1529, at which time he had left Basil. Even if he had been there when it w^as done (which was about the time of his short return thither) it is not probable that mention of him would have been omitted in the inscription which the magistrates caused to be placed under those paintings, espe- cially when the name of one Hugo Klauber, a painter who repaired them in 1 5 69, is carefully recorded. But there is a stronger proof of their not being the work of Holbein, and at the same time an evidence of his taste. The paint- ings at Basil are a dull series of figures, of a pope, emperor, king, queen, &c., each seized by a figure of Death ; but in the prints which Hollar has given of Holbein's drawings of Death's Dance, a design he borrowed from the work at Basil, there are groups of figures, and a richness of fancy and invention peculiar to himself. Every subject is varied, and adorned with buildings and habits of the times, which he had the singular art of making picturesque.^ At Amsterdam in the Warmoes-street was a fine picture of a queen of England in silver tissue. Two portraits of himself, one, a small round,^ was in the cabinet of James Eazet ; the other, as big as the palm of a hand, in the collection of Barth. Ferrers. Sandrart had drawings by Holbein of Christ's Passion, in folio ; two of them were wanting ; in his book he ofiers two hundred florins to whoever will produce and sell them to him, p. 241.^ In the King of France's collection are the following.^ 1. Archbishop Warham, act. suae. 70, 1527. There is which must be injured by an attempted abridgment. The book from which Hollar copied these designs was published at Basle, in 1554, entitled, '■^ Icones Mortis." Spenser alludes to some of these representations, which in his age were fashionable and familiar : " All musicke sleepes, where Death doth lead the daunce." See likewise, WartorCs His. Poet. vol. ii. p. 364 n. 8vo, — D. ^ This subject was painted in fresco on the walls of the cloisters of Old St. Paul's Cathedral, about 1440. Stowed Survey of London, p. 264. DugdaU's Hist. . of St. Paul's, and Lidnate's Daunce of Maccahre. — D. 2 Mr. George Augustus Selwyn has one that answers exactly to this account, and is in good preservation. Mr. Walpole has another, and better preserved. 3 [Of the Latin translation, p. 252 of the original. — W.] ^ These pictures are still in the collection of the King of France at the Louvre, St. Germain, Chiide des Amateurs, 1818. — D. PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 79 another of tliese at Lambeth. Archbishop Parker entailed this, and another of Erasmus, on his successors; they were stolen in the civil war, but Juxon repurchased the former. 2. The portrait of Nicholas Cratzer, astronomer to Henry VIII. This man, after long residence in England, had scarce learned to speak the language. The king asking him how that happened, he replied, " I beseech your high- ness to pardon me ; what can a man learn in only thirty years ? " These two last pictures^ were in the collection of Andrew de Loo, a great virtuoso, who bought all the works of Holbein he could procure ; among others, a portrait of Erasmus, which King Charles afterwards exchanged for a picture of Leonardo da Vinci. A drawing of Cratzer is among the heads by Holbein at Kensington. Among others in De Loo's collection was the fine Cromwell, Earl of Essex, now at Mr. Southwell's, and engraved among the illustrious heads.^ 3. Anne of Cleve. 4. Holbein's own portrait. 5. Erasmus writing ; a smaller picture. 6. An old man, with a gold chain. 7. Sir Thomas More, less than life. 8. An old man with beads, and a death's head. In the collection of the Duke of Orleans are four heads ; Another Cromwell Earl of Essex. ^ Sir Thomas More. A lady. ^ Warham's came afterwards to Sir Walter Cope, who lived without Temple- bar, over against the Lord Treasurer Salisbury, and had several of Holbein, which passed by marriage to the Earl of Holland, and were for some time at Holland- house. See Oxf. MSS. Yelvert, i^. 118. Another of Cratzer remained at Holland- house till the death of the Countess of Warwick, wife of Mr. Addison ; a fine picture, strongly painted, representing him with several instruments before him, and an inscription expressing that he was a Bavarian, of the age of forty-one in 1528. In one of the office-books are entries of payment to him : — April, paid to Nicholas the Astronomer . . . IIZ. Anno 23, paid to ditto 51. As. Od. Cratzer in 1550 erected the dial at Corpus Christi Coll. Oxford. Brit. Topogr. vol. ii. p. 159. 2 De Loo had also the family picture of Sir Thomas More, which was bought by his grandson Mr. Roper. The portrait of the Earl of Essex is now (1826) at King's Weston near Bristol, and a repetition at Sir T. Clifford's, Tixal, Staffordshire. —D. 3 There is a small head of him at Devonshire-house with this date, aet. 16, 1515. 80 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. George Gysein.^ But the greatest and best of his works were done in Eng- land, many of which still remain here. Some were lost or destroyed in the civil war ; some sold abroad at that time f and some, particularly of his miniatures were, I believe, 1 This is a Dutcli name : Peter Gyzen, born about 1636, was a painter, and scholar of Velvet Breughel. Dcscamps^ vol. iii. p. 41. The four portraits above mentioned, upon the sale of the Orleans Gallery, were brought with it into England, and first exhibited in 1793, previously to the general sale, in 1798.— D. 2 In the Florence Gallery were small portraits of Henry, Earl of Surrey, and Richard Southwell, both purloined during its occupation by the French, in 1800. — D. The Editor,* not without diffidence, ofi"ersan extended catalogue of the works of Holbein, now remaining in England. This list (he wishes it to be understood) does not pretend to indubitable verification of the portraits, noticed, as authentic. Such he has selected, in addition to others mentioned by Walpole ; but he has passed over, without oftering any criticism, a few which have certainly long en- joyed the credit of having been painted by Holbein, without contributing to his fame in the least degree. He would be unwilling to give the slightest offence to their possessors, by exciting doubts or obtruding opinions, even if such judgment could confer or detract, a certain value. It must be recollected, too, that many curious collections are accessible only by personal favour. No doubt is entertained, that Holbein painted the portraits of the royal or more eminent personages, more than once. These pictures may be fairly estimated as repetitions. That in certain instances copies have been made by his assistants, or his successors, is equally true. PORTRAITS BY HOLBEIN, NOW IN ENGLAND. In the Boyal Palaces. WINDSOR. iEgidius, or Peter Giles, the lawyer of 1. Sir Thomas More. Antwerp, his friend. In the same 2. Thomas, third Duke of Norfolk. ' collection. 3. Henry, Earl of Surrey (w;. ) hampton court. 4. Holstoff, a merchant. Erasmus. KENSiNGTON.t John Reiskimcr : Holbein's Father, and his Mother, and Several portraits by Holbein are J. H. sen. or his son Sigismond. said to have been preserved in Himself and Wife [sm.), water-colours. the royal palaces of Somerset or Henry VIII. a head, white fur in the Denmark-house, taken down in shoulders. 1775. Whitehall was burned in Katherine of Aragon, with a Dwarf. 1698, and St. James's in 1809, Sir Henry Guldeford. and the pictures have been either William Somers, the King's Jester, destroyed, or replaced in others looking through a lattice. of the king's residences. Erasmus, valued at Charles I.'s sale at Erasmus {sm.), Greystoke Castle, Cum- 200^. berland. The original. Frobenius, his printer (the architecture ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^^ added by Stemwyck). ^ ^ov^^rd., Esq. Corby Castle, others at Hatfield, before 1527, at The same [h. I.), Norfolk House. Althorp and Strawberry diill. (;^. Castle Howard, with a Erasmus, at Althoi-p ; and at Strawberry- View of two Castles. hill {round), at Longford Castle, for- (7i. I.), Thorndon, merly Dr. Mead's, sold for 110^. {h. I. ), Gorhambury, * [Of the Edition of 1826, Dallaway.— W.] t [Now at Hampton Court.— W.] PAINTERS IN THE EEIGN OF HENRY VIII. 81 consumed when Whitehall was burned. There perished the large picture of Henry VII.-^ and of Elizabeth of York, of Henry VHI. and Jane Seymour ; it was painted on the wall in the privy chamber. The copy which Eemee^ Henry VIII. {wX), bought at Lord Tor- rington's sale, in 1778, for 112Z., sit- ting, holding a walking staff, at Knole. Francis I. at Lord Harrington's, 1780. brought from Spain. Henry VII, and Henry VIII. sketch in black chalk, size of life. Chats worth. Henry VIII. (sm.), was in the Duke of Buckingham's collection. The same {w.l.), at Petworth. [w. I, ), at Belvoir Castle. {head), Apuldercombe. from Lee Court, Kent, Sir T. Baring. and Queen Catherine with the divorce in her hand {sm. ), Dalkeith. Queen Anne Boleyn, half length, with a velvet bonnet and single feather, many jewels, Anna Regina, IH. 1533. Queen Anne Boleyn, Warwick Castle. Queen Jane Seymour (1336), Woburn. QueenCatherinePar,DawsonTurner,Esq. Margaret, Queen of Scotland, Newbattle Abbey. King Edward VI. {w.l.), Petworth. The same, when a child, with a rattle, Apuldercombe. Ditto {sm.w.l.), Houghton. W. Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, Lambeth. At Ditchley. Martin Luther, Stowe. J. Fisher, Bishop of Ro ihester, St. John's Coll. Cam. ; Didlington, Norfolk. Sir John Gage, K.G. Belvidere, Kent. Judge Montague, Liscombe, Bucks. Lord Paget {a repetition), Beaudesert. Sir Nicholas Carew, Lumley Castle. Sir W. Petre, Thorndon. At Lumley Castle. H. Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, Longleafc. John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, Penshurst, Sir J. Brydges, first Lord Chandos, Avington. Sir A. Denny, and his Lady, Northum- berland House. The same, when Lord Denny, Longford Castle. Sir H. Guldeford and his Lady, North- umberland House. Sir J. More (Judge), Longleat. Sir Edward Grimstone (1548, set. 20), Gorhambury. Sir Thomas Sm3rth, Secretary of State. Edward Seymour, Dul^e of Somerset, at Longleat, Stowe, and Castle Ashby. Thomas, Lord Seymour of Sudely, at Longleat, and at Stowe. Gregory, Lord Cromwell, Tixhall, Purn- ham, Dorset. Sir T. Chaloner (tet. 28, 1548). Henry Chesman (1533), Falconer to Henry VIII. This portrait, or a repetition of it, is noticed by Sir J. Reynolds (Works, vol. ii. p. 346), at the Hague, as being '^admirable for its truth and precision, and ex- tremely well coloured. The blue flat ground, which is behind the head gives a general effect of dryness to the picture : had the ground been varied, and made to harmonise more with the figure, this portrait might have stood in competition with the works of the best portrait-painters. On it is written Henry Chesman, 1533." Moret, the king's jeweller and enchaser, who wrought from Holbein's designs, cups, daggers, &c., Northumberland House. Sir Thomas Pope, founder of Trin. Coll. Oxon, Wimpole, brought from Titten- hanger, Herts. At Wroxton. Holbein, his wife, four boys, and a girl (sm.), Mereworth Castle, Kent. "As a whole, it has no effect; but the heads are excellent. They are not ^ The portraits of Henry VII. and Elizabeth must have been taken from older originals. Holbein more than once copied the picture of this queen, and of the king's grandame (as she was called), Margaret, Countess of Richmond. _ 2 Remee was a scholar of Vandyck, and died in 1678, aged 68. This was Reme- gius, or Remee Van Lemput. — D. VOL. I. G 82 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. made of it for Charles 11. in small, and for whicli lie received 1501. hangs in the king's bedchamber below stairs at Ken- sington ;^ from that Y ertue engraved his print. Holbein's original drawing of the two kings is in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire. It is in black chalk, heightened, and large as life ; now at Chats worth. The architecture of this picture is very rich, and parts of it in a good style. In the chapel at Whitehall he painted Joseph of Ari- mathea, and in that at St. James's, Lazarus rising from the dead — both now destroyed.^ That he often drew the king is indubitable ; several pic- tures extant of Henry are ascribed to him — I would not painted in tlie common flat style of Holbein, but with a round, firm, glowing pencil, and yet ex- act imitation of nature is preserved — the boys are very innocent, beautiful characters. — Gilpin. May not this be a repetition of the family picture mentioned by Walpole, in a note, p. 8 6, las having been in Holbein's house, on London Bridge, and destroyed in the great fire ? Or may it not be the same picture rescued ? Edward Stanley, third Earl of Derby, Knowsley. Sir T. Wyat, Earl of Romney, the Moat, Kent. John, Lord Berners., Didlington, Nor- folk, as Chancellor qf the Exchequer. He holds a lemon in one hand, to prevent infection ; alluding, probably, to his having escaped the plague, when sitting as a judge in court. Henry VIII. Didlington, Norfolk. John Dudley, Viscount Lisle, afterwards Duke of Northumberland, 1545, Pens- hurst. The Princess, afterwards Queen Eliza- beth, when young, in red, holding a book, formerly at Whitehall, now at Kensington. Sir Brian Tuke. Corsham. Sir John Gage, 1541. W. Par, Marquis of Northampton, Ken- sirigton. Anne Boleyn ; sold at Sir L. Dundas's sale for 78^. 155. W. Herbert, first Earl of Pembroke, Wilton. Dr. Butts, Henry VIII. 's physician, and his wife, at Anthony, Cornwall. W. Pitzwilliam, Earl of Southampton, destroyed at Cowdray. In the collection of G. Villiers, Duke of Bucks, were four portraits, none ex- ceeding two feet square. 1. King Henry VIII. 2. Mary, Queen of France. 3. Erasmus. 4. T. third Duke of Norfolk. Attributed to Holbein, in B. Fairfax's catalogue. Miniatures by Holbein. ^ Himself {Toimd\ Strawberry-hUl. Catherine of Aragon, ditto. Queen Catherine Par, ditto. Queen Anne of Cleves,Lee Priory, Kent. Henry Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and Frances (Grey), Duchess of Suffolk, two children of Charles, Duke of Suf- folk (limning), Kensington. Himself [small, round), Althorp. Henry VIII. [size of life), sitting at a table, with his daughter, the Princess Mary, and W. Somers bringing in a lap-dog, has been attributed to Hol- bein, from its resemblance to the family picture at Somerset House. Althorp.— D. 1 [It is now at Hampton Court. — W.] 2 See Peacham on Limning. 3 Several of Holbein's miniatures were preserved in carved boxes of ivory and ebony, in Charles the First's Cabinet j and some of the smaller portraits perished in the fire at Whitehall, in 1698.— D. PAINTERS IN THE KEIGN OF HENRY VIII. 83 warrant many of them. There is one at Trinity College, Cambridge/ another at Lord Torrington's, at Whitehall, both whole lengths, and another in the gallery of royal por- traits at Kensington, whichjwhoever painted it, is execrable ; one at Petworth, and another in the gallery at Windsor. But there is one head of that king at Kensington, not only genuine, but perhaps the most perfect of his works. ^ It hangs by the chimney in the second room, leading to the great drawing-room ; and would alone account for the judgment of Depiles, who, in his scale of picturesque merit allows 1 6 degrees for colouring to Holbein, when he had allotted but 12 to Raphael. I conclude that it was in the same light that Frederic Zucchero considered our artist, when he told Goltzius that, in some respects, he preferred him to Eaphael. Both Zucchero and Depiles understood the science too well to make any comparison except in that one particular of colouring, between the greatest genius, in his way, that has appeared, and a man who excelled but in one, and that an inferior branch of his art. The texture of a rose is more delicate than that of an oak ; I do not say that it grows so lofty or casts so extensive a shade. Opposite to this picture hangs another,but much inferior, called in the catalogue Lord Arundel, or Howard f the latter name is a confusion, occasioned by the title of Arundel passing into the family of Howard. The portrait in question, I suppose, is of H. Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, and probably the very person who first persuaded Holbein to come into England. In the state bed-chamber is a portrait of Edward VI. It was originally a half-length ; but has been very badly converted into a whole figure since the time of Holbein.* Considering how long he lived in the service of the crown, it is surprising that so few of his works should have re- mained in the royal collection ; Charles I. appears by his 1 It has J-pj Fecit upon it ; and was probably a copy by Lucas de Heere, of whom hereafter. 2 [Now at Hampton Court. — W.] s The fine original of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, with the staves of Earl Marshal and Lord Treasurer, from whence the print is taken, is at Leicester House. —The ORIGINAL is now at Norfolk House. — D. [Now at Windsor. — W.] G 2 84 PAINTEES IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. catalogue to have possessed but about a dozen. All the rest were dispersed but those I have mentioned (unless the whole- length of the unfortunate Earl of Surrey, in a red habit, in the lower apartment at Windsor ^ is so, as I believe it is), and a fine little picture of a man and woman, said to be his own and wife's portraits, which hangs in an obscure closet in the gallery at Windsor;^ and the portrait of a man open- ing a letter with a knife, in the standard closet in the same ■palace. But at present an invaluable treasure of the works of this master is preserved in one of our palaces. Soon after the accession of the late king, Queen Caroline found in a bureau at Kensington a noble collection of Holbein's origi- nal drawings for the portraits of some of the chief personages of the court of Henry YHI. How they came there is quite ^ 1 [At Hampton Court.— W.] 2 [ibid.— W.] 3 In the British Museum is a MS, of great curiosity, Jlarl. No. 6, 000, in which an account of these limnings is given, which greatly elucidates the subject. It was evidently written in the reign of Charles I., and, from strong internal evidence, compiled from the notes of Hilliard. Concerning this work of Holbein, Sander- son, or rather riatman,who composed the extraordinary book which was published in his name, has taken great liberties with the original notice. Page 15 of the genuine MS. affords the following information : — " I shall not need to insist upon the particulars of this manner of working {crayons), it shall suffice, if you please, to take a view of a booke of pictures by the life, by the incomparable Hans Hol- bein, servant to King Henry VIII. They are the pictures of most of the English lords and ladies then living, and were the patterns whereby that excellent painter made his pictures in oyl ; and they are all done in this last manner of crayons. I speak of and knowe of many of them to be miserably spoyled by the injury of tyme, and the ignorance of some who had formerly the keepinge of the looTce, yet you will find in these ruinous remaines an admirable hand, and a rare manner of working in few lines, and no labour in expressing of the life and likenesses, many times equal to his own, and excelling other men's oyl-pictures. The booke hath beene long a wanderer ; but is now happily fallen into the hands of my noble lord the Earl Marshal (T. Earl of Arundel) of England, a most emi- nent patron to all painters who understood the arte ; and who therefore preserved this book with his life, till both were lost together." Sir Edward Walker, in his life of Lord Arundel, observes (p. 222) that " his paintings were numerous, and of the most excellent masters, having more of that exquisite master Hans Holbein, than are in the world besides." In a MS. bequeathed by Dr. Rawlinson to the Bodleian Library, (No. 336,) entitled. Miniature, or the Arte of Limning, by Edw. Norgate, after treating of crayons, he says, " A better way v/as used by Holbein, by pinning a large paper with a carnation or complexion of flesh colour, whereby he made pictures by the life, of many great lords and ladies of his time, with black and red chalke, with other flesh colours, made up hard and dry, like small pencil sticks. Of this kind, was an excellent booke, while it remained in the hands of the most noble Earl of Arundel and Surrey. But I hcare it has been a ^reat traveller, and wherever now, he hath got his errata, or (which is as good) hath met with an index expurgatorius, and is made worse with mending." The Editor has reason to believe that they were purchased for the Crown, at the sale of Henry, Duke of Norfollc, in 1686. — London Gazette of that year. By the order of Queen Caroline, they were framed and glazed. His late Majesty PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 85 unknown. They did belong to Charles I.^ who changed them with William, Earl of Pembroke, for a St. George by Eaphael, now at Paris. Lord Pembroke gave them to the Earl of Arundel, and at the dispersion of that collection, they might be bought by or for the king. There are eighty- nine of them,^ a few of which are duplicates : a great part are exceedingly fine,^ and in one respect preferable to his finished pictures, as they are drawn in a bold and free manner : and though they have little more than the outline, being drawn with chalk upon paper stained of a flesh colour, and scarce shaded at all, there is a strength and vivacity in them equal to the most perfect portraits. The heads of Sir Thomas More,* Bishop Fisher, Sir Thomas Wyat,and Broke Lord Cobham, are master-pieces.^ It is a great pity that released them, aud they were placed in portfolios, He gave permission to J. Cham- berlaine, Esq. to have them engraven, as nearly as possible, fac-similes. His prede- cessor, Mr, Dalton, originated the idea, but the public were so little satisfied with an inferior work, that it was abandoned, after the publication of ten plates only, in 1774. Between the years 1792 and 1800 were published fourteen numbers, (price thirty-six guineas imperial folio,) which contain eighty-two portraits, of which twelve are unknown. Of these, all excepting eight were engraved by F. Barto- iozzi, and the biographical notices were written by Edmund Lodge, Esq. then Lancaster Herald. They are entitled, " Imitations of Original Drawings hy Hans Holbein^ in the Collection of His Majesty, for the Portraits of Hlustrious Persons of the Court of Henry VIII. with Biographical Tracts. Published by John Cham- berlaine. Keeper of the King's Drawings and Medals." This book is indeed a splendid addition to many libraries, and the plan, so well executed, was first suggested by Walpole. — D. ^ After Holbein's death they had been sold into France, from whence they were brought and presented to King Charles by Mons. de Liencourt. Vanderdort, who did nothing but blunder, imagined they were portraits of the French court. Sanderson in his Graphice, p. 79, commends this book highly, but says some of the drawings were spoiled. 2 Sqc the list of them, subjoined to the catalogue of the collection of King James II, published by Bathoe in quarto, 1758. In King Charles's catalogue they are said to be but fifty-four, and that they were bought of, not given by, Mons. de Liencourt. 3 Some have been rubbed, and others traced over with a pen on the outlines by some unskilful hand. In an old inventory belonging to the family of Lumley, mention was made of such a book in that family, with a remarkable note, that it had belonged to Edward VI., and that the names of the persons were written on them by Sir John Cheke. Most of the drawings at Kensington have names in an old hand ; and the probability of their being written by a minister of the court who so well knew the persons represented, is an addition to their value. ^ Richardson the painter had another of these, which was sold at his auction, and from whence Houbraken's print among the illustrious heads was taken. ^ They were first placed by the Queen at Richmond, but afterwards removed to Kensington, where they still remain ; but it is a very improper place for them, many hanging against the light, or with scarce any, and some so high as not to be discernible, especially a most graceful head of the Duchess of Suff"olk. — [They are now in a Portfolio in the Queen's Library at Windsor. — W.] 86 PAINTERS IN THE EEIGN OF HENRY VIII. they have not been engraved ; not only that such frail per- formances of so great a genius might be preserved, but that the resemblances of so many illustrious persons, nowhere else existing, might be saved from destruction. Vertue had undertaken this noble work ; and after spending part of three years on it, broke off, I do not know why, after having traced off, on oil paper, but about five and thirty. These I bought at his sale ; and they are so exactly taken as to be little inferior to the originals. In the same closet are two fine finished portraits by Holbein, said to be his own and his wife s ;Hhey were presented to Queen Caroline by Sir Eobert Walpole, my father.^ And a circular drawing : the story of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. In one of the king's cabinets is a miniature of two chil- dren of Charles Brandon. Over one of the doors is a picture ascribed to Holbein, and supposed to be Queen Elizabeth, when princess, with a book in her hand ; but I question both the painter and the person represented. He drew WiU. Somers,^ King Henry's Jester, from which there is a print It is perhaps a little drawback on the fame of heroes and statesmen, that such persons, who shared at least an equal portion of royal favour formerly, ^ [Now at Hampton-court. — W.] ^ The father of Lord Treasurer Oxford passing over London-bridge, was caught in a shower, and stepping int-o a goldsmith's shop for shelter, he found there a picture of Holbein (who had lived in that house) and his family. He offered the goldsmith 100^. for it, who consented to let him have it, but desired first to show it to some persons. Immediately after happened the fire of London, and the picture was destroyed. ^ There is a burlesque figure of him in the armoury at the Tower. — Of those exti-aordinary characters denominated Fools or privileged Jesters, which were not merely tolerated at Court, and in the houses of the higher nobility, most interest- ing information is given by Mr. Douce, in a Dissertation on the Clowns and Fools of Shakespeare, vol. ii. p. 299. The very frequent introduction of them, and like- wise of Dwarfs of either sex, into groups of family pictures, affords ample evidence of the estimation in which they were held by their masters, even to so low an era as that of Charles L and Vandyck. William Somers appears in more instances than others. He is introduced in an illumination of Henry VIII. 's Psalter, now in the British Museum, MS. Reg. 2 A. vi. where is the king himself as David playing on the harp, and likewise in the large picture of himself and family, above mentioned, as now being in the Anti- quaries'-room at Somerset-place. At Kensington (Hampton-court), he is standing behind a glazed lattice. The two last are by Holbein. There is a portrait of him at Billingbear, Berks, perhaps a repetition. — D. PAINTERS IN THE EEIGN OF HENRY VIII. 87 continue to occupy a place even in the records of time — at least, we antiquaries, who hold everything worth preserv- ing, merely because it has been preserved, have with the names of Henry, Charles, Elizabeth, Francis I., Wolsey, Sir Thomas More, &c. treasured up those of Will Somers, Saxton,Tom Derry, (Queen Anne's Jester,) Tarlton, (Queen Elizabeth's,) Pace, another Fool in that reign, Archee, the disturber of Laud's greatness ; Muckle John, who suc- ceeded ; Patch, Wolsey's fool ; Harry Patenson, Sir Thomas More's ; and of Bisquet and Amaril, the Jesters of Francis I., not to mention Hitard,^ King Edmund's buffoon ; Stone,^ and Jeffery Hudson, the dwarf of Henrietta Maria. Of some of these personages I have found the following anec- dotes : Saxton is the first person recorded to have worn a wig. In an account of the Treasurer of the chambers in the reign of Henry VIII. there is entered, " Paid for Saxton, the king's fool, for a wig, 205." In the accounts of the Lord Harrington, who was in the same office under James I. there is, " Paid to T. Mawe for the diet and lodging of Tom Derry, her Majesty's Jester, 13 weeks, lOZ. 18^. 6df' Patch and Archee were political characters ; the former, who had been Wolsey's fool, and who, like wiser men, had lived in favour through all the changes in religion and folly with which four successive courts had amused themselves or tormented everybody else, was employed by Sir Francis Knollys to break down the crucifix which Queen Elizabeth still retained in her chapel ; and the latter, I suppose on some such instigation, demolished that which Laud erected at St. James's, and which was probably the true cause of that prelate engaging the king and council in his quarrel, though abusive words were the pretence. Of little Jeffery I shall say more in another place. King James II, , as appears by the catalogue of his pic- tures published by Bathoe, had several of Holbein ; though all in that list were not painted by him. Of Holbein's public works in England I find an account of only four. The first is that capital picture in Surgeon's ^ See Dart's Antiq. of Cantcrhicry, p. 6. 2 A fool mentioned in Selden's Table- Talk. 88 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. Hall, of Henry VHI. giving the charter to the company of surgeons. The character of his Majesty's bluff haughtiness is well represented, and all the heads are finely executed. The picture itself has been retouched, but is well known by Baron s print. The physician in the middle, on the king's left hand, is Dr. Butts, immortalized by Shakspeare.^ The second is the large piece in the hall of Bridewell, representing Edward VI. delivering to the Lord Mayor of London the royal charter, by which he gave up and erected his palace of Bridewell into an hospital and workhouse. Holbsin has placed his own head in one corner of the picture. Vertue has engraved it. This picture, it is be- lieved, was not completed by Holbein, both he and the king dying immediately after the donation. The third and fourth were two large pictures, painted in distemper, in the hall of the Easterlings merchants in the Steel-yard. Where Decamps found, I do not know, that they were designed for ceilings. It is probably a mistake. These pictures exhibited the triumphs of riches and poverty. The former was represented by Plutus riding in a golden car ; before him sat Fortune scattering money, the chariot being loaded with coin, and drawn by four white horses, but blind, and led by women whose names were written beneath ; round the car were crowds with extended hands catching at the favours of the god. Fame and Fortune attended him, and the procession was closed by Croesus, and Midas, and other avaricious persons of note. Poverty was an old woman, sitting in a vehicle as shat- tered, as the other was superb ; her garments squalid, and every emblem of wretchedness around her. She was drawn by asses and oxen, which were guided by Hope, and Dili- gence, and other emblematic figures, and attended by mechanics and labourers. The richness of the colouring, the plumpness of the flesh, the gaudy ornaments in the former, and the strong touches and expression in the latter, were universally admired. It was on the sight of these pictures that Zucchoro expressed such esteem of this 1 The ring which Henry sent by Dr. Butts to Cardinal Wolsey, was a cameo on a ruby of the king himself, formerly given to him by the cardinal. PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 89 master ; he copied them in Indian ink, and those drawings came afterwards into the possession of Mons. Crozat. Vos- terman, jun., engraved prints from them, at least of the Triumph of Poverty, but Vertue could never meet with that of Kiches : however, in Buckingham-house, in St. James's Park, he found two such drawings, on one of which was an inscription attributing them to Holbein, and adding that they were the gift of Sir Thomas More, who wrote verses under them. Vertue thought that these drawings were neither of Holbein nor Zucchero, but the copies which Vos- terman had made in order to engrave. These drawings I suppose were sold in the duchess's auction.-^ For the large pictures themselves Felibien and Depiles say that they were carried into France from Flanders, whither they were transported I suppose after the destruction of the com- pany of which Stowe^ gives the following account : — The Steel-yard was a place for merchants of Almaine, who used to bring hither wheat, rye, and other grain; cables, ropes, masts, steel and other profitable merchandize. Henry HI. at the request of his brother, Eichard, Earl of Cornwall, and Kingof Almaine, gave them great privileges, they then hav- ing a house called Guilda Aula Teutonicorum. Edward I. confirmed their charter ; and in the same reign there was a great quarrel between the Mayor of London and those merchants of the Haunce, about the reparation of Bishop- gate, which was imposed on them in consideration of their privileges, and which they sufi'ered to run to ruin. Being 1 So I concluded, but have since been so lucky to find that tliej were pre- served at Buckingham-house, till it was purchased by his Majesty, when the pictures being exposed to auction, these very drawings were exhibited there as allegoric pieces by Vandyck. They more than come up to any advantageous idea I had formed of Holbein, The composition of each is noble, free, and masterly. The expressions admirable, the attitudes graceful, and several of them bearing great resemblance to the style of Raphael. The Triumph of Riches is much wider than the other. The figures in black and white chalk, the skies coloured. On each are Latin verses, but no mention of Holbein, as Vertue relates. The figure of Croesus has great resemblance to the younger portraits of Henry VIII. By the masterly execution of these drawings, I should conclude them Zucchero's copies ; but the horses, which are remarkably fine and spirited, and other touches are so like the manner of Vandyck, that one is apt to attribute them to Vosterman, who lived in his time. Probably the Triumph of Riches is Vosterman's copy, and that of, Poverty Zucchero's. They are now at Strawberry-hill."— [They were sold at the sale of 1842 for sixteen guineas ; and are now in the possession of Mr. East- lake.— W.] 2 Survey of London, p. 249. 90 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. condemned to the repairs, they were in recompense indulged with granaries, and an alderman of their own ; but in time were complained of, for importing too great quantities of foreign grain. They were restricted, yet still increased in wealth, and had a noble hall in Thames-street, with three arched gates ; and in the reign of Edward III. they hired another house of Eichard Lions, a famous lapidary, one of the sheriffs, who was beheaded by the Kentish rebels in the reign of Eichard. II., and another for which they paid 70?. per ann. But still continuing to engross the trade, they were suppressed in the reign of Edward VL, who seized the liberties of the Steel-yard into his own hands. But for nothing has Holbein^s name been oftener mentioned than for the picture of Sir Thomas More's family. Yet of six pieces extant on this subject, the two smaller are certainly copies, the three larger probably not painted by Holbein, and the sixth, though an original picture, most likely not of Sir Thomas and his family. That Holbein was to draw such a piece is indubitable ; a letter of Erasmus is extant thanking Sir Thomas for sending him a sketch of it ; but there is great presumption, that though Holbein made the design, it was not he who executed the picture in large, as will appear by the following account of the several pieces. The most known is that at Burford, the seat of the famous Speaker Lenthall. To say that a performance is not equal to the reputation of its supposed author, is not always an argument sufScient to destroy its authenticity. It is a well-known saying of Sir Godfrey Kneller, when he was reproached with any of his hasty slovenly daubings, Pho, it will not be thought mine ; nobody will believe that the same man painted this and the Chinese at Windsor." But there is a speaking evidence on the picture itself against its own pretensions. Holbein died in 1554. The picture at Burford is dated 1593. It is larger, and there are more figures than in its rival, the piece in Yorkshire, and some of these Yertue thought were painted from the life. This was kept at Gubbins in Hertfordshire, the seat of the Mores ; but by what means the piece passed into the hands PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 91 of Lenthall is uncertain ; the remains of the family of More are seated at Barnborough in Yorkshire, where they have a small picture ^ of their ancestor and his relations like that at Burford, but undoubtedly not an original.^ There too they preserve some relics which belonged to that great man ; as a Greorge enamelled, and within it a miniature of Sir Thomas ; a gold cross with pearl drops, and the cap he wove at his execution. The second picture is at Heron in Essex, the seat of Sir John Tyrrel. but having been repainted, it is impos- sible to judge of its antiquity. The dispute of originality has lain only between the piece at Burford, and the next. The third large picture, and which Vertue thought the very one painted for Sir Thomas himself, is twelve feet wide, and is the actual piece which was in Deloo's collec- tion, after whose death it was bought by Mr. Koper, Sir Thomas's grandson. As Deloo was a collector of Holbein's works, and his contemporary, it sounds extraordinary that a picture which he thought genuine should be doubted now ; and yet Vertue gives such strong reasons, supported by so plausible an hypothesis, to account for its not being Holbein's, that I think them worth laying before the reader. He says the picture is but indifferent ; on this I lay no more stress than I do in the case of that at Burford ; but his observation that the lights and shades in different parts of the picture come from opposite sides, is unanswer- able, and demonstrate it no genuine picture of Holbein, 1 The picture of Sir T. More, with his family, at Barnborough, in Yorkshire, is so large as to cover one end of an apartment, and is of little value in point of art.— D. 2 The Burford Picture was bought in at Christie's a few years since for 1,000Z. with a view to ascertain its value. As Walpole has omitted the names of the persons of whose portraits this celebrated picture is composed, they are now added. 1. Elizabeth Damsey, his daughter, set. 21. 2. Margaret Gigey, a relative, set. 22. 3, Csecilia Heron, his daughter, set. 20. 4. Alicia More, second wife of Sir Thomas, set. 57. 5. Sir John More, the Judge, his father, set. 76. 6. Anne Grisacre, betrothed to John More, his son, set. 15. 7. John More, last mentioned, set. 19. 8. Sir Thomas More, set. 50. 9. Hem-y Patenson, his Fool, set. 40. 10. Margaret Eoper, his heroic daughter, set. 22, who died in 1544, set. 36. An outline of this picture is prefixed to the Tahcllcc SeledcB Catharince Patinm, Fol. 1691, which Vertue has copied for Knight's Life of Erasmus. Aubrey, who saw this picture (now at Burford) in the hall of Sir J. Lenthall, at Besilsleigh, Berks, says that it had an inscription in golden letters of about sixty lines, 1670. — D. 92 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. unless that master had been a most ignorant dauber, as he might sometimes be a careless painter. This absurdity Vertue accounts for by supposing that Holbein quitted the chancellor s service for the king's before he had drawn out the great picture, which however Sir Thomas always under- stood was to be executed; that Holbein'sbusiness increasing upon him, some other pai-nter was employed to begin the picture, and to which Holbein was to give the last touches; in short, that inimitable perfection of flesh which character- izes his works. And this is the more probable, as Vertue ob- served that the faces and hands are left flat and unfinished, but the ornaments, jewels, &c.,are extremely laboured. As the portraits of the family, in separate pieces, were already drawn by Holbein, the injudicious journeyman stuck them in as he found them, and never varied the lights, which were disposed, as it was indiflerent in single heads, some from the right, some from the left, but which make a ridiculous contradiction when transported into one piece. This picture, purchased, as I have said, by Mr. Eoper, the son of that amiable Margaret, whose behaviour, when Sir Thomas returned to the Tower, was a subject not for Holbein, but for Poussin or Shakspeare ! This picture remained till of late years at Welhall in Eltham, Kent, the mansion of the Eopers. That house being pulled down, it hung for some time in the king's house at Greenwich, soon after which, by the death of the last Eoper, whose sole daughter married Mr. Henshaw, and left three daughters, the family picture, then valued at 300/., came between them, and Sir Eowland Wynne, who married one of them, bought the shares of the other two, and carried the picture into Yorkshire, where it now remains. The other small one is in the collection of Colonel Sothby, in Bloomsbury-square. It is painted in the neatest manner in miniature. On the right hand are inserted the portraits of Mr. More and his wife. Sir Thomas's grand- son, for whom it was drawn, and their two sons, with their garden at Chelsea behind, and a view of London. The painter of this exquisite little piece is unknown, but probably was Peter Oliver PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 93 The fifth was in the palace of the Delfino family at Venice, where it was long on sale, the price first set 1,500^. When I saw it there in 1741, they had sunk it to 400^» soon after which the present King of Poland bought it. ' It was evidently designed for a small altar-piece to a " chapel ; in the middle on a throne sita the Virgin and Child ; on one side kneels an elderly gentleman with two sons, one of them a naked infant ; opposite, kneeling, are his wife and daughters. The old man is not only unlike all representations of Sir Thomas More, but it is certain that he never had but one son.-^ For the colouring, it is beautiful beyond description, and the carnations have that enamelled bloom so peculiar to Holbein, who touched his works till not a touch remained discernible ! A drawing o of this picture by Bischop was brought over in 1 723, from whence Vertue doubted both of the subject and the painter ; but he never saw the original ! By the de- scription of the family -picture of the Consul Mejer, men- tioned above,^ I have no doubt but this is the very picture — Mejer and Moore are names not so unlike but that in process of time they may have been confounded, and that of More retained, as much better known. In private houses in England are or were the following works of Holbein, besides what may not have come to Vertue's or my knowledge :— In the Arundelian collection, (says Eichard Symonds,^) was a head of Holbein, in oil, by himself, most sweet, dated 1543. At Northumberland-house, an English knight sitting in a chair, and a table by him. Lord Denny, comptroller, and his lady, 1527. Sir Henry Guldeford and his lady. They were engraved by Hollar.* As also Mons. Moret, jeweller to Henry VIII. 1 There is recorded a ton mot of Sir Thomas on the birth of his son : he had three daughters : his wife was impatient for a son ; at last they had one, but not much above ran idiot — "You have j)rayed so long for a boy," said the chancellor, ' ' that now we have got one who, I believe, will be a boy as long as he lives." 2 [See page 76, note 2._W.] 3 In one of his pocket-books, which will be mentioned more particularly in the second volume. 4 They were at Tart-hall. 94 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. In the Earl of Pembroke's collection was a lady in black satin, which Zucchero admired exceedingly/ The Duke of Buckingham had eight of his hand, in par- ticular the story of Jupiter and lo. See his Catal. p. 16. At the Earl of Uxbridge s at Drayton, his ancestor Lord Paget. At the Earl of Guildford's at Wroxton,Sir Thomas Pope, the founder of Trinity College, Oxford. At Blenheim, a very lively head of a young man. At Buckingham-house was the portrait of Edmund, Lord Sheffield.^ Henry VIIL and Francis I. exchanged two pictures ; the King of France gave to Henry the Virgin and Child by Leonardo da Vinci ; the English present was painted by Holbein, but the subject is not mentioned. The former came into the possession of Catherine Patin. In the late Duke of Somerset's possession was a head of his ancestor the Protector, engraved among the illustrious heads. Vertue mentions having seen a fine miniature of Henry VIIL and his three children, but does not say where. It had a glass over it, and a frame curiously- carved. At Lord Orford's at Houghton is a small whole-length of Edward VI. on board, which was sold into Portugal from the collection of Charles I. ; and Erasmus, smaller than life. I have Catherine of Aragon, a miniature, exquisitely finished : a round on a blue ground. It was given to the Duke of Monmouth by Charles 11. I bought it at the sale of the Lady Isabella Scott, daughter of the Duchess of Monmouth.^ A head of the same queen, on board in oil ; hard, and in her latter age. It is engraved among the illustrious heads. ^ Catherine Howard, a miniature, damaged, it was Eichard- son's, who bought it out of the Arundelian collection. It 1 There is a view of the Siege of Pavia, at Wilton, said to be by Holbein, but it is by Albert Diirer. I even question whether the profile of Edward VI. there be an original. 2 This is a mistake. It was painted by Antonio More, and is now at Strawberry • hill, and is the portrait of John, Lord Sheffield. "3 [Sold at the Strawberry- hill sale in 1842, for 48 guineas.— W.] * [Sold at the sale of 1842, fov 31 guineas.— W.;) PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 95 is engraved among tlie illustrious heads ; and by Hollar, who called it Mary, Queen of France, wife of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.^ Edmund Montacute, a judge. Ditto, flat.^ Philip the Fair, son of the Emperor Maximilian, and father of Charles V., when a boy. It is finely coloured ; and is engraved in Mountfaucon s Antiquities of France, This must have been copied from some other picture. A drawing of a man in a blue gown, cap, and buskins. It seems to be a masquerade dress. ^ Another drawing, the head of a man, with a hat and picked beard. A desi2;n in water colours, which he afterwards executed on a house at Basil. A large design for a chimney-piece.* A design for a clock, in great taste. It was drawn for Sir Anthon)^ Denny, and intended for a new-year's gift to Henry VIII. From the collection of Mons. Mariette at Paris. A head of Melancthon, in oil on board, a small round, very fine.^ Several drawings by Holbein, and some miniatures, are preserved in various collections. There is a very curious picture in the collection of Col. bothby, said to be begun in France by Jan et,^ and which Vertue thinks might be retouched by Holbein, as it was probably painted for his patron, the Duke of Norfolk, from whom it descended immediately to the Earl of Arundel, out of whose collection the father of the present possessor ^ [Sold at the Strawberry-hill sale for 25 guineas. 2 gold for 51. 15s. 6d. ^ Sold together with the following drawing for 51. * Sold for 32 guineas. ^ Sold for 15 guineas. — W.] ^ Frangois Clouet, dit Janet, was painter to the French Court during the reigns of Francis II. Charles IX. and Henry III. He greatly excelled in miniature and small portraits in oil, very much in the style and execution of Holbein. At Kensington (Hampton Court) are the portraits of Francis II. and Mar}'-, Queen of Scots, by him. The latter in a white dress ; and in the Bodleian Gallery, Oxford, in mourning, as Queen Dowager, which was brought from France, by an ancestor of the Sheldon family. His most admired portraits were those of Francis the First and Second at Fontainebleau, and a collection of them made by the celebrated President De Thou. — D.* * [The following portraits by Janet were sold at the Strawberry-hill sale in 1842 : — A French 'Courtier for 9 guineas ; Anthony, King of Navarre, father of 96 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. purchased it. It represents three royal pairs dancing in a meadow, with a magnificent building in the distance ; they are Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn ; and his sisters, Margaret, Queen of Scots, and Mary, Queen of France, with their second husbands, Archibald Douglas and Charles Brandon/ The circumstance of three matches so unequal assembled together induced Vertue,with much probability, to conclude that it was a tacit satire, and painted for the Duke of Norfolk, who, however related to Anne Boleyn, was certainly not partial to her as protectress of the reformed. If this conjecture could be verified, it would lead one to farther reflections. The jealousy which Henry towards the end of his reign conceived against the Howards, and his sacrificing the gallant Earl of Surrey for quarter- ing the arms of England, as.he undoubtedly had a right to quarter them, have always appeared acts of most tyrannic suspicion. He so little vouchsafed to satisfy the public on the grounds of his proceedings, that it is possible he might sometimes act on better foundation than any body knew. If he really discovered any ambitious views in the House of Norfolk, this picture would seem a confirmation of them. To expose the blemishes in the blood of the three only branches of the Eoyal Family, might be a leading step towards asserting their own claim — at least, their own line would not appear less noble, than the descendants of Boleyn, Brandon, and Douglas. Holbein s talents were not confined to his pictures ; he was an architect, he modelled, carved, was excellent in ^ This was Vertue's opinion. The account in the family calls the man in the middle the Duke of Norfolk, and him on the right hand the Duke of Suffolk. If the tradition that this picture represents only English personages were not so well grounded, I should take it for a French composition. The person in the middle is a black swarthy man with a sharp beard, like Francis 1., and resembling neither of the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, the former of whom is never drawn with a beard, the latter always with a short square one : add to this, that the figure called Henry VIII. and which certainly has much of his countenance, is in an obscure corner of the picture, and exhibits little more than the face. Henry IV. of France, 11 guineas ; Marshal Montluc, 12 guineas ; Charlotte, daughter of Francis I, who died in her sixth year, from Sir Luke Schamb's collection, 56 guineas ; Claude de Clermont, Sieur de Dampier, 13 guineas ; and full-lengths of Catherine de Medici, and her children Charles IX., Henry HI., the Duke d'Alen9on, and Margaret, Queen of Navarre, 86 guineas. — W. PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 97 designing ornaments, and gave draughts of prints for seve- ral books, some of which it is supposed he cut himself. Sir Hans Sloane had a book of jewels designed by him, now in the British Museum. He invented patterns^ for gold- smith's work, for enamellers and chasers of plate, arts much countenanced by Henry YIII. Inigo Jones showed Sandrart another book of Holbein's designs for weapons, hilts, ornaments, scabbards, sheaths, sword-belts, buttons and hooks, girdles, hatbands, and clasps for shoes, knives, forks, salt-sellers and vases, all for the king. Hollar engraved several of them. The Duchess of Portland^ and Lady Elizabeth Germayn,^ have each a dagger set with jewels, which belonged to that prince, and were probably imagined by Holbein. The latter lady has a fine little figure of Henry cut in stone, whole length ; Holbein cut his own head in wood, and I have another by his hand of the king, in which, about his neck instead of a George, he wears a watch. Two other fi^^ures carved in stone were in the museum of Tradescant at Lambeth.^ His cuts to the Bible were engraved and printed at Leyden by Johannes Frellonius, in 1547, under this title, Icones Historiarum Veteris Testamenti. The titles to ever}' print are in Latin, and beneath is an explanation in four French verses. Prefixed is a copy of Latin verses in honour of Holbein, by Nicholas Borbonius, a celebrated French poet of that time, and of whom there is a profile among the drawings at Kensington.* 1 The noble seal appendant to the surrender of Cardinal Wolsey's college at Oxford, has all the appearance of being designed by Holbein. The deed is pre- served in the Augmentation-office, and the seal has been engraved among tlie plates published by the Society of Antiquaries, 2 The dagger, in her Grace's collection, is set with jacynths, and cost Lord Oxford i5l. at Tart-hall, when the remains of the Arundelian collection were sold there in 1720. The dagger that was Lady E. Germayn's is set with above a hundred rubies and a few diamonds, and is now at Strawberry-hill, with other curiosities bought out of that collection, particularly the figure of Henry VIII. in stone, mentioned in the text. For the dagger Walpole gave 50 guineas. — D. ^ [Two figures of Henry VIII., one in stone and the other in box- wood, both by Holbein, were sold at the Strawberry -hi 11 sale. The one in stone to John Dent, Esq. for 64 guineas. It was purchased at the auction of Lady Elizabeth Germayn's property in 1707 ; it was previously in the Arundelian collection. The one cut in wood was sold to the same gentleman for 38 guineas. — W.] ^ In St. John's College, Cambridge, is Henry the Eighth's Bible,printed on vellum., with Holbein's cuts finely illuminated, and the figures of Henry, Cromwell, and others. VOL. I. H 98 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. Lord Arundel showed Sandrart a little book of twenty- two designs of the Passion of Christ, very small ; in which, says the same author, Christ was everywhere represented in the habit of a black monk ; but that was a mistake, for Hollar engraved them, and there is only Christ persecuted by monks. Sandrart adds that it is incredible what a quantity of drawings of this master Lord Arundel had collected, and surprising, the fruitfulness of Holbein's invention, his quickness of execution and industry in performing so much. To the Catechismus, or Instruction of Christian Reli- gion, by Thomas Cranmer, printed by Walter Lynn, 1538, quarto, the title is a wooden cut representing Edward VL sitting on his throne, giving the Bible to the archbishop and nobles kneeling. This and several head-pieces in the same book were designed by Holbein, and probably some of them cut by him_ ; one has his name. On the death of Sir Thomas Wyat, the poet, in 1541, a little book of verses, entitled Naenia, was published by his great admirer, Leland. Prefixed was a wooden cut of Sir Thomas, from a picture of Holbein, with these lines : " Holbenus nitida pingendi maximus arte Effigiem expressit grapliice ; sed nullus Apelles Exprimet ingenium felix animumque Viati." Of his architecture nothing now remains standing but the beautiful porch at the Earl of Pembroke's at Wilton. From that and his drawings it is evident that he had great natural taste. One cannot but lament that a noble monument of his genius has lately been demolished, the gateway at Whitehall, supposed to have been erected for the entry of Charles V. ; but that was a mistake ; the Emperor was here in 1521 ; Holbein did not arrive, at soonest, till five years after. Peacham mentions a design that he saw for a chimney-piece^ for Henry's new palace at Bridewell. There, undoubtedly, at Whitehall, and at Nonsuch, were many of his productions. It may be wondered that I have said nothing of a work much renowned and ascribed to this master : I mean the ^ I have a large drawing by liim for a magnificent chimney- piece — I do not know if the same. PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 99 chamber at the Lord Montacute's at Coudray ; but it is most certainly not executed by him. Though the histories represented there, the habits and customs of the times, make that room a singular curiosity, they are its only merit. There is nothing good either in> the designs, dis- position, or colouring. There are three other historic pieces^ in the same house, of much more merit, ascribed likewise to Holbein, and undoubtedly of his time. The first represents Francis I. on his throne, with his courtiers, and the Duke of SufFo (so it is written), and the Earl of Southampton standing before him on an embassy. This is by much the worst of the three, and has been repainted. The next is smaller, and exhibits two knights running a tilt in the foreground ; one wears the crown of France, another a coronet, like that of an English prince, composed of crosses and Jleurs-de-lys, and not closed at top. An elderly man with a broad face, and an elderly lady in profile, with several other figures, boldly painted, but not highly finished, are sitting to see the tilt. On the background is the French king's tent, and several figures dancing, rejoicing, and preparing enter- tainments. A person seems leading a queen to the tent. Under this is written, "The meeting of the kings between Guines and Ardres, in the Vale of Gold." This is an upright piece. The third is the largest, broad like the first. Francis on his throne at a distance with guards, &c. on each side in a line. Before him sit on stools, with their backs towards you, four persons in black, and one like a clergyman standing in the middle and haranguing the king. On each side sit noblemen, well drawn, coloured, and neatly finished. On this piece is written, " The great ambassade sent to the French king, of the Earl of Worcester, Lord Chamberlain, the Bishop of Ely, the Lord St. John, the Lord Yaux, and others." These pictures In the third volume of the Arcliceologia, is given a minute account of these most curious paintings upon the walls of a large apartment in Coudray House, Sussex, all of which perished in the fire, Sept. 27, 1793. The originals are lost to the antiquarian world. A few of them have been accurately engraved, at the expense of the Antiquarian Society ; and Mr. Gough's complete description will supply a competent idea of the rest. — D. H 2 100 PAINTERS m THE EEIGN OF HENRY Vlll. I should not think of Holl^ein ; the figures are more free than his, less finished, and the colouring fainter : and none of the English seem portraits. The spelling, too, of Suffo, is French. Probably these pieces were done by Janet, who was an able master, was contemporary with Holbein, and whose works are often confounded with our painter's.^ Holbein's fame was so thoroughly established ^ even in his life, that the Italian masters vouchsafed to borrow from him. In particular, Michael Angelo Caravaggio was much indebted to him in two different pictures. Kubens was so great an admirer of his works that he advised young Sandrart to study his Dance of Death, from which Eubens himself had made drawings. This account of a man, dear to connoisseurs for the singular perfection of his colouring, become dear to anti- quaries by the distance of time in which he lived, by the present scarcity of his works, and by his connections with More and Erasmus, I must close with all I can discover more relating to him ; that he formed but one scholar, Christopher Amberger of Augsburg f and that in a roll* of new-years gifts in the thirtieth year of the reign of Henry VIII., signed by the king's own hand, in which are registered presents to the prince, to the Ladies Mary and Elizabeth, to the Lady Margaret Douglas, to the nobility, bishops, ladies and gentry, most of the gifts being of plate ; mention is made of a present to Hans Holbein of a gilt creuse and cover, weighing ten ounces two pennyweights, made by (Lucas) Cornelii. " D°. to Lucas (Penne) a gilt creuse and cover, same weight." On the other side of the roll, presents to the king. ^ 111 the great drawing-room at Coudray is a chimuey-piece painted with ' grotesque ornaments in the good taste of Holbein, and probably all he executed at that curious old seat, the tradition in the family being, that he stayed there but a month. ^ Sandrart. ^ [Amberger is supposed to have been the pupil of the elder, but to have copied and imitated the portraits of the younger Holbein. He appears to have been an older man than Holbein, though he was still living at Augsburg, where he enjoyed a great rei)utation, in 1568. He was a native of jSTiirnberg, where several of liis works are stilL preserved. — W.] ^ It was in the possession of Mr. Holmes, keneper of tlie reeords in the Tower, and was exhibited to the Anti(|uarian Society, in 173G. PAINTERS IN THE EEIGN OF HENRY VIIT. 101 Holbein gave a picture of the prince s grace. Lucas, a screen to set before the fire. Eichard Atsyll, a broach of gold with an antique head.* In the library of the Koyal Society is a book of the chamberlain s office, containing payments made by Sir Bryan Tuke, treasurer of the king s chamber beginning in Feb. 1.538, in the 29th of Henry VIH. There appear the following accounts : "Payd to Hans Holbein, paynter, a quarter due at Lady-day last 81. 10s. OfZ." Again, at midsummer quarter. " Item, for Hans Holbein, paynter, for one half year's annuitie advanced to him before hand, the same year to be accounted from our Lady-day last past, the sum of 30^. December 30, An. 30. Item, payd to Hans Holbein, one of the king's paynters, by the king's commandment certify'd by my Lord Privy Seal's letter, x^. for his cost and charge at this time, sent about certeyn his grace's affairs in the parts of High Burgundy ,2 by way of his grace's reward. September An. 31. Item, payd by the king's highness commandment, certifyed by the Lord Privy Seal's letters, to Hans Holbein, paynter, in the advancement of his whole year's wages before hand, after the rate of xxxZ.' by the year, which year's advancement is to be accounted from this present, which shall end ultimo Septembris next ensuing." * The advancement of his salary iS a proof that Holbein was both favoured and poor. As he was certainly very laborious, it is probable that the luxury of Britain did not teach him more economy than he had practised in his own country.^ 1 He was an engraver of stones. See the end of this chapter. 2 It was to draw the pictm-e of the Duchess of Milan, mentioned above. ^ Sandrart by mistake says only 200 florins. ^ Subsequently to these grants, it appears from an entry in the accounts of Sir T. Carwarden, Master of the Masques and Revels, in 1551, *' Item, for a peynted booke of Mr. Hanse Holbye, (H. Holbein) making, Ql." It probably contained his designs for the scenes." — D. ^ [The following pictures, attributed to Holbein, were sold at Strawberry-hill, in 1842 :— Holbein himself, in a black dress and cap, signed J. H., date 1545, for 13 guineas. A miniature of Jane Seymour, in water colours, formerly in the collection of Lady Worsley, for 10 guineas. A miniature of Catherine Parr, for 10 guineas. Two miniatures in one frame : one a portrait of Louis XII. of France, and the other a portrait of Sir John Gage, knight ; from the collection of Lady Elizabeth Germaine, for 20 guineas. A miniature, in oil, of a man, for 3 guineas. A small portrait, in oil, of Frobenius, for 19 guineas. A small portrait, in oil, of a man's head, with a black beard, and a cloak trimmed with fur, for 11. 5s. A portrait of a man with a red beard, in a black dress, for 10 guineas. A portrait 102 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. Henry, besides these painters, had several artists of note in his service. The superb tomb of his father, says Stowe,^ was not finished till the eleventh year of this king, 1'519. It was made, adds the same author, by one Peter, a painter of Florence, for which he received a thousand pounds, for the whole stuif and workmanship. This Peter, Yertue dis- covered to be Pietro Torreggiano, a valuable sculptor.^ That he was here in the preceding year appears by a book of acts, orders, decrees and records of the Court of Eequests, printed in 1592, in quarto, where it is said, p. 60, that in a cause between two Florentine merchants, Peter de Bardi and Bernard Cavalcanti, heard before the council at Green- wich, Master Peter Torisano, a Florentine sculptor, was one of the witnesses. Yasari says that Torreggiano having made several figures in marble and small brass, which were in the town-hall at Florence, and drawn many things with spirit and a good manner, in competition with Michael Angelo (and consequently could be no despicable performer) was carried into England by some merchants, and entertained in the king's service, for whom he executed variety of works in marble, brass, and wood, in concurrence with other masters of this country, over all whom he was allowed the superi- ority. He received, adds Yasari, such noble rewards, that if he had not been a proud, inconsiderate, ungovernable man, A portrait of a man in black, holding a ring ; on the back is written H.H,, for 17 guineas. A portrait of a young lady, Costanza Fregosa, its companion, for 27 guineas. These last two pictures were from the Palace of the Prince of Monaco, and were presents to Walpole from his great nephew, George, Earl of Cholmon delay. An architectural drawing, for two guineas. An original drawing of a clock, designed for Sir Anthony Denny, as a new-year's gift to Henry VIII., purchased at the sale of M. Mariette, for 61. 16s. 6d. A drawing of a Romish episcopal saint, whole length, for 3 guineas. A portrait of the Duchess of Suffolk, on panel-, for 10 guineas. A curious portrait, with the arms and an inscription of Coleshill of Cornwall, with a Latin inscription on the frame, for 61. 16s. 6d. A portrait of Henry VIII. the dress elaborately worked to represent embroidery, for 48 guineas ; and A man in black holding a ring, a small half length, in a richly carved and gilt frame, for U. — W.] 1 Page 499. 2 Pietro Torreggiano, or as he was called in England, Peter Torisa, or Torrysani. Vasari says that he was born in Florence about the year 1470, and was an eminent sculptor, when he contracted to make King Henry Vllth's, tomb, as appears by the original deed of contract, iu the archives of Westminster Abbey, dated in 1516. It was finished in 1519, after which he left England for Spain.— D. PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 103 lie might liave lived in great felicity and made a good end ; but the contrary happened, for leaving England and settling in Spain, after several performances there, he was accused of being a heretic,-^ was thrown into the Inquisition, tried and condemned. The execution indeed was respited, but he became melancholy mad and starved himself to death at Seville in 1522, in the fiftieth year of his age. Torreggiano,it seems, with Henry's turbulence of temper, had adopted his religion, and yet, as he quitted England, 1 In a passion he liad broken an image of the Virgin that he had just carved. Cumberland, in his Anecdotes of Spanish Painters, 8vo., 1787, p. 10, relates this story at large : — " Torrigiano had undertaken to carve a Madonna and child of the natural size, at the order of a Spanish grandee : it was to be made after the model of one which he had already executed, and a promise was given him of a reward proportioned to the merit of his work. His employer was (the Duke d' Areas) one of the iirst grandees of Spain ; and Torrigiano, who conceived highly of his generosity, and well knew what his own talents could perform, was determined to outdo his former work. He had passed a great part of his life in travelling from kingdom to kingdom in search of employment, and, flattering himself with the hope that he had now found a resting-place after all his labours, the ingenious artist, with much pains and application, completed the work ; and presented to his employer a matchless piece of sculpture, the utmost effort of his art. The grandee surveyed the striking performance with great delight and reverence, applauded Torrigiano to the skies, and impatient to possess himself of the enchanting idol, forthwith sent to demand it. At the same time, to set off his generosity with a better display, he loaded two lacqueys with the money ; the bulk was promising but when Torrigiano turned out the bags and found the specie nothing but a parcel of brass maravedi, amounting only to thirty ducats, vexation upon the sudden dis- appointment of his hopes, and just resentment for what he considered as an insult to his merit, so transported him, that snatching up his mallet in a rage, and not regarding the perfection (or what was to him of more fatal consequence) the sacred character of the image he had made, he broke it suddenly to pieces, and dismissed the lacqueys with their load of farthings to tell the tale. They executed their talent too well. The grandee, in his turn fired with shame, vexation, and revenge, and assuming, or perhaps conceiving horror for the sacrilegious nature of the act, presented himself before the Inquisition and impeached the artist at that terrible tribunal. It was in vain that Torrigiano urged the right of an author over his own creation. Reason pleaded at his side, but superstition sate in judgment, the decree vs^as death, with torture. The Holy Office lost its victim, for Torrigiano expired in prison, and not under the hands of the executioner." Cumberland observes, "For my part, I lament both his offence and his punish- ment. The man who could be so frantic with passion, as in the person of M. Angelo, to deface one of the divinest works of heaven, might easily be tempted to destroy his own ; and it has been generally observed that hearts so prone to anger, have, on occasion, been as susceptible of apprehension and fear. It is to be supposed that Torreggiano's case was not better, in the eyes of the Holy Office, for his having been resident in England, and employed by King Henry VIII. Whether they considered him as tinctured with the heresy of that royal apostate does not appear. I am inclined to think tliat he more resembled Henry in temper, than in opinion ; at least if we are to credit his assault on M. Angelo, and to try him on that action, since the days of Diomede, few mortals ever launched a more impious blow." — Page 17. Condivi relates this act of violence. See likewise Duppa^s Life of M. Angelo, p. 159, 4to.— D. 104 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. one should suppose had not suppleness enough to please the monarch, even after that complaisance. In the life of Ben- venuto Cellini is farther evidence of Torreggiano^s being employed here, and of his disputes with Michael Angelo. When Cellini^ was about seventeen, he says, there arrived at Florence a sculptor call Pietro Torreggiano, who came from England where he had resided many years ; this artist much frequenting Cellini's master, told the former, that having a great work of bronze to execute for the King of England, he was come to engage as many youths as he could to assist him ; and that Cellini being rather a sculptor than a graver, Torreggiano offered to make his fortune if he would accompany him to London. He was, adds Cellini, of a noble presence, bold, and with the air of a great soldier rather than of a statuary, his admirable gestures, sonorous voice, and the action of his brow striking with amazement, ed ogni giorno ragionava delle sue hravure con quelle hestie di quelli Inglesi — and every day he talked of his brave treatment of those beasts the English. But as much struck as Cellini was with this loftybehaviour to us savages, he took an aversion to his new master, on the latter boast- ing of a blow in the face that he had given to the divine Michael Angelo with his fist, the marks of which he would carry to his grave. Others say, that this event happened in the palace of the Cardinal de' Medici, Torreggiano being jealous of the superior honours paid to Michael Angelo, whose nose was flattened by the blow. The aggressor fied, and entered into the army, where he obtained a captain's commission, but being soon disgusted with that life, he retired to Florence, and from thence came to England. To Torreggiano Vertue ascribes likewise the tomb of Margaret, Countess of Eichmond, the mother of Henry Vn. and that of Dr. Young, Master of the Bolls, in the chapel at the Rolls in Chancery-lane. There is a head of Henry YIU. in plaister in a round at Hampton- court, which I should suppose is by the same master. ^ Vita di Benvenuto Cellini, s&ritta da lui stesso, 1730. Translated by Dr. Nugent, and republished with additional notes, 2 vols. 8vo, 1822, by T. Roscoe. — D. [Reprinted in Bohn's Standard Library. London, 1847. — W.] PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 105 Among the Harleian MSS. is an estimate of the charge and expense of the monument ^ to be erected for Henry VI L in which appear the names of other artiats who worked under Torreggiano, as Laurence Ymber, kerver, for making the patrons in timber ; Humphrey Walker, founder ; Nicholas Ewer, copper-smith and gilder ; John Bell and John Maynard, painters ; Eobert Yertue, Robert Jenings, and John Lebons, master masons. There was another called William Vertue, who by indenture dated June 5, in the twenty-first year of Henry VIL engaged with John Hylmer, to vault and roof the choir of the chapel of St. George, at Windsor, for 70 0 ^. ^ Humphrey Cooke,^ was master carpenter employed in the new buildings at the Savoy. The tomb at Ormskirk of Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby, last husband of Margaret of Eichmond, was in the same style with that of his wife and son-in-law. On it lay an image of brass, five feet six inches long, which when cast and repaired ready for gilding weighed 500 weight and a half. James Hales for making the image of timber had a hundred shillings. It was in the reign of Henry VIII. that the chapel of King's College, Cambridge, was finished,^ a work alone At Strawberry-hill is a model in stone of the head of Henry VII. in the agony of death. It is in the great style of Raphael and Michael Angelo, and worthy of either, though undoubtedly by Torreggiano. 