Engraved by WBromfy. A.R.A. 
 
 MIS 2HE(D)BiACG51 WAlUecDKJE, 
 
 lOMDON, 
 PuLlisli.;d by John Major. 6 0. fleet Street. 
 
ANECDOTES 
 
 OF 
 
 PAINTING IN ENGLAND; 
 
 WITH SOME 
 
 ACCOUNT OF THE PRINCIPAL ARTISTS; 
 
 AND 
 
 INCIDENTAL NOTES ON OTHER ARTS; 
 
 COLLECTED BY THE LATE 
 
 MR. GEORGE VERTUE; 
 
 DIGESTED AND PUBLISHED FROM HIS ORIGINAL MSS. 
 
 BY 
 
 THE HONOURABLE HORACE WALPOLE; 
 
 WITH CONSIDERABLE ADDITIONS 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. JAMES DALLAWAY. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED AT THE SHAKSPEARE PRESS, BY W. NICOL, FOR 
 
 JOHN MAJOR, FLEET-STREET. 
 MDCCCXXVI. 
 

 Digitized by 
 
 the Internet Archive 
 
 
 
 
 in 2014 
 
 
 
 https://archive.org/details/anecdotesofpaint01walp_0 
 
V 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 TO 
 
 THE PRESENT EDITION. 
 
 The Proprietor of this edition, in offering it to 
 the 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 Mr. 
 Walpole procured to be engraven 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. 
 
 Neither care nor expense have 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 em- 
 bellish, and of the best modern artists, who have 
 been engaged for that purpose. 
 
 Mr. Walpole designated his volumes 66 Anec- 
 dotes of Painting in England " but found that he 
 could not treat of the sister arts incidentally, as 
 he had intended, with complete satisfaction. It 
 has been my endeavour to fill up his outline more 
 methodically, and to expand his information, 
 where he has been concise, upon a presumption 
 
 vol. i. a 
 
•■vi 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 that his readers possessed a range of knowledge 
 which equalled his own. I have therefore 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 
 seras, 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 pos- 
 sible. 
 
 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 discernment would 
 be prompt to detect, I have studiously abstained 
 from giving a peremptory or decisive opinion, if 
 not depending on fact, concerning the ambiguous 
 originality of any particular portrait, excepting 
 where I have followed a judgment, much abler 
 than my own. The additions will be rather Anec- 
 dotes of Portraits, than of those by whom they 
 were painted. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. vii 
 
 A certain risque may be incurred, of fatiguing 
 such of my readers who little value minuteness of 
 inquiry, and have no taste for catalogues, how- 
 ever elucidated. I must nevertheless consider 
 them as a part of Mr. Walpole's plan, and neces- 
 sarily expletive of this work. There is, in fact, no 
 method so satisfactory of ascertaining the excel- 
 lence 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 most to the purpose, accessible. I 
 consider myself as having been much favoured in 
 that respect, and beg to express my particular 
 obligation, as it may be due. 
 
 Mr. Park, the excellent editor of the Royal and 
 Noble Authors, (a part of whose plan I have 
 followed, as inclosing additions within double 
 brackets), has very truly observed, that Mr. Wal- 
 pole 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 Gray, 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 
 
viii 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 then added, nothing has been altered or omitted. 
 But it was very inconsiderable. In Italy, Flan- 
 ders, 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 early writers were embodied by Mr. Walpole. 
 
 The plan was his own, and the intelligence gra- 
 tuitously given. Whatever was known on these 
 subjects, was confined to the memoranda of a very 
 few virtuosi and antiquaries, before his first vo- 
 lume appeared, at the commencement of the last 
 reign. By him, the prospect was first 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 
 Mr. Walpole. 
 
 JAMES DALLAWAY. 
 
 Herald's College, 
 London, 1826. 
 
ix 
 
 TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 MARY LEPEL, 
 
 BARONESS DOWAGER HERVEY 
 
 OF ICKWORTH. 
 
 Madam, 
 
 I shall only say in excuse for offering this 
 work to your Ladyship, that if I could write 
 any thing 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 ap- 
 pearing 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 any thing that can amuse one or two 
 
X 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 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, I shall think his life was 
 well employed ; I am sure my time will have 
 been so, if I have made him tolerable com- 
 pany 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, 
 
 HORACE WALPOLE. 
 
xi 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Wh e n one offers to the public the labours of 
 another person, it is allowable and precedented to 
 expatiate in praise of the work. Of this indul- 
 gence however I shall not make advantage. The 
 industry of Mr. Vertue 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 monarch s 
 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 painting has been 
 carried to an amazing degree of perfection, the 
 lives of the painters have been written in number- 
 less volumes, alone sufficient to compose a little 
 library. Every picture of every considerable 
 master is minutely described. Those biographers 
 treat of the works of Raphael and Correggio with 
 as much importance as commentators speak of 
 Horace or Virgil ; and indulging themselves in 
 the inflated style of their language, they talk of 
 
xii 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 pictures as works almost of a divinity, while at 
 the same time they lament them as perishing be- 
 fore their eyes. France, neither possessed of such 
 masters, nor so hyperbolic in their diction, con- 
 trives however to supply by vanity what is want- 
 ing in either. Poussin is their miracle of genius ; 
 Le Brun would dispute precedence with half the 
 Roman school. A whole volume is written even 
 on the life and works of Mignard. Voltaire, who 
 understands almost every thing, and who does not 
 suspect that judgment in painting is one of his 
 deficiences, speaks ridiculously in commendation 
 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 rea- 
 der against a work, the chief business of which 
 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. Vertue 
 left nothing unexplored that could illuminate his 
 subject, and collaterally led him to many particu- 
 
PREFACE. Xiii 
 
 larities 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 cor- 
 responded with most of the virtuosi in England : 
 he was personally acquainted with the oldest per- 
 formers in the science: he minuted down every 
 thing he heard from them. He visited every col- 
 lection, made catalogues 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 coun- 
 tries which related to his subject. He wrote down 
 every thing he heard, saw, or read. His collections 
 amounted to neai 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 
 1757. These MSS. I bought of his widow after 
 his decease ; and it will perhaps surprize the reader 
 to find how near a compleat work is offered to 
 him, though the research was commenced at so 
 late a period : I call it commenced ; what little 
 
xiv 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 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 cata- 
 logues 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 
 compleated by these volumes. 
 
 The compiler had made several draughts of a 
 beginning, and several lives he had written out, 
 but with no order, no connection, no accuracy ; 
 nor was his style clear or correct enough to be 
 offered to the reader in that unpolished form. I 
 have been obliged to compose a-new 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 laid in confusion, 
 to collect the articles I wanted; and for the 
 second and third parts, containing between three 
 and four hundred names, I was reduced to com- 
 pose an index myself to the forty volumes. One 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XV 
 
 satisfaction the reader will have, in the integrity 
 of Mr. Vertue — it exceeded his industry, — which 
 is saying- much. No man living, so bigotted 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 re- 
 searches ; 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 
 quaere against whatever was told him of suspi- 
 cious aspect ; and never gave credit to it 'till he 
 received the fullest satisfaction. Thus whatever 
 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 compilers stores, I have generally taken 
 care to quote as religiously the source of my in- 
 telligence. 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 des- 
 pair 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. Vertue, I believe, and 
 I should be glad to have the continuation of the 
 
xvi 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 work do greater honour to our country. It would 
 be difficult perhaps to assign a physical reason, 
 why a nation that produced Shakespear, should 
 owe its glory in another walk of genius to Holbein 
 and Vandyck. It cannot be imputed to want of 
 protection: 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 employ- 
 ing 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 want- 
 ing 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 ground to hope that a new aera is receiv- 
 ing its date. Genius is countenanced, and emula- 
 tion will follow. Nor is it a bad indication 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 pro- 
 duced by wealth and happiness. The conveniences, 
 the decorations of life are not studied in Siberia, 
 or under a Nero. If severe morality would at any 
 time expect to establish a thorough reformation, 
 I fear it must chuse inhospitable climates, and 
 abolish all latitude from the laws. A corporation 
 of merchants would never have kept their oaths 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 xvii 
 
 to Lycurgus of observing his statutes 'till he re- 
 turned. A good government, that indulges its 
 subjects in the exercise of their own thoughts, will 
 see a thousand inventions springing up, refine- 
 ments will follow, and much pleasure and satis- 
 faction will be produced at least before that excess 
 arrives, which is so justly said to be the fore- 
 runner 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 Roman 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 Pres- 
 byterians 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. All I meaned 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 
 
xviii 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 to mischiefs. 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 neg- 
 lect even the elegancies of life : Arts that are inno- 
 cent in themselves, 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 devo- 
 tion. I question if Raphael 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 appen- 
 dix to idolatry ; for the people must be taught to 
 believe in false gods and in the power of saints^ 
 
PREFACE. Xix 
 
 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 see- 
 ing 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 without danger of displeas- 
 ing by the very attempt. 
 
 At this epoch of common sense, one may rea- 
 sonably expect to see the arts flourish to as proud 
 a height as they attained at Athens, Rome, or 
 Florence. Painting has hitherto made but faint 
 
 * 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 'OjU,oou<nof 
 co-essentialis ; or 6fAoio6<no$ similis essentiae. 
 
XX 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 efforts in England. Our eloquence and the glory 
 of our arms have been carried to the highest 
 pitch. The more peaceful arts have in other 
 countries generally attended national glory. If 
 there are any talents among us, this seems the 
 crisis for their appearance : The Throne itself is 
 now the altar of the Graces, and whoever sacri- 
 fices 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 
 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 ar- 
 tists we have, but to inspire with emulation those 
 arising. Rysbrack, Roubiliac, Scheemaker, Wil- 
 ton, would do honour to any country : but hitherto 
 their skill has been in a manner confined to pri- 
 vate monuments. When we have subjects for 
 history, the people should read on public edifices 
 the actions of their ancestors and fellow-citizens 
 in basreliefs: Busts and statues should reward 
 the galant behaviour of the brave, and exhibit 
 
 * The Duke of Richmond. 
 
 [Charles, third Duke of Richmond, who died in ] S06. Of 
 this institution in 1770, an account is given by Edwards, in 
 his Introduction to the Anecdotes of Painters, 4to. 1808. It 
 continued for a very few years.] 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 xxi 
 
 them as models. What made Rome more vene- 
 rable than every street being an illustration of 
 Livy ? Painting has been circumscribed within as 
 selfish bounds as statuary; historic compositions 
 totally neglected. Reynolds and Ramsay 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 com- 
 mand of a Louis quatorze, or at the expence of a 
 cardinal nephew, but undertaken by private curio- 
 sity 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 descrip- 
 tions-^ 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 
 
 * On Civil Architecture, folio, 1759. 
 t By Mr. Wood. 
 VOL. I. " b 
 
xxii 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 elegant stile. The pomp of the buildings has not 
 a nobler air than the simplicity of the narration — 
 but I must restrain myself ; tho' it is pleasing to 
 expatiate on the just praise of one's country ; and 
 they who cannot perform 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 he could 
 have lived to write the panegyric of Trajan. 
 
 1762. 
 
LIST OF PLATES TO VOL. I. 
 
 The Hon. Horace Walpole, facing the title page, 
 
 Henry V. his Queen and Family, . .59 
 
 Marriage of Henry Vlth. . 62 
 
 John Mabuse, . . . 87 
 
 Marriage of Henry VHth, . . 94 
 
 Hans Holbein, . . . . .114 
 
 Sir Antonio More, . . . 235 
 
 Joas Van Cleeve, . . 243 
 
 Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devonshire, . . 245 
 
 Cornelius Ketel, ... . 264 
 
 F. Zuccaro, and M. Garrard, . . 269 
 
 Nicholas Hilliard, ... 285 
 
 Isaac Oliver, . . . . 292 
 
 Sir Nathaniel Bacon, . . . .313 
 
 ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD. 
 
 Arms and Quarterings of the Author, 
 
 following the title page. 
 
 View of Thornbury Castle, Gloucestershire, . 191 
 
 View of Wollerton Manor House, Norfolk, . 22? 
 
 Portrait of Henry Cornelius Vroom, . . 2JS 
 
 View of Burleigh House, Lincolnshire, . . 336 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page 12, line 33, for 1751, read 1781. 
 
 Page 57, line 14, for Bingham, razrfBrigham. 
 
 Page 75, line 9, for St. Albans, read Gloucester. 
 
CONTENTS 
 OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 The earliest Accounts of Painting in England. - page 1 
 
 CHAPTER IT. 
 State of Painting from the Reign of Henry III. to the 
 
 End of Henry VI. 40 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Continuation of the State of Painting to the end of 
 
 Henry VII. - - - - - 81 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Painters in the Reign of Henry VIII. - - 99 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 State of Architecture to the End of the Reign of 
 
 Henry VIII. 191 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 State of Painting under Edward VI. and Mary. - 228 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Painters in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. - 251 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 
 No. I. Account of John Thorpe, Architect. - 329 
 II. King Henry the Eighth's Collection of Pic- 
 tures at Westminster. - - - 337 
 
ANECDOTES 
 
 OF 
 
 PAINTING, fyc. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The earliest Accounts of Painting in England. 
 
 They who undertake to write the History of any 
 art, are fond of carrying it's origine as far back as 
 possible. When this tends to show the improve- 
 ments made in it, by comparing 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 
 dawnings of an art more than it's 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 
 
 VOL. I. B 
 
2 
 
 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF 
 
 pains to prove that painting existed in England* 
 before the restoration of it in Italy by Cimabue. 
 If what we possessed of it in those ignorant times 
 could be called painting, I suppose Italy and every 
 nation in Europe retained enough of the deformity 
 of the art to contest with us in point of antiquity. 
 That we had gone backwards in the science far- 
 ther 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 bad- 
 ness of drawing approaches to antiquity of igno- 
 rance, we may lay in our claim to very ancient 
 possession. As Italy has so long excelled us in 
 the refinement of the art, she may leave us the 
 enjoyment of original imperfection. 
 
 However, as Mr. Vertues partiality flowed from 
 love of his country, and as this is designed for a 
 work of curiosity, not of speculation and reason- 
 
 * [This question, as to the priority of the Invention of Paint- 
 ing in Oil, would require a dissertation, rather than a note. 
 That oil was used in the early ages, as a vehicle of colour, 
 when applied to the " lambrusca" or wainscot of wood in prin- 
 cipal apartments, admits of no doubt 5 as the Queen's chamber 
 in the palace of Westminster was so decorated, by a royal 
 order, dated in 1234, " pro olio, vernice et coloribus emptis." 
 This is, indeed, the only document among the twenty one 
 extracts from the Pipe and Close Rolls, during the reign of 
 Henry III. made by Vertue, and printed in the subsequent 
 pages, which has an unequivocal and determinate reference to 
 the invention of painting in oil, and is so considered by Mr. 
 Raspe, <c On the Discovery of Oil- Painting."'] 
 
PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 3 
 
 ing, I shall faithfully lay before the reader such 
 materials as that laborious 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 follow- 
 ing entries 
 
 * 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. 
 
 t 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 colori- 
 bus effingendo peritum. Is libros scriptos, sacramentarium et 
 psalterium, quorum principales litteras auro effigiaverit, puero 
 Wolstano delegandos curavit. Ille preciosorum apicum captus 
 miraculo, dum pulchritudinem intentis oculis rimatur, scien- 
 tiam litterarum internis hausit medullis. Verum doctor ad 
 saeculi spectans commodum, spe majoris premii, sacramenta- 
 rium regi, tunc temporis Cnutoni, psalterium Emmae reginae 
 contribuit. Perculit puerilem animum facti dispendium, et ex 
 imo pectore altatraxit suspiria." If this passage is not suffi- 
 cient 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 MSS. 
 
 t There are two records more ancient than rny that fol- 
 low j 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 : 
 
4 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF 
 
 • 
 
 " MCCXXVIII, Ao. 12. Hen. III. m. f. Rex thes. et 
 " earner, suis salutem. Liberate cuidam pictori 20s. ad 
 u cameram magni scaccarii depingendam." 
 
 " 1228, the 12th year of Henry III. The king to his 
 " treasurer and chamberlains health. Pay to a certain 
 " painter 20 shillings for painting the great Exchequer 
 " chamber." 
 
 This does not express the kind; whether the 
 chamber was to be painted with figures, orna- 
 ments, &c. or whether the quidam pictor was 
 not a mere house-painter ; probably 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. III. m. 6. 
 u Mandatum est Vicecomiti Southton. quod cameram regis 
 " *lambruscatam de Castro Winton. depingi faciat eisdem 
 " kistoriis et picturis quibus fuerat prius depicta f Et cus- 
 " turn, &c. computabitur. Teste rege apud Kideministr. 
 " iii die Junii." 
 
 " 1233. Payments Anno 17. Hen. III. membrane 6. 
 Precept to the Sheriff of Southampton, that he shall cause 
 
 " Anno, 1209, Vicecomites Lond. et Midi, allocaverunt 
 " Elyae ingeniatori x marcas, ad reparationem domorum regis 
 " apud Westmonast. per breve H. Archiep. Cantuar. ,> 
 
 Anno, 1210, Willelmus Puintellus redd. comp. de 1216Z. 13*. 
 6d. quos " recepitde thesauroad operationes turris Londoniae." 
 
 William Puintell might be only a surveyor, but Elyas was 
 certainly an architect. 
 
 * Lambruscatam, wainscotted, from the French, Lambris. 
 
 f [The wainscotted or plastered walls were most commonly 
 worked in distemper (alia tempera), or with varnishes made of 
 gluten or albumen of eggs. These were usually in simple 
 
PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 5 
 
 <c 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." 
 
 There are more remarkable circumstances than 
 one in this venerable scrap : as, the simplicity of 
 the times ; the king sending a precept to the she- 
 riff 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.* 
 
 " Liberate Ao. 17* Hen. III. m. 10. Mandatum est cus- 
 " todi domorum regis de Wudestok, quod in rotunda capella 
 " regis de Wudestok bonis coloribus depingi faciat, majes- 
 " tatem domini et iiii Evangelistas, et imaginem sancti Ed- 
 " mundi ex una parte, et imaginem sancti Edwardi ex alia 
 " parte, et ib fieri faciat duasj- verimas novas.'" 
 
 colours (viridi colore depingi faciat) . Portraits of Saints were then 
 attempted, and, soon afterward., whole histories (depingi faciat 
 historiam Antiochue) — but in the embellishment of manuscripts, 
 miniature illuminations preceded, which were in the same style 
 of drawing and design, but upon an enlarged scale.] 
 
 * Some have ascribed the introduction of painting into this 
 island to venerable Bede. 
 
 t Verimas, a barbarous word, not to be found even in Du- 
 fresne's glossary. One cannot help observing the absurdity of 
 
6 
 
 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF 
 
 " Payments, 17 Henry HI. m. 10. Order to the keeper 
 "of the King's palace at Woodstock, that he cause the 
 " round chapel there to be painted with the 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." 
 
 " Rot. Claus. 20. Hen. III. m. 12. Mandatum estthesau- 
 " rario regis, quod magnam cameram regis apud Westm. 
 " bono viridi colore depingi faciat ad modum curtanae et in 
 " magno gabulo* ejusdem eamerae juxta hostium (ostium) 
 6( depingi ludum ilium 
 
 f " Ke ne dune ke ne tine, ne pret ke desire 5" 
 * et etiam parvam garderobam regis viridi colore ad modum 
 (( curtanae depingi faciat : ita quod rex in primo adventu 
 " suo illuc inveniat predictas cameram et garderobam ita 
 " depictas et ornatas, sicut predictum est. 
 
 " Close lioll, 20 Hen. III. m. 12. Order to the king's 
 " treasurer, that he cause the king's great chamber, at West- 
 6t minster, to be painted with a good green colour, so as to 
 6C resemble a curtain, and in the great window of the said 
 " chamber, this motto to be painted. 
 
 those times, in couching orders in a language which they could 
 Sot write, and addressed to persons by whom it was not under- 
 stood. 
 
 [The age was not quite so absurd as Mr. W. would insinuate. 
 The word " verimas" is not barbarous only, but unknown. The 
 transcriber from the Close Rolls was not aware, that the word 
 is really venestras or fenestras" by which no one will be puz- 
 zled.] 
 
 * [" In magno gabulo," the great west window above the 
 entrance.] 
 
 t Qui ne donne ce qu'il tient, ne prend ce qu'il desire : or, 
 as it is expressed in another record, Qui non dat quod habet, 
 non accipit ille quod optat. 
 
PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 7 
 
 *' He who gives not what he has, receives not what he wishes 
 "for," 
 
 " and likewise, the king's small wardrobe, with green like a 
 < 6 curtain ; and that the king, on his first coming there, may 
 " find the said chamber and wardrobe so painted, as before 
 " said. 
 
 " Rot. Claus. Ao. 20. Hen. III. m. 12. Mandatum est H. 
 " de Pateshull thesaurario domini regis, quod borduram a 
 " tergo sedis regis in capella sancti Stephani apud Westm. 
 <( et borduram a tergo sedis reginae ex alia parte ejusdem 
 " capellae interius et exterius depingi faciat de viridi colore : 
 " juxta sedemipsius reginae depingi faciat quandam crucem 
 " cum Maria et Johanne ex opposito crucis regis, quae 
 "juxta sedem regis depicta est. T. vii die Febr." 
 
 " Close Rolls, 20 Hen. III. m. 12. Order to Henry de 
 " Pateshull, 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 
 (i seat, in the other 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 April.' , 
 
 The next record, which 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 
 
8 
 
 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF 
 
 be painted behind the altar, bene et bonis colon- 
 bus ; and where ever it could be done most con- 
 veniently, 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 facialis," adds the record, " totum veterem 
 " murum circa sepedictam turrim nostram. Et custum 
 (C quod ad hoc posueritis, per visum et testimonium lega- 
 " lium hominum, computabitur vobis ad scaccarium. Teste 
 " rege apud Windesor. x. die Decembr.'" 
 
 " 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 lawful men. At Windsor, 
 « 10 Dec." 
 
 It is evident from this and some following pas- 
 sages 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 salutem. Praecipimus vobis quod cancel- 
 " lum beatae Mariae in ecclesia sancti Petri infra ballium 
 
 * In Aubrey's MS. survey of Wiltshire, in the library of the 
 Royal Society, he says, 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 Buckingham- 
 shire, which are 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- 
 Lysonss Magn. Brit. vol. i. p. 488.] 
 
PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 9 
 
 " turris nostrae London, et cancellum beati Petri in eadem 
 « ecclesia, et ab introitu cancelli beati Petri usque ad spa- 
 " tium quatuor pedum ultra stallos ad opus nostrum et regi- 
 " nae nostrae in eadem ecclesia factos bene et decenter lam- 
 " bruscari faciatis, et eosdem stallos depingi, et Mariolam 
 cum suo tabernaculo et ymagines beatorum Petri, Nicolai 
 44 et Katerinae, et trabem ultra altare beati Petri, et parvum 
 44 patibulum cum suis ymaginibus de novo colorari, et bonis 
 " coloribus refrescari, et fieri faciatis quandam ymaginem de 
 « beato Petro in solempni apparatu archiepiscopali in parte 
 u boreali ultra dictum altare, et de optimis coloribus depingi ; 
 " et quandam ymaginem de sancto Christofero tenentum et 
 " portantem Jesum, ubi melius et decentius fieri potest, et 
 44 depingi in praedicta ecclesia. Et fieri faciatis duas tabulas 
 44 pulcras et de optimis coloribus et de historiis beatorum 
 w Nicolai et Katerinae depingi ante altaria dictorum sancto- 
 44 rum in eadem ecclesia ; et duos cherumbinos stantes a 
 44 dextris et a sinistris magni patibuli pulcros fieri faciatis in 
 " praedicta ecclesia cum hilari vultu et jocoso ; et praeterea 
 44 unum fontem marmoreum cum colompnis marmoreis bene 
 " et decenter incisis. Et custum, &c. Teste ut supra." 
 
 44 The King to the same, &c. We order that you have the 
 44 chancel of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Church of St. 
 " Peter, in the baily of our Tower of London, and the 
 ft chancel of St. Peter, within the said church, to be well 
 44 and properly wainscotted for the space of four feet beyond 
 44 the stalls, erected for the use of ourself and queen, and 
 44 that the said stalls be painted with a small figure of the 
 44 V. Mary, standing in her shrine (or niche) ; the figures of 
 " the Saints Peter, Nicholas and Catherine, the beam 
 44 beyond the altar of St. Peter, and the small crucifix with 
 " its figures, to be painted anew with fresh colours. And 
 " that ye cause to be made an image of St. Peter, in his 
 44 pontificals as an Archbishop, on the north side beyond the 
 44 said altar, and the same to be painted with the best 
 "'colours : and also an image of St. Christopher holding and 
 
10 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF 
 
 u carrying Christ, in the best manner that it can be painted 
 " and finished in the said chapel. And that ye likewise 
 €t cause two fair pictures to be painted with the best colours, 
 <c of the histories of St. Nicholas and Catherine, at the altar 
 " of the said saints, in the said church ; with two fair cheru- 
 " bims standing to the right and left of the crucifix ; and 
 " having a cheerful countenance ; and also a marble font 
 " having pillars of marble neatly carved. And the cost, &c. 
 " dated as above. 
 
 The next again specifies the sum to be expended 
 on paintings at Westminster : 
 
 " Rot. Liberat. Ao. 21. Hen. III. m. 5. Rex thesaurario 
 " et camerariis suis salutem. Liberate de thesauro nostro 
 " Odoni aurifabro custodi operationis nostrae Westm. qua- 
 cc tuor libras et undecim solidos ad picturas faciendas in 
 " camera nostra ibidem. Teste rege apud Westm. ii. die 
 " Augusti." 
 
 " Roll of Liveries, 21. Hen. III. m. 5. The king to his 
 " Treasurer and Chamberlains, &c. Pay from our treasury 
 " to Odo, the goldsmith, keeper of our works at Westmin- 
 " ster, four pounds and eleven shillings, for making the 
 " pictures (statues) in our chamber there. Witness, &c. 
 " 2d. August." 
 
 The next contains the first mention we have of 
 a star chamber. 
 
 " Liberat. Ao. 22. Hen. III. m. 3. Mandatum est vie. 
 " Southampt. quod cameram apud Winton colorari faciat 
 " viridi colore, et stellari auro,* in quibus depingantur his- 
 " toriae veteris et novi testamenti." 
 
 * [ ff Stellari auro, set with 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 Bri- 
 tish Museum.] 
 
PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 11 
 
 " The same, 22d. Henry III. 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 
 
 The next precept is very remarkable, as imply- 
 ing the use of oil-colours^ long before that me- 
 
 * 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 men- 
 tioned, and the former might indeed be only used in the com- 
 position of the latter. Mr. Raspe, in his curious treatise pub- 
 lished in 1781, has proved that oil-painting was known long 
 before its pretended discovery by Van Eyck. 
 
 [And Governor Pownal in the 9th vol. of the Archaeologia, 
 pp. 152-54, has produced from the sacristy of Ely some ac- 
 counts that are as explicit as possible, that oil was used in the 
 mixture of colours. The first says, "In tres lagenis et dimid: 
 olei pro ymaginibus super columnas depingend.' The next, 
 In 31 lagenis et dimid: olei empt. pro color, temperand. (for 
 mixing colours which is distinguishing it from varnish). And 
 the third, In oleo empt. pro pictura facienda in capella. Could 
 oil-painting be more exactly described at this day ? 
 
 1. Oil for painting images on columns, 1325. 
 
 2. Oil for mixing colours. 
 
 3. Oil for making pictures in the chapel. 
 
 Note too, that the first is dated in the reign of Edward the 
 Second, the last in that of Edward the Fourth. 
 