2 Ashmole's Order of the Garter, p. 136. ^ Robert Cook, Clarenceux in that reign, was a painter ; and at Cockfield-hall,in Yoxford,in Suffolk, drew the portraits of Henry VII., Henry VIII., Queen Catherine, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, Sir Anthony Wingfield, Sir Robert Wingfield, his lady, and seven or eight sons, all remaining there lately. At Boughton, the seat of the late Duke of Montagu, is a small piece of the family of Wingfield, con- taining several figures, which probably is the picture here alluded to. * The name of the original architect is preserved by Hearne, who in his preface to the History of Glastonbury, p. Ixv. says, " All that see King's College Chapel in Cambridge are struck with admiration, and most are mighty desirous of knowing the architect's name. Yet few can tell it. It appears, however, from their books at King's College [as I am informed by my friend Mr. Baker, the learned antiquary of Cambridge] that one Mr. Cloos, father of Nicholas Cloop, one of the first fellows of that college, and afterwards Bishop of Litchfield, was the architect of that chapel [though Godwin, says the bishop himself, was master of the king's works here] as far as King Henry Vlth's share reacheth, and contriver or designer of the whole, afterwards finished by Henry VII. and beautified by Henry VIII." In a MS. account of all the members of King's College, a copy of which is in the possession of the Rev. Mr. Cole, of Blecheley, to whom the public and I are obliged, for this and several other curious particulars, Bishop Nicholas Close, is mentioned as a person in whose capacity King Henry Vlth (who had appointed him fellow in 1443) had such confidence, that he made him overseer and manager of all his 106 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. sufficient to ennoble any age. Several indentures are extant relative to the execution of that fabric. One in the fourth year of this king, between the provost, Robert Hacomblein, and Thomas Larke, surveyor of the works on one part, and John Wast ell, master mason, on the other part, by which he agrees to build or set up a good sufficient vault for the great church there, according to a plat signed by the lords executors of King Henry YII. they covenanting to pay him 1,200Z. ; that is to say, 100/. for every severey (or partition) of the church, there being twelve severeys. Another, dated August 4, in the fifth of the same king, between the same parties, for the vaulting of two porches of the King s College Chapel, and also seven chapels, and nine other chapels behind the choir, according to a plat made and to befinished, the vaults and battlementsbeforethefeast of St. John Baptist next ensuing, 2 5/. to be paid for each of the said porches; 20/. for each of the seven chapels; 1 2/. for each of the nine chapels ; and for stone and workmanship of the battlements of all the said chapels and porches, divided into twenty severeys, each severey ol. Another, between the same persons, for making and setting up the finyalls of the buttresses of the church, and one tower at one of the corners of the said church, and for finishing and performing of the said tower with finyalls, rysaats, gablets, battlement, orbys and cross-quarters, and everything belonging to them. For every buttress to be paid 6/. 13,9. id., and for all the said buttresses 140/., and for the tower 100/. The two next deeds are no less curious, as they have preserved the names of the artists who painted the mag- nificent windows in the same chapel. Indenture of May 3, in the 1 8th of Henry VIII. between the aforesaid provost and Thomas Lark, archdeacon of Norwich, and Francis Williamson of Southwark, glazier, and Simon Symonds of St. Margaret's, Westminster, gla- zier, the two latter agreeing curiously and sufficiently to glaze four windows of the upper story of the church of intended buildings and designs for that college. In the same MS. John Canterbury, a native of Tewkesbury, and fellow of the college in 1451, is said to have been clerk of the works there, PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 107 King's College, Cambridge, of orient colours and imagery of the story of the Old Law and of the New Law, after the manner and goodness in every point of the king's new chapel at Westminster, also according to the manner done by Bernard Flower, glazier, deceased ; also according to such patrons, otherwise called vidimus, to be set up within two years next ensuing, to be paid after the rate of six- teen pence per foot for the glass. The last is between the same provost and Thomas Larke on one part, and Galyon Hoone, of the parish of St. Mary Magdalen, glazier, Eichard Bownde, of St. Clement's Danes, glazier, Thomas Eeve, St. Sepulchre's, glazier, and James Nicholson, of Southwark, glazier, on the other part ; the latter agreeing to set up eighteen windows of the upper story of King s College chapel, like those of the king's new chapel at Westminster, as Bernard Flower, glazier (late deceased,) by indenture stood to do, six of the said windows to be set up within twelve months : the bands of lead to be after the rate of two pence per foot. ^ In these instruments there appears little less simplicity than in the old ones I have reported of Henry III. Yet as much as we imagine ourselves arrived at higher per- fection in the arts, it would not be easy for a master of a college now to go into St. Margaret's parish of Southwark and bespeak the roof of such a chapel as that of King's College, and a dozen or two of windows, so admirably drawn, and order them to be sent home by such a day, as if he were bespeaking a chequered pavement or a church Bible. Even those obscure artists, Williamson, Symonds, Flower, Hoone, &c. would figure as considerable painters 1 An indenture more ancient than these, and containing names of persons em- ployed in this celebrated building, has been discovered in the archives of Caius College, by the present master, Sir James Burrough, and is as follows : — ' ' To alle christen people this psent writyng endented seeng, redyng, or heryng, John Wulrich, maistr mason of the werkes of the Kyngs college roial of our lady and seynt Nicholas of Cambridge, John Bell, mason wardeyn in the same werkes, Richard Adam, and Robert Vogett, carpenters, arbitrours indifferently chosen by the reverend fader in God, Edward, by the grace of God, bysshopp of Karlyle, Mr. or Wardeyn of the house or college of St. Michael of Cambr : and the scolers oi the same on the oon part, and maist : Henry Cossey, warden of the college or hall of the Annuntiation or Gonville hall, and the fellowes and scolers of the same, on the other part, of and uppn the Evesdroppe in the garden of Ffyshwyke hostle, belonginge to Gonville hall, &c. Written at Cambr : 17 Aug. 1476, 16 Edward IV." 108 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. in any reign ; and what a rarity in a collection of draw- ings would be one of their vidimuses I It is remarkable that one of the finest of these windows is the story of Ananias and Sapphira, as told by Eaphael in the cartoons : probably the cartoons being consigned to Flanders for tapestry, drawings from them were sent hither ; an in- stance of the diligence of our glass-painters in obtaining the best designs for their work. J ohn Mustyan, born at Enguien, is recorded as Henry's arras-maker ; John de Mayne, as his seal graver ; and Eichard Atsyll,^ as his graver of stonfes.^ Skelton men- tions one Master Newton as a painter of that time : " Casting my sip;ht the cliambre about To se how duly eche thyng in ordre was, Towards the dore as we were commyng out I saw Maister Newton syt with his compas, His pkimmet, his pensell, his spectacles of glas, Devysing in picture by his industrious wit Of my laurel the proces every whitte." And among the payments of the treasurer of the chambers, reported above, is one of iOl. toLeviniaTirlinks,paintrixe — • a name that occurs but once more, in a roll of new-year s gifts to and from Queen Elizabeth. This gentlewoman presents the queen's picture, painted finely on a card. In the cathedral of Chichester^ are pictures of the kings of England and bishops of that see, painted about the year 1519, by one Bernardi, ancestor of a family still settled in those parts. They, were done at the expense of Bishop Sherborne, who erected a monument for himself, yet re- maining there. Vermander mentions one Theodore Ber- ^ Hillyard (the same person, probably, of whom more hereafter) cut the images of Henry VIIL and his children on a sardonyx, in the collection of the Duke^of Devonshire. The Earl of Exeter has such another. Lady Mary Wortley had the head of the same king, on a little stone in a ring ; cameo on one side, and intaglio on the other. 2 With a fee of 201. a- year. 3 Bishop Sherburne employed Theodore Bernardi, a Flemish painter who came to England, with his two sons, in 1519. They painted two pictures of very con- siderable dimensions, upon oak panel, describing two principal epochs in the history of that church of Chichester ; the foundation of the see of Selsey by Cead- walla. and the establishment of four prebends by himself. There is sufficient reason for conjecture, that the chambers in Coudray House were likewise painted by them. Theodore's descendants, Anthony and Lambert Bernardi, and another Lambert Bernardi, are registered in the parish of All Saints, Chichester. —Hist, of Western Sussex, vol. i. p. 181. — D. PAINTEES IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 109 nardi, of A_msterdam, master of Michael Coxie, wlio Vertue thinks painted those works at Chichester, as they are in a Dutch taste. They were repainted in 1747, by one Tremaine. The congenial temper of Wolsey^ displayed itself in as magnificent a manner as the king's. Whitehall, Hampton Court, and his college of Christ Church were monuments of his grandeur and disgrace, flowing from the bounty of, and then reverting to, the Crown. In 1524 he began a monument for himself at Windsor, erecting a small chapel adjoining to St. George's Church, which was to contain his tomb, the design whereof,'' says Lord Her- bert,^ " was so glorious that it exceeded far that of Henry VII. One Benedetto, a statuary of Florence, took it in hand, and continued it till 1529, receiving for so much as was already done 4,250 ducats. The cardinal," adds the historian, "when this was finished, did purpose to make a tomb for Henry, but on his fall, the king made use of so ^ Lord Herbert adds a reflection : ''Thus did the tomb of the cardinal partake the same fortune with his college (at Ipswich), as being assumed by the king, both which yet remain still imperfect." Speed, in liis History of Britain, p. '1,083, has copied a MS. of Nicholas Charles, Lancaster Herald, entitled, " The manner of the Tombe to be made for the king's Grace at Windsor." Of its extraordinary dimensions and magnificence, both of materials and art, the following extract may communicate some idea. " The in- closure, statues, &c. to be composed of copper gilt. Upon two separate altar or table tombs of touch stone, the figures Henry VIII. and his Queen Jane Seymour, recumbent in their royal habits, * not as death but as sleeping ; ' on both sides, and of the size of a man and woman, with two angels at the head of each. Upon a high basement between them, upon which shall be the history of St. George em- bossed, shall stand the king on horseback, in full armour, ' of the stature of a goodly man and a large horse.' Over all, ' the Image of God the Father, holding the king's soul in his left hand, and his right hand extended, in the act of bene- diction.' Thirteen prophets and four saints, all five feet high, and between each, pillars of serpentine marble. The amount of the carvings, 133 statues, and 44 ' stories, or bas-reliefs. In Henry Vlllth's will this tomb is specified, ' an ho- nourable tomb for our bones to rest in, which is well onward, and almost made therefore, already. Dated, Dec, 30. 1546." The whole of this unfinished pile or statuary was sold by the Parliament Commissioners, for 600/. and melted down. Among the Lansdowne State Papers, No. 116, is a certificate of the Lord Trea- surer (Burgliley) of the state of the tombs of Henry VII. and VIII. with a view to their repair. It is dated in 1579, when Queen Elizabeth might have entertained some serious intention of paying that respect to her ancestors. No estimate of the expense is given in this document, and it is more than probable that her economy subdued her filial piety. It had been exerted in vain. In the Archoiologiaj vol. xvi. p. 84, is the draft of an indenture of covenants for the erecting of a tomb for King Henry VIII. and Queen Catherine, the place not specified, at the expense of 2,000Z. between the king and Peter Torreggiano, or Torysany. Dated in 1518. Found among the jiapers of Cardinal V olsey, in the Chapter-house, Westminster. --D ^ P^'S*? y^'-^- 110 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. much as he found fit, and called it his." Dr. Fidde says, that the cardinal made suit to the king to have his own image with such part of his tomb as shall please the king to let him have, to be sent to York, where he intended to be buried. In the same collections mention is made of Anthony Cavallari, as gilder of the tomb, whom the cardi- nal is besought to permit to return home to Antwerp, if he means to employ him no farther, and also that Ben edict, the carver, may return to Italy. But Benedict Henry took into his own service, and employed on the same tomb, which his majesty had now adopted for himself This person was Benedetto da Rovezzano, another Florentine sculptor, who, Vasari says, executed many works of marble and bronze for Henry, and got an ample fortune, with which he returned to his native country; but his eyes having suffered by work- ing in the foundry, he grew blind in 1550, and died soon after. The celebrated Baccio Bandinelli made an admirable model of wood, with figures of wax, for the same monument ; but Benedetto of Eovezzano, it seems, was preferred.-^ The sepulchraP chapel was never completed. Henry and Jane Seymour were buried in St. George's Church, with an intention of their being removed into the monument as soon as it should be finished. Charles I. resumed the design, pro- posing to enlarge the chapel, and fit it for his own and the interment of his successors. But the whole was demolished in 1646 by order of parliament, and the rich figures of copper gilt melted down. James II. repaired this building, and employed Verrio to paint it, intending it for a popish chapel ; but no destination of it has yet succeeded ; it re- mains a ruin,^ known by the name of the Tomb-house. ^ I suppose it was Anthony Cavallari, or Benedetto da Rovezzano, who made the large statue in metal of Henry VIII. in a cloister at Gorhambury ; it is not in a bad taste, 2 Leland says that the ancient chapel of St. George, built by Edward III. stood on this very spot, and that Henry VII. pulled it down, and erected the present tomb-house in its place, intending himself to be buried there ; but afterwards changed his mind, and built his chapel at Westminster. See Leland's comment on the Cygnea Cantio, published with his Itinerary, by Hearne, vol. ix. ^ In 1800, his late majesty directed that the whole structure should be repaired and glazed ; and the decayed battlements and other ornaments completely restored, but nothing farther, as to its appropriation, was done at that time. — D. [It is now literally the Royal Tomb-house ; several of the royal family are buried in the vaults beneath. — AV.] PAINTERS IN THE EEIGN OF HENRY VIII. Ill REMARKS. Holbein was the luminary of painting in England, in the semi-barbarous court of Henry VIII., which shone with a powerful influence in efforts of ingenuity and splendour ; and diffused a taste for the various works of art, and a perception of their comparative excellence, hitherto unknown. The common, but somewhat injurious consequence of this supereminence is the throwing into shade the merits of other artists, who approach them with a degree of successful competition which is not always duly allowed. Henry VII. was of too penurious a character to patronize artists ; and we find that Mabuse was so little satisfied with the encouragement he received from him, that he quitted England after a residence of one year only. When Henry VIII. succeeded, his love of gorgeous ornament, and his rivalry of the Emperor Charles V.^ and of Francis I. incited him to a display of Gothic magnificence, in which the wealth amassed by his father enabled him to surpass them. But the same motives induced a more elegant pursuit ; and as those monarchs were liberal patrons of painters, who, at that period, professed likewise architecture, and all works of design, he followed their example by offers of great remuneration to some members of the Italian and Flemish schools. And though Raphael, Erimaticcio, and Titian, declined to accept his munificence, others, already celebrated in their own country, were willing to try their fortune in this. The faculty of an artist, at that time, was to complete a palace — to plan and design it, as an architect — to embellish it, as an inventor of carvings, and of patterns for tapestry and stained glass — to enrich the larger apartments with fresco paintings on the walls and ceilings, and the smaller with portraits and cabinet pictures. Such palaces had already risen, under the royal auspices, on the Continent, by the efforts and directing genius of one man. Our Henry spared neither solicitation nor expense to effect a similar purpose. Previously to the arrival of Holbein in England, Lucas Cornelisz, Luca Penni, Toto del Nunziata, and another of Raphael's scholars, Girolamo da Trevigi, were settled and constantly employed in the court of Henry VIII. Evidences fail us in ascertaining their several works, and appropriating them either separately or conjointly. We know that the palaces of St. James's, York House, Richmond, Nonsuch, and Hampton Court, were, each of them, built or ornamented during the early part of the sixteenth century ; and that retaining pensions were paid to all these artists ; but we are not supported, even by tradition, as to their individual performance. The superior talents of Holbein commanded universal praise and acknow- ledgment ; but eminent as his powers, both of invention and execution must have been, he is familiarised to us as a painter of portraits. As Walpole speaks only of Holbein's general excellence, and chiefly as a colourist, the opinions of other critics may not be irrelevant. De Piles, in his scale of painting, places him but one degree below Rubens and Vandyck. His immediate successors, and those who followed them in the reign of Charles j. considered his portraits as models of perfection ; they were frequently employed in copying them ; and were emulous to acquire his style. Norgate (in the MS. treatise already quoted) observes, " The incomparable H. Holbein, who, in all his different and various methods of painting, either in oyle^ ^ [There was at Strawberry- hill an historical .. picture of Henry YIII. and Charles V. with two figures behind Charles, probably his grandfather, the Empero Maximilian, and his father, Philip. It was sold at the sale for 52 guineas. — W.] 112 PAINTERS IN THE IIEIGN OF HENEY VIII. disterapre, lymning, or crayon, was, it seems, so general an artist, as never to imitate any man, nor ever was worthily imitated by any." Zucchero, after having examined his works, preserved in the English collections, indulged in extravagant encomium. Holbein gratified his royal patron by furnishing designs to be embossed or chased in gold or silver, to the goldsmiths ; particularly to Moret, whose portrait was one of the most admired in the Arundel collection. These were principally applied to standing cups, daggers, and flasks for gunpowder. Sandrart says (p. 241) that Inigo Jones showed him a small book, full of the most beautiful conceits, drawn in Indian ink (now 5,308, MSS. Harl.) About this time Benvenuto Cellini was retained by Francis I. and Benedetto da Rovezzano was resident in England, and associated with Holbein ; who had opportunities of seeing their exquisite works, and of acquiring their art, with the usual happiness of his genius. As an architect, he properly belongs to the next chaptei-. Respecting the cartoons, or as these designs were then called, " vidimus^' prepared by painters in water-colours, to be transferred or copied upon glass, Walpole has remarked an exact adaptation of one of Raphael's in the windows of King's College, Cambridge. Designs of able masters, originally intended for tapestry, were easily applied to stained glass, more particularly when the windows were made to represent Scripture histories. The celebrated cartoons were designed and executed by Raphael about the year 1517.^ The building of King's College Chapel is said to have been completed in 1515 ; and as the agreement cited in the text bears date in 1527, the cartoons had been long enough in Flanders to admit of copies having been obtained, according to Walpole's conjecture. The exquisite series of the story of Cupid and Psyche, painted by the same master, in the Farnesina of Rome, were copied " en grisaille " for the windows of the gallery of the castle of Ecouen, We had, at this time, the above-mentioned artists resident in England, who are known to have had employment in similar designs, from the glaziers, who made similar contracts ; and who were in constant intercourse with France, Holland, and the Netherlands, where the art of staining glass had nearly reached the zenith of its perfection. Although the mausoleum of Henry VII. be, in dimensions and magnificence, a work worthy of all the admiration then bestowed upon it, the art of sculpture and casting in metal, as applied to sepulchral monuments, had previously attained to a positive degree of excellence in this kingdom. If we refer to the effigies of his predecessors, still extant, it will appear that sculpture had made nearly an equ.al progress with architecture during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Casting in metal succeeded to the art of plating with it ^ [They were executed in 1515-16, and the tapestries from them, for the Sistine Chapel, were completed three years afterwards. These designs were originally ten. l?esides the seven now at Hampton Court, there were — The Conversion of St. Paul, Paul in Prison at Philij)pi, and the Stoning of St. Stephen ; which are lost. Passavant {Rafael von Urbmo, vol. i. p. 279 ; vol. ii. p. 258) mentions an eleventh, of the Coronation of the Virgin— the tapestry of which was placed above the altar of the chapel ; the others were arranged on each side of the altar ; the series from the life of St. Paul being placed opposite to the papal chair, and all within that portion of the chapel Called the Presbyterium. (Platner and Bunsen, Beschreibung der Stadt Rom. vol, ii. pt. 2, p. 408. ) There is another set of tapestries at the Vatican, which was executed from cartoons made from designs by Raphael, after his death : they are distinguished from the others as the Arazzi della Scuola Nuova, the earlier set being known as the Arazzi della Scuola Vecchia. The Murder of the Innocents, in the National Gallery, is a portion of one of the cartoons of the later set, or the Scucla Nuova.— W.j PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 113 upon wood. The faces were wrought from masques taken fi'om the dead subject, and therefore the likeness was preserved entire, of which many curious and authentic specimens are given in Gough's Sepulchral Monuments. They occur in the following series : — 1272. Henry III Copper-gilt Westminster. 1290. Eleanor, Queen of Bronze or latten ^ . . . Ditto. 1307. Edward I Copper-gilt Ditto. 1 327. Edward II Alabaster Gloucester. 1377. Edward III Copper-gilt Westminster. 1369. Queen Philippa Alabaster Ditto 1395. Richard II. Anne, his Queen. . Latten, or mixed metal . Ditto. 1412. Henry IV. his Queen Alabaster Canterbury. "22. Henry Y | ^^i^r t"/? | Westminster. Added to these are Aymer de Valence, 1246, of oak plated with copper, and John of Eltham, of alabaster, in Westminter; Edward the Black Prince, in Canterbury, and Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, in his chapel at Warwick, both of copper-gilt.^ The existing contracts are made with English artists, coppersmiths, chasers, or gilders . From Le Noir's collections relative to the statues of the kings of France, it may be supposed that the art of casting in metal was there unknown at the same period . Certain it is that it was rarely practised : because so many monuments mentioned are of marble, black or white, and of alabaster, almost without exception. In this era of the history of painting in England, it is obvious to con- template the perfection to which it had already attained in Italy. Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian, were in their full glory ; and when compared with their transcendent works in other countries, painting, in our own, was little more than genius struggling with barbarism. France had not long preceded or excelled us, The light diffused by II Rosso and Primaticcio over that country, was soon reflected here by the efforts of such of the Roman school as had ventured to visit this northern region. An admiration of painting, more especially of portrait, was excited by the novel exhibition of it under the royal protection. Still, however, till after the arrival of Holbein, our native artists were content to admire, and had not dared to imitate. — D. ^ [Brass. ~W.] Of brass. See note, p. 39.— W.] VOL. L I Holbein's gate. CHAPTEE V. STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. It is unlucky for the world that our earliest ancestors were not aware of the curiosity which would inspire their descendants of knowing minutely everything relating to them. When they placed three or four branches of trees across the trunks of others and covered them with boughs or straw to keep out the weather, the good people were not apprized that they were discovering architecture, and that it would be learnedly agitated some thousand of years afterwards who was the inventor of this stupendous science. In complaisance to our inquiries they would undoubtedly STATE OF ARCHITECTUEE, ETC. 115 have transmitted on account of the first hovel that was ever built, and from that patriarch hut we should possess a faith- ful genealogy of all its descendants : yet such a curiosity would destroy much greater treasures ; it would annihilate fables, researches, conjectures, hypotheses, disputes, blun- ders, and dissertations, that library of human impertinence. Necessity and a little common sense produced all the com- mon arts, which the plain folks who practised them were not idle enough to record. Their inventions were obvious, their productions useful and clumsy. Yet the little merit there w^as in fabricating them being soon consigned to oblivion, we are bountiful enough to suppose that there was design and system in all they did, and then take infi- nite pains to digest and methodize those imaginary rudi- ments. No sooner is any era of an invention invented, but different countries begin to assert an exclusive title to it, and the only point in which any countries agree is perhaps in ascribing the discovery to some other nation remote enough in time for neither of them to know anything of it. Let but France and England once dispute which first used a hatchet, and they shall never be accorded till the chancery of learning accommodates the matter by pronouncing that each received that invaluable utensil from the Phoenicians. Common sense that would interpose by observing how pro- bable it is that the necessaries of life were equally disco- vered in every region, cannot be heard ; a hammer could only be invented by the Phoenicians, the first polished peo- ple of whom we are totally ignorant. Whoever has thrown away his time on the first chapters of general histories, or of histories of arts, must be sensible that these reflections are but too well grounded. I design them as an apology for not going very far back into the history of our archi- tecture. Vertue and several other curious persons have taken great pains to enlighten the obscure ages of that science ; they find no names of architects, nay, little more than what they might have known without inquiring : that our ancestors had buildings. Indeed Tom Hearn, Brown, Willis, and such illustrators, did sometimes go upon more positive ground ; they did now and then stumble upon an I 2 116 STATE OF ARCHITECTUEE TO THE END OP arch, a tower, nay, a whole church, so dark, so ugly, so un- couth, that they were sure it could not have been built since any idea of grace had been transported into the island. Yet with this incontestable security on their side, they still had room for doubting; Danes, Saxons, Normans, were all ignorant enough to have claims to peculiar ugliness in their fashions. It was difficult to ascertain the period^ when one ungracious form jostled out another : and this per- plexity at last led them into such refinement, that the term Gothic Architecture, inflicted as a reproach on our ancient buildings in general by our ancestors who revived the Gre- cian taste, is now considered but as a species of modern elegance, by those who wish to distinguish the Saxon style from it. This Saxon style begins to be defined by flat and round arches, by some undulating zigzags on certain old fabrics, and by a very few other characteristics, all evidences of barbarous and ignorant times. I do not mean to say simply that the round arch is a proof of ignorance ; but being so natural, it is simply, when unaccompanied by any graceful ornament, a mark of a rude age — ifattended by misshapen and heavy decorations, a certain mark of it.^ 1 When men inquire, "Who invented Gothic buildings ?" they might as well ask, " Who invented bad Latin ? " The former was a corruption of the Roman architecture, as the latter was of the Roman language. Both were debased in bar- barous ages ; both were refined, as the age polished itself ; but neither were restored to the original standard. Beautiful Gothic architecture was engrafted on Saxon deformity ; and pure Italian succeeded to vitiated Latin. 2 This definition of the Saxon style by our ingenious author will be considered as rather jejune, and by no means satisfactory. When Walpole wrote, the subject had not been explored, the points of discrimination discovered, nor the precise boundary marked out, which divide the pure Saxon manner, before Edward the Con- fessor, from that introduced by the Norman prelates. They are still frequently confounded. It is allowed by those who have investigated the history of architecture among the Saxons, that very few churches of that early date are now seen above ground, and that crjrpts and door-cases supply the most authentic evidence. These, in many most curious instances, are sufficiently known to the architectural antiquary. Who that has examined the workmanship of capitals, door-cases, bas-reliefs, and soffits of arches, or the carvings of fonts, all of which have a confirmed reference to the Saxon era, will hastily condemn them as "heavy or misshapen ornaments?" Malmesbury, to cite no other instance, will vindicate such specimens from that censure in particular. Several of the ornaments of the door-cases resemble those we see adopted in the Roman mosaic ; and the finishing, so far from being coarse, approaches to delicacy. The leading marks of distinction between the Saxon and the Anglo-Norman style, immediately consequent upon it, does not depend upon the arches ; for, in both, they are circular. The arcades of St. Frideswyde (now Oxford Cathedral), and of Waltham Abbey, are exclusively Saxon, accoiding to the learned Mr. King, THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 117 The pointed arch, that peculiar of Gothic architecture, was certainly intended as an improvement on the circular, and the men whe had not the happiness of lighting on the sim- plicity and proportion of the Greek orders, were however so lucky as to strike out a thousand graces and effects which rendered their buildings magnificent, yet genteel, vast, yet light,^ venerable and picturesque. It is difficult for the whose authority was highly valued. But a chief peculiarity (continued certainly by the Normans) was the carving on the soffits of the arches ; and the placing a bas-relief of our Saviour, generally as sitting, in the round head of the door-case, so as to leave the door itself of an oblong shape. The Anglo-Norman period may be comprised between the reigns of Edward Confessor and that of Henry I., when several of the cathedrals were first rebuilt, with greatly increased dimensions, and simpler ornaments in the moulding. The heads of animals, beaks of eagles, and other chimeras were then very rarely intro- duced, and are rather demonstrative of the Saxon manner, and evidently copied from the lower Roman. The Norman "Romanesque" which prevailed to the year 1100, was characterised by plainness and simplicity. Few subjects have been investigated with more zeal than the real origin of the " Pointed Arch," since this observation of Walpole first appeared. To detail and examine the various hypotheses, which have in general been supported with consi- derable ability, would demand volumes. Sir Christopher Wren's opinion, to which Warburton and Warton greatly in- clined, ascribed what is commonly known as Gothic architecture to the invention of the Saracens, which the Crusaders first introduced into Christendom. "Time has revealed that errour ; no such Saracenic works exist in Spain, nor Sicily, nor in any other country to which the Arabian power had extended {Archoeol. vol. viii. p. 191); yet Mr Hamilton, (in his Egyptiaca, p. 347) and Mr Haggit, (in Gothic Arch. p. 121) contend for the eastern origin of the pointed arch ; and that remains of Gothic architecture are not less frequent in Egypt than in Palestine ; Alexandria, Rosetta, Cairo and Upper Egypt abound with them." Mr. Barry [Works, p. 123) is convinced "that the style called Gothic is nothing more than the architecture of the old Greeks and Romans, in the state of final corruption into which it had fallen." This mode since its introduction into Italy, has acquired various designations, from different authors on the subject — such as " La maniera vecchia, non antica — Greco-Goffa — Goffa-Tedesca — Gottica — Longo- bardica," the last mentioned was the heavy style ; the light Gothic "maniera tedesca." * Muff'ei, Muratori, and Tiraboschi have shown "that neither the Goths nor the Lombards introduced any style in particular ; but employed the architects whom they found in Italy." Dr. Moller, a late German writer on the Gothic style in that country, remarks that " neither the Goths nor the Lombards were inventors of the architecture which has taken their name, for the ancient paganism of the northern nations had no influence on the style of church build- ing." Heyne (the well-known) is more decisive in asserting, that the Gothic architects residing at Rome were in reality those who first migrated into France with other Goths who professed the arts, from Aquitaine and Spain ; and concludes with his confirmation of the opinion above cited. Millin says, that the style denominated "Le Gothique Grec," is peculiar to the lower empire ; when Greek architects were employed in Italy, to apply fragments of classical architecture to Gothic irregular edifices, as at San Marco at Venice." The Genoese and Pisan merchants were frequently laden on their return from their ^ For instance, the facade of the cathedral at Rheims. * [The Gothic is evidently a style especially suited to, and matured in, a cold climate ; the high angular roof indicates provision against the snow-storm, and a form first dictated by necessity was in course of time rendered ornamental by art.— W.] 118 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF noblest Grecian temple to convey half so many impressions to the mind, as a cathedral does of the best Gothic taste — a proof of skill in the architects and of address in the priests who erected them. The latter exhausted their knowledge of the passions in composing edifices whose pomp, mechanism, vaults, tombs, painted windows, gloom, and perspective infused such sensations of romantic devo- settlements in Greece, with marble from the ruined cities, which was used in con- structing their churches, as a more abundant quarry. Great resemblance of the first to the later Gothic will excuse the introduction of the following passage, frequently quoted by others, into this long note. Cassio- dorus, who, in the sixth century, Avas secretary to the first Gothic kings of Italy, has this striking observation concerning their ecclesiastical architecture, which had then begun to prevail. He inquires {Op. Cassiod. Venetiis, p. 23), " Quid dicamus columnarum junceam proceritatem ! moles illas sublimissimas fal3ricarum ; quasi quibusdam erectis pastilibus continui, et substantise qualitate concavis canalibus excavatas ; ut magis ipsas, estimes fuisse transfusas, alias ceris judices factas, quod metallis durissimis expolitum." Mr. R. Smirke, [Archceol. vol xv. p. 363), thinks that Gothic architecture was introduced into Italy at a very early period, and that it acquired a degree or rich- ness, which Gothic buildings in this country did not assume, till many years after- wards. His specimens, in confirmation, are a window of the church of Messina, in Sicily, in the early part of the tenth century ; the baptistery at Pisa, by Dioti Salva, 1152 ; and the Campo Santo begun by Giovanni da Pisa, in 1275. The late Sir H. Englefield, adds remarks on the same letter (p. 367) ; and conjectures that the tracery of the windows of the great cloister of the Campo Santo is not of a period earlier than 1464 ; and he grounds his opinion upon an inscription still to be seen, and quoted in the Theatmm Basilicoe Pisance, p. 375. Mr. Smirke replies, in confirmation of his first opinion, to show that the circular and pointed arch with tracery, were not uncommon in the same building, as early as he has stated. He discredits Sir H. E.'s proofs, that any material alteration or addition took place either in the Battisterio or the Campo Santo. Mr. Gunn ( On the Origin and Influence of Gothic Architecture, p. 227) had commissioned a friend to cause an accurate investigation to be made, whether the Gothic ornaments were original or substituted ; when the first opinion was said to have been confirmed by the keeper. Sign. Toscanelli ; who has since declared, that it was never authorized by him. [Arch. vol. xx. p. 551.) That this style "originated in ancient Rome," is advanced in Mr. Gunn's very sensible treatise, and pursued with more science by Mr Kerrick, the librarian of the University of Cambridge, whose notes and illustrations are most ingenious and valuable. A satisfactory extract only is offered to those who have pursued these inquiries, and who are referred to the latter volumes of the Archceologia, and the treatises which have been mentioned. " Gothic Architecture is said by Torre, to have been first so named by Cesare Cesarini, in his Commentary on Vitruvius The Italians call the old heavy style of building Lombard architecture, and we, for like reason, call it Saxon or Norman, but the architecture is the same. The error has been to suppose that it came to us, from some distant country, adult, and in its full vigour ; and not that it was implicitly adopted, and made use of, exactly as received. And it was not till very lately that, these notions having been found not to be supported by facts, we began to look nearer home, to observe the buildings around them ; and to consider the objects themselves, with the abilities required for their production." (Arch. vol. xvi. p. 292.) But the single hypothesis of the origin of the pointed arch was more generally agitated after the appearance of Mr. Whittington's Treatise on the Ecclesiastical A ntiquities of France, and the Rise and Progress of Gothic Architecture in Europe. This very ingenious author attributes the introduction to France, at least the adaptation of it, in priority to England. THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 119 tion ; and they were liappy in finding artists capable of executing such machinery, One must have taste to be sensible of the beauties of Grecian architecture ; one only wants passions to feel Gothic. In St. Peter's one is con- vinced that it was built by great princes — in Westminster Abbey, one thinks not of the builder ; the religion of the place makes the first impression ; aud though stripped of its altars and shrines, it is nearer converting one to poper\' than all the regular pageantry of Roman domes. Gothic churches infuse superstition — Grecian admiration. The ])apel see amassed its wealth by Gothic cathedrals, and displays it in G-recian temples.^ Dr. Milner disallows that fact, in a treatise which immediately followed, en- titled, On Ecclesiastical Architecture in England during the Middle Ages; the avowed object of which is to refute the assertion that the pointed style first appeared iu France. " It is probable that the first pointed open arches in Europe were the twenty windows constrncted by that great patron of architecture, Henry de Blois, Bishop of Winton, in the choir of the church of St. Cross, near that city, between the years 1132 and 36." This essay called forth a spirited examination of that fact from Mr. Haggitt, with a farther confirmation by Mr Hawkins, in the instance of the Abbey of Clugny. As a corollary to this limited view of the question, we may perhaps safely infer that the Lombardic, Saxon, and Anglo-Norman is one and the same style, formed upon the '"Romanesque," or debased Roman, and that the pointed arch originated in the east, or was, in fact, a new style in Europe, from whencesoever it sprang : " sed hac in lite Apellabo '' no author in particular ; but leave the matter for the decision of future critical antiquaries. One result is certain, that science may be exercised, and ingenuity elicited by such investigations. No one literary pursuit has been farther advanced within the last half century, in the rapid progress of the graphic art in England, by its numerous professors, than our knowledge of the Gothic style and construction. The building oi" a cathedral is no longer a mystery. By the ample elucidation afforded in the publi- cations of the Antiquarian Society, and in those of Mr. Britton, the amateur is competently instructed in the architectural antiquities of his own country, and enabled not only to feel Gothic " (as Walpole says) but to comprehend it.— D. ^ In the six volumes of letters published at Rome, and entitled Raccolta di Lettere sulla Pittura, Scultura ed ArcMtettura, are several of Mons. Mariette, a most worthy man, but too naturally infected by the prejudices of his country, his religion, and his profession of connoisseur. All professions are too apt to be led by words, and to talk by rote. Connoisseurs in the art are not tho least bigoted. Taste has its inquisition as weU as popery ; and though Mariette has been too j»artial to me, he has put this work in his Index Expurgatorius, from totally mis- understanding my meaning. Here follows the censure of the passage abov^e, iu which I have ascribed more address to the architects of Gothic churches, than to those of St. Peter's —not as architects, but as politicians — a distinction M. Mariette did not give himself time to make, or he could not have understood a book so ill that he gave himself the trouble to translate : after an account of these anecdotes, and too flattering a mention of the author, he says, "Quest' opera e arrichita di l)resso di cento ritratti, e la st^mpae veramenti magninca. io vi far6 ridere, ae vi divb, che la Chiesa di San Pietro non e di sue gusto, eche egli la trova, tropp<^ 120 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF I certainly do not mean hj this little contrast to make any comparison between the rational beauties of regular architecture, and the unrestrained licentiousness of that' which is called Gothic. Yet i am clear that the persons wdio executed the hitter, had much more knowledge of their art, more taste, more genius, and more propriety than we clioose to imagine. There is a magic hardness in the exe- ^'ution of some of their works which would uot have sus - tained themselves if dictated by mere caprice. There is a tradition that Sir Christopher Wren went once a year to survey the roof of the chapel of King's College, and said that if any man would show him where to place the first stone, he would eng-ao-e to build^ such another. That there carica d'ornati, il che non gU, pare proprio per un tempio degno dello Maesttji dell' Ivssere supremo, che lo abita : che gli ornauienti, che vi sono sparsi a profusione, noil vi sono posti per altro clie per fomentare * la superstitione, di che egliaccusa malamente la nostra Chiesa Rouiana. Ed a quale edifizio credete voi, che egli conceda la preferenza sopra a S. Fietro ! A una Chiesa fabricata sul gusto Gotico, e le di cui muraglie sierio tutte nude : cosa, che fa Pieta !" ^ "We admire commonly those things which are oldest and greatest, old monu- ments and high buildings do affect us above measure; and what is the reason? Because what is oldest cometh nearest to God for antiquity, and what is greatt^st Cometh nearest His works in spaciousness and magnitude," — Bishnp Corbet. ~D • This circumstance cannot deserve implicit credit ; Walpolehad probably heard it himself from the verger, or copied it from Vertue's notes ; but Sir Christopher Wren had too perfect a knowledge of geometry ever to have made the observatioi^. This roof, and that of Henry Vllth's chapel, of the same date, are either of then: composed of twelve substantive divisions, then called "severeys," and as totally inde})endeut on each other for support, and being so considered they were separately (•i)ntracted for with the builders, "100/f. to be paid to them upon the completion of each severey, and so from tyme to tyme until all the said twelve severeys be fuliy * Observe that I have said jast the contrary — in that Gothic churches infuse Kuperstition ; Grecian, admiration. In ni}^ comparison between the eftects of a Gn cian and a Gothic church, is there auy (piestion of preferring the latter to t'se former in jwint of architecture ? Have 1 not said that Gothic architects had not tlie happiness of discovering the true beauties of the Grecian orders ? Js there a word of St. Peter's being overloaded with ornaments ? Have I not even said that a Gothic church, though stripped of its shrines and splendour, makes stronger religious impressions, than the cathedral of Rome, though advantaged by all thos« decorations '\ And why ? but becaViSe glooni and well-applied obscurity are better friends to devotion than even wealth ! A dark landscape, savage with rocks and ])recipices, by Salvator Rosa, may be prefeiTed to a serene sunshine of Claude Lorraine ; not because it is a more pleasing, but a more striking picture, Cato is a regular drama, ^lacbeth an extravagant one ; yet who thinks the genius of Addi- son ecjual to Shakspeare's ? The one co])ies rules, the other the passions. A Gibbs and money, a French critic and an English schoohnaster, can make a build- ing or a tragedy without a fault against proportion or the three unities ; and the one or the other might make either. It reiiuired a little more genius to wrije "Macbeth," or to establish the Roman Catholic religion ; and though IMons. Mariette, doe.s not know it, his creed, which he mistakes for architecture, -vN-as more obliged to Gothic architects than to IVIieluud Angelo, and the rest, who designed Si. Peter's. THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 121 is great grace in several places, even in their clusters of slender pillars, and in the application of their ornaments, though the principles of the latter are so confined that they may almost all be reduced to the trefoil, extended and varied, I shall not appeal to the edifices themselves. It is sufficient to observe, that Inigo Jones, Sir Christopher Wren, and Kent, who certainly understood beauty, blun- dered^ into the heaviest and clumsiest compositions when- ever they aimed ^ at imitations of the Gothic — Is an art despicable in which a great master cannot shine ? Considering how scrupulously our architects confine themselves to antique precedent, perhaps some deviations into Gothic may a little relieve them from that servile imitation. I mean that they should study both tastes, not blend them : that they should dare to invent in the one, since they will hazard nothing in the other. AVhen they have built a pediment and portico the Sibyl's circular temple, and tacked the wings to a house by a (colonnade, they seem au bout de leur latin. If half a dozen mansions were all that remained of old Eome, instead of half a dozen temples, I do not doubt but our churches would resemble the private houses of Eoman citizens. Our build- ings must be as Vitruvian, as writings in the days of Eras- mus were obliged to be Ciceronian. Yet confined as our architects are to few models, they are far from having made all the use they might of those they possess. There are variations enough to be struck out to furnish new scenes and perfectly made and performed. " The point of difficulty Avill be solved in a great niciisure, if, instead of contemplating the roof as a whole and entire work, we con- sider the space only which is contained between four buttresses, as independent and complete in itself; and the connection between each several compartment con- cealed for the purpose of producing a very surprising etfect of elongation. Each .severey is bonded by two strong arcJies. Allowing this po.sition, the length ceases to be wonderful, excepting 0]i account of the great labour and expense. The more scientific reader will consult Ware's Essay on Vaults [Archccol. voL xvii, p. 79), for a very satisiactory description of the roof of King's College Cha})el. — Particulars of tlw, building of Kivg's Coll. Chapel, MSS. Harleian, No. 433, t. 49. — D, 1 In Lincoln's Inn Chapel, the steeple of the church at Warwick, the King'.s Bench in Westminster Hall, the screen at Gloucester, &c. — [To these may be added the towers of Westminster Abbey. — W.] * The reason of the failure of these two most eminent architects was simply their classically confined views of architecture. They were unwilling to copy, and iijcompetent to invent designs, in any degree analogous to original examples of the diff'Tcut Gothic manners. — D. 122 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF of singular beauty. The application of loggias, arcades, terraces and flights of steps, at different stages of a building, particularly in such situations as Whitehall to the river, would have a maguificent effect. It is true, our climate and the expense of building in England are great restric- tions on imagination ; but when one talks of the extent of which architecture is capable, one must suppose that pomp and beauty are the principal objects ; one speaks of palaces and public buildings ; not of shops and small houses ; but I must restrain this dissertation, and come to the historic part which will lie in a small compass. Felibien took great pains to ascertain the revival of architecture, after the destruction of the true taste by the inundation of the northern nations ; but his discoveries were by no means answerable to his labour. Of French builders he did find a few names, and here and there an Italian or German. Of English^ he owns he did not meet with the least trace ; while at the same time the founders of ancient buildings were everywhere recorded ; so careful have the monks (the only historians of those times) been to celebrate bigotry and pass over the arts. But I own I take it for granted that these seeming omissions are to be attri- buted to their want of perspicuity, rather than to neglect. As all the other arts^ were confined to cloisters, so un- doubtedly was architecture too; and when weread that such a bishop or such an abbot built such and such an edifice, ^ Among tlie MSS. Cotton, in the British Museum, is one of Gervasius, a Bene- dictine monk of Canterbury ( Vespas, b. ii. ID), relative to the building of tliat magnificent cathedral, after the fire in 1174. It is incorporated with the other works of Gervase, in the Decern Scriptores (col. 1290), published by R. Twisden, fol. 1652. It is the more curious from the extreme rarity of any MS. on architectural science of so early a date as the reign of King John. It includes a very minute account of Bishop Lanfrank's original structure, as well as of the restoration made- under the superintendence of William of Sens, and of William the Englishman^ who completed the work, and who is the first architect, or at least mastei -mason, a native of this country, concerning whom anything satisfactory is known ; and that he was the first who boldly attempted to work the ribbed and vaulted ceiltng,. in stone and toph. — D. 2 The arts flourished so much in convents to the last, that one Gyffard, a visitor- employed by Thomas Cromwell to make a report of the state of those societies previous to their suppression, pleads in behalf of the house of Wolstrop, *'That thcT'e was not one religious person there, but that he could and did use, either embrotheryng, writing books with very fair hand, making their own garments^ carving, painting, graffmg." — Strype's Memor. vol. i. p. 255. THE RETGN OF HENRY VIII. 123 I am persuaded that they often gave the plans, as well as furnished the necessary funds ; but as those chroniclers scarce ever specify when this was or was not the case, we must not at this distance of time pretend to conjecture what prelates were or were not capable of directing their own foundations. Felibien is so impartial an author, that he does not even reject the fables with which our own writers have re- plenished the chasms in our history. He quotes Matthew of Westminster for the flourishing condition of architecture in Britain at a time when indeed neither that nor any other science flourished here. King Arthur, say they,^ caused many churches and considerable edifices to be erected here. It would, in truth, have been an act of in- justice to us to omit this vision in a man, who, on the authority of Agathias, relates that the Emperor Justinian had in his service one Anthemius, so able a mathematician that he could make artificial earthquakes, and actually did revenge himself by such an experiment on one Zeno, a rhetorician. The machinery was extremely simple, and yet I question whether the greatest mathematician of this age is expert enough to produce the same efi"ect ; it con- sisted in nothing but placing several cauldrons of hot water against the walls of Zeno s house. The same author has cited Procopius, for the origin of dams to restrain the course of rivers, the method of whose construction was revealed to Chryses, an architect of Alexandria, in a dream. Dreams, lies, and absurdities, are all one finds in searching into early times. In a scarcity of facts, probability was the last thing to which such authors attended ; and conse- quently they left a mark by which, if we pleased, we might distinguish between the truth and what they invented. In Felibien^ the only thing I find to my purpose, and all that he really foimd in Matthew of Westminster is, 1 Fdib. vol. V. p. 165. 2 p^^jj^ ^ That Walpole should have consulted Felibien only, for information concerning architecture in England will excite some surprise. Felibien avows his disap- pointment, on finding that DugdaJe's Monasticon gave no account of Gothic architects ! We may indeed be considered as nationally unfortunate that whilst the great Italian, French, and German churches are indubitably ascertained, as the wort of architects whose names have been recorded, and have reached us, we are 124 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF that in the kingdom of the Mercians, Sexulphus, abbot and afterwards bishop, built a considerable monastery, called "Medes Hampstede,"^ unless it may be a satisfaction to antiquaries to know who first invented those grotesque monsters and burlesque faces with which the spouts and gutters of ancient buildings are decorated. It was one Marchion of Arezzo,^ architect to Pope Innocent III. In- deed, I speak now critically ; Marchion'^ used those grin- ning animals only to support columns ; but in so fantastic an age they were sure of being copied, and soon arrived at the top. left to strengthen our plausible conjectures, as to the builders of almost all in England, by defective evidence. We have yet notices, sufficiently authentic, of several eminent master-masons, a term in those days equivalent to architects. 1. Henry Latomus {Lithotomus, Stone-cutter), who rebuilt the church of Eves- ham, 1319. — Leland, Collect, vol. i. p. 249. 2. Walter de Weston ; St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster. — Pat. iv. Edw. HI. 3. Alan de Walsingham ; the octagon and louvre of Ely Cathedral. In the Life of Bishop Hotham, Leland's Collect, vol. ii. p. 604, Alan, the sacrist, is said to have built the Campanile Novum," in twenty years, and that the whole cost was 2,406?. 6s. lid. in 1342. Alan is styled '* Vir venerabilis et artificiosus Frater." 4. William Wynford, mentioned in the wiU of W. Wykeham, as the architect of the nave of Winton Cathedral, 1403. 5. Nicholas Walton, Pat. 17, Richard II. m. 3. " To N. Walton, Master Car- penter and Engineer of the King's works for the Art of Carpentry." In that reign the grand halls of Westminster and Eltham were completed, the stupendo;is timber-framed roofs of which were probably designed by, and executed under the superintendence of, this architect. 6. John Kendale, Pa.t. Imo. Edward IV. m. 16, p. 3. A fee to J. Kendale for life, as supervisor of all the king's works, throughout the realm. In the archives of the great abbeys and churches on the Continent, the original plans as drawn by their architects, have been preserved to the present day. In England, perhaps, not a single document of that nature remains. There is a basso- relievo in the cathedral at Worcester, on which is represented an architect present- ing a plan to the superior of a monastery, drawn on tablets ; it is of high antiquity, and affords a certain proof that ecclesiastical buildings w^ere not erected without a plan. — Carter's Ancient Sculpture. When the zealous, but tasteless reformers, seized on the literary treasures of the Romish church, the MSS. in conventual libraries were frequently destroyed without reserve. But all illuminated books were condemned and dispersed ; and as those which contained architecture, or any other art or science, were usually so elucidated, they were involved in one common annihilation, and we cannot wonder that scarcely one remains to this day. — D. 1 Peterborough. 2 ^^/^-j p 224. ^ Marchion of Arezzo must resign the merit of this invention to the ancient Greeks. The masks or heads of lions were placed to convey the water from the roofs, not unfrequently, but particularly in the temple of Ceres, at Eleusis. ( Un- edited Antic, of Attica. ) Gothic fancy having once adopted them, exerted itself in a great variety of monstrous shapes. They were generally called gargouilles, which are, literally, dragons ; yet they are made to represent chimeras and demons. Lidgate mentions them — "And many a gargoyle and manie a hidous head." — Troy Bake. — D. THE REIGN OF HENRY VITI. 125 Vertue, no less industrious than Felibien, could dis- cover but two ancient architects, Gundulphus, who built t]ie Tower^ (the same person who erected the cathedral of Kochester), and Peter of Colechurch, priest and chaplain, who in the year 1163 rebuilt London bridge, of timber.^ Edward Fitzodo, we have seen, was the master of the new works at Westminster, under Henry III., and may fairly claim his place in this list.^ In the cathedral of Lincoln is a curious gravestone over a mason of that church, almost perfect, except in that ma- terial part, the year of his death, the latter figures being obliterated. On each side of him is his trowel and square : Hie jacet Ricardus de Gaynisburgh olym Cementarius hujus ecclesie qui obiit duodecim. Kalendaruin Junii Anuo Domini Mccc. — But the brightest name in this list is William of Wyke- ham,* who from being clerk of the works, rose to be Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor — a height which few men have reached by mere merit in any mechanic science. Wykeham had the sole direction of the buildings at Windsor and Queenborough castle — not to mention his own foundations. He rose by pleasing one of the greatest princes, and deserved his fortune by bestowing it on noble charities. William Eede, Bishop of Chichester in 1369, reckoned 1 See the compact between the king and bishop, in the Textus Roffensis, pub- lished by Hearne ; and that between the same bishop and William Rufus, for erect- ing the castle at Rochester, cap 88, and Stovje's Survey of London. 2 William de Sens, soon after the year 1174, temp. Hen. 2d, built the choir of the cathedral of Canterbury, as it still exists. Helias de Berham, canon of Salis- bury, a prima fundatione (temp. Hen. 3") rector fuit novae fabricae per 25 annos ; et Robertus caementarius rexit per 25 annos. See Leland^s Itinerary, vol. iii. p. 66. Helias de Berham, was probably the person mentioned above, p. 2, by the name of Elyas, in the reign of King John. ^ See Stowe's SiLrvey, p. 28. Isembert of Xaintes is mentioned as a builder of the bridge of London, and of the chapel in it. 4 "Anno 1359, circa hsec tempora R. Edoardus castrum de Windlesore pulchris edificiis splendide decoravit, &c. et idem fecit in palaito suo de Westminster, con- sulente eum ad hoc Dno. Gulielmo de Wykeham, quem Rex de paupere clerico assumens constituit superiorem operum suorum." — Leland Collect, vol. v. p. 378. Lowth {Life of Wykeham, p. 195) says decisively that William Wynford was his architect, and employed for the nave of his cathedral, in 1394. May it not be presumed that Wynford had been previously engaged in the colleges founded by Wykeham at Oxford and Winton ? The munificent prelate's claim to the science and practice of architecture rests upon an undisputed tradition ; and that plans or "vidimus " were drawn out by ecclesiastics, for the master-masons to work by, appears to be certain, from remaining MSS. — D. 126 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF the best mathematician of the age, was a prelate of similar taste : he built the first library at Merton College, and the castle of Amberley/ In St. Michael's Church, at St. Alban's were the following inscriptions : " Hie jacet Thomas Wolvey [or Wolven] Latomiis in arte, nec non ariiuger illustrissinii Principis Ric. secundi, quondam Regis Angliae, qui obiit Anno Dom. M,cccc,xxx. in vigilia Sti. Tliomse Martyris, cujus animse propitietur Deus. Amen." " This man, as far as I understand by this inscription, says Weaver, p. 582, was the master-mason, or surveior of the king's stone-works, as also esquire to the king's person." " Hie jaeet Rieardus Wolven [or Wolvey] Lathomus, filius Johannis Wol- ven, eum uxoribus suis, Agnete et Agnete, et eum oeto filiis, et decem filiabus suis, qui Richardus obiit An. 1490. Quorum animabus," &c. I have myself turned over most of our histories of churches, and can find nothing like the names of artists. With respect to the builders of Gothic, it is a real loss : there is beauty, genius, and invention enough in their work to make one wish to know the authors.^ I will say no more on this subject, than that, on considering and comparing its progress, the delicacy, lightness, and taste 1 " The construction of this castle is upon a geometrical plan, which differs in many respects from the military architecture and contrivance of that age. It is nearly a parallelogram : there was a square tower at each angle, which did not project beyond the side walls." — Hist, of Western Sussex, vol. ii. p. 198. — D, 2 Chaucer was appointed clericus operationum, clerk of the works of all the royal palaces, with a salary of two shillings a day. {Pat. 13, Ric. II. p. i. m. 30.) ' ' Fro capella Regis Vindsoriae emendaud^, Galfrido Chaucer, " &c. From these grants it is evident that he was paymaster and director only of the workmen, and not that he furnished designs, or, in fact, could be professionally considered as an architect. Notwithstanding, the very minute and correct descriptions of the various architectural ornaments, of which his imaginary castles and palaces are composed, give a certain degree of evidence that Chaucer was a proficient in the science. The great hall and other additions to Kenilworth Castle were made by John of Gaunt, and the great gateway at Lancaster. Dugdale mentions a warrant from King Richard II. dated in 1392, directed to Robert de Skillington, master- mason, to impress twenty workmen, carpenters and others. The ruins of this hall show that it nearly resembled, both in plan and dimensions, those of Westminster and Eltham. John Dmell and Roger Keys were the architects of All Souls, and W. Orchyerde, of Magdalen Colleges, in Oxford. {Wood). The original contract, with the last mentioned is preserved in their muniment room. It appears that he was not only the supervisor, but the architect and designer. On a plate of brass to the memory of " Eustace Marshal," in 1567, in the church of Farnham Royal, Bucks, he is said to have been " clerk of the works to Cardinal Wolsey, at the building of St. Frides- wide's, in Oxford (Christ Church College), and for several years chief clerk of accounts for all the buildings of Kmg Henry VIII. within twenty miles of London ;" but this may not be considered as a sufficient proof that he was an architect. — D. THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 127 of its ornaments, it seems to have been at its perfection about the reign of Henry IV. as may be seen particularly by the tombs of the archbishops at Canterbury. That cathedral I should recommend preferably to Westminster, to those who would borrow ornaments in that style. The fretwork in the small oratories at Winchester, and the part behind the choir at Gloucester, would furnish beautiful models. The windows in several cathedrals offer graceful patterns ; for airy towers of almost filigraine we have none to be compared with those of Eheims.-^ It is certain that the Gothic taste remained in vogue till towards the end of the reign of Henry VIII. His father's chapel at Westminster is entirely of that manner. So is Wolsey's tomb-house at Windsor.^ But soon after the Grecian style was introduced ; and no wonder, when so many Italians were entertained in the king's service. They had seen that architecture revived in their own country, in all its purity ; but whether they were not 1 Some instances of particular beauty, whose constructions date at different eras from what I have mentioned, have been pointed out to me by a gentleman to whose taste I readily yield ; such as the nave of the minster at York (in the great and simple style), and the choir of the same church (in the rich and filigraine workmanship), both of the reign of Edward III. The Lady Chapel (now Trinity Church) at Ely, and the lantern tower, in the same cathedral, noble works of the same time : and the chapel of Bishop West (also at Ely) who died in 1533, for exquisite art in the lesser style. These notices certainly can add no honour to a name already so distinguished as Mr. Gray's ; it is my own gratitude or vanity that prompts me to name him ; and I must add, that if some parts of this work are more accurate than my own ignorance or carelessness would have left them, the reader and I are obliged to the same gentleman, who condescended to correct what he never could have descended to write. The idea that the Essay on Gothic Architecture prefixed to Bcntham^s History of Ely Cathedral, was, in fact, written by Gray, was firmly held by the late most able critic, T. Warton, who had himself announced an intention of writing a his- tory of Gothic Architecture, for which if he had ever made collections, they were, at his death, either lost or destroyed. — D. 2 The chapel, called Wolsey's tomb-house, had been previously erected by Henry VII. The computus, or statement of sums expended on some of the great ecclesiastical buildings begun in the end of the fifteenth century, are of sufiicient curiosity to be inserted. 1. Beauchamp Chapel, Warwick. Computus for seventeen years, from 1443, 1,806Z. 3s. M. 2. King's College, Cambridge, from 1441 to 1515, 22,469^. 25. Id. 3. Windsor chapels, from 1478 to 1482, 6,572/. ; much more was added to this sum. 4. Henry Vllth's Chapel, according to an account mentioned, but not specified, by Hollinshed, 14, OOOZ. For the perfect restoration of the external walls of this sump- tuous building, with their ornamental mouldings, figures, and foliage, parliament voted, between the years 1807 and 1822, the aggregate sum of 42,028/. 14s. 3^^. The whole has been most ably executed by the master-mason (Mr. Gayfere) ; and with skill and ingenuity equal to that of his predecessors, in the original work. — D. 128 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF perfectly masters of it, or that it was necessary to introduce the innovation by degrees, it certainly did not at first obtain full possession. It was plaistered upon Gothic, and made a barbarous mixture. Eegular columns, with ornaments, neither Grecian nor Gothic, and half embroidered with foliage, were crammed over frontispieces, fagades, and chimneys, and lost all grace by wanting sim- plicity. This mongrel species lasted till late in the reign of James I. The beginning of reformation in building-^ seems owing to Holbein. His porch at Wilton, though purer than the works of his successors, is of this bastard sort ; but the ornaments and proportions are graceful and well- chosen. I have seen drawings of his too in the same kind. Where he acquired this taste is difficult to say ; probably it was adopted from his acquaintance with his fellow-labourers at court. Henry had actually an Italian architect in his service, to whom I should, without scruple, assign the introduction of regular architecture, if it was clear that he arrived here near so early as Holbein. He was called John of Padua, and his very office seems to intimate something novel in his practice. He was termed Devizor of his Majesty's buildings} In one of the office-books which I have quoted, there is a payment to him of 1 Branellesclii began to reform architecture in the fourteenth century. See Voltaire, Hist. Univ. vol. ii. p. 179. It should be considered that at this period, when Holbein presided over the arts in England, under Francis 1. and his successor Henry II. during the whole of the sixteenth century, architecture had been carried to a very high degree of excellence. Vignola had resided two years in France ; Le Scot and De Lorme had practised in the great Italian schools of architecture. Their works had been seen and admired by the English nobility who had visited France ; and it is by no means improbable that even their plans and elevations had been acquired by Holbein. Of the two gates built after his design, at Whitehall, now removed, there are plates in the Moot. Vetusta, vol. i. pi. 171. That of New Hall, in Essex, is likewise taken down, but the above-mentioned, at Wilton, is still extant. — D. 2 Who was " Johannes de Padua?" what was his real name ? how educated ? and what were his works previously to his arrival in England ? no research has hitherto discovered with any satisfaction. But here he acquired a title, not before that patent (1544) given to any architect as " Devi?or of his Majesty's buildings," which implies likewise, that he had the sole and exclusive appointment. Henry VIII. had then completed his palaces, and little more could have been done, before his death, in 1547. D.— [This John of Padua was probably appointed as successor to Girolamo da Trevigi, likewise architect to Henry VIII. ; Girolamo, as noticed above, died in this year, 1544. — W.] THE REIGN OF HENRY VTII. 129 36/. 105. In the same place is a payment of the same sum to Laurence Bradshaw, surveyor, with a fee of two shillings per diem. To the clerk of the latter, 9Z. 2^., for riding expenses, 53/. 6s., and for boat hire, 13/, 6s. 8d. John de Padua is mentioned again in Eymer s Fcedera, on the grant of a fee of two shillings per diem. " A.D. 1544. Rex omnibus ad quos, &c. Salutem. Sciatis quod nos, De gratia nostra speciali, ac ex carta scientia et mero motu nostris, necnon in con- sideration e boni et fidelis servitii quod dilectus serviens noster Johannes de Padua nobis in architectura, ac aliis in re musica inventis impendit ac im- pendere intendit. Dedimus et concessimus, ac per praesentes damns et concedimus eidem Jo- hanni vadium sive feodum Duorum Solidorum Sterlingorum per diem. Habendum et annuatim percipiendum praefato Johanni dictum vadium sive feodum Duorum Solidorum, durante benejDlacito nostro de thesaur .' nostro ad receptam scaccarii nostri, per menus thesaurii et camerariorum nos- trorum ibidem pro tempore existentium, ad festa Sancti M'ichaelis Archangeli et Pascliae per aequales portion es ; Et insuper sciatis quod, cum dictus Johannes nobis inservivit in dicta arte a Festo Paschae quod erat in anno regni nostri tricesimo quarto, prout certain habemus notitiam, nos de uberiori gratia nostra dedimus et concessimus, ac per praesentes damns et concedimus eidem J ohanni praefatum i^odiwrn Vumum Solidorum, per diem habendum et percipiendum eidem, a dicto festo Paschae nomine regardi nostri ; Eo quod expressa mentio, &c. Teste «rege apud Westmonasterium tricesimo die Junii. Per Breve de Privato Sigillo.' This grant was renewed to him in the third of Edward VL From the first warrant it appears that John of Padua was not only an architect but musician — a profession remarkably acceptable to Henry. I cannot certainly indicate to the reader any particular work^ of this master; but these imperfect notes may lead ^ Holmby-house was one of our earliest productions in regular architecture, and by part of the frontispiece lately standing, appeared to be of a very pure and beautiful style, but cannot well be ascribed to John of Padua, as the date was 1683. Wollaton-hall, in Nottinghamshire was perhaps of the same hand. The porch of Charlcot-house, the seat of the Lucys, is in the same style ; and at Kenil worth, was another, with the arms of Dudley, Earl of Leicester. John of Padua enjoyed the patronage of the Protector Somerset, for whom, in 1549, he designed and built his great palace in the Strand. The walls only were fmislied, when the duke was led to the scaffold, in 1552. It is said to have abounded in ornaments of Roman architecture, and greatly to have resembled the mansion at Longleat, Wiltshire, which was begun by Sir John Thynne, in 1567, and according to a received tradition, under the superintendence of John of Padua. The design likewise of the " Gate of Honor," at Caius College, Cambridge, has been attributed to him by Mr. Wilkins, architect, in Alon. Vetusta, v. 4. Begun in 1572. These facts being allowed, it is certain that John of Padua came to Eng- land in the early part of his life, and practised his profession to a good old age. \^0L. I. K 130 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF curious people to farther discoveries. Jerome da Trevigi, one of the painters mentioned before, is also said to have built some houses here.' Henry had another architect of much note in his time, but who excelled chiejiy in Gothic (from whence it is clear that the new taste was also introduced). This was Sir Eichard Lea, master-mason, and master of the pioneers in Scotland.^ Henry gave him^ the manor of Sopewell, in Hertfordshire, and he himself bestowed a brazen font on the church of Verulam, or St. Alban's ; within a mile of which place, out of the ruins of the abbey, he built a seat, called Lees Place. The font was taken in the Scottish wars, and had served for the christening of the royal children of that kingdom. A pompous inscription^ was engraved on it by the donor ;^ but the font was stolen in the civil wars. Hector Asheley appears, by one of the office-books that I have quoted, to have been much employed by Henry in. his buildings ; but whether as architect or only supervisor, is not clear. In the space of three years were paid to him on account of buildings at Hunsdon-house, above nineteen hundred pounds.^ JohnShute was sent, in 1550, to study in Italy, by John Dudley, Duke of North- umberland, Avith an intention of employing him upon his return, in constructing a palace, Shute, in 1563, published the first scientific book upon architecture which had appeared in our language. — D. 1 Felihieu, vol. ii. p. 71. ^ This Sir Richard Lee, or a Lee, was, with greater probability, excellent as an engineer or military architect. He was certainly so employed by his Royal master, as Jerome da Trevigi had previously been. His grant of the demesnes and site of the nunnery of Sopewell bears date in 1539. His pedigree is given in CluUerhuck's HertSy vol. i. p. 105. The inscription on the brazen font above mentioned is sufficiently pompous : L^us Victor, sic voluit, a.d. 1543." Walpole specifies no work which he completed as a civil architect.- D. 2 Chavncey^s Hertfordshire, p. 461, where he is called Sir Richard a Leigh. ^ See it in Camden's Britannia, p. 355, vol. i. edit. 1722. ^ Nicholas Stone, sen. the statuary and master-mason, had a portrait of this Sir Richard Lea, whom he much esteemed. It was painted on board, about a foot high, his sword by his side. It came afterwards to one whom Vertue calls old Stoakes, and he gave it to Jackson, master-mason, lately dead. ^ Hunsdon-house (Herts), though much reduced, retains its ancient appearance. It was principally built by Henry VIII. for the reception of his children, as New Hall, in Essex, had been. Strype [Annals) has preserved letters from Edward VI. and the princesses Mary and Elizabeth, dated from this place. After the latter became queen, she gave this domain to Sir Henry Gary, her cousin, and created him Baron Hunsdon. The procession, when the queen came to visit him there, was the subject of a most curious picture, painted by Marc Guerard, and engi'aved by Vertue, which contains the portraits of the queen and several of her ladies and chief officers of state. — D. THE REIGN OF HENRY VTII. 131 REMARKS. Walpole has made but a slight allusion to domestic architecture during the reigns of Henry VII. and his more magnificent successor. In endeavouring to supply a certain quantity of information upon that sub- ject, it must be premised that an account of castles would be necessarily too voluminous for our present purpose, and it is therefore omitted. The periods and the instances to be described must be confined to the whole of the fifteenth and the first part of the next century, which preceded the appearance of Holbein, and John of Padua, by adducing the examples of palaces built by sovereigns, and others of the nobility, in England, without assuming to present them all to the reader's view. And now " that the substance of the far greater part of these fabrics has passed away, their very shadows may be acceptable to posterity." In the plans, surveys, verbal descriptions, and engravings of them still to be seen, and examined by investigators of curiosity and taste, in the national reposi- tories, a very competent knowledge of what they have been may be retrieved, although now in dilapidation, or totally removed from the earth. Imperious necessity, the efi'ect of the waste or the division of property ; want of respect to ancient things in individual possessors, as to past magnificence ; personal absence and the neglect of agents, and more frequently the advice of interested architects as to modernization or supposed improvement, have sunk more of these venerable and once splendid mansions into decay or oblivion_, than even the direct injuries of time, assault, or conflagration. Those castles which were erected in the later ages, after they had ceased to be entirely military, in their plan and dimensions, had usually a spacious court, accommodated to the purposes of domestic habitation, and which con- sisted of large and even splendid apartments. As the necessity of defence and seclusion abated with the exigencies of the times, the palaces and great manor- houses were constructed with more ornament, which was engrafted upon, or mixed with, the ancient military manner of building. Towers placed at the angles were retained, but now richly parapeted and embattled — superb portals and gateways rose from the centre — wide windows were perforated through the external side- walls ; and the projecting or bay windows were worked into forms of most capricious embellishment. About the reign of Edward IV. a mode of building of a new character, as applied to palatial structures, was introduced into our own country. In the middle of the fifteenth century (for there are no satisfactory proofs of an earlier date), under the auspices of Philip, the good Duke of Burgundy (1419 — 1467), a peculiar invention of civil architecture appears to have originated, and was certainly much practised within his dominions. It may fairly be considered as a distinct mode, and denominated the " Burgundian." In that prince's palace at Dijon, its features and discriminations were first exhibited ; and these were carried to a higher degree of excellence in the hall of justice at Rouen, andlikewise in similar edifices at Bruges, Brussels, and Ghent. The"Maison de laPucelle" at Rouen is an admirable specimen of the Burgundian domestic architecture. Our English architects soon adopted, in part, the Burgundian style, aided probably by the increasing intercourse between Flanders and England. When any memorable change in the construction or ornament of any con- siderable castle or mansion-house took place, the novel mode of building was adopted by others. Such a transition, from rude and massive strength to light and picturesque decoration, may be traced, with scarcely less certainty than in sacred architecture ; and although so few instances remain, they are equally to be referred to their own era. The " Burgundian " may be therefore considered K 2 132 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF as the true prototype of our Tudor " style, and as being merely confined to the two first reigns of that dynasty.^ But, in the reigns of the three preceding sovereigns, castellated houses of rich and highly decorated architecture had been eie3ted ; and it is curious to observe that during the turbulent times of the last of those princes, the great ministers of his government had severally built for themselves palatial castles.'^ It appears that Henry VII. confined himself to the expense of rebuilding the palace of Shene, after a destructive fire in 1500, when he conferred on it his own name of " Richmond." It was in the Burgundian style, being the second instance, as the " Plaisance " at Greenwich was the first. It now remains to us only in early and accurate delineations. Henry VIII. is styled by Harrision, {Bescrijjt. of England, p. 330,) "The onlie phoenix of his time, for fine and curious masonrie.^' But he is so to be considered rather for the additions of large apartments and external ornament to the palaces already built, as at Windsor, Whitehall, and Hunsdon. Bride- well, St. James's, and Beaulieu or New-hall, Essex, of an inferior description, were indeed entirely built by him. Nonsuch was iDcgun, but not finished.^ His courtiers vied with each other in the vast expenditure which they employed in erecting sumptuous houses in the provinces, where their influence extended. Wolsey, besides the great progress he had made at the time of his fall in his colleges of Oxford and Ipswich, had completed Hampton-court, and rebuilt the episcopal residences of York-house (afterwards Whitehall), and Esher, in Surrey. Edward Staff'ord, Duke of Buckingham, rivalled him in his palace at Thornbury, Gloucestershire, from which, when half finished, he was hurried to thescaftbld. Grimsthorp in Lincolnshire, was built by Charles Brandon, Duke of Sufi"olk. Both the Treasurer Duke of Norfolk and his ac- complished son. Lord Surrey, were magnificent in their ideas of architecture, as the descriptions of their houses at Kenninghall, Norfolk, and Mount Surrey, near Norwich, amply prove. These are said to have had the ornaments subse- quently introduced, but not a stone of either now remains in its former place. Others may be classed together for particular information. 1. Haddon-hall, Derbyshire. 2. Coudray, Sussex, destroyed by fire, in 1793. 3. Hever-castie, Kent. 4. Gosfield-hall, Essex, perfect. 5. Hengrave-hall, Sufi'olk, perfect. 6 Layer Marney, Essex, ruined. 7. Raglan-castle, Monmouthshire, ruined. 8. Hunsdon-house, Herts, rebuilt. 9. South Wingfield, Derbyshire, dilapi- dated. 10. Hill-hall, Essex, built in 1542, by Sir Thomas Smyth. 11. Wool- 1 Speed [Hist. Britaine, p. 995) observes concerning Henry VII. — "Of his build- ing was Richmond Palace, and that most beautiful piece, the chapel at Westminster, which forms of more curious and exquisite building, he and Bishop Foxe first, as is reported, learned in France, and thence brought with them into Englandy This peculiar architecture was effectually promoted by Henry VII. whose enormous wealth enabled him to undertake the most sumptuous buildings, and, in most instances, his avarice directed that they should not be paid for till after his death. By his executors, in the early part of his son's reign, the chapels of Westminster, King's College, Cambridge, and Windsor, were completed. Henry VIII. contri- buted nothing ! These were, 1. " Placentia or Plaisance," at Greenwich, by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, Lord Protector, 1440. 2. Hurstmonceaux, Sussex, by James Fiennes, Lord Say and Sele, and Lord High Treasurer, 1447. 3. Sudley-castle, Gloucester- shire, by Ealph, Lord Sudley, 1550. 4. Tattershal-castle, Lincolnshire, by Ralph, Lord Cromwell, 1455. Both the last-mentioned enjoyed the same office. Of these structures, Greenwich and Sudley arc dilapidated and ruined, Tattershal and Hurst- monceaux are bare walls only ; the last was despoiled by the advice of a modern architect, about fifty years ago. "Reproach and glory of the Regnian coast !" ^ Castles, royal palaces, and buildings, temp. Edw. IV. Henrici VII. and VIII. Westminster Chapter-house Records, and Vetusta Monum. vol. ii. THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 133 terton, in East Barsham, Norfolk, brickwork, in ruins. 12. Harlaxton, Lin- colnshire, perfect. 13. Westwood, Worcestershire, perfect. There seems to have been a leading idea, as to the construction of mansion- houses of the first degree, which was generally considered as complete, and therefore adopted in numerous instances. In the very curious tract, entitled, A Dyetorie or Regiment of Health by Andrew Boorde of Physiche Doctor, 8vo, first printed in 1547, we have directions " how a man should build his house or mansion." " Make the hall of such fashion that the parlour be annexed to the head of the hall ; and the buttrye and pantrye at the lower end thereof; the cellar under the pantrye sett somewhat at a base ; the kechyn sett somewhat at a base from the buttrye and pantrye; coming with an entrie within, by the wall of the buttrie; the pastrie house and the larder annexed to the kechyn. Then divyde the logginges by the circuit of the quadrivial courte, and let the gatehouse be opposite, or against the hall doore; not directly, but the hall doore standyng abase of the gatehouse, in the middle of the front enteringe into the place. Let the prevye-chamber be annexed to the great chamber of estate, with other chambers necessary for the buildinge ; so that many of the cham- bers may have a prospect into the chapell." The antiquary who investigates the ground plot of many of these large mansions in their present ruined state, will find this description to be exactly correspondent, particularly at Coudray. A very principal innovation in the early Tudor style was the introduction of gatehouses, bay windows and quadrangular areas, of which castles con- structed for defence could not admit. Of these component parts of .the palaces and mansions of this age, some account may be allowed. As to their materials, freestone or brick, they seem to have depended entirely upon the greater facility with which the}"- might be acquired, and they were not un- frequently mixed. Girolamo da Trevigi and Holbein introduced both terra cotta or moulded brickwork for rich ornaments, and medallions or bas-reliefs fixed against the walls ; plaster- work laid over the brick wall, and sometimes painted, as at Nonsuch, and square bricks of two colours highly glazed and placed in diagonal lines, as at Layer Marney. The chimneys were clustered and composed of columns twisted or wrought in patterns, with heads or capitals embossed with the cognizance of the founder, as at Thornbury-castle and Woolterton Manor-house. Gateways were considered as a great feature in all these edifices, and con- structed with most expensive ornament. That at Whitehall, before mentioned as having been designed by Holbein, was composed of square glazed bricks of difi'erent colours, over which were appended four large circular medallions of busts, now preserved at Hatfield Peveril, Herts. It contained several apart- ments, but the most remarkable was the "little study, called the New Library,"^ in which Holbein was accustomed to employ himself in his art, and the courtiers to sit for their portraits. It was probably in this chamber that the adventure took place which Walpole repeated, as having been omitted by none of his biographers. The gateway at Hampton-court and Woolterton aff'ord such specimens . Of bay-windows, and the capricious variety in their first formation, some observations occur. A bay-window, in common acceptation, means simply a projecting window between two buttresses (a space anciently termed a bay building), and fre- quently placed at the end of the mansion. They were invented a century, at least, before the Tudor age ; ^ in which they were usually composed of divisions 1 Warton'sEisL Poet. vol. ii. p. 44. 8vo. MSS. Rarl. 1419. ^ In John of Gaunt's palace at Lincoln, built in 1390, there still remains a most Deautiful Oriel window, the corbel which supports it having most elaborate sculp- ture in distinct panels. 134 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE, ETC. made at right angles and semicircles placed alternately, as may be seen in the buildings of Henry VIII. at Windsor, and at Thornbury-castle. Those at the upper end of the great halls were brought from the ceiling to the floor, and were of a more simple and regular form. The use to which they were applied, appears from a MS. in the Herald's College, relating to a feast given by Henry VII. in the hall of Richmond palace. " Agaynst that his Grace had supped ; the hall was dressed and goodlie to be seen, and a rich cupboord sett thereup in a bay window of ix or x stages and haunces of hight, furnissed and fulfilled with plate of gold, sylver and regilte." As an interior decoration, carved wainscoting, generally of oak in panels, was introduced into halls, and with greater nicety bothof design and execution into parlours and presence chambers; there was an abundance of cyphers, cognizances, chimeras and mottoes. These ornaments prevailed in the splendid castles built in France about the age of Francis I. and were called " Boisseries." {Millin, Monumens Franc, t. i. p. 20.) The hall and other chambers of the dilapidated mansion of the Lords La Warre, at Halnacre, Sussex, still retain some singularly curious specimens. The area or court was quadrangular : and besides the great staircase near the hall, there were several hexangular towers containing others. These usually occurred in each angle of the great court ; and exceeding the roof in height, gave a very picturesque effect to the whole pile of building, and grouped with the masses of the lofty and richly ornamented chimneys. By these peculiarities, the era of the earlier Tudor style may be discriminated from that prevalent in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, of which a similar description will be given in its place, — D. KING HENRY THE EIGHTH'S GATE WINDSOR CASTLE. 135 CHAPTEE VI. STATE OF PAINTING UNDER EDWARD VI. AND MARY. Under a minor prince, and amidst a struggle of religions, we are not likely to meet with much account of the arts. Nobody was at leisure to mind or record them. Yet the seeds sown by Henry were not eradicated : Holbein was still alive. We have seen that he was chosen to celebrate the institution of Bridewell. He drew the young king more than once after he came to the crown. Among the stores of old pictures at Somerset-house was one, painted on a long board, representing the head of Edward YI.^ to be discerned only by the reflection of a cylindric mirror. On the side of the head was a land- scape, not ill done. On the frame was written Gulielmus pinxit. This was probably MAEC WILLEMS,^ (1527—1561.) who was born at Antwerp about 1527, and was scholar of Michael Coxie.^ He was reckoned to surpass his cotem- 1 There is reason to believe that when Somerset-house was entirely taken down, from 1776 to 1784, that though orders were given for the removal of what were then considered as the best pictures, to the other palaces, many of considerable value were dispersed. The curiosity here mentioned, is noticed by Hentzner in his travels. — D. 2 [Marcus Willems would scarcely sign his name Gulielmus but rather Marcus ; Gulielmus, as the second name shows, was his father's name. There is no evidence of this painter's having been in England. The evidence is more in favour of Guillim Stretes mentioned below. — W.] 3 Descamps says, that Marc Willems was born at Malines, and not at Antwerp. MUlin {Peinture sur Verre, p. 57) follows Descamps, adding that he was established in that city, where he gained a lasting reputation. He excelled chiefly in designs for stained glass and tapestry, and we may conclude that his works, for both those materials, were well known in England before his arrival, and certainly short residence. — D 136 PAINTING UNDER poraries in his manner and facility of composing. This picture is the sole evidence of his having been in England : in his own country he painted the decollation of St. John, still extant in the Church of St. Eombout, for which too he drew the story of Judith and Holofernes. When Philip II. made his public entry into Mechlin in 1549, Willems was employed to paint a triumphal arch, on which he represented the history of Dido. He made designs for most of the painters, glass-painters, and arras-makers of his time, and died lamented in 1561.^ Another picture of Edward YI. was in the collection of Charles I., painted by Hans Hueet, of whom nothing else is known. It was sold for 201. in the civil war. There was another painter who lived at this time, of whom Vertue found an account in a MS. of Nicholas Hilliard, but never discovered any of his works. As this person is so much commended by a brother artist, one may believe he had merit, and as the testimony may lead to farther investigation, I shall give the extract in the author's own words : " Nevertheless, if a man be so induced by nature, and live in time of trouble, and under a government wherein arts be not esteemed, and himself but of small means, woe be unto him, as unto an untimely birth ; for of my own knowledge, it hath made poor men poorer, as amongst others many, that most rare English drawer of story works in black and white, JOHN BOSSAM, one for his skill worthy to have been serjeant-painter to any king or emperor, whose works in that kind are comparable with the best whatsoever in cloth, and in distemper colours for black and white ; wdio being very poor, and belike want- ing to buy fairer colours, wrought, therefore, for the most part in white and black; and growing yet poorer by charge of children, &c. gave painting clean over : but being a very fair-conditioned, zealous, and godly person, grew into a ^ See Descamps and Sandrart. EDWARD VI. AND MARY. 137 love of God's divine service upon the liberty of tlie Gospel at the coming in of Queen Elizabeth, and became a reading minister ; only unfortunate, because he was English born, for even the strangers^ would otherwise have set him up/' The Protector was magnificent, and had he lived to com- plete Somerset-house, would probably have called in the assistance of those artists whose works are the noblest fur- niture. I have already mentioned his portrait by Holbein. His ambitious duchess, Anne Stanhope, and her son, are preserved in a small piece^ of oil-colours at Petworth; but I know not who the painter was, nor of the portrait of the Protector's brother, Admiral Seymour, at Longleat. A. miniature of the same person is in the possession of Mrs. George Grenville. Of the admiral's creature, Sir William Sherrington, there are two or three pictures extant ; one, among Holbein's drawings at Kensington. This man was master of the mint, and was convicted by his own confes- sion of great frauds.^ He put the mint of Bristol into the hands of the admiral, who was to take thence 10,000?. per month for his rebellious purposes. Yet Sherrington was pardoned and restored. It has never been observed, but I suppose the lightness which is remarked in the coins of Edward VI. was owing to the embezzlements of this person. Now I am mentioning the mint, I shall take notice that among the patent-rolls is a grant in the sixth of Edward, to Antony Deric, of the office of capital sculptor of the moneys in the Tower of London ; and at the end of the same year John Brown is appointed during pleasure surveyor of the coins. Clement Adams has a grant to instruct the king's henchmen or pages — an office he re- tained under Queen Elizabeth. In Haclduyt's Voyages,"^ that of Kichard Chancel er to Cathay is said to be written in Latin by that learned young man, Clement Adams. Of the Protector's rival, Dudley, Duke of Northumber- land, there is a good head in the chamber at Knole, where 1 King Philip and tlie Spaniards. ^ There is a head of her too at Sion ; and Mr. Bateman has given me another in small, with a portrait of the Protector in her hand ; painted probably after his death. 3 Stryjpe's Memorials, vol. ii. p. 123. ^ p^gg 270. 138 PAINTING UNDER there are so many curious portraits, supposed to liave been assembled by the treasurer, Buckhurst/ Another person of some note in this reign was Sir J ohn Godsalve, created knight of the carpet at the king's coronation ;^ and commissioner of visitation the same year f and in the third year the comptroller of the mint. His portrait is in the closet at Kensington, and Yertue mentions another in miniature, drawn by John Betts* (who he says was an esteemed painter in the reign of Queen Elizabeth). On this picture was written, " Captum in castris ad Boloniam 1540 with his arms, party per pale gules and azure, on a fess wavy argent, between three croslets pattee, or, as many crescents sable. The knight was drawn with a spear and shield. This picture belonged to Christopher Godsalve, clerk of the victualling- office in the reign of Charles I. in whose cause he lost 7000Z. and was near being hanged. He was employed by Charles XL in the navy-office, and lived to 1694. Guillim Stretes was painter to King Edward, in 1551.. " He had paid him," says Strype,^ fifty marks for recom- pence of three great tables made by the said Guillim, whereof two were the pictures of his Highness sent to Sir Thomas Hoby, and Sir John Mason (ambassadors abroad) ; the third a picture of the late Earl of Surrey,^ attainted, and by the counciFs commandant fetched from the said ^, Biographical Sketches of Eminent Persons whose Portraits form part of the Duke of Dorset's Collection, at Knole, Kent, 8vo, 1795. Nearly fifty portraits are noticed, tlie majority of which have certainly no claim, as original. ^ See Strype. ^ Heylin. ^ Vertue says that Betts learned of Hilliard. This miniature must have been a copy from Holbin. — D. ^ Vol. ii. p. 494. ^ Henry Howard, the highly gifted and unfortunate Earl of Surrey, was beheaded January 19, 1546-7. He is standing under a Eoman arch, habited in a close dress of brown silk, profusely embroidered with gold. He has the order of the Garter, a sword and dagger; the motto, "Sat superest [-|-| set. 29, 1547 ;" and two escutcheons, upon one the arms of France and England, quarterly ; and on the other, those of Thomas de Brotherton, Earl of Norfolk, eldest son of King Edward the First by his second marriage, from whose surviving coheir, Lord Surrey was lineally and legitimately descended. This most curious picture is a whole length of large dimensions, and nearly of a square shape, r.nd has never been engraved. At Knole, there is a half length of Lord Surrey exactly copied from this portrait. It was purchased in 1720, at the sale of the Arundel collection at Stafford-house, near Buckingham-gate, for Sir Robert Walpole, who made a present of it to the late Edward, Duke of Norfolk. It is now at Arundel-castle. — D. EDWARD VI. Ai!iD MARY. 139 Guillim's house.'* The peculiarity of these last words in- duce me to think that I have discovered this very picture. In my father s collection was a very large piece representing that unfortunate lord, at whole length, leaning on a broken column, with this motto, "Sat superest," and other devices, particularly the arms of England, one of the articles of his impeachment, and only the initial letters of his name. This was evidently painted after his death, and as his father was still detained in prison during the whole reign of Edward, it cannot be probable that a portrait of the son, with such marks of honour, should be drawn by order of the Court. On the contrary, its being fetched from Guillim's house by the counciVs commandment seems to imply that it was seized by their order. It is now in the possession of his grace the Duke of Norfolk. Architecture preserved in this reign the footing it had acquired under the last king. Somerset-house is a com- pound of Grecian and Gothic. It was built on the site of Chester-inn, where the ancient poet Occleve formerly lived. As the pension to John of Padua was renewed in the third of this king, one may suppose that he owed it to the Pro- tector, and was the architect of thispalace. In the same style and dating its origin from the same power as Somerset- house, is Longleat, thoughnot begun till 1567. It was built by Sir John Thynne, a principal officer to the Protector. 1553. — The reign of Mary, though shorter even than that of her brother, makes a much more considerable figure in the annals of painting. It was distinguished by more good painters than one ; the principal was SIR ANTONIO MOEE, (1525—1581.) He was a native of Utrecht, and scholar of John Schorel,^ but seems to have studied the manner of Holbein, to which 1 [More, or Moro, died at Antwerp in 1581, aged iBfty-six. SeeDe Yongh's edition of Van Mander, Het Leven der Schilders. Amsterdam, 1764, vol, i. p. 176, note. — W.] 2 Schorel was scholar of Mabiise, and was a poet, musician, and orator. See an account of him in Sandrart, p. 235. [More studied also in Rome. — W.] In Cumberland's Anecdotes of Eminent Painters in Spain, we have the following 140 PAINTING UNDER he approaehed nearer than to the freedom of design in the works of the great masters that he saw at Rome. Like Holbein, he was a close imitator of nature, but did not arrive at his extreme delicacy of finishing; on the contrary, Antonio sometimes struck into a bold and masculine style, with a good knowledge of the chiaro' scuro. In 1592, he drew Philip XL and. was recommended by Cardinal Granvelle to Charles V. who sent him to Portugal, where he painted John TIL the king, Catherine of Austria his queen, and the Infanta Mary, first wife of Philip. For these three pictures he received six hundred ducats, besides a gold chain of one thousand florins, and other presents. He had one hundred ducats^ for his common portraits. But still ampler rewards were bestowed on him when sent into notice of Sir Antonio More : — "He came into Spain in 1552, Charles V. being then on the throne, under the protection of his countryman Cardinal Granvelle ; he made a portrait of Prince Philip, and being recommended by the cardinal to the service of the emperor,, he was sent by him into Portugal, to take the portrait of the Princess Donna Maria, then contracted to Philip. At the same time he painted John, third King of Portugal, &c. by all which portraits he gave entire satisfaction, and v 's magnificently rewarded. Having succeeded so well in this commission, he was next despatched by the emperor into England, to the court of Mary, to take the portrait of that princess previous to her espousals with Philip. More employed all the flattering aids of his art in this portrait, and so captivated the courtiers of Spain with the charms of Mary's person, that he was required to make copies of his picture ; one of which I have seen in the possession of a noble family, by which it appears that More was not only a good painter, but an excellent courtier. Having enriched himself in England, he returned to Spain, and entered into the service of Philip II. who made slaves of his friends, and friends of his painters ; and treated More with great familiarity. This great artist wanted discretion, and he met the king's advances with the same ease that they were made ; so that, one day whilst he was at his work, and Philip looking on, More dipped his pencil in "ermine, and with it smeared the hand of the king, who was resting his arm on his shoulder. The jest was rash, and the character to which it was applied, not to be played upon with impunity. The hand of the King of Spain (which even the fair sex kneel down to salute) was never so treated since the foundation of the monarchy. The king sur- veyed it seriously a while, and in that perilous moment of suspense, the fate of More balanced on a hair ; the courtiers who were in awful attendance, revolted from the sight with horror and amazement. Caprice, or perhaps pity, turned the scale ; and Philip passed the silly action off with a smile of complacency. The painter, dropping on his knee, eagerly seized those of the king, and kissed his feet, in humble atonement for the offence, and aU was well, or at least seemed to be so : but the person of the king was too sacred in the consideration of those times, and the act too daring to escape the notice of the awful office of the Inquisition ; and they learnedly concluded that Antonio Moro, being a foreigner and a traveller, had either learned the art magic, or more probably obtained, in England, some spell or charm wherewith he had bewitched the king." — Vol. ii. p. 97, 8vo. 1787. — D. [The story, as told in Walpole's text, which differs from this, is from Van Mander ; Cumberland's account is from Palomino, who wrote a century after Van Mander. — W.] ^ Titian himself had but one hundred pieces of gold. See Sandrart, p. 224. EDWARD VI. AND MARY. 141 England, to draw the picture of Queen Mary,^ the intended bride of Philip. They gave him one hundred pounds, a gold chain, and a pension of one hundred pounds a quarter as painter to their majesties. He made various portraits of the queen ;^ one was sent by Cardinal Granvelle to the emperor, who ordered two hundred florins to Antonio. He remained in England during the reign of Mary, and. was much employed ; but having neglected, as is frequent, to write the names on the portraits he drew, most of them havelo'st part of their value, by our ignorance of the per- sons represented. The poorest performers have it in their power to add so much merit to their works, as can be conferred by identifying the subjects, which would be a little reparation to the curious world, though some families should miss imaginary ancestors. On the death of the queen, More followed Philip, (and probably his religion,)^ into Spain, where he was indulged in so much familiarity, that one day the king slapping him pretty roughly on the shoulder, More returned the sport with his hand-stick — a strange liberty to be taken with a Spanish monarch, and with such a monarch ! His bio- grapher gives but an awkward account of the sequel ; and 1 repeat it as 1 find it : A grandee interposed for his pardon, and he was permitted to retire to the Netherlands, but under promise of returning again to Spain. I should rather suppose that he was promised to have leave to return thither, after a temporary banishment ; arid this supposition is the more likely, as Philip, for once forgetting majesty in his ^ Sandrart says, she was very handsome. * It is certain that the drawing of her (when about sixteen) by Holbein at Kensiugton is not disagreeable, though her later pictures have all a stern hard-favoured countenance. 2 [Van Mander says, 100/. per annum. — W.] ^ In King Charles's collection was a miniature in oil of this queen, by Antonio More, painted on a round gold plate, in blue flowered velvet and gold tissue with sleeves of fur, two red roses and a pair of gloves in her hand ; the very same dress of her picture at the Duke of Bedford's at Woburn. The miniature was a present to the king from the Earl of Suffolk. He was suspected by the Inquisition of making use of his interest with the king in favour of his countrymen, says Sandrart. This might be meant either of their religious or political principles. But sure the inquisitors knew Philip too well to be apprehensive of his listening to any insinuations of tenderness on either head. * [Sandrart merely repeats what is said by Van Mander. — W.] 142 PAINTING UNDER love of the arts, dispatched a messenger to recall him before he had finished his journey. But the painter, sensible of the danger he had escaped, modestly excused himself ; and yet, says the story, the king bestowed noble presents and places on his children. At Utrecht, Antonio found the Duke of Alva, and was employed by him to draw several of his mistresses, and was made receiver of the revenues of West Flanders — a preferment, with which, they say, he was so elated, that he burned his easel, and gave away his painting tools. ^ More was a man of a stately and handsome presence ; and often went to Brussels, where he lived magnificently. He died at Antwerp in 1575,^ in the fifty-sixth year of his age. His portrait, painted by himself, is in the chamber of painters at Florence, with which the great duke, who bought it, was so pleased, that he ordered a cartel with some Greek verses, written by Antonio M aria Salvini, his Greek professor, to be afiixed to the frame. Salvini translated them into Italian and into the following Latin : Papae ! est imago cujus, Qui Zeuxin atque Apellem, Veterumque quot fuere, Recentiumque quot sunt, Genus arte vicit omnes ! Viden' ut suam ipse pinxit Propria manu figuram ; Chalybis quid em nitenti Speculo se ipse cernens. Manus 0 ! potens magistri ! Nam pseudo morus iste Fors, More, vel loquetur." Another picture of himself, and one of his wife, were hi the collection of Sir Peter Lely. More s was three feet eight inches high, by two feet nine wide. King Charles had five pictures painted by this master ; and the Duke of Buckingham had a portrait of a man by him ; (see his cata- ^ [This post was not given to More, but to his son-in-law. He burned his easel and gave away Ms tools, when he was invited by the Duke of Alva from Utrecht to Brussels, where he continued to paint for the duke ; and, according to Van Mander, realized a considerable property by his profession. — W.] ^ [1581. See previous note. — W.] EDWARD VI. AND MARY. 143 logue, p. 18.^ A print of him in profile/ was published by Hondius, and a medal struck of him in Italy with this legend, "Ant. More, pictor transmontanus." At what time or where he was knighted is uncertain. He painted his master, John Schorel, in 1560. Several of his works are or were at Sir Philip Sydenham's, at Brympton, in Somerset- shire. A very good portrait of Sir Thomas Gresham is at Houghton.^ I have a miniature by him, called Thomas, Duke of Norfolk,* engraved among the illustrious heads ; it belonged to Eichardson the painter, and came out of the Arundelian collection ; and a half-length of a lady in black, with a gold chain about her waist, which is men- tioned in the catalogue of pictures of James II. and by that of Charles I.,^ appears to be Margaret of Yalois, ^ sister of Henry II. of France, and Duchess of Savoy, at the tournament for whose wedding that monarch was killed. Lady Elizabeth Germayn has the portrait of Anne, daughter of Francis, Earl of Bedford, and wife of Ambrose, Earl of Warwick. At Newstede Abbey, in Nottinghamshire, the beautiful ^ - In Brian Fairfax's Catalogue of the Duke of Buckingham's pictures, p. 18, No. 2. William Kay (a celebrated Flemish painter) by More, and More by Kay ; and in Sir P. Lely's Catalogue, No. 103 and 104, A. More and his wife by himself; and a very fine portrait by him, called "A man with a gold chain and dog," No. 108, now at Althorp ; Philip II., and Mary, Queen of England, in one picture, dated 1553, and Queen Mary singly, dated 1556, at Woburn Abbey. In the palace at Kensington (Hampton-court) are two daughters of Philip II. of Spain. 1. Isabella Clara fil. Phil. II. Regis Hisp. set. 11, 1671. 2. Catherine, set. 10. Whole lengths of Philip and Queen Mary at the Earl of Westmoreland's, Althorp, 1553. John, Lord Sheffield, at Strawberry-hill.* SirT. Gresham, once at Houghton. Sir Richard Southwell, 1564, at King's Weston. Sir Philip Sidney, Woburn. This portrait has been attributed to More, but unluckily for that asser- tion, Sidney was born in the year immediately following the painter's arrival in England. At Windsor, Emanuel Philibart, Duke of Savoy, 1570. In the Na- poleon collection there was a single picture, the Resurrection of our Lord. Six portraits by him were in the collection of Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. — D. 2 The engraving given in this edition is taken from the picture in the Florentine Gallery. 2 [The collection of Sir Robert Walpole at Houghton, or the greater portion of it, was sold to the Empress Catherine II. of Russia, and is now at St. Petersburg. — W.] ^ [Sold at the sale of 1842, to P. Howard, Esq, for 35 guineas. There was another portrait of the Duke of Norfolk, as a young man, by More, at Strawberry-hill, which was sold for 42 guineas. — W.] 5 See p. 108, No. 7. 6 [Purchased at the sale of 1842, by the Duke of Sutherland, for 36 guineas.— W.] * [Sold at the sale of 1842 for 14 guineas ; it was formerly in the collection of old Buckingham-house. — W.] 144 PAINTING UNDER seat of the liOrd Byron, where are the most perfect remains of an ancient convent, is an admirable portrait, painted, as I believe, by this master, and worthy of Holbein. It is a half-length of a fat man with a beard, on a light greenish ground. His arms are three roses, the middle one highest, on a field argent ; in base, something like a green hill. These arms are repeated on his ring, and over them J. N. £et. 1557. As this bearing is evidently foreign, I suppose the portrait represents one of the family of Numigen. Nicholas Byron married Sophia, daughter of Lambert Charles of Numigen.^ But More did not always confine himself to portraits. He painted several historic pieces, particularly one much esteemed of the Resurrection of Christ with two angels ; and another of Peter and Paul. A painter, who afterwards sold it to the Prince of Conde, got a great deal of money by showing it at the foire St. Germain. He made fine copy of Titian's Dan£e for the king ; and left unfinished the Circumcision, designed for the altar in the church of our Lady at Antwerp. In the catalogue of pictures at the Palais Royal is a portrait said to be of Grotius, by Antonio More, who was dead above twenty years before Grotius was born.^ Another performer in this reign was JOAS VAN CLEEVE, (1550—1556,) or Sotto Cleefe,^ an industrious painter of Antwerp ; his colouring was good, and his figures fleshy and round ; but before he arrived at the perfection he might have attained, his head was turned with vanity — a misfortune not uncommon to the profession, who living secluded from ^ Thoroton^s Nottinghamshire, p. 261. 2 [A portrait of Anne Stanhope, Duchess of Somerset, second wife of the Pro- tector, whose portrait she holds in her hand, likewise attributed to More, was sold at the Strawberry-hill sale : it was purchased by the Hon. and Eev. Heneage Finch, for 8 guineas. — W.] ^ [Joost van Cleef, or Zotte Cleefe ; that is, crazy Cleef. The dates are only apy^roximate : Immerzeel gives 1550 — 1536, but the latter is, from the above account of him, which is derived origially from Van Mander, an error of at least twenty years. Van Mander speaks of him as an excellent colourist. — W.] ipse, pinx.'' fl'Jf. n 'crthuu] ton. sc. EDWAED VI. AND MARY. 145 the world, and seeing little but their own creation rising around them, grow intoxicated with the magic of their own performances. Cleeve came to England expecting great prices for his pictures from King Philip, who was making a collection, but unluckily some of the works of Titian arrived at the same time. Cleeve begged the re- commendation of Sir Antonio More, his countryman; but Philip was too much charmed with the bea,uties of the Venetian master, and overlooked the labours of the Fleming. This neglect completed his frenzy, the storm of which first vented itself on Sir Antonio. Cleeve abused him, under- valuing his works, and bidding him return to Utrecht and keep his wife from the canons. At last the poor man grew quite frantic, painted his own cloths, and spoiled his own pictures, till they were obliged to confine him, in which wretched condition he probably died. He had a son that followed his profession, and was, it is said, no despicable performer. Of Joas there is a print with this legend — Vivebat Antwerpiae in patria, 1544. Another inscribed, Justo Clivensi, Antwerpiano pictori. The original painted by himself, with a black cap and furred gown, upon a greenish ground, and a portrait of his wife, were purchased by King Charles I.-^ who had also of this master a picture of Mars and Venus. ^ James II. had of his painting, the Judgment of Paris,^ and the Birth of Christ, with angels.* The Duke of Buckingham had a portrait of a man, and Sir Peter Lely a Bacchanalian, two feet one inch wide, by three feet four inches high. Vertue found grants in this reign to another painter, who it seems, had been in the service too of Henry and Edward. His name was Nicholas Lysard ; he had a pension for life of ten pounds a year, and the same fee charged on the customs, as had been granted to the ser- ^ See his Catalogue, p. 153, Cleeve's portrait is still in the lower apartment at Kensington. — [These pictures are now at Windsor. — W.] 2 Mentioned in a MS. Catalogue. 3 See his Catalogue, No. 540 and 830. * See his Catalogue, p. 18. VOL. I. L 146 PAINTING UNDEE jeant-painters, John Brown and Andrew Wright. Of Lysard I find no further mention, but that in a roll of Queen Elizabeth's new-year s gifts he presents her with a table painted^ of the history of Ahasuerus, and her majesty gives him one gilt cruse and cover. This was in the first year of her reign. He died in her service 1570. In the register of St. Martin's is this entry, "April 5, buried Nicholas Lyzard,serjeant-painter unto the Queens majestic." There was in this reign another person, too illustrious a lover and even practiser of the art to be omitted, though I find no mention of him in Vertue's MSS. This was EDWARD COURTENAY, The last Earl of Devonshire, the comeliness of whose person was very near raising him to that throne, for nearness to which in blood he was a prisoner from ten years old ; and from that time to thirty, when he died, he scarce enjoyed two years of liberty. It was a happiness peculiar to him to be able to amuse him- self with drawing,^ in an age in which there were so many ^ [Or more correctly a. picture, a painted panel. — W.] 2 When Queen Mary released him, she restored him too to the Marquisate of Exeter, though that title is omitted by all our historians when they mention him. 3 My authority is Strype, who produces undoubted authority for his assertion, having given us the oration pronounced at his funeral by Sir Thomas Wilson, afterwards Secretary of State. Besides his progress in philosophy, mathematics, music, and the French, Spanish, and Italian languages, Sir Thomas adds, ' ' Tanta etiam expingendarum effigierum cupiditate ardebat, ut facile et laudabiliter cujus- cumque imaginem in tabula exprimeret." — See Strype' s Memorials, vol. iii. p. 339, and Appendix, p. 192. This accomplished and ill-fated nobleman has surely very slight pretension to a niche among the professors in the temple of art. All that the Funeral Oration (seldom the best authority) would insinuate, is rather that the Earl pos- sessed a love of painting, than the power of producing a picture. It is more than probable, that among the avocations of his sad and unjust confinement, he amused himself with sketching with his pencil ; but no tradition authenticates any portrait by his hand ; and but one of himself (here engraved), which has never been considered as his own work. If his fellow-sufferer. Lady Jane Grey, had ever exhibited graphic talents equal to those of Lord Devonshire, she would probably have been introduced into these volumes as a paintress, and associated with Artemesia Gentileschi, and Maria Beale. Walpole has recorded her as " a noble author," upon the sole pretension of four Latin epistles, and two private letters, addressed to her father and sister. There are two portraits of this lovely scholar, which advance the claim of originality ; one preserved in the collection of her own family at Wrest ; the other at Stowe. It is not improbable that Edward VI. in his partiality to her should Wf/Wcr EDWARD VI. AND MARY. 147 prisoners and so few resources; and it gives one very favo arable ideas of his being naturally accomplished, of a spirit not easily to be depressed when we find that Queen Mary no sooner delivered him from his captivity than she wished to marry him ; and that he, conscious of his great blood and yet void of interested ambition, declined a crown, and preferred the younger sister, the Princess Elizabeth. For this partiality, and on the rising of the Carews in Devonshire, who were flattered with the hopes of this match, the princess and he were committed to the Tower, and accused by Wyat as his accomplices. Our historiaus^ all reject this accusation, and declare that Wyat cleared him at his death ; and indeed the earl's gratitude would not have been very shining, had he plotted to dethrone a princess who had delivered him from a prison and ofiered him a throne. The English who could not avoid feeling partiality to this young prince, were pleased with King Philip, to whose intercession they ascribed the second release of the earl, as well as the safety of the Lady Elizabeth, Courtenay asked leave to travel, and died at Padua, not without suspicion of poison, which seems more probable than those rumours generally are, as he was suspected of being a Lutheran, and as his epitaph/ written in defence of the Spaniards, formally declares that he owed his death to affecting the kingdom, and to his ambition of marrying the queen ; the last of which assertions at least is a falsehood, and might be a blunder, confounding the queen and princess. After his death one Cleybery was executed for pretending to be this earl, and thence endeavouring to raise commotions. There is a very good portrait of him at the Duke of Bedford's at Woburn, painted, I should think, by Sir Antonio More ; in the background a ruined tower. be possessed of lier porU-ait ; and that it was removed by his successors from the Royal Collection, in any catalogue of wbich it is not seen. In Lord Oxford's copy of the Heroologia, (Brit. Mus. ) tlie portraits, from which the prints were taken, are authenticated. That of Lady Jane Grey, by Holbein, is said to belong to Mr. J. Harrison — Query, if a retainer of the court ?— D. 1 See HoUnshed, Heylin, and Burnet. 2 See it at length in the Genealogical History of the Noble House of Courtenay. by Edward Cleaveland, fob 1735, p. 261. L 2 148 PAINTING UNDER REMARKS. Two painters only of eminence are known to have visited this country during the twelve years in which Edward and his sister Mary were its sovereigns. Holbein was their contemporary, but from all that can be collected,was not suffi- ciently occupied in painting portraits to be considered as their rival in point of employment ; for his own patron, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, was not re- leased from the Tower till a year before Holbein's death, and More possessed so much greater an interest at Court, that little encouragement was afforded to others, who, it is certain, were neglected by King Philip. It is therefore not unlikely that Holbein during that interval, applied himself more particularly to paintings in large, upon walls, and surfaces prepared to receive them. His works at the Steel-yard, Surgeon s'-hall, and Bridewell, of that description, en- grossed his pencil at that period. It is said likewise, that he designed and finished the inside ornaments of the chapel at Whitehall, which performance perished in the conflagration in 1698, together with a family picture, so painted, of the Kings Henry VII. and VIII. of very large dimensions. More had formed his style in the schools of Rome and Venice, yet in his portraits, though evidently emulous of Titian's colouring, he may be, with more correctness, assimilated to Holbein, whose works he had studied pre- viously to his arrival in England. With much delicacy of finishing, somewhat of a dry and hard manner is always to be remarked. He was a precise follower of nature, and possessed a tolerable acquaintance with chiaro scuro. With respect to Architecture. The patronage of John of Padua by the Protector, Duke of Somerset, ushered into notice the Italian, or rather French style, first adopted in part by Holbein, but now much more divested of the Gothic, or castellated manner. At this period several royal palaces in France had been recently completed, and were considered by English travel- lers as the perfection of architecture. Imitation, as in every former instance connected with the arts, immediately followed. The first deviations from the Burgundian, or later Gothic, were partial, and mixed with it in a limited de- gree, and principally in door-cases, window-frames, and parapets. This inno- vation made its first appearance in Somerset-house. Of the French palaces above alluded to, the principal which may be adduced as the prototypes of our own, in this era, are the following: — The Chateau of Gaillon, finished in 1500 by Francis 1. Of Chambord in 1526, by Henry II. and D'Anet, 1540. Vignola (whose real name was Barozzi) exercised his art of design in France during a residence of two years, 1537 — 1539. Lescot gave his design for the Louvre in 1541. Philip de Lorme, who had learned architecture in Italy, and practised it in his own country, wrote a treatise in two parts, entitled Nou- velles Inventions, pour Men hdtir. Paris. He had prepared the MS. in 1561, as it is dated, but not published till after his death, 1576.^ It is therefore evident that the novel art of buUding was brought to us from Italy, through France ; and it is equally probable that John of Pofdua was one of those Italian artists who had accompanied Vignola into France, and from thence had been invited into England. This subject will be mvestigated in its progress after this introduction (in per- haps a single instance, that of Somerset-house) through the reign of Queen Elizabeth, at the close of which the mixed Gothic or lower Tudor style of building ^ D'Argenvillef , Vies des ArchUectes, 8vo. 1787. EDWAED VI. AND MARY. 149 mansion houses no longer prevailed. Harrison (in his Description of England), to whom we cannot ascribe any knowledge of the arts, has merely repeated the praise of the newly-introduced style of building popular in his time. He has observed (p. 328), " that such palaces as King Henry VIII. erected, after his owne devise, do represent another kind of patterne, which as they are sup- posed to excel all the rest that he found stanclinge in this realme, so they are, and shaU be, a perpetuall precedent unto those that do come after, to follow in their workes and buildings of importance. Cartes, masonrie did never better flourish in England than in his time." — D. 150 CHAPTER VII. PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. The long and remarkable reign of this princess could not but furnisli many opportunities to artists of signalizing themselves. There is no evidence that Elizabeth had much taste for painting ; but she loved pictures of herself. In them she could appear really handsome ; and yet to do the profession justice, they seem to have flattered her the least of all her dependants. There is not a single portrait of her that one can call beautiful. The profusion of ornaments witb which they are loaded are marks of her continual fondness for dress, while they entirely exclude all grace, and leave no more room for a painter s genius than if he had been employed to copy an Indian idol, totally com- posed of hands and necklaces. A pale Eoman nose, a head of hair loaded with crowns and powered with diamonds, a vast ruff, a vaster fardingale, and a bushel of pearls, are the features by which every body knows at once the pictures of Queen Elizabeth.^ Besides many of her ma- 1 The rational pleasure we receive from the inspection of portraits, added to excellence in point of art, is the assurance of identity ; and that they reflect, as in a mirror, real personages, with their features, dress, and character, such as they were in life. That this genuine resemblance was falsified by personal vanity and the painter's adulation is certain, and in no subsequent instance, more decidedly, than in many 2)ortraits which are called those of Queen Elizabeth. It has occurred to the editor, that by placing together the verbal descriptions of her person, which those conversant with her at different periods have given us, a clearer idea of it may be suggested, than by any other means, and a criterion afforded of the exact degree of resemblance, which even the best authenticated portraits now present. There is, at Hatfield, a portrait of her, when Princess Elizabeth (to be noticed hereafter), accompanied by emblems, which was painted during her residence there. It represents a young ^v•oman, fair, but not beautiful. From thence she sent a letter, with a portrait of herself in miniature, to her brother, Edward VI., and observes, for the face I might well blusche to offer— and I beseche your majestic to think that when you shall loke in my pictur, you will witsafe {vouch- safe) to think that you have the outwarde shew of the body before you," &c. PAINTERS IN THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 151 jesty, we are so lucky as to possess the portraits of almost all the great men of her reign ; and though the generality of nature, and have perha,ps transmitted more faithful {Ellis's Coll. of Orig. Letters, vol. ii. p. 158.) There is another, when Princess Elizabeth, at Kensington, said to be by Holbein. It is a half length, in a red dress. Sir James Melville (in his Memoirs, p. 46) describes, in a very interesting manner, his interview and conversation with Queen Elizabeth, when she was in her thirty-second year, 1564. He observed, "that her hair was more reddish than yellow, curled, in appearance, naturally. She desired to know of me what colour of hair was reputed best, and whether my queen's (Mary Queen of Scots) hair or hers was best, and which of them two was fairest ? " Melville's reply was very courtly, but not satisfactory ; for, like a true knight, he would not allow the meed of superior beauty to any but his own mistress. At his first audience he was received in the Privy-garden. The queen was walking in an alley. She considered the open daylight as most favourable to her beauty. As her nose was the peccant feature, thin and hooked ; or, as Naunton says, "high-nosed," most of her portraits present a full-face, in order to conceal it. Yet in King Charles's collection there was a profile in miniature, by N. Hilliard, ' ' the light coming neither from the right nor the left side, being done without any shadows, in an open garden light." This was peculiarly a conceit of her own ; and more that of a queen than an artist. Her partiality to the miniature size is likewise mentioned by Sir J. Melville. " She took me to her bed-chamber, and opened a cabinet, wherein were divers little pictures, wrapped within paper, and their names written, with her own hand, upon the papers. Upon the first that she took up was written, ' my lord's picture.' I held the candle, and pressed to see the picture so named : she seemed loath to let me see it ; yet my importunity prevailed for a sight thereof, and I found it to be * my Lord of Leycester's.' " (Page 49.) In 1563, she issued a proclamation, now in the State Paper-ofiice, and which may be seen, Arch. vol. ii. p. 169, by which none but "a special cunninge paynter,'' is permitted to draw her likeness, and Zuccaro was then, probably, appointed. Kaleigh, in his preface to the History of the Worlds says, that she ordered all pictures of her, by unskilful painters to be burned. Hentzner saw her when she had advanced to her sixty-fifth year, in 1591. "Next came the queen, very majestic, her face oblong, fair, but wrinkled, her eyes small, yet black and pleasant ; her nose a little hooked, her lips thin, and her teeth black. She had in her ears two pearls, with very rich drops ; she wore false hair, and that red ; upon her head she had a small crown. Her bosom was uncovered, as all the English ladies have it till they marry ; and she had on a necklace of exceeding fine jewels ; her hands were small, her fingers long, and her stature neither tall nor low." {Itinerary, p. 65, translated by Walpole.) Long before this period she had quar- relled with her looking-glasses ; and her indignation was so great, because they would not flatter, that her female attendants removed the mirrors (at that time small) from any room through which she was about to pass. Hearne (in his edition of Camden^ s Eliz.) says, " specula amovebant famulfe, ne vultum forte conspicerit, et e mutationis contemplatione iracundia incenderetur." So gratified was she with the unceasing incense of inordinate adulation, which she felt naturally and en- couraged politically, because she wished to be represented to her people as the heau-ideal of a "Virgin Queen," both by poets and painters, who will wonder that the die for coinage, which Walpole had engraved for his royal and noble authors, was immediately broken ? — D. It is observable that her majesty thought enormity of dress a royal prerogative ; for on the 12th of February, 1579, an order was made in the Star-chamber, "that no person should use or wear excessive long cloaks (this might proceed from aj^pre- hension of their concealing arms under them) as of late be used, and before two representations men 152 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF of brighter imagination. The first painter who seems to have made any .figure in this reign, was LUCAS DE HEERE/ (1534—1584.) Born at Ghent, in 1534, of a family peculiarly addicted to the arts. John, his father, was a good statuary and archi- tect ; Anne Smitter, his mother, painted in miniature, and with such diminutive neatness, that she executed a land- scape with a windmill, millers, a cart and horse, and pas- sengers ; and half a grain of corn would cover the whole composition. The father went often to Namur and Dinant, where the son copied ruins and castles ; but he soon learned of a better master, Francis Floris, under whom Lucas im- proved much, and drew many designs (which passed for his master's) for tapestry and glass-painters. From Ghent he went to France, and was employed by the queen and queen- mother in making drawings for tapestry ; and residing some time at Fontainblea-u, where he married Eleanor Carboniere, he contracted a taste for the antique by seeing the statues there, an inclination he showed less by his own works than by making a collection of bronzes and medals. He returned to Ghent, where he drew the Count de Vaken, his lady, and their jester, and painted two or three churches ; in St. Peter's years past hatli not been used in this realm ; no persons to wear such great rulFes about their necks ; to be left off such monstrous uudecent attyring." Also another against wearing any sword rapier that shall pass the length of one yard and half a quarter in the blade, nor dagger above twelve inches in the blade at most. In her father's time, who dictated in every thing, from religion to fashions, an act of parliament was i^assed in his twenty -fourth year against inordinate use of apparel, directing that no one should wear on his apparel any cloth of gold, silver or tinsel, satin, silk, or cloth mixed with gold or silver, any sables, velvet, furs, embroidery, velvet in gowns or outermost garments, except persons of distinction, dukes, marquises, earls, barons and knights of the order, barons' sons, knights, or such that may dispend 2501. per annum. This was renewed in the second of Elizabeth. Edward VI. carried this restraint still farther. In the heads of a bill drawn up with his own hand, 1551 (though it never passed into a law), no one who had less than 10 OZ. a year for life, or gentlemen, the king's sworn servants, was to wear satin, damask, ostrich feathers, or furs of conies ; none not worth 2001. or 201. in living certain, to wear camlet ; no serving-man, under the degree of a gentleman, to wear any fur, save lamb ; nor cloth above ten shillings the yard. ^ This account of Lucas de Hcere, Walpolc has taken almost literally from Descamps ; but he has omitted to mention his extreme facility in taking likenesses, and that his memory was so tenacious and faithful, that he could paint any face which he had examined but once. —D. [The original account is from Van Mander. — W.] QUEEN ELIZABETH. 153 the shutters of an altar-piece, in which he represented the Lord's Supper, much admired for the draperies of the apostles. In St. John's Church he painted an altar-piece of the Resurrection, and on the doors of it, Christ and the disciples at Emmaus, and His apparition in the garden. Lucas was not only a painter, but a poet : he wrote the Orchard of Foesie ; ^ and translated, from the French of Marot, the Temple of Cupid, and other pieces. He had begun the lives of the Flemish painters, in verse. Carl Vermander, his scholar, who has given the lives of those masters, learned many anecdotes of our English painters from Lucas. At what time the latter arrived in England is not certain; nor were his works at all known here till the indefatigable industry of Mr. Vertue discovered several of them. 1. The first of these was a portrait of Sir William Sidney, grandfather of Sir Philip ; but as Sir William died in 1563, at the age of seventy-two, when Lucas de Heere was but nineteen, it is not probable that Sir William was abroad after that young man was in repute enough to draw his picture ; and it is less probable that he had been in France, had married, and arrived here by the age of nineteen. This picture, w^hich Vertue found at Penshurst, was, in all likeli- hood, a copy. 2. The next was a portrait of Henry, Lord Maltravers, eldest son of Henry Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, dated 1557, the year before the accession of Queen Elizabeth ; but as this young lord died at Brussels,^ it is probable that De Heere drew his; picture there, and that very acquaintance might have been a recommendation of Lucas to England. 3. The third is a picture in my possession/ well known ^ Boomgaard der Poesije — the Garden of Poetry. It is now lost. — W.] ^ The original is a small half length, now at Norfolk-house, with an inscription, which mention his death at Brussels, in 1556, aged nineteen. It was subsequently added, and does not therefore give the true date of the picture, though certainly not far distant. At Arundel- castle is a whole length, which Avas probably copied by L. de Heere himself, after he came to England : there is also a half length of Henry Fitzalan, the last Earl of Arundel of that name ; and two whole lengths of Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, and the Lady Mary Fitzalan, his duchess, which must have been painted before 1557. — D. ^ [Purchased at the Strawberry-hill sale, by the Hon. and Rev. Heneage Finch, for 88 guineas. — W.] 154 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF by the print Yertue made from it. It contains the portraits of Frances, Ducliess of Suffolk, mother of Lady Jane Grey, and her second husband, Adrian Stoke. Their ages, and De Heere's mark, BE, are on the picture, which is in perfect preservation, the colouring of the heads clear, and with great nature, and the draperies, which are black, with furs and jewels, highly finished and round, though the manner of the whole is a little stiff. This picture was in the collec- tion of Lord Oxford. There is a tradition, that when this great lady made this second match, with a young fellow who was only master of her horse. Queen Elizabeth said, What! has she married her horse-keeper ? " Yes, madam," re- plied my Lord Burleigh ; "and she says your majesty would like to do so too," — -Leicester was master of the horse. The date on this picture is 1559. 4. Lord Darnley, husband of Mary Queen of Scots, and his brother, Charles Stuart, a boy afterwards father of the Lady Arabella. There are two of these ; one as large as life, in the room going into the King's closet, at St. James's ; the other small and neatly finished, in the private apart- ments, below stairs, at Hampton-court. The date, 1569. 5. The next is a very remarkable picture, on board, at Kensington:^ Queen Elizabeth,^ richly dressed, with her crown, sceptre, and globe, is coming out of a palace, with two female attendants. Juno, Pallas, and Minerva, seem ^ [Now at Hampton-court. — W.] 2 There are other portraits of Queen Elizabeth, equally abounding in "concetto, " and accompanied by emblems of animals or inanimate things. At Hatfield are portraits of that description. 1. In a close dress of black, sitting, a sword on the table, with an ermine running up her arm. The ermine is adopted as the emblem of chastity ; it has a golden crown and collar. Taken during her early residence there. 2. Queen Elizabeth, probably soon after her accession to the throne : she is depicted with a long, distended, gauze veil. On her head a small crown and aigret; a necklace of large pearl, her hair is yellow, depending in two long tresses. She is represented young. The lining of her robe is worked with eyes and ears ; on her left sleeve a serpent, on the other a rainbow, "non sine Sole Iris." 3. At Hardwicke-hall, Derbyshire, a whole length, in a gown painted with serpents, birds, a sea-horse, a swan, and ostrich ; her hair is of a golden colour. There is another picture of her, in which her vest is worked with eyelet holes, having the silk and needle hanging down from each — an allegory much too recondite for common apprehension. The pastoral poems of that age abound in compliments to her beauty; but, as Warton sensibly observes, "the present age sees her charms and her character in their proper colours" [Ohscrv. on Spenser, vol. ii. p. 20) ; and he gives a very masterly sketch of her habits, in the conclusion of the sixty-first section of the History of English Poetry. — D. QUEEN ELIZABETH. 155 flying before lier ; Juno drops her sceptre, and Venus lier roses; Cupid flings away liis bow and arrows, and clings to his mother. On the old frame remain these lines, probably written by the painter himself, v/ho, we have seen, dabbled in poetry ! Juno potens sceptris, et mentis acumine Pallas, Et roseo Veneris fulget in ore decor ; Adfuit Elizabeth ; Juno perculsa refugit ; Obstupuit Pallas, erubuitque Venus." To have completed the flattery he should have made Juno or Venus resemble the Queen of Scots, and not so handsome as Elizabeth, who would not have blushed like the last goddess.^ 6. There is a small whole length of Queen Elizabeth, by De Heere, at Welbeck : on the background, a view of the old fabric at Wanstead. 7. At Lord Dacre's, at Belhouse in Essex, is one of the best works of this master ; it always passed for Holbein's,^ but Vertue discovered it to be of De Heere, whose mark is still discernible. It is the portrait of Mary Neville, daughter ^ Another curious picture painted about the same time, I know not by what hand, was in the collection of James West, Esq. : it represents Henry VIII. sitting under a canopy supported by pillars, and delivering the sword to Prince Edward. On the right hand of the king stand Philip and Mary ; Mars is coming in behind them. Queen Elizabeth, too large in proportion to the rest, stands forward on the other side, and leads Peace and Plenty, whose faces are said to be portraits of the Countesses of Shrev/sbury and Salisbury ; but the latter must be a mistake in the tradition, for there was no Countess of Salisbury at that time. Lady Shrewsbury I suppose was the famous Elizabeth of Hardwicke. Circumscribed in golden letters on the frame are these lines, extremely in the style of the queen's own compositions : — *' A' face of much nobility, lo ! in a little room, Four States with their conditions here shadowed in a show ; A father more than valiant, a rare and virtuous son ; A daughter zealous in her kind, what else the world doth know : And last of all a virgin queen to England's joy we see Successively to hold the right and virtues of the three." And in small letters on the foreground at bottom, these — " The queen to Walsingham this table sent, Mark of her people's and her own content." This picture was brought from Chislehurst, whither it had been carried from Scadbury, the seat of the Walsinghams, and is now at Strawberry-hill. 2 The portraits painted by Holbein and De Pleere have been frequently mistaken as the work of each other, for even when they marked their pictures, their mono- gi\am was similar. The latter seldom painted pictures of very small dimensions, and no miniatures of his hand are' known. Lady Holderness had a portrait by him of Margaret Audley, second wife of Thomas, Duke of Norfolk. — D. 156 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF of George, Lord Abergavenny, and widow of Thomas Fienes, Lord Dacre, executed for an accidental murder in the reign of Henry VITL ; a picture of her husband, set. twenty-two, 1549, copied from a larger piece, is represented as hanging in the room by his wife. Her head is finely coloured. 8. The picture from whence Vertue engraved his Lady J ane Grey, he thought, was drawn too by Lucas ;^ but that is liable to the same objection as his painting Sir William Sidney. Since the first edition of this work, I have discovered another considerable work of this master : it is at Longleate, and represents a whole family. The figures are less than life, and about half lengths. An elderly gentleman is at table with his wife and another lady, probably, from the resemblance, her sister. The first lady has tags of a parti- cular form, exactly like those on the dress of my Duchess of Sufiblk, as is the colouring, though not so highly finished; yet the heads have great nature. Before them are seven young children, their ages marked, which show that three of them were born at a birth. They are playing with fruit, and by them are a parrot and a monkey; but the animals and fruit are much inferior to the figures. There are some Latin verses in commendation of the gentleman, whose name or title was Cobhani; I suppose Sir George Brooke. Lord Cobham, who died in the first year of Queen Eliza- beth, leaving eight sons and two daughters. He had been committed to the Tower by Queen Mary, as privy to Wyat s rebellion. I have likewise found two more pieces of this master at Drayton, the ancient castle-like mansion of the Mordaunts, now of the Lady Elizabeth Germayn. One is a half length of Margaret Audley, second wife of Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, beheaded temp. Eliz. Her arms and titles are on the background : but the picture has sufiered. The other, of the same size, is of a young nobleman, in a white, stiff-bodied habit, black cloak and hat ; he is very swarthy, but handsome. His age twenty-two, 1563. This piece is finely preserved and strongly coloured, In the life 1 Lady Jane Grey was Ijorn in 1537, married in 1553, and beheaded in 1554. De Heere was not in England during that time. — D. QUEEN ELIZABETH. 