 [Vertue's honest zeal for the credit of the inventive genius of 
 his own country, triumphs over the exclusive pretensions of 
 others, or the sole claim of the two brothers Hubert and John 
 ab Eyck of Bruges (1366 — 1441. Vasari and Lanzi), as far as 
 that point, abstractedly considered. Their pretensions were 
 first questioned by Albertus Mirseus, in his Chronicon Belgicum 
 1410 j who mentions that more ancient paintings, in oil, were 
 extant in the Netherlands. The assumptions, indeed, of the 
 
12 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF 
 
 thod is supposed to have been discovered. It is 
 dated in his 23d year, 1239, and runs in these 
 words ; 
 
 schools of Florence or Naples may be supported by authorities 
 which convey as much satisfaction. According to Malvasia 
 there was a Madonna by Lippo Dalmasio, bearing a date 1376, 
 in which oil was used as a vehicle, and not, as practised by 
 the earlier Greek artists, either common size, the clarified 
 white of eggs, or resinous gum. (Felsina Pittrice, torn. i. p. 28. 
 Cimabue (1240-1300) is considered by Vasari and Lanzi, as 
 having first practically understood the use of oil in painting, 
 but the earlier competitors for that fame are Guido da Sienna 
 (in 1221,) concerning whom, both Vasari and Baldinueci are 
 silent, and Lanzi doubts - } and Margheritone of Arezzo, in 
 1260. Their performances are still extant, and are enumerated 
 in catalogues. Lessing (sur Vanciennete' de la peinture a 
 Vhuile, 1774), contests the merit of the invention as belonging 
 solely to John ab Eyk, with Vasari, anterior to whom, no 
 Flemish or Dutch historian of painting had arrogated the 
 honour for their own country. Antonello da Messina, 1449- 
 1496) is said to have acquired the secret in Flanders, and to 
 have revealed it to Giovanni Bellini (1422-1512) who was esta- 
 blished at Venice. According to Baldinueci (Dec. III. Sec. v.) 
 the secret of the practice in oil was taught to Andrea da Ca- 
 stagna of Florence by Dominico da Venezia, a similar circum- 
 stance attributed to different individual painters. This subject 
 is slightly investigated in Roscoes Life of Lorenzo de Medicis, 
 8vo. v. ii. ch. 9. Vasari gave the invention to the Van Eycks 
 implicitly, and Van Mander has copied and amplified his first 
 report. The question, as far as mere priority of invention, 
 appears to have been completely set at rest by the late inge- 
 nious Mr. Raspe, who annexed to his Critical Essay on oil- 
 painting, (4to. 1751) two MSS. both of early monkish anti- 
 quity, and then first printed, — Theophilus Monachus de omni 
 scientia artis pingendi a Codice MS. Coll. Trin. Cantab, j and 
 Eraclius de coloribus et artibus Romanorum. The merit of 
 the Van Eycks was, not, that they invented the use of oil 
 
PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 13 
 
 * Rex thesaurario et camerariis suis salutem. Liberate 
 " de thesauro nostro Odoni aurifabro et Edwardo filio suo 
 f centem et septemdecem solidos et decern denarios^?ro oleo 
 " vernici, et coloribus emptis, et picturis factis in camera 
 " reginae nostrae apud Westm. ab octavis sanctae trinitatis 
 " anno regni nostri xxiii usque ad festum sancti Barnabe 
 " apostoli eodem anno, scilicet per xv dies " 
 
 " Close Rolls, 23d. Henry III. The King to his trea- 
 H surer 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 Saint Barnabas (June 1 1th) in the same year, 
 " namely for fifteen days. 
 
 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 have taken 
 notice. 
 
 The two following precepts are so connected 
 with the foregoing, that though relating 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 ca- 
 " riari usque Westmon. 100 navatas grisiae petrae ad ope- 
 " rationes quas ibi sine dilatione fieri rex praecepit ; et ta- 
 
 colours, but, that by a more scientific application of them they 
 have greatly improved upon a very imperfect manner, and a 
 very tedious process j and have therefore an incontestible 
 claim to a practice of the art, which Leonardo da Vinci, Raf- 
 faelle, Titian and Rubens, brought to an ultimate perfection.] 
 
14 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF 
 
 " lem et tarn festinantem diligentiam ad hoc mandatum 
 " regis exequendum ponat, quod se inde rex commendare 
 " debeat ; et ne W. de Haverhull thesaurius et Edwardus, 
 " quibus operationes praedictas rex injunxit faciendas, cul- 
 " pam dilationis in se refundere possint, si praedictae opera- 
 " tiones contra voluntatem regis differantur." 
 
 " 23, Henry III. Precept to the Sheriff of Kent, that 
 " with all possible speed, he cause to be purchased and con- 
 " veyed to Westminster, one hundred barge loads of grey 
 " stone, for the works which the king has ordered to be 
 " done there, and that he use such speed and diligence, that 
 " the king should commend him for the same ; so that nei- 
 " ther 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." 
 
 " Rex dedit et concessit Deo et beato Edwardo et eccle- 
 " siae Westmonasterii ad fabricam ipsius ecclesias 2591 
 " libras, 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 consti- 
 " tuit apud Westmonasterium, archidiacono Westmonas- 
 " terii, et Edwardo de Westminstre, quos ejusdem scaccarii 
 " thesaurarios assignavit. Teste rege apud Windsore."" 
 
 " The King gave and granted to God and St. Edward, 
 c< and the church, at Westminster, towards the building of 
 " the said church, 25911. 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 pur- 
 " pose, 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. Wit- 
 " ness, &c." 
 
 The miserable Latin of these orders is not the 
 most curious part of them. The hundred barge 
 
PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 15 
 
 loads of grey stone to be purchased by the sheriff 
 of Kent might be either from a Kentish quarry, 
 or to 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 be- 
 stows on his new edifice, are very observable. 
 But the most memorable is the origine of the 
 Exchequer, which seems by this precept to have 
 been instituted solely for the carrying on the new 
 building at Westminster. 
 The next is in the year 1248. 
 
 " Rex vicecomiti Southamtoniae salutem. Praecipimus 
 " tibi quod de exitibus comitatus tui depingi facias in capella 
 " reginae nostrae apud Wintoniam super gabulum versus 
 66 occidentem ymaginera sancti Christoferi, sicut alibi depin- 
 " gitur ; in ulnis suis deferat Christum ; et ymaginem 
 " bead Edwardi regis, qualiter tradidit annulum suum cui- 
 " dam peregrino, cujus ymago similiter depingatur. Teste 
 " rege apud Windesore vii die Maii." 
 
 " A. D. 1248. The King to the Sheriff of Southampton. 
 " We enjoin you, that out of the receipts of your county, 
 " you cause to be painted, in the chapel of our 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 Winton, 7th 
 " May." 
 
 Another: 
 
 " Rex custodi manerii de Wudestoke praecepit, ut inter 
 " alia fieri faciat duas fenestras de albo vitro, et fenestram 
 " aulae versus orientem, similiter cum pictura ejus aulae 
 " emendari faciat. Quoddam etiam scaccarium fieri faciat 
 " in eadem aula, quod contineat hunc versum, qui non dat 
 " quod habet, non accipit ille quod optat," 
 
16 
 
 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF 
 
 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 
 u 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 checquered table, upon which shall be 
 " painted this verse." u He who gives, &c." 
 
 " Claus. 33. Hen. III. m. 3. Rex injunxit magistro 
 u Johanni de sancto Omero quod garderobam camerae regis 
 " apud Westm. perpingi faceret sicut pictura illius garde- 
 " robae inchoatur, et quod faceret unum lectrinum ponen- 
 " dum in novo capitulo Westm. ad similitudinem illius 
 " quod est in capitulo sancti Albani, vel decentius et pul- 
 " crius, si fieri poterit ; et ad haec facienda colores et maere- 
 " mium et necessarias liberationes usque ad adventum regis 
 " London, ei inveniri faceret. Et custum ad haec opposi- 
 " turn, cum rex illud sciverit, reddi faciet. Et mandatum 
 u est abbati Westm. Edwardo filio Odonis, et Philippo 
 " Luvel, quod liberationes et alia necessaria supra inveniri 
 " fac. Teste rege apud Windesore. xxiii die Septembr.'" 
 
 "Close Rolls, 33d of Henry III. 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. Albans ; or more 
 " handsome and fair, if it can be so made ; and that he pro- 
 " vide for this work, colours and timber and other necessa- 
 " ries, 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 Lovel, that they shall find 
 " these deliveries and other necessaries. Witness, &c. at 
 " Windsor, 23d September. 
 
 In Henry s 34th year Edward of Westminster 
 
PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 17 
 
 is ordered to have painted in the chapel of St. 
 Stephen the images of the apostles round about 
 the said chapel, by the following precept : 
 
 " Claus. 54. Hen. III. m. 7. Mandatum est Edwardo* 
 " de Westm. quod in capella beati Stephani depingi faciat 
 " imagines Apostolorum in circuitu ejusdem 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." 
 
 " Close Rolls, 34. Henry III. Precept to Edward of 
 
 * This Edward of Westminster is the same person with 
 Edward Fitz-Odo mentioned in the preceding order, and I sup- 
 pose 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 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 j and the king caused the 
 aforesaid Edward Fitz-Odo, keeper of his works at Westmin- 
 ster, 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. 
 
 [Ralph de Neville, Bishop of Chichester, who had been Lord 
 Chancellor of England, ob. 1244.] 
 
 f Duchesne, Antiq. Franc, vol. i. p. 145, says the Louvre was so 
 called from l'oeuvre, the new work. 
 VOL. I. C 
 
18 
 
 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF 
 
 " Westminster, that in the Chapel of St. Stephen he shall 
 " have painted, around the walls, the figures of the Apos- 
 " ties, and the Day of Judgment in the western part of the 
 " same, and that he shall cause the figure of the Blessed 
 u yi r g m 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 Bridge water, 13th August. 
 
 The next, dated in the same year, exhibits a 
 donation of three oaks for making images. 
 
 K Claus. 34. Hen. III. m. 7- Mandatum est custodi parci 
 " regis de Periton quod in eodem parco faciat habere sa- 
 " cristae Glaston. tres quercus ad imagines inde faciendas et 
 " ponendas in ecclesia sua Glaston. de dono regis. Teste 
 " rege apud Glaston. xv die Augusti. ,, 
 
 u 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 Glas- 
 " tonbury, as of the royal gift. Witness, &c. at Glaston- 
 " bury, 15th August." 
 
 The following is not less curious : 
 
 " Claus. 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 ydiomate scriptum, in quo continentur 
 
 * 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 douhter of Province, the fairest may o lif,f 
 Her name is Helianore, of gentille norture, 
 Bizond the se that wore was non suilk creature. 
 
 t " may o lif/' — tc maid alive." Hearne's Glossary. 
 
PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 19 
 
 " gesta regis Antiochiae et regum, aliorum, &c* Teste rege 
 " apud Westm. xvii die Maii." 
 
 " 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 aid of 
 " the Queen, a certain great book, which 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 
 V kings. Witness at Westminster, 17th May." 
 
 The two next specify the use that was to be 
 made of the above-mentioned book, which, I con- 
 clude, 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, J and which room his majesty orders 
 to be thenceforward called the Antioch-chamber ; 
 
 * [ ff Gesta Antiochiae 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 abovemen- 
 tioned was compiled and illuminated by his order, and in the 
 Pipe roll of the 21st of his reign, it is ordered, that these ex- 
 ploits should be the subject of paintings on the wainscot of a 
 room, in the royal palace at Clarendon, " hystoria Antiochiae in 
 eadem depingenda, cum duello regis Ricardi. Archaeolog. Vol. 
 Hi. p. 187. Wartons Hist, of Poetry, Vol. i.p. 114.] 
 
 t 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. 
 
 X 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. 
 
20 
 
 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF 
 
 the origine probably of what is now styled the 
 Jerusalem-chamber. 
 
 " Claus. Ao. 35 Hen. III. m. 11. Mandatum est Ed- 
 " wardo de Westm. quod depingi faciat historiam An- 
 " tioch.* in camera regis turris London, sicut ei dicet Tho- 
 " mas Espernir, et custum, quod ad hoc posuerit, rex ei 
 " faciet allocari. Teste rege apud Winton. v die Junii." 
 
 " Close Roll, 35 Henry III. m. 11. Precept to Edward 
 " of Westminster, that he cause to be painted the history of 
 " Antioch, in the king's chamber, in the Tower of London, 
 " as 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, 5 th of June. 
 
 " Ibidem, m. 10. Mandatum est Edwardo de Westm. 
 " quod Judaismum regis apud Westm. et magnum -f cella- 
 
 * [This order for painting the history of Antioch, in the 
 king's chamber, in the Tower of London, bears date fourteen 
 years subsequently to that, for the same subject, at Clarendon, 
 of which it was probably a copy. " sicut ei dicet Thomas 
 Espernir,'' the inventor of it.] 
 
 t 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 
 tf opus regis faciendis. Mandatum est custodibus vinorum regis 
 " Winton. quod de vinis regis quae habent in custodia sua 
 u liberent || Roberto 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 vino- 
 " rum regis de Ebor. quod de melioribus vinis regis quae sunt 
 ff in custodia sua faciant habere Roberto de Monte Pessulano 
 
 || See more of him in Pegge's Life of Roger Weseham. 
 
PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 21 
 
 cc rium 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 quidem cameram Antioch volumus appellant 
 
 " Ibid. Precept to the said Edward, that the king's 
 " Jewry at Westminster, and the king's great wine cellar 
 " should be wainscotted ; 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? 
 
 These that follow all relate to various paintings. 
 
 " Ibidem, m. 5. Mandatum est Simoni Capellano et 
 " aliis custodibus operationum Windesor. quod claustrum 
 " regis in castro Windesor. paviriet lambruscari, et Apostolos 
 " depingi faciant, sicut rex ei et magistro Willielmo pictori 
 " suo ibidem injunxit. Teste rege apud Havering, xx die 
 " Augusti." 
 
 " Ibid. m. 5. Precept to Simon tne chaplain, and other 
 " masters of the works, at Windsor, that they have the 
 " king's cloister in the castle, paved and wainscotted ; and 
 " the Apostles to be painted there, as the king has given 
 " orders to William, his painter. Witness, &c. at Have- 
 " ring, 20th of August." 
 
 " Liberat. 36. Hen. III. m. 15. Rex Vicecomiti Not- 
 " tinghamiae salutem. Praecipimus tibi quod in camera 
 " reginae nostrae aput Nottingham depingi facias historiam 
 
 " duo dolia albi vini et Garhiofilacum, et unum dolium rubri 
 " vini ad claretum* inde faciend. ad opus regis contra instans 
 " festum Nativitatis Dominicae. Et mandatum est Rob. de 
 " Monte Pessulano quod festinanter accedat ad Ebor. et gar* 
 " hiofilac. et clarat. predict, faciat sicut annis preteritis facere 
 " consuevit." 
 
 * A composition of wine and honey, V. Hist, de Pancienne Che 
 valerie, vol. i. p. 49. 
 
22 
 
 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF 
 
 " Alexandri circumquaque ; et custum quod ad hoc posue- 
 " ritis computabitur. Teste rege apud Nottingham xv die 
 " Januarii." 
 
 " Payments, 36 Henry III. m. 15. Precept to the Sheriff 
 * of Notts, that you cause the queen's chamber in the castle 
 "of Nottingham, to be painted all around, with the history 
 " of Alexander, and the king will account with him for the 
 96 cost. Witness, &c. at Nottingham, 15th January. 
 
 " Liberat. 36. Hen. III. m. 15. Mandatum vie. North- 
 " ampton, quod fieri faciat in castro North, fenestras de albo 
 " vitro, et in eisdem historiam Lazari et Divitis depingi." 
 
 " Ibid. To the Sheriff of Northampton, that he cause a 
 " window of white glass to be made in the Castle of Nor- 
 " thampton, and that the history of Dives and Lazarus be 
 " painted thereupon. 
 
 " Claus. 36. Hen. III. m. 22. Mandatum est Radulpho 
 " de Dungun, custodi librorum* regis, quod magistro Wil- 
 " lielmo pictori regis habere faciat colores ad depingendum 
 " parvam garderobam reginae, et emendandum picturam 
 44 magnae camerae regis et camerae reginae. Teste rege 
 " apud Westm. xxv die Febr. Per regem." 
 
 " Clause Roll, 36. Hen. III. Precept to Ralph de Dun- 
 " gun, keeper of the king's books, that he should supply 
 " William the painter, with colours for painting the queen's 
 " little wardrobe, and to restore the paintings in the king's 
 " and queen's chambers. Witness at Westminster, 25th 
 " February." 
 
 The six next precepts appertain to various arts., 
 not to painting in particular. 
 
 " Claus. 36. Hen. Hi. m. 31. Mandatum est Edwardo 
 
 * 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. 
 
PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 23 
 
 " de Westm. quod cum festinatione perquirat quendam pul- 
 " crum gladium, et scauberd. ejusdem de serico, et pomel- 
 " lum de argento bene et ornate cooperiri, et quandam pul- 
 " cram zonam eidem pendi faciat, ita quod gladium ilium sic 
 <( factum habeat apud Ebor. de quo rex* Alexandrum 
 " regem Scotiae illustrem cingulo militari decorare possit in 
 " instanti festo Nativitatis Dominicae. Teste rege apud 
 " Lychfeld xxi die Novembr. Per ipsum regem."" 
 
 " Ibid. m. 31. Precept to Edward of Westminster, that 
 " he will procure without delay, a certain handsome sword, 
 " and have made a scabbard of silk, with the pomel of silver, 
 " well and fairly ornamented, and a rich belt to hang there- 
 " from : so that the said sword may be delivered to him at 
 " York, with which Alexander, the illustrious King of Scot- 
 " land may be decorated, together with a military girdle, at 
 u the feast of the Nativity of our Lord, next ensuing 
 " Witness at Lichfield, 21st November. 
 
 " Claus. 36. Hen. III. m. 30. Mandatum est J. de 
 " Somercote-)- et Rogero Scissori, quod sine dilatione fieri 
 " faciant unum lectum pretiosum, ita quod illud decenter et 
 " ornate factum habeat apud Ebor. ad dandum illud Alex. 
 " regi Scotiae illustri in instanti festo Nativitatis Dominicae.'" 
 
 " Ibid. Precept to John de Somercote, and Roger 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. 1 ' 
 
 " Ibidem. Mandatum est I. de Somercote et Rogero 
 <c Scissori, quod de melioribus samittis quos invenire pote- 
 " runt sine dilatione faciant quatuor robas, duas videlicet 
 <£ ad opus regis, et duas ad opus reginae, cum aurifraxis 
 
 * Alexander III. king of Scotland married Margaret, daugh- 
 ter of Henry, at York. 
 
 t In the same year J. de Somercote had a patent to be 
 Warden of the mint, Custos Cambii per totum regnum. 
 
24 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OP 
 
 " semilatis, et varii colons, et quod tunicae sint de moHiori~ 
 " bus samittis quam pallia et super tunicae ; 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 Lychfeld xxi die Novembr." 
 
 " Ibid. Precept to John de Somercote, and Roger the 
 " Tailor, that, without delay, 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 hand- 
 " somely made, and delivered to him, at York. Witness at 
 " Lichfield, 21st November;' 
 
 " Ibidem. Mandatum est I. de Somercote et Rogero 
 " Scissori, quod preter illas duas robas quas rex fieri prece- 
 " pit ad opus suum, fieri faciant ad opus regis tres robas de 
 " queintisis, videlicet unam robam de meliori samitto vio- 
 " laceo, quaminvenire poterunt, cum tribusparvis* leopardis 
 " in parte anteriori, et aliis 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." 
 
 " Ibid. 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 
 
 * The lions in the arms of England were originally leopards. 
 
 [In the romance of Richard Cuer de Lyon, 
 
 " Upon his shoulders a scheld of stele, 
 " With the Lybbards painty d wele." 
 
 Barrington on the Statutes, p. 227. 
 
 Menestrier De Torigine des Armoires, L. i. p. 68, &c] 
 
PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 25 
 
 " 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." 
 
 " Claus. 39 Hen. III. Rex concessit magistro Johanni 
 " de Gloucestre cementario suo, quod toto tempore vitae 
 " suae quietus sit de omnimodo Tallagio et Thelonio 
 " ubique per totam potestatem regis. ,, 
 
 " Clause 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, every 
 " where, throughout the realm.'" 
 
 " Claus. 43. Hen. III. m. 10. Mandatum est magistro 
 " Johanni de Glouc. cementario suo, et custodibus opera- 
 " tionum Westm. quod quinque imagines regum incisas m 
 " franca petra, et quandam petram ad supponendum pedi- 
 " bus unius imaginis beatae Mariae, faciatis habere custo- 
 u dibus operationum ecclesiae sancti Martini London, ad 
 " easdem operationes, de dono regis. Teste rege apud 
 " Westm. xi. die maii." 
 
 " Claus Roll, 43. Henry III. Precept to master John of 
 " Gloucester, his plasterer, and the masters of his works at 
 " Westminster, that they make five statues of kings carved 
 u in free stone, 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. Wit- 
 " ness, &c. 11th of May." 
 
 Then comes a record intituled: 
 
 " Pro rege de coloribus ad picturam Windesor. Claus. 
 " Ao. 44. Hen. III. m. 6. Mandatum est Edwardo de 
 <c Westm. quod colores et alia ad picturam necessaria sine 
 " dilatione faciat habere fratri Willielmo monacho Westm. 
 u pictori regis, ad picturas regis apud Windsor inde* reno- 
 
 * Hence it appears that Windsor had been a place of note 
 
26 
 
 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF 
 
 (t vandas, prout idem frater Willielmus predicto Edwardo 
 " dicet ex parte regis. Et hoc sicut regem diligit, non 
 " omittat : et cum rex sciverit custum quod ad hoc posuerit 
 <( rex breve suum de liberate sibi habere faciet. Teste rege 
 " apud Windsor xiii die Augusti." 
 
 " Clause Roll, 44. Henry III. For the King. Precept 
 " to Edward of Westminster that without delay he shall 
 " deliver to brother William, Monk of Windsor, colours and 
 " other things necessary for painting, for restoring the king's 
 " paintings there, 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, &c. 13th of August. 
 
 The next is inscribed De pictura Rap. Guldef. 
 and contains the following- orders : 
 
 "Liberate Ao. 44. Hen. III. m. 11. Rex 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." 
 
 " Payments, 44. Henry III. Precept to the Sheriff of 
 " Surrey, that out of the issues of the said County, you 
 u 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 
 
 even before the reign of Hen. III. consequently long before it 
 was beautified by Edward III. 
 
PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 27 
 
 " that immediately, the pictures and frontispiece of the altar 
 * 6 of the great chapel, be made, as we have directed Wil- 
 " liam of Florence, and the cost shall be paid upon the view 
 " of honest and lawful men, &c. Witness, &c. at West- 
 " minster, 30th October. 
 
 I conclude that master William, William the 
 monk of Westminster, and William of Florence 
 were the same person. Wliat arts we had, as well 
 as learning, lay chiefly among the religious in 
 those ages. One remark I am surprised Mr. 
 Vertue did not make, when he was assigning 
 greater antiquity to painting in England than in 
 Italy, that this William of Florence was an Italian. 
 
 The two following are little remarkable, except 
 that in the last we find the name of another 
 painter. 
 
 " Liberate Ao. 49. Hen. III. m. 7- Rex Thes. et came- 
 " rariis suis salutem. Liberate de thesauro nostro pictoribus 
 es camerae nostrae apud Westm. septem libras et decern 
 " solidos ad picturas ejusdem camerae nostrae retro lectum 
 " nostrum ibidem faciend." 
 
 " Payments, 49 Hen. III. The king to his treasurer and 
 " chamberlain. Pay from our treasury at Westminster to 
 " the painters of our chamber at Westminster, seven pounds 
 " and seven shillings for pictures, at the back of our bed, 
 4 ' in our said chamber." 
 
 "Liberate Ao. 51. Hen. III. m. 10. et 8. Rex Bal- 
 " livis 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." 
 
 " Ibid. 51. Henry III. m. 10. Precept to the bailiffs of 
 
28 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS 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 ac- 
 " counted with you, in the Exchequer. Witness, &c. 7 th 
 " of January." 
 
 Among these records I find the following curious 
 memorandum 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 
 u pro stipendiis alborum cissorum et minutorum operario- 
 " rum, et pro franca petra et aliis emptionibus quae non 
 " computantur in hac summa ; xxix millia, cccxlv/. xixs. 
 " viiid." 
 
 " The sum total of the works at Westminster from their 
 u beginning to the Sunday next after the feast of St. Mi- 
 " chael in the forty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry. 
 " And 260/. remain to satisfy the wages of the free-stone 
 " 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, 29,340/. 19$. 8d." 
 
 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 Guilford : 
 
 " Liberate 52. Hen. III. m. 11. Rex vicecom. Surr. et 
 " Suss, salutem. Precipimus tibi quod de exitibus com. 
 " praedictorum infra curiam nostram manerii nostri de 
 (t Guldeford quandam cameram cum stadio et camino, gar- 
 " deroba, et camera forinseca, et quandam capellam ad caput 
 
PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 29 
 
 u ejusdem camerae, cum stadio et fenestris vitreis easdem 
 cameram et capellam decentibus, ad opus karissimae filiae 
 " nostrae Alianorae consortis Edwardi primogeniti nostri, 
 " et unam cameram cum stadio et camino camera forinseca, 
 <J et fenestris vitreis eandem cameram decentibus, ad opus 
 u militum karissimae consortis nostrae Alianorae reginae 
 66 Angliae, et quoddam *appenticm. ibidem de novo sine 
 (t dilatione fieri, et herbarium ejusdem reginae nostrae repa- 
 " rari et emendari facias, secundum quod Willielmo Floren- 
 " tino pictori nostro injunximus, et idem Willielmus plenius 
 " tibi scire faciet ex parte nostra ; et custum, &c. per visum 
 " &c. computabitur."" 
 
 " Liberate, 52. Henry III. The king to the Sheriff of 
 " Surrey and Sussex. Precept, that out of the issues of the 
 " said counties, ye cause a certain chamber to be erected, 
 " within the castle of our manor of Guildford, with a raised 
 " hearth and chimney, 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 en- 
 " joined William the Florentine our painter, and of which 
 " the said William will inform you farther, upon our part. 
 " And the cost, &c.' n 
 
 " Rex eidem vicecom. salutem. Precipimus tibi quod 
 " de exitibus com. praedictorum facias habere Willielmo Flo- 
 " rentino custodi operationum 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 praedic- 
 
 * Sic originate . 
 
30 
 
 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF 
 
 " tarum, sicut eos temporibus retroactis ante turbationem 
 " habitam in regno ibidem percipere consuevit : et custum, 
 M &c. Teste rege apud Westm. xxix die Jan." 
 
 u The King to the same. Precept, that out of the issues 
 " of the said counties, you shall pay to William the Floren- 
 " tine, Master of our works at Guildford, on each day, six 
 " pence, for his wages, as long as you shall remain Sheriff of 
 c c 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 
 " Westminster, 29th January. 
 
 Besides the palaces above-mentioned, this prince 
 laid out too large sums in repairing and beautify- 
 ing Kenelworth castle, cieling the chapel with 
 wainscot, painting that and the queens chamber, 
 and rebuilding the wall on the outside, as it re- 
 mained to the time of Sir William Dugdale.* 
 
 I 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 
 
 * See his Warwicksh. p. 244. In the same reign John of 
 Hertford, Abbot of St. Albans, made great additions to his 
 convent, and in one of the chambers placed a noble picture. 
 See Willis's mitred abbies, vol. j. 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 illumi- 
 nator to that Abbey. 
 
 [In the reign of Edward II. John Thokey, Abbot of Glou- 
 cester had embellished the wainscot of his great parlour, with 
 the portraits of all the preceding monarchs. This circumstance 
 is related in his life. MSS. Cotton. Domitian VIII. p. 128.] 
 
 [t " crosses erected to Q. Eleanor.''] Chronology will confute 
 this supposition, for Abbot Ware, who visited Rome, in 1260, 
 
PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 31 
 
 memory, which Vertue with great probability sup- 
 posed were built on the designs of Peter Cavallini,* 
 Roman sculptor, and whom, from various circum- 
 stances, he discovered to be the architect of the 
 shrine of Edward the Confessor. 
 
 The reader, I am persuaded, will be pleased to 
 see how ingeniously my author traced out this 
 hitherto unknown fact. 
 
 The original inscription on the tomb ran thus : 
 
 Anno milleno Domini cum septuageno 
 
 Et bis centeno, cum completo quasi deno,f 
 
 and there saw a shrine erected in 1254, died in 12S5 ; which 
 was eight years before the demise of Q. Elinor, in 1291 : 
 Giotto, who was born in 12,76, was only seven years old at the 
 time of Ware's death, and Cavallini being three years younger 
 than Giotto, it is not possible, that he could have been employed 
 by the Abbot, as an artist, at four years old.] 
 