157 of Holbein I liave mentioned the Henry VHL at Trinity College, Cambridge, with De Heere s mark. The face has been repainted, but the re&t of the body is highly finished, and does great honour to the copyist. In 1570, Lucas was employed to paint a gallery for Edward, Earl of Lincoln, the Lord High Admiral.^ He was to represent the habits of different nations. When he came to the English, he painted a naked man with cloth of different sorts lying by him, and a pair of shears, as a satire on our fickleness in fashions.^ This thought was borrowed from Andrew Borde, who, in his Introduction to Knowledge, to the first chapter prefixed a naked Englishman, with these lines : — " I am an Englishman, and naked I stand here. Musing in my mind what raiment I shall wear."^ ^ At the Duke of Bedford's at Woburn are two heads of a Countess of Lincoln and of Lady Anne Ayscough, daughter of the earl. As they are evidently painted at the same time, and as the daughter appears the elder person, there is great reason to believe that the countess was only the mother-in-law, and consequently that this portrait represents the fair Geraldine, so much celebrated by the Earl of Surrey. Her chief beauty seems to have been her golden hair. These pictures, I should think, were painted by the follo"\ving master, Ketel, rather than by Lucas de Hecre. 2 The two next lines are more explanatory of the subject : — For now I will wear this, and now I will wear that, And now I will wear — I can not tell what." The work from which this rhyme is extracted, is entitled " The first boke of the Instruction of knowledge, the which doth teach a man to s]3eake parte of al maner of languages, and to know the usage and fashion of al maner of countryes, and for to knowe the most part of all maner of coynes of money, the which is current in every region. Made by Andrew Borde of Physyk doctor." Printed by the Cop- lands, and dedicated to the King's daughter, the Princess Mary. From Mont- pellier, 1542 — Warton's Hist, of Eng. Poet. vol. iii. p. 357, 8vo.~D. It is not extraordinary that this witticism should have been adopted into the Lord Admiral's gallery. Andrew Borde, or Andi'eas Perforatus, as he called him- self, was an admired wit in the latter end of Plenry VIII., to whom he was some time physician. He had been a Carthusian, then rambled over many parts of the world, turned physician, and at last wrote against the marriage of priests ; for which I conclude (though Antony Wood could not guess the reason) he was shut up in prison, where some said he poisoned himself. He wrote the Introduction to Knmvledge, partly in verse, and partly in prose, and dedicated it to the Lady Mary, afterwards queen. There are cuts before every chapter. Before the seventh is his own picture standing in a pew with a canopy over him, a gown with wide sleeves, and a chapletof laurel. The title of the chapter is, "The seventh chapter showeth how the author of this boke had dwelt in Scotland, and did go thorow and round about Christendom and out of Christendom, declaring the properties of all the regions, countries, and provinces, the which he did travel thorow." He wrote, besides the Breviary of Health, A Dietary of Health, the Merry Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham — a book extremely admired, and often reprinted in that age. A right pleasant and merry history of the " mylner " of Abingdon, with his wife and his fair daughter, and of two poor scholars of Cambridge : and other things which may be seen in Antony JVood, vol. i. p. 75. 158 PAINTEES IN THE REIGN OF Lucas de Heere returned to his own country before his death, which happened at Ghent in 1584. His mark, as above, is on most of his pictures. He used for an anagram these words, Schade leer u,^ which Sandrart says signify Nocumenta tibi sint documenta. COENELIUS KETEL,^ (1548— 1604,) 3 was born at Grouda in 1548, and early prosecuted his art with great ardour, under the direction of his uncle, a tole- rable painter and a better scholar. At eighteen he went to Delft, and placed himself with Antony Blockland, with whom he remained a year. From thence he travelled to Fontainebleau, where he ^worked with great applause, in competition with three of his countrymen; but the court coming to Fontainebleau, they were ordered to leave the palace; Ketel went to Paris and lodged with John de la Hame, the King s enameller, where he painted some his- tories; but an edict obliging the subjects of the King of Spain to quit France, Ketelreturned toGouda and remained there six years. The troubles in his own country con- tinuing, and consequently little encouragement being given to the arts, Ketel embarked in 1573 for England, and was entertained at London by a sculptor and architect there, a friend of his uncle. Here he married a Dutch woman, and his works growing into esteem, he was much employed by the merchants in painting portraits, but was seldom en- gaged on history, to which his inclination chiefly led him. However, having painted an allegoric piece, of Strength vanquished by Wisdom, it was purchased by a young mer- chant, and presented to Sir Christopher Hatton, afterwards Lord Chancellor. This incident introduced Ketel to court ; he drew a good whole length of Sir Christopher, now at the Earl of Lichfield s, at Ditchley ; the portrait of Edward 1 [*' Injuries teach, you." — W.] 2 See Sandrart^ p. 272, and Carl Vermandery from whence Vertue collected mostof the particulars of Ketel's life: awdL Descavips, who copied Verm ander, p. 69. ^ [The date of Ketel's death is not known, hut he was still living when Van Mander published his work in 1604. — W.] CO (D) W B m TUB IE IE T m J L o QUEEN ELIZABETH. 159 Vere, Earl of Oxford, of William Herbert, Earl of Pem- broke ; of the Lord Admiral Lincoln, now at Wobimi, and of Henry Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, and of several others. At last, in 1578, lie bad the honour of painting the Queen herself, at the request of the Countess of Hertford;^ Eliza- beth being then entertained at Hanworth by the famous Anne Stanhope, widow of the Protector, and mother of the Earl of Hertford, then very aged.^ Ketel left England in 1581, and settled at Amsterdam, where he painted a large picture of the trained, bands with their portraits, and their captain Herman Koden- burgh Beths at their head. In this picture too he introduced his own portrait. The disposition, resem- blances, and the different stuffs of the habits, well imitated, were much admired in this piece. It was placed in the gallery of the Mall at Amsterdam. In 1589, he undertook another picture of the same sort for the company of St. Sebastian, in which was the portrait of their captain, Didier Rosencrans. It was reckoned not inferior to the former, and was neither confused nor unanimated, notwithstanding the number of portraits it contained. In another of his works, under the figures of Christ and the Apostles, he represented Henry Keyser, an architect of Amsterdam, and the principal virtuosos of that city. His best picture was the portrait of Simon Lack, of that city ; it was in the possession of one of the same family at the Hague. Many of his works were carried to Dantzic. In the Duke of Buckingham's collection was a large picture^ by this master, representing the Virtues and Vices. See his Catalogue, p. 19. But Ketel, not content with the glory he acquired by these performances, instead of aiming at greater perfec- tion, took it into his head to make himself known by a ■'■ This, I suppose, was Frances Howard, second wife of the earl, and sister of the Lord Admiral Nottingham, a favourite. The Earl of Hertford had been in dis- grace for his first marriage with the Lady Catherine Grey. ^ The duchess died nine years afterwards, at the age of ninety. 3 This picture was four feet six inches high., and seyen feet broad. — D. 160 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF method of painting entirely new. He laid aside his brushes, and painted only with his fingers/ beginning with his own portrait. The whim took : he repeated the practice, and, they pretend, executed those fantastic works with great purity and beauty of colouring. In this manner he painted two heads for the Sieur Van Os of Amsterdam ; the first, a Democritus, was his own portrait ; the other, of M. Morosini, in the character of Heraclitus. The Due de Nemours, who was a performer himself, was charmed with the latter, and bought it. Another, was the picture of Vincent Jacobson, a noted wine-merchant of Amsterdam, with a glass of renish in his hand. As his success increased, so did his folly ; his fingers appeared too easy tools ; he undertook to paint with his feet, and his first essay he pretended to make in public on a picture of the God of Silence. That public, who began to think like Ketel, that the more a painter was a mountebank, the greater was his merit, were so good as to applaud even this caprice. Ketel, like De Heere, was a poet too, and wrote descrip- tions of several of his own works in verse. He understood architecture, geometry, and perspective, and modelled in clay and wax. He was living in 1600, when Vermander wrote his account of him, Sandrart, who makes him travel to Venice and Eome, and die young, while he was employed on a picture of the King of Denmark, has con- founded the master with the scholar ; the latter incidents relate to Isaac Oteryn of Copenhagen, KeteFs only disciple. Vermander dedicated to Ketel a dissertation on the statues of the ancients, in which he mentions the great friendship that had subsisted between them for thirty years. Vertue observed on the works of De Heere and Ketel, that those of the former are generally smaller than the life, neater, not so strongly coloured, and most commonly painted on board. Those of Ketel, more strongly coloured ^ Descamps mentions a fine picture painted by Weenix in the same manner, vol. ii, p. 310. And in a sale of pictures in Covent-garden in 1729, were two heads painted by one Brandell with his thumb. QUEEN ELIZABETH. IGl and with a fuller pencil, and always as large, or rather larger, than nature. The next on our list is a name of more note, celebrated even in the lists of the great Italian masters : this was FEEDERIC ZUCCHERO,^ (1543-1609,) the younger brother of Taddeo, and born like him at Yado, in the Duchy of Urbino, in the year 1550.^ Fre- deric was carried by his parents to Rome, where their elder son w^as then employed : the younger improved so much in. the space of six years,^ that without his brother's assistance he painted a picture of Helicon and the Muses for a Roman nobleman ; and executed the greatest part of a chapel in. which his brother was engaged. They worked for some time in concert ; and being at Florence, painted in four days the whole history of the Passion, which was bespoken in a hurry for the decoration of a church on Easter Sunday. Taddeo dying at the age of thirty- seven,^ Frederic finished his imperfect works, among which were the paintings at the magnificent palace then lately built at Caprarola by Cardinal Farnese. His picture in distemper of Calumny, borrowed from the description of one painted by Apelles,^ was supposed a tacit satire on that cardinal, with whom he had quarrelled on some deficiency of payment. Zuc- chero's temper seems by another instance to have been pretty strongly tinctured with resentment ; while he was ^ See Sandrarty Felihien, and Baglione. ^ [Federigo Zuccaro was born at Sant Angelo in Vado in 1543 ; he was in his eighteenth year in 1560. 1550 is the year in which he was placed with his brother Taddeo at Rome. See Vasari, and Cean Bermudez, Dicdonario Historico de los mas Ilustrcs Professorcs de las Bellas Aries en Espana. — W.] * ^ Memoirs of " Federigo Zuccaro," are given by Vasari, Bellori, and Lanzi, who speak oi his residence in England, slightly, but who refer chiefly to his great histo- rical works on the Continent, He is mentioned in Cumberland's Lives of Painters in Spain, vol. i. p. 110, The late Mr, Eogers, who published A Collection of Prints, in Imitation of Drawings, icith Lives of their Author s^ d:c. in two volumes, imp, foL 1778, has made a large collection of notes relative to F. Zuccaro, and added many judicious criticisms, — D, ^ [In 1566. — W.] 5 [This was an Apelles of Ephesus, a distinct painter from the celebrated Apelles of Cos. The former lived at the court of Ptolemy Philopater in Egypt 218 B.c See the editor's notices of these painters in the Biographical Dictionary of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and the notice of Antiphilus, in the Penny Cijclopaidia, Supp. — W.] VOL. I. M 162 PAINTERS IN THE EEIGN OF employed by Gregory XII 1. to paint tlie Pauline Chapel in the Vatican^ he fell out with some of his holiness's officers. To be revenged, he painted their portraits with ears of asses, and exposed the picture publicly over the gate of St. Luke's Church, on the festival of that saint, the patron of painters.^ But for this exploit he was forced to fly from Eome ; and passing into France, he was for some time employed in the service of the Cardinal of Lorrain. Thence he went into Flanders, and made cartoons for tapestry ; and in the year 1574 arrived in England. The queen sat to him for her picture ; so did the Queen of Scots,^ for that well known portrait at Chiswick, which has been engraved by Vertue. Another picture of ElizaJ^eth, in a flmtastic habit, something like a Persian, is in the gallery of royal personages at Kensington.^ Melville* ^ Verrio, quarrelling witli Mrs. Marriott, the liousekeepcr at Windsor, drew lier picture for one of the Furies. This was to gratify his own j)assion ; to flatter that of the court, he has represented Lord Shaftesbury among the Demons of faction, in St. George's Hall. 2 This portrait of Mary Queen of Scots is a copy by Zuccaro, and that lately at St. James's, another by Mytens. In Charles the First's Collection Avas a small M'hole length, which was brought from Scotland, as stated in the Catalogue. She had been in England, and under the strictest confinement since 1568, several 3'ears previously to Zuccaro's arrival ; and it is utterly improbable that any foreign painter should have been admitted to her presence under the then existing circum- stances. In fact, it would be extremely difficult to prove that any picture of her is genuine since her departure from France and Scotland. During her residence at Paris, which she quitted in 1571, she is known to have sate to the court painters, to Janet and F. Fourbus the elder. In the Bodleian Gallery at Oxford is a head of her by the first named represented as in mourning for her husband, Francis II. But the portrait of her which has the general suffrage, for its authenticity, is one preserved at Dalmahoy, the principal seat of the Earl of Morton, in Scotland, Irom which an elegant engraving has been made. It is inscribed, " JMary Queen of Scots, said to have been painted during her confinement in Lochlevcn-castle." Yet the name of the painter will elude the most laborious search. — D. ^ [Now at Hampton-court. — W.] ^ Mr. Rogers has given an exact fac-simile of a sketch in black and red chalk, taken in 1575, for a portrait of Queen Elizabeth. It is a whole length. In compli- ance with the taste of the times, Zuccaro has introduced emblematically, a column, a serpent, an ermine, and a dog. Her arms are ci'ossed, and in one hand she holds a feather fan. Another sketch is the portrait of her favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, standing in complete armour, done at the same time*; and in a similar manner, both of them in the collection of the late Lord Frederick Campbell. In proof of the extent of this extraordinary love of variety in dress, a quotation may be alloAved from a MS. folio entitled, A Book of all such Garments, Jeicds, Hilh% (Lx. belonging to the Queen's Wardrobe, in 1660. Exclusively of Coronation, mourning, and parliament robes, and of the garter robes, being ninety-nine in all, there were Fix-nch gowns, 102 ; round ditto, 67 ; loose ditto, 100 ; kirtlcs, 126 ; foreparts, loo ; petticoats, 125 ; cloaks, 96 ; safeguards, 13; jupes, 43 ; doubletts, 85; lap-mantles, 18 ; fans, 27 ; ixantofies, 9. — Nickol's Queen Elizabeth Progresses, QUEEN ELIZABETH. 163 mentions her having and wearing dresses of every country. In this picture too appears her romantic turn; she is drawn in a forest, a stag behind her, and on a tree are inscribed these mottoes and verses, which, as we know not on what occasion the piece was painted, are not easily to be inter- preted : Injusti justa querela. A little lower, Mea sic mihi. Still lower, Dolor est medicina ed tori (should be, dolori.) On a scroll at bottom, " The restless swallow fits my restlesse mind, In still revivinge, still renewinge wrongs ; Her juste comjDlaints of cruelty unkinde Are all the musique that my life prolonges. With pensive thoughts my weeping stag I crown, Whose melancholy teares my cares expresse : His teares in silence and my sighes unknowne Are all the physicke that my harmes redresse. My onely hopes was in this goodly tree, Which I did plant in love, bring up in care, (too) But all in vaine, for now to late I see (shells) The shales be mine, the kernels others are. My musique may be plaintes, my musique teares. If this be all the fruite my love-tree beares." Tradition gives these lines to Spenser : I think we may fairly acquit him of them, and conclude they are of her majesty's own composition, as they much resemble the style of those in Hentznerus, p. 66 of the English edition.-^ The portraits of Sir Nicholas Bacon at Woburn, of Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham, Lord High Admiral, vol. ii. p. 53. She was then sixty-eight years old, and had been a very careful preserver ! — Of the peculiarities of Englisli dress, a summary but satisfactory account is given in Peck's Desiderata Guriosa, from the earliest times to those of Charles the Second, p. 586. ''A stomacher or forepart is thus described: — Of white sattin embroidered all over with spiders, flies and roundels, with cobwebs of Venice gold and tawney silke." — D. 1 In the Catalogue of the collection of Lady Holderness (1802), was a whole length of Queen Elizabeth, in small, with this distich and emblems, not apparently applicable to the Virgin Queen, " Uxor amet, sileat, servet, nec ubique vagetur, Hoc testudo docet, clavis labra junctaque turtur, Hsec talis est." — D. [A portrait of Queen Elizabeth when a girl, by this painter, was sold at the Strawberry- hill sale, to J. Tollemache, Esq., M.P., for 13 guineas. — W.] M 2 164 PAINTERS IN THE KEIGN OF at Hampton- court,' and of Sir Francis Walsingliam in my possession,^ all three engraved among the illustrious heads ; and the picture of Queen Elizabeth's gigantic porter at Kensington, were painted by Zucchero : here too he drew his own portrait, and copied the works of Holbein at the Steel-yard, as 1 have mentioned. A chapel at Eoehampton,^ belonging to Mr, Bagnols, was said to be painted by him. What other works he performed here I do not find f pro- bably not many ; his stay was not long ; historic subjects were not in fashion, and he was offended at our religion. He returned to Italy, and finished the dome at Florence begun by Vasari. The Pope's anger, too, being vanished, he was readmitted to his old employment at Kome, where he built a house for himself on the Monte di Trinita, adorned with four portals, and painted on the outside in fresco by his own hand. On the accession of Sixtus V. Zucchero was invited to Spain by Philip II. to paint the Escurial, but his frescoes not pleasing, he returned to Eome, and founded the Academy of Painting, for which Gregory XIII. had given him a brief, and of which he was elected the first prince.^ These expenses, however, drained him so ^ There, too, by his hand was a picture of Venus passing sentence on the boar that had killed Adonis. It was sold for 25^. at the sale of King Charles's collection. 2 [Sold at the sale in 1842, to B. Botfield, Esq. M.P., for 36 guineas.— W.] ^ "The chapel at Roehampton," is an altar - picture, and still so applied. [Lysons.) At Strawberry-hill, Sir Francis Walsingham, by Zuccaro. As Walpole has given his opinion, with so much decision, as to the existence of many genuine works of Zuccaro's pencil, it would be thought perhaps presumptuous to bring forward the claims of many portraits, so designated by the Cicerones of several of the more celebrated collections in the palaces of our nobility. The claims of some are certainly defeated by chronology, when we see portraits of elderly men, which, if drawn by Zuccaro, could hardly have been youths when he Avas in England. Of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the portraits are some of them so highly finished, that although they are not appropriated with satisfactory evidence to Zuccaro, or to his contemporary artists, they deserve to be noticed. At Hatfield ; Woburn ; Wroxton, Oxfordshire ; Parham, Sussex ; Lumley-castle ; Kuole ; Straw- berry-hill ; Miniature at Belvoir-castle. Of his elder brother Ambrose, Earl of Warwick, at Penshurst, Hatfield, Woburn and Lumley-castle, And to which of all these '* c^es nominis hujus honor emV — D. * Vertue mentions a portrait of a Marquis of Somerset ; but there was no such person in that reign. At Wilton, is a Nativity, by Taddeo and Frederic, and two small portraits of Francis II. and Charles IX. of France ; but these were not j)ainted in England. Mr. Pennant mentions a head of Sir Lionel Talmache, by Zucchero. Tour to Scotland^ vol. ii. p. 15. ^ [This was in 1590. Gregory granted the original brief at the instance of Girolamo Muziano, who died in 1590. Zucchero was three years in Spain, from 1585 to 1588, when he returned to Rome richly rewarded ; many of his frescoes QUEEN ELIZABETH. 165 much, that he again quitted Rome, and went to Venice^ to print some treatises that he had written on painting f and some poems too, for Zucchero was a poet, like others of his profession. From Venice he passed into Savoy, where he was favourably received by the duke, for whom he began to paint a gallery. Returning, he visited Loretto, and died at Ancona in 1616,^ aged sixty-six, leaving the remains of his fortune to his academy.* MARC GARRARD,^ (1561—1635,) the son of a painter of the same name,^ was born at Bruges in 1561, and practised history, landscape, architec- ture, and portrait. He engraved, illuminated, and designed for glass-painters. His etchings for ^sops Fables and wore, however, destroyed by Philip II. to make room for others by Pellegrino Tibaldi.— W .1 1 There he was competitor with Tintoret for painting the chapel of St, Eoch. Cat. Rais des Tableaux du Roi, vol. ii. p. 70. ^ Zuccaro was among the earliest of the eminent painters who wrote on the subject of art. His Idea de' Pittori, Smltori et Architetti, divisa in d.ue libri, wa,s ]irinted in 1 607 at Turin, not at Venice. This book had become so extremely scarce, as to iaduce the publishers of the Lettere sulla Pittura to reprint it in their fifth volume. They state, that they searched all over Italy for it in vain ; wlicn it was discovered in the Library at Florence, and communicated to them. Mr. Rogers judiciously observes, that "after all this pains the Idea scarcely merits to be read, much less to be transcribed and reprinted ; Zuccaro having involved his own acute remarks in metaphysical subtleties, and. obscured the minds of the studious with scholastic definitions and divisions : for he has laboured far more to appear as a philosopher than as a painter, and has given his book a Platonic dress, better suiting the fifteenth century than the age in v/hich he wrote." Vol. i. p. 88. For further information concerning these rare boosts consult Mariette's Letter in the Lettere sulla Pittura, vol. vi. p. 199. — D. [Lanzi says that a single page of Vasari is worth all that Zuccaro ever wrote. He published, besides the above- mentioned work, H passaigo per Italia, colla dimora di Parma, del Sig. Cav. Federigo Zuccaro. Bologna, 1608. He died at Ancona, in the following vear, 1609.— W.] [1609, Bellori in the Life of M. da Caravaggio, p. 226.— W.] * [In addition to the pictures of Zucchero already noticed, a painting of St. James and St. Catherine, attributed to him, was sold at the Strawbeny-hill sale for 41. St. James and St. Catherine are represented as pilgrims, crowned by an fingel ; it is very highly finished. — W.] 5 His name is written Gerhardus, Guerards, and Garrard. Among the Sidney Papers at Penshurst was a letter from Sir Robert Sidney to his lady about 1597, desiring her to go to Mr. Garrats, and pay him for the picture of her and the children, so long done and unpaid. ^ The father of Marc Garrard excelled principally in painting animals, and was the author of Ours dessin6s par Marc Guerard, 1559, gravies d Veau forte, par Marc d.i Bye, 1664, 4tc. 12 morceaux. The designs for ^sop s Fables were by the elder M. Garrard. — D. 166 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF View of Bruges were much esteemed. He came to Eng- land not long after the year 1580, and remained here till his death, which did not happen till 1635, having been painter to Queen Elizabeth and Anne of Denmark. His works are very numerous,-^ though not easily known, as he never used any peculiar mark. In general they are neat, the ruffs and habits stiff, and rich with pearls and other jewels. His flesh-colours are thin, and light, tend- ing to a bluish tincture. His procession of Queen Elizabeth to Hunsdon-house has been engraved and described by Vertue, who thought that part of the picture of Sir Thomas More's family at Burford might have been completed by this painter. Grarrard drew a procession of the queen and knights of the garter in 1584, from whence Ashmole took his plate for the history of that order. The portraits, though small, have great resemblance, with that uncommon fidelity of representing the air, stature, and bulk of the persons exhibited. Vertue made a copy of this roll in water colours, which I bought at his sale. It is not quite com- plete, the original not having been entirely finished. Garrard painted both Prince Henry and Prince Charles. Some portraits of ladies by him are at Lord Litchfield's at Ditchley.^ His own picture was engraved by Hollar. All Introduction to the General Art of Drawing, first set out by Marc Garrard of Bruges, was translated and published in English, quarto, 1674. ^ Some of those which confirm his reputation may be mentioned. The portraits in the procession to Hunsdon-house, now at Sherburn, Dorsetshire, in the collection of Earl Digby, are taken from the life. Lord Treasurer Burleigh, at Burleigh ; Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, Penshurst ; Frances Howard, Duchess of Richmond and Lennox, Strawberry-hill Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Hatfield ; James, first Marquis of Hamilton, Sir W. Maitland, and John, first Lord Thirlestane, Earl of Lauderdale. Camden, the historian, Bodleian Gallery, Oxford.— D. 2 Inherited by the present Lord Viscount Dillon. — D. * [Sold at the sale of 1842, to J. ToUemache, Esq. M.P., for 38 guineas.— W.] QUEEN ELIZABETH. 167 HENKY CORNELIUS YEOOM/ (1566—1640,) was born in 1566, at Harlem, where liis father was a statuary, of whom and of his father-in-law, a painter of Florence, young Henry learned to draw. His inclination led him first to paint views of towns : in that pursuit he went to Rotterdam, and soon after on board a Spanish ship to St. Lucar, and thence to Seville, where he lived a short time with a Dutch performer, a painter of monkeys, called by the Spaniards a pintemony : from thence to Florence and Rome, where he fixed for two years, and was employed by Cardinal de' Medici, and became acquainted with Paul Brill. At Venice, he stayed a year ; and passing through Milan, Genoa, Turin, and Paris, returned to Harlem, where he employed himself on devout subjects a little, and having stocked himself with a quantity, again set out for Spain, where he proposed to sell them, but was cast away on a small island near the coast of Portugal. He and some of the crew^ were relieved by monks that lived among the rocks, and conducted to Lisbon, where, relating the danger 1 See Sandrart, p. 274, and Descamps, t. i. p. 254. 1G8 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF he had escaped, a paltry painter there engaged Vroom to draw the storm he described, in which he succeeded so happily, that it was sold to a nobleman for a considerable price. The Portuguese painter was charmed, and continued to employ Vroom, who improved so much in sea-pieces, that having got money, and returning home, he applied himself entirely to that style of painting. At this period, the great Earl of Nottingham, Lord High Admiral of England, whose defeat of the Spanish Armada had established the throne of his mistress, being desirous of preserving the detail of that illustrious event, had bespoken a suit of tapestry, describing the particulars of each day's engagement. Francis Spiering, an eminent maker of tapestry, undertook the work, and engaged Vroom to draw the designs. The excellence of the performance, obvious to the public eye, makes encomiums unnecessary.^ It is pleasingly remarkable that there are two monuments of this sort, and both finely executed — the tapestry in question, and the suit at Blenheim ; monuments of two signal victories acquired by sea and land, under the auspices of two queens of the same country, and both gained in defence of the liberties of nations, attacked by two of the most powerful princes, Philip 11. and Louis XIV. Vroom received a hundred pieces of gold for his labour ; the arras itself, containing 70 8 ells Flemish, at 1 OZ. I5. per ell, ^ These designs, for which Sandrart saj^s, that Lord Nottingham remunerated him with 100 tiorins, were made for ten compartments. The whole series, with the marginal portraits, was ably engraved by John Pine. We are not to suppose that the portraits of the officers and volunteers engaged in the defeat of the Armada were imaginary, but that the brave individuals, who formed a constellation of heroes, were faithfully delineated to complete Vroom's designs for the tapestry. The names are given alphabetically : — 1. Christopher Baker. 2, Sir George Becton. 3. Sir Charles Blount. 4. Sir Robert Carey. 5. Captain Crosse. 6. Earl of Cumberland. 7. Sir Francis Drake. 8. Charles Howard, Baron of Effingham, the Lord Admiral. 9. Sir Martin Frobisher. 10. Sir Thomas Garrat. 11. Captain Benjamin Genson. 12. Sir John HaAvkins. 13. Sir Edward Hobye. 14. Lord Thomas Howard. 15. Mr. Knevet. 16. Earl of Northumberland, 17. Sir Homtio Palavxini. 18. Captain George Penner. 19. Captain Penton. 20. Lord Henry Seymour. 21. Lord Sheffield. 22. Sir Kobert Southwell. 23. Sir Thomas Cecil. 24 Sir Roger Townshend. 25. Mr. 'lliomas Vavasor. 26. Mr. Willoughby. 27. Sir William Winter. Vroom was a marine painter only, and therefore these most interesting portraits were supplied by some competent portrait-painter of the time ; for we cannot allow that, whilst so many of these heroes were living and employed in the service of their country, Lord Effingham, who ordered the ten pictures, would have been content with imaginary resemblances of those who shared with him the honourof the victory. — D. QUEEN ELIZABETH. 169 00^ 1,628/.^ which, was paid by the crown to the Earl in the fourteenth of King James; but it was during the Republic that this noble trophy was placed in a temple worthy of it.^ The painter came to England to receive instructions and execute his commission ; and contracting a friend- ship with Isaac Oliver, was drawn by him. There is a print from that picture. He returned to his own country, and painted a large picture, which was much admired by Prince Maurice, of tlie seventh day's action of the fight above mentioned. Yroom died rich; in what year is not mentioned.^ In the collection of King James 11. were two sea-pieces, and in that of Sir Peter Lely a landscape, both described to be of old Vroom, whence I suppose he had a son who followed his profession, and his style too, as in the former Catalogue is mentioned a sea-piece with King Charles coming from Spain, said to be by Vroom, without the adjunct of old. I find no other account of the son, nor of his being in England. These were the principal performers in oil in this reign; some of less note, and of whom but little is recorded, I shall mention at the end of this chapter ; but first I shall treat of the painters in miniature. The name of PETPUCCIO UBALDINI occurs in several places.* He appears to have been an illuminator on vellum ; some of his works in that kind are, or were very lately, extant ; as the Psalms of David, in folio : at the beginning the coat of arms and supporters of a nobleman, and facing it, Kiug David on his knees. At the end of the book this inscription : — Petruccius Ubaldinus Florentinus Henrico comiti Arun- deliae, Maecenati suo, scribebat Londini m.d.lxv.^ Another book of vellum, written and illuminated by ^ There is a discrepancy beitween the number of ells and the amount as here stated, which should be 7,115^. 8s. — D. 2 See Journals of the Commons, January 1, 1G50. The House of Lords was then used for committees of the Commons. — [These tapestries were burnt in the fire of 1834.— W.] ^ [1640, at Haarlem. He left two sons, Cornelis and Frederick ; the former was a good landscape painter, the latter an historical painter and architect. Immerzeel, Levens en Werken, &c. — W.] ^ Vertue says he taught the Italian language. 5 Henry Fitz Alan, the last earl of that name.— D. 170 PAINTEllS IN THE EEIGN OF the same person, containing the sentences of Scripture painted in the Lord Keeper s gallery at Gorhambury/ This book was made by order of Sir Nicholas Bacon, and by him presented to the Lady Lumley. Another, containing various kinds of writing, chiefly in the Italian language, very neatly executed. This was in the Cotton Library. There were, besides, in the king's library (most of them Qow in the Museum), " Scotiae descriptio a Deidonensi quodam facto a.d. 1550, et per Petruccium Ubaldinum transcripta a.d. 1576, in charta. 13. A. viii. Petruccio Ubaldino, uii libro d'essemplari. carta 14. A. i. un libro deUa forma et regola dell' eleggere e coronare gli Imperadori. carta 14. A. viii, comentario del successo dell' Armata Spagnuolo, &c. 14. A. X.2 deir impressa fatta contro il regno d' Inghilterra da] re Cattolico, &c. scritta da Petruccio Ubaldino cittadino Florentino, in Londra, 11 di 15 d'Aprile 1589, 14. A. xi. Le vite et i fatti di sei donne illustri. 14. A. xix." ^ ^ This gallery and the inscriptions are still extant, at the house now the Earl of Verulam's, near St. Alban's, where are several curious portraits : a large statue of Heniy VIII. in armour, busts of Sir Nicholas Bacon and his lady, and of Lord Bacon when a boy. This mansion was built hj the keeper, and much improved by Sir Francis Bacon, who added Italian porticos and loggias, but artfully pre- served from being too dissonant from the older parts of the building. It is a sweet retirement, without ostentation, and adapted to his motto, Ilediocria firma. It was purchased by Sir Harbottlc Grimston, and much of the old furniture the purchasers and present possessors have had the good taste to preserve. Besides the Manor-house, built by Sir Nicholas Bacon, and which was entirely taken down in 1778, his son had erected a smaller mansion, within the walls of the ancient Verulamium, and where he displayed much of his classical taste. Aubrey, Mem. vol. ii. p. 228, who gives a minute and interesting description of it, attri- butes the whole design to Lord Bacon ; and adds, that soon after it was purchased, in 1666, by Sir H. Grimston, it was disposed of for the sake of the materials. The new seat is the repository of a very celebrated collection of ancient English portraits, made originally by the Bacons. — D. 2 Discourse concerning the Spanish Fleet, in 1588, overthrown by the Queenes Navy, th-e Lord Charles Howarde, Lord High Admiral of England. Written in Italian, by Petrucchio Ubaldino, citizen of Florence, and translated for A Ryther, {a little from Leadenhall) next to the signe of the Towre, 27 pages, with cuts of the several exploits and conflicts had with the said Fleet, graved by Ryther, 4to. 1590." Herbert, Hist. Printing, vol. i. p. 1212. — D. 3 He published a book of this kind, entitled, Le Vite delle Donne illustri del regno d' Inghilterra, e del regno di Scotia, e di quelle, che d' altri paesi nei due detti regni sono state maritate. Thin quarto, London, printed by John Wolf, 1591. To give an idea of Petruccio's talents for history, it will suffice to produce two of his heroines. The first was Chembrigia, daughter of Gurguntius, son of King Bellinus, who having married one Cantabro, founded a city, which, from a mixture of both their names, was called Cambridge. The other illustrious lady he styles expressly Donna senza nome. As the reader may be curious to know who this nameless yet illustrious lady, who deserved to have her life written, was, it is the mother of Perrex and Porex in Lord Dorset's Goi-boduc, who, because one of her sons kdled the other, that was her favourite, killed a third son in a passion. QUEEN ELIZABETH. 171 Another Italian book, presented by Petruccio to tlic queen, is in the Bodleian Library. Petruccio seems to have been in favour at court ; he is frequently mentioned in the rolls of new-year's gifts, which used to be deposited in the jewel-office, and in which the names of Hilliard, Oliver, and Marc Garrard, do not appear. In the twenty-first year of Elizabeth: — To Petruccio — v^. He returns, a book of Italian, with pictures to the life, and Metamorphosis of Ovid. Another in 1585, by Petruccio Ubaldini, a pedigree : To him, gilt plate five ounces : In 1588 : To Petruccio, in gilt plate, five ounces : he returned, a book covered with vellum, of Italian. In one of these rolls Mr. Sidney (the famous Sir Philip) presents the queen, at new-year s tide, with a whip set with jewels, and another time with a castle enriched with diamonds. NICHOLAS HILLIAKD, (1547—1619,) limner, jeweller, and goldsmith to Queen Elizabeth, and afterwards to King James, was son of Pdchard Hilliard, of Exeter, high sheriff of that city and county, in the year 1560. Nicholas (I suppose a younger son),-^ was born in 1 The pedigree of Hilliard, MSS. Coll. Arm. Vis. London, 1634, seeios to affirm the contrary. John Hilliard, = of Cornwall. r Richard Hilliard, =^ Laurence, daughter of John Wall, of Exeter. goldsmith, of London. r Nicholas Hilliard, =Alice, daughter of John Brandon, Goldsmith to Q. Eliz. and K. James, the painter, ob. 1619. r Laurence Hilliard, of London, living 1634, only son. Chamberlain of London. I \ I 1 1. Brandon Hilliard. 2. Thomas. 3. Charles. 4. Laurence, 1634. a daughter.— D 172 PAliNTERS IN THE REIGN OF 1547, and brought up to the business of a jeweller and goldsmith, to which his inclination soon added that of paint- ing in minia ture. The want of an able instructor directed him to study the works of Holbein, as he says in a MS. I shall mention : ^ Holbein's manner of limning I have ever imitated, and hold it for the best/' But though Hilliard copied the neatness of his model, he was far from attaining that nature and force which that great master impressed on his most minute work. Hilliard arrived at no strength of colouring ; his faces are pale, and void of any variety of tints, the features, jewels, and ornaments expressed by lines, as slender as a hair. The exact dress of the times he curiously delineated ; but he seldom, attempted beyond a head ; yet his performances were - greatly valued ; Dr. Donne, in his poem on the storm in which the Earl of Essex was surprised returning from the island voyage, says " a hand or eye By Hilliard drawn, is worth a history By a worse painter made And PeacJiam on Limning, says, "Comparing ancient and modern painters, brings the comparison to our own time and country ; nor must I be ungratefully unmindful of my own countrymen, who have been and are able to equal the best, if occasion served, as old Hilliard, Mr. Isaac Oliver, inferior to none in Christendome for the countenance in small," &c.^ Kichard Heydock, too, of New College Oxon, in his translation of Lomazzo on Painting, published in 1598, says, "Limnings, much used in former times in church-books, as also in drawing by the life in small mo- dels, of late years by some of our countrymen, as Shoote, Betts, &c. but brought to the rare perfection we now see, by the most ingenious, painful, and skilful master, Nicholas Hilliard, and his well - profiting scholar, whose farther commendations I refer to the curiositie of his works. " ^ This MS. has beeu alluded to (p. 84 n.) In the Catalogue of Charles the First's limnings, he is styled old Hilliard," as having painted a miniature presented by his son " young Hilliard," who v;as a goldsmith only. Peacham likewise calls him "old Mr. Hilliard," but Norgate, " N. Hilliard," in the MS. above mentioned. ]f the son had been an artist of eminence, his works would have appeared in the lioyal Gallery. Hilliard's will is dated Dec. 24, 1618.— D. - 2 See an account of him in AVood's Athcncc, vol. ii. p. 296. QUEEN ELIZABETH. 17.^ The same author, in another place, mentioning "Mr. N. Hilliard, so much admired by strangers as well as natives." adds, " To speak truth of his ingenious limnings, the per- fection of painting (in them is) so extraordinary, that when I devised within myself the best argument to set it forth, I found none better than to persuade him to do it himself to the view of all men, by his pen, as he had before unto very many by his learned pencil, which in the end he assented to ; and by me promiseth a treatise of his own practice that way, with all convenient speed.'' This tract Hilliard actually wrote, but never published. Vertue met with a copy of it, which 1 have among his MSS.^ Blaise Vigenere mentions Hilliard, and the neatness of his pencil, very particularly : Telle estoit aussi Tecriture et les traits d'un peintre Anglois nomme Oeillarde, dautant plus a emerveiller, que eela se faisoit avec un pinceau fait des polls de la queue d un escureuil, qui ne resiste ni ne soutient pas comme feroit une plume de corbeau, qui est tres ferme." Hilliard's portrait, done by himself, at the age of thirteen, was in the cabinet of the Earl of Oxford. He was still young when he drew the Queen of Scots. Queen Elizabeth sat to him often. Charles I. had three of her portraits b} him ; one, a side face in the clouds ; another, one of his mos : capita] performances, a whole length of her in her robes sitting on her throne. In the same collection were several more of his works, particularly a view of the Spanish Ar- mada, and a curious jewel, containing the portraits of Henry yiL, Henry VIII., Edward VL, and Queen Mary; on the top was an enamelled representation of the battle of Bos- worth, and on the reverse, the red and white roses. This jewel w^as purchased by the king, of Hilliard's son.^ ^ An extract of it is in Brown^s Ars Pictorial p. 95, Lond, 1675 ; and some of liis receipts in Sanderson's GrapMce. 2 The tablets upon which Hilliard painted his miniatures were seldom of ivory, Hippolito Donato, a celebrated limner at Rome, used a card, or smooth piece of pasteboard, which, after he had rubbed with a slickstone, he, with starch finely- laid on, I pasted an abortive skin upon the same, upon which, when it was thoroughly dry, smooth, pressed, and prepared, he did draw the form of tlie face, with lines of lake." — Pcacham, p. 385. The Editor possesses one, singularly perfect, which proves that this method was that usually practised by him. This is upon a playing card, cut into a small oval shape. — D. 174 PAINTERS IN THE llEIGN OF In the essay towards an English school of painters,^ it is said that Mr. Fanshaw had the portraits of Hilliard^ and his father, finely executed, with inscriptions on gold letters; on the former. Nicolas Hilliardus, aurifaber, sculptor et Celebris illumi- nator serenissimae reginae Elizabethae, anno 1557, aet. suae 30. On the other, Kicarclus Hilliardus, quondam vicecomes civitatis et comitatus Exoniae, anno 1560, aetatis suae 58, annoque Domini 1577.^ Hilliard continued in vogue during this reign, and great numbers of portraits by his hand, especially of ladies, are extant.^ He obtained still greater favour from King James ^ Printed in 1706, at the end of the translation of De Pile's Art of Painting. See p. 430. ^ Vertue says he saw them afterwards in the possession of the last Sidney, Earl of Leicester, and that they were then taken out of the old frames, and set in a snuff-box. Mr Simon Fanshaw is in possession of two such heads, which have been thought the very pictures, and are undoubtedly of Hilliard's best manner, though one has no inscription, and the other only the date of the year and the age. But Lord Leicester gave the snuff-box in question to Marshal Sir Robert Rich, in whose possession it remains with the pictures. I have a duplicate of the father, * 3 Of this fact doubts may reasonably be entertained, because so much time -was requisite for a degree of finishing so elaborate ; and his price was also very large. Want of a careful protection, or the evanescent nature of the tints, has, at all events, reduced them now to a very small number. — D. ^ Miniatures, for many obvious reasons, are much more liable to be destroyed than oil-paintings, if the fading of their colours only were considered. Many of Hilliard's more highly-finished works have long been attributed to I. Oliver. To particularise a few, of which some are still extant, may not be tedious. Among Charles the Fii^st^s Limnings were thirteen by Hilliard. 1. Queen Elizabeth in her parliament robes. 2. Henry, Prince of Wales, standing with a gauntlet on one hand, in gilded armour, 2^ inches by 2. 3. King James, without a hat, with a falling lace ruff. 4. The Earl of Hertford, in a black cap and feather. 5 — 13. These were dispersed before the reign of James II. in whose collection one only is mentioned ; and in that made by Queen Caroline at Kensington there are none by Hilliard. AT STRAWBERRY-HILL. + 1. Robert, Earl of Essex. 2. Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon. 3. Lady Arabella Stuart. 4. Queen Elizabeth. Her prayer-book, with the heads of herself and the Duke of Anjou, was sold at the Duchess of Portland's sale. George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, King's Weston. Queen Elizabeth, given to Lord Chancellor Bacon, at Gorhambury. — D. * [It Avas sold at the Strawberry-hill sale, for U. \As. &d. — W.] + [A miniature of Lord Hunsdon, another of Lady Arabella Stuarfc, and two QUEEN ELIZABETH. 175 drawing his majesty's and Prince Henry's pictures ; and receiving a patent,^ printed by Rymer, to this effect : — Whereas our well-beloved servant, Nicholas Hilliard, gentleman, our principal drawer of small portraits, and embosser of our medals in gold, in respect of his extraor- dinary skill in drawing, graving, and imprinting, &c, we have granted unto him our special licence for twelve years, to invent, make, grave, and imprint any pictures of our image or our royal family, &c.^ and that no one do pre- sume to do, without his licence obtained, &c. This grant was of great emolument to him, as about that time he engraved many small plates, and sold licences for others, with the heads of the king and royal family, which were then and are still used for counters. Simon Pass and other engravers were employed by him in these works. Hilliard died January 7, 1619, and was buried in St. Martin's Church in the Fields, AVestminster, (as appears by the register,) in which parish he had a house. He made his wilP in the preceding December, leaving twenty shil- lings to the poor of the parish ; to his sister Anne Avery 1 A cm'ious specimen of the panegyrical style, so much in fashion in the reign of Elizabeth, occurs in Rej/docJc's Preface to Lomazzo on Painting, translated by him, small fol. 1585. " I wish I had the skilful pen of Giorgio Vasari, for then I doubt not, but that I should, in a short time, finde matter enough to write paralels of their lives, comparing our English painters with the Italian, as Plu- tarch did the Roman captaines with the Grecian. Then would Master Nicholas Hilliard's hand, so much admired among strangers, strive for a comparison with the milde spirit of the late world's wonder, Raphael Urbine ; for to speak truth, his perfection in ingenious illuminating or limning, is so extraordinary," &c. con- tinued by Walpole, p. 173. — D. ^ The last clause, (Pat. 15, Jac. 1. p. 9, No. 15. De licentia Nicholao Hillyard super pictura Regis) omitted above, is of an extraordinary privilege. " In respect of his art and skill in drawing, engraving and imprinting of pictures and repre- sentations of ourselves and others, we do give and grant the privilege for twelve years, to grave any manner of picture of our image, or other representation of our person, with power to take a constable and search for any pictures, plates, or works, printed, sold, or set up, contrary to the true meaning and intent of these presents, at the yearlie rent of thirteen shillings and fourpence," This monopol}' gave Hilliard a control over all the engravers and printsellers of that time, and having died in 1616, his son enjoyed thepatent duringthe remainder of its term. — D. ^ From the Registers in Doctors' Commons, miniatures of Queen Elizabeth, were sold at the Strawberry-hill sale. That of Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon, in a gold enamelled case, from the collection of Lady Germayn, was bought by the Duke of Buckingham for 20 guineas. The miniature of the Lady Arabella Stuart, a remarkably tine specimen of Hilliard's art, from the collection of Lord Wilmington, was sold for 8Z. 85. One of the miniatures of Queen Elizabeth, also from the collection of Lord Wilmington, was bought by the Earl of Derby for IIZ. lis. ; the other was sold for 8 guineas. — W.] 176 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF twenty pounds of thirty^ that were due of his pension ; the remaining ten pounds to his other sister ; some goods to his servant-maid ; and all the rest of his effects, plate, jewels, rings, &c. to his son Lawrence Hilliard, his sole executor. But the greatest obligation we have to Hilliard is his having contributed to form^ ISAAC OLIVEE.^ (1555—1617.) Hitherto we have been obliged to owe to other coun- tries the best performances^ exhibited here in painting ; ^ He had the same salary as Holbein. ' John Betts, whom I have mentioned as painting the portrait of Sir John Godsalve, is said by Vertue to have learned of Hilliard, and is called Designer in Hall's Chronicle about the year 1576, where too is mentioned one Tyrrell, a carver in wood. This notice cannot occur in HalVs Chronicle, which commences with the reign of Henry IV. and concludes with that of Henry VIII. 1399 — 1547; neither are the names of Bettes and Tyrrel found in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, by Holinshead or Stowe. — D. [Besides the pictures of Hilliard, already noticed, the following were sold at the Strawberry-hill sale : — A miniature of Sir Francis Drake, bought by the Earl of Derby for 20 guineas. A miniature of a lady in the time of Elizabeth, sold for one guinea ; another sold for 145. — W.] ^ 1 must not disguise, that, although Oliver was probably born in England, he was in all likelihood of French extraction. In his wiU he spells his name Oliver, but on his drawings writes it Olivier. Vertue found mention of one *' Aubin Olivier natif ds Boissy, inventeur des engins de monoyes a Moulins ;" and in Palmer's History of Printing p. 274, are accounts of Peter Oliver, printer, at Caen in Normandy 1515, and of Jean Olivier, printer, in the same city 1521. But Hondius, Sandrart, and all the writers who mention him, call him an Englishman, and it is an additional confirmation of his English birth that he wrote in that language a treatise on limning, partly printed in Sanderson's Graphice. In his pocket-book was a mixture of French and English. We have seen in the pre- ceding life of Hilliard^ that Peacham calls Oliver his countryman. Burton, in his MSS. Collections for Leicestershire, says, " Of this family (Oliver), settled at East Nortin in 1570, was Isaac Oliver, the curious limner, as I have heard. "— D. ^ There are assertions in the MS. Harleian, No. 6,000, in the Museum, which excite a doubt, whether it were the work of Hilliard, which is above adverted to : " An exact and compendious discourse concerning the arte of Miniature or Lim- ning ; the names, nature, a-nd property of the colours ; the order to be preserved in preparing and using them ; both by picture by the life, landscape and history. " Hilliard is always spoken of distinctly, " and this was the manner of our late ex- cellent N. Hilliard, in making his sattins." These directions appear to have been sent to a young artist — " By this time I suppose you are fitted with tooles, but want a table whereon to expresse your arte, which to the end you may be excel- lent, as was written and insinuated in the epitaph of your late countryman, and my dear cousin Mr. Isaac Oliver " No clue offers itself by which we may discover the author of this MS. Most probably, it was compiled from his unpublished notes, some years after his death. It is a practical and most useful treatise, and was certainly gathered from conversations with Hilliard, as well as his MS. " This QUEEN ELIZABETH. 177 but in the branch (miniature) in which Oliver excelled.^ we may challenge any nation to show a greater master, if perhaps we except a few of the smaller works of Holbein. Don Julio Clovio,^ the celebrated limner, whose neatness and taste in grotesque were exquisite, cannot be compared with Isaac Oliver, because Clovio never painted portraits, ' secret I had from Mr. Hilliard." It is divided into three sections or parts. 1. On Miniature. 2, Landscape, and' 3. History. The author, whoever he was, speaks of various works which he saw at Rome in the time of Pope Sesto Qiiinto. — D. ^ His merit was known and acknowledged on the Continent. Sandrart, p. 311, mentions " Oliveirius mevihranarum Pictor Londinensis," alluding to the very general practice of all limners to lay their colours upon abortive vellum, duly pre- pared. He speaks likewise with admiration of the durability of Oliver's colours, " ut ut durando dimidium jam excesserint saeculum, incoj-ruptee tamen et integer- rimse perse verint," p 312. 2 [Dom Giulio Clovio, a native of Croatia, was born in 1498. He was at first an ecclesiastic, but received the dispensation of the Pope. He studied design under Giulio Romano, but afterwards, by the advice of that painter, confined his practice entirely to illuminating and miniature, in which he received some instruc- tion from Girolamo da' Libri, and attained an unrivalled distinction for that class of painting in Italy. He commanded the patronage of sovereigns and princes, for whom he chiefly painted. Vasari, his great panegyrist, places him at the head of all the miniatori. Memling, however, though his works are not so minute as Clovio's, may fairly dispute the palm with him in point of excellence : there is a celebrated illuminated missal by this painter in the Library of St. Mark at Venice. For Cardinal Farnese, Clovio illuminated "the Office of the Virgin Mary," in which the figures did not exceed the size of an ant ; yet all the parts were per- fectly distinct when seen through a magnifying glass; — W.] ^ Lanzi asserts that he painted portraits in miniature, for particular persons ; but that it was not his usual practice. " Per priv^ati, lavoro rittratini, in gran numero, (nella qual arte e dal Vasari ugualiato a Tiziano) ed anche qualche quad- retto. Questi pero sono rarissimi nelle raccolte." Tom. iv. 19. Whoever has well examined the works of Giulio Clovio, will perceive that he was able to represent giants in miniature, as in his painting of their combat with the gods, from Ovid. There are now in England three specimens of his matchless talent. 1. The Book of Psalms* (dated 1537), which had belonged to Lord Arundel, from whom it passed to the Duchess of Portland, and at her sale was purchased for 169^. and is now at Strawberry-hill. 2. An illumination, on pecorella (abortive velulm) representing a cardinal, sit- ting before a table with St Andrew and other tutelar saints, at Kensington. 3. Several folio sheets, (formerly part of a larger MS.) upon the same material, containing Scripture history, purchased from the Continent, by the late John Towneley, Esq. ; not inferior to any of Clovio's known works. — D. * [The Book of Psalms mentioned, which was purchased at the sale in 1842 by the Earl of Waldegrave, for 420 guineas, is thus described in Walpole's own description of strawberry-hill, printed in 1784 : — "The Book of Psalms, with twenty-one inimitable illuminations, by Don Julio Clovio, scholar of Julio Romano. If any- thing can excel the figures, it is the execution of the borders, which are of the purest antique taste, and unrivalled for the lustre and harmony of the colours, as well as for the preservation, which is allowed to be more perfect than (that of) any of the few works of this "extraordinary master." It was painted, as indicated on one of the illuminations, Principi Anderjavcnsi, in 1537. It was formerly in the Arundelian Collection, on the dispersion of which in 1720, it was purchased by the Earl of Oxford, who bequeathed it to his daughter the Duchess of Portland, at whose sale Walpole bought it. — W.] VOL. 1. N * 178 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF and the latter little else. Petitot, whose eDamels have exceeding merit, perhaps owed a little of the beauty of his works to the happy nature of the composition : we our- selves have nobody to put in competition with Oliver, except it be our own Cooper, who, though living in an age of freer pencil, and under the auspices of Vandyck, scarce compensated by the boldness of his expression for the truth of nature and delicate fidelity of the older master. Oliver s son, Peter, alone approached to the perfection of his father. Of the family of Isaac Oliver I find no certain account ; nor is it of any importance ; he was a genius : and they transmit more honour by blood than they can receive. After studying under Hilliard, he had some instructions from Zucchero. Vertue even thought, from the variety of his drawings after the great masters,^ especially Parme- giano, that he had been in Italy. For whatever else re- lates to him let his works speak. Dr. Meade possessed some of the most capital : as Oliver's own portrait, extremely small ; the head of the Queen of Scots,^ an admirable piece, though very doubt- ful whether of her ; Queen Elizabeth, profile ; Henry, Prince of Wales f Ben Jonson f and the whole length of Sir Philip Sidney, sitting under a tree. All these were purchased by the late Prince of Wales. I have another portrait of Oliver himself, larger than that of Dr. Meade's, and without a hat, bought at Mr. Barret's sale. This picture alone would justify all I have said of him. The art of the master and the imitation of nature are so great in it, that the largest magnifying glass only calls out new beauties.^ But the first, at least the best preserved 1 Vertue does not tell us where these drawings of I. Oliver after the Italian masters were preserved: if he meaus limnings, none of them after Parmegiano were in Charles the First's cabinet. There were seven oil paintings by Parmegiano (called erroneously Parmentius) some of which appear subsequently in King James the Second's Catalogue.— D. 2 Zink made an exceedingly fine copy of this in enamel, purchased by his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland. It is engraved in Jebb's collections. 3 There are one or two others of this prince by the same hand. 4 It is engraved amoi^g the Illustrious Heads, but is very unlike the old pictures and prints of that poet. 5 Col. Sothby has another larger, and containing only the head, but bold, an;] admirably painted. QUEEN ELIZABETH. 179 of all his works, is in my possession ; it is the head of Lady Lucy Percy, mother of Venetia, Lady Digby ; she is in black, with a large hat of the same colour, and a very large ruff ; the whole painted on a lilac ground. This was purchased, with many exquisite pieces, by his son Peter, under whose article I shall mention them. At the Lord Montacute's at Coudray ^ is another in- valuable work of Isaac. It represents three brothers of that lord's family, whole lengths, in black : their ages, twenty-one, twenty-four, and eighteen, with the painter s mark — . These young gentlemen resembled each other remarkably, a peculiarity observable in the picture, the motto on which is Figurae conformis affectus, 1598;^ another person is coming into the room, aged twenty-one. The picture is ten inches by seven. His painting of James 1. served Rubens and Vandyck, when they had occasion to draw that prince after his decease. In an office-book of the Lord Harrington, treasurer of the chambers, in the possession of the late Dr. Rawlinson, was an entry of payment to Isaac Oliver, picture- drawer, by a warrant dated at Lincoln, April 4, 1617, for four several pictures drawn for the prince's highness, as ap- peareth by a bill thereunto annexed, iOl. In King Charles's Catalogue^ are accounts. of several of his works : King James II. had still more ; the Earl of 1 This invaluable picture was fortunately preserved from tlie effects of the con- flagration in 1793, and is now (1826) iu the cabinet of the Hon. Mrs. Poyntz, at Coudray. It represents three brothers, 1. Anthony, 2. John, 3, William, sons of Anthony Browne, the second Viscount Montacute, whole length, in black, their ages twenty -four, twenty-one, and eighteen, with the painter's mark — (p. Motto — Figurae conformis affectus, 1598. — D. Vertue met with a print, from whence he supposed Oliver borrowed his design. It was inscribed, Colignaei Fratres, Odetus, Gaspar, Franciscus. 3 As it is possible that some readers, who are more interested in the earlier history of miniature painting in England, may consider Walpole's notices of Isaac Oliver's works as too concise ; and as the Catalogues published by Bathoe (a print- seller) under his inspection and patronage, are become scarce, the Editor offers a more minute and copious description of them, as extracted from the above- mentioned sources of information :— In the Royal Collection. 1. Entombing of Christ, above mentioned, 11^ inches by 1 foot 2>\. In the MS. before cited — "But that which is instar omniu7n, (comparing Oliver's works with those of G. Clovio) is the Buriall of Jesus Christ, done upon a large table of fine abortive vellum (half a yard long but not so wide), pasted upon a smooth and well N 2 180 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF Arundel many. He drew a whole length of Robert, Earl of Essex, in white, and heads of him several times, and seasoned board. It is now in the hands of my very worthie cossen, Mr. Peter Oliver, by whose incomparable father, Mr. Isaac Oliver, it was begun and almost finished. It was a piece of the greatest beauty and perfection, so neare as it was finished, that I thinke Europe, nor the world can produce ; and I believe if Carlo Van Mander, in his Dutch history of the famous painters had seen this picture, or the inventor, his booke of a quarto would have grown into a tome with the description." 2. Henry, Prince of Wales, the larger 5^ by 4 ; another in a white turned ivory box. 3. Robert, Earl of Essex, above mentioned, 8^ inches by 5. 4. Anne, Queen of James I. 8. Another portrait of her. 5. Henry, Prince of Wales. 9. The Lady Shirley. 6. Charles I. when Duke of York. 10. The same, in a Persian dress. 7. Princess Elizabeth before her marriage. 11. A young man, St. Sebastian. 12. Death, with a laurel round his head, apprehending Pilate ; intended as a satire on some ecclesiastical prince. From Holbein. In King James the Second's Collection, Isaac Oliver and Laniere, in one piece. Several were disposed of at the sale of the Duchess of Richmond {London Gazette, 1702), which she had received as presents from King Charles II., to which circumstance Walpole alludes. STRAWBERRY-HILL. 1. Isaac Oliver, by himself. 2. A young bride. 3. A lady behind a red curtain, both of the family of Digby, but not known. 4. Lady Lucy Percy, daughter of T. Earl of Northumberland, and wife of Sir Edward Stanley, younger son of the Earl of Derby, mother of Venetia, Lady Digby. 5. Lady Arabella Stuart, when a child. 6. Sir Philip Sydney sitting under a tree, large size, with a caparisoned horse held by a servant, purchased at Mr West's sale for 161. 5s. ; where, likewise, was Lord Burleigh, in water colours,"* At Penshurst are several portraits which have suffered greatly from the effects both of time and climate, and are in an evanescent state. Earl Powys has Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury. He is lying down reclined on one arm, which supports his head, and with a shield on the other ; in the background are men and horses caparisoned for the tilt. Large size. At King's Weston, Lord de Clifford's, and the Marquis of Hastings, at Donning- ton, are n\iniatures undoubtedly by I. Oliver, particularly a very fine one of Anne Clifford, Countess of Cumberland, at the first-mentioned seat. In the chivalrous age of Elizabeth, when emblems and mottoes, either allusive or explanatory, were so frequently invented and so much admired, it was not unusual to introduce upon the ground of the miniature, above the portrait, in the Italian writing cliaracter, with letters of gold most delicately pencilled, a few words expressive of some complimentary sentiment. The Editor remembers to have seen two (probably of lovers) which bore these very elegant inscriptions. On the young man's -Non poco da chi si medesimo dona ; and on that of the young lady — A colui chi si stesso rassomiglia, e non altrui. These were interchanged between them, and preserved in beautifully-turned boxes, one of ebony, and the other of ivory. The tradition is, that they represent ancestors of the Harrington family. Miniatures so enclosed were sometimes worn as ornaments of dress. In the King's Collection was a miniature of Queen Elizabeth, by Hilliard, (above-mentioned,) with a black dress, richly wi-ought with gold and pearls, "and a picture-box hanging at her right breast ;" the upper lid was commonly very richly carved as a rose. — D. * [For particulars of the sale of these pictures at the dispersion of the collections at Strawberr}^-hiU, see p. 222.— W.] QUEEN ELIZABETH. 181 of many others of the nobility ; but his works are much scarcer than those of his master HiUiard. Colonel Sothby has a fine Magdalen by him, and the Duchess of Portland a head of Christ, that was Dr. Mead s. Of his drawings several are extant, particularly a capital one in Queen Caroline's closet at Kensington ; the subject, the placing of Christ in the sepulchre, consisting of twenty- six figures.^ This piece, which Isaac had not completed, was finished by his son, and is dated 1616. Another, a large drawing, the Murder of the Innocents, on blue paper heightened, after Raphael Vertue saw a print of the history of St Lawrence, touched and heightened by Oliver with great skill Sir John Evelyn, in 1734, showed to the Society of Antiquaries^ a drawing by Oliver from a picture of Raphael in the Escurial, of the Virgin, Child, and St. John ; it was copied by Isaa<} in 1631, while the original was in the collection of Charles I. He did not always confine himself to water-colours. There are instances of his working in oil. In this manner he painted his own, his wife's, and the portraits of his children ; a head of St. John Baptist, on board ; and the Holy Family.^ Vertue commends these much ; as I never saw them, I can give no other account of his success in this way, than that the works I have seen in oil by him are but indifferent. Isaac Oliver died at his house in the Blackfriars, ^ Mr, Hollis has a fine drawing of the same inscribed Isa. Ollivier, which he bought at Vertue' s sale. It has been retouched in several places. 2 V. Minutes of the Society, vol. i. p. 206. ' Four heads on board in oil, by Oliver, are at Lord Guildford's at Wroxton. These Vertue owns have a little of the stiffness of miniature, though at the same time very neat. Lord Oxford had the famous seaman, T. Cavendish, and Sir Philip Sidney, by Oliver, in oil ; the last is now Lord Chesterfield's : the former is at Welbeck. In a sale of pictures brought from Ireland was a large oval head of Lucy Harrington, Countess of Bedford, and the Marriage at Canaan [Cana], by Isaac Oliver, and, I conclude, in oil. In the Bodleian Gallery, at Oxford, is a portrait of Sir llioraas Overbury, in oil, nearly the size of life, painted in an oval shape, and upon a bright blue ground. It has so much the air of an enlarged miniature, that it may be, conjee turally, added to those at Wroxton. A small oil portrait of a young lady in the dress of the early part of James the First's time painted upon an oval plate of silver, 4 inches by 3^, after having been preserved in a cabinet, for nearly two centuries, has descended to the Editor. It has the beauty and delicate touch, so admirable in his limnings. — D. 182 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF London, in 1617, aged sixty-one or sixty- two. He was buried in St. Anne's Church in that parish, where his son erected a monument to his memory, with his bust in marble.-^ By his will (in the Prerogative-office) proved in October, and executed in the preceding June, he bequeathed to his wife the third of his effects, and the lease of his house in Blackfriars ; excepting only to his eldest son Peter, all his drawings, limnings, historical or otherwise, finished or unfinished, of his own handy-works : or in case of Peter's death, to any of his other sons that should follow his profession. All the other two parts of his effects to be sold, and equally divided between his sons and daughter. His other paintings or collections to be sold, allowing his son Peter to purchase whatever he pleased thereof at five shillings per pound less than the true or genuine value of them. His wife he left sole executrix ; his son Peter and two other gentlemen trustees. Hondius, in his collection of artists of that age, has given the portrait of Oliver with these lines, which are poor enough — " Ad vivum laetos qui pingis imagine vultus, Oliviere, oculos mirifice hi capiunt. Corpora quae formas justo haec expressa colore, Multum est, cum rebus convenit ipse color," Vertue found another in a MS. treatise on limning,^ the author unknown, but the epitaph which follows was in- scribed, " On my dear cousin, Mr. Isaac Oliver.'' " Qui vultus hominum, vagasque formas Brevi describere doctus in tabella, Qui mundum minimum typo minore Solers cudere mortuasque chartas Felici vegetare novit arte. 1 The nionument and bust were destroyed in the great fire in 1666, but a model of the latter is probably extant, Vertue having seen it. ^ " Mr. Hilliard and his rare disciple Mr. Isaac Oliver." "As histories in limning were strangers in England, the king (Charles) com- manded the copying of some of his owne pieces of Titian, to be translated into English limning, which indeed were admirably performed by his servant Mr. Peter Oliver. The history of the Entombing of Christ begun by Isaac Oliver, but by the royal command, iinished by his sonne, of which for the rare art, invention, colouring and neatness, may be said as Vasari speaks of Giulio Clovio, ' onde possiam dire che habbia superato gli antichi e moderni ; e che sia stato a i tempi iwstri, un nuovo Michel Agnolo." A madonna of Mr. Isaac Oliver's limning, cost him two yeares, as himselfe told meQ.'"—MS. Norgate. Bodl. Lib. — D. QUEEN ELIZABETH. 183 Isaacus jacet hie Olivarius, Cujus vivifica manu paratum est,. Ut nihil prope debeant Britanni Urbino, Titianoqiie, Angeloque." Besides these principal, there were several other artists in this reign, of whom there are only slight memorials. I shall throw them together as I find them, without observing any particular method/ At the Duke of Bedford's at Woburn, is a portrait of Elizabeth Bruges, daughter of the Lord Chandois, with this inscription — Hieronymus Custodio, Antwerpiensis fecit, 1589. The colouring is flat and chalky. On the picture of the murder of the Lord Darnley at Kensington" is the name of the painter, but so indistinct that Vertue, who engraved it, could not be sure whether it w^as Levinus Vogelarius or Venetianus. As it is as little certain whether the picture was painted in England, Scotland or abroad, no great stress can be laid on this painter, as one of Queen Elizabeth's artists. Vertue ^ Vertiie had seen on a large skin of vellum a plan of the town and boundaries of Dunwich, in Suffolk, with its churches, adjacent villages, &c. and several remarks, made by Eadulphus Aggas* in March, 1589. Whether this person was a professed painter does not appear ; but from him was probably descended Eobert Aggas, commonly called Angus, " who," says Graham in his English School, p. 398, "was a good landscape-painter, both in oil and in distemper, and was skillfull in architecture, which he painted many scenes for the plajdiouse in Co vent-garden." Few of his works are extant ; the best is a landscape presented by him to the company of Painter-stainers, and still preserved in their hall, with other works of professors, whose dates I cannot assign. Robert Aggas died in London in 1679, aged about sixty ; but I know not what the author 1 quote means by a playhouse in Covent-garden before the year 1679 — I suppose it should be the theatre in Dorset-gardens. 2 [The collections at Kensington were, as already mentioned, with few excep- tions, removed in the reign of William IV. to Hampton-court. — W.J * Ralph Aggas was a surveyor, maker of maps and engraver, whose Avorks are known, 1. Celeberrimse Oxon. Academife elegans simul et accurata descriptio, Radulpho Aggas autore 1578. It gives a sort of bird's-eye view of the University, with the several colleges in the margin. 