 * [Peter Cavallini was born in 1259, and died in 1344, at the 
 advanced age of 85 years, according to certain authorities ; 
 and the great discrepancy of other dates has occasioned some 
 investigation. He was seventeen years older than Giotto, 
 (n. 1276, m. 1336,) if that be true. But it appears, that Mr. 
 Walpole will not be supported in his assertion, that Cavallini 
 could not be the scholar of Giotto, for the sole reason, that he 
 was twenty years older. Allowing that Cavallini was born in 
 1249, and Giotto in 1276, he was seventeen older, if in 1279, 
 Giotto was three years older than him. Lanzi decidedly in- 
 clines to an opinion, that Cavallini learned, at least, the im- 
 provement of the art from Giotto, against which conjecture, 
 the age of Cavallini, compared with that of Giotto, is no sound 
 argument. In either case, Lanzi is borne out in his assertion. 
 An improvement, or new method of painting may be acquired 
 at any period of life, but the elements in youth only.] 
 
 t tc completo quasi deno,"] — Ten years spent in the comple- 
 
32 
 
 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF 
 
 Hoc opus est factum, quod Petrus duxit in actum 
 Romanus civis : Homo, causam noscere si vis, 
 Rex fuit Henricus, sancti praesentis amicus. 
 
 The words Petrus duxit in actum Romanus civis 
 were discernible 'till very lately.* Some old au- 
 thors ascribe the erection of the shrine to Henry 
 himself, others, to Richard de Ware the Abbat, 
 elected in 1260. It is probable that both were 
 concerned. The new Abbat repaired to Rome 
 immediately on his election to receive consecra- 
 tion from Urban IV. At that time, says Vasari, 
 nourished 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 
 
 tion of it: Gough (Sepulch. Mon. v. i. p. 5,J observes, that the 
 date should have therefore been 1280.] 
 
 * [The inscription states, that the shrine of St. Edward was 
 finished in 1270. " Petrus civis Romanus" could not have 
 been Pietro Cavallini, nine years before the most authentic 
 date of his birth.] 
 
 f A draught of it by Mr. Talman in the proper colours is 
 preserved in the first volume of the drawings belonging to the 
 Society of Antiquaries. A sketch of it I have among Vertue's 
 MSS. Great part of that identic shrine, which stood origi- 
 nally in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore at Rome, and was 
 removed of late years, on making a new pavement to the 
 church, is now at Strawberry-hill, in a chapel erected on pur- 
 pose to receive it ; being sent to Mr. Walpole by Sir William 
 Hamilton, Envoy to Naples, who purchased it on its removal. 
 
PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 33 
 
 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 masters patron saint, 
 and the great patron of his own church. Weaver 
 says expressly that the abbat brought back with 
 him from Rome workmen and rich porphyry 
 stones for Edward the Confessor's secretary ; and 
 for the pavement of the chapel:* This abbat was 
 lord treasurer to his death in 1283, and was 
 buried on the north side of the great altar : Over 
 him was anciently this epitaph, confirming the cir- 
 cumstances above mentioned : 
 
 Abbas Richardus de Wara, qui requiescit 
 Hie, portat lapides, quos hie portavit ab Urbe. 
 
 * Before Henry III. began the present church, there had 
 been a rich shrine for the Confessor erected by William I. 
 as the latter says expressly in his charter. Edward had be- 
 stowed Windsor on the Abbey of Westminster : the conqueror 
 on his accession, prevailed on the abbat and convent to restore 
 Windsor, in exchange for other lands, being delighted with 
 the scite ; " Maxime utilis & commodus est visus propter con- 
 tiguam aquam et silvam venationibus aptam," says he; and 
 after naming the lordships ho gave them, he mentions the 
 gift of an hundred pounds of silver to complete and finish the 
 building of the Abbey, and then adds, " Ob reverentiam nimii 
 amoris quern ego in ipsum inclitum regem Edwardum habue- 
 
 VOL. I. D 
 
34 
 
 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF 
 
 Vasari's silence on Cavallini's journey to England 
 ought to be no objection ; he not only wrote some 
 hundred years after the time, but confounds his 
 own account so strangely as to make Peter Caval- 
 lini scholar of Giotto, who was twenty years 
 younger. If it may be imagined that Richard 
 Ware could not have interest enough to seduce so 
 capital a workman from the service of the Pope, 
 it might still be accounted for, by higher autho- 
 rity. Edward I. returning from the Holy Land 
 was conducted by the king of Sicily to Rome to 
 visit Gregory X. who had been Edward's compa- 
 nion and friend in the Holy War. An artful 
 Pope would certainly be glad to furnish a young 
 king with artists who would encourage him in 
 raising shrines and temples. The monument of 
 Henry III. erected by his son, is beautified in the 
 same taste with porphyry and mosaic ; and the 
 first brazen statue known to have been cast here, 
 lies upon it. The old paintings round the chapel 
 of St. Edward, and those, in a very beautiful and 
 superior style, though much decayed, over the 
 ragged regiment, Vertue ascribes to the same 
 Cavallini. This painter and sculptor probably, as 
 I have said, gave the designs for the crosses erected 
 by Edward to his beloved Eleanor.* Vertue had 
 
 ram, Tumbum ejus et reginae juxta eum positae, ex auro et 
 argento, fabrili opere, artificiosi decoris mirifice operiri feci. 
 
 * I have some suspicion that a son of Peter Cavallini, is the 
 person called Peter le Orfever, mentioned in a precept of 
 
PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 35 
 
 drawn them, with a design of engraving ; I have 
 his original drawings. I must not omit that it 
 was no small part of Peter Cavallini's fame, that 
 he made the crucifix that spoke to St. Bridget.* 
 
 From all the testimonies above recited, Henry 
 III. appears in a new light from what has hitherto 
 been known of him. That he was a weak prince 
 in point of government is indisputable. That he 
 was a great encourager of the arts, these records 
 demonstrate. When historians talk of his profu- 
 sion, they evidence only in what he dissipated on 
 his favourites. But it is plain that the number 
 and magnificence of his buildings and palaces 
 must have swallowed great part of the sums, mali- 
 
 Edward II. He is there intituled of Stanford, and brought an 
 action against certain persons for assault and battery. As one 
 of Queen Eleanor's crosses was erected there, it is not impro- 
 bable that a son of Cavallini might marry and settle in that 
 town. See Peck's Stanford, lib. x. sect. 13. 
 
 [Without farther question as to the discrepancy of the date, 
 it is highly improbable that the same artist who designed the 
 Roman form and the mosaic ornament of the tombs of Edward 
 the Confessor and Henry III. should have been the architect of 
 crosses, which are pre-eminent specimens of the gothic, pecu- 
 liar to the age. The statue of Q. Elinor is said to have been 
 modelled from her person after death, and probably by an Ita- 
 lian sculptor (civis Romanics), from which all the others were 
 copied ; and it has been asserted, that it was considered as the 
 worthy prototype of the numerous images of the Virgin Mary 
 for a century afterwards. The three remaining crosses have 
 been engraven upon a large scale in the Monumenta Vetusta, 
 v, iii. and in Brittons Architectural Antiq. v. i. pp. 24, &c] 
 
 * Felibien, vol. i. p. 172. 
 
36 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF 
 
 ciously charged to the single article of unworthy 
 favourites.* 
 
 It matters not how a prince squanders what he 
 has tyrannically squeezed from the subject : If he 
 exceeds his revenue, it is almost as ill spent on 
 edifices as on ministers. But it is perhaps no 
 more than justice to make some allowance for 
 partial or exaggerated relations. Henry was not 
 a wise prince — may I venture to say more — He 
 was not a martial prince. Even in these more 
 sensible ages one illustrious defect in a king con- 
 verts all his other foibles into excellencies. It 
 
 * [The unbounded liberality of this sovereign to his favou- 
 rites, was, in one instance at least, applied with a profusion 
 emulous of his own ; and is a curious evidence how much he 
 encouraged the magnificence of architecture in those whom 
 he patronised and enriched. Pauline Le Peyvere was the 
 steward of his household, to whom he made enormous grants 
 both of land and money. This courtier built, at Toddington 
 in Bedfordshire, a castellated house, which with vast extent, 
 apartments covered with lead, orchards, and gardens, excited 
 universal wonder, " ut intuentibus admirationem parturient/' 
 says M. Paris, (p. 821), who adds, that he spent more than a 
 hundred shillings in every week during the building - } and that 
 the wages of certain of the artificers, amounted to ten marks 
 in the same space of time. Some of the most sumptuous parts 
 of cathedral and conventual churches in different parts of Eng- 
 land, in fact, a new and most beautiful style of gothic origi- 
 nated, and reached perfection, during the long reign of Hen. 
 III. So urgent was his want of money, that he was forced to 
 pawn and sell the jewels with which he had enriched the shrine 
 of St. Edward, to the Pope's Legate. Patent Roll, 51st, 
 Henry III. memb. 18.] 
 
PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 37 
 
 must have done so much more in a season of such 
 heroic barbarism as that of Henry III. and the 
 want of an enterprizing spirit in that prince made 
 even his patronage of the arts be imputed to effe- 
 minacy, or be overlooked. The extravagance of 
 Louis XIV. in his buildings, gardens, water-works, 
 passed for an object of glory under the canon (if 
 I may say so) of his ambition. Henry III. had 
 no conquests to illuminate his cielings, his halls, 
 his basreliefs. Yet perhaps the generous senti- 
 ment implied in his motto, Qui non dat quod habet 
 non accipit Me quod optat, contained more true 
 glory than all the Fast couched under Louis's 
 emblem of the sun, and his other ostentatious 
 devices. But let us compare Henry with one 
 nearer to him. Henry's reign is one of the most 
 ignominious in our annals ; That of Edward the 
 First of the most triumphant. Yet I would ask 
 by which of the two did the nation suffer most ? 
 By sums lavished on favourites and buildings; 
 or by sums and blood wasted in unjust wars ? If 
 we look narrowly into Edward's reign, we shall 
 scarce* find fewer representations against the 
 tyranny of the son than against the encroach- 
 ments of the father. Who will own that he had 
 not rather employ master William and Edward of 
 Westminster to paint the gestes of the kings of 
 Antioch, than imitate the son in his barbarities in 
 Wales and usurpations in Scotland? 
 
 * See the Parliamentary History. 
 
38 
 
 THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OP 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 From a concise view of this introductory chapter, it is evi- 
 dent, that Mr. W. willingly adopted Vertue's claim of the 
 earlier usage of painting in oil — yet the confusion of dates, 
 clouds his brightest conjecture. With respect to the tomb of 
 Edward the Confessor, and the fact of P. Cavallini's having 
 been employed as an artist, in this country 3 they are, at least, 
 contradictory ; and it is still more difficult to connect him with 
 Abbot Ware, who died in his infancy. Mr. Gough, who exa- 
 mines this question (Sepulch. Mon. v. i. p. 485) hesitates to 
 allow the circumstance of Cavallini's having been taught by 
 Giotto j but is satisfied to place the birth of the first men- 
 tioned, in 1279, as the eera best supported by proof - } and con- 
 sequently destructive of the whole hypothesis, as to the twenty 
 preceding years, 
 
 Petrus Civis Romanus being identified with P. Cavallini, is 
 a fact not so happily traced by Vertue, as Mr. W. is led to 
 suppose. Mr. Gough may be said to have been more successful. 
 He observes, that P. Civis Romanus, was, with greater proba- 
 bility, a pupil of Andrea Taffi and Gaddo Gaddi, who were 
 anterior to Giotto 5 and that he was sent to England to com- 
 plete the designs furnished by artists of the original school of 
 mosaic, invented at Florence, and removed to Rome. 
 
 No doubt can be entertained, but that paintings in fresco, ' 
 on walls, and mosaic floors, were imitated in stained glass, of 
 which there was no known introduction into England, prior to 
 this reign. Instances of the designs having been so trans- 
 ferred to windows, have yet survived the effects of time, and 
 the rage of the reformers. Painting on or rather staining glass 
 is first mentioned in the Close Rolls of the twentieth year of 
 K. Henry III. 1236. Specimens of whole windows in the 
 same reign, are enumerated in Ly sons' s Magna Britannia, In 
 Chetwode Chancel, Buckinghamshire, dated 1244, are rich and 
 beautiful mosaics, and small figures of Saints, inclosed within 
 ovals highly ornamented. There is likewise a regal portrait, 
 and much tracery upon a single colour, more elegant, if less. 
 
PAINTING IN ENGLAND. 
 
 39 
 
 brilliant than in the succeeding age, and in larger windows. 
 At Norbury, Derbyshire, are specimens of very elegant designs 
 in mosaic, which sufficiently prove that the monks were not 
 deficient in invention, or even exquisite pencilling. 
 
 Mr. Walpole possessed a happy talent in relieving, by dis- 
 crimination, the dulness of history j and by many pointed ob- 
 servations, and striking analogy. He had formed his style in 
 the new French school, as first established by Voltaire 3 who 
 in all his historical works, is to be praised rather for his novel 
 and ingenious inferences, and brilliant remarks, than for sound 
 investigation, correctness or impartiality. 
 
 The love and encouragement of the arts are made to consti- 
 tute a redeeming virtue in the character of Henry III. : and 
 it has been likewise pleaded by the apologists of one of his 
 successors. The claim maybe readily admitted, nevertheless the 
 treachery of the first mentioned monarch to Magna Charta, and 
 his brutal exactions from the Jews, place him on a level with 
 the f ' ruthless king''* and the " Vir immortalis.'*f of France. 
 
 Gray's Bard. f Pinkerton on Medals, vol. ii. p. 68. 
 
[40] 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 State of Painting from the Reign of Henry III. 
 to the End of Henry VI. 
 
 From the reign of Henry III. Mr. Vertue could 
 discover no records relating to the arts for several 
 reigns. I shall endeavour to fill this hiatus by 
 producing an almost entire chronologic series of 
 paintings from that time to Henry VII. when Mr. 
 Vertue's notes recommence. 
 
 During the reigns of the two first Edwards, I 
 find no vestiges* of the art, though it was cer- 
 tainly preserved here, at least by painting on 
 
 * Except that in the reign of Edward I. Bishop Langton 
 built a palace and hall at Lichfield, in which was painted the 
 ceremony of the coronation, &c. Brown Willis's Cath. vol. i. 
 p. 17. 
 