2. Cambridge upon the same ])lan. 3. The City of London. . See British Topog. vol. i. p. 209, 1774. Herbert [Hist, of Printing, p. 1166) gives a very curious title of one of his professional publications : "A preparative to platting of landes and tenements for surveigh — patched up as plainly together as boldly offered to the curteous and regarde of all worthie gentlemen, lovers of skill — and published instead of his flying papers, which cannot abide the pasting to poastes. Jvondon, printed by him, 1596." He is subsequently mentioned in the Catalogue of Engravers. Another of this ingenious family, and probably the brother of the former, was Edward Aggas. He translated and published several books from the French, which he dedicated to his patron, G. Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, 1586.— Herbert, p. 1167.— D. 184 PAINTERS IN THE ilEIGN OF thought he might be the same person with Levino, nephew of Pordenone, of whose hand King Charles had a picture. At the same time resided here one Le Moyne, called^ Le Morgues, who is mentioned by Hackluyt, in his transla- tioD of Laudonniere's Voyage to Florida, vol. iii. p. 300. " Divers things of chiefest importance at Florida drawn in colours at the charge of Sir Walter Raleigh, by that skillful painter James Morgues, some time living in theBlackfryars, London, he whom Monsieur Chatillon, then admiral of France, sent thither with Laudonniere for that purpose."^ We have seen in the life of Hilliard, that Shoote and Betts are mentioned as painters in miniature. The former, I suppose, was John Shute, who styles himself, " paynter and architecte " in a book written and published by him in folio, in 1563, called The first and chief groundes of Architecture, used in all the auncient and famous mony- ments, ivith a farther and more ample Discourse upon the same, than hitherto hath been set out by any other. The cuts and figures in the book are in a better style than ordi- nary, the author, as he tells the queen in the dedication, having been sent into Italy in 1550, by the Duke of Northumberland, (in whose service he had been,) and who maintained him there in his studies under the best archi- tects. This person published another work, entitled, Two ^ Indorum Floridam provinciam habitantium Icones ]jrimum ibidem ad vivuni expressae a Jacopo Le Moyne cui nomeii De Morgues, 1591. 2 A work of singular curiosity has lately been brought to England, which in- troduces an artist hitherto unknown, as having practised here. It is a very large collection of Topographical Drawings, by Antonius Van Den Wynegaarde, chiefly in England, but others at 'Rome, in Spain, and the Netherlands. It contains views and perspectives of London, as taken from the top of old Suffolk-house, in Southwark (since called the Mint), and included the old bridge, and tlie whole north-westerai bank of the river Thames, from the Tower to Westminster-abbey, with all the conspicuous palaces and buildings. There are likewise separate views, in detail, of the royal palaces of Westminster, St. James's, Plaisanceat Greenwich, Richmond, Hampton-court and Oatlands. These are given in elevations and ])arts, with many delineations of each. The artist has affixed his name with dates, " Antonius VAN den Wynegaakde ad vivum fecit, 1558." A conjecture may be fairly allowed that he was a Fleming, attached to the court of Philip II. when in England, and was so employed during that time, and that he attended that monarch into his different dominions. The drawings, which are very well and accurately sketched with a pen, and heightened with a slight tint of red and blue, are of the largest imperial folio size, about eighteen inches high, and some of them are so long as to require a double folding. They are now (1826) in the possession of Messrs. Harding, Triphook, and Lepard, booksellers, by whom proposals have been published for facsimiles, on a reduced scale. — D. QUEEN ELIZABETH. 185 notable Commentar ies, the obg, of the original of the Turks, &c., the other of the Warres of the Turke against George Scanderbeg, &c. ; translated out of Italian into English. Printed by Kowland Hall, 1562.^ Of Bettes, there were two of the name, Thomas and John, who, with several other painters of that time, are mentioned by Meres in his second part of Wit's Commonivealth,'^\xhYi^hQdi in 159 8, at London. " As learned Greece had these excellent artists renowned for their learning, so England has these, Hilliard, Isaac Oliver and John de Cretz, very famous for their painting. So as Greece had moreover their painters, so in England we have also these, William and Francis Segar brethren, Thomas and John Bettes, Lockie, Lyne, Peake, Peter Cole, Arnolde, Marcus (Garrard) Jacques de Bruy, Cornelius, Peter Golchi, Hieronimo (de Bye) and Peter Vandevelde. As Lysippus, Praxiteles and Pyrgoteles were excellent engravers, so have we these engravers Eogers, Christopher Switzer and Cure."^ I quote this passage to prove to those who learn one or two names by rote, that every old picture they see is not by Holbein, nor every miniature by Hilliard or Oliver.^ By Nicholas Lockie, mentioned in this quotation, there are several portraits ; Dr. Pawlinson had one of Dr. John King, Bishop of London, from which Simon Pass engraved a plate. Stowe mentions one Master Stickles, an excellent architect of that time, who, in 1596, built for a trial a pinnace that might be taken to pieces. Chron. p. 769. In the list of new-year's gifts to Queen Elizabeth, Bar- tholomew Campaine presents one piece of cloth of silver ^ Ames's History of rrinting, p. 217. William Cm-e, afterwards master-mason to King James I., made the monument of Sir Roger Ashton, at Cranford, Middlesex, with seven figures kneeling, for 180/. in 1611, Lysons's Middlesex. — D. 3 This caution, as given by Walpole, is equally reasonable and just. How many a well painted portrait, by the reverse of fortune, has been divorced from the ancient oak wainscot in the manor house, where it had hung for centuries ; and after the name, both of the person represented, and the painter, had been long lost, found an entirely new one, for both characters, among the crowd in the repository of the picture-dealer and auctioneer ! In fact, there are several com petent, if not excellent painters of portrait, who were valued only, in their own time, for the faculty and success of imitating those of greater fame, whilst their owri names were sunk in obscurity, as in the instance of Nicholas Lockie and Richard Steeveus. — D. 186 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF stained with the half-figure of Henry VIII. This might be the same person with one Campion, an engraver or chaser of plate, whose name is preserved in an old inventory of the goods, chattels, jewels, &c. of the Earl of Sussex, taken at his death in 1583. There appeared the names of the following artists ; amongst the gilt and silver plate, one great pair of gilt vases richly wrought by Derick ; others made by Campion. Pots engraved and made by Martin, many other vessels by Derick, and others by Metcalfe. The contract for the tomb of this great peer, Thomas Eadcliffe, Earl of Sussex, Lord Chamberlain to the Queen, and ^signal antagonist of Leicester, is still extant.^ He bequeathed 1,500^. to be expended on it ; and his executors. Sir Christopher Wray, Lord Chief Justice of her Majesty's Bench, Sir Gilbert Gerard, Master of the EoUs, Sir Thomas Mildmay and others, agreed with Kichard Stevens, for the making and setting it up in Boreham Church in Suffolk, where it still remains. The whole charge paid to Stevens for his part of the work was 2921. 12s. 8d. In a list of debts to be paid after the earl's death by his executors, one was to Horatio Palavicini f probably for a set of 1 This contract and inventory, Vertue saw among theMSS. of Peter LeneveNorroy, a great antiquary. I do not doubt but considerable discoveries might be made of our old artists, particularly architects, from papers and evidences in ancient families. 2 Sir Horatio Palavicini, was collector of the pope's taxes in England in the reign of Queen Mary, on whose death, and the change of religion that ensued, he took the liberty of keeping the money himself, and settling in England ; he built a house in the. Italian style, with a loggia to the second story, witli his arms over the portal, at Little Shelford ; which was pulled down in 1750. He was also possessor of the estate and house at Baberham near Cambridge, where, in the hall, on a costly chimney-piece, adorned with the history of Mutius Scsevola, his arms still remain. His family were buried at Baberham, as appears by several entries in the parish register, where also is recorded the marriage of his widow {exactly a year and a day after Sir Horatio's death, who died July 6, 1600) thus, Mr. Oliver Cromwell and the Lady Anne Palavicini,* were married July 7, 1601." In a MS. of Sir John Crew of Ushington, a great antiquary and herald, was this epitaph, corrobora- tive of the tradition above-mentioned : — '* Here lies Horatio Palavazene, Who robb'd the pope, to lend the queene. He was a theif : a theif ! thou lyest ; For whie ? he robb'd but Antichrist. Him Death with besome swept from Babram Into the bosome of oulde Abraham : But then came Hercules with his club. And struck him down to Belzebub." * An account of the family of Palavicini and their connection with that of Cromwell, is given in Noble's Mem. of the Crormvells, vol. ii. p. 178. — D. QUEEN ELIZABETH. hangings mentioned in the inventory; and 61. 16s. Od* to Eandolph the painter. Kichard Stevens,^ above mentioned, was a Dutchman, and no common artist. He was a statuary, painter, and medallist. The figures on Lord Sussex's tomb were his work, and in a good style. In the family of Lumley are some portraits painted by him,^ and among other accounts some of his receipts, as there are too in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire ; which makes it highly probable that the curious portraits at Hardwicke, of Queen Elizabeth, in a gown embroidered with sea-monsters, the Queen of Scots, both at whole length, and others, were painted by this Eichard Stevens. But his best performances seem to have been his medals, which are bold and in good taste. Mr. Bryan Fairfax had one with a lady's head in the dress of the times, and this legend : — Anna Poines, uxor Thomae Heneage ; under the bustj 1562. Ste. H. F. that is, Stevens, Hollandus, fecit. Dr. Meade had two more : one of William Parr, Marquis of Northampton ; the other, of Eobert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, engraved in Evelyn's Discourse on English In Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, vol. ii. p. 52, lib. 7, it is said that when the Lord Arundel, * was imprisoned by Queen Elizabeth for accepting the title of Count of the Empire, he referred his case to Sir Horatio and others, adding these words in his letter to one of the principal lords of the court : " Neither dOe I thinke England to be so unfurnished of experienced men, but that either Sir Horatio Palavieini, Sir Eobert Sydney, Mr. Dyer, or some other, can witness a truth therein." But Palavieini had higher merit, as appears by an incontestable record ; he was one of the commanders against the Spanish Armada in 1588, and his portrait is preserved amongst those heroes in the borders of the tapestry in the House of Lords, engraved by Pine. 1 The more eminent artistes of the sixteenth century practised the arts univer- sally, and equally excelled in painting, sculpture, and architecture. Richard Steevens deserves to be enumerated among them. The Earl of Sussex had be- queathed 1,500^. for his sumptuous funeral and monument, but Steevens was paid for the figures only. It is probable, that he was extensively employed, and that moDum^ents, which partook alike of the three arts, of vast size and magnificence (of which AVestminster Abbey is the chief repository), composed of alabaster and various marbles, were finished, or contracted for, by Steevens. Another subject of his art, were the magnificent chimney pieces, similar to the sepulchral monuments, both in composition, dimensions, and ornament, of which grand specimens remain at Hatfield, Burleigh, Kenilworth, Audley End, and other palaces of that age. — D. ^ Particularly John, Lord Lumley, 1590. When Jervase saw this picture (on which the name of Stephens appears) it was so well coloured, and so like the manner of Holbein, that he concluded many pictures ascribed to that master are the works of Stephens. * Sir Thomas Arundell, created a Count of the Sacred Ptoman Empire, by the Em- peror Rodolph II. in 1595 ; and Baron Arundell of Wardour, in 1607, 5 Jac. I. — D. 188 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF Medals. The author says, that when Leicester quitted \ Holland, he caused several medals to be engraved, which he gave to his friends there. The medal in question is remarkable for the impertinence of the reverse : sheep grazing, and a dog turning from them ; under his feet, Invitus desero — round, Non gregem sed ingratos. Vertue mentions others by the same workman, of the Earl of Pembroke and Sir Thomas Bodley. Kobert Adams, ^ surveyor of the queen's buildings, seems to have been a man of abilities. I cannot specify his works in architecture ; but there are two plans extant that he published; one is a large print of Middleburgh, dated 1588 ; the other of the same date, is a small parch- ment roll, drawn with the pen, and entitled Thamesis Descriptio: showing by lines crossing the river how far and from whence cannon-balls may obstruct the passage of any ship upon an invasion, from Tilbury to London, with proper distances marked for placing the guns. Adams was buried in an aisle on the north side of the church of Greenwich, with this inscription : Egregio viro, Eoberto Adams, operum regiorum supervisori, architecturae peri- tissimo, ob. 1595. Simon Basil, operationum regiarum contrarotulator, hoc posuit monumentum, 1601. Valerio Belli, called Valerio Vicentino, was a celebrated engraver of precious stones ; Felibien says,^ if his designs were equal to his execution, he might be compared with the ancients. He engraved caskets and vases of rock crystal for Pope Clement VH. and performed an infinite number of other works. He certainly was in England in this reign, and carved many portraits in cameo. ^ Dr. Meade had a fine bust of Queen Elizabeth on onyx,* alto-relievo in profile, and very large, by the hand of this master. I have a jewel by him, containing the head of Lord Treasurer Burleigh, affixed to the back of an antique intaglio of Caracalla, and appendant to it, a 1 Robert Adams translated Ubaldini's account of tlie defeat of the Spanish Armada, from the Italian into Latin, 4to. 1589, with eleven maps. — Herbert p. 1697. -D. 2 Yo\. i. p. 121. 3 Several very small bas-reliefs of histories, by this artist, cast in copper, are preserved in a frame in the British Museum. — D. ■* Lord Charlemont bought it at Dr. Meade's sale. QUEEN ELIZABETH. 189 smaller head of the Queen, both in cameo on onyx. The Duke of Devonshire has several of his works two profiles in cameo of Queen Elizabeth : another gem with the head of Edward VI., cameo on one side, and intaglio on the other ; and two pieces of crystal, with intaglios of several figures from the antique. To these two last is the sculptor's name. The Duchess of Leeds has a singular curiosity by this hand ; ^ it is a pebble, in the shape of an oblong button ; the upper side, brown, and very convex ; the under, red and white, and somewhat concave. On the top is a profile of Queen Elizabeth, encircled with foliage ; at bottom, a knight, completely armed, in the act of tilting : on the background the front of a castle with columns ; on the bases of which are the syllables, Es — sex ; inti- mating the earl to be her majesty's knight. In the Museum Trevisanum is a medallion of him in marble, another smaller in copper ; on the back of it Yalerio Belli Vicentino ; and a third of his son, dated 1572. Among the HarleianMSS. is a list of jewels belonging to Queen Elizabeth. Item, a flower of gold garnished with sparkes of diamonds, rubyes and ophals, with an agath of her Majestie's visnomy and a perle pendante with devises painted on it given by eight maskers in the Christmas week anno regni 24. The agate was, perhaps, the work of Vicentino. It is certain, though the queen's economy or want of taste restrained her from afibrding great encouragement to genius, that the riches and flourishing situation of the country offered sufficient invitations to the arts. Arch- bishop Parker retained in his service at Lambeth a printer, a painter, and more than one engraver. Of the latter, the principal were Berg or Hogen Berg, and Lyne above mentioned, who was probably his painter too. Prefixed ^ The Earl of Exeter has also one or two. 2 From the collection of the Countess of Holderness. Thomas Sackville, Earl of Dorset, the Lord Treasurer, by his will, dated Aug. 11, 1607, bequeaths "the sole use of one picture of our late famous Queen Elizabeth, being cut out of an agate, with excellent similitude, ovalfashiou, and set in gold, with 26 rubyes about the circle of it, and one orient pearle pendant to the same, to remaine as an heir- loome to the house and family of the Sackvilles." — Collins' s Peerage. — D. 190 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF to the archbisliop s Life, printed at I/ambeth, is a cut of liis grace, inscribed, E. Berg f. Above twenty books were published by the archbishop from his own printing- house •} two only have this head. At Kuckolt, in the parish of Lowlayton in Essex (the mansion of the Hicks) was a large genealogy of the kings of England from the conquest to Queen Elizabeth, with all the line of France and England under these two titles — Linea Valesiorum et Linea Angliae ; at bottom the workman's name, Eemigius Hogenbergius, servus D. Matt, archiep. Cant, sculpsit 1574.^ There was another such genealogic chart, entitled, Reg- num Britanniae tandem plene in Heptarchiam redactum a Saxon ibus, expulsis Britannis, &c. Ao. 686, executed in wood very plain and well ; the name, Eichardus Lyne, servus D. Matth. archiep. Cant, sculpsit 1574. One Lyly too is mentioned as curious in copying the hands of ancient deeds, who was employed by the same patron. D. John Twisden, a divine of that age, was himself a performer in painting. He died at the age of eighty-five in 1588. Vertue was showed a small portrait of him, neatly done by himself in oil on copper, about forty years before his death. But there was one gentleman in this reign, who really attained the perfection of a master. Sir Nathaniel Bacon, ^ 1 These artists are farther particularised by Walpole, in his Catalogue of Engravers. — D. 2 Ames's TtjpograiJh. Aiitiqu. p. 540. 3 He married the daughter of the famous Sii' Thomas Gresham, by wliom he was ancestor of the present Lord Townshend. — See Collinses English Baronets, voL i. p. 4. The monument erected by Sir Nathaniel Bacon in Culford Church, during his lifetime, was probably after his own design. The introduction of the pallet and pencils affords a satisfactory proof that he valued himself upon his love of and pro- hciency in the art. In a MS. by Edward Norgate, to the account of whom, in this work, notes wdl be added. Sir Nathaniel Bacon is mentioned with much interest. Speaking of "pinke which is a colour, soe usefuU and hard to get good, as gave occasion to my late deare friend Sir N. Bacon, K.B. (a gentleman whose rare parts and generous disposition, whose excellent learning and great skill in this and good arts, deserves a never dyinge memory) to make or finde a pinke, so very good, as my cousinell P. Oliver, (without disparagement to any the most excellent in this art) making proofe of some that 1 gave him, did highly commend it, and used none other to his dyinge day ; wherewitli, and with Lidian lake, hee made sure expressions of those deep and glowing shadows, in those histories he copied after QUEEN ELIZABETH. 191 knight of the Bath, a younger son of the Keeper, and half brother of the great Sir Francis. He travelled into Italy and studied painting there ; but his manner and colouring approaches nearer to the style of the Flemish School. Feachamon Limning, p. 126, says, " But none in my opinion deserveth more respect and admiration for his skill and practice in painting than master Nathaniel Bacon of Broome in Suffolk (younger son to the most honorable and bountiful-minded Sir Nicholas Bacon) not inferior in my judgment to our skillfullest masters." At Culford, where he lived, are preserved some of his works ; and at Gorhambury, his father's seat, is a large picture in oil by him, of a cook maid with dead fowls, admirably painted, with great nature, neatness, and lustre of colour- ing. In the same house is a whole length of him by himself,^ drawing on a paper ; his sword and pallet hung- up : and a half length of his mother by him. At Eed- grave hall in Suffolk were two more pieces by the same hand, which afterwards passed into the possession of Mr. Rowland Holt, the one, Ceres with fruit and flowers ; the other, Hercules and the Hydra. In Tradescant's Museum was a small landscape, painted and given to him by Sir Nathaniel Bacon.^ Titian, that no oyle painting should appears more warme and fleshy than those of his hand." After ascribing so much praise to this preparation, he gives the secret, '* To make Sir N. Bacon's brown pinke." " About Midsummer, take as much of a greeue weed called genestella tinctoris, as will be well boiled and covered in a paile of water, but let the water be seethed well, and be scumbed, before you put it in. You will know when it is well sodde, when the leaves and the bark will slip from the stalke drawn through your fingers. Then take it from the fire, and poure it into a* wooden bowle or pail, through a clothe, till all the water be strained through ; then cast tlie wood away. Take this water and set it on the fire againe, and when it begins to seethe put into it the quantity of half an eggshell of ground chalke with a little water of the kettle in a dish, after the manner of thickening the pot ; then put in a little jellied size, broken small with your hand, as it were strewed all over the superficies of your colour, and so let it stand. The size is put in, to make the water separate irom. the colour. Then take off the scumme, and put it into a jarglass, and set it where no sun comes ; and it will be excellent yellow." The annexed engraving will give a proof of Sir N. Bacon's great talent, exhibited in a porti'ait of himself. — D. ^ His monument and bust are in the church at Culford, with his pallet and pencils. There is another for him at StifFkey in Norfolk, the inscription on which may be seen in the Appendix to Masters's History of Corpus Christi College, Cam- hridge, p. 85. It is said in the note that Sir Nathaniel was famed for painting plants, and well skilled in their vertues. 2 Now> or formerly, in the Ashmolean Museum, at Oxford. — D, 192 PAINTERS IN THE REICxN OF Of the engravers in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who were many and of merit, I shall say nothing here ; Vertue having collected an ample and separate account of them, which makes another volume of this work. I shall only mention now, that that age resembled the present in its passion for portraits of remarkable persons. Stowe, in his Annals, speaking of the Duke d'Alengon, who came over to marry the queen, says, By this time his picture, state and titles, were advanced in every stationer's shop, and many other public places."^ The same author, mentioning Sir Francis Drake s return, says, " There were books, pictures, and ballads, published of him." In another point too there was a parity ; auctions were grown into vogue, and consequently abuse ; the first orders for regulating them by the Lord Mayor were issued in that reign. At the same period was introduced the custom of pub- lishing representations of magnificent funerals. There is a long roll, exhibiting the procession at the obsequies of Sir Philip Sidney. It was (as is said at the bottom of it) con- trived and invented by Thomas Lant,^ gentleman, servant ^ In the Cecil papers is a letter to the Lord Mayor of London, dated July 21, 1561, telling him, "The Queen's Majesty understandeth that certain bookbinders and stationers utter certain papers wherein be printed the face of her Majesty and the King of Sweden : and although her Highness is not miscontented that either her own face or the said King's should be painted or portraited ; yet to be joined vnth the said King or with any other prince that is known to have made any request in marriage to her Majesty is not to be allowed ; and therefore your Lord- ship should send for the warden of the stationers, or other wardens that have such papers to sell, and cause such papers to be taken from them and packed up together in such sort as none of them be permitted to be seen in any place." The effect of this order appears from a passage in Evelyn's Art of Chalcography : "Had Queen Elizabeth been thus circumspect, there had not been so many vile jopies multi- l^lied from an ill painting ; as being called in and brought to Essex-house, did for several years furnish the pastrymen with peels for their ovens," p. 25. ^ Of this most rare publication two copies are extant in the Library of the Col- lege of Arms. Thomas Lant was created Portcullis Pursuivant, 1558, Windsor Herald, 1597, and died in 1600. A short abstract of this very curious work will communicate some idea of the pomp with which the funeral of the illustrious S3^dney was conducted. " Here followeth the manner of the whole proceedinge of the Funerall, which was celebrated in St. Panic's, the sixteenth of February, 1586. Followers, six peers, relatives, among whom were the Earls of Leicester and Essex, Sir Robert Sydney chief mourner, with six others. Pall bearers, Sir Fulk Greville, Sir Edward Dyer. Six banner bearers, two before and four behind. Six heralds bearing the insignia escocheon, sword, gloves and spurs. The Horse of the Field in full comparison — the barbed horse. The whole conducted by Garter King of Arms, Followers, twelve Knights relatives, and 60 Esquires. Thirty-two poor men to denote his age. The procession closed by the Mayor and Corporation, QUEEN ELIZABETH. 193 to the said honorable knight, and graven in copper b}^ Derick or Theodor de Brie in the city of London 1587. It contains- about thirty-four plates. Prefixed is a small oval head of Mr. Lant, set. 32. The same person wrote a treatise of Heraldry. John Holland^ of Wort well, Esq., living in 1586, is commended as an ingenious painter, in a book called Tlw Excellent Art of Painting, p. 20. But it is to the same hand,^ to which this work owes many of its improve- ments, that I am indebted for the discovery of a very valuable artist in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The eastern side of the college of Caius and Gonville at Cambridge, in which are the Portae Virtutis et Sapien- tiae, was built in the years 1566 and 1567. These are joined by two long walls to the Porta Humilitatis, and in these are two little Doric frontispieces, all in appearance, of the same date, and showing the Koman architecture reviving, with little columns and pilasters, well enough proportioned in themselves and neatly executed, though in no proportion to the building they were intended to adorn. In the entries of the College, under the year 1575 are these words: Porta, quae honoris dicitur et ad scholas publicas aperit, a lapide quadrato duroque ex- truebatur, ad eam scilicet formam et effigiem, quam Doctor Caius, dum viveret, architecto praescripserat elaborata." This gate cost 128Z. 95. Dr. Caius died July 29, 1573. In the same year are these words : " Positum est Joh. Caio ex alabastro monumentum summi decoris et artificii eodem in sacelli loco, quo corpus ejus antea sepeliebatur : cui praeter insculpta illius insignia, vt, Artillery and Trained-bands of the City of London. Engraved in copper by Derick Theodore de Bry of the Cittye of London, 1587. This picture, which you see expressed, is the true pourtraiture of Thomas Lant, who was the author and inventor of this worke." — D. This Thomas Lant was Portcullis Pursuivant. There are several copies extant in MS. of a treatise called, the Armoury of Nobility, first gathered by Eobert Cook, Clarancieux, corrected by Robert Glover, Somerset Herald, and lastly, augmented with the Knights of the Garter by Thomas Lant, Portcullis, anno 1589. One copy of this work is in the possession of the Eev. Mr. Charles Parkin, of Osburgh, in Norfolk, to whom I am obliged for this and other curious communications. 1 See the pedigree of Holland in BlomfxUV s JS'orfolk. 2 Mr. Gray. VOL. I. 0 194 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF annotatum setatis obitusque diem et annum (uti vivus cxecutoribus ipse praeceperat) duas tantummodo sen- tentias has inscripsimus, Vivit post funera Virtus — Fui Caius." This monument — made to stand upon the ground, but now raised much above the eye on a heavy base projecting from the wall — is a sarcophagus with ribbed work and mouldings, somewhat antique, placed on a basement supporting pretty large Corinthian columns of alabaster, which uphold an entablature, and form a sort of canopy over it. The capitals are gilt and painted with ugly scrolls and compartments, in the taste of that reign. The charge of the founder's tomb was as follows : — For alabaster and carriage £10 10 0 To Theodore and others for carving .... 33 16 5 To labourers 0181 Charges extraordinary 2 0 2 Then in the year 1576 are these words: '*In atrio doctoris Caii columna erecta est, eique lapis miro artificio elaboratus, at que in se 60 horologia complexus imponitur, quem Theodoeus Haveus Cleviensis, artifex egregius, et insignis architecturae professor, fecit, et insignibus eorum generosorum, qui tum in collegio morabantur, depinxit ; et velut monumentum suae erga collegium benevolentiae eidem dedicavit. Hujus in summitate lapidis constituitur ventilabrum ad formam Pegasi f ormatum. " That column is now destroyed with all its sun-dials ; but when Loggan did his views of the colleges, the pillar, though not the dials, was yet standing. In the college is a good portrait on board of Dr. Keys, not in profile, undoubtedly original, and dated 1563, aetatis suae 53, with Latin verses and mottoes : and in the same room hangs an old picture, bad at first, and now almost effaced by cleaning, of a man in a slashed doublet, dark curled hair and beard, looking like a foreigner, and holding a pair of compasses, and by his side a polyedron, composed of twelve pentagons. This is undoubtedly Theodore Haveus himself, who, from all these circum- stances, seems to have been an architect, sculptor, and QUEEN ELIZABETH. 195 painter ; and having worked many years for Dr. Caius and the college, in gratitude left behind him his own picture. In the gallery of Emanuel College, among other old pictures, is one with the following inscription, recording an architect of the same age with the preceding ; " Effigies Rodulphi Simons, architecti sua aetate peritissimi, qui (praeterplurima aedificia ab eopraeclare facta) duo collegia, Emanuelis hoc, Sidneii illud, extruxit integre : magnam etiam partem Trinitatis recocinnavit amplissime," head and hands with a great pair of compasses. In a book belonging to the Jewel-office, in the possession of the Earl of Oxford, Yertue found mention "of a fair bason and lair (ewer) guilt, the bason having in the bushel (body) a boy bestriding an eagle, and the ewer of the worke ^ of Grotestain, with gooses heads antique upon the handle I and spoute, weighing together xx ounces.^' In the same book was this memorandum : ^'Eemaining in the hands of Robert Brandon and Assabel Partrage, the queen's goldsmiths, four thousand ounces of guilt plate, at five shillings and fourpence the ounce, in the second year of the queen." I shall conclude this reign and volume with what, though executed in the time of her successor, properly relates to that of Elizabeth. In the Earl of Oxford's collection was an office-book, in which was contained an account of the charge of her majesty's monument. Paid to Maximilian PoAvtran 170?. Patrick Blacksmith 951. John de Critz,^ the painter 1001. Besides the stone, the whole cost 965U ^ This is the painter mentioned above by Meres, and who, I suppose, gave the design of the tomb. One De Critz is often mentioned among the purchasers of King Charles's pictures during the civil war, as will appear in the second volume. Maximilian Poutraine, more commonly known as Maximilian Colte, and by which name Walpole mentions him, had a writ of privy seal in 1607 for 140Z. for a monument in Westminster-abbey, for Princess Sophia, fourth daughter of James I. — Lodge.' s Illustrations, vol. iii. p. 319. Of the several individuals of the De Critz, a farther account will be given when they occur. — D. ^ This monument, and those of the Queen of Scots, and of the two young princesses, Mary and Sophia, daughters of King James, cost 3,500/. 0 2 196 PAINTERS IN THE KEIGN OF EEMAKKS. A SKETCH of the history of the architecture in use, to the close of the reigii of Elizabeth, may now be resumed. More interesting specimens of that pecu- liar style could not be adduced than the mansions erected by her ministers for their own residence. She rather encouraged that enormous expense in the noblemen of her court, than set them any such example. She neither built nor rebuilt any palace, for she considered that her father's magnificence had supplied tliem ; and excepting the gallery at Windsor-castle, no royal building claims her for its founder. Lord Leicester is said to have expejided 60,000/. upon Kenilworth only, which sum will not bear the test of comparative examination. Of the palatial houses finished before 1600, the following list will include those of greater celebrity in that era ; reserving others, the foundations only of which were laid in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to that of her successor. Some curiosity respecting their architects, more essentially connected with the original plan of this work will necessarily arise, which will be informed, as far as any document within the Editor's knowledge will confirm the appropriation. Yet there is undoubted authority for the names of certain individuals, as archi- tects whose works are not exactly known at this period, but whose fame must have been acquired by the eminent talents they displayed in the age wherein they lived. Such names, without reference to any building in particular, are not unfrequently mentioned. Robert Adams, Bernard Adams, Laurence Bradshaw, Hector Ashley, and Thomas Grave, as holding the employments of architects, surveyors, or master-masons to the queen and her nobility. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 1.3. 14. 15. I IS. nnrleigh Kenilw, vth ... Hnnsdon Stoke PoKcis.. Gorhanibuvy .. Bucklmrst Knowle Catleilg(^ Longleat Basingliousc .. "Wnnsteail Wiiiil^cdon ... AVcstAvood renslnirst Kclston Toddiiigton ... ITardwick-liall Theobalds Date. ! County. Founder. 15S0 1565 1565 1570 1560 1579 1560 1576 1588 1590 1570 1560 1580 1597 1580 Lincoln ... Warwi-^k . Herts Bucks Herts Sussex .... Kent Cambridge Wilts Hants Essex Surrey Worcester Kent Somerset . Bedinrd... T)er!.v Herts Lord Burleigh Earl of Leicester Lord Hunsdon Earl of Huntingdon Sir N. Bacon Lord Bucklmrst The Same Lord North Sir J. Thynne Marquis of Winton Earl of Leicester Sir T. Cecil Sir J. Pakingtoii Sir H. Sydney Sir J. Hartington Lord Cheyney Countess of Shrewsbury Lord Burleigh Architect. Present State. John Thorpe Skillingtcn Perfect. Ruins. Rebuilt. Rebuilt. Ruins. Destroyed. Perfect Destroyed. Perfect. Ruins. Destroyed. Rebuilt. Perfect. Perfect. Rebuilt. Destroyed. Ruins. Destroyed. The principal de\'iation from the plan of the earlier houses in the times of the Tudors was in the bay windows, parapets, porticos ; and internally in the halls, galleries, chambers of state and staircases. The two last-mentioned were ren- dered as rich in ornamental carving as the grotesque taste then prevalent could invent or apply. The ceilings were fretted only with roses and armorial devices, but without pendents, as in the earlier style. The fronts of the porticoes were QUEEN ELIZABETEI. 197 overlaid with carved entablatures, figures and armorial devices, the lofty and wide galleries generally exceeded one hundred feet in length, and the staircases were so spacious as to occupy a considerable part of the centre of the house. The imperfectly-imitated Roman style, introduced, as before noticed, by John of Padua, in its first dawn in this kingdom, began now to extend its influence, although partially. At Burleigh, the parapets which surround the whole structure, are composed of open work, describing a variety of Tuscan scrolls, and the chimneys are Tuscan columns two, three, or four clustered together, and surmounted by a frieze and entablature. Open parapets, hav- ing letters placed within them, as a conceit indicative of the founder, were then first introduced. The large manor-houses, dispersed through the several English counties, con- structed of timber frame- work, were very general, where a supply of stone or brick failed. The carved pendents, and the weather-boards of the gables and roof, were carved in oak or chestnut, with exuberance of fancy and good exe- cution. The counties of Chester, Salop, and Stafibrd abounded, more especially, in curious instances, many of which are no longer seen, and their memory preserved only in old engravings. The zenith of this particular fashion of domestic architecture was the reign of Elizabeth, and it is thus discrimi- nated by a contemporary observer : " Of the curiousnesse of these piles I speake not, sith our workmen are grown generallie to such an excellencie of devise in the frames now made, that they farre pass the finest of the olde." " It is a worlde to see how divers men being bent to buildinge, and having a delectable veine in spending of their goodes by that trade, doe dailie imagine new devises of their owne to guide their workmen withall, and those more curious and excellent than the former." — Harrison's Dcsc. of England, p. 336. In the more ancient cities and towns, houses of timber- frame, but in a pecu- liar and not less ornamented style of carvings were frequent ; and in their fronts towards the street, and in the wainscoting of the apartments, the sup- porting figures were of extremely whimsical forms. It is not easy to determine what they were intended to rej)resent. Those which have remained to our own times might have been seen at Chester, Shrewsbury, Coventry and Bristol ; but in the last-mentioned place, most have vanished in the course of the last century, and their repre- sentations are preserved only in the portfolios of local antiquaries. On the (Jontinent, although more ancient, as we have been merely imitators, they have been better preserved to the present day. All the eccentricities of the Burgundian manner have been adopted in their buildings of timber-frame, as well as of brick and stone. Numerous and remarkable specimens may still be examined and admired at Rouen, Bruges, Nuremberg, and Strasbourg, to which we could at no period have offered examples of equal excellence. The age of Queen Elizabeth introduced so total a deviation from the plan of sepulchral monuments in the j)receding reigns that it may be considered as a new style. Upon a large altar-tomb of marble was erected an open arcade, having a very rich and complicated entablature. The columns were marble shafts, with capital, white or black, of the Doric or Corinthian order. Small pyramidal figures, the sides of which were richly veneered with variously coloured pieces, disposed in ornamented squares or circles, supporting globes or balls. x\rmorial bearings were emblazoned, and the effigies painted and gilt in exact resem- blance to the armour or robes in which the noble deceased were invested during life. When these monuments were placed against a wall, which was more commonly done, the plan was accommodated to it, and the alcove, with its columns, universally retained. Not to mention inferior instances, the monuments of Ratclifl'e, Ea-rl of Sussex, at Boreham, before noticed ; of the 198 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. Countess, in Westminster-abbey ; of Dudley, Earl of Leicester, at Warwick ; and of Carey, Lord Hunsdon, in Westminster-abbey, will amply confirm these observations. The taste in which these monuments are executed is alike cum- brous and confused ; and to the figures, the anomaly of form with colour is indiscriminately applied. MONUMENT OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 199 SUPPLEMENT. By the favour of the Earl of Warwick, I am enabled to bring to light a very capital artist, who designed or im- proved most of the principal and palatial edifices erected in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., though even his name was totally forgotten. I am empowered by the same condescension to point out a volume of drawings of that individual architect JOHN THOEPE, who has left a folio of plans/ now in Lord Warwick's pos- session. There are not many uprights, but several ground plans of some of the palaces and many of the seats of the nobility, extant, erected, or altered at that period. Of some he names himself the author ; of others he either designed, supervised, or proposed alterations ; though, according to the negligence of that age,, he is not circumstantial in par- ticulars. There are ground plans of Somerset-house;^ of ^ This singularly curious and valuable MS. had passed to the library of the Hon. Charles Greville, at the sale of which, April 10, 1810, it was purchased by Sir John Soane, who offered it to Lopd Warwick for the price he had given, when it was declined, with a merited compliment. The Editor requested of Sir J. Soane a favour, which he has conceded, with a liberal promptitude, and an unrestrained permission of inspecting and making extracts, which will prove that the present proprietor is worthy of the possession, and that it has found its proper place, in the most curious and select library of architecture now in this country. It is a folio of the common size, composed of thick paper, and consists of 280 articles or pages. The plans are accurately executed, but not always accompanied by a scale. Where names of places and proprietors are written, though sometimes with a pencil only, in av ery difficult running hand, these plans or elevations are, of course, authen- ticated. We have sometimes one, without the other. Several of them were merely designs prepared for houses to he built, and to be offered for approbation. The elevation are very neatly tricked, and shaded with ink. The more common form is that of three sides of a quadrangle, the portico in the centre being an ojjcn arcade, finished by a turreted cupola, roofed with lead. Where the quadrangles are complete, they are for convenience intersected by an open corridor. The windoAvs of the front are large and lofty, sometimes alternated with bows or pro- jecting angles, and always so, at either end, Scroll ornaments copied from the designs of the French school, under Vignola and P. Le Scot, are interlaced upon the friezes, or applied in open work in the parapets. The effort by which chimneys were concealed was to couple or group them with Eoman Doric pillars, having a plain entablature, of which manner Burghley offers a particular instance. — D. ^ The result of the present examination varying from that here printed by Wal- pole, the Editor finds it expedient to offer one, more in detail; having investigated the whole contents, 1. Somerset-house. 2. Buckhurst-house, in the parish of Withiam, Sussex, built by Thomas Sack- ville, Earl of Dorset, Lord High Treasurer to Queen ElizalDeth. Ground plan and 200 SUPPLEMENT. Buckliurst- house in Sussex, an immense pile ; of Woolaton ; Copthall; Burleigli-liouse ;^ Burleigh-on-the-Hill (the Duke of Buckingham's) ; Sir Walter Cope's, now Holland-house, elevation. Front extending 230 feet. Quadrangle, 100-80 ; Hall, 50-80. Yery . inconsiderable remains. 3. P. 24. "A garden side for a nobleman's house," probably never executed. 4. " The \vay how to drawe any ground plot into the order of perspective." Diagrams, with written instructions. 5. Design for a large house, with three sides of a quadrangle. 6. " Sir Thomas Dorrell, Lincolnshire." Elevation. 7. " Godstone," an open corridor upon Roman Doric arches. 8 " Copthall," Essex, built by Sir Thomas Heneage, to whom the manor was granted by Queen Elizabeth. Gallery 168 feet long, 22 wide, and 22 high. Inner court, 83 feet square. Destroyed. 9. " WoUaton," Nottinghamshire, built according to the inscrijjtion,'" En has FllANCISCI WlLLOUGHBiEI .EDES, RAKA ARTE COKSTKUCTAS, WlLLOUGHB^IS iiELiCTAS — iNCHOATiE 1580-1588." A part only of the front. An inscription in the church at Wollaton appears to invalidate Thorpe's claim. "Mr. Robert Smithson architect and surveyor uuto the most worthy liouse of Wallaton, with divers others of great account, ob. 1614." He was probabl}^ the pupil and successor of Thor})e. 10. Three sides of a quadrangle with a corridor intersecting. A design. 11. Sir John Bagnall. A gallery above 60 feet in length. 12. " Burghlcy juxta Stamford," built by W. Cecil, Lord Treasurer. Plans only. 1. Ground plan. 2. Fir-t floor. Sketches and designs for the scroll para])et. 13. " Four turrets at the four corners, and a Ian thorn in the middle, leaded all over, and no tunnels appeare, for Sir George St. Poole." 14. " Tliornton College (Lincolnshire), Sir Vincent Skinner." Gallery 100 feet, with circular projecting windows at either end. 15. Ground plan. " Sir Thomas Holte." 16. A desiii;n of more elegance, with Corinthian pilasters. 17. "Sir Walter Coapes at Kensington, erected by me L T. " This, now Holland- house, was finished by Thorpe in 1607, but afterwards altered and added to by Inigo Jones and Stone. 13. " Giddea Hall," Essex, altered for Sir Anthony Coke, who entertained Queen Elizabeth there. Taken down. 19. " for Sir George Coppen." 20. "Burghley on the Hill : the garden side; lodgings below and a gallery above, J.T." 21. "A front or garden side for a nobleman, three breadths of ordinary tene- ments." Conjecturally for Sir Fulk Greville's (Lord Brooke) house near Gray's-inn. 22. "A London house for Mr. Darby." 23. Wimbledon ; "a howse stands upon the edge of a hill." Built for Sir Thomas Cecil, in ]588. Fuller calls it "a daring structure nearly equal to Non- such." Rebuilt by Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, and since burned down. 24. ' ' Queene Mother's house., Faber St. Jermin alia Parie ; altered per J. Thorpe. " 25. "Monsieur Jammet in Paris, his howse, 1600; all his offices are under groundc." 26. Jarmin's howse v leagues from Paris, A. 1600." The elevation is very spacious, and exhibits widows of right angles and circles alternately. 27. " Sir William Hazlerigg." Elevation. 28. " Longford-castle." A diagram of the Trinity is drawn in the centre of a plan of the triangular court. There are two elevations of parts of each front. This very singular construction was erected by Sir Thomas Gorges and his lady, the Marchioness Dowager of Northampton, in 1591. Now the seat of the Earl of Radnor. 29. 1 Cliefden, built by the second Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, was evidently copied in little from his father's seat, Burleigh-on-the-Hili. SUPPLEMENT. 201 at Kensington ; Giddy-hall in Essex ; Audlcy-inn; Ampt- hill (now called Houghton) ; and Ampthili Old-house, another spacious palace, in which Catherine of Arragon some time resided, and of which he says he himself gave the plan of enlargement ; and Kirby, of which he says he laid the first stone in 1570. The taste of all these stately mansions was that bastard style which intervened between Gothic and Grecian architecture, or which, perhaps, was the style that had been invented for the houses of the nobility, when they first ventured, on the settlement of the kingdom after the termination of the quarrel between the Eoses, to abandon their fortified dungeons, and consult convenience and magnificence ; for I am persuaded that what we call Gothic architecture was confined solely to relimous buildino-s, and never entered into the decoration of j^rivate houses.-^ Thorpe's ornaments on the balustrades, 29. " Sir Percival Hart." Plan, Liillingstone, Kent. 30. " Mr. Panton." A large and compact house, not muoli ornamented, having lofty octagon turrets, leaded conically, at each corner. 31. " Holdenby," (written in 23encil). Two large quadrangles in the plan, and an elevation of the front. Built in 1580, for Sir Christopher Hatton, and now in ruins. 32 and 33. Plans. "Mr. William Fitzwilliams, and Sir Henry Neville." 34. "AudleyEnd." Plan of the two courts. Thorpe's part of this once enor- mous building appears to have been completed about 1616. It has been since very greatly reduced, and is now the seat of Lord Braybroke. 35. A concetto or design of " a crosse buildinge," which has semi-octagou projec- tions at the ends. 36. " Mr. Tayler at Potter's-barr." 37. " Sir Walter Covert's," at Slaugham, near Horsham, Sussex. The ruined walls are still standing. 38. " Hatfield Lodge. " Apian. 39. " Ampthili, the topp plott." 40. " Ampthili Old House enlardged, per J. Thorpe." 41. » " Kerby whereof I layd the first stone 1570." This house was built for John Kirby, citizen of London. Fleetwood, the Recorder of London, in a letter to the Lord Treasurer (Burghley) about 1578, mentions the death of John Kirby, who built a fair house on Bethnal-green, which house, lofty like a castle, occasionod certain rhymes, abusive of him and some other city builders of great houses, who had prejudiced themselves thereby, viz. " Kirby's Castle, and Fisher's Folly, Spi- nola's Pleasure, and Megg's Glory." {Lysons's Env. Lond. vol. ii. p. 29.) These were probably erected in the suburbs, from the plans above-mentioned, which Thorpe calls of London houses. — D. ^ This assertion certainly requires some qualification. Could Walpole have over-looked the construction of the roofs of the Halls of Westminster, Eltham, and Crosby-place, all of which are still perfect, built in a 'decidedly Gothic era ? — or those, still Gothic, of Christ Church, Oxford, and Hampton Court ? In what eccle- siastical buildings are there roofs in a similar style of construction or ornament ? This question might be pursued much farther, but the distinction between Gothic Architecture, as applied to ecclesiastical buildings, or to the interior of castles, or to Bishops' palaces, abbeys, and large houses, in the middle centuries, is sufficiently evident. — D. 202 SUPPLEMENT. porches, and outsides of windows, are barbarous and un- graceful, and some of his vast windows advance outwards in a sharp angle ; but there is judgment in his dispositions of apartments and offices, and he allots most ample spaces for halls, staircases, and chambers of state. He appears also to have resided at Paris, and even seems to have been employed there ; at least he gives alterations for the Queen- mother s house, FaherSt. Germains, which I suppose means the Luxembourg in the Fauxbourg St. Germain, and a plan of the house of Monsieur Jammet (Zamet.) There are several other smaller seats and houses in the book, some with the names of the gentlemen for whom they Avere built. One, which he calls Cannons, his Father Fakes house, ^ and another is a whimsical edifice designed for him- self, and forming the initial letters of his name I====5^ conjoined by a corridor (which I have expressed by the dotted lines) and explained by this curious triplet : — " These two letters, I and T, Joined together as you see, Is meant for a dwelling house for me John Thorpe." The volume, however, is a very valuable record of the magnificence of our ancestors,^ and preserves memorials of many sumptuous buildings of which no other monument remains. 1 The MS. has " my fa : Lakes house, Canons." Sir T. Lake, who was impli- cated with the Earl of Suffolk, and severely fined in the reign of James L, built the first house at Canons, where the magnificent Duke of Chandos erected a palnce which was deservedly satirized by Pope, and which was sold for the materials. Was Thorpe Sir T. Lake's son-in-law ? no evidence of that fact has occurred. 2 The orthography is different : " Thes 2 letters I and T Joyned together as you see I Is meant for a dwelling house for mee." The I is applied as offices ; the T, skilfully distributed into large and small apart- ments, — D. 3 There is a draught of the chapel of Henry VIT. which he says cost 14,000Z.— " Capellam istam Henrici 7mi, impensis 14,000?. adjecit ipse 1502."— D. 203 SUPPLEMENT No. IT. The wardrobe caccounts of King Henry YIII. preserved in the British Museum {MSS. llarl. 1419, two volumes) are replete with most curious evidence, particularly interesting to those of our antiquarian readers who de- light to inquire into the splendour, domestic furniture, and habits of life which were peculiar to the ancient monarchs of England. This inventory was made by commissioners in the first year of the reign of Edward VI. (1547), minutely notifying the furniture of fifteen palaces, so left by his father. The articles, indeed, are much too multifarious, and our plan necessarily excludes a series of copious extracts, although so many of them would tend to confirm our notions of the actual magnificence of the age of Henrj^ the Eighth. The honour of being the first royal collector of pictures, has been given exclusively to Charles I. without due examination into the fact. The princi- pal extract, therefore, which the Editor will venture to ofi'er at length, will be a catalogue of Henry's collection, which exhibits no small number ; and it is an allowable conjecture, that many of them were fine specimens of the Flemish and Italian schools, exclusively of those by Holbein and other eminent artists, who were resident in England, and enjoyed the royal patronage. By the ex- treme simplicity used in these descriptions and the obsolete terms applied, much satisfactory information is obscured. Though the subjects are men- tioned, and sometimes even with minuteness, the name of the master is never given. The frames are as exactly described. Over many of the j^ortraits in particular, curtains of white and yellow tatfety were placed in order to pre- serve them — a proof how greatly they were valued by their royal proprietor. Upon a comparison of the subjoined, with the Catalogue of Charles the First's pictures, it may be ascertained, that several of them are still extant in the palaces of George the Fourth. "Stuffe and Implements, at Westminster, in the charge of Sir Anthonie Denny, Knight, keeper of the Howse, {St. James's. ) Tables with pictures [on panel, 25 in all) among them, 1. A table with a picture of St. Jerome paintinge upon a deade man's head. 2. A table with a nakid woman holding a table with a scripture upon it, in th' one hand, and a bracelet on th' other at the upper part thereof. [A portrait.) 4. A table of the Decollation of John the Baptiste. 5. A table with a picture of a woman playing upon a lute, and an olde manne holdinge a glasse in the one hande, and a deade manne's heade, in the other hande. 6. Lucretia Eomana in a gowne like crimosin velvett with greene forsleeves cutte. 7. The same being alle nakid. {There are three others of this subject.) 8. On a table of Walnut-tree, St. George on horsebacke {probably that by Raphael, which was known to have been in this collection). Stained Clothes. {Pictures on canvas.) 1. A table of St. Michael and St. George, being in harnesse {armour) holdinge a stremer. 2. The Decollation of St. John. 3. A table of the nakid truthe having the woorkes of the byshopp of Rome sette forthe in it. 4. Filius Prodigus. 204 SUPPLEMENT. 5. A table of au olde manne dallyinge with women, and a Pheasant cocke hang- inge by the bill. G. St. John the Baptlstes headd. 7. A table of the Frenshe Kinge [Francis I.) the qneene his wife, and a foole standinge behind hym, {with a curtain of yellow and white sarcenet befo/x it.) 8. The Siege of Pavie, 9. A stayned clothe, with men and womenn sittinge at a bankett, and death comyng in makinge them all affrerde, and one standinge with a sworde at the dore, to kepe him owt. There are mentioned many pictures, the subjects of which are repeated several times, having probably been the work of different Flemish and Italian masters, as ordered by the king himself, and painted by those artists, who pre- ferred to send him their works, before living under his auspices in England. The prevailing subjects of these are— the Madonna and Child. The Virgin Mary w^ith the dead body of Christ. The Beheading of St. John, and the Story of Judith and Holofernes. There were three of St. George, and one of them by Raphael, as above-mentioned. Tables or steyncd clothes. {Portraits upon imnel or canvas. ) 1. ''A table of the Frenshe Kinge havinge a dublet of crimsin and a gowne gar- nished with knottes made like perle. {Francis I.) 2. Ditro, the Frenshe queene Elonora, in the Spanyshe arraie, and a cap on lier headd, with an orange in her hande. (Sister of the Emperour.) 3. Ditto, Three children of the Kinge of Denmarke. (Frederick I.) 4. The Duchesse of Myllaine {Christina'^) being her whole stature. 5. Th' oldeEmperourCjth' Emperourethatnoweis, and Ferdinande, (Maximilian 1. Charles Y. and Ferdinand I. successively Emperours of Germany.) 6. The Ladye Margarite, Duchesse of Savoy. 7. Friderike Duke of Saxon, (John Frederick, styled the Magnanimous.) 8. Elizabeth e of Austrie, Queene of Denmarke. 9. Queene of Hungarie being regente of Flanders. (Donna Maria, W'idow of Louis II. King of Hungary, and sister of the Emperour.) 10. Prince Arthure. 11. Ditto of Prince Artliure, wearing a redde caj)pe, with a brooch upon it. and a collar of redde and white roses. 12. KingPIenry t' eyght, when yonge. 13. Th' hoole stature of the K3mges Majestic, in a gowne like crimsin satten, furred with luzernes. 14. In the newe librarye, a table of the picture of oure late souverayne lorde Kynge Henrie th' eyght, not fynished. 15. Ditto, of the Ladye Elizabeth, her grace, with a booke, in her hande her gowne like crimsin clothe of golde, with woorkes {needleioork or embroidery.) 16. Kinge Pichard III. 17. A stained clothe being Solymaine the Tirque, being the hoole stature. 18 to 23. Kinge Henrie 5^'^^. Kinge Henrie 6"^^ Kinge Edward 4*^ Q Elizabethe hys wife King Henrie 7*'^®. alle with yellow and white sarcenet. {They are heads only.) 24. Louise the Frenshe Kinge. {Louis XI T.) 25. The Queene of Castyle. (Joan, Queen of Castile and Leon.) 26. A littel rounde table of the Frenshe Kinge {Francis I. ) when he was yonge. ^ "Cromwell, lord privy scale, signified his master's desire, that a match might be had betwixt oure King and Christina, Duchess of Milan, being a beautiful lady. Cromwell answered, that he must first see her picture. Which being granted, one Hans. Holbein, being tlie king's servant, was sent over to Flanders, and in three hours space shewed what a master he was in the science." - Herbert's Hen. mij. p. 496. This was prcbably a sketch only in crayons. — D. SUPPLEMENT. 205 27. Charles YIII. the Frenshe Kinge, {ob. 1498.) 28. St. with the picture of Charles th" empcrour. 29. The Duke of Burbon. 30. Th' emperour, his dublett beinge cutte, and a rose-marine branche in his hande. 31. Isabelle Quene of Castyle, [the wife of Ferdinand V. King of Ar rag on.) 32. John Archduke of Austrie. 33. A man having a black cappe, with a brooche and a collar of scallop-shells. {Order of St. Michael.) 34. A littel table with Charles Duke of Burgundy. 35. Philip Duke of Burgundy. 36. Philip Duke, the hardye. 37. Charles the Great th' emperoure. 38 Frederike III. Emperoure. 39. Duke of Sabaudie Savoy. [Philihert II.) 40. Jacobbe Kinge of Scottes [James IV.) with a havvke on his fiste. 41. Ferdinande Kinge of Arragon. 42. Duchesse of Millayne [repetition). [This iva.s the princess ivlw heing soliciLcd to marry King Henry VIII. objected ^'that she had only one neck.'^ 43. The wyfe of the Lorde Fienues. y 44. A table of a woman called Michaell, with a redde rose in her hande. 45. Friderike Duke of Saxon, stayned upon a linen clothe, being his whole stature {repetition). 46. The Prince of Orange. 47. The Phisnoray of the Kinge paynted in a table. The guardrobe of the Honour of Hampton Cowrte. In the Kinges gallerie. 48. A picture of my Lorde prince, {afterwards Edward VI.) 49. Another table of oure lady and her sonne, having a stranet, {curtain.) 50. A table of our ladye and her sonne painted. 51. A table of the busso])p of Kome, the four Evangelists casting stones at him." (Eighteen pictures, in the whole, at Hampton-court, chiefly of the Virgin and Child, and the life of Our Saviour, which probably belonged to Cardinal Wolsey. ) The whole number of pictures, in the several palaces, amounted, in this in- ventory, to one hundred and fifty-three. If it be allow^ed, that the mind and taste of Henry VIII. were demonstrated by the subjects upon which he employed the painters whom he patronized, and to whom he dictated them, an opinion exactly correspondent with his character will be the result. We find in his collection numerous portraits of himself, repetitions of those of his contemporary princes, particularly those of the Emperor and Francis 1. with whom he was perpetually conversant ; of his predecessors ; two of the Duchess of Milan, who refused to many him ; but not one of his six wives ! The historical and scriptural subjects w^ere — the viola- tion and death of Lucretia ; the Decollation of St. John Baptist, and his head in a charger ; a similar exhibition of J udith and Holofernes ; St. George, his patron saint ; the Virgin and Child, and with the dead Christ : sundry Flemish moralities, in which Death is personified ; and drolls of the imbeci- lity of old men ; with caricatures of the Pope, after the Eeformation ! If the limits which the Editor has prescribed to himself could be extended, the interest excited by the perusal of many of the other articles w^ould induce him to add other equally curious particulars, which elucidate the inauners of the monarch and his times. Of those more immediately connected with the arts of design, tapestry will be noticed in a subsecjuent chapter, excepting two pieces. 1. Item, one piece of arras of the comynge of K. Henry VII. into Englande, with the Kinge holdinge with th' one hande the crowne from K. Rychaide the thirde usurper of the same ; and with th' other hande holding a swoord crowned. Given by the Master of the 'orse, {Sir Anthony Browne). 2. One piece of arras of tiie Marriage of the Kinge and Quene. 206 SUPPLEMENT. {Henry vij. and Elizabeth of York.) Given by the same. There were many- maps " streyned on borde." Of the Cinque Poortes ; Callis and BuUoign, of the sieges of Balloign, Eome, Vienna, &c. &c. Views of Paris, Antwei*p, Florence, Holy Land, and the " whoole worlde." The " pictures made of Erthe," were small figures in terra-cotta, which were painted, and likewise bas-reliefs of scriptural subjects, painted or gilt. But, that those who think the investigation would repay their trouble may not lose the gratification, the necessary references are as follow, in the British Museum. 1. Wardrobe books of Sir Nicholas Vaux and Sir Henry Guide- ford, anno 12mo. Henrici 8vi. M8S Harl. 4217. 2. An inventorye of King Henry VIII.'s gold and silver plate. Bodleian Library, MSS. Hatton, No. 3502, and the Survey of the Wardrobe, &c. of Henry VIII. taken by the com- missioners of Edward VI. Septembers, 1547. MSS Harl. 1419. 3. The Inventorye of Cardinal Wolsey's householde stuffe at Hampton Court, York Place, &c. ann. 14, Henrici 8vi. MSS Harl. 599. This contains furniture and hangings of gold tissue, clothes of estate of crimson velvet and gold, with the cardinal's arms emblazoned : and suites of tapestry of infinite number and richness. In the Chapel Furniture is noticed " Seyntes apparell," A coote of crymson velvatte garded with contrefayte perles, for Our Ladye." " A coote of blewe for Seynte J ohan." 4. An account of Plate, gold and silver, made for Cardinal Wolsey from the ninth year of Henry VIII. unto the nineteenth year, wherein is set forth what he gave to the colleges founded by him^ — Collectan. Curios. No. xxviij. — D. QUEEN ELIZABETH. 207 CHAPTER VIII.^ PAINTERS AND OTHER ARTISTS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. It was well for the arts that King James had no disposition to them ; he let them take their own course. Had he felt any inclination for them, he would probably have intro- duced as bad a taste as he did into literature. A prince who thought puns^ and quibbles the perfection of eloquence, would have been charmed with the monkies of Hemskirk and the drunken boors of Ostade. James loved his ease and his pleasures, and hated novelties. He gave himself up to hunting, and hunted in the most cumbrous and in- convenient of all dresses, a ruff and trowser breeches. The nobility kept up the magnificence they found established by Queen Elizabeth, in which predominated a want of taste, rather than a bad one. In more ancient times the mansions of the great lords were, as I have mentioned before, built for defence and strength rather than convenience. The walls thick, the windows pierced wherever it was most necessary for them to look abroad, instead of being contrived for sym- metry or to illuminate the chambers. To that style succeed- ed the richness and delicacy of the Gothic. As this declined before the Grecian taste was established, space and vast- ness seem to have made their whole ideas of grandeur. The palaces erected in the reign of Elizabeth by the memorable^ ^ First chapter of the second volume of the original Edition. ^ Hayley's opinion on this subject, when given, was allowed to be just. *' James, both for empire and for arts, unfit, (His sense a quibble, and a pun his wit.) Whatever works he patronized, debased ; But haply left the pencil undisgraced. " Epistle to Romney. Whitehall would never have been built nor embellished by the " mere motion " of that pedantic king, but for the suggestion of the favourite Buckingham. — D. ^ It is a tradition in the family of Cavendish, that a fortune-teller had told her that she should not die while she was building ; accordingly, she bestowed a great deal of the wealth she had obtained from three husbands, in erecting large seats at Hardwicke, Chatsworth, Bolsover, and Oldcotes, and 1 think, at Worksop ; and died in a hard frost when the workmen could not labour. 208 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES 1. Countess of Shrewsbury, Elizabeth of liarclwicke, are ex- actly in this style. The apartments are lofty and enormous, and they knew not how to finish them. Picturqs, had they had good ones, would be lost in chambers of such height ; tapestry, their chief movable, w^as not commonly perfect enough to be real magnificence. Fretted ceilings, graceful mouldings of window^s, a: id painted glass, the orna- ments of the preceding age, were k, len into disuse. Im- mense lights,-^ composed of bad glass, in diamond panes, cast an air of poverty on their most costly apartments. That at Hardwicke, still preserved as it was furnished for tlu recep- tion and imprisonment of the Queen of Scots, is a c arious picture of that age and style. Nothing can exceed the expense in the bed of state, in the hangings of the same chamber, and of the coverings for the tables. The first is clothof gold, cloth of silver, velvets of difi'erent colours, lace, fringes, and embroidery. The hangings consist of figures, large as life, representing the virtues and vices, embroidered on grounds of w^hite and black velvet. The cloths to cast over the tables are embroidered and embossed with gold, on velvets and damasks. The only movables of any taste are the cabinets and tables themselves, carved in oak. The chimneys are wide enough for a hall or kitchen, and over the arras are friezes of many feet deep, with miserable relievos in stucco representing huntings. There, and in all the great mansions of that age, is a gallery, remarkable on]y for its extent. That at Hardwicke is of sixty yards. James built no palace himself. Those erected by the nobles in his reign are much like what I have been describ- ing. Audley-inn,^ one of the wonders of that age, deserved " Rich windows that exclude the light, And 23assages that lead to nothing." Gray's Zong Story. This description is given of Stoke Pogeia, Bucks, built by an Earl of Huntino-- don.— D. ^ Dugdale, writing after the days of Inigo Jones, says, that this house was not to be equalled by any fabric in this realm, excepting Hampton-court. There are prints of Audley-inn, in its grandeur, by Winstanley, who lived at Littlebury, near it, where, within my memory, was his house, remarkable for several mechanic tricks, known by the name of " Winstanley"s Wonders." His plates of Audley-inn are extant, but the prints are very scarce. Part of the edifice was taken down about forty years ago, and a greater part, with the magnificent gallery, was demolished after the decease of the last Earl of Sufiblk of that line. J.'fhomj:crL. sculp.! PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 209 little notice but for the prodigious space it covered. Towards tlie end of that monarch's reign genius was called out, and appeared. The magnificent temper or taste of the Duke of Buckingham led him to collect pictures, and pointed out the study of them to Prince Charles. Eubens came over, Inigo Jones arose, and architecture broke forth in all the lustre and purity of Rome and Athens. But before I come to that period, I must clear my way by some account of the preceding artists. The first painter who seems to have arrived after the accession of James was PAUL VANSOMER, (1576—1621,) a native of Antwerp. The accounts of him are extremely deficient, no author of the lives of painters mentioning him but Carl Vermander, who only says that Vansomer was living when he wrote, and then resided with his brother Bernard,^ at Amsterdam. Yet Vansomer, as a painter of portraits, was a very able master. The picture of the lord chamberlain, William, Earl of Pembroke, half length, at St. James's, is an admirable portrait ; and a whole length, at Chatsworth, of the first Earl of Devonshire, in his robes, though ascribed to My tens, I should think was painted by the same hand. Mytens was much colder in his colouring, and stifi" in his drawing.^ Both these portraits are bold and round, and the chiaroscuro good. The Earl of Devonshire is equal to the pencil of Yandyck, and one of the finest single figures I have seen. In what year Vansomer came to England we do not know ; certainly, as early as 1606, between which and 1620 he did several pictures. I shall mention but a few, that are indubitably his, from whence, by comparison, his manner may be known. ^ Bernard Vansomer had married tlie daughter of Arnold Mytens, and both were natives of Antwerp. * ' Paul Vansomer n'etoit pas moins estime, et les succes de son frere n'empechereut pas qu'il fut egalement recherche pour le portrait." — Bescamps, t, i. p. 334. — D. 2 Mytens improved so much in his later portraits, that this character must be read with allowances, and on studying more of his works. I cannot determine whether the portrait at Chatsworth is not painted by him, as constant tradition says it was. In general, the portraits by Vansomer and Mytens, when at whole length, may be thus distinguised : Vansomer commonly placed his on a mat — Mytens, on a carpet. VOL. I. P 210 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. James I., at Windsor ; behind him a view of Whitehall. Anne of Denmark, with a prospect of the west end of St. PauFs. The same king, at Hampton- court, armour tying by him on the ground ; better than the former. Dated 1615. His queen,^ in blue, with a horse and dogs ; also at Hampton-court. This picture is imitated in the tapestry at Houghton. Three ladies, 1 61 5, at Ditchley : Lady Morton, in purple : another, with yellow lace about her neck, and a gauze scarf ; the third in black, with a crape over her forehead. Lord Chancellor Bacon and his brother Nicholas at Gor- hambury. Sir Simon Weston, brother of Lord Treasurer Portland, whole length, with a pike in his hand, 1608, set. 43. This piece was in the possession of the Lord Chief Justice Eaymond. Marquis of Hamilton, with the white staff, at Hampton- court.^ Vansomer died about the age of forty-five, and was buried at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, as appears in the register, Jan. 5,1621. Paulus Vansomer, pict or eximius. 1 In a hunting dress, hat and feather, with her horse and five dogs, "Anna Reg. &c. set. 43." At Hampton-court (8 feet 6, by 6 feet 11) ; with a view of the palace at Oatlands.— D. 2 To this list of Vansomer's works may be added, upon competent authority — 1 and 2. Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, and his lady, Alathea Talbot, at Worksop Manor. The Earl is represented as sitting in the statue gallery, which he had formed at Arundel-house, London, of which it is an exact representation. He is dressed in black, with the Order of the Garter and points to the statues with his marshal's baton. The countess likewise is sitting in the gaUery of pictures, and holds a handkerchief, very richly embroidered with gold. Each of these pictures is marked "P. Vansomer, 1618." Lord Arandel claims a particular distinction in a work on the arts ; and as portraits of him are so frequent, we have an ambition, which has been allowed with the greatest liberality by the noble possessor, to present him to the x^ublic in a station characteristic of his acknowledged taste, by the first engravings ever made from these portraits. 3. Henry, Prince of Wales (with Mytens), Hampton-court. 4. A double portrait of Prince Henry. Robert, Second Earl of Essex, afterward the parliament general ; a youth is kneeling before him ; each of them having hunting horns. Behind the prince, who is dressed in greene, and drawing his sword to cut off the stag's head, is a horse. On the boughs of a tree, the royal arms, and his own, in two escutcheons, hung upon them. At St, James's-palace, (Pennant). The same subject, with slight variation, is at Wroxton-abbey, Oxfordshire. The prince is represented as cutting ihe throat of a stag. The Harrington arms are introduced, as belonging to John, second Lord Harrington, (Granger). The origin ecclesid. I I PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 211 COENELIUS JANSEN,^ (1590—1665,) generally, but inaccurately, called J ohnson, was, according to Sandrart, born in London, of Flemish parents ; but Vertue, and the author of an Essay towards an English School, say it was at Amsterdam, where the latter asserts that he resided long, the former that he came over young, which, considering how late he lived, I should be inclined to believe, if Vertue did not at the same time pronounce that his earliest performances are his best ; so good a style of colouring was hardly formed here. His pictures are easily^ distinguished by their clearness, neatness, and of this design is mentioned by Felibien, (t. iii. p. 334,) in a similar occurrence, of Count Ubaldini and the Emperor Frederic I. The picture in the royal collection has been attributed to Vansomer. 5. King James I., his queen, and Prince Henry, (Wrest). 6. Count Mansfeldt, 1624, set. 48 (w.l.) Windsor. Described in Charles the First's Catalogue, as by Mytens, at Whitehall, 7. Lodowick Stuart, Duke of Richmond, {w.l.) Petworth, 8. Frances Howard, Duchess of Richmond, {w.l.) Strawberry -hill. 9. The same ditto, Petworth. 10. Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, 1624, {w.l.) Bulstrode. 11. Henry Carey, Lord Falkland, Strawberry-hill. * 12. Charles Blount, Earl of Newport, {w.l.) 13. Henry Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon, {w.l.) in his robes, set. 28, 1616. Castle Donnington. 14. HimseK {head). Ham-house. 15. Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk ) /t. ^ \ 4.i tt j 16. Henrj. Howard, Earl of Northampton [ ^^'^^^ toward. 17. F. Duchess of Richmond in mourning, with a miniature of the duke at her breast. Longleat. 18. The Lady Arabella Stuart, (7t.Z.) Longleat (Welbeck). 19. Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia. Royal Collection. 20. King Charles L, in coats (as a child), with a hat and feather by him. Van- derdoort's Catalogue. 21. William, Earl of Pembroke, {w.l.) Windsor. 22. Christian IV., King of Denmark, {w.l.) Hampton-court. 23. James I. {w.l.), in black ; ditto. 24. Anne, his queen {w.l.), with a view of Oatlands. Kensington. 25. Princess Elizabeth (afterwards Queen of Bohemia) ; ditto. Vansomer was among the first of those artists who, having established them- selves in England, practised a skilful management of the chiaroscuro ; and his portraits were deservedly admired for a greater elegance of the attitudes, and for a remarkable resemblance. — D. ^ [Cornells Janssens, was born at Amsterdam in 1590, and died there in 1665. Immerzeel, Levens en WerJcen cler Hollaudsche Kunstschilders. — W.] 2 He sometimes put this mark on his pictures ^ fecit. * [Purchased at the sale of 1842, by J. Tollemache, Esq. M. P. for 70 guineas. — W. ) P 2 212 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. smoothness. They are generally painted on board, and except being a little stiff, are often strongly marked with a fair character of nature, and remarkable for a lively tranquillity in the countenances. His draperies are seldom but black. ^ I have two portraits by him of singular merit ; one of Mr. Leneve,^ master of the company of merchant- tailors ; the other of Sir George Villiers,^ father of the great Duke of Buckingham, less handsome, but extremely like his son. One of his hands rests on the head of a greyhound, as fine as the animals of Snyder. Jansen's first works in England are dated about 1618. He dwelt in the Blackfriars, and had much business. His price for a head was five broad pieces. He painted too in small in oil, and often copied his own works in that man- ner. In the family of Verney were the portraits of Sir Eobert Heath a,nd his lady, in both sizes. At Cashiobury is a large piece, curious, but so inferior to Jansen's general manner, that if his name were not to it, I should doubt its being of his hand. It represents Arthur, Lord Capel, who was beheaded, his lady and children. Behind them is a view of the garden at Hadham, at that time the chief seat of the family. Between the years 1630 and 1640, Jansen lived much in Kent^, at a small village called 1 He used much ultramarine in his blacks as well as his carnations, which gave them roundness and relief ; and affected black draperies to add to the force of the face ; yet it has been said that the features are deficient in that suppleness which is the characteristic of flesh, Rubens and Vandyck were partial to black draperies. — D. 2 [Sold at the Strawberry-hill sale, for 34 guineas. — W.] 3 [Sold for 32 guineas.— W.] ^ In 1636, and the next following years, Cornelius Jansen resided with Sir Arnold Braems, a Flemish merchant, at Bridge, near Canterbury. St. Alban's court, the residence of the Hammond family, still retains remarkable examples of his genuine and best style. He was engaged to paint the portraits of the indivi- vidualsof the families of Sir Dudley Digges, of Chilham-castle, Sir Anthony Aucher,of Bourne-place ; and Sir William Hammond, of St. Albans-court, between whom a close degree of consanguinity existed ; where are Colonels Francis, Robert, and John Hammond, who afterward distinguished themselves in the wars of Charles I. , Lady Dormer (1642), Lady Ady and Lady Thynne (1636), their sisters; and Lady Bowyer, daughter of Sir Anthony Aucher, their first cousin, whose exquisite beauty obtained for her, not the poetical but the usual name of the " Star in the East." At Harlaxton, near Grantham, Lincolnshire, are preserved several of equal merit, of individuals of the families of De Eigne and Lister. That which attracts general admiration is one of Susanna Lister painted in her wedding dress, as Lady Thorn- hurst, in 626. She was considered as the most beautiful woman at Court when presented in marriage to Sir Geoffrey Thornhurst by James I. in person. Beside the family picture of Lord Capel, Jansen painted another on a large scale (6 feet PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 213 Bridge, near Barhamdown, and drew many portraits for gentlemen in the neighbourhood, particularly of the fami- lies of Auger, Palmer, Hammond, and Bowyer. One of his best works was the picture of a Lady Bowyer, of the family of Auger, called, for her exquisite beauty. The Star in the East, At Sherburn-castle, in Dorsetshire, is a head of Elizabeth Wriothesley, eldest daughter of Henry, Earl of Southampton, and wife of William, Lord Spencer, her head richly dressed, and a picture in a blue enamelled case at her breast. This picture is well coloured, though not equal to another at the same seat, a half length of her mother, Eliza- beth, daughter of J ohn Vernon, wife of Earl Henry. Her clothes are magnificent, and the attire of her head singular, a veil turned quite black. The face and hands are coloured with incomparable lustre, and equal to anything this master executed. There is also a half length in black satin of John Bigby, first Earl of Bristol, young, and remarkably handsome. It is ascribed to Jansen, but is faintly coloured, and evidently in the manner of Vandyck, whom perhaps he imitated as well as rivalled.^ by 10) containing six portraits of the family of John de Rushault or Rushout, a Fleming, who was settled at Maylands, Essex. Now at Northwick, Worcester- shire. The De Lignes and Rnshaults were established here from Flanders. At Charlcote, Warwickshire, a similar picture of Sir Thomas Lucy's family, wife, nurse, and six children, attributed to Jansen. — D. ^ Of an artist so excellent and industiious, and whose residence in this coimtry was of so long a duration as thirty years, Walpole has been very sparing in the number of the examples he has quoted. If from a distrust of originality, the Editor ventures upon a greater risk, but will mention none concerning whiclx he has not obtained a certain degree of satisfactory proof. I. Princess Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, {head) belonged to Mr. Pilkington, the author of the Dictionary of Painters. 2. King Charles I., Chiswick. 3. Queen of Bohemia, {in black). The Grove and Ditchley. with the Prince Palatine. Kensington. 4. G. Villiers, Duke of Bucks. The Grove. 5. Lord Keeper Coventry, The Grove. 6. Sir Kenelm Digby, when a youth. Althorp. 7. Sir Richard Wynne. Wynstay. 8. Benjamin Jonson, {head. ) Wimpole. 9. Sir Robert Cotton Bruce, 1629. Connington, Cambridgeshire. 10. Sir Thomas Overbiu-y, Southam, Gloucestershire. II. Elizabeth Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury. 12. Sir John Coke, Secretary of State. Mr. Halse, Blackheath. 13. King Charles I. {a head.) Burford Priory, Oxfordshire. 14. Sir Henry Neville. Appuldurcombc, 15. Lord William Howard, {w.l.) in black, arms and inscription. 16. Elizabeth Dacre, his lady. She is represented as coming out of an arbour, against which leans her walking cane with a rosary ; in her left hand a flower, and 214 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. J ansen's fame declined on the arrival of Vandyck, and tlie civil war breaking out, Cornelius, at the importunity of his wife, quitted England.^ His pass is recorded in the Journals of the Commons : October 10, 1648. Ordered, that Cornelius Johnson, picture-drawer, shall have Mr. Speaker's warrant to pass beyond seas with Emanuel Passe, George Hawkins ; and to carry with him such pictures and colours, bedding, household stuff, pewter, and brass, as belongs unto himself. He retired first to Midelburg, and then to Amsterdam, where he continued to paint, and died in 1 665. ^ His wife's name was Elizabeth Beck, to whom he was married in 1622. They had a son Cornelius, bred to his father's profession, which he followed in Holland, where he died poor, being ruined by the extravagance of a second wife. The son drew the Duke of Monmouth's picture, as he was on the point of sailing for his unfortunate expedition to England. in her right a piece of bread, with which she feeds robins. In widow's weeds, set. 73, 1637. Castle Howard. 17. Edmund Waller, set. 25, 1630. Beaconsfield, Bucks. 18. James Lord Hay (afterward Lord Doncaster and Earl of Carlisle). Castle Dupplin, Scotland. 19. His own portrait, [head.) Badminton, Gloucestershii'e. 29. Edward Denny, Earl of Norwich, [w. 1. ) Ombresley, Worcestershire. 21. Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief Justice. Stoke Pogeis, Bucks. 22. Count de Gondemar. Hatfield. 23. Sir Henry Lee, {w. I. ) in the robes of the Garter. Ditchley. 24. The same with the mastiff which saved his life. Ditto. 25. Sir Henry Spelman, (head. ) The Grove. 26. Edward Hastings, Lord Loughborough. Donington. 27. Mabel, Lady Noel, daughter of Lord Harrington, Ditto. 28. Spenser Compton, Earl of Northampton, [h.l.) Castle Ashby. 29. A head of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, taken after his death, traditionally by Jansen, and worthy of his pencil. This most curious picture was probably drawn at the desire of his mother, the Countess of Bucks, who had married Sir Thomas Compton, brother of William, first Earl of Northampton, or of Mary Beaumont, the lady Spencer, second Earl of Northampton, who was his first cousin. 30. Richard, Earl of Dorset, [w.l.) Castle Ashby, 31. Edward, Earl of Dorset, [w.l.) Charlton, Wilts, 32. Sir Thomas Overbury. Longleat, Many other portraits are confidently attributed to Jansen, which so nearly approach to his best manner, and have been so long given to him, that it might be an invidious task to hesitate a distrust of their pretensions, when advanced by those who possess them. At Mr, Watson Taylor's sale, in 1823, a head of John Fletcher, the dramatist, was sold "for 20 guineas. It is ascertained that for several of the nobility he copied the portraits of their ancestors, in the possession of others, and those have borne his name, which the comparative dates would not otherwise warrant. — D. ^ At Lord Pomfret's at Estonestone was a portrait of Charles I. by Jansen. 2 Sandrart, p. 314. PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 215 A sister of Cornelms Jansen the elder, was second wife of Nicholas Eussell ^ or Eoussel, of Bruges, jeweller to the Kings James and Charles the First. They had many children. To one of the sons, born in 1619, Cornelius Jansen was godfather, and the widow of Isaac Oliver, god- mother. Theodore Eussel, an elder son, was born in 1 61 4, and lived nine years with his uncle Cornelius J ansen, and afterwards with Yandyck, whose pictures he copied very tolerably on small panels ; many of them are in a private apartment at Windsor,^ at Warwick- castle, and in the collection of the Duchess Dowager of Argyle. Eussell was chiefly employed in the country in the families of the Earls of Essex and Holland, and was a lover of his ease and his bottle. He was father of Antony Eussel, a painter, from whom Vertue received these particulars, and at whose house he saw a picture of Cornelius Jansen, his wife and son, drawn by Adrian Hanneman, who courted Jansen^s niece, but was disappointed. DANIEL MYTENS, [The Elder,] (1590— 1656,) 3 of the Hague,* was an admired painter in the reigns of King James and King Charles. He had certainly studied the works of Eubens before his coming over ; his landscape in the back grounds of his portraits is evidently in the style of that school ; and some of his works have been taken for Yandyck's. The date of his arrival is not cer- tain ; probably it was in hopes of succeeding Yan Somer ; but though he drew several of the court, he was not for- mally employed as the king's paintertill the reign of Charles. His patent is preserved in Eymer's Fcedera, vol. xviii. p. 3. 1 In the catalogue of King Charles's pictures is mentioned a portrait drawn by- George Spence, of Nuremberg, and bought of Nicasius Russel, p. 135. ^ Thirteen of these small copies from portraits of ladies by Yandyck and Lely, are now (1828), in the queen's drawing-room at Windsor, They are a creditable proof of the talents of Theodore Russel. — D. 3 [These dates are only approximate, the exact dates are not known. — W.] * The family of Mytens has produced several portrait painters of great merit. The subject of the present memoir is Daniel Mytens, the elder, his son of the same names, was not born before 1636. — D. 216 PAINTEES IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. I found the minute of the docket warrant for this among the Conway papers in these words : The oflSce of one of his majesty's picture -drawers in ordinary, with the fee of 20Z. per ann. graunted to Daniell Mitens during his life. Subscribed by order from the Lord Chamberlain. Procured by Mr. Endimyon Porter, May 30, 1625. And among the same MSS. is the following docket- warrant : July 31, 1626. A warrant to the exchequer to paie unto Daniel Mittens his majesty's picturer the somme of 1251. for divers pictures by him delivered to sondry per- sons by his majesty's special direction. By order of the Lord Chamberlain e of his majesty's household, procured by the Lord Conway. At Hampton-court are several whole lengths of princes and princesses of the house of Brunswick-Lunenburgh,and the portrait of Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham ; ^ at Kensington is Mytens's own head. At Knole, Lionel Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex, lord treasurer, with his white staff ; whole length. A small bell on the table has these letters, D.M.F. 1623. It was more common^ for him to paint a slip of paper on his pictures, inscribed only with the names or titles of the persons represented. At Lady Eliza- beth Germayn's, at Drayton, is a very fine whole length of Henry Eich, Earl of Holland, in a striped habit, with a walking stick. At St. James's^ is Jeffery Hudson, the dwarf,* holding a dog by a string, in a landscape, coloured warmly and freely, like Snyder or Kubens. Mytens drew the same figure in a very large picture of Charles 1. and his 1 A repetition, with a view in a forest. Worksop Manor. — D. 2 This date, 1623, is sufl&cient to prove that he was then in England. That none of his works remaining here were painted after 1630, is by no means ascer- tained. If his jealousy of Vandyck's reception by the king were the cause of his departure, it could not have taken place before 1632. But it is said that he yielded to the royal entreaties to prolong his residence. He probably did not re-establish himself at the Hague before 1634. — D. 3 The picture of the Queen of Scots, at St. James's, is a copy by Mytens. ^ There is a repetition of this picture at Holyrood-house, In another picture, formerly at St. James's, he is drawn as walking under tall trees. His portrait is at Wentworth castle, and in the large picture of Queen Henrietta, copied from Vandyck, at Petworth, he is ludicrously introduced with a marmoset monkey on his shoulder, which he holds by a silk string. — D. PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 217 queen, which was in the possession of the late Earl of Dunmore; but the single figure is much better painted. The history of this diminutive personage was so remarkable that the reader will, perhaps, not dislike the digression. He was born at Oakham, in Eutlandshire, in 1 61 9 ; and about the age of seven or eight, being then but eighteen inches high, was retained in the service of the Duke of Buckingham, who resided at Burleigh-on-the-hill. Soon after the marriage of Charles I., the king and queen being entertained at Burleigh, little Jeffery was served up to table in a cold pie, and presented by the duchess to the queen, who kept him as her dwarf From seven years of age till thirty he never grew taller ; but after thirty he shot up to three feet nine inches, and there fixed. Jefiery became a considerable part of the entertainment of the court. Sir William Davenant wrote a poem called Jeffreidos, on a battle between him and a turkey-cock f and in 1638 was published a very small book, called The New Years Gift^ presented at court from the Lady Parvula to the Lord Mini- mus (commonly called little Jeffery) her majesty's servant, &c., written by Microphilus, with a little print of Jeffery prefixed. Before this period Jeffery was employed on a negotiation of great importance ; he was sent to France to fetch a midwife for the queen, and on his return with this 1 See Fuller and Wright's Rutlandshire. 2 The scene is laid at Dunkirk, and the midwife rescues him from the fury of his antagonist, ' A small print of Jeffery Hudson is prefixed to a very diminutive and ex- 'tremely rare book, with the title above-mentioned, to which is added, " With a letter penned in short-hand, wherein is proved, that little things are better than great. Written by Microphilus, 12mo, 1636." There are verses to his high and mighty friend William Evans, surnamed the Great Porter. " Well — be not angrie this small book is read In praise of one, no bigger than thy head," &c. The dedication presents to us a complete specimen of what was then called the euphidstic style of writing, so much admired. " To the most exquisite epitome of nature, and the completest compendium of a courtier, the Lady Parvula wished health and happinesse, &c. "Goe on, goe on therefore diminutive Sir ! with the guide of honour, and the service of fortune ; your lovelinesse being such, as no man can disdaine to serve you— your littleness such, as no man can need to fearo you ; so the first having put you without hatred, the latter below envy, &c, "Minde not — minde not, most perfect abridgement of nature, the gi-eat neglect which the ignorant vulgar cast upon littlenesse, since it hath made you attendant upon Eoyaltie." — D. 218 PAINTERS IN THE RETOxN OF JAMES I. gentlewoman, and her majesty's dancing-master, and many rich presents to the queen from her mother, Mary de' Me- dici, he was taken by the Dunkirkers.^ Jeffery, thus made of consequence, grew to think himself really so. He had borne with little temper the teazing of the courtiers and domestics and had many squabbles with the king's gigantic porter;^ at last, being provoked by ]\ir. Crofts, a young gentleman of family, a challenge ensued, and Mr. Crofts coming to the rendezvous armed only with a squirt, the little creature was so enraged that a real duel ensued, and the appointment being on horseback, with pistols, to put them more on a level, Jeffery, with the first fire, shot his antagonist dead. This happened in France, whither he had attended his mistress in th e troubles. He was again taken prisoner by a Turkish rover, and sold into Barbary. He probably did not long remain in slavery ; for at the begin- ning of the civil war he was made a captain in the royal army, and in 1 644 attended the queen to France, where he remained till the Restoration. At last, upon suspicion of his being privy to the Popish plot, he was taken up in 1 682, and confined in the gate-house, Westmmster, where he ended his life, in the sixty-third year of his age. Mytens remained in great reputation till the arrival of Vandyck,^ who being appointed the king's principal painter, ^ It was in 1630. Besides the present he was bringing for the queen, he lost to the value of 2,500?. that he had received in France on his own account from the queen-mother and ladies of that court. 2 A has relief of this dwarf and giant is to be seen fixed in the front of a house near the end of Bagnio-court, on the east side of Newgate-street. Probably it was a sign. Oliver Cromwell, too, had a porter of an enormous height, whose standard is recorded by a large 0 on the back of the terrace at Windsor, almost under the window of the gallery. This man went mad and prophesied. In Whitcchapel was a sign of him, taken from a print of St. Peter. ^ To the very short list given by Walpole, we may be authorised in adding the following portraits : — 1. Himself and family. Mereworth -castle, Kent. 2. Count Mansfeldt, in armour, {w.l.) Poyal Collection. 3. William, first Earl of Devon. Chatsworth. 4. Henry, Prince of Wales. Hampton-court. 5. James, Duke of Richmond, (w.l.) Windsor; Warwick-castle. 6. G. Villiers, Duke of Bucks, [w.l.) Gorhambury ; Royal Collection. 7. James, Marquis of Hamilton, {lu.l.) Hamilton-palace. 8. Anne, Countess of Dorset. Knole. 9. W., Earl of Pembroke. Royal Collection; with a view of Wilton. Wilton. 10. Himself and wife. Woburn. 11. The same. Kensington. 12. C. Howard, PAINTERS IN THE EEIGN OF JAMES I. 219 the former, in disgust, asked his majesty's leave to retire to his own country ; but the king, learning the cause of his dissatisfaction, treated him with much kindness, and told him that he could find sufficient employment both for him and Vandyck; Mytens consented to stay, and even grew intimate, it is probable, with his rival, for the head of Mytens^ is one of those painted among the professors, by that great master.^ Whether the same jealousy operated again, or real decline of business influenced him, or any other cause, Mytens did not stay much longer in England. We find none of his works here after the year 1630 ; yet he lived many years afterwards. Houbraken quotes a register at the Hague, dated in 1656, at which time it says Mytens painted part of the ceiling of the town-hall there ; the subject is. Truth writing history on the back of Fame. These were the most considerable painters in oil in the reign of James. There were, undoubtedly, several others of inferior rank, whose names are not come down to us, except two or three ; and of one of those I find nothing but this short note from Baglione : — Christofano Roncalli^ pittore, andb per la Germania, per la Fiandra, per TOlanda, 12. C. Howard, Earl of Notts, {w.l.) Royal Collection. 13. H. Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. Althorp. 14. Lionel Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex. Knole. 15. Frances, Duchess of Richmond. Duff-house, Scotland. 16. Philip, Earl of Pembroke, with a view of Wilton. Strawberry-hill.* 17. Charles I. and Queen Henrietta, with Prince Charles, as an infant, seated on a velvet cushion. Charlton-house. 18. Ernest Augustus, Elector of Brunswick, (w.Z.) Hampton-court. 19. His duchess, {w.l.) Ditto. 20. Duke of Richmond, Ludovicus Richmondiaj et Lenoxise Dux 1623, set. LIX. D. Mytens Fee. Buckingham-house. 21. Jerome Weston, Earl of Portland. Grimsthorp. — D. ^ In some of the first impressions the name of Isaac appears in this plate, instead of Daniel. It was corrected afterwards. 2 Imagines 100 ab Antonio Vandyck depidos et partim a seipso aqua forti exaratoR. Antv. 1650. Vanden Enden. — D. [The Centum Icones were published by Giles Hendrix, at Antwerp, in 1645, under the following title : — Icones Prin- cipum, Virorum Doctorum, Pictorum, Chalcographorum, Statuariorum, nec non Avmtorum pictorice artis numero centum ah Antonio Vandyck pictore ad vivum expressce ejusq. sumptibus ceri incisce. — W. ^ Notices of Christofano Roncalli delle Pomerance, are found in Baglione; and in Lanzi. He was a superior artist in fresco. He was engaged in no similar work in England, and was probably merely a traveller. — D. [Sold at the sale of 1842, for 82 guineas.— W.] 220 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. per ringliilterra, per la Francia ; e finalmente carico d'ho- nori, e di [richezze, dij 74 anni fini il corso [della sua vita — 14 di Maggie] 1626.^ I should not mention such slight notices, but that they may lead to farther discoveries. Another was a more remarkable person, especially in the subsequent reign ; but in a work of this nature it is impossible not to run the subjects of one chapter into those of another, taking care, however, to distribute them as they serve best to carry on the chronologic series. His name was EGBERT PEAKE. The earliest mention of him that appears is in the books ^ of the Lord Harrington, treasurer of the chambers. No. 78, 79, being accounts of moneys received and paid by him : — Item, paid to Robert Peake, ^ picture-maker, by warrant from the council October 4, 1612, for three several pictures made by him at the commandment of the Duke of York his ofl&cers, and given away and disposed of by the duke's grace, twenty pounds. It does not appear whether these pictures were in oil or water-colours ; I should rather suppose portraits in minia- ture of (King Charles 1. then) Duke of York ; but that Peake painted in oil is ascertained by Peacham, in his Booh of Limning, where he expressly celebrates his good friend Mr, Feake,^ and Mr. Marquis,^ for oil-colours. Peacham ^ He died at Rome. 2 They were in the collection of the latt? Dr. Rawlinson. 3 Mr. Pennant, in his Tour to Scotland, vol. ii. p. 12, mentions a family picture done by one Tobias Ratcliffe, but by the account he was rather a picture-maker than a painter, in this reign. ^ Peacham first published his Treatise on Drawing and Limning in 1634, 4to. ; republished in 1662, 8vo. The information he gives is superficial ; but a larger extract will convey his opinion as to the art and its professors at that period. Nor must I be ungratefully unmindful of my own countrymen, who have been and are able to equal the best, if occasion served, as old Mr. Hilliard, Mr. Isaac Oliver, inferior to none in Christendom for the countenance in small, my good friend Mr. Peake and Mr, Marquis for oyll colours, and many more unknown to me," p. 310. He speaks of the principal patrons of painters. " The Earls of Arundel, Worcester, Southampton, Pembroke, Suffolke, and Northampton, with many knights and gentlemen, to whom our painters are equally beholden. Now, lest ' you should esteem over basely of this arte, and disdaine to have your picture because you may have it for a trifle, which I account a fault in many of our good workmen," &c. — D. ^ Of this man I find no other mention. PAINTEES IN THE EEIGN OF JAMES I. 221 himself was a limner, as he tells us in the same book> having presented a copy of his majesty's Basilicon Doron, illuminated, to Prince Henry. Peake was originally a picture-seller by Holborn-bridge, and had the honour of being Faithorn's master, and, what perhaps, he thought a greater honour, was knighted at Oxford,^ March 28, 1645. The disorders of the times confounding all professions, and no profession being more bound in gratitude to take up arms in the defence of King Charles, Sir Eobert Peake entered into the service, and was made a lieutenant-colonel, and had a command in Basing- house when it was besieged, where he persuaded his disciple Faithorn to enlist under him, as the latter in his dedication of the Art of Graving to Sir Eobert expressly tells him, and where Peake himself was taken prisoner. ^ He was buried in the church of St. Stephen, London. ^ Miniature makes a great figure in this reign by the lustre thrown on it by PETEE OLIVEE, (1594—1654,) ^ the eldest son of Isaac Oliver, and. worthy of being compared with his father. In some respects the son even appears the greater master, as he did not confine his talent to single heads. Peter copied in water-colours several capital pictures with signal success. By the catalogues of King Charles I. and King James II. it appears, that there were thirteen pieces of this master in the royal collection, chiefly historic miniatures ; seven of them are still preserved in Queen Caroline's closet at Kensington. ^ At the Earl of Exeter's, 1 William Peak, Lord Mayor of London, was knighted in 1668 ; and John Peak, his son, in 1701, — D. 2 See a letter from Oliver Cromwell to the Speaker of the House of Commons, on the reduction of Basing-house. Printed in the Annual Register for 1761. ^ Payne Fisher's Catalogue of Monuments. These dates are approximate only. — W.] ^ Isaac and Peter Oliver employed themselves so frequently upon the same picture, particularly after the former had grown old, that it becomes a difficult task to attribute some of their works exclusively to either. Vanderdoort, in his catalogue of King Charles's collection gives thirteen pieces to Isaac Oliver, and fourteen to his son ; by whom were most of the copies from Titian and Correggio. 222 PAINTERS TN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. at Burleigh, is the story of Venus and Adonis, painted by Peter, and dated 1631. Vertue mentions another, which was in Mr. Halsteds sale in May, 1726 ; it represented J oseph, the Virgin, and the Child, asleep, eight inches wide and five high. On it was written his name, with the ter- mination French, P. Olivier fecit, 1628. Another piece, a fine drawing in Indian ink, was copied by him from a picture of Eaphael, in the collection of King Charles, St. John presenting a cross to the Child, kneeling before the Virgin. The original was sold after the King's death to the Spanish ambassador for 600Z. Jerome Laniere bought Peter's drawing, and sold it for 20 guineas to Mr. John Evelyn, from which it came to the present Sir John Evelyn. The Duke of Devonshire has the portrait of Edward VI. when an infant, thedrapery highly ornamented and finished; a copy from Holbein. ^ Lady Elizabeth Germayn has, at Drayton, the Madonna and Child. The finest work of Peter Oliver, in my opinion, is the head of his own wife,^ The whole collection of limuings and miniature portraits ly Holbein, Hilliard, the Olivers, Hoskins, &c. amounted to seventy-five, of a size varying from two to seven inches in diameter. Some of these had been preserved from the dispersion ordered by the parliament, or had been re-purchased ; as the whole number in Chiffinch's Catalogtte of Pictures, belonging to King James 11. was increased to seventy-one, of which thirty were by the Olivers ; and among them were singularly fine heads of P. Oliver and Laniere, by the first-mentioned. Seven only of the historical subjects by him have descended to the present Royal Family, and were preserved in Queen Caroline's cabinet, at Kensington, — D. 1 In the first edition, I, by mistake, ascribed this to Isaac Oliver, but Peter's mark is upon it. 2 She had likewise, a head of Christ, of exquisite workmanship. Mr. West had Sir Philip Sydney in armour, a servant holding his war-horse, and Lord Burleigh, copied by 1. Oliver in water colours. In the sale of the late Earl of Besborough, in 1801, there were three copies from Titian and Corregio, of Venus, Venus sleeping, and with Mercury and Cupid, by Peter Oliver, from Dr. Mead's collection. Those in Dr. Mead's collection were mostly purchased for Frederick, Prince of Wales. Independently of the celebrated collection of the Digby family, which will be next mentioned, Walpolehad previously collected the following, (with the exception of two, by Isaac Oliver,) which have not been yet adverted to, (vol. i. p. 299.) 1. Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, (\>. [Bought at the Strawberry-hill sale, by the Earl of Derby, for 13 guineas. IPurchased from the collection of Lady Isabella Scott, daughter of the Duchess of Monmouth. — W.] 2. Charles Howard, Earl of Notts. [Bought by the Duke of Buckingham for 15^. 45. 6d— W.1 3. Isaac Oliver, by himself. 4>. [Bought at the Strawberry-hill sale, by the Earl of Derby, for 20 guineas ; it was formerly in the collection of Mr. Barrett, of Lees, in Kent. — W.] 4. Peter Oliver, profile, in black lead, from a leaf of his own pocket-book, and his wife full faced on the other side. [Bought at the Strawberry-hill sale, by the PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 223 in the cabinet of the Duchess of Portland : it is life itself. I doubt whether his father ever excelled this piece. I have a head of the same woman drawn in black lead on the leaf of a vellum pocket-book ; on the reverse is his own portrait in profile : both masterly ; and in black and red chalk. I have a boy's head, larger than he generally painted, of great nature and vivacity. At Kensington, below stairs, is the portrait of Peter Oliver, by Hanneman, who painted the wife too ; but I know not where the latter is. ^ Earl of Derby, for 51. 15s. 6d. It was formerly in the possession of Vertue, the engraver. — W.] 5. Queen Anne of Denmark, and another lady, in one frame. — [Bought at the Strawberry-hill sale by the Duke of Buckingham, for 10| guineas. — W.] 6. Francis Howard, Countess of Essex and Somerset, (f). [Bought at the Strawberry-hill sale, by the Earl of Derby, for 18 guineas. — W.] 7. Sir Anthony Shirley, Ambassador from the Sophy of Persia, to King James 1. dress— half English, half Persian. [Bought by WiUiam Blannie, Esq., for 17 guineas. — W.] 8. Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, (another.) Sold at the Strawberry-hill sale, foi 8 guineas. — W.] 9. Sir Kenelm Digby, from Dr. Meade's collection, by Peter Oliver. [Sold for 16 guineas, — W.] 10. Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury. [Sold for 13 guineas.— W.] 11. King James 1. [Bought at the Strawberry-hiU sale, by Robert Holf or d, Esq. for 18 guineas. — W.] 12. Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex. — D. [Bought by John P. Beaven, Esq. for 34 guineas. — W.] [An unfinished miniature of the earl was also sold at the sale ; it was bought by the Earl of Derby, for 7 guineas. A miniature of the Lady Arabella Stuart, by Isaac Oliver, was also sold at the Strawberry-hiU sale, for 7 guineas. — W.] Since this work was first published, a valuable treasure of the works of this master and his father Isaac, was discovered in an old house in Wales, which belonged to a descendant of Sir Kenelm Digby. The latest are dated 1633 ; but being enclosed in ivory and ebony cases, and the whole collection locked up in a wainscot box, they are as perfectly preserved as if newly painted. They all re- present Sir Kenelm and persons related to or connected with him. There are three portraits of himself, six of his beloved wife at different ages, and three triplicates of his mistress, all three by Isaac Oliver, as is Lady Digby's mother, which I have mentioned before. But the capital work is a large miniature copied from Vandyck, of Sir Kenelm, his wife and two sons, the most beautiful piece of the size that I believe exists. There is a duplicate of Sir Kenelm and Lady Digby from the same picture, and though of not half the volume, still more highly finished. This last piece is set in gold, richly inlaid with flowers in enamel, and shuts like a book. AU these with several others I purchased at a great price, but they are not to be matched. W alpole's own Catalogue raisonne, of his unrivalled collection of the works of the Olivers, chiefly portraits of the family of Sir Kenelm Digby, is subjoined as published in the last edition of his works, v. ii. p. 421, 4to, 1798. A frame with nine miniatures, viz. * A young Bride, by Isaac Oliver. A Lady ; * [These miniatures were sold at the Strawberry-hiU sale, as follows : — The miniature of Sir Kenelm Digby, after Vandyck, to Robert Holford. Esq. for 170 guineas. Venetia 224 PAINTERS IN THE EEIGN OF JAMES I. It is extraordinary that more of the works of this excellent master are not known, as he commonly made A Lady ; behind her a red curtain. Both of the family of Digby, but not known. Yenetia Stanley, Lady Digby, aged nineteen, very beautiful, by Peter Oliver. Sir Kenelm Digby and Lady Digby, after Vandyck ; by ditto, set in the form of a book with covers of gold enamelled. The same Lady Digby, as she was found dead in her bed ; by ditto, after ditto ; set in gold enamelled black, on which behind is a sphere ; it seems to mean, that the world was in mourning for her. Sir Kenelm was passionately fond of this lady, who. Lord Clarendon says, was of extraordinary beauty and as extraordinary fame. At Windsor is a whole length of her, by Vandyck, treading on serpents, to imply that the stories told of her were the produce of malice. At Goathurst, where they lived, are two busts of her in bronze ; on the pedestal of one are inscribed these tender words, Uxorem vivam amare voluptas, defunctam, religio. Sir Kenelm Digby, when young ; by Peter Oliver, very fine. * Lady Digby, again, most beautiful ; by ditto. Lady Lucy Percy, daughter and co-heiress of Thomas, Earl of Northumberland, who was beheaded, wife of Sir Edward Stanley, younger son of the Earl of Derby, mother of Venetia, Lady Digby ; by Isaac Oliver. She is still more beautiful than her daughter, though dressed very unbecomingly, in a great black hat and large ruff ; only set off by a lilac ground. This is perhaps the finest and most perfect miniature in the world. All the seven last are wonderfully preserved, though found in a garret in an old house in Wales, belonging to a Mr. Watkin Williams, probably descended from Sir Kenelm, one of whose sons left only two daughters, that were married into Welsh families. This set of pictures, with a few more less fine, cost Walpole 300 guineas. A Lady of the family of Digby, belonging to the set above-named, in a white enamelled case. THE SECOND PUECHASE. Two boys, sons of Sir Kenelm Digby. Note, these and some [after-mentioned pictures of the Digbys, were the other division of that collection, and were pur- chased by Walpole of the lady who shared them with the other heir. [These two miniatures were sold separately, at Strawberry -hill sale. One is dated 1632, and was bought by Robert Holford, Esq., for 10 guineas; the other was bought by C. Wentworth Dilke, Esq., for 6 guineas. — W.] Sir Kenelm Digby, his wife, and two sons ; by Peter Oliver, after "Vandyck ; a large miniature in the highest preservation, in an ebony case set with Wedgwood's cameos. On the inside of the doors, two other ladies of the same set. [Bought by Miss Burdett Coutts, for 230 guineas. — W.] Two Yenetia Stanley, Lady Digby, the companion, after Yandyck, to Miss Burdett Coutts, for 27 guineas. A miniature of a Lady in a blue dress, one of the Digby family, to Robert Holford, Esq. for 10 guineas. Lady Digby, as she was found dead in her bed, to the same, for 50 guineas. Sir Kenelm Digby, when young, in a black slashed dress, to Miss Burdett Coutts, for 4 guineas. Lady Digby, with flowing hair, to the same, for 18 guineas. Lady Lucy Percy, mother of Lady Yenetia Digby, in a black hat and ruff, which was considered by Walpole to be the most perfect miniature in the world, to Robert Holford, Esq. for 100 guineas. The young Bride, to the same, for 9 guineas. — W.] * An exquisite miniature of Sir K. Digby, when nineteen years old, was painted at Yenice by Giovanna Garzoni, a very celebrated female artist (of whom, see Lanzi, t. ii. p. 209). He returned to England in 1619. It now belongs to the lady of Colonel Spicer, of Chelsea College, and bears a decided resemblance to the portrait at Althorp, by C. Jansen.— D. PAINTEES IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 225 duplicates of his pictures/ reserviDg one of each for him- self.^ On this subject Kussel the painter/ related to or connected with the Olivers, told Vertue a remarkable story. The greater part of the collection of King Charles being dis- persed in the troubles, among which were several of the Olivers, Charles II. who remembered, and was desirous of recovering them, made many inquiries about them after the Restoration. At last he was told by one Eogers,^ of Isle- worth, that both the father and son were dead, but that the son's widow was living at Isle worth, and had many of their works. The king went very privately and unknown, with Rogers, to see them : the widow showed several finished and unfinished, with many of which the king being pleased, asked if she would sell them : she replied, she had a mind the king should see them first, and if he did not purchase them, she should think of disposing of them. The king discovered himself, on which she produced some more pictures which she seldom showed. The king desired her to set her price ; she said she did not care to make a price with his majesty, she would leave it to him ; but promised Two other ebony cases, feet witli Wedgwood's cameos. In one, a lady of the Dighy family, half length, after Vandyck, with a beautiful landscape ; by Peter Oliver. Lady Catherine Howard, daughter of H. Fred. Earl of Aruudel, and first wife of John Digby, son of Sir Kenelm. On the reverse, in the same enamelled frame, another lady of the family ; exqui- sitely painted by Peter Oliver— probably the second wife of John Digby. [Bought by Lord Northwick, for 21 guineas. — W.] The singularly curious and valuable collection of portraits, and rare specimens of English antiquity, which embellished and distinguished Strawberry-hill, of Walpole's own creation, was bequeathed by him, to descend entire, to the present possessor, John James, Earl of Waldegrave. — D. 1 Sir Andrew Fountaine lost many miniatures by a fire at White's orioinal chocolate house in St. James's-street, about thirty years ago, where he had hired two rooms for a repository of part of his collection. Probably some of the works of the Olivers, of Cooper, &c. were destroyed there. 2 Peter Oliver etched a few small histories, but Vertue does not specify the subjects. 3 Anthony Russel, great nephew of Cornelius Jansen, as mentioned below. ^ Vertue says, he was very great at court ; it was probably Progors, Avell known for being employed in the king's private pleasures. See Memoires de Gram- mont. Edward Progers was buried atHamjiton in Middlesex, in 1714, aged ninety-one. He had distinguished himself in early life, in the service of Charles L ; and had obtained the confidence of his successor upon many secret occasions, as he was a groom of the bed-chamber. He possessed a gentleman's estate in Brecknockshire, which county he long represented in Parliament. He is mentioned in the Memoires de Grammont, p. 188, where, in a note, Walpole remarks the singular cau.se of his death, occasioned by a fever in cutting four new teeth, at the age of ninety-one. — D. VOL. I. Q 226 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES 1. to look over her husband's books and let his majesty know what prices his father, the late king, had paid. The king took away what he liked, and sent Rogers to Mrs. Oliver with the option of 1,000^., or an annuity of 300Z. for her life. She chose the latter. Some years afterwards it hap- pened that the king s mistresses having begged all, or most of these pictures, Mrs. Oliver, who was probably a prude, and apt to express herself like a prude, said on hearing it, that if she had thought the king would have given them to such whores, and strumpets, and bastards, he never should have had them. This reached the court, the poor woman's salary was stopped, and she never received it afterwards. The rest of the limnings which the king had not taken, fell into the hands of Mrs. Russel's father. Peter Oliver, says Vertue, died about the year 1664, aged near sixty ; but this must be a mistake, as his father's drawing at Kensington, finished by his son, is dated 1616, when by that account Peter was not above twelve years old. From his age, and the story of his widow, it is more likely that he died before the Restoration. Probably the date 1664 should be 1654. He was buried with his father, in the Blackfriars. As in none of these accounts mention is made of any children of Peter Oliver, I conclude that Isaac Oliver, glass painter, born in 1616, was son of the younger brother, James. Among the verses printed by the University of Cambridge, in 1638, on the death of Mr. Edward King, Milton's Lycidas, one of the English copies is inscribed Isaac Oliver,^ who, I suppose, was the glass painter, and then about the age of twenty-two, as appears from the fol- lowing inscription on a painted window in Christ-church, Oxford: J. Oliver, setat. suae 84, anno 1700, pinxit de- ditque.^ The story is St. Peter delivered out of prison, 1 Peck's Life of Milton^ p. 36. * The inscription upon this window is "J. Oliver," which is not necessarily the initial of "Isaac;" nor is there any proof that the execution of his gift did not precede the year 1700. The finest specimen of his minute works, sun-dials with flies, insects and butterflies, is (or was) at Northill in Bedfordshire, in the parlour window of the rectory -house. This was probably a present to the rector, as Oliver had been employed to make a window of exquisitely finished emblazoning, for the chancel. Both are inscribed "John Oliver fecit 1664." One of his best perform PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 227 the drawing and execution good, bu.t the colouring in some parts faint. The long life of this person/ estimable for his own merit and that of his family, served almost alone to preserve the secret of painting on glass — a secret which, however, has never been lost, as I shall show, in a moment, by a regular series of the professors. The first interruption given to it was by the Reformation, which banished the art out of churches ; yet it was in some measure kept up in the escutcheons of the nobility and gentry in the windows of their seats. Towards the end of Queen Elizabeth it was omitted even there, yet the practice did not entirely cease. The chapel of Our Lady at Warwick was ornamented anew, by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and his countess, and the cypher of the glass painter s name yet remains, with the date, 1574 ; and in some of the chapels at Oxford the art again appears dating itself in 1622, by the hand of no con- temptible master. I could supply even the gap of forty - eight years by many dates on Flemish glass, but nobody ever supposed that the secret was lost so early as the reign of James L, and that it has not perished since will be evident from the following series, reaching to the present hour. ances is a sun-dial, with the arms of Archbishop Sheldon, and a view of the Theatre, Oxford, now in Lambeth-palace. This John Oliver was born in 1616, and was probably the son of one of Isaac's younger sons, who were brou'ght up as painters in miniature, (for he speaks of them in his will as artists, ) and one of them, at least, might have practised drawing, annealing, and staining upon glass. In the beginning of the reign of James 1. small portraits, oval, or round, and about five or six inches by seven or eight in diameter, were much in usage ; of which there still remain some curious specimens in different colleges, at Oxford. The Editor has one much smaller, of Queen Elizabeth, which came out of a parlour in Kent, in which were likewise many iEsopian figures of animals placed singly in lozenges. Aubrey, describing Lord Bacon's villa at Verulam, (vol. ii. p. 232,) says, "that the glass windows of the gallery were all painted, and every pane with figures of beast, bird or flower ; perhaps his lordship might use them as topiques for locall memory. " The name of Oliver appears to have been connected with the arts from the time of James I. to whom John Oliver was master-mason, buried in the church of St. Faith, London. His descendant of the same names was one of the three com- missioners for regulating the plan of rebuilding London after the fire of 1666, Aubrey says, that he was the City Surveyor, and that he became possessed of a great part of the MS. designs and sketches of Inigo Jones. — D. 1 After the fire of London he was employed, jointly with Mr. Hooke, in survey- ing and laying out the ground for rebuilding the city, {^ee Biog, Britann. vol. iv. p. 2654, marginal note.) There is a mezzotinto of Egbert Heraskirk, sold by J. Oliver, at the Eagle and Child, on Ludgate-hill ; and another of James II. on his throne, with addresses thanking him for his declaration of liberty of conscience. — V, Granger's Catalogue of English Reads. Q 2 228 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. The portraits in the windows of the library at All-souls, Oxford/ In the chapel at Queens-college, twelve windows, dated 1518. PC, a cypher on the painted glass in the chapel at War- wick, 1574. The windows at Wadham- college ; the drawing pretty good, and the colours fine ; by Bernard van Linge, 1622. In the chapel atLincolns-inn, a window with the name of Bernard, 1623. This was probably the preceding Van Linge. In the chapel at Wroxton, stories from the Bible, by Bernard van Linge, 1632. In Christ-church, Oxford, by Abraham van Linge, 1640. In the church of St. Leonard, Shorediteh, two w.indows, by Baptista Sutton, 1634. The east window in the chapel at University- college ; Hen. Giles^ pinxit, 1687. There are eight or ten more, dated 1640. — at Christ-church, Isaac Oliver, aged eighty-four, 1700. ^ Walpole probably intended only a clironological notice, or he would not have omitted two such memorable specimens as the windows in King's-college, Cam- bridge, and at St. Margaret's, Westminster, in the reign of Henry YIII. The present additions are made to render the series, in point of date, more complete. After the Reformation in England, we may trace a new era of stained glass, which may be said to have commenced with the seventeenth century. The prejudices of the first reformers having relaxed in certain points, relative to the internal deco- ration of churches, the introduction of so splendid a mass of ornament, and of one so congenial with the architecture still remaining, was no longer proscribed by a positive injunction. Our commercial intercourse with the Low Countries, where the arts had begun to flourish, and where a school for painting had been established, facilitated the acquirement of stained glass, which, emerging from its rudeness, now exhibited some regularity of design. During the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., armorial bearings and small portraits in circles, were the usual decoration of the bay windows in the great manorial halls ; but complete scriptural histories, in which thefigui-es were well designed and grouped, were rarely seen, excepting in the two Universities, and in private chapels in the houses of the nobility. About the middle of the reign of James I., Bernard van Linge, a Fleming, is supposed to have settled in England : but was, at all events, the father of glass painting in its renewed and improved state, in this kingdom. He stained scriptural subjects in Lincoln-college chapel, 1629, 1631. In the Divinity School of Christ-church, Oxon. 1640. In the chapels of University and Lincoln colleges, 1641. The three last-mentioned by Abraham van Linge, who was more probably the brother than the son of Bernard, as he was competent to a work of no inferior merit, in 1G40. William Price, the elder, had a brother, Joshua Price, who finished the windows at Queen's-college, Oxford, in 1717. His son, William Price, stained the windows in Westminster-abbey, in 1735 ; and several at New College, from Flemish cartoons. -D. ^ In Mr. Thoresby's museum was "the picture of Mr. Henry Gyles (called there) the famous glass painter at York, wrote in mezzotino by tlio celebrated Mr. PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 229 "Window in Mer ton-chapel, William Price/ 1700. Windows at Queen's, New-college, and Maudlin, by William Price, the son, now living, whose colours are fine,^ whose drawing is good, and whose taste in ornaments and mosaic is far superior to any of his predecessors, is equal to the antique, to the good Italian masters, and only surpassed by his own singular modesty/ Francis Place, when that art was known to few otiiers. Bought, with other curiosities, of Mr, Gyles's executors." See Thoresby's Ducatus Leodiensis, p. 492. 1 He died in 1722. 2 He died a bachelor, at his house in Great Kirby-street, Hatton-garden, July 16, 1765. Walpole here speaks of the taste for collecting stained glass upon its first appear- ance ; and as his own at Strawberry-hill (which must now be comparatively con- sidered as very inferior) contributed much to the introduction of it, among the lovers of Gothic embellishment. The Revolution in France forced the persecuted clergy to supply themselves with the means of emigration from the private sale of the stained glass in their chapels. Our English agents were particularly industrious to procure it, under the pressure of such circumstances, and were great gainers. The Editor inspected with interest most that was offered for public sale ; and made notes of the new proprietors and application, as he has been able to authen- ticate them. A window — subject, the Nativity — was purchased by the Earl of Radnor, at Algiers, in 1787, and by him replaced in the church of Coleshill, in Berkshire. In consequence of the suppression of monasteries in Flanders, many chapels, most richly ornamented with stained glass, were dilapidated and sold. Sir Brooke Boothby, Bart., being at Liege, in 1800, purchased the glass, long celebrated, of the chapel of Herkenrode, near that city, for 200^., which has been erected, and now fills seven large windows of the choir in the cathedral of Lichfield, The subjects are scriptural, with emblazoned portraits of the Counts of Egmont and Horn, Dates from 1532 — 1539, Initials of artists, &c. A great importation of stained glass, collected in the Netherlands, was sold by auction in London, in 1807, which was purchased by individuals and given to churches. The Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth, from the chapel of St Nicholas, at Rouen, bought by the Earl of Carlisle, and given to the cathedral of York, in 1804. Christ before Pilate .... Ely Cathedral. Evangelists and Prophets . . Tottenham Church. Crucifixion Rickmansworth Church. Life of St. Barbara .... Cholmondeley. Another collection, not inferior to the above, was offered for sale in 1808. It had been taken from the cathedral and other churches at Cologne, from the Car- thusian monastery at Rouen, which consisted of twelve lights, en grisaille, describ- ing the history of eremitisin ; the Last Supper (1542), from St. John's-church, in that city, and eleven large subjects, of most brilliant colouring, taken from a chapel in the cathedral of Cologne. The works en grisaille were chiefly by the Pinaigriers. In a chapel at the Yine, Hants, is a series of stained glass brought from Boulogne. The three upper tiers contain scri])tural subjects, and the lower have the portraits of Francis I., with his two Avives, Claude and Margaret, and their tutelar saints. Of smaller pieces, the finest collection made by Sir T. Neave, Bart, is now at his Beat, at Dagenham, Essex. — D. ^ It may not be unwelcome to the curious reader to see some anecdotes of the revival of taste for painted glass in England. Price, as I have said, was the onljr 230 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. He was son of Dr. Eobert Norgate, master of Bennet- coUege, Cambridge, where Edward was born. He was brought up by Nicholas Felton, Bishop of Ely, who married his mother, and who, observing his inclination to limning and heraldry, permitted him to indulge his genius.^ As painter in tliat style for many years in England. Afterwards, one Rowell, a plumber at Reading, did some things, particularly for the late Henry, Earl of Tembroke ; but Rowell's colours soon vanished. At last he found out a very durable and beautiful red ; but he died in a year or two, and the secret with him. A man at Birmingham began the same art, in 1756 or 57, and fitted up a window for Lord Lyttelton, in the church of Hagley, but soon broke. A little after him one Peckitt, at York, began the same business, and has made good proficience. A few lovers of the art collected some dispersed panes from ancient buildings, particularly the late Lord Cobham, who erected a Gothic temple at Stowe, and filled it with arras of the old nobility, &c. About the year 1753, one Asciotti, an Italian, who had married a Flemish woman, brought a parcel of painted glass from Flanders, and sold it for a very few guineas to the Hon. Mr. Bateman, of Old Windsor. Upon that I sent Asciotti again to Flanders, who brought me 450 pieces, for which, including the expense of the journey, I paid him 36 guineas. His wife made more journeys for the same jjurpose, and sold her cargoes to one Palmer, a glazier in St. Martin's-lane, who immediately raised the price to one, two, and five guineas for a single piece, and fitted up entire windows with them, and with mosaics of plain glass of diff"erent colours. In 1761, Paterson, an auctioneer at Essex-house in the Strand, exhibited the first auctions of painted glass, imported in like manner from Flanders. All this manufacture consisted in rounds of scripture-stories, stained in black and yellow, or in small figures of black and white, birds and flowers, in colours, and Flemish coats of arms. ^ In very early life, he discovered considerable talents for minute drawing, and designing ornamental scrolls for the embellishment of MSS. He was Clerk of the Signet to King Charles the First, whom he attended into Scotland in 1640. Fuller says, that the Bishop, finding him inclined to limning and heraldry, per- PAIJS'TERS IN THE EEIGN OF JAMES I. 231 he liad good judgment in pictures, he was sent into Italy by the great collector, Thomas, Earl of Arundel, to make purchases for him ; but, returning by Marseilles, and by some accident being disappointed of the remittances he mitted him to follow his fancy therein. It does not appear that he remained long enough at Cambridge to have taken any degree, or to have applied himself to any of the learned professions. In pursuit of that branch of the arts to which his genius more particularly led him, he came to London, and soon connected himself with the eminent painters who were patronised by Charles I. To the Royal Gallery, and to those of Lord Arundel and the Duke of Buckingham, at that period, containing the finest collection of foreign pictures, before their dispersion on the Continent, he had constant access. Norgate soon obtained the patronage of Thomas, Earl of Arundel, the father of vertu in England, and it is presumed that he was domesticated at Arundel-house. In 1633, he was appointed by Lord Arundel, as Earl Marshal, Windsor Herald, in the College of Arms, and soon after, "Illuminator of Royal Patents," some of which are still preserved by noblemen to whom they were granted, and are indeed exquisite specimens of beautiful design and finishing, upon vellum, inferior in no great degree, to the elaborate bordures which enclose the miniatures of Giulio Clovio. With such excellence and facility of pencil, it is a fair conjecture that he made many small limnings from the Arundelian collection, (a kind of drawing in which the Earl is said to have taken great delight, ) but from their evanescence or other causes, I know of none now extant. He instructed Lord Arundel's sons, Henry-Frederick and William, after- wards the unfortunate Viscount Stafford, in his elegant art. Thus having, from superior opportunities, acquired a correct knowledge of masters, and become inti- mately conversant with the theory of painting. Lord Arundel sent him with a confidential commission to purchase pictures for him on the Continent, as he had, with similar directions, for William Petty, an uncle of the celebrated Sir William, the founder of the Lansdowne family, to the Levant, to procure marbles, many of which are now to be seen at Oxford. Fuller relates a story as received from himself, that Norgate, when returning to England, was detained at Marseilles ; and having exhausted his purse, a misfortune which Lord Orford rather uncandidly seems to attribute to his patron's intentional neglect of him, used frequently to walk for several hours in a public part of the city, with a most dejected air. A merchant who had often observed him, told him that so much walking would soon have brought him to the end of his journey ; when Norgate confessed his inability to proceed for want of money. Without delay money was advanced him, by which he might pursue his route through France on foot. That a nobleman like Lord Arundel, who expended princely estates in the pursuits of the arts should have wilfully exposed an agent of so much merit, and of whom he entertained the greatest favour, is not to be credited : and the extreme difiiculty, at that time, of remitting small sums from one distant part of the Continent to another, must be likewise taken into the account. Fuller has asserted, "this story is his own' relation." Previously to his leaving England, he was promoted, without intermediate step, to be Windsor Herald, of which ofiice he was, with several of his loyal brethren, deprived, before the execution of the king, in 1648. It is erroneously stated by Fuller, that he died at the Herald's College, in 1650. The MS. which has been quoted in these notes for the first time, is now in the Bodleian Library, Oxon. {Eawlinson and Willis, No. 326,) and is entitled. Miniature, or the Art of Limning, by Edward Norgate, dedicated to Henry Frederick, Earl of Arundel, and dated July 8, 1654. It is a thin folio, very fairly written with his own hand, and commences thus : "There are now more than twenty years past, since at the request of that learned physician, Sir Theodore May erne, I wrote the ensuinge discourse." Fuller's date of his death, therefore, is inaccurate, although it does not appear that he lived to regain his station, under Charles II. Loyd {Loyalists) says that he left several MSS. ready for the press, which were never printed. — D. 232 PAINTERS IN THE KETGN OF JAMES I, expected, and totally unknown there, he was observed by a French gentleman to walk many hours every day on the cours in a disconsolate manner. The gentleman inquiring into his circumstances, told him, that, perceiving he was able to walk at least twenty miles a day, if he would set out on his journey homewards, he would furnish him hand- somely for a footman, by which assistance Norgate arrived in his own country.-^ Among the accounts of the Lord Harrington quoted above, is the following entry : — Paid to Edward Norgate, by warrant from the council, April 24, 1613, for his paynes taken to write and lymue in gold and colours certain letters written from his majesty to the kiDg of Persia, the sum of ten pounds. These letters w^ere undoubtedly in answer to those brought by that singular adventurer, Sir Anthony Shirley, ambassador //'om the Sophy to his own sovereign. The warrant for restoring the use of the old English march, which I have set forth in the Catalogue of Noble Authoi's, w^as illuminated by this person ; but the best evidence of his abilities is a curious patent lately discovered. The present Earl of Stirling received from a relation an old box of neglected writings, among which he found the original commission of Charles L, appointing his lordship's predecessor, Alexander, Earl of Stirling, commander-in- chief of Nova Scotia, with the confirmation of the grant of that province made by James I. In the initial letter are the portraits of the king sitting on the throne, delivering the patient to the earl, and round the border representa- tions, in miniature, of the customs, huntings, fishings, and productions of the country, all in the highest preservation, and so admirably executed, that it was believed of the pencil of Vandyck. But as I know no instance of that master having painted in this manner, I cannot doubt but that it was the work of Norgate, allowed the best illuminator of that age, and generally employed, says Fuller, to make the initial letters in the patents of peers and commissions of ambassadors.^ Fuller concludes his account of him in ^ Fuller'is Worthies in Cambridgeshire. 2 In this very curious and delicate art, a legitimate branch of the ancient limning or illumination as used in MSS., Norgate found an equal in Henky Lilley. PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 233 tliGse words : " He was an excellent herald by the title of / and, which was the crown of all, a right honest man. Exemplary his patience in his sickness (whereof I was an eye-witness) though a complication of diseases, stone, ulcer in the bladder, &c. seized on him/' He died at the Herald s- office, Dec. 23, 1650. SOLOMON DE CAUS, a Gascon, was Prince Henry's drawing master. AlP we know of him is, that in 1612, the year of the prince s death, he published a book, entitled. La Perspective, ou Raison des ombres et miroirs, with several engraved plates, folio.^ It is addressed from Eichmond-palace to Prince Henry, an officer likewise of the College of Arms, as Rouge Dragon Pursuivant. His extraordinary skill had recommended him to the patronage of the Earl of Arundel. For that nobleman he had compiled a sumptuous folio MS, of the genealogy of the Howards, enriched with armorial designs, sepulchral monuments, small portraits, and almost every other decoration which could be applied to such a composition by skill and taste. It appears, from tlie beautiful frontispiece, that it is entitled. The Genealogie of the Princelie Familie of the Hov:ards, &c. collected and disposed by Hen. Lilly Rouge Dragon, 1638. He died in that year, having lived only to finish this work. After his death, his executors demanded for it, of Lord Arundel, a sum which he declined to give, and it was retained in his family, until his surviving daughter sold it to the Earl of Northampton. It is now in a most perfect state, and is preserved in the library of the Marquis of Northampton, at Castle-ashby, Northamptonshire. Aubrey mentions (vol. ii. p. 329), that Sir Kenelm Digby had a large book most exquisitely embellished, and probably either by Norgate or Lilly. "Mr. J. Digby, (son of Sir Keu elm,) brought me a great book, as big as the biggest church Bible I ever saw, and the richliest bound, bossed with silver, and engraven with scutcheons and crest. It was the historye of the Digbyes, which Sir Kenelme had ordered to be done. There was inserted all that was to be found, anywhere, relating to them, out of recordes, the Tower rolls, &c. ; all the church monuments are most exquisitely limned, by some rare artist. He told mee that the compileing of it did cost his father a thousaud pounds. When Mr. J. Digby did me the favour to show me this rare MS., ' This booke,' sayd he ' is all that 1 have left me of all the estate that was my father's.' " — D. ^ It is extraordinary that Fuller, who was acquainted with him, did not know the title of his office. It appears by the warrant for the march, that Norgate was Windsor Herald. He was also Clerk of the signet. — V. Masters' s Hist, of Corpus Christi Coll. Camh. p. 118. 2 I have learnt that the front of Wilton by Inigo Jones was conducted by this De Cans. De Caux, or Cans, was employed by Henry, Prince of Wales, in making addi- tions to the palace at Richmond, before 1612. It was a j)icture gallery, which was afterwards furnished by his brother, Charles I. It appears from Archceolog. vol. xv. p. 17, that De Cans had been paid 2,826Z. lOld. on account of these works, and there remained due to him, when the prince died in 1614, 303?, 135. Qd. In the Lans- downe MSS., No. 446, Brit. Mus., is an account of moneys issued to Solomon de Cans, for works at Greenwich and Somerset-gardens, in 1612. — D. 2 From prints in that book I should think that he was brother of Isaac de Cans, and assisted him in building the porticos and loggias of Gorhambury, and at least part of Camden-house, near Kensington. 234 PAINTERS IN THE HEIGN OF JAMES I. after he had been, as he tells his highness, two or three years in his service ; and another tract in folio, on mechanic poivxrs, 1628. This young prince was a great lover of the arts, and laid the foundation of the collection, which his brother complet- ed. The medals were purchased by him, and Vanderdoort, in his Catalogue, mentions several statues^ and pictures which King Charles inherited from Prince Henry. In the Appendix to Birch's life of this prince are several letters from Sir Edward Conway, in one^ of which he mentions having bought a picture of the Four Evangelists, whom he calls affectedly, the most faithfull, glorious^and excellent secretaries that ever ivere to the infinite incomprehensible Prince ; desiring Mr. Adam Newton, secretary to the most hopefull, powei fiull, and glorious earthly Prince, to present it to his Eoyal Highness ; and in others is much talk of a negotiation in which he was employed by the same i^rmce to engage an eminent painter of Delft to come to England. This was Mireveldt, who had many solicitations afterwards from King Charles on the same head ; but none succeeded. The printed letters are from the Harleian MSS. and describe Mireveldt as very fantastic and capricious. Mr. West has two others, one from Mireveldt to Sir Edward Conway, the other from Sir Edward, in which appears the cause of Mireveldt's uncertainty ; ^ he was afraid of being stayed in 1 v. Brit. Topogr. vol. ii. 375. 2 *' 1636, the king's statues placed at this instant round his Majesties cabanet roome, being in number 36. Eighteen little statues in bronze came from Prince Henry." Vanderdoort's MS. Catal. Harl. Brit. Mus. As the last mentioned were by Franc. Fanelli, they will be hereafter particularised. The medals and gems, amounting in the whole to 1,200, were purchased of the executors of Abraham Gorlee,{ihe author of the I)act'i/lotheca,)t'or Prince Henry. D. 3 All the foreign biographers declare positively, that Michael Jansen Mireveldt (as he is called in Charles the First's Catalogue) was never in England. We know that several other painters are said to have never been in this country, who can be proved to have been so, during two or three years ; and a difficulty occurs, how to account for so many of his genuine portraits of Englishmen, now pi-eserved in England ? He is said to have been employed in copying portraits, by Holbein, in English collections, whose touch he had successfully acquired. The originals must have been sent to him, as perhaps in other instances. His son, Peter Mireveldt, imitated him very nearly, and died young, in 1632. Did he come to England ? By the hand of Mireveldt are portraits of William, first Earl of Devon, at Chats- worth, G. Villiers, Duke of Bucks, and of Lord Arundel and his countess. His own portrait was in the collection of King James 11. At Coombe-abbey, Warwick- shire, is a head by himself ; and a whole-length of Henry, Prince of Wales, a landscape seen through a window. — D. PAINTEES IN THE REIGN OF JAMES 1. 235 England by authority, and stipulated that he should have liberty to return in three months. In 1625, he had again engaged to come, but Avas prevented by the breaking out of the plague. Mireveldt is said to have painted five thousand portraits ; ^ there are some in England of his hand, as Henry, Earl of Southampton, at Woburn ; Sir Ealph Winwood ; a fine whole-length at Kimbolton, of Kobert Rich, Earl of Warwick, and a print of Robert, Earl of Lindsey, by Vorst, 1631, was engraved from a picture of Mireveldt ; but these portraits must have been painted, when those persons followed the wars and their business abroad. It was in the reign of King James that the manufacture of tapestry^ was set up at Mortlake, in Surrey.^ Aubrey, in his history of that county, dates its institution in the subsequent reign ; but Loyd^ is not only positive for the former era, but afiirms that at the motion of King James himself, who gave 2,000Z. towards the undertaking, Sir Francis Crane erected the house at Mortlake, for the execu- tion of the design ; and this is confirmed by authentic evidence. In Rymer's FwderaJ' is an acknowledgment from ^ [This celebrated portrait painter was born at Delft in 1567. He was invited to England by Charles I. in 1625, but he declined the invitation : he died at Delft, in 1641. Van Mander ; Houbraken. — W.] ^ The art of weaving tapestry was brought into England by William Sheldon, Esq. about the end of the reign of Henry VIII. (See Dugdale's Warwickshire in stem- mate Sheldon, p. 584.) At Mr. Sheldon's are four maps of Oxford, Worcester, Warwick, and Gloucester, shires, executed in tapestry on a large scale. Fragments of this tapestry are among the curiosities of Strawberry-hill. The making of tapestry had been introduced into England many years before the establishment of Sir Francis Crane's manufactory, by W. Sheldon, Esq. The name of the artist was Robert Hicks, who had the use of Mr, Sheldon's manor- house at Burcheston, in Warwickshire, Mr. Sheldon, in his will bearing date 1570, calls Hicks "the only auter and beginner of tapestry and arras within this realm." {Lysons. ) Yet, a proof of a much earlier introduction occurs in the reign of Edward III. De inquirendo de mystera Tapiciorum, London. Eotul. 17 Ewd. Ztii. M. 41.