 [In the MS. of the lives of the Abbats of Gloucester, (MSS. 
 Cotton, Domit. VIII.) it is asserted, that John Wygmore Abbat, 
 procured his great dining room to be painted with portraits of 
 aU the English kings, who preceded Edward II., against his 
 being present there, at a sumptuous feast. The same MS. 
 p. 23, mentions, that Wygmore not only employed artists, but 
 was himself eminent for the practice of limning and embroi- 
 dery. " quod in diversis artibus multum delectabatur ut ipse 
 saepissime operetur, et multos diversos operarios in dicta arte 
 (limning) percolleret, tarn in opere mechanico, quam intextura." 
 Similar instances might be easily adduced which had escaped 
 the notice of Vertue and Mr. W.'s antiquarian contributors, 
 
STATE OF PAINTING, &C. 
 
 41 
 
 glass. No wonder that a proud, a warlike, and 
 ignorant nobility, encouraged only that branch 
 which attested their dignity. Their dungeons were 
 rendered still darker by their pride. It was the 
 case of all the arts; none flourished, but what 
 served to display their wealth, or contributed to 
 their security. They were magnificent without 
 luxury, and pompous without elegance. Rich 
 plate, even to* the enamelling on gold, rich stuffs 
 and curious armour, were carried to excess, while 
 
 If, as is most probable, the chapel of St. Stephen, within the 
 palace of Westminster, was embellished with paintings by its 
 founder K. Edward I. an additional proof is supplied.] 
 
 * Bishop Wickham's crozier at Oxford is an instance how 
 well the pomp of prelacy was served by ingenious artists. It 
 is certain that in the reigns of the two first Edwards there were 
 Greek enamellers in England, who both practised and taught 
 the art. In Dugdale's Warwickshire, p. 397* 403, are men- 
 tioned enamelled cups very near that period ; and some ancient 
 pieces are stiU extant. The beautiful cup of gold, enamelled 
 with figures in the habits of the time, given by king John to 
 the corporation of Lynn in Norfolk, and still preserved there, 
 gives a very favourable idea of the taste and artisans of an age, 
 a little antecedent to that I am speaking of. King Alfred's 
 jewel, found at Athelney in Somersetshire, and of which there 
 is a print in Camden's Britannia, is of much more ancient date, 
 but of workmanship far more rude. I call it a jewel, because 
 it seems to have been used as jewels were afterwards, appen- 
 dent to ribands. By the cut, I should take it for engraven 
 gold j Camden, which is extraordinary, does not describe the 
 materials, but caUs it a picture, which would make one think 
 it was enamelled. 
 
 [The singularly sumptuous crosier which belonged to W. 
 Wykeham, and was bequeathed in his will to remain in his 
 
42 STATE OF PAINTING FROM THE REIGN OF 
 
 their chairs were mere pedestals, their clothes 
 were incumbrances, and they knew no use of 
 steel but as it served for safety or destruction. 
 Their houses, for there was no medium between 
 castles and hovels, implied the dangers of society, 
 not the sweets of it ; and whenever peace left them 
 leisure to think of modes, they seemed to ima- 
 gine that fashion consisted in transfiguring the 
 human body, instead of adding grace to it. While 
 
 college, at Oxford, is still shewn there, being preserved in the 
 chapel. In Carter s Ancient Sculpture and Painting, (vol. i. 
 pi. 47), it is most accurately delineated, at length, upon a 
 folded, folio sheet. It is of silver gilt, and very richly ena- 
 melled -j about seven feet high, and in the crook or circle, 
 instead of the holy lamb, frequently introduced in other cro- 
 siers, is a kneeling figure of the Bishop himself. The will is 
 printed in Bishop Lowth's life of Wykeham, in the Appendix, 
 by reference to which the antiquarian reader will entertain no 
 doubt concerning the perfection of the arts of enamelling, 
 limning, and embroidery, certainly borrowed from the French, 
 but successfully practised in England, during reigns imme- 
 diately antecedent to that of Edward the third. The wills of 
 noblemen and prelates which have been collected and published 
 give us numerous examples. It has been observed, indeed, by 
 Warton (Hist, of Poetry, vol. ii. p. 254.) that "after the battle 
 of Cressy by our victorious monarch, and towards the end of 
 the 14th century, riches and plenty, the effects of conquest, 
 peace, and prosperity, were spread on every side, and new luxu- 
 ries were imported in great abundance, from the conquered 
 countries. There were few families, even of a moderate con- 
 dition, but had in their possession precious articles of dress 
 and furniture, such as silk, fur, tapestry, embroidered beds, 
 embossed cups of gold and silver, agate and chrystal, bracelets, 
 chains, and necklaces, brought from Caen, Limoges, and other 
 foreign cities." — ] 
 
HENRY lit. TO THE END OP HENRY VI. 43 
 
 the men wore shoes so long and picked, that they 
 were forced to support the points by chains from 
 their middle ; the ladies erected such pyramids on 
 their heads, that the face became the center of 
 the body ; and they were hardened to these pre- 
 posterous inconveniencies by their priests, who 
 instead of leaving them to be cured by the fickle- 
 ness of fashions, or by the trouble of them, de- 
 nounced God's judgments on follies against which 
 a little laughter and a little common sense had 
 been more effectual sermons. It was not far dis- 
 tant I think from the period of which I am speak- 
 ing that the ladies wore looking-glasses about the 
 same height of their bodies, with that, on which 
 the men displayed such indecent symbols.* The 
 representations of these extravagances (as we see 
 them collected by Montfaucon in his Antiquities 
 of France) demanded Japonese and Indian pain- 
 ters ; were not likely to produce Vandycks and 
 Titians. While we are curious in tracing the pro- 
 gress of barbarism, we wonder more that any arts 
 existed, than that they attained no degree of per- 
 fection. 
 
 Of the third Edward, says Mr. Vertue/f- many 
 
 * La Bruyere has expressed this with the happiest decency; 
 " lis avoient trouve' le secret de paroitre nuds tout habillez/* 
 Vol. ii. p. 234. 
 
 t See an account, in folio, prefixed to his prints of the kings 
 of England. 
 
 [The figure of a knight standing in plate armour, holding a 
 
44 STATE OF PAINTING FROM THE REIGN OF 
 
 portraits are preserved, at Windsor, in illuminated 
 MSS. and elsewhere. As he has not marked 
 where these limnings exist, I can give no account 
 of them myself, nor refer the reader to the inspec- 
 tion of them. But there is a portrait taken from 
 a bust of the same age, the face of which is far 
 from being executed in a contemptible manner. 
 It represents that artist and patron of arts Wil- 
 liam of Wiekham,* Bishop of Winchester, and 
 prime minister to Edward III. a prelate whose 
 
 spear, with a long sword by his side, and the escutcheon of 
 France and England quarterly (France anciently) and having a 
 red rose, placed beneath his feet, is said to represent (but from 
 no stated authority) Edward, the black prince. It is a frag- 
 ment, which still remains in a lancet window, under the south 
 tower, in Westminster Abbey. The flowing beard belongs to 
 no portrait of the black prince, and his effigy upon his tomb at 
 Canterbury has scarcely any. This representation is, with a 
 greater degree of probability, that of his father, who first quar- 
 tered the arms of France. Edward the Third's portrait is 
 exhibited, with the utmost exactness, in the brass effigy, 
 recumbent upon his tomb. His face was doubtless modelled 
 and cast from a mask taken after death j a practice well known 
 to artists of that age 3 his beard is long, and his hair dishe- 
 velled. Engraved in GougKs Sep. Monum. v. i. p. 138.] 
 
 * [Mr. W. was probably not aware that the figure and face 
 of the munificent Wykeham are of very inferior workmanship, 
 and that he founded his praise upon Vertue's engraving. It 
 is remarkable, that the head of his successor, Bishop Waynflete, 
 whose tomb is likewise in Winton Cathedral, is of peculiar 
 excellence, for strength of character. In Chandler's life of 
 that prelate, (8vo, 1811), is a spirited engraving of it. But it 
 applies to a later period of the arts, as Waynflete died in I486.] 
 
HENRY III. TO THE END OP HENRY VI. 
 
 45 
 
 magnificent charities yet exist, both in the bene- 
 fits he calculated for posterity and in the edifices 
 erected on his own designs for perpetuating those 
 pious bounties. The portrait has been engraven 
 by Houbraken among the heads of illustrious 
 men; a noble memorial, which I am sorry to 
 say was forced to be dropped (though exhibited 
 at the trifling expense of five shillings for four 
 beautiful prints) the moment the novelty of it was 
 exhausted. 
 
 The Black Prince* was represented on glass in 
 a window at the west end of Westminster abbey, 
 but the image is now almost defaced. Mr. Mau- 
 rice Johnson, the antiquary of Spalding, had a 
 
 * [Mr. Onslow, the late speaker, had a head of the Black 
 Prince, which there is great reason to believe was painted at 
 the time. It is not very ill done : It represents him in black 
 armour, embossed with gold, and with a golden lion on his 
 breast. He has a hat with a white feather, and a large ruby, 
 exactly in the shape of the rough ruby still in the crown. He 
 appears lean and pale, as he was towards the end of his life. 
 This very curious picture came out of Betchworth-castle in 
 Surrey. 
 
 [The claim of this, as a genuine portrait of the Black Prince, 
 is at least apocryphal. I cannot but consider it as of a much 
 later age, and painted even since the succeeding century. 
 There is a poor engraving of it, in the Antiquarian Repertory. 
 Among the paintings discovered in St. Stephen's Chapel, West- 
 minster, when fitted up for the accommodation of the House 
 of Commons, in 1800, were the portraits, undoubtedly taken 
 from the life, both of King Edward and his heroic son, con- 
 cerning which more will be said, in the Remarks on this 
 chapter.] 
 
46 STATE OF PAINTING FROM THE REIGN OF 
 
 MS. of Ralph Higden's Polychronicon, written in 
 1340, wherein was an illumination of the author. 
 It was shown to the Society of Antiquaries in 
 1735. 
 
 The person of Richard II.* is still preserved in 
 the most lively manner, in two different pictures. 
 The first a whole length in the abbey of West- 
 minster ; the other-f- at the Earl of Pembroke's at 
 Wilton, a small piece consisting of two tablets, on 
 which are represented the king kneeling, accom- 
 panied by his patron saints, John the Baptist, St. 
 Edmund the king and Edward the Confessor, be- 
 fore the Virgin and Child, attended by angels. 
 Hollar engraved it. To the bottom of this picture 
 are affixed these words, " Invention of painting in 
 oil 1410. This was painted before in the begin- 
 ning of Richard II. 1377, &c." These words, 
 which are very equivocal, started a question with 
 me, which I found nobody that could resolve. 
 
 * [This portrait of Richard II. was in its primary state of 
 singular curiosity. It was, at first, placed above one of the 
 stalls of the choir of Westminster Abbey ; but has been 
 removed into the Jerusalem chamber, in the Dean's lodgings. 
 It was most injudiciously restored, or in fact, painted over,, 
 about a century ago. In Carter s Ancient Sculpture and Paint- 
 ing, is given an elaborately coloured etching of it, on a large 
 scale ; and in the printed description, it is said, that either 
 Talman's drawing, or Vertue's engraving was deficient, in 
 point of accuracy. It has been lately cleaned, and made to 
 approach nearer to its original character.] 
 
 f See a full description of it in the accounts of the curiosU 
 ties at Wilton by Gambarini, Cowdry, or Kennedy. 
 
HENRY III. TO THE END OF HENRY VI. 
 
 47 
 
 Do they imply that this piece was painted in oil 
 before John ab Eyck discovered that secret in 
 1410? so one should think, for what news did the 
 inscriber tell, if he only meant that painting in 
 water-colours or miniature was practised before 
 painting in oil ? Every illuminated MS. antece- 
 dent to that date was a proof of that. The short 
 quaere would be, with what is the picture in ques- 
 tion painted ? To that I can only reply, that it is 
 covered with glass, and is too great a curiosity to 
 have experiments made upon it. It is painted on 
 a bright golden ground, the colours of the utmost 
 freshness, and not grown black as oil-colours 
 would be, and is, as I have said, guarded by a 
 glass, all which indicate that it is miniature. Yet 
 I do not pretend to decide : The inscription I have 
 mentioned and some other circumstances seem to 
 leave a doubt whether John ab Eyck was really 
 the first person who mixed his colours with oil.* 
 We have seen by a record reported above, that 
 
 * [An accurate and scientific examination of the Wilton pic- 
 ture has been made by T. Phillips, Esq. R. A. (published in 
 the Beauties of Wiltshire) who says " that it is certainly painted 
 in water colours, on a gilt ground, which is left in a most 
 ingenious manner for the ornaments of the draperies j these 
 ornaments are exceedingly rich and minute. The colours are 
 laid on very thick, with an even and full touch. The drawing 
 is very good, when we consider the early period of its produc- 
 tion/' There is every probability of its having been the work 
 of some very able illuminator, upon a large scale. It was en- 
 graved by Hollar, 1639.] 
 
48 STATE OF PAINTING FROM THE REIGN OF 
 
 long before this period oil was at least used as a 
 varnish, and it is difficult to conceive how it was 
 possible to varnish with oil either water-colours or 
 colours mixed with size. It occurred to me to 
 enquire with what the painters antecedent to John 
 ab Eyck mixed their colours : Even in this coun- 
 try there are a few pictures extant, and painted on 
 board, before oil-painting can be supposed to have 
 been introduced here. Not to mention the picture 
 at Wilton, the other of Richard II. at Westmin- 
 ster, and an undoubted original of Henry IV. # at 
 Hampton-court in Herefordshire, who died within 
 two years after John ab Eyck's discovery, must 
 be allowed to have been drawn before the new art 
 arrived here. The picture at Westminster has 
 indeed been repainted,^ therefore no conclusion 
 can be drawn from it. This question, easy as I 
 thought it, I found had been passed over without 
 
 * [The " undoubted originality' of this portrait of Henry IV. 
 may be, at least, investigated. No doubt is entertained of its 
 having been carefully preserved, at Hampton Court, Hereford- 
 shire, till its late removal to Cashiobury, Essex. When Vertue 
 was engraving his series of English monarchs, he procured 
 permission, from the proprietor, Lady Coningsby, to copy it. 
 A gentleman who resided in the neighbourhood at that time, 
 and who was particularly versed in the knowledge of old por- 
 traits, assured the editor, that it then exhibited such marks of 
 decay, that the restorer thought it necessary to paint it over, 
 in many parts. It is now highly varnished.] 
 
 t By one Capt. Brome, a print-seller near the parliament 
 house 5 but this was after Mr. Talman had taken his drawing, 
 from whence the print was engraved. 
 