— D. ^ '* A manufacture of tapestry was established at Mortlake, Surrey, by Sir Francis Crane, who purchased premises for that purpose. In the first year of Charles I. (1625) as the debt to him for his tapestry works was then 6,000/. he procured a pension of 1,000/. a year. In the survey made by order of the Parliament, the tapestry-house is described, as containing one room eighty-two feet in length, and twenty in breadth, with twelve looms ; another half as long with six looms, and a great room called the limning room." In 1623, Prince Charles wrote to his council from Madrid, directing them to pay 700/. for some drawings for tapestry which he had ordered from Italy, and 500/. for a suit then making for him at Mortlake, by Sir Francis Crane, representing the twelve months, which he earnestly desires may be finished before his return. — Records in the Duchy of Cornwall Offi.ce. Lysons' s Environs, ut supra. — D. State Worthies, p. 953. « Yol. xviii. p. 66, 236 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. King Charles in the very first year of his reign, that he owes 6,0 OOZ. to Sir Francis Crane for tapestry :^ "Franciso Crane militi A.D. 1625. " For three suits of gold tapestry, for our use we stand indebted to Sir Francis Crane for 6,000Z. Granted to him an annuity of 1,000^. To Sir Francis Crane also allowed more 2,0 OOZ. yearly for the better maintenance of the said worke of tapestries for ten years to come." It is plain by this deed, that the manufacture was then arrived at great perfection. Another suit of hangings, exe- cuted at the same place, and representing the Five Senses, was in the palace at Oatlands ; they were sold in 1649 for 270?. At Hampton-court are some of the cartoons. The beautiful hangings at Lord Orford's, at Houghton, containing whole-lengths of King James, King Charles, their queens, and the King of Denmark, with heads of the royal children in the borders, were in all probability the production of the same manufacture. Williams, Archbishop of York, and Lord Keeper, paid Sir Francis Crane 2,5 OOZ. for the Four Seasons. At Knole, is a piece of the same tapestry,^ wrought in ^ In the European Magazine, 1786, p. 285, is a letter from Sir F. Crane to James I. which explains that debt. — D. 2 Francis Crane, who was the last lay chancellor of the Order of the Garter, appears to have had an enterprising mind ; for under the patronage of King James the First, and encouraged by the Prince of Wales,, and Villiers, Marquis of Buck- ingham, he established a manufactory of tapestry, on an extensive scale, at Mortlakc in Surrey. But the extent of patronage does not appear to have been by any means adequate to the magnitude of the undertaking. For in a letter written to the king by Sir Francis, he complains of the royal negligence ; of the non-payment of large sums he had expended for the Marquis ; of three hundred pounds, besides carriage, paid for certain drawings, as designs for tapestry, made for Pope Leo the Tenth ; the subject, the twelve months in the year, by Paphael d'Urbino. And he further states, that his disbursements in the concern had ex- ceeded upwards of 16, OOOZ. , of which, in return, he had received no more than 2,500^., and both his estate and credit were so far exhausted, that without further support, he should be unable to continue the business one month longer. The royal bounty expected, however, was not extended, and the trade, consequently unsupported, soon fell into decay. He died, according to the record on his monument in the church of Stoke Bruerne, in tho eighty-second year of his age, a.d. 1703. IX MEMOIIY OF FRANCIS CPtiNE,, TENTH SON OF JOHN CH ^NE, OF LOUGHTON, IN THE COUNTY UF BUCKS, ESQ. (SERVANT TO QUEEN ELIZABETH, KING JAMES, KING CHARLES I, AND CHIEF OF THE GIIEEN CLOTH TO KING CHARLES II.) AND OF MARY CRANE, ELDEST DAUGHTER OF SIR TIIOS. TRESHAM, OF NEWTON, IN THIS COUNTY. At Stoke PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 237 silk, containing the portraits of Vandyck and Sir Francis himself, Mrs. Markham, whose maiden name was Crane, and a descendant of Sir Francis, has a half-length portrait in tapestry of her ancestor, with the collar of St. George over his shoulders. She has also a picture, in the same manufacture, of St. George and the dragon. She is a Roman Catholic lady, and lives in Lincolnshire. At Lord Ilchester s, at Ptedlinch, in Somersetshire, is a suit of hang- ings of this manufacture, representing the twelve months in compartments. I have seen several more sets of the same design ; the habits are of the court of Francis I., and one of the months represents a gentleman and lady ridinoj toQ;ether to hawk. Of this person I find no farther record with relation to the arts, but that he m.ade a present to the king of a sea- piece painted by Persellis; and was dead when Vander- doort drew up the catalogue.^ The manufacture will be mentioned again in the article of Francesco Cleyne. Sculpture was carried to no great height in the reign of James ; what statuaries there were, found employment chiefly on monuments, which, as far as I have seen, were generally in a bad taste. What little Vertue could discover of the artists I shall set down. MAXLMILLiN COLTE,^ lived in St. Bartholomew s-close ; in the church is a monu- ment for his daughter Abigail, who died at the age of sixteen, March 29, 1629 ; and in the register of the parish At Stolce Bruerne Park, in Northamptonshire, an estate which he had received in consideration of money due to him from the crown, he built a house upon a plan which he had procured from Italy, The building, which had two wings connected with the body iDy corridors, was built from 1630 to 1636 : and was spacious enough to receive a visit from Charles 1. his qncen and courtiers. It is still extant, and inhabited. — D. ^ King Charles's Catalogue, p. 13. He went to Paris, to be cut for the stone in the bladder, in 1635, and probably died there. He was at that time engaged in a suit in the Star-chamber with Sir Robert Osborne, an old servant of King Jaraes, who had mortgaged to Crane for 7,500Z. the royal manor of Grafton, of which he was only tenant. (See Strafford's Papers, vol. i. p. 261, 336, 524.) He was some time Chancellor of the Garter, and founded five additional alms-knights, by his will dated in 1635. (See Aubrey's History of Surrey, vol. iii. p. 206.) In Rymer, is a patent granting to 1dm and Francos, Duchess of Pdchmond and Lenox, the mono- poly of farthings for seventeen years. Vol. xviii. p. 143. 2 Maximilian Colte was the son of Maximilian Poutrain, otherwise Colte, abeady noticed. — D. 238 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. is mentioned the interment of his wife Susan, who died in 1645. He had two sons, Alexander and John ; the latter was a stone-cntter, and was buried in the same parish with his wife and children. Maximilian, the father, was of some eminence, and was in the service of the crown, as appears by an office-book of the board of works : Maximilian Colte, master sculptor at Si. a-year, 1633. EPIPHANIUS EVESHAM ' was another sculptor of that time. In the translation of Owen's Epigrams, by John Penkethman, prmted in 1624, the translator says, Give me leave to insert his (Owen's) epitaph, which is engraved in a plate of brass, and fixed under his monumental image, formed and erected by that most exquisite artist, Mr. Epiphanius Evesham, in the cathedral of St. Paul." NICHOLAS STONE, (1586—1647,) was the statuary most in vogue. He was born at Wood- bury, near Exeter, in 1586, and coming to London, lived ^ Epiphanius Evesham affords the first instance of an English sculptor, and if Penkethman's praise be not immoderate, of considerable talent. The practice of placing the name of the artist upon the plinth of any sepulchral monument is of a date much subsequent to Evesham's time. Numerous monuments of acknowledged merit, therefore, remain unattributed, and it will not be supposed that Evesham had acquired fame without having produced many examples, the record of which wiU now be sought for in vain. — I). PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 239 for some time with one Isaac James. He then went to Holland, where he worked for Peter de Keyser, whose daughter he married ; and returning to England, was employed in making monuments for persons of the first distinction.^ In 1616, he was sent to Edinburgh, to w^ork in the king's chapel there. In 1619, he was engaged on the building of the banqueting- house ; and in the beginning of the reign of King Charles he received his patent as master- mason, recorded in Rymer's Fcedera^ of which this is the substance " Know ye that we do give and graunt unto our trusty and well-beloved servant Nicholas Stone the office and place of our master-mason and architect for all our buildings and reparations belonging to our castle of Windsor during the term of his natural life ; and further, for the executing the said office, we do give him the w^ages and fee of twelve pence by the day in as ample and as large a manner as William Suthis ^ or any other person heretofore did enjoy. A.D. 1626, April 20." The history of his works is fully recorded by himself. Vertue met with his pocket-book, in which he kept an account of the statues and tombs he executed, of the persons f(».r whom done, and of the payments he received ; a copy of this* pocket-book Vertue obtained, from which I shall extract the most remarkable and curious articles : — " In June 1614, I bargained with Sir Walter Butler for to make a tomb for the Earl of Ormond, and to set it up in Ireland ; for the which I had well paid me 100^. in hand and 300/. when the work was set up at Kilkenny in Ireland/' "1615. Agreed with Mr. Griffin for to make a tomb for ^ We owe to Nicholas Stone the full praise of having deviated, with more success than his immediate predecessors, from the stiff" and Gothic style, yet his approaches towards classic grace were distant. During the time of his practice, the French, Flemings, or Italians brought to England sometimes the manner of Gougeon or Pilon, sometimes a debased imitation of John of Bologna, and sometimes thetasto of Bernini, but never a pure style nor sound principles. — D. 2 Vol. xviii. p. 675. ^ William Suthis, master-mason of Windsor-castle, citizen and goldsmith of London, is buried at Lambeth, where a tomb was erected for him by his wife. He died October 5, 1625. See the epitaph in Aubrey's History of Surrey, vol. v. p. 248. * Mr. Hawksipore had the original. Another copy was in the possession of Captain Wind, an architect, who will be mentioned hereafter. 240 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. my Lord of Northampton/ and to sett it in Dover-castle, for the which I had 5001. well payed. I made master Isaac James a partner with me in courtesy, because he was my master three years, that was, two years of my prentice, and one year journeyman." " In May 1615, I did set up a tomb for Sir Thomas Bodely in Oxford, for which Mr. Hackwell of Lincoln s- inn payed me 2001. good money." In November 1615, Mr. Jansen in Southwark and I did sett up a tomb for Mr. Sutton at Charter-house, for the which we had 400Z. well payed, but the little monument of Mr. Lawes was included, the which I made and all the carven w^ork of Mr Sutton's tomb." " July 1616 was I sent into Scotland, where I undertook to do work in the king's chappie and for the king's clossett, and the organ, so much as came to 450^. of wain- scot-worke, the which I performed and had my money well payed, and 50l. was given to drink, whereof I had 20l. given me by the kings command." 1616. A bargain made with Mr. Chambers for the use of the Eight Honourable Luce Countes of Bedford,^ for one fair and stately tomb of touchstone and wdiite marble for her father and mother and brother and sister, for the which I was to have 1,020Z., and my lady was to stand at all charges for carridge and iron and setting up." '^1619. A bargain made with Sir Charles Morison of Cashioberry in Hartfordshire for a tomb of alabaster and touchstone onely. One pictor of wlii te marble for his father, and his own, and his sister the Countess of Sesex,^ as great as the life, of the alabaster, for the which I had well pa} ed 2601. and four pieces given me to drink." " 1619. I was sent for to the offices of his majesty's 1 Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton. See Catalogue of Royal and NohU Authors. ^ Lucy Harrington, a great heiress, wife of Edward, Earl of Bedford, whose fortune and her own she wasted. She was a great patroness of the wits of that age, and was much celebrated by them, particularly by Dr. Donne. May dedicated his Lucan to her. At Woburn there is a picture of lier in a fantastic habit, dancing ; and another very fine one by Honthorst, which will be mentioned hereafter. She was a collector of antique medals : among Sir Thomas Eoe's is a letter to her, or rather a dissertation, which infers that she was no mean Latin scholar. V. p. 583. ^ Bridget Morrison, wife of Kobert Eatcliffe, Earl of Sussex. PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 241 workes to undertake the charge of the place of master mason forthe new banquetting-house at Whitehall, wherein .1 was employed two years, and I had payed me four shillings and ten pence the day : And in that year I made the diall at St. James's, the King finding stone and work- manship only, and I had for it 61 — 1 Ss. — id. And I took down the fountain at Theobalds, and sett it up again, and the fountain at Nonsuch, and I was paid for both 48/." And in 1622, I made the great dialP in the Privy- garden at Whitehall, for the which I had 46/." "And that year 1622 I made a diall for my Lord Brook in Holbourn, for the which I had 8/. — 105.'' " Unto Sir John Daves at Chelsey I made two statues of an old man and a woman and a diall, for the which 1 had 71. a piece." " And a tomb for Dr. Donne's wife in St. Clement- danes, for the which I had fifteen pieces." " 1620. In Suff'olke I made a tomb for Sir Edmund Bacon's lady, and in the same church of Redgrave I made another for his sister Lady (Gawdy) and was very well payed for them. And in the same place I made two pictors of w^hite marbell of Sir N. Bacon and his Lady, and they were layed upon the tomb that Bernard J anson had made there, for the which two pictors I was payed by Sir Edmund Bacon 200/." " I also made a monument for Mr. Spencer the poet, and set it up at Westminster, for the which the Countess of Dorsett payed me 40/." " And another therefor Mr. Francis Holies, the youngest son of the Earl of Clare, for the which the sayd Earl payed for it 50/." [As this figure is of most antique simplicity and beauty, the design was certainly given by the earl to Stone, who when left to himself had no idea of grace, as appears by the tomb of the Lytteltons at Oxford.] "My Lord of Clare also agreed with me for a monu- ment for his brother Sir George Holies, the which I made and sett up in the chappell at Westminster where Sir 1 Mr. Marr drew the lines. VOL. I. R 242 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. Francis Vere lyeth buried, for the which I was payed from the hands of the said Earl of Clare, lOOV " And in the same church I made an inscription for Sir Kichard Cox for the which I had 30 V And another fast by for Monsieur Casahon, the Lord Bishop of Durham payed for it 60//' "And about this time (1625) I made for the Old Exchange in London four statues, the one Edward V. Richard IIL and Henry VIL for these three I had 251. a piece, and one for Queen Elizabeth, which was taken down and sett up again where now it standeth at Guildhall gate, for the which I had SOV "And in 1629 I made a tomb for my lady Paston, of Norfolk, and set it up at Paston, and was very extraordi- narily entertained there, and payed for it 340^/' "In 1631, I made a tomb for the Right Hon. Lady the Countess of Buckingham, and set it up in Westminster Abbey, and was payed for it 560/." "In 1631 I made a tomb' for Dr. Donne, and sett it up in St. Paul's London, for the which I was payed by Dr. Mountford the sum of 120/. I took 60/. in plate, in part of payment." "In 1634 I made a chemny-peece for Sir John Holland, and sett it up at Godnon [Quidnam] in Norfolke, for the which I had 100/." "And 1632 I made a chemny-peece for Mr. Paston, sett up at Oxnett in Norfolke, and for the which I had 80/. and one statue of Venus and Cupid, and had 30/. for it; and one statue of Jupiter 25/. and the three-headed dog Cerberus with a pedestal 14/. and Seres, and Hercules, and Mercury 50/. and a tomb for my Lady Catherine his dear wife 200/. and a little chemny-peece in a banquetting- house 30/. and one Ranee marbel tabel with a foot 15/. and divers other things sent down to him from time to time, as paintings, arms, &c. and in May 1641 sent to him three ^ This monument of Dr. Donne is remarkable for its singularity ; a print of it is prefixed to the first edition of his Sermons. Another plate is in Dugdale's St. Paul's. He is represented in a winding-sheet ; and the figure is now in the vault under St. Paul's-church — D. PAINTERS m THE REIGN OF JAMES T. statues, the one Appollo, Diana, and J uno, agreed for 25l. a piece, with pedestals/' '*In 1635 I made a tomb for the two sonns of Sir Thomas Littleton, and sett it up in Maiden-college in Oxford, where the boys were drowned, for the which work Ihad30Z." " In 1 649 I made a tomb for my Lord Carleton Vycount Dorchester, and sett it up at Westminster- abbey, for the which 1 had 200Z. and an old monument that stood in the same place before sett up for his Lady some eight years before."^ The whole receipts, as they were cast up by Stone s kinsman, Charles Stoakes, amounted to 10,889^. Besides these works. Stone, in 1629, undertook to build for the Earl of Holland at Kensington, two piers of good Portland stone to hang a pair of great wooden gates ; the estimate of the piers (which were designed by Inigo Jones, and are still standing at Holland-house, though removed to greater distance from each other) was 100^. ^ As persons of curiosity may be glad to know the workman and the expense of the tombs of their ancestors, I shall here briefly recapitulate the rest. For Lady Rennet's, at York, 35Z. Sir Roger Wilbraham's, at Hadley by Barnet, SOL Sir Thomas Hayes, in Aldermanbury, 100^. Sir Robert Drury, at Hasteed by Bury, liOl. Alderman Anguish, at Norwich, 201. Sir Thomas Ewer, at Lynn, 951. Lady Carey, * mother of Lord Dan vers, at Stow, Northamptonshire, 220Z. Mr. Moles- worth, at Croyland, Mrs. Palmer, at Enfield, 16^. Sir Thomas Cornwallis, groom-porter, at Portchester, 18Z, Mr. Cornwallis, of Suffolk, 161. Sir Thomas Monson's father and mother, set up two miles beyond Lincoln. For Sir Edmund Paston, 1001. Sir Charles Morrison and his lady, in the chancel at Watford, 400^. Sir George Copen, at St. Martin's, 40Z. Dr. Barker, in New-college, Oxford, 501. Lord Knevett, at Stanwell, Middlesex, 215^. Sir Adam Niton (Newton), at Charlton by Greenwich, 180^. Sir Humphrey Lee, at Acton-Bromwell, Q61. Sir Thomas Palmer, at Winam, Kent, 100?. Sir Thomas Meary, at Walthamstow, 501. Sir William Stonehouse, at Radley, Oxfordshire, 1201. Sir Richard and Lady Verney, at Compton Verney, 901. Mr. Cook and his wife, at Brampton, Suffolk, 130Z. Sir Julius Caesar, in St. Helen's, London, 1101. Lord and Lady Spencer, at Althorp, 600?. This was in 1638. Lord Chief Justice Coke, at Tittleshall, iOOl. Sir Thomas Puckering, at Warwick, 200?. Judge Hatton, at St. Dunstan's, by Temple-bar, 40Z. Sir J. Worsnom, at Stanmore, 200Z. and a porch to the new church there, SOI. Besides others for very obscure persons, and without specification of place. * Elizabeth Nevil, daughter of John, Lord Latimer, by Lady Lucy Somerset, daughter of Henry, Earl of Worcester. Lady Elizabeth was first married to Sir John Danvers, of Dauntesey, and then to Sir Edmund Carey, son of Henry, Lord Hunsdon. She died in 1630, aged eighty-four. The tomb, I am assured, is admir- ably performed. R 2 244 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. He built the great gate of St. Mary's-chiircli,^ and the stone gates for the physic-garden at Oxford, designed too by Inigo,forthe Earl of Danby, by whom (as by some other persons) he was employed even as an architect. The earl ordered. Stone to design a house for him at Cornbury, and to direct the workmen, for which he was paid 1,000^. In 1638, he built Tarthall, near Buckingham-house, for the Countess of Arundel, and had paid to hi mat different times to pay workmen, 634^.. He built the front^ of St. Mary's at Oxford, and executed many works at Windsor for King Charles, particularly three cartouches to support the bal- cony, the star and garter. The figure of the Nile on the stairs at Somerset-house was of his work ; the other statue was done by Kerne, a German, who married Stone s sister. He employed several workmen, some of whose names he has preserved among his own accounts, as follow: — " 1629. John Hargrave made a statue of Sir Edward Cook for lbl—0s,—0d." "1631. Humphrey Mayor finisht the statue" for Dr. Donne's monument, 8^. — Os. — Od/' " 1638. John Hargrave made the statue to the monu- ment of Lord Spencer, lil. — Os. — Od, and Eichard White made the statue of Lady Spencer, 15^. — Os. — Od.'' " 1643. John Schurman, carver. " Nicholas Stone died in 1647, and was buried in St. Martin's, where on the north wall within the church is the following inscription, with a profile of his head : "To the lasting memory of Nicholas Stone, Esq. master mason to his majesty, in his life time esteemed for his knowledge in sculpture and architecture, which his w^orks in many parts do testify, and, though made for others, will prove monuments of his fame. He departed this life on the 24th of August 1647, aged sixty-one, and lyeth buried near the pulpit in this church. Mary his wife and Nicholas his son, lye also buried in the same grave. She 1 Where he has introduced the twisted columns (the original of which is said to have been brought from Jerusalem to Rome,) with the worst effect. — D. 2 He built the portal only, facing the High Street, but no other part of St. Mary's- church. — D. PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 245 died November 19th, and he on the 17th of September, 1647. IL S. posuit/^ Stone had three sons : Henry, Nicholas,^ and John. The two eldest were sent to Italy to study; the youngest was educated at Oxford, being designed for a clergyman; but in the civil war he entered into the army on the king's side. During that period this John Stone pub- lished a book on fortifi cation, called Enchiridion, with many small cuts, etched by himself, but without his name. The king s forces being routed, young Stone and a companion 1 Among the Harleian MSS. (No. 4049) is a journal of Nicholas Stone, with his brother Henry, during the early part of their residence in Italy. It contains very short notices of places or things, but affords some information worth extracting. Oct. 26, 1638. " Arrived at Rome, waited on Cav. Bernini at St. Peters, hee favoured me so far as to shew me the statue he had under hand (probably the colossal statue of St. Longinus), in the church ; and told me, that for a while, he should be busy there, but when he had done, and that he was at his house, I should be welcome to spend my time with other of his disciples." "December 1638, I went to Saint Peters, and with me Cav. Bernini from the church to his house ; and I showed him some drawings that I had copyed after Raphael's, with three or foure of architecture of my owne capriccio—hee was very well pleased to see them, and tolde mee that in 15 days time, he should have finished the statua then under hand, and then if 1 would come to him he would have practice upon some things that he had, and I should see his manner of working, and then worke myselfe : in the mean time, he says, ' I would advise you, as you have began, to continue to draw with chalke, which is very necessary.'" This anecdote will establish the claim of Nicholas Stone, jun. to be considered as having studied under Bernini, whose Apollo and Daphne he copied ; another more curious anecdote respecting that sculptor will be given in its place. The brothers left Rome for England, on the 18th of May, 1642, having been in Italy four years. — D. 246 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. made their escape ; the latter was taken, and hanged before his father's door, in Smithfield ; but Stone hid himself in his father's house in Long-acre, for above a twelvemonth, without the knowledge, says Vertue, of his father, whence I suppose he had either offended the old man by quitting his studies for arms, or the father was too prudent to risk the emoluments of his profession by engaging in party dissensions. John at last found means of retiring to France, where he lived some years, and, I conclude, applied him- self to the arts, as we shall find him, after his return, engaged in his father's business. Nicholas, the second son, was of a promising genius ; and while abroad modelled after the antiques so well that his works have been mis- taken for the best Italian masters. Mr. Bird, the statuary, had the Laocoon and Bernini's Apollo and Daphne in terra-cotta by this Nicholas Stone ; and Vertue saw a book with many of his drawings of palaces, churches, and other buildings, in Italy. He returned to England in 1642, and died the same year as his father, Henry, the eldest son, who erected the monument for his father, mother, and brother,^ carried on in conjunction with John, the business of statuary, after his father's death ; though Henry addicted himself chiefly to painting, and was an excellent copyist of Vandyck and the Italian masters. He is generally known by the name of Old Stone , I sup- pose to distinguish him from his brother John. Henry wrote a book, a thin folio, entitled. The Third Part of the Ai^t of Fainting, taken mostly from the ancients. Vertue, who saw this book, was uncertain whether the two former parts were composed by Stone, or by some other author. The accounts of Nicholas Stone, sen., which I have quoted above, were continued by John, while he and Henry worked in partnership ; among other articles are the following :^ 1 Old Stone {i.e. Henry) might have studied under Vandyck for a short period, but he acquired the perfection of his art in Italy. He particularly followed Titian, and succeeded well in a copy of the Cornaro Family, at Northumberland-house, which copy is now in the Royal Collection, (Hampton-court.) We hear Stone generally mentioned as the best and most frequent copyist of portraits by Vandyck, That was not the case. Hanneman excelled him, and others equalled him. — D. ^ In the Diary, Nicholas Stone, jun., speaks of being employed at Rome, upon a monument for Lady Berkeley. Lysous {Middlesex Parishes, p. 25), describes PAINTERS IN THE EEIGN OF JAMES I. 247 " In the year of our Lord 1659 my brother and I made a tomb for the Lord Ashley, for which we had 601. Formerly I made a little tomb of white marble, being an eagle with an escutcheon upon his breast, sett up at Sunning in Barkshire, for 71. " In Ano. 1656, I sett up a little tomb in the Temple church for Sir John Williams, and had for it 10^. It was an eagle of white marble.'^ There are but fifteen monuments entered in this ac- count, the prices of none of which rise above 100^. Consequently the sons, I suppose, never attained the reputation of the father. A head of Sir Jonas Moore, with a scroll of paper in his hand, was engraved by T. Cross in 1649, from a painting by Henry Stone, ^ whose house, garden, and work-yard in Long-acre, the same that had been his fathers, were rented from the crown at lOl. a-year, as appeared when surveyed in 1650, by the commissioners appointed to inspect the lands that had belonged to the king. Henry Stone died in 1563, and was buried near his father, where a monument was erected, and this epitaph written for him by his brother John : — • " To the memory of Henry Stone of Long-acre, painter and statuary, who having passed the greatest part of thirty-seven years in Holland, France, and Italy, atchieved a fair renown for his excellency in arts and languages, and departed this life on the 24th day of August, A.D. 1653, and lyeth buried near the pulpit in this church : ' His friends bewail him thus, Could arts appease inexorable fate, Thou hadst survived this untimely date : Or could our votes have taken place, the sun Had not been set thus at its glorious noon: Thou shouldst have lived such statues to have shown As Michael Angelo might have wished his own: And still thy most unerring pencil might Have rais'd his admiration and delight, " the figure of the lady, in a shroud, well executed in alto-relievo, in white marble. She died in 1635, and was buried at Cranford." It was probably his earliest per- formance in the school of Bernini, — D. ^ Ferdinando Boll, the painter, sent his own portrait to Henry Stone, in exchange for his. Boll's was sold to Counsellor Eades, at Warwick, in 1680. 248 PAINTERS IN THE RETGN OF JAMES 1. That the beholders should inquiring stand Whether 'twas Nature's or the Artist's hand. But thy too early death we now deplore, There was not art that thou couldst live to more, Nor could thy memory by age be lost, \ If not preserved by this pious cost ; Thy name's a monument that will surpass The Parian marble or Corinthian brass.' John Stone to perfect his fraternal affections erected this monument/' And a little lower, Jmie 1699. " Four rare Stones are gone, The Father and three Sons." In memory of whom their near kinsman, Charles Stoakes, rejjaired this monument. John Stone, the last of the family, died soon after the Restoration ; and Stoakes, the person above-mentioned, from whom Vertue learned all these circumstances, came into possession of many drawings, prints, paintings, models, &c., particularly many portraits of the family, in small, by Henry Stone, and from Stoakes the pictures fell into the hands of Mr. (/ock, the auctioneer. BERNARD JANSEN was an architect at the same time that Nicholas Stone was the fashionable statuary. They were employed to- gether, as appears by the foregoing memorandums, on the tomb of Mr. Sutton, the founder of the Charter-house. Of what country Jansen was,^ does not appear ; by both his names, I conclude, a foreigner, and probably a Fleming, as he was a professed imitator of Cieterling, a famous builder in the Netherlands, who wrote several books on architecture. Jansen was engaged on many great works here f he built Audley-inn,^ and the greater part of ^ Among the Harleian MSS. (No. 8, art 15,) are articles of agreement between Paul D'ewes, Esq. and Jan. Jansen, stouecutter, for setting up a tomb in the clmrch of Stowlangtoft ; dated June 25, 1624. " This account Vertue received from Stoakes, the relation of Stone, mentioned in the preceding article. 2 Audley-inn, near Walden, in Essex, was an immense pile of building ; the rooms large, but some of them not lofty in proportiou, and a gallery of ninety-five yards, which, with the chapel and great council chamber, each projec;ting back- wards from the ends of the gallery, have been demolished. The present chapel PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 249 Northumbeiiand - house, except the frontispiece, which Vertue discovered to be the work of the next artist, GEEARD CHEISMAS. Before the portal of that palace was altered by the present Earl of Northumberland, there were in a frieze^ near the top, in large capitals, C. M., an enigma long inexplicable to antiquaries. Vertue found that at the period when the house was built, lived Chrismas, an architect and carver of reputation, who gave the design of Aldersgate, and cut the bas-relief on it of James I.^ on horseback, and thence concluded that those letters signified Chrismas was lately fitted up. The screen accompanying the ascent of steps from the hall was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh, and has no relation to the rest of the building. That injudicious architect, too, advised the destruction of the first court, which consisted of noble corridores, supported by columns of alabaster, in the room of which he built two ugly brick waUs, which cost 1,600Z. The marble pillars of the chapel were purchased by Lord Onslow. King William bought thence some suits of tapestry, now at Windsor, for which he paid 4,500Z. The drawing-room, called the Fish-room, is a noble chamber ; the ceiling and a deep frieze adorned in stucco with sea-monsters, and great fishes, swimming. All the costly chimney-pieces have been sold : over that in the gallery were the labours of Hercules, and in the ceiling the loves of the gods. Many of the friezes still extant are in very good taste. It was erected by Thomas Howard, Earl of Sufi"olk, lord treasurer in the reign of James I., and was generally supposed to be founded on Spanish gold, his countess, who had great sway with him, being notoriously corrupt. There is a whole length of her in the hall at Gorhambury. She was mother of the memorable Frances, Countess of Essex and Somerset, whose escutcheon still (1762) remains entire in the chancel of the church at Walden, one of the lightest and most beautiful parish churches I have seen. It appears from Mr. Soane's MS. of John Thorpe, that he was in some manner associated with Bernard Jansen, in the designing of this enormous palace, as plans of both the quadrangles are given, in that singularly curious collection. A correct idea of the ground plan, and a bird's-eye view of the whole edifice, taken soon after its completion, which may be seen in Britton's Architect. Antiq. of Great Britain, vol. ii. p. il4, is one of the most interesting subjects of that satis- factory work. After the death of Henry Howard, tenth Earl of Suffolk, in 1745, this magnificent house passed eventually to Sir John Griffyn, K.B., who was allowed the barony, in 1784 ; and who restored Audley-inn as it is now seen : it was be- queathed by him to Richard, Lord Braybroke, the present proprietor. — D. ^ Sir Hugh Smithson, Bart., created Earl of Northumberland, in 1750, and assumed the name of Percy, Duke of Northumberland, 1766. — D. 2 It may be presumed that Gerard Christmas was as much sculptor as architect, and, like Nicholas Stone, was equally employed in either art. The front of North- ampton-house (as it was called when first built by Henry Howard, Earl of North- ampton before 1614), was profusely ornamented with rich scrolls of architectural carving, and with an open parapet, worked into letters and other devices. His sons, John and Mathias Christmas, were very able carvers, and were extensively employed in designing and finishing monuments. Very creditable specimens of their skill are the busts of Ralph Hawtrey and his wife (1638-1647), on their tomb at Riselip, Middlesex, in white marble. Lysons. -D. 250 PAINTEKS IN THE KEIGN OF JAMES I. aBclificavit.^ Jansen probably built tbe house, which was of brick, and the frontispiece, which was of stone, was finished by Chrismas. The carvers of the great ship, built at Woolwich, by Mr. Peter Pett, in 1637, were John and Mathias Chrismas,^ sons of Gerard.^ JOHN SMITHSON was an architect in the service of the Earls of Newcastle/ He built part of Welbeck, in 1604, the riding-house^ there in 1623, and the stables in 1625 ; and when William Cavendish, Earl, and afterwards Duke of Newcastle, pro- posed to repair and make great additions to Bolsover- castle, Smithson, it is said, was sent to Italy to collect designs. From them I suppose it was that the noble apart- ment erected by that Duke, and lately pulled down, was completed, Smithson dying in 1648. Many of Smithson s drawings were purchased by the late Lord Byron from his descendants who lived at Bolsover, in the chancel of which church Smithson is buried, with this inscription : ^ It is probable that, originally, there was a larger inscription, containing, I suppose, the titles of the Earl of Northampton, the founder, in Latin, as well as the builder's name ; for in Camden's Annalium apparatus of James I. (p. 45), at the end of his letters, it is said that at the funeral of his queen, Anne, a young man among the spectators was killed by the fall of the letter S, from the top of Northampton-house. In the Neiv Description of London., vol. v., it is said, that from some letters on the front, when it was last rebuilt, it was inferred that one Moses Glover was the architect, which is not improbable, as that great curiosity at Sion-house, the survey of Sion and the neighbouring villages, was performed by Moses Glover, painter and architect. In that valuable plan are views of the royal houses and seats in the neighbourhood. — D. 2 They also made a tomb at Ampton, in Suffolk, for Sir H. Calthorpe. {Gough's Topogr. vol. i. p. 679.) In the same work is mentioned a panegyiic on Mayster Gerard Christmas, for bringing pagents and figures to such great perfection, both in symmetry and substance, being before but unshapen monsters, made only of slight wicker and paper, p. 676. ^ Vertue had seen a printed copy of verses in praise of the father. * Some confusion of persons and names of this family of architects has here taken place, which has been rectified by Mr. Lysons, and in the Architectural Antiquities. In the church at WoUaton, Notts, is the following inscription : "Mr. Robert Smithson, Gent, architecter and surveyor unto the most worthy house of WoUaton, with diverse others of great account, Ob. xv. Oct. A.D. 1614, set. 79." In the chancel of Bolsover, Derby, is the tomb of " Huntingdon Smithson, archi- tect, who died in 1648 ;" upon which is the epitaph quoted by Mr. Walpole. He was the architect of Bolsover-castle, rebuilt in 1613, by Sir Charles Cavendish ; and before his death had completed the far-famed Riding-house, for the Duke of Newcastle. His son, John Smithson, died in 1678, who it is certain followed his father's profession. — D. ^ As appears by his name over the gate. PAINTERS IN THE EEIGN OE JAMES I. 251 Reader, beneath this plain stone buried, lie Smithson's remainders of mortality ; Whose skill in architecture did deserve A fairer tomb his memory to preserve: But since his nobler works of piety To God, his justice and his charity, Are gone to heaven, a building to prepare Not made with hands, his friends contented are, He here shall rest in hope, 'till th' worlds shall burn And intermingle ashes with his urn, Ob. Decemb. 27, 1648." His son, a man of some skill in architecture, was buried in the same grave. BUTLER, a name preserved only by Peacham, in whose time Butler seems to have been still living, for speaking of architecture and of the Lord Treasurer Salisbury, " who, he adds, as he favoureth all learning and excellency, so he is a principal patron of this art, having lately employed Mr. Butler and many excellent artists for the beautifying his especially his chapel at Hatfield/' STEPHEN HARRISON, who calls himself joiner and architect, invented the tri- umphal arches erected in London for the reception of James L They were engraved by Kip, on a few leaves in folio, a work I never saw but in the library at Chatsworth. I shall conclude what I have to say on the reign of King James, with a brief account of a few of his medallists. This article is one of the most deficient in Yertue's notes ; he had found but very slight materials, though equally in- [uisitive on this head with the rest. One must except the mbject of the two Simons, of whose works, as he himself published a most curious volume, I shall omit the mention of them in this catalogue, only desiring that Vertue s account of the two Simons and Hollar, and the catalogues of the collections of King Charles, King James, and the Duke of Buckingham, may be regarded as parts of this his great design. By those specimens one sees how perfect he wished and laboured to make the whole. 252 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. I was in hopes of completing this article, by having recourse to Mr. 'Kvelyns Discourse on Medals, but was ex- tremely disappointed to find that, in a folio volume, in which he has given the plates and inscriptions of a regular series of our medals, he takes not the least notice of the gravers. I should not have expected that a virtuoso so knowing would have contented himself with descriptions of the persons represented, he who had it in his inclination, and generally in his power, to inform posterity of almost every thing they would wish to learn/ Had Mr. Evelyn never regretted his ignorance of the names of the workmen of those inimitable medals of the Seleucidse, of the fair coins of Augustus, and of the Denarii of the other Eoman emperors ? Was he satisfied with possessing the efiigies of Tiberius, Claudius, Irene, without wishing to know the names of the ingenious and more harmless gravers — why did he think posterity would not be as curious to learn who were the medallists of Charles II., James L, Mary I. ? He has omitted all names of gravers except in two or tliree of the plates, and even there says not a word of the artist. For instance, in a medal of Charles 1. (p. 113,)^ under the king s bust are the letters N. K. F. I cannot discover who ^ To add to the praise which has been allowed to John Evelyx would be a superfluous attempt, as his general character has been rendered more admirable by the late publication of his Life from his own prepared MS. than from Walpole's more candid sketch of it, given in the Catalogue of Engravers. Pinkerton, in his preface, speaks of the Numismata with contempt, and asserts that none of the observations are new, but all tacitly taken from Vico, Le Pols, Patin, and Jobert." Essays on Medals, 8vo. The work on medals is, it must be fairly acknowledged, of less merit than many others of his multifarious treatises. To the copy which he presented to Sir Hans Sloane, now in the British Museum, is prefixed a letter, written by himself, deeply regretting the carelessness of his printer, and acknowledging numerous errors. It was his last performance, published in 1697. — D, 2 In Pepys's Diary, lately published, is an account of these medals, the work of Mons. Roettier and his sons, which may supply some of the deficiencies in the Numismata. Mr. Slingsby of the Mint writes to Mr. Pepys, 1687, containing a list of Mons. Roettier's medals, (twenty-five in all, and vahied at 43Z. ) and pro- posing to sell them at the original price. "When Roettier happens to die, they may be worth 5 or 10 pounds more, and yett cannot be had, many of the stamps being broken or spoiled. " This list may be referred to ; ten or twelve of tliem have been engaved for Evelyn's book. He speaks of them with merited commendation : " Mons. Roettier and his sons, who continued their father's travail, and who nave given to the world such proof of their abilities and perform- ances of this kind as may rightly paragon them with many of the celebrated ancients." {Numismata,^. 239.) There was a rivalship between Thomas Simon, and the Roettiers for the appointment of engraver to the Mint, in 1663, when the latter were preferred. — Ruding on English Coinage, vol. ii. p. 331. — D. PAINTERS IN THE EEIGN OF JAMES I. 253 this N. E. was.^ Thomas Eawlins was a graver of the mint about that time; perhaps he had a brother who worked in partnership with him. I was so surprised at this omission, that I concluded Mr. Evelyn must have treated of the gravers in some other part of the work. I turned to the index, and to my greater surprise found almost every thing but what I wanted. In the single letter N., which contains but twenty- six articles, are the following subjects, which I believe would puzzle any man to guess how they found their way into a discourse on medals : — Nails of the cross. Negros. Narcotics. Neocoros. Nations, whence of such Nightingale, various dispositions. Noah. Natural and artificial curi- Noses. osities. Nurses, of what importance Navigation. their temper and dispo- Neapolitans, their character. sitions. In short, Mr. Evelyn, who loved to know, was too fond of telling the world all he knew.^ His virtue, industry, ingenuity, and learning, were remarkable ; one wishes he had written with a little more judgment, or perhaps it is not my interest to wish so ; it would be more prudent to shelter under his authority any part of this work that is not much to the purpose. All this author says^ of our medallists is, that we had Symons, Eawlins, Mr. Harris, Christian, &c., and then refers us to his Chalcography,'^ where indeed he barely names two more, Eestrick and Johnson, of whom I can ^ Unless it was Norbert Eotier, who arrived in the reign of Charles II. In that case, the medal in question must have been executed aftei the Restoration. 2 Among other branches of science, if one can call it so, Mr. Evelyn studied physiognomy, and found dissimulation, boldness, cruelty and ambition, in every touch and stroke of Fuller's picture of Oliver Cromwell's face, which he says was the most resembling portrait of the Protector, In Vandyck's Earl of Strafford, a steady, serious, and judicious countenance ; and so in many others whose charac- ters, from knowing their history, he fancied he saw in their features. How his divination would have been puzzled if he had been shown a picture of Cromwell in the contemptible appearance which Sir Philip Warwick says he made at his first entry into the House of Commons ! Or if my Lord Strafford had continued to oppose the court, and had never changed sides, would Mr. Evelyn have found his countenance so steady and judicious ? 3 Page 239. ^ Page 49. 254 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. find no other account. The reader must, therefore, accept what little is scattered up and down in Vertue's MSS. 1 have already mentioned one or two. The first graver I meet in the reign of James is CHAELES ANTONY, to whom Sir Thomas Knyvet, master of the mint in the second of that king, paid by warrant 40Z. for gold and workmanship, for graving an offering piece of gold, Antony having then the title of the king's graver.-^ Vertue sup- poses this person made the medal in 1604 on the peace with Spain, a medal not mentioned by Evelyn, and that he continued in office till 1620. Mr. Anstis informed him of a warrant to a brother of Charles Antony, called THOMAS ANTONY curatori monetae et sigillorum regis ad cudendum magnum sigillum pro episcopatu et comitatu palatino Dunelm. 1617. But of neither of these brothers do I find any other traces. THOMAS BUSHELL was probably a medallist of the same age. In the year 1 737, Mr. Compton produced at the Antiquarian Society, as I find by their minutes, a gold medal, larger than a crown piece ; on one side Lord Chancellor Bacon in his hat and robes, with this legend — Bacon Viceco. Set. Alb. Angliae Cancell. On the reverse — Thomas Bushell. Deus est qui clausa recludit. NICHOLAS BEIOT was a native of Lorrain, and graver of the mint to the king of France, in which kingdom he was the inventor, or at least one of the first proposers of coining money by a press, ^ 1 have a thin plate of silver, larger than a crown piece, representing King James on his throne. It is very neat workmanship, and probably by this Antony. 2 " Nicholas Briot tailleur general des monnoies sous Louis XII. k qui Ton est redevable du Balaiicicr. Cette invention fut approuvee en Angleterre, comme elle meritoit." — Diction. Eistorique, Pinkerton, vol. ii. p. 169. — 5. PAINTEUS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES T. 255 instead of the former manner of hammering. As I am ignorant myself in the mechanic part of this art, and have not even the pieces quoted by Vertue, I shall tread very cautiously, and only transcribe the titles of some memorials which he had seen, and from whence I conclude a literary controversy was carried on in France on the subject of this new invention, to which, according to custom, the old prac- titioners seem to have objected, as probably interfering with the abuses of which they were in prescriptive pos- session. Kaisons de Nicolas Briot, tailleur et graveur des monoyes de France, pour rendre et faire toutes les monoyes du royaume a I'advenir uniformes et semblables, &c. Les remonstrances faites par la cour des monoyes contre la nouvelle invention d'une presse ou machine pour fa- briquer les monoyes, proposee par Nicolas Briot, 1618. qu. Examen d'un avis present^ au conseil de sa majeste 1621 pour la reformation des monoyes par Nicolas Briot. com- pose par Nicolas Coquerel. This Coquerel, I find by another note, was generalis monetarius, or pope of the mint, into which the reformation was to be introduced. The Luther, Briot, I suppose, miscarried, as we soon afterwards find him in the service of the crown of England, where projectors were more favourably received. From these circumstances I conclude he arrived in the reign of King James, though he did not make his way to court before the accession of King Charles, the patron of genius. Briot s first public work was a medal of that prince exhibited in Evelyn, with the artists name and the date 1628, To all, or to almost all his coins and medals, he put at least the initial letter of his name. He was employed both m England and Scotland. In 1631, as appears by Kymer s Fcedera, torn. xix. p. 287,^ a special commission was ap- ^ The coronation medal of Charles I. when he underwent his inauguration at Edinburgh, 18. Tune, 1663. This was executed by Briot, an eminent French artist. It was the first piece struck in Britain with a legend on the edge ; and was, as is supposed, the only one ever coined, in gold, found in Scotland. On the frout is the king's bust, crowned and robed, with his titles. The reverse bears a thistle growing, " Hinc nostrje creveke ros^." Around the edge is "Ex auro ut IN Scotia REPERiTUR : Briot fecit Edinburgi, 1633." Three only of them are known to exist, one of which is in the British Museum. {Folkes' Introd. p. 148. 256 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. pointed for making trial of the experience, skill, and indus- try of Nicholas Briot, in the coinage of money at the mint, dated June 13, 1631, at Westminster. This was the pro- ject he had attempted in France, by instruments, mills, and presses, to make better money and with less expense to the crown than by the way of hammering. The scheme was probably approved ; for in the very next year we find him coining money upon the regular establishment. There is extant a parchment roll, containing the accounts of Sir Eol)ert Harley, Knight of the Bath, master worker of his majesty's monies of gold and silver within the Tower of London, in the reign of King Charles I. from November 8, 1628, to August 1, 1636. In this account, in 1632, are payments to Briot for coining various parcels of gold and ^ silver, which are followed by this entry : — And delivered to his majestic in fair silver monies at Oatlands by Sir Thomas Aylesbury, viz. iij crownes, and iij half crownes of Briot's moneys, and iij crownes, and iij half crownes, and ten shillings of the monoyers making." These comparative pieces were probably presented to the king by Sir Eobert Harley, Briot's patron, to show the superior excellence of the latter's method. Briot returned to France about 1642, having formed that excellent scholar Thomas Simon. In a private family (the name of which he does not mention) Vertue saw a peach-stone, on which was carved the head of King Charles, full faced, with a laurel, and on the reverse, St. George on horseback, with the garter round it ; and on one side above the King's head, these letters NB. The tradition in that family was, that the carver having been removed from the service of the crown, and at last obtaining the place of poor knight at Windsor, cut that curiosity to show he was not superannuated nor incapable of h is office, as he had been represented. If the mark NB. signified Nicholas Briot, as is probable, either the story is fictitious, or Briot did not return to France on the breaking PinJcerton, vol. iiv p. 147.) In Eymer, is a grant to him of the office **uniiis capi- "Ulis sculptoris ferrorum monetae, iufra turrim, London." Dat. Jan. 27, ]633. ^ Folkes' Introd. p. 80— 82.— D. PAINTERS IN THE HEIGN OF JAMES I. 257 out of the civil war. The latter is most likely, as in the Treasury, where the plate of St. George's chapel is deposited, there is such another piece, though inferior in workman- ship to that above mentioned. In the museum at Oxford are two small carvings in wood — Christ on the Cross, and the Nativity, with the same cypher NB on each. REMARKS. A GENERAL view of the arts, at the commencement of the seventeenth cen- tury, illustrating their progress by a comparison with the former ages, will assist us in the conclusion we may arrive at concerning the characteristic peculiarities of each. Reference will be separately made to architecture, sculpture, and painting. From Gothic magnificence in domestic architecture to interpolations of clas- sical ornaments and members ; and lastly, to a style retaining no part of either in perfection, it must occur that the great mansions which were erected during the reign of James the First, were built upon plans which are discri- minated from all by which they were preceded — a circumstance immediately obvious to the practised eye. The date of the completion of any great build- ing will be adopted in preference to that of its first foundation, as both of them together will frequently include parts of two reigns, which might render any other classification indeterminate. The exclusion of angular or circular bay windows, and the introduction of very large square ones, unequally divided by a transom, and all placed in lengthened rows, in the several tiers or stories, form the leading distinction. The parapets were farther removed from an appearance of battlements, and the general effect of the whole pile was that of massive solidity broken gene- rally by one square turret more lofty than those at the angles. The houses of James the First's time are much less picturesque than those of his prede- cessors. Of the architects who are known to have designed and completed principal buildings, the names of John Thorpe (of whom an ample account has been given in the Appendix), Gerard Christmas, and Bernard Jansens, with Robert (not J ohn) Smithson, are mentioned by Walpole with their works. Besides these, there were Huntingdon Smithson, Thomas Holte, RoDOLPH Symonds, and Moses Glover, architects of equal merit. Hunting- don Smithson built Bolsover, an immense pile, for the first Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, and was buried there in 1 648. Thomas Holte was the architect of the quadrangle of the schools ; that of Merton-college, and by fair conjec- ture, of the whole of Wadliam-college in Oxford before 1613 ; Rodolph Symonds superintended Sydney and Emanuel Colleges at Cambridge, and Moses Glover was associated with Gerard Christmas in building Northamp- ton (now Northumberland-house,) and was much employed at Sion-house, by Henry, Earl of Northumberland, where he had expended 9,000L between the years 1604 and 1613. A plan, dated 1615, for rebuilding Petworth-house, belonging to the same nobleman, and probably drawn by Glover, is still preserved there. The inside of the square of the public schools at Oxford, built by Thomas Holte above mentioned, has an air of great grandeur, resulting from the large dimensions of the relative parts, rather than accuracy of proportion. To the VOL. I. S 258 PAINTEES IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. lofty tower is attached a series of double columns, which demonstrate the five orders from the Tuscan at the base to the Composite. The architect has proved that he knew the discriminations but not the application of them. It is at least possible, that he was apprised of a prior instance adopted by Stefano Maruccio (1360) in the Campanile of Santa Chiara, at Naples, with the intention of exhibiting the five orders in as many divisions of the tower, three only of which were completed. The portico of the Chateau d'Anet, near Paris, designed by Philibert de Lorme, may have more probably supplied the idea. At Beaupr^-castle (Glamorganshire), is a chapel with a front and porch of the Doric order, dated 1600. It consists of three orders, Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. The capitals and cornices are accurately designed and finished. 1. Hatfield 2. Audley-inn , 3. Wollaton , 4. Bolsover , 5. Longford-cas- ) tie J 6. Temple New- i sham J 7. Charlton , 8. Holland-house. 9. Bramshill 10. Castle-ashby .., 11. SummerhiU 12. Charlton Date, 1616 1613 1612 1607 County. Herts Essex Notts Derby Wilts Yorkshire ... Kent Middlesex ... Hants Northampton Kent wnts Founder. Kobert, Earl of Salisbury T. BarlofSuflfollc Sir Francis Willoughby... Sir Charles Cavendish ... Sir T. Gorges Sir Arthur Ingram Sir Adam Newton Sir Walter Cope Edward, Lord Zouche ... H. Lord Compton Earl of Clanricarde Sir Henry Knevet Architect. B. Jansen.. f J. Thorp & "» I R. SmithsonJ {Huntingdon! Smithson j John Thorp... John Thorpe... Present State. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Dilapidated. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Restored. This fashion of building enormous houses was still more prevalent during the reigns of James the First and his successor, before the civil wars, even than it had been in that of Queen Elizabeth. Audley-inn, in 1616, by Lord- Treasurer Sufiblk, Hatfield, by Lord Salisbury in 1611, and Charlton-house in Wiltshire, by Sir Henry Knevet, are those in which the best architecture of that era may be seen. Others of the nobility, deserting their baronial resi- dences, indulged themselves in a rivalship in point of extent and grandeur of their country-houses, which was of course followed by opulent merchants, the founders of new families. Sir Baptist Hicks, the Mercer to the Court, built Campden-house, Kensington, and another at Campden, Gloucestershire, scarcely inferior to Hatfield, which was burned down during the civil wars. It consisted of four fronts, the principal towards the garden, upon the grand terrace ; at each angle 'was a lateral projection of some feet, with spacious bay windows ; in the centre a portico with a series of columns of the five orders (as in the schools at Oxford), and an open corridor. The parapet was finished with pediments of a capricious taste ; and the chimneys were twisted pillars with Corinthian capitals. A very capacious dome issued from the roof, which was regularly illuminated for the direction of travellers during the night. This immense building was enriched with friezes and entablatures most profusely sculptured ; it is reported to have been erected at the expense of 29,000^., and to have occupied with its offices a site of eight acres. The late Earl of Gainsborough had the plan and elevation. There is scarcely a county in England which cannot boast similar edifices ; a very few of them are still inhabited, others to be distinguished only by their ruins, and remembered only by the oldest villagers, who can confirm tradition. Sculpture had made a considerable progress in France, as having been first emancipated from Gothic forms and system by John Gougeon, at least for half a century, before any eff'ort of skill, taste, or variety in design, had appeared PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. 25'9 in England. The tomb of Diana of Poitiers, in the chapel of the Castle d'Anet, was composed of a sarcophagus, placed on a square, having four female figures at the angles, sculptured in wood by Germain Pilon, in 1570. The principal figure is kneeling upon the sarcophagus. Nothing of so classical an adaptation was seen here before the middle of the reign of James the First. The effigies, if two, were extended upon a very large slab, and composed of white marble or alabaster, and the latter of black marble, called by the statu- aries touch-stone. A better taste prevailed in abandoning colour and gilding, excepting for the blazonry. These figures were frequently copied from whole- length portraits, and were well proportioned, and exquisitely finished, as to the drapery and armour. Another fashion was to place the figure as kneeling in prayer before a desk, borrowed from the French, especially for ecclesiastics, or for soldiers, with a casque placed before them. Sometimes a man was re- presented as recumbent and leaning upon his elbow, as a deviation from the postrate position. In Westminster-abbey, the monument of Queen Elizabeth and that of Mary Queen of Scots, of larger dimensions, were composed from the same plan and of the same materials, and were likewise the work of the same artists. The king, as we have seen, did not spare a sumptuous expense, for this proof of his gratitude and filial piety. Both these monuments are chiefly of an archi- tectural character. The royal effigies lie upon raised table tombs. There is a vast entablature supported by four columns, with Corinthian capitals, from which springs a high circular arch, finished by a superstructure exhibiting the arms and supporters. In the monument of Sir Francis Vere, a more theatric attempt is made by the introduction of personages, as in life, accompanying the dead. He is placed on a ground slab in a loose robe; four knights are represented as kneel- ing, but in varied postures, who support another plinth, upon which a com- plete suit of armour is disposed, in difierent pieces. In that of Lord Norris, which is of large dimensions, his six sons (celebrated warriors) in armour, of the size of life, kneel around his tomb, and are doubt- less portraits of them. These, which may be deemed statuary, required the talents of a sculptor, and however void of classical simplicity or correctness, are entitled to the praise of skilful labour, and afford most interesting evidence of the state of the art at the commencement of the seventeenth century. So general the fashion of grand mausolea had now become, that there are few of the more ancient nobility of this realm who have not sepulchral chapels, in different counties, which contain equally splendid and costly vestiges of ela- borate, though tasteless art, which are now, in numerous instances, the spoils of time and neglect. In the reign of James the First, the pride of gorgeous monuments was no less excessive than that of large houses. Few counties but still exhibit these sumptuous tombs in obscure villages, where the great mansion has totally dis- appeared, or has fallen into hopeless decay. More than a year's rental of the whole estate was frequently lavished upon the memorial of its deceased lord, and, generally speaking, under testamentary direction. Painting, if indeed it had made no great progress since the time of Holbein, More, or Zuccaro, had maintained a respectable state, from the talents of Van- somer, Mytens, and Jansens, who found no want of due patronage. Vansomer is said to have excelled in the accuracy of his likenesses, and he frequently enlivened his portraits by the introduction of accessories, such as the interior of rooms, furniture, or landscape. Mytens exerted himseK so much to imitate Vandyck, upon his arrival in England, with a design to rival him in his own manner, that his later pictures are particularly excellent. He introduced landscapes very happily into his 3 2 260 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES 1. back-grounds, and with a decided eflFect of warm and harmonious colouring, emulous of his master Rubens, and in the style of that school. If Jansens had not the freedom of hand nor the grace of Vandyck, he equalled him in the lively effect of his carnations, and excelled him in the neat- ness of his finishing. Although his attitudes are stiff and formal, they are remarkable for truth and tranquillity in the countenances. His portraits are usually painted upon panel. The men place one hand on their sword, and the other upon a richly-carpeted table. The ladies are usually standing with their arms crossed, and holding a feather fan in one hand, with a rich accom- paniment of Persian silk tapestry ; rarely in open air, with a landscape. His groups, or family pictures, are not so well arranged as by Holbein, in Sir T. More's. The individuals of whom they are composed appear to be placed to- gether without reciprocal action, or being connected by any other principle than that of juxtaposition. They stand in a row, and do not form a pyramidal line. Miniature painting possessed other claims for popular acceptation than its more commodious size only. It was made ornamental to the person by having been, in the progress of luxury, worn as an ornament, when the carved ebony and ivory box was superseded by gold setting, enriched with diamonds or other jewels. What at first enhanced the value became, under adverse circum- stances, the cause of the miniature having been left without protection ; and thus hastened to decay. A specimen, therefore, of this age by Hilliard, Oliver, or some of the best artists, whose names we know not, remaining in a perfect state, is a real curiosity. 261 CHAPTER IX. CHA-RLES I. — HIS LOVE AND PROTECTION OF THE ARTS — ACCOUNTS OF VAN- DERDORT AND SIR BALTHAZAR GERBIER — DISPERSION OF THE KING-'S COLLECTION, AND OF THE EARL OF ARUNDEL's. The accession^ of this Prince was tlie first era of real taste in England. As his temper was not profuse, the expense he made in collections, and the rewards he bestowed on men of true genius and merit, are proofs of his judg- ment. He knew how and when to bestow. Queen Elizabeth was avaricious with pomp — J ames 1. lavish with meanness. A prince who patronises the arts, and can distinguish abilities, enriches his country, and is at once generous and an economist. Charles had virtues to make a nation happy ; fortunate, if he had not thought that he knew how to uiake them happy, and that he alone ought to have the power of makiug them so ! ^ His character, so far as it relates to my subject, is thus given by Lilly : — " He had many excellent parts in nature, was an excellent horseman, would shoot well at a mark, had singular skill in limning, was a good judge of pictures, a good mathematician, not unskilful in music, well read in divinity, excellent in history and law ; he spoke several 1 [March 27, 1625.— W.] 2 Mr. Gilpin ( Western Tour, p. 318) has drawn the portrait of King Charles I. with a felicitous hand. "If Charles had acted with as much judgment as he read, and had shown as much discernment in life as he had taste in the arts, he might have figured among the greatest princes. Every lover of picturesque beauty, however, must respect this amiable prince, notwithstanding his political weaknesses. We never had a prince in England whose genius and taste were more elevated and exact. He saw the arts in a very enlarged point of view. The amusements of his court were a model of elegance to all Europe ; and his cabinets were the receptacles only of what was exquisite in sculpture and painting. None but men of the first merit in their profession found encouragement from him, and these abundantly. Jones was his architect and Vandyck his painter. Charles was a scholar, a man of taste, a gentleman and a Christian ; he was everything but a king. The art of reigning was the only art of whish he was ignorant." — D. 262 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. languages, and writ well, good language andstyle/^^ Perin- chief is still more particular : — " His soul/' says that writer, " was stored with a full knowledge of the nature of things, and easily comprehended almost all kinds of arts that either were for delight or of a public use ; for he was ignorant of nothing, but of what he thought it became him to be negli- gent, for many parts of learning that are for the ornament of a private person are beneath the cares of a crowned head. He was well skilled in things of antiquity, could judge of medals whether they had the number of years they pretended unto ; his libraries and cabinets were full of these things on which length of time put the value of rarities. In painting he had so excellent a fancy, that he would supply the defect of art in the workman, and suddenly draw those lines, give those airs and lights, which experience and prac- tice had not taught the painter. He could judge of forti- fications, and censure whether the cannon were mounted to execution or no. He had an excellent skill in guns, knew all that belonged to their making. The exactest arts of building ships for the most necessary uses of strength or good sailing, together with all their furniture, were not unknown to him. He understood and was pleased with the making of clocks ^ and watches. He comprehended the art of printing. There was not any one gentleman of all the three kingdoms that could compare with him in an universality of knowledge. He encouraged all parts of learning, and he delighted to talk with all kinds of artists, and with so great a facility did apprehend the mysteries of their professions, that he did sometimes say, ^ He thought he could get his living, if necessitated, by any trade he knew of, but making of hangings ; ' although of these he ^ Lilly, on the Life and Death of Charles I. p. 10. Perincliief, &c. — D. 2 Mr. Oughtred made a horizontal instrument for delineating dials, for him : **Elias Allen," says that celebrated mathematician, "having been sworn his majesty's servant, had a purpose to present his majesty with some new year's gift, and requested me to devise some pretty instrument for him. I answered that I have heard that his majesty delighted much in the great concave dial at White- hall ; and what fitter instrument could he have than my horizontal, which was the very same represented in flat ? " {Biogr. Brit. vol. v. p. 3279.) Delamain, another mathematician, made a ring dial for the king, which his majesty valued so much, that, on the morning before he was beheaded, he ordered it to be given to the Duke of York, with a book showing its use. — Ibid. p. 3283. PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 263 understood mucli, and was greatly delighted in them, for lie brought some of the most curious workmen from foreign parts to make them here in England."^ With regard to his knowledge of pictures, I find the following anecdote from a book called The Original and Groivth of Printing, byKichard Atkyns, Esq. : — " This ex- cellent prince,'' says that author, who was not only aliquis in omnibus, but singularis in omnibus, hearing of rare heads (painted) amongst several other pictures brought me from Eome, sent Sir James Palmer to bring them to White- hall to him, where were present divers picture drawers and painters. He asked them all of whose hand that was ? Some guessed at it ; others were of another opinion, but none was positive. At last, said the king, 'This is of such a man's hand, I know it as well as if I had seen him draw it ; but,' said he, 'is there but one man's hand in this picture?' None did discern whether there was or not; but most concluded there was but one hand. Said the king, ' I am sure there are two hands have workt in it, for I know the hand that drew the heads, but the hand that did the rest I never saw before.' Upon this a gentleman that had been at Eome about ten years before, affirmed that he saw this very picture with the two heads unfinished at that time, and that he heard his brother (who staid there some years after him) say, that the widow of the painter that drew it wanting money, got the best master she could find to finish it and make it saleable." This story, which in truth is but a blind one, especially as Mr. Atkyns does not mention even the name of the painter of his own picture, seems calculated to prove a fact, of which I have no doubt — his majesty's knowledge of hands. The gen- tleman who stood by and was so long before he recollected so circumstantial a history of the picture was, I dare say, a very good courtier. The king is said not only to have loved painting, but to have practised it. It is afiirmed that Eubens correctd some of his majesty's drawings.^ 1 Life of Chartes I. at the end of the Icon Basilike. Edit. 1727. 2 De Piles, in his Life of Buhens, says, that the king's mother-in-law, Mary de' Medici, designed well. 264 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OP CHARTES I. It was immediatelyafter his accession that Charles began to form his collection. The crown was already in posses- sion of some good pictures : Henry VIII. had several What painters had been here had added others. Prince Henry, as I have said, had begun a separate collection both of paintings and statues. All these Charles assembled, and sent commissioners into France and Italy to purchase more. Cross ^ was despatched into Spain to copy the works of Titian there ; and no doubt as soon as the royal taste was known, many were brought over and offered to sale at court. The ministers and nobility were not backward with presents of the same nature. Various are the accounts of the jewels and baubles presented to magnificent Elizabeth. In the Catalogue of King Charles's collection are recorded the names of several of the court who ingratiated themselves by offerings of pictures and curiosities.^ But the noblest addition was made by the king himself He purchased, at 1 Vincentio Carducci, in liis Dialogo della Pittura, printed at Madrid in 1633, calls him Michael de la Crux ; others say it was Henry Stone, jun., who was sent to Spain. When Charles was at that court, the King of Spain gave him a celebrated picture by Titian called the Venus del Pardo — (see Catal. p. 103) ; and the Cain and Abel, by John of Bologna, which King Charles afterwards bestowed on the Duke of Buckingham, who placed it in the garden of York house — (see Peacham, p, 108.) From WhitlocTce, p. 24, we have the following information: — "In December the Queen was brought to bed of a second daughter named Elizabeth. To congratulate her Majesty's safe delivery, the Hollanders sent hither a solemn embassy and a noble present, a large piece of ambergrease, two fair china basons almost transpa- rent, a curious clock, and four rare pieces of Tintoret's and Titian's painting. Some supposed that they did it to ingratiate the more with our King, in regard his fleet was so powerful at sea, and they saw him resolved to maintain his right and domi- nion there." ^ A Catalogue and Description of King Charles the First's capital Collection of Pictures, &c. now first published from an original MS. in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, prepared for the press by Mr. Vertue, and printed by W. Bathoe, 4to. 1757. The introductory advertisement was written by Walpole. This catalogue is much too long to be .copied, but too curious for a cursoiy notice only ; and the book itself is now extremely scarce. The Editor will therefore endeavour to con- dense the information it affords. It was compiled by Abraham Vanderdoort, and there are several other MS. copies, hereafter to be mentioned. The pictures are described as they were then placed in the several apartments of the palace of Whitehall, Those of the Duke of Mantua's cabinet are each called *'a Mantua piece," and amount to eighty-two pictures, principally by Giulio Eomano, Titian, and Correggio. Others are marked "a Whitehall piece," which is thus explained in the margin — " all these olde pictures collected in former times." Many in Henry the Eighth's Catalogue may be identified upon examination. King Charles willingly received paintings as presents ; and as the names of Lord Cot- tington, Sir Arthur Hopton, Sir Dudley Carlton, and others occur generally, from his ambassadors. His agents for purchases were Sir James Palmer and Endymion Porter. Of the seventy-seven limnings or miniatures, twelve of the more ancient were given by the Earl of Suffolk. There were fifty-four books of limnings and drawings, which were mostly presented.— D. PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 265 a great price/ the entire cabinet of the Duke of Mantua, then reckoned the most valuable in Europe.^ But several of those pictures were spoiled by the quicksilver on the frames, owing, I suppose, to carelessness in packing them up. Vanderdort, from whom alone we have this account, does not specify all that suffered, though in general he is minute even in describing their frames. The list, valuable as it is,^ notwithstanding all its blunders, inaccuracy, and bad English,^ was, I believe, never completed, which might be owing to the sudden death of the composer. There are accounts in MS. of many more pictures, indubitably of that collection, not specified in the printed catalogue. Now I have mentioned this person, Vanderdort, it will not be foreign to the purpose to give some little account of him, especially as to him we owe, however mangled, the only record of that Royal Museum.^ ^ The lowest I have heard was 20,000Z. So R. Symondes said. At Kensington are several pieces of the Venetian and Lombard schools, in uniform frames of black and gold, the pictures themselves much damaged. These I take to have been part of the collection from Mantua. ^ That sum would not exceed 300Z. each, supposing that we have the exact number of the whole collection in this catalogue. The sleeping Venus, by Cor- reggio, and the Venus del Pardo, by Titian, were sold by the Commissioners, in 1649, for 1,600Z.— D. 3 The original copy, of which there were two or three transcripts, is preserved in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. Tom Hearne once thought of publishing it, but at last, concluding it was German, gave it over. Mr. Vertne, better grounded, and still more patient, transcribed it for the press ; but dying before the impression was finished, it was published by Mr. Batho, as were Vertue's catalogues of the collections of James II., the Duke of Buckingham, Queen Caroline, &c., the whole making three volumes in quarto. * Vanderdoort's bad English is at least better than Felibien's " Due de Bonquin- quam," {BucJcingham,) "Blaifore," {Black friars,) &c., and is not so difficult to be understood by any person conversant with the collection of Charles the First. Hearne's pursuits had a very different direction, and he had no knowledge of pictures to assist his conjectures. — D. In the British Museum, 3ISS. Earl. 4718, is a folio by Vanderdoort, containing **an inventory of pictures, medals, agates and other rarities in the privy-garden at Whitehall." It is in his handwriting. "In 1636, the King going alone into the Chair-room {Presence Chamber) with his servant Vanderdoort, shewed him 27 f olden medals, in black turned hoops, lying on a table, and sayde, Looke Abraham, ow came these here ? I answered, I see by this there are more kings than one, which your Majesty has given mee ; and he said, Yes, I have one :' which 27 medals the King gave me in charge, and also 38 in sylver repaired medals, at the same time." The collection made by Charles I. should be considered as the first grand effort sanctioned by royalty, to introduce a taste for and knowledge of art, especially of painting, into this kingdom. This catalogue gives the opportunity of presenting a general view of it, confining the information to an enumeration of the pictures, and the masters by whom they were painted. In the palace of Whitehall, 460 pictures were disposed in various apartments, 266 PAINTEHS IN THE REIGN OF CHAKLES 1. Abraham Vanderdort, a Dutchman, had worked for the Emperor Eodolphus, whose service he left, we do not know on what occasion. He brought away with him a bust of a woman modelled in wax, as large as the life, which he had begun for that monarch, but Prince Henry was" so struck with it, that though the emperor wrote several times for it the young prince would neither part with the work nor the workman, telling him he would give him as good entertain- ment as any emperor would; and indeed Vanderdort seems to have made no bad bargain. He parted with the bust to the prince upon condition that as soon as the cabinet, then building from a design of Inigo Jones, should be including 1 02 in the Long Gallery. Those only of the more celebrated masters are here noticed. LIMNINGS. PAINTINGS. Holbein . . . . 4 Albert Diirer 3 Poelenburg . . . 4 Janet 4 M. Angelo da. Carav 2 Polidoro . . 9 Hilliard . . . . 13 Bassano . . . 5 Pordenone . 4 J. Oliver . . . . 13 Annibale Carracci 2 Raphael . . . 9 P. Oliver . . . . 14 Correggio . . . . 11 Rubens . . . . 7 Hoskins . . . . 7 4 Rembrandt . . . 3 A. More . . . . 1 Holbein . . . . 11 Tintoretto . . . 7 Sir J. Palmer . . 1 Hontliorst . . . 9 Titian .... . 28 The Princess Louisa 1 Julio Romano . . 16 Vandyck . . . . 16 Giovanua Garzoni . 1 Mierevelt . . . . 6 Vansomer . . . 2 By unknown { 14 Ant. More . . . 5 P. Veronese . . . 4 hands ( D. My tents . . , 10 Leonardo da Vinci . 2 Fr OSS ley . . . . 1 Parmegiano . . . 7 -D. PAINTEES IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 267 finished, he should be made keeper of his royal highness s medals, with a salary of 50Z. a year;^ a contract voided by the death of the prince. However, upon the accession of King Charles, Vanderdort was immediately retained in his service, with a salary of 40Z. a year, and appointed keeper of the cabinet. This room was erected about the middle of Whitehall, running across from the Thames towards the banqueting-house, and frontiug westward to the privy garden.^ Several warrants for payments to Vanderdort, as follow, are extant in Eymer, and among the Conway papers ; one of the latter is singular indeed, and shows in what favour he stood with his royal master. "The second day of April 1625, at St. James. His Majesty was pleased by my Lord Duke of Buckingham's means to send for Sir Edward Villiers, warden of his Majesties mint, as also for his owne servant Abraham Van- derdoort, where his Majesty did command in the presence of the said Lord Duke and Sir Edward Villiers that the said Abraham Vanderdoort should make patterns for his Majesties coynes, and also give his assistance to the in- gravers and his furtherance that the same may be well engraven according to their abilities. For which he de- sireth a warrant with an annual fee of AOl. a year, where- by it may appear that it was his Majesties pleasure to appoint him for that service." {Conway Papers.) At the bottom of this paper is this entry : — " It is his Majesty's pleasure that the clerk of his Majesties signett for the tyme being doe cause a booke to be prepared fitt for his Majesties signature of the office, with the annuitie or fee beforemen- tioned to be paid out of the exchequer duringe his life." The patent itself is in Eymer. ^ " A warrant under the signet to the officers of his Majesty's householdfor the allowance of five shillings and sixpence by the day unto Abraham Vanderdoorte for his boorde wages, to begyne from Christmass last and to con- ^ See Birch's Life of Prince Henry, Append, p. 467, and Rymer, vol. xviii. p. 100. [A.D. 1625, 2 Car. Imi. — D.] which patent gave him likewise the privilege of being the king's medallist, "in gold, silver, brasse, &c." 2 Catalogue of King Charleses Collection, p. 164. There is a print of it in Pennant's London, from a drawing by Lievens — D. 3 Foodera, vol. xviii. p. 73. 268 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. tynue during his life. By order of tlie Lord Conway and by him procured. March 24, 1625.'^ " Docquetfc. ll"". Junii, 1628. A warrant unto Abraham Vanderdort for his lyfe of the office of keeper of his Majesties cabynett roome with a pension of 40Z. per annum, and of provider of patternes for the punches and stamps for his Majesties coyne in the mynt with the allow- aunce of AOl per annum for the same paiable quarterly out of the exchequer, the first payment to begynne at Midsommer next 1628. With further warrant to pay unto him the several arrearage of 120?. lOOZ. and of lOl. due unto him upon privy scales for and in respect of his im- ployment in the said office and place which are to bee sur- rendered before this passe the greate scale. His Majesties pleasure signyfied by the Lord Viscount Conway and by him procured. Subscribed by Mr. Solicitor Generall." " To Mr. Attorney ; Junii 17, 1628. Sir, his Majestic is pleased to make use of the service of his servaunt Abraham Vanderdoort, to make patternes for his Majesties Coynes, and give his assistance and furtherance to the ingravers for the well makinge of the stamps ; and for his paines therein to give him an allowance of 40Z. per aim. duringe pleasure. To which purpose you will be pleased to draw a bill for his Majesties signature.^ Docquett. 11°. Octobr. 1628. A letter to Sir Adam Newton, Knight and Baronett, receaver generall of his Majesties revenue whilst he was Prince, to pay unto Abraham Vanderdort for the keeping of his Majesties cabinett room at St. James's, and other service the some of 130Z. in arreare due unto him for the said service from our Lady day 1625, 'till Midsommer 1628 ; procured by Lord Viscount Conway." The next is the extraordinary paper I mentioned : it shows at once how far the royal authority in that age thought it had a right to extend, and how low it conde- scended to extend itself. "Docquett. 28 November. 1628. A letter to Louysa Cole, the relict of James Cole, in favour of Abraham Vander- 1 Conway Papers. 2 Minute of a letter from Lord Conway. PAINTERS IN THE REICxN OF CHAHLES I. 269 dort his Majesties servant, recommending him to her in the way of marriage. Procured by the Lord Viscount Conway." What was the success of this royal interposition ^ I no- where find. Vanderdort, in this Catalogue/ mentions presents made by him to the king, of a book of prints by Albert Diirer, of a head in plaster of Charles V., and of the arm of the King of Denmark,^ modelled from the life. It is certain that the poor man had great gratitude to or great awe of Charles 1. The king had commended to him to take particular care of a miniature by Gibson, the parable of the Lost Sheep. Vanderdort laid it up so carefully, that when the king asked him for it he could not find it, and hanged himself in despair.* After his death his executors found and restored it. As this piece is not mentioned in the Catalogue, probably it was newly purchased. There is an admirable head of Vanderdort, by Dobson, at Houghton.^ The king, who spared neitherfavours nor money to enrich his collection, invited Albano^ into England, by a letter written by his own hand. It succeeded no more than a like attempt of the Duke of Buckingham to draw Carlo Maratti hither. Carlo'' had drawn for the duke the por- traits of a prince and princess of Brunswick, but excused ^ How much this was the practice of that court we are told by an unexception- able witness ; Lord Clarendon, in his character of Waller, says, " He had gotten a very rich wife in the city, against all the recommendation, and countenance, and authority of the court, which was thoroughly engaged on the behalf of Mr. Crofts, and which used to be successful in that age against any opposition." — V. Life, in folio, p. 24. 2 Page 57, 72. 3 In the king's collection was a portrait of the King of Denmark, by Vander- dort, which proves that he dabbled too in painting. 4 Sanderson's GrapMce, p. 1 4. ^ In the j^des Walpoliance, I have called this Dobson's father, as it was then believed ; but I find by various notes in Vertue's MSS. that it was bought of Eichardson the painter, and is certainly the portrait of Vanderdort. ^ In the life of Komanelli, in Catalogue Raisonne des Tableaux du Roi {de France), it is said that Charles invited that painter liither too ; vol. i. p. 163. 7 Several English sat to that master at Kome, particularly the Earls of Sunder- land, Exeter, and Eoscommon, Sir Thomas Isham,* Mr. Charles Fox, and Mr. Edward Herbert, of Packington, a great virtuoso. The portrait of Lord Sunder- land is at Althorp, a whole length, in a loose (h'apery, like an apostle ; the head and hands are weU painted. The head of Mr. Herbert, who was called the Rough Diamond, was, with some of his books, left by his nephew to the library of the Middle-temple, where it remains. A t Waldeshare, in Kent, a portrait of Sir Eobert Farnese ; and at Sherburn- castle, in Dorsetshire, another, not quite half * It is at Lord Ilchester's, at Redlinch, and Is a good head ; on the shoulders are scarlet ribands. 270 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. himself from obeying the summons, by pleading that he had not studied long enough in Eome, and was not yet worthy of painting for the king. Simon Vouet, an admired French painter, who, while very young, had been sent over in 1604, to draw the portrait of some lady of great rank, retired hither from Paris, was iu vited by King Charles, with promise of great rewards, to return to England, but declined the offer.^ His majesty was desirous too of having something of the hand of Bernini.^ Yandyck drew, in one piece the full face, and the three-quarter face, and the profile of the king, from which Bernini mude a bust, that was consumed or stolen in length, of Robert, Lord Digby, son of Kildare, Lord Digby, holding a paper with a mathematical figure. At Burleigh, a portrait of the Earl of Exeter, who col- lected so many of Carlo's works ; and a head of Charles Cavendish, a boy, with the eyes shut, said to be taken after his death, but it seems too highly coloured, and is probably sleeping. ^ At Castle-Howard is a portrait of Cardinal Howard, sitting, by C. Maratti. His right hand rests upon some papers upon a table, and in his left is a cardinal's cap. When C. Maratti heard complaints of his extravagant prices, he replied, " I am sent as the receiver-general for all the good painters that have lived before me, and have been poorly paid, to collect their arrears !" In the Hougtton collection was a fine portrait of Cardinal Rospigliosi, and another at Chiswick. — D. 1 Felihien. Jan. 4, 1698-9.— D. 2 Before 1839. In Stone's MS. Diary, above cited, he notes down, "Oct. 22, 1638. I went to Cav^^^ Bernini. Hee asked me whether I had scene the head of marble that was sent into England for the King, and to tell him the truth of what was spoken of it. I tolde him, that whosoever I had heard, admired it, not only for the exquisitenesse of the worke, but the likenesse and near resemblance it had to the Kinges countenance. He said that divers had told him so, but that he could not believe it. Then he began to be very free in his discourse, and to aske if nothing was broke of it." Stone then relates that an English cavalier had per- suaded him to make his bust, and that as soon as he had finished the mould, the Pope hearing of it, sent to forbid him, because he would have none but the King's sent there ; and that Bernini had consented to make it, because he wished to have the English see the difference between a bust taken from the life, or from a painting. "Do not we see," said Bernini, "that when a man is affrighted there comes a palenesse on the countenance suddenly, and wee say he looks not like the same man ; how can it possibly be, that a marble picture can resemble the nature, when it is all one coullour in his face, another in his haire, a thirde in his lipps and his eyes, yet difierent from all the rest? therefere," sayd the Cavaliere Bernini, ** I • conclude; that it is the impossiblest thing in the world to make a picture in stone, naturally to represent any person." There are other busts of Charles I., of great merit. 1. Of bronze, placed by Sir Nicholas Crispe, in the church at Hammersmith. 2. Done by Rysbrack, and composed from a copy of the portrait sent to Bernini, for the late G. Selwyn, Esq. It is now in the possession of the Duke of Hertford. 3. By Le Soeur, at Stour- ton. Evelyn observes, " I have been told of the famous architect and statuary Bernini, who cut that rare bust of Charles I. at Rome, in white marble, from a picture by Vandyck, yet extant in one of his Majesty's apartments, that he foretold something /?67ie5^ and unhappy which the countenance of that prince foreboded," Ecco il volto funesto r {Numismata.) The original picture by Yandyck, after the dispersion of the Royal collection, found its way into the Doria palace at Genoa, and has been lately purchased by his present (1828) majesty. — D. [It is now in the Vandyck Gallery at Windsor. — W.] PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 27 1 the fire of Whitehall.^ It was on seeing this picture that Bernini pronouncedj as is well known, that there was some- thing unfortunate in the countenance of Charles. The same artist made a bust too of Mr. Baker, who carried the picture to Eome. The Duke of Kent's father bought the latter bust at Sir Peter Lely s sale ; it is now in the possession of Lord Eoyston, and was reckoned preferable to that of the king.^ The hair is in prodigious quantity, and incomparably loose and free ; the point-band very fine. Mr. Baker paid Bernini a hundred broad pieces for his, but for the kiug's Bernini received a thousand Eoman crowns. The king was so pleased with his own, that he desired to have one of the queen too ; but that was prevented by the war.^ ^ It is very uncertain what "became of this bust. Vertue, from several circum- stances, which I shall lay before the reader, believed it was not destroyed. Cooper, the printseller, told him that he had often heard Norrice, frame-maker to the Court, and who saved several of the pictures, aver, that he was in the room where the bust used to stand, over a corner chimney, and that it was taken away before that chamber was destroyed. Lord Cutts, who commanded the troops, was im- patient to blow up that part ; and yet after he had ordered the drums to beat, it was half an hour before the explosion was begun; time enough to have saved the bust, if it was not stolen before. Sir John Stanley, then deputy chamberlain, was of the latter opinion. He was at dinner in Craig-court when the fire began, which was about three o'clock : he immediately went to the palace, and perceived only an inconsiderable smoke in a garret, not in the principal building. He found Sir Christopher Wren and his workmen there, and the gates all shut. Looking at Bernini's bust, he begged Sir Christopher to take care of that, and the statues. The latter replied, " Take care of what you are concerned in, and leave the rest to me." Sir John said it was above five hours after this before the fire reached that part. Norrice afterwards dug in the ruins of that chamber, but could not discover the least fragment of marble. The crouching Venus, in the same apartment, was known to be stolen, being discovered after a concealment of four years, and retaken by the crown. Vertue thought that the brazen bust of King Charles in the passage near Westminster-hall, was not taken from Bernini's, of which casts are extant, but of an earlier date. In the Imperial library at Vienna, says Dr. Edward Brown, in his Tra vels, is a head of King Charles, in white marble ; but this cannot be Bernini's, as Brown wrote in 1673, and the fire of Whitehall happened in 1697. 2 At Wimpole, the seat of the Earl of Hardwicke. — D. ^ In the church at Chelsea is a fine monument, in a niche, for the Lady Jane Cheyney ; she is represented lying on her right side, and leaning on a Bible. This tomb was the work of Bernini, and cost 500?. Lady Jane Cheyney was the daughter of William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle. — D. Mr. Buchanan {Mem. of Fainting, 1824, 8vo. vol. ii. p. 127) sent the original letter from Queen Henrietta to Bernini, inclosed with a picture of Charles I. from Eome. " Having been put up in a book and carelessly torn out, some words are wanting at one side. An Italian translation may be seen in Baldinucci's Life of Bernini.^'' It is likewise printed in the Lettere sulla Pittura, tom. v. p. 58, from which a translation is ofiered. This letter was probably written by the Queen, in French. The Editor is ignorant where, in England, it is now deposited. "Signor Cavalier Bernini, "The high estimation in which both the King my husband and myself have held the bust which you have made of him, being in every respect equal to the 272 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. Among the Straflford papers is an evidence of this prince's affection for his pictures. In a letter from Mr. Garrard/ dated November 9, 1637, speakingof two masks that were to be exhibited that winter, he says : — " A great room is now^ building, only for this use, betwixt the guard-chamber and banquetting-house, of fir, only weather-boarded and slightly covered. At the marriage of the Queen of Bohemia I saw one set up there, but not of that vastness that this is, which will cost too much money to be pulled down, and yet down it must when the masks are over." In another, of December 16, the same person says : — " Here are two masks intended this winter ; the King is now in practising his, which shall be presented at Twelfth- tide, most of the young Lords about the town, who are good dancers, attend his Majesty in this business. The other the Queen makes at Shrove- tide, a new house being erected in the first court at Whitehall, which cost the King 2500Z., only of deal boards, because the King will not have his pictures in the banqueting-house hurt with lights.'' The most capital purchase made by King Charles were the cartoons of Raphael, now at Hampton- court. They had remained in Flanders from the time that Leo X. sent them thither to be copied in tapestry, the money for the tapestry having never been paid. Rubens told the king of them, and where they were, and by his means they were bought.^ It may be of use to collectors and virtuosi, for whose satisfaction we have received from it, as from a performance which merits the approbation of all who see it, induces me now to make known to you, that, to complete my gratification, I should desire one of myself of equal excellence, by your hand, and designed from pictures which Mr. Lomas will deliver to you. I have commissioned him to assure you of the pleasure I shall feel from the taste and talent which I expect from you in that work ; and I pray God to have you in his holy keeping. Dated Whitehall, June 16, 1639. Henriette Marie, K."— D. 1 Page 130, vol. ii. 2 Journal of the House of Commons, July 16, 1645. ''Ordered, that the boarded masque-house at Whitehall, the masque-house at St. James's and the courts of guard, be forthwith pulled down and sold away." ^ The cartoons were purchased by Charles I. for the manufactory of tapestry established at Mortlake under Sir Francis Crane. — D. -[The cartoons cost Leo 150/., while the price of the tapestries was, according to Fea, 34,000 scudi, or about 7,000/. These relative prices account, in some measure, for the neglect with which the cartoons were treated after the tapestries were completed. — See Fea, Notizie intorno di Raphaele, From the Wharton Lady Wharton. ) Collection. Maurice, Prince of Orange. Osmanton, Derbyshire. Duchess of Braganza. Ditto. Charles L, standing against a pillar. Cashiobury. Princes Rupert and Maurice. Lord Bayning. Charles Louis, Prince Palatine. Om- bresley, Worcestershire. Vandyck. Carlton-house. Vandyck, his arm held up, and his hand declined ; painted by himself, when young. Euston. Charles Lewis, Prince Palatine, {sm.) Corsham. James, first Duke of Hamilton. Hamil- ton-palace. Gorhambiiry. George Gordon, second Marquis of Hunt- ley. Montagu-house. James Graham, first Marquis of Mon- trose. Buchanan-house. Frances Howard, Duchess of Richmond. Longleat. James Stanley, seventh Earl of Derby, Knowsley. Algernon Percy, Earl of Northumber- land. Cashiobury. Lucius Casey, second Viscount Falkland. Wardour-castle. James Stuart, Duke of Richmond. Pens- hurst. Ham-house. Montagu Bertie, Earl of Lindsey. Cor- sham. Patrick, Lord Chaworth. Belvoir. H. Danvers, Earl of Danby. Hamilton- palace. William Cavendish, Dake of Newcastle. Welbeck. T. Wriothesly, Earl of Southampton. Balstrode. Rachel de Roubigney, Countess of South- ampton. Wimpole. ^, , T ) From the King of Charles I. ( Spain's Collection. Queen Henrietta. J ^ord Radstock. Sir John Suckling (the poet), leaning against a rock, and contemplating a book. Lady Southcote. Maurice, Prince Palatine. Euston. Katherine, Lady Stanhope. For anecdotes of her, see Strafford Papers, vol. ii. p. 73, and Collinses Peerage, Brydges edition, vol. iii. p. 424. Sir William Howard, K.B,, when young, afterwards Viscount Stafford. Luton. William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle. Holjrrood-house. Frances, Duchess of Richmond, ob. 163^. Dufi'-house. James, Duke of Hamilton, (in a blue cloak.) The same. Henry Rich, Earl of Holland. Taymouth. Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick. The same. Wimpole. James, Duke of Richmond, {w. I.) in black, with the Garter. Castle-How- ard. Patrick, Viscount Chaworth. Belvoir- castle. POUTEAITS, HALF LENGTH. Francis Russel, fourth Earl of Bedford. Woburn Abbey : Thomas, Earl of Strafford. Osterley. Snyders. Castle-Howard. Vandyck. Sir Joshua Reynolds, Os- terley.* Thomas, Earl of Arundel. Cleveland- house. Sitting, in black, with the order of the Garter. This picture was in the Orleans Collection, and purchased by the present Marquis of Stafi'ord. Colonel John Russel. Ombresley. Dorothy Sydney, Countess of Sunder- land, presented by herself to Waller. Beaconsfield. Mary Ruthven, Vandyck'swife. Hagley. John ^ It is at the seat of the Lord Chancellor Henley, at the Grange, in Hampshire. Purchased by Lord Grosvenor, 1797. — D. * The editor has lately seen a three-quarter portrait of Vandyck, which, more than any other, exhibits him as he really appeared. It is in the Louvre Gallery. The head is slightly turned ; complexion light ; eyes grey ; hair chestnut-brown ; whiskers red. Plain collar, and a vest of green velvet. His person slender. — D. PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OP CHARLES I. 333 In the summer lie lived at Eltham, in Kent ; in an old house there, said to have been his. Vertue saw several sketches of stories from Ovid, in two colours, ascribed to him. At the Duke of Grafton's is a fine half length of Van- dyck,^ by himself, when young, holding up his arm, the hand declined. There is a print of it, and of two others of him, older ; one looking over his shoulder, the other with a sunflower.^ At Hampton-court, in the apartment John, Lord Bellasyse, of Worlaby. New- Lucas Vosterman, the engraver, playing borough-hall, Yorkshire. on the flute. The same. Elizabeth Vernon, Countess of South- Vandyck. Marquis of Hertford. ampton. Wrest. Bulstrode. His head, with the arm elevated, and Thomas Killigrew, in a fur cap, with open collar. Jeremiah Harman, his favourite mastiff. Chiswick. Esq. a Bank Director. (Engi'aved Edward Sackville, Earl of Dorset, Knole. for this work. Robert Bertie, Earl of Lindsey. Grims- Queen Henrietta Maria, (Amc^) ) Carlton- thorpe. The same, {profile.) \ house. William Laud, Archbishop of Canter- These were painted in order to be sent bury. Lambeth. to Bernini to make her bust, in Inigo Jones (/^eac?). Osterley. marble, from them. The widow of Archduke Albert, Sir J. Reynolds. Those who take delight in portraits, especially from Vandyck, have been lately gratified by the spirit of identity with which a selection from the originals, noticed in these volumes, has been transferred to highly-finished engravings. A series of one hundred and fifty Portraits of Illustrious Personages of Great Britain, with Biographical and Historical Ifemoirs, hy Edmund Lodge, Esq., Norroy King at Arms, in folio and imperial octavo, is now before the public ; and they are beyond competition, in the satisfaction they afford to every lover of the art, and to the historical critic, in the authentic biography by which they are accompanied. The engraved portraits from Vandyck and Lely, in Dr. Dibdin's y^des Althorpiance, may advance their claim to merit of the same kind. — D. 1 I have a fine sketch of the face only, by himself. * 2 A very fine head of Vandyck was in Sir J. Reynolds's Catalogue. In the Introduction, written by Burke, it is observed : "It must be a particular gratifi- cation to possess a portrait of a great and inimitable artist, when the value which the resemblance gives it is so much increased by the admirable manner in v; hich it is executed." Lanzi truly and elegantly exclaims, " I suoi ritratti vivi e par- lanti !" Those of his pictures which are ascertained by affixed dates, or otherwise, during the first few years of his residence, are manifestly superior to others finished whea his fame and employment had so greatly increased. The eyes are heightened by his pencil to a degree of intellectual animation which is both rare and admirable. The mind is brought into the countenance, which produces an effect of dignified character in his portraits of men, and an exquisite and peculiar grace in those of the ladies ; and we become almost assured, after contemplating them for some time, that the personages so depicted were a superior race of beings. Their costume, which, from modern disuse, may be con- sidered as theatrical, may perhaps call in the imagination. To those of our readers who practise the art of portrait-painting, no apology may be required for offering to them an idea of Vandyck's peculiar method. It was the * [Sold at the Strawberry-hill sale for four guineas. — W.] 334 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. below, is his mistress, Margaret Lemon,^ highly finished. There is a print of the same person by Hollar, but not from this picture.^ In the pocket-book of K. Symonds that I have mentioned, he says, It was much wondered at that he (Vandyck) should openly keep a mistress of his (Mrs. Lemon) in the house, and yet suffer Porter to keep her company." This was Endymion Porter, of the bedchamber to King Charles, of whom and his family^ there was a large piece by Vandyck, at Buckingham-house.* He was much addicted to his pleasures and expense ; I have mentioned how well he lived. He was fond of music, and generous to musicians. His luxurious and sedentary life brought on the gout, and hurt his fortune. He sought result of a confidential conversation held with Monsieur Jabac, a celebrated con- noisseur, with whom Vandyck was intimate at Paris, and there is no reason to doubt its authenticity. Of their intimacy, a sufficient proof is that he thrice drew Monsieur Jabac's portrait — con amore. Jabac was observing to him how little time he bestowed on his portraits : Vandyck answered, " That, at first, he worked hard, and took a great deal of pains to acquire a reputation, and with a swift hand, against the time that he should work for his kitchen." His general habit was this : — He appointed both the day and hour for the person's sitting, and worked not above one hour on any portrait, either in rubbing in or finishing ; so that as soon as his clock informed him that his hour was past, he rose up and made a bow to the sitter, to signify that he had finished ; and then he appointed another hour, on some other day ; whereupon his servant appeared with a fresh palette and pencils, whilst he was receiving another sitter, whose hour had been appointed. By this method he commanded expedition. After having lightly dead-coloured the face, he put the sitter into some attitude which he had before contrived ; and on grey paper, with white and black crayons, he sketched the attitude and drapery, which he designed in a grand manner and exquisite taste. After this he gave the drawing to the skilful people he had about him, to paint after the sitter's own clothes, which, at Vandyck's request, were sent to him for that purpose. When his assist- ants had copied these draperies, he went over that part of the picture again ; and thus, by a shortened process, he displayed all that art and truth which we, at this day, admire in them. He kept persons in his house, of both sexes, from whom he painted the hands ; and he cultivated a friendship with the ladies who had the most beautiful, to allow him to copy them. He was thus enabled to delineate them with a surprising delicacy and admirable colouring. (Z>c Piles. ) He very frequently used a brown colour, composed of prepared peach stones, as a glazing for the hair, &c. He had not remitted his practice of painting till a few days before his death. — D. ^ I have another head of her, freely painted, which was in the collection of Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham. From the minutes of the Antiquarian Society, I find that in 1723 they were informed that at Mr. Isaac Ewer's, in Lincoln's-inn- fields, was a copy, by Vanderbank, of Thurloe's portrait, painted by Mr. Churchill's pupil, mistress to Vandyck. This person, I suppose, was Mrs. Carlisle, mentioned hereafter ; but of Churchill I have seen no other account. 2 Sir Peter Lely had this picture from Vandyck. — D. ^ Himself, wife, and three boys. Bought for the late king, at the sale of the Duchess of Bucks, for 63Z. It had been Lely's. — D. * See a list of Vandyck's works in Le Compte's Cabinet des Singularites d^ArcJii- lecture, Peinture, &c. vol. i. p. 282. Many are in the gallery at Dusseldorf. PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 335 to repair it, not like his master, by the laboratory of his painting-room, but by that real folly, the pursuit of the philosopher s stone, in which perhaps he was encouraged by the example or advice of his friend, Sir Kenelm Digby. Towards the end of his life the king bestowed on him for a wife, Mary, the daughter of the unfortunate Lord Gowry,-^ which if meant as a signal honour, might be calculated too to depress the disgraced family by connecting them with the blood of a painter. It is certain that the alliance does not seem to have attached Vandyck more strongly to the king; whether he had any disgusts infused into him by his new wife, or whether ambitious, as I have hinted, of vying with the glory of his master in the Luxemburgh, Sir Antony, soon after his marriage, set out for Paris, in hopes of being employed there in some public work. He was dis- appointed^ — their own Poussin was then deservedly the favourite at that court. ^ Vandyck returned to England, and in the same humour of executing some public work, and that in competition with his master. He proposed to the king, by Sir Kenelm Digby, to paint the walls of the Ban- queting-house, of which the ceiling was already adorned by Eubens, with the history and procession of the Order of the Garter. The proposal struckt he king^s taste ; and by a small sketch^ in chiaroscuro for the procession, in which, though very faint, some portraits are distinguishable, it looks as if it had been accepted, though some say it was 1 In Sanderson's GrapJdce is Lady Vandyck's portrait, with a bombastic eulogy of her extraordinary beauty, written by Flatman. Two singular errors respecting this lady have hitherto gained credit ; the first, that she was descended from King Henry VII., and the other, that she was the daughter of John Ruthven, Earl of Gowrie, who was killed 1600. Dr. Robertson (Hist of Scotland, p. 470) refutes the first statement, by the authority of Craw- furd's Scotch Peerage, p. 329 ; and it appears that Maria Ruthven was the daugh- ter of Patrick Ruthven, a physician, the fifth son of John, first Earl of Gowrie, beheaded in 1584, who, after the death of his two brothers, in a second conspiracy, was confined in the Tower of London, upon suspicion of treason, and not released before 1619. His infant daughter was placed in Queen Henrietta's court, for her education and maintenance, previously to her being bestowed in marriage upon Vandyck. — Douglas's Scotch Peerage, vol. i. p. 665. — D. 2 He was not totally unemployed there. Sir Richard Lyttelton has two small pictures in chiaroscuro, evidently designed for altar-pieces, and representing Anne of Austria and some monkish saint. 3 [Poussin visited Paris in 1640, after an absence of sixteen years ; and he left it again in 1642.— W.] ^ Now at the Lord. Chancellor Henley's, at the Grange, in Hampshire. 336 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. rejected, on the extravagant price demanded by Vandyck. 1 would not specify the sum, it is so improbable, if I did not find it repeated in Fenton's Notes on Waller. It was fourscore thousand pounds!-^ The civil war prevented farther thoughts of it, as the death of Vandyck would have interrupted the execution, at least the completion of it. He died in Blackfriars, December 9, 1641, and was buried on the 11th, in St. Paul's, near the tomb of John of Gaunt.^ By Maria Euthven his wife, he left one daughter married to Mr. Stepney, a gentleman who rode in the horse-guards on their first establishment by Charles II. Their grand- son, Mr. Stepney, was envoy to several courts, and is known by his poems,^ published in the collection of the works of our minor poets. Sir John Stepney, another descendant, died on the road from Bath to Wales in 1748. Lady Vandyck, the widow, was married again to Eichard Pryse, son of Sir John Pryse, of Newton- Aberbecham, in Mont- gomeryshire, knight. Eichard, who was created a baronet, August 9, 1641, was first married to Hesther, daughter of Sir Hugh Middleton ; by Vandy ck's widow he had no issue.* ^ Graham says, "fourscore thousand pounds," but the original mistake was from misprinting the numbers by the addition of a cypher. When Eubens was paid 3,000Z. for the whole ceiling, can it be believed that Vandyck would have proposed to the king a sum so enormous as 80, OOOZ, ! — for the four sides of the room of audience at Whitehall ? The intended subjects of these, of which slight sketches in oil, chiaroscuro, were shown to the king, were : — 1, The Institution of the Order. 2. Procession of Knights in their Robes. 3. Ceremony of the Installa- tion. 4. The Grand Feast. Of these, one at least, the Procession, was in the royal collection, and afterwards in that of Sir P. Lely. At the sale of Lord Nor- thington's pictures, in 1787, Sir Joshua Reynolds gave 64 guineas for it. It has been engraved. The celebrated Sir William Temple had many very fine portraits by Vandyck, at Skene, in Surrey. — Evelyn's Diary, vol. ii. p. 277. Sir Joshua Reynolds said of Gainsborough, that he copied Vandyck so exqui- sitely, that at a certain distance he could not distinguish the copy from the origi- nal nor the difference between them. — Northcote, vol. ii. 238. — D. 2 He had been followed to his place of sepulchre by Reynolds, Barry, and West. When the last was interred, it was reported that Vandyck's coffin plate was dug up. This could not be true, as he was buried at the north side of the choir, near the tomb of John of Gaunt. {DugdaUs St. Paul's) He is said to have had a splen- did funeral, but no certificate of it is found among the MSS. of the Herald's Col- lege. This entry occurs in the register of St. Anne's, Blackfriars: "1641. Dec. 9th, Justiniana, daughter of Sir Anthony Vandyck and his lady, baptised." On Avhich day her father died. — D. ^ Mr. Stepney, the poet, was descended from a brother of Sir John Stepney, the j^rs^ baronet, and not from the ^^frc?, who married Anna Justina, Vandyck's daugh- ter, who was only six months old at her father's death. The late male representative of Vandyck was Sir Thomas Stepney, Bart, of Pendergast, Pembrokeshire. — D. ^ Vertue ascertained these matches by books in the College of Arms. PAINTERS m THE REIGN OF CHARLES 1. 337 Besides his legitimate child, Vandyck had a natural daughter called Maria Teresa, to whom, as appears by his will in Doctors'-commons,^ he left 4,000?. then in the hands of his sister Susannah Vandyck, in a convent at Antwerp, whom he appoints trustee for that daughter. To his sister Isabella, he bequeathes 250 guilders yearly ; and in case his daughter Maria Teresa die unmarried, he entails 4,000?. on another sister, married to Mr. Derick, and her children. To his wife Mary, and his new-born daughter Justiniana, he gives all his [pictures,] goods, effects, and moneys, due to him in England, from King Charles, the nobility and all other persons whatever, to be equally divided be- tween them. His executors are his wife, Mr. Aurelius de Maghan, and Katherine Cowley, to which Katherine he leaves the care of his daughter to be brought up, allowing ten pounds per annum, till she is eighteen years of age. Other legacies he gives to his executors and trustees for their trouble, and three pounds each to the poor of St. Paul's and St. Anne's, Blackfriars, and to each of his servants male and female. The war prevented the punctual execution of his will, the probate of which was not made till 1663, when the heirs and executors from abroad and at home assembled to settle the accounts and recover what debts they could, but with little effect. In 1668, and 1703, the heirs, with Mr. Carbonnel, who had married the daughter of Vandyck's [natural] daughter, made farther inspections into his affairs and demaDds of his creditors, but what was the issue does not appear. Lady Lempster, mother of the last Earl of Pomfret, who was at Eome with her lord, wrote a life of Vandyck, with some description of his works. ^ Sir Kenelm Digby, in his Discourses, compares Vandyck and Hoskins, and says the latter pleased the most, by paint- ing in little. Waller has addressed a poem to Vandyck, beginning, Eare artisan. Lord Halifax, another on his portrait of 1 Dated Dec. 1, 1641. Proved 1663. Evelyn, p. 151.— D. ^ Probably a translation only, and never printed. — D. VOL. I. Z 338 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. Lady Sunderland, printed in the third volume of State Poems ; and Cowley wrote an elegy on his death. Among the scholars^ of Vandyck, was^ DAVID BECK, (1621—1656,) born at Arnheim, in 1621 ; he was in favour with Charles I., and taught the Prince and the Dukes of York and Glou- cester to draw. Descamps says that Beck's facility in composition was so great, that Charles I. said to him, Faith ! Beck, I believe you could paint riding post. ^ The French author of the Ahrege says that Gerard Seghers came hither after the deaths of Rubens and Vandyck, and softened his manner here. This is all the trace I find of his being in England. (Voh ii, p. 162.) At Kensington is an indifferent piece of flowers by him, but I do not know that it was painted here. 2 John de Reyn, a scholar of Vandyck, is said by Descamps to have lived with his master in England till the death of the latter, after which he was in France and settled at Dunkirk. If De Reyn's works are little known, adds his biographer, it is owing to their approaching so nearly to his master's as to be con- founded with them. Vol. ii. p. 189. A concise account of Vandyck' s scholars may not be irrelevant. Upon his second arrival in England, he attached to himself two artists, who were his country- men, whose taste he modelled to his own, and whose great ability he cultivated to so high a degree, that their works could with difficulty bo discriminated from those by his own hand. They remained in his school during his residence in England. Doubtless their remuneration was most liberal, because, knowing their own strength, they consented to renounce individually their claims to pic- tures, and they suff"ered their fame to merge in that of their justly-celebrated master. 1. David Beck was the first of these. Jan de IIeyne perhaps excelled him. He did not quit his master till his death, and his timidity or diffidence is said to have been so great, that he was content to remain unknown, and unnoticed, in the studio of Vandyck. It is beyond doubt, that the repetitious of noble por- traits, always hitherto attributed to his master, who adopted them by a partial finishing, were by his hand ; and of his capacity, the testimony of Descamps is decisive. "Ses ouvrages sont presque toujours pris pour ceux de son maitre. Personne ne I'a approche de plus prfes, et personne ne I'a mieux egale en merite. C'est la meme fonte de couleur ; la meme touche ; la meme delicatesse. Son dessein est aussi correct, ses mains sont dessinees d'une purete singuliere ; il avoit un tres grand maniere." After his return into Flanders, he painted principally for churches, but his portraits were equally admired, and th&n claimed as his own. Henry Stone, and William Dobson, our countrymen, practised in Vandyck's school, and acquired much of their excellence there. The former was a laborious, and perhaps a tame imitator, but the vivid genius of the last mentioned was inspired by that of his master, and his style formed by his art and practice. Of Hanneman, it must be observed that he was rather a copyist, than a disciple. He relinquished the harder manner of his first master Mytens, and adopted that of Vandyck with such felicity, that among his numerous copyists, he was eminently the superior. Remee Van Lemput was another successful imitator, and as such had frequent employment. — D. 3 Vol. ii. p. 315. PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 339 He afterwards went to France, Denmark and Sweden, and died' in 1656,' GEOEGE GELDORP, of Antwerp, a countryman and friend of Vandyck in whose house that painter lodged at his first arrival,^ had been settled here some time before. He could not draw himself, but painted on sketches made by others, and was in repute even by this artificial practice ;^ though Vertue was told by Mr. Eose, that it was not his most lucrative employment, his house being reckoned convenient for the intrigues of people of fashion. He first lived in Drury- ^ [At the Hague ; he was a native of Delft. Immerzeel, Levens en Werken, &C.—W.] 2 David Beck increased both his wealth and reputation, after he quitted England, under the patronage of the Queen of Sweden, who commissioned him to visit the several courts of Europe, and to paint the sovereigns for her gallery. Portraits by him are said to be in their palaces, but in no catalogue of those of Charles I. does his name appear. He boasted that he had received, as presents from them, nine golden chains with medals. — D. 3 There is a well-received tradition, that Vandyck, soon after his arrival in 1632, found a patron in the high-minded Henry, Earl of Northumberland, just then released from the Tower, whose portrait he drew ; and that he was resident at Petworth during the six months in which he painted the four lovely portraits of that noble family. — D. ^ This must not be supposed to include his portraits, for which he certainly would have had no custom, if the persons had been obliged to sit to two different men. A painter may execute a head, though he cannot compass a whole figure. A print, by Voerst, of James Stewart, Duke of Lenox, with *' Geo. Geldorp, pinx." is indubitable proof that the latter painted portraits. z 2 340 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. lane, in a large house and garden, rented from tlie crown^ at 30Z. per annum, and afterwards in 1653, in Archer- street. He liad been concerned in keeping the king s pic- tures ; and when Sir Peter Lely first came over, he worked for Geldorp, who lived till after the Eestoration, and was buried at Westminster. One of the apprentices of Geldorp was ISAAC SAILMAKER, who was employed by Cromwell to take a view of the fleet before Mardyke. A print of the confederate fleet under Sir George Rooke, engaging the French, commanded by the Comte de Toulouse, was engraved in 1714, from a design of Sailmaker, who lived to the age of eighty-eight, and died June 28, 1721. BRADSHAW was another painter in the reign of Charles I. whom I only mention with other obsolete names to lead inquirers to farther discoveries. All I find of him is a note from one of the pocket books of R. Symonds above mentioned, who says, ** Pierce in Bishopsgate-street told me that Bradshaw is the only man that doth understand perspective of all the painters in London. '^^ 1 Instead of these insignificant names should be inserted that of Jan LiEVEJfS, of Leyden. He came to London in 1630, then in his 24th year, and remained there for three more ; which is a certain degree of proof that he did not want encourage- ment. Indeed, he was so well introduced and patronized at court, that he painted portraits of the king, queen, prince of Wales, and certain of the nobility. Afterwards he settled at Antwerp, probably for the advantage he might acquire in the school of Eubens ; and, in 1640, was employed by the Prince of Orange, for two large his- torical subjects, in emulation of that school. He is eminent for his etchings of heads and small historical subjects. Another Dutch painter, Henry Pot, who was contemporary with Lievens, is said by Descamps (t. i. p. 41) to have painted the English royal family and several of the nobility. The Greffier Fagel, at the Hague, had a smaU whole-length of Charles 1. in black, with a crown and sceptre lying ou a table, 1632 ; likewise of Charles and Henrietta, with a child sitting on a table. Another artist (a foreigner bearing an English name) John Thomas, travelled through Italy with Diepenbeck, and is said to have accompanied him into England, and to have assisted him, under the patronage of the Duke of Newcastle. Gerard Terburg, who is not mentioned in the former editions of this work, according to Descamps, (vol. ii. p. 125,) after having passed some time in Spain, came to London.* His arrival there was scarcely baown, when, notwithstanding * [Houbraken notices his visit to England. — W.] PAINTEES IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 341 B. VAN BASSEN, of Antwerp, was a very neat painter of architecture. In the private apartment below stairs at Kensington are two pictures by him ; in one are represented Charles I. and his queen at dinner ; in the other the King and Queen of Bohemia, distinguished by their initial letters F. E.^ The Duchess of Portland has a magnificent cabinet of ebony ,^ bought by her father the Earl of Oxford, from the Arun- delian collection at Tart-hall. On each of the drawers is a small history by Poelenburg, and piieces of architecture in the manner of Steenwyck, by this Van Bassen, who must not be confounded with the Italian Bassans, nor with the Bassanos, who were musicians to Charles, and of which name their was also a herald-painter. The first Bassano, who came hither in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and was related to the Italian painters of that name, settled in Essex, and purchased an estate, which was sold in 1714 by the male descendant. In the mansion was a portrait of the musician, holding a bass-viol. It is now at Narford, in Norfolk, the seat of the late Sir Andrew Fountain. his very high demands, crowds came to him to obtain their likeness. The exact period of his coming and departure is not stated, his stay, in all probability, not having exceeded a year or two. Descamps' account may be somewhat exaggerated. At Great Tew, Oxfordshire, was a portrait, {w. I.) of Lucius Carey, Viscount Falk- land, by Jacob De Valke. — Aubrey. A painter of considerable merit, unnoticed by Walpole, and even by his country- man Descamps, was David Vinkenboom. He excelled in landscape, combined with buildings and figures. There are two most curious views by him of the palaces (no longer extant) of Richmond and Theobald's, in the Fitzwilliam collec- tion, at Cambridge. Vinkenboom was born in 1578, and was probably in England in the early part of the reign of Charles I., and but for a short time. — D. [He died at Amsterdam in 1629. — W.] ^ 1. Frederic, Elector Palatine, and the Princess Elizabeth, (sister of Charles I.) his bride, at their wedding-dinner. 2. Charles I. and Queen Henrietta, dining in public. The gentleman carver, whilst performing his office, is attacked by the queen's monkey.* In Mr. Gulstone's sale, in 1790, was a biographical account of those foreigners who, from one circumstance in their lives, are entitled to a place in the English school, from the earliest period to the end of George the Second's reigu. Six volumes folio. — D. 2 Lord Oxford paid 310? for it. * [These pictures are now at Hampton-court ; the former is dated 1635. — W.] 3^2 PAINTERS IN THE HEIGN OF CHARLES I. CORNELIUS POELENBUEG, (1586—1666,)^ tte sweet painter of little landscapes and figures, was born at Utrecht, in 1586, and educated under Bloemart, whom lie soon quitted to travel in Italy, as lie abandoned, say our books, the manner of Elsheimer to study Raphael ; but it is impossible to say where they find Raphael in Poelenburg. The latter formed a style entirely new, and though prefer- ' able to the Flemish, unlike any Italian, except in having adorned his landscapes with ruins. There is a varnished smoothness and finishing in his pictures that makes them alw^ays pleasing, though simple and too nearly resembling one another. The Roman cardinals were charmed with the neatness of his works ; so was the great duke, but could not retain him. He returned to Utrecht and pleased Rubens, who had several of his performances. King Charles invited him to London, where he lived in Archer- street, next door to Geldorp, and generally painted the figures in Steenwyck's perspectives. There is a very curious picture at Earl Poulet's, at Hinton St. George, representing an inside view of Theobald's, with figures of the king, queen, and the two Earls of Pembroke and Montgomery, William and Philip.^ This piece is probably of Steenwyck, and the figures,^ which are copied from Vandyck, either of Poelenburg or Van Bassen. The works of Poelenburg are very scarce his scholar, John de Lis of Breda, imitated his manner so exactly, that his pieces are often taken for the hand of his master. The best picture in England of the latter is at the Viscount ^ [See Van Eynden en Vander Willigen, Geschiedenis der Vaderlandsche Schil- derkumt, vol. i. — W.] 2 With Richard Gibson the dwarf.— D. 3 In King Charles's catalogue are mentioned the portraits of his majesty, and of the children of the King of Bohemia, by Poelenburg ; and in King James's are eight pieces by him. A landscape by Poelenburg at Sir P. Lely's sale pro-* duced 79^. At Mr. Watson Taylor's, 1824, his portrait in small, 26 guineas. He was much employed by Charles 1. in purchasing pictures on the Continent,— Lettere sulla Fittura, t. iv. p. 303. — D. * There are sixteen mentioned in the catalogue of James II. PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 343 Midleton's. I have his own and his wife's portrait by him in small ovals on copper; they were my father s. The wife is stiff and Dutch : his own is inimitable. Though worked up to the tender smoothness of enamel, it has the greatest freedom of pencil, the happiest delivery of nature.^ Charles could not prevail on Poelenburg to fix here. He returned to Utrecht and died there in 1660, at the age of seventy-four. HENRY STEENWYCK, [The Younger,] was son^ of the famous painter of architecture, and learned that manner of his father. I find no particulars of the time of his arrival here, or when he died. It is certain he worked for King Charles.^ The ground to the portrait of that prince, in the royal palace at Turin, I believe, was 1 [Bought at the Strawberry-hill sale, by Newman Smith, Esq., for 21 guineas. A landscape also by Poelenburg was sold at the same sale for 81. 18s. 6d. The figures illustrating the story of the Judgment of Paris in a landscape by Both, in the National Gallery, are fey this painter. — W.] 2 Descamps has proved that it is a mistake to call the son Nicholas, as Saudrart and others have done. — See p. 384. 3 In King James's catalogue are recorded ten of his works. 344 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. painted by him/ In a MS. catalogue of King Charles's collection is mentioned a perspective by Steenwyck, with the king and queen, in little, by Belcamp. In the same catalogue is recorded a little book of perspectives by Steen- wyck, which, on the sale of the king's goods sold for no more than two pounds ten shillings. Steenwyck's name and the date, 1629, are on the picture of Frobenius, at Kensington, which he altered for King Charles. It is the portrait of the son that is among the heads of painters by Vandyck. His son Nicholas was in England also, painted for King Charles, and probably died here.^ JOHN TOEEENTIUS, (1589—1640,) of Amsterdam, is known to have been here, not by his works, but on the authority of Schrevelius, in his history of Arlem, from whom Descamps took his account. Torrentius, says the latter, painted admirably in small, but his subjects were not calculated to procure him many avov/ed admirers. He painted from the lectures of Petronius and Aretine, had the confidence to dogmatize on the same subjects, and practised at least what he preached. To profligacy he added impiety, until the magistrates thought proper to put a stop to his boldness. He underwent the question, and was condemned to an imprisonment of twenty years ; but obtained his liberty by the intercession of some men of quality, and particularly of the English ambassador. What the name of the latter was we are not told.^ Torrentius ^ In France are the portraits of Charles and his queen by him, about a foot high, in one piece, with a front of a royal palace in the background. Descamps says this picture is more carefully laboured than any work of Vandyck, and equal to the most valuable of Mieris, p. 385. I believe the fine piece of architecture at Houghton is by the hand of Steenwyck, the father. By the son, was a capital picture of St. Peter in prison, which at Streater's sale in 1711, sold for 25Z. It was afterwards in Dr. Meade's collection, who sold it to the late Prince of Wales. 2 [Hendrik van Steenwyck the younger also died in London, but neither the year of his birth nor death is known. His widow settled in Amsterdam, and maintained herself by painting architectural pictures. Steenwyck himself used to paint the architecture in the backgrounds of Vandyck's portraits. — Immerzeel, Zevens en WerJcen, &c. — W.] ^ A very extraordinary autograph letter of Charles, addressed to the Prince of Orange, is in the possession of Mr, R. Triphook, which proves that it was the king PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 345 came over to England, but giving more scandal tlian satis- faction, he returned to Amsterdam, and remained there concealed till his death, in 1640, aged fifty-one. King Charles had two pieces of his hand : one representing two glasses of Khenish ; the other, a naked man.^ KEmmcx, (1590— 1646,)2 called here Caring, was employed by King Charles to draw views ; his works are mentioned in the royal catalogue, particularly prospects of his majesty's houses in Scotland. In a sale of pictures in March 1 745, was a landscape by him freely and brightly touched, with his name written on it as above,^ and a few small figures added by Poelenburg. himself who interceded for Torrentius. It indicates most strongly his affection for the arts, since he pleads not for the man, but for the painter, the rarity and excel- lence of whose works are alone dwelt upon by his majesty. — D [A copy of this letter is printed in Carpenter's Pictorial Notices, and is as follows : — AU PRINCE d'ORANGE. MoN Cousin, — Ayans entendu qu'un nomme Torentius, peintre de profession, aurois depuis quelques annees tenu prison k Harlem par sentence de la Justice de dela pour quelque profanation ou scandale par lui commis contre I'honneur de la Religion creoyez que nous ne deserions pas le favoriser contre la teneur du ladit sentence pour abreger le terme ou mitiguer la rigueur de la dit punition laqueUe nous croyons luy avoir este justement imposee pour si enorme crime, toutaffois la reputation qu'il a d'exceller en la faculte de son art, laquelle ce seroit dommage de laisser perdre ou de perir en la prison nous a men par le plaisir que nous prenons en la rarete de ses ceuvrages de vous prier come nousfaisons affettueussement ayans la pouvoir de son enlarge ssement en votre main, de lui vouloir en notre faveur ottoyer son pardon et nous I'envoyer par degk ou nous aurons soing de le bien contenir dans les borns du debvoir et de la reverence qu'il doit k la religion pour I'employer pres de nous en 1' exercise de c'est Art. Ce que nous nous prometions d'obtenir tant plus facilement de vous, puisque la longueur de la prison et les autres chastiments qu'il a soufferts ci cette occasion doivent avoir deja aucunement satisfait k la justice pour I'expiation de son forfait. Et ce sera une Courtoisio que nous tiendrons obligation particuliere en votre endroit pour la recoguoistre et nous en revanger en autre chose dont nous vous pourrons gratifier. Et sur ce nous demeurons, Mon Cousin, &c. A notre Palais de Westminster, le de May, 1630. The ambassador noticed by Walpole in the text, was Sir Dudley Carleton, who presented to Charles I. the two works by this painter which are mentioned in the catalogue of the king's pictures. — W.] 1 V. Catalogue, pp. 158, 162. 2 [Immerzeel calls this painter Jacob Kierings : he was a native of Utrecht, and died at Amsterdam. — W.] 3 The French author of the Abrigi calls him Alexander, which must be amistake. He says he acquired his reputation by what should have destroyed it. As he could 346 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. In Dagar's sale were three drawings with a pen and washed, by Keirincx ; one of them had a view of the Parliament- house and Westminster stairs to the water, dated 1625: JOHN PEIWITZER was too good a painter to remain so long unknown. At "Woburn, besides some young heads of the family, is a whole-length of Sir William Russel, a youth, and Knight of the Bath, in the robes of the order, with a dwarf aged thirty-two. It is painted with great brightness and neatness, and does not want freedom. Upon it is written Johannes Priwitzerus de Hungari4 faciebat, 1627. I have never met with any other mention of this name. GEOEGE JAMESOiNE,^ (1586—1644,) was theVandyck of Scotland, to which title he had a double pretension, not only having surpassed his countrymen as a portrait-painter, but from his works being sometimes attri- buted to Sir Antony, who was his fellow-scholar; both having studied under Rubens, at Antwerp.^ Jamesone was the son of Andrew Jamesone, an archi- tect, and was born at Aberdeen Id 1586. At what age he went abroad, or how long he continued there, is not known. After his return, he applied with indefatigable industry to portrait in oil, though he sometimes practised not paint figures, Poelenburg generally added them for him. I have the view of a seat in a park by him, freely painted, not to say, very carelessly. It has King Charles's mark behind it. 1 The materials of this article were communicated by Mr. John Jamisone, wine- merchant in Leith, who has another portrait of this painter by himself, 12 inches by 10. 2 In the anecdotes of Jamisone it is asserted, that he returned from his studies \mder Rubens, and established himself as a painter of portraits at Edinburgh, about the year 1628, where he practised his art until his death in 1644. He was one of the more esteemed of Rubens's scholars, and painted in the broad, thin, transparent manner. Many of his portraits, chiefly heads and half-lengths, are preserved at Taymouth : {principally,) Lord Marr's ; Lord Buchan's ; and Stuart's at Grandtully. He had much of Vandyck's second manner. Lord Findlater at Cullen, has his portrait by himself, as sitting in his painting room, in which are introduced such of his pictures as he most approved. — D. PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. 347 in miniature, and in history and landscape too. His largest portraits^ were generally somewhat less than life. His ex- cellence is said to consist in delicacy and softness, with a clear and beautiful colouring, his shades not charged, but helped by varnish, with little appearance of the pencil. There is a print of him, his wife, Isabella Tosh, and young son, painted by himself, in 1623, engraved by Alexander Jamesone, his descendant, in 1728, and now in the pos- session of Mr. John Alexander, limner at Edinburgh, his great-grandson, with several other portraits of the family, painted by George ; particularly another of himself in his school, with sketches both of history and landscape, and with portraits of Charles I., his queen, Jamesone's wife, and four others of his works from the life. When King Charles visited Scotland, in 1633, the magistrates of Edinburgh, knowing his majesty's taste, employed Jamesone to make drawings of the Scottish mon- archs, with which the king was so much pleased, that inquiring for the painter, he sat to him., and rewarded him with a diamond ring from his own finger.^ It is observable that Jamesone always drew himself ^ His earliest works are cMefly on board, afterwards on a fine linen cloth, smoothly primed with a proper tone to help the harmony of his shadows. His best works were from 1630 to his death. 2 A taste for portrait-painting originated in Scotland during the reigns of James V. and his unfortunate daughter, from the increased intercourse of that nation with France and England. The names of artists previously to Jamesone are not recorded with any certainty. Alexander was his scholar, and who had married his daughter, and may be considered as his successor. Scougal (the elder) was a pupil of Lely, and painted many of the Scottish ladies, in his style. De Witt was engaged by James, Duke of York, to ornament the gallery of Holyrood-house with 119 portraits, of which nineteen were to be whole-lengths. Scougal, jun. was the only painter of merit who practised in Scotland, for many years after the Revolution. Nicholas Hude was employed by the Duke of Queensberry, at Drumlanrigg, and copied Rubens. Sir John Baptist Medina, of Brussels, settled in Scotland and painted many good portraits, in Surgeon's-hall, Edinburgh. Ob. 1702. William Aikman, copied Kneller, with great success. Ob. 1731. Richard Wait, a scholar of the younger Scougal and Kneller, was much encou- raged. Ob. 1732. John Alexander, a lineal descendant from Jamisone, was educated in Italy, and upon his return to Scotland, in 1720, painted several historical pictures at Gordon- castle. He delighted to copy (or invent) portraits of Mary Queen of Scots. Jamisone may be, therefore, justly styled the father and founder of painting iA Scotland.— D. 348 PAINTERS m THE REIGN OF CHARLES 1. with his hat on, either in imitation of his master Rubens, or on having been indulged in that liberty by the king when he sat to him.^ Though most of the considerable families in Scotland are possessed of works by this master, the greatest collec- tion of them is at Tay mouth, the seat of the Earl of Breadalbane ; Sir Colin Campbell of Glenorchy, his lord- ship's ancestor, having been the chief and earliest patron of Jameson e, who had attended that gentleman on his travels. From a MS. on vellum, containing the genealogy of the house of Glenorchy, begun in 1598, are taken the following extracts, written in 1635, page 52 : — ■ " Item, the said Sir Coline Campbell (8th Laird of Glenorchy) gave unto George Jamesone, painter in Edinburgh, for King Robert and King David Bruysses, Kings of Scotland, and Charles 1st King of Great Brittane France and Ireland, and his Majesties Quein, and for nine more of the Queins of Scotland their portraits, quhilks are set up in the hall of Ballock [now Tay- mouth] the sum of tua hundreth thrie scor punds." " Mair the said Sir Coline gave to the said George Jamesone for the Knight of Lockow's Lady, and the first Countess of Argylle, and six of the Ladys of Glenurquay their portraits, and the said Sir Coline his own portrait, quhilks are set up in the Chalmer of Deass of Ballock, an hundred four scoire punds." Memorandum. In the same year, 1635, the said George Jamesone painted a large genealogical tree of the family of Glenorchy, eight feet long and five broad, con- taining in miniature the portraits of Sir Duncan Campbell of Luckow, of Archibald Campbell his eldest son, first Earl of Argyle, and of Sir Coline Campbell his second son, first Laird of Glenorchy, together with the portraits of eight successive knights. Lairds of Glenorchy, with the branches of their intermarriages, and of those of their sons and daughters, beautifully illuminated. At the bottom of which tree the following Avords are painted on a scroll : " The genealogie of the Hous of Glenurquhie, whereof is descendit sundrie nobill and worthie houses, 1635, Jame- son e faciebat.'' Besides the foregoing. Lord Breadalbane has at Tay- mouth, by the same hand, eleven portraits of lords and ^ In this practice Jamisone was, with greater probability, merely an imitator of Annibale Carracci, Guide, Frank Hals, and his master Rubens. The picture here engraved, in which he is so well represented, holding his pallet, with his wife and child, is now at Cullen-house. — D. PAINTERS IN THE EEIGN OF CHARLES I. 349 ladies of the first families in Scotland, painted in 1636 and 1637. From the extract above, it appears that Jamesone re- ceived no more for each of those heads than twenty pounds Scots, or one pound thirteen shillings and four pence Eng- lish. Yet it is proved by their public records that he died possessed of an easy fortune, which he left to his three daughters, two of whom were honourably married. One of them, named Mary, distinguished herself by admirable needlework, a piece of which used to be exhibited on festivals in the Church of St. Nicholas, at Aberdeen. Her descendant, Mr. Thomson, of Portlethen, has an original picture of her father by himself. Three small portraits of the house of Haddington are in the possession of Thomas Hamilton, Esq. of Fala. Many of Jamesone's works are in both colleges of Aber- deen. The Sibyls there, it is said, he drew from living beauties of that city. Mr. Baird of Auchmedden, in Aberdeenshire, has in one piece three young ladies, cousins, of the houses of Argyle, Errol, and Kinnoul : their ages, six, seven, and eight, as marked on the side of the picture. The same gentleman has a small whole-length of William, Earl of Pembroke, by some ascribed to Yandyck. At Mr. Lindsay's of Wormeston, in Fife, is a double half- length of two boys of that family playing with a dog : their ages five and three, 1636. There is a perspective view of Edinburgh by Jamesone, with a Neptune on the foreground. Having finished a fine whole-length of Charles I. he expected the magistrates of Aberdeen would purchase it for their hall, but they offering him too inconsiderable a price, he sold it to a gentleman in the north of England.^ Jamesone had many scholars, particularly Michael Wright, mentioned in the third volume^ of these Anec- dotes. His own portrait is in the Florentine Chamber of Painters. ^ See an account of his other works in Pennant's Tow in Scotland, 8vo, 1772, 2 [Of the original edition. — W.] 350 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. Though Jameson e is little known in England, Iiis char- acter, as well as his works, were greatly esteemed in his own country. Arthur J ohnston, the poet, addressed to him an elegant epigram on the picture of the Marchioness of Huntley, which may be seen in the works of that author printed at Middleburgh in 1642.^ The portrait itself is extant in the collection of the Duke of Gordon : and in the Newton College of Aberdeen is the picture of Dr. Johnson himself by the same hand. A Latin elegy, com- posed by David Wedderburn, was printed on his death, which happened in 1646, at Edinburgh, where he was in- terred in the churchyard of the Gray-friars, but without any monument. By his will, written with his own hand in July 1641, and breathing a spirit of much piety and benevolence, he provides kindly for his wife and children, and leaves many legacies to his relations and friends, particularly to Lord Eothes the king's picture from head to foot, and Mary with Martha in one piece : to William Murray he gives the medals in his coffer, makes a handsome provision for his natural daughter, and bestows liberally on the poor. That he should be in a condition to do all this seems extraordinary, his prices having been so moderate ; for, enumerating the debts due to him, he charges Lady Haddington for a whole-length of her husband, and Lady Seton's of the same dimensions, frames and all, but three hundred marks ; and Lord Maxwell, for his own picture and his lady's, to their knees, one hundred marks both sums of Scots money. Mr. Jamesone^ has likewise a memorandum written and signed by this painter, mentioning a. MS. in his possession, " containing two hundred leaves of parchment of excellent write adorned with diverse historys of our Saviour curiously limned," which he values at 200Z. sterling, a very large sum at that time ! What is become of that curious book is not known.^ 1 Epigrammata Arthuri Johnstoni, Aberdeen, 1632. — D. ^ So the name is now written, not Jamesone. 5 A painter whose portraits nearly equal those of Vandyck, and who, as PAINTERS IN THE EEIGN OF CHARLES I. 351 Jamisone, had acquired the style of the school of Rubens, is omitted by "Walpole. This very eminent artist was JAMES GANDY, Born 1619. Died 1689. Pilkington observes ' ' that the cause of his being so totally unknown was his having been brought into Ireland by the old Duke of Ormond, and retained in his service. And, as Ireland was, at that time, in a very unsettled condition, the merit and memory of this master would have been entirely unnoticed, if some of his performances, which are still extant, had not preserved him from oblivion. There are at this time, in Ireland, many portraits painted by him of noblemen and rich persons, which are very little inferior to Vand5'ck, either for expression, colouring, or dignity of character ; and several of his copies after Vandyck, which were in the Ormond collection at Kilkenny, were sold for original paintings by him." (Page 236, 1st Edition.) He had a son, William Gandy, settled as a painter, at Exeter, of great talent and eccentric genius, who died in poverty. — D. BIJPLETGH HOUSE. END OF VOL I. I, Leicester Sqicare^ London^ October, i88i. ICKERS AND ON'S OF ILLUSTRATED, STANDARD, AND POPULAR All new books or new editions are marked thus * VALUABLE REMALNDERS OF ART GLFT BOOKS AT GREATLY REDUCED PRLCES. 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