HENRY III. TO THE END OF HENRY VI. 49 
 
 consideration, and though proposed to a very 
 learned body* of men, arrived at no solution^ 
 After turning over several books of painting, all 
 treating of John ab Eyck's invention, but without 
 one word of the method which his secret dispos- 
 sessed, I at last found what I sought. Sandrart 
 put an end to the difficulty by these words : 
 
 Quia autem metuebant ne muri scissuris diffinderentur, 
 hinc eosdem linteo, prius glutine mediante, induxerunt, de- 
 superque applicito gypso, postmodo demum picturas suas 
 effigurarunt, qui modus dici solet alia tempera, id est, tem- 
 peraturae aquariae. Hanc autem temperaturam ita praepa- 
 rabant : effracto prius ovo gallinaceo, in ejusdem liquore 
 frondem teneram ficulneam de ficu juniore discutiebant : ubi 
 e lacte istius frondis, eque vitello ilia nascebatur tempera- 
 tura : qua mediante, postmodum loco aquae vel gummi, vel 
 tragacanthae, colores suos subigebant, quibus dehinc opera 
 sua perficerent.f 
 
 When they painted on walls, lest the work should crack, 
 they proceeded in this manner : they glued a linen cloth 
 upon the wall, and covered that with plaister, on which they 
 painted in distemper : this was thus prepared : they dropped 
 into the yolk of an egg the milk that flows from the leaf of 
 a young fig-tree, with which instead of water, gum, or gum- 
 dragant, they mixed their last layer of colours. 
 
 It is probable from the last words of this pas- 
 sage that they laid their first colour with water or 
 gum only. 
 
 I shall be told perhaps, that this method was 
 only used for painting on walls ; but, leaving out 
 the plaister, I see nothing to hinder the same 
 preparation from being used on board. Of what 
 
 * The Society of Antiquaries, f Academ. Pictur. p. 15. 
 
 E 
 
50 STATE OF PAINTING FROM THE REIGN OF 
 
 mixture Cimabue, the restorer of the art,,* made 
 use, we are told by the same author. Multaeque 
 illius manu confectae non historiae minus, quam 
 imagines, in tabulis ligneis, colore ovis vel glutine 
 temperato.'f' 
 
 Cimabue used yolk of egg or glue, which I sup- 
 pose means size. 
 
 Still the much more ancient use of oil 5 were 
 it but as a varnish, leaves a doubt whether John 
 ab Eyck's discovery was entirely his own. The 
 remarkable record which I have so often men- 
 tioned, dates above an hundred years before the 
 common aera of painting in oil. John ab Eyck is 
 allowed to have found it in searching for a varnish. 
 Might he not have heard that such a varnish 
 or composition was in use in England ?;£ The 
 
 * [In a page immediately subsequent to this, Mr. W. states 
 that Cimabue restored or invented the art of oil-paintings, as 
 early as 1250. Now, the Italian artists, who were employed 
 in his new Abbey of Westminster by Henry III. did not arrive 
 in England, before 1270 y and at that time, they might have 
 learned the secret at Florence or Rome, and had little occasion 
 to have found it in England.] 
 
 f Academ. Pictur. p. 94. 
 
 X I cannot help hazarding a conjecture (though unsupported 
 by any of the writers on painting). There is an old altar-table 
 at Chiswick, representing the lord Clifford and his lady kneel- 
 ing. — Van Eyck's name is burnt in on the back of the board. 
 If Van Eyck was ever in England, would it not be probable 
 that he learned the secret of using oil here, and took the ho- 
 nour of the invention to himself, as we were then a country 
 little known to the world of arts, nor at leisure enough, from 
 the confusions of the times, to claim the discovery of a secret 
 
HENRY III. TO THE END OF HENRY VI. 
 
 51 
 
 very pictures I have mentioned as still extant and 
 under all the appearances of being painted in oil, 
 seem to say even more. The Painters employed 
 by Henry III. appear to have been Italians, and 
 yet it is easy to vindicate the secret from them, at 
 least I can prove that they must have found the 
 practice here, not have brought it over with them, 
 for we are told expressly that in Italy they knew 
 of no such method. When some of John ab Eyck's 
 pictures were carried to Alphonso, king of Naples, 
 the Italian painters were surprised, says Sandrart,* 
 Quod aqua purgari possent, coloribus non deletis. 
 
 which soon made such fortune abroad ? An additional pre- 
 sumption, though certainly not a proof, of Van Eyck's being in 
 England, is a picture in the duke of Devonshire's collection, 
 painted by John ab Eyck in 1422, and representing the conse- 
 cration of St. Thomas Becket. The tradition is, that it was a 
 present to Henry V. from his uncle the duke of Bedford, 
 regent of France ; but tradition is no proof $ and two pictures 
 of this author in England, one of them of an English family, 
 and the other of an English story, are at least as good evidence 
 for his having been here, as tradition for one of them being 
 painted abroad. However, I pretend to nothing more in all 
 this than mere conjecture. 
 
 * P. 105, Maffei indeed in his Verona illustrata is of a diffe- 
 rent opinion, and thinks oil-painting was known in Italy before 
 John abEyck. 
 
 [Sandrart reasons inconclusively. The Florentine artists 
 could not have expressed surprise that the colours were not to 
 be removed by the application of water, for they certainly 
 knew how to prepare their colours with oil, when Antonello 
 first made the invention or rather the application known to 
 the Neapolitan painters by the exhibition of one of ab Eyk's 
 pictures.] 
 
52 STATE OF PAINTING FROM THE REIGN OF 
 
 I must beg not to have it supposed that I am 
 setting- up any novel pretensions for the honour of 
 my own country. Where the discovery was made 
 I do not pretend to guess : the fact seems to be 
 that we had such a practice. Curious facts are 
 all I aim at relating, never attempting to establish 
 an hypothesis, which of all kind of visions can 
 nourish itself the most easily without any. The 
 passion for systems did not introduce more errors 
 into the old philosophy, than hypothesis has 
 crowded into history and antiquities. It wrests 
 all arguments to the favourite point. A man who 
 sees with Saxon eyes sees a Saxon building in 
 every molehill : a Mercian virtuoso can discover 
 king lords and commons in the tumultuary con- 
 ventions of the Wittenagemot ; and an enthusiast 
 to the bards find primaeval charms in the rudest 
 ballad that was bawled by the mob three or four 
 hundred years ago. But the truths we antiqua- 
 ries search for, do not seem of importance enough 
 to be supported by fictions : the world in general 
 thinks our studies of little consequence ; they do 
 not grow more valuable by being stuffed with 
 guesses and invention. 
 
 The painters of these portraits* of king Richard 
 
 * Another representation of this king is exhibited by Mont- 
 faucon from a MS. Froisard in the library of the king of France. 
 There is another illuminated edition of that author in the Bri- 
 tish Museum,t in which is a miniature of the young monarch 
 
 f [This most beautiful and perfect of the MS. copies of Froissart ? 
 
HENRY III. TO THE END OF HENRY VI. 
 
 53 
 
 are still more uncertain than the method in which 
 they painted. I can find no names of artists* at 
 
 sitting on his throne and attended by his uncles. In the same 
 place is an historic poem in old French, written by a person of 
 condition in the service of Richard II. and an eye-witness of all 
 that he relates. It has sixteen curious illuminations, in which 
 that king is eight times represented in different situations. f 
 There are also the portraits of Henry of Lancaster (four times) 
 of Archbishop Arundel, the Dukes of Surrey and of Exeter, the 
 earls of Northumberland, Salisbury, &c. Part of this curious 
 piece was translated by George Carew, Earl of Totness ; the 
 translation was published with ten other tracts in a thin folio 
 called Hibernica, by Walter Harris; Dublin, 1747- 
 
 * Except of John Sutton, a carver, who was employed by 
 Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, to alter a statue of the 
 famous Guy, Earl of Warwick, standing in the choir of the 
 church there, and to cut the arms of the ancient Earls on it. 
 It was from the spoils of this family that Richard II. granted 
 to his half brother Thomas, Duke of Surrey, a suit of arras 
 
 which are to be found not unfrequently, both in public and private 
 libraries in England, is a very large and magnificent folio volume, 
 marked No. 4350, MSS. Harleian Brit. Museum. It is covered with 
 green velvet, and has large clasps of silver. The illuminations are 
 very numerous and elaborately finished with gold and colours, of 
 which four centuries have not diminished the freshness and brilliancy. 
 In almost every page we are presented with a portrait or scene, in 
 which the dress, armour, furniture and architecture of the 14th cen- 
 tury are minutely given. The portraits of K. Edward III. his son and 
 Richard II. occur in several instances. The " Historic poem" is still 
 superior to it, for the delicacy of the limnings. That is likewise 
 among the MSS. Harl. numbered 1319. Appended to Johnes's 
 Translation of Froissart, 4to. are engravings of the first mentioned: 
 and outlines of the last, are given in the very excellent prose trans- 
 lation by the Rev. J. Webb, published in the 20th vol. of the 
 Archceologia. 
 
 f Strutt has engraved them for his Regal and Ecclesiastic Antiquities. 
 
54 STATE OF PAINTING FROM THE REIGN OF 
 
 that period. Nor is this extraordinary. In coun- 
 tries where the science flourished more, our know- 
 ledge of the professors is very imperfect. Though 
 Cimabue restored the art as early as 1250, yet the 
 number of his successors on record is extremely 
 small, 'till Antonello of Messina carried the secret 
 of painting in oil into Italy: and for Flanders., 
 where it was invented, the biographers of the mas- 
 ters of that country, as Carl Vermander, Sandrart, 
 &c. professedly begin their lists with John ab 
 Eyck. We must leave therefore in the dark what 
 we find irrecoverably so. 
 
 Two of the artists employed on the tomb of 
 Richard are recorded by Stowe. That prince had 
 prepared it for himself and his queen. B. and 
 Godfrey of Woodstreet, goldsmiths, made the 
 moulds and cast the images of the king and queen 
 [still extant in the abbey] " the charges of gild- 
 ing of them cost 400 marks."* 
 
 The next picture of the same age is a portrait 
 of John of Gaunt-}- painted on glass, with other 
 portraits of that time, in the college of All Souls 
 at Oxford. 
 
 wrought with the story of the same Guy. See Dugdales 
 Warwickshire, p. 402, 431. The city of London made presents 
 to Richard and his queen, among other curiosities, of pictures 
 of the Trinity valued at 8001. An enormous sum for that time ! 
 See Descrip, of Lond. and the Environs, vol. iv. p. 30. 
 * Annals, p. 342. 
 
 f [Engraved and coloured in Carter s Anc. Sculpt, and Archit. 
 The other portraits, which have the best claim to be considered 
 
HENRY III. TO THE END OF HENRY VI. 55 
 
 His son, Henry IV. is extant, as I have said, at 
 Hampton-court in Herefordshire, formerly his 
 palace :* a copy or duplicate of this piece is at 
 Kensington. In a book called Studio di Pittura, 
 Scoltura, &c. di Filippo Tito, is a coin of Charles 
 
 as original and contemporary, are those of Hen. VI. and Arch- 
 bishop Chicheley. There were once those of Edward III. Henry 
 IV. and V., and of John Stratford, Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 Wood, p. 486.] 
 
 * This is the common report. Others say that Hampton- 
 court was built by Sir John Lenthall, from the profit of spoils 
 taken in the French war under Henry V. consequently Henry 
 IV. could not have lived there. 
 
 [Leland's authority is beyond tradition. In the 4th vol. of 
 his Itinerary (p. 91) he distinctly mentions Hampton-court, in 
 Herefordshire, and its founder, with the date and cause of its 
 being built. " This place was sumptuously erected by one Sir 
 (Rowland) Lenthal knight, that thus rose by service. He 
 was yeoman of the robes to K. Henry IV. and being a gallant 
 fellowe, either a daughter or a neere kinswoman of the kinges 
 fell in love with him, and in continuance, was wedded unto 
 him." He adds, " This Lenthal was victorious at the battaile 
 of Agincourte, and tooke many prisoners there, by which pay 
 he began the newe building of Hampton Courte." Margaret, 
 daughter of Richard Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, who was allied 
 in blood to the king, was the wife of Sir Rowland Lenthal. 
 Suspended round the neck of the portrait in question, is a 
 jewel or piece of gold marked with a lion rampant, which was 
 never adopted as a cognizance by the house of Lancaster j but 
 was the bearing of Fitz- Alan. May it not then rather represent 
 the Earl of Arundel, and have been copied in large, from a 
 miniature illumination at a later period. It is observable, that 
 a similar turban or coif, partly hanging on one side, appears 
 likewise to have been worn by one of the nobility, attendant 
 on Richard II. See the MS. already adverted to.] 
 
56 STATE OF PAINTING FROM THE REIGN OF 
 
 VI. of France with exactly the same extraordinary 
 head dress, as was worn by this king. 
 
 Vertue met with a fine illuminated MS. of this 
 age, a missal for the use of Salisbury ; in the be- 
 ginning was the figure of John Lord Lovel receiv- 
 ing the book from Frater Johannes Sifernas, who 
 was probably the illuminator. It is now in the 
 British Museum. 
 
 The fine east window in the cathedral of York 
 was painted in this reign, at the expense of the Dean 
 and Chapter, who contracted with John Thornton, 
 glazier, of Coventry, to execute it. He was to 
 receive for his own work four shillings a week, 
 and to finish the whole in less than three years. 
 The indenture, still preserved, adds, that he was 
 to receive an hundred shillings sterling, each of 
 the three years ; and if he executed his work truly 
 and perfectly, he was to have ten pounds more. 
 Another indenture of 1338, for glazing some of the 
 west windows, articles, that the workman should 
 have sixpence a foot for white glass, and twelve 
 pence for coloured. The great window* evidences 
 how able an artist John Thornton was.~f~ 
 
 The painted effigies of Chaucer;}: remained till 
 
 * [The west window in the same Cathedral, and the east 
 window at Gloucester, are not inferior in point of dimensions, 
 number of compartments, or workmanship ; and are likewise 
 of the same era. In the next century, similar examples abound.] 
 
 t Drakes York, p. 527- 
 
 X [This portrait of Chaucer could not have afforded any 
 specimen of painting in the reign of Henry IV. for it was copied 
 
HENRY III. TO THE END OF HENRY VI. 57 
 
 within these few years on his tomb at Westminster ; 
 and another^ says Vertue on his print of that poet, 
 is preserved in an illuminated MS. of Thomas 
 Occleve., painted by Occleve himself. Urry and 
 Tanner both mention such a portrait, which places 
 Occleve in the rank of one of our first painters as 
 well as poets.* 
 
 Henry V. is likewise on board at Kensington, and 
 on vellum in some MSS. as Vertue says in his 
 account prefixed to the heads of our kings, but he 
 does not mention where those MSS. are preserved. 
 But a most curious picture of this king and his 
 family is still extant in the collection of James 
 
 from some known miniature of him, when Nicholas Bingham 
 erected a monument to his memory in Westminster Abbey, in 
 1550, as the inscription proves, at which time it was painted 
 against the wall. No trace is now visible. A miniature of 
 Chaucer, on horseback, as he represents himself journeying 
 with the pilgrims to Canterbury, is preserved in a MS. of his 
 poems, belonging to the Marquis of Stafford, which has been 
 engraved in Todd's Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer, 8vo. 
 1810. Other MSS. have his portrait, but usually of half length 
 only.] 
 
 * I find by Montfaucon that the use of crayons was known in 
 this age in France 5 but nothing of that kind appears to have 
 been practised in this country. See his account of the por- 
 traits of John duke of Berry and Louis duke of Orleans, the 
 uncle and the brother of Charles VI. 
 
 [ A most curious illumination of the Coronation of Henry V. 
 is preserved ampng the MSS. in Bene't College library at 
 Cambridge. See Archaeolog. vol. ii. p. 194, and vol. Hi. p. 189. 
 It is a frontispiece to a French translation of the Legenda 
 Aurea.'] 
 
58 STATE OF PAINTING FROM THE REIGN OF 
 
 West, Esq. secretary of the treasury.* This piece 
 is evidently painted in oil-colours ; and though the 
 new art might have reached England before the 
 death of that prince, which happened in 1422, yet 
 there are many circumstances that lead me to 
 think it of a later date. It w T as an altar-piece at 
 Shene, and in all probability was painted by order 
 of Henry VII. for the chapel in his palace there. 
 His fondness for the House of Lancaster is too 
 well known to be dwelt on : the small resemblance 
 of the portrait of Henry V. to genuine pictures of 
 him, and the great resemblance of all the other 
 personages to one another, make it evident that it 
 was rather a work of command and imagination 
 than of authenticity. Add to this, that on the tents 
 (which I shall mention presently) portcullises are 
 mixed with red roses ; the portcullis-^ was the 
 cognizance of the illegitimate branch of Beaufort, 
 and was never that I can find born by the house 
 of Lancaster ;J but when Henry VII. gave him- 
 self for the heir of that royal line, no wonder he 
 crowded the badges of his own bastard blood 
 among the emblems of the crown. However, the 
 whole piece is so ancient and so singular, that I 
 
 * It is now at Strawberry-hill. 
 
 f See Sandford. 
 
 X The red rose is another proof that this picture was not 
 painted in the reign of Henry V. as the red and white roses 
 were not adopted as distinctions of the two houses, till the reign 
 of Henry VI. 
 
HENRY Iff. TO THE END OF HENRY VI. 59 
 
 shall be excused inserting the description of it in 
 this place. 
 
 It is painted on several boards joined, and is 
 four feet three inches high, by four feet six wide. 
 
 On the left hand is the king in dark purple 
 robes lined with ermine, the crown on his head ; 
 he is kneeling before a desk on which is a missal, 
 and the sceptre and globe. Behind him on their 
 knees are his three brothers, Thomas duke of Cla- 
 rence ; * John duke of Bedford ; Humphrey duke 
 of Glocester. They are dressed in robes like the 
 king's, and wear golden coronets : over them is a 
 tent, striped with white and gold, on which are 
 red roses crowned ; and the valance of the same 
 colours with red roses and portcullises. A small 
 angel flying holds the top of the tent. The queen 
 is opposite, under another tent exactly in the same 
 manner, except that there is no sceptre on her 
 desk. Behind her, are four ladies dressed like her, 
 and with coronets. The two first are probably 
 Blanche, duchess of Bavaria, and Philippa, queen 
 of Denmark, the kings sisters ; who the other two 
 are is more difficult to decide, as they are repre- 
 sented with dishevelled hair, which in pictures of 
 that time, is a mark of virginity. It has been 
 supposed that the two elder were the wives of the 
 dukes of Clarence and Bedford, and the two 
 younger their sisters ; but this clashes with all 
 
 * This is extremely unlike the miniature of him which I shall 
 mention presently j and which is too remarkable a face not to 
 have had much resemblance. 
 
60 STATE OP PAINTING FROM THE REIGN OF 
 
 history and chronology. Blanche and Philippa 
 were both married early in their father's reign : 
 and to suppose the two younger ladies the brides 
 of Clarence and Bedford would be groundless, for 
 Margaret Holland, the wife of the former, was a 
 widow when he married her. As all the portraits 
 are imaginary, it does not much signify for whom 
 the painter intended them. A larger angel stand- 
 ing, holds the cloth of the two tents together. On 
 a rising ground above the tents is St. George on a 
 brown steed striking with his sword at the dragon 
 which is flying in the air, and already pierced 
 through the forehead with a spear., on which is a 
 flag with the cross of St. George. Cleodelinde, 
 with a lamb, is praying beneath the dragon. On 
 the hills are gothic buildings and castles in a 
 pretty taste. 
 
 This curious picture, after it was taken from 
 Shene, was in the Arundelian collection, and was 
 sold at Tart-hall in 1719. In the long gallery at 
 Lambeth is an ancient portrait of queen Catherine 
 of Valois, and another of archbishop Chicheley. 
 
 Richard Frampton had a gift of five marks from 
 Henry V. for illuminating a book of grants in the 
 office of the dutchy of Lancaster. 
 
 An original portrait of John duke of Bedford, 
 above-mentioned, is extant* in a fine illuminated 
 
 * It is now in the collection of her grace the duchess of 
 Portland : the duke of Bedford's head was engraved by Vertue 
 with those of the kings. 
 
 [It has passed from Mr. Edwards, bookseller, to the Duke 
 of Marlborough, and from him to Earl Spencer, 1823 J 
 
HENRY III. TO THE END OF HENRY VI. 61 
 
 Prayer Book presented by him to Henry VI. The 
 duke and his first wife Anne of Burgundy are 
 represented with their arms and devices. 
 
 Of that indiscreet but amiable and unfortunate 
 prince Humphrey duke of Gloucester, I know* no 
 memorial ; nor will I mention him but to make 
 one remark, sufficient alone to detect the malice 
 of his enemies, if it had not been detected. What 
 probability was there that the wife of a man illus- 
 trious for exposing impostors, who encouraged 
 learning,^ and founded the Divinity-school at 
 Oxford, should have dared under his roof to dab- 
 ble with witches and necromancers? His first 
 wife Jaqueline, the amorous Countess of Holland, 
 is known by more than one monument. Two 
 fine prints of her, and her last husband, were pub- 
 lished in 1753 by Folkema, from pictures painted 
 by Mostert at Harlem. William Bridges, the 
 first Garter King at Arms, instituted by Henry V. 
 set up in the windows of the church of St. George 
 at Stanford the portraits of the first Knights of 
 the Garter: It was from these paintings that 
 Hollar etched the plate of them published in Ash- 
 mole's history of the order.^: 
 
 In the reign of Henry VI. our field begins to 
 grow less barren. Many portraits of the king 
 
 * I have since the first edition of this work,, authenticated 
 two portraits of that prince 5 v. hereafter, p. 63. 
 
 t He had a valuable library for that time, and gave 129 
 volumes to the university. Hearne. 
 
 % Peck's Annals of Stanford, book ii, chap. IS. 
 
62 STATE OF PAINTING FROM THE REIGN OF 
 
 himself are preserved, as on board at Kensington 
 and on glass in the chapel of Kings college. In 
 my possession is a remarkable piece, which so 
 many circumstances affix to the history of this 
 prince that I cannot hesitate to believe it designed 
 for him, though I imagine it was painted after 
 his death. It is the representation of his mar- 
 riage. There are eleven figures, of which all the 
 heads are well painted; the draperies are hard 
 and stiff. The king in rich robes, but with rude 
 dishevelled hair, as are all the men, stands before 
 the portal of a magnificent church, giving his 
 hand to the queen, who is far from being a lovely 
 bride, and whom the painter seems satirically to 
 have insinuated by the prominence of her waist 
 not to have been so perfect a virgin as her flowing 
 hair denotes. Kemp, archbishop of York and 
 afterwards of Canterbury, and one of her chief 
 counsellors, is performing the marriage rites by 
 holding the pallium over their conjoined hands. 
 It is remarkable that the prelate wears thin yellow 
 gloves, which are well represented. Behind the 
 king, in a robe of state, stands the duke of Glou- 
 cester, and seems reproving a nobleman,* whom 
 I take for the marquis of Suffolk. Behind the 
 queen is a lady in a kind of turban or diadem, 
 probably designed for her mother, the titular queen 
 of Naples and Jerusalem. Beyond her, another 
 
 * He has a hawk on his fist, a mark of nobility in old 
 paintings. 
 
S.Frurrum sculp? 
 
 MAmmi[A(&3S ©IF M3EM3RT W? 
 
 London. 
 
 Published by John Major. bO, Fleet Street 
 
HENRY III. TO THE END OF HENRY VI. 63 
 
 in a widow's dress, opposite to whom is a comely 
 gentleman. This pair I conclude is Jaqueline, 
 duchess of Bedford, widow of duke John, and her 
 second husband. Our historian says that pretty 
 suddenly after the duke's death, she married Sir 
 Richard Widville, a goodly young knight. They 
 were the parents of Elizabeth, queen of Edward 
 IV.* 
 
 On the fore ground, opposite to the marquis of 
 Suffolk stands a noble virgin, whom I take for 
 Margaret of Richmond, mother of Henry VII. One 
 of the charges against the marquis of Suffolk was, 
 that he endeavoured to marry his son to this lady 
 Margaret, a princess of the blood. Near the 
 archbishop is a cardinal, who is certainly Win- 
 chester, the king's great uncle. The face is very 
 like the image on his tomb at Winchester ; nor 
 can one account for his not performing the cere- 
 mony, but by his dignity of prince of the blood, 
 which did not suffer by the ministration of an 
 inferior prelate. Behind the queen of Naples is 
 an abbess, and at a distance a view of a town, 
 that must be Tichfield, from whence the queen 
 was led to be married at Southwick. Besides the 
 
 * The portraits of Duke Humphrey and archbishop Kemp 
 have been authenticated by two others of the same persons, 
 which formed part of an altar-piece at St. Edmundsbury, and 
 are now at Strawberry-hill. 
 
 t [As late as the 16th century a portrait of Humphrey Duke of 
 Gloucester was perfect in a window of Greenwich Old Church, which 
 was engraved for the Catalogue of the Bodleian Library, letter K.] 
 
64 STATE OF PAINTING FROM THE REIGN OF 
 
 seeming pregnancy of the queen., there is another 
 circumstance, conclusive for this picture being 
 painted after the death of Henry. Round his head 
 is the nimbus or glory: an addition that was as 
 posterior to his marriage, as the painter seems to 
 intimate the queen's fruitfulness was anterior to 
 it. Round the hem of the queen's robe are some 
 letters, 5 * which are far from being so intelligible 
 as the other incidents. The words are involved 
 in the folds ; what appear, are Vol salv Regin m 
 — one knows that Salve Regina mater coelorum 
 is the beginning of a hymn — but I know not what 
 to make of Vol. — the painter probably was no 
 Latinist — and indeed the first letter of Regina, he 
 has drawn more like to a B than an R. On the 
 abbess's girdle is Vel ave— as little to be decy- 
 phered as her majesty's Vol. 
 
 But it is to Sir William Dugdale that I am 
 indebted for the greatest discoveries I have made 
 towards the history of our ancient artists. In 
 that collection of various treasures which he has 
 saved from oblivion [saved the more luckily, as 
 he wrote but the instant before it became piety to 
 commit devastation] he has incidentally preserved 
 
 * This was a fashion as early as the reign of Richard II. 
 when Edward Earl of Rutland, the Lord Spencer, and others 
 accused the Earl of Arundel of treason, they appeared before 
 the king at Nottingham in red gowns of silk, garded and bor- 
 dered with white silk and embroidered with letters of gold. Peck's 
 Annals of Stanford 12, 39. The lady Margaret in this picture 
 is in a green gown bordered with white silk. 
 
HENRY III. TO THE END OF HENRY VI. 
 
 65 
 
 some memorials of the state of painting in the 
 reigns of our earliest princes. I have found some 
 names of the professors, and even the rates of 
 their work. I call them professors, agreeably to 
 modern estimation, but our ancestors seem to 
 have treated them without any distinction from 
 other mechanics. If Henry III. bespoke pictures 
 by the intervention of the sheriff, under Henry VI. 
 we were still so unpolished, that a peer of the first 
 nobility going into France on an embassy, con- 
 tracted with his taylor for the painter's work that 
 was to be displayed in the pageantry of his jour- 
 ney. The bill itself is so curious that I shall 
 transcribe part of it. 
 
 " Thes be the parcels that Will. Seburgh citizen 
 and peyntour of London hath delivered in the 
 month of Juyll the xv yeer of the reign of king 
 Harry the sixt, to John Ray, taillour of the same 
 citee, for the use and stuff of my lord of Warwyk. 
 
 Ferst, cccc pencels bete with the raggidde staffe of silver, 
 pris the pece vd. 08Z.— 6s.— OOd. 
 
 Item, for the peynting of two paveys for my lord, the one 
 with a gryfon stondying in my lordis colours rede, white 
 and russet, pris of the pavys 00 — 06 — 08. 
 
 Item, for the other pavys peyntid with black and a raggid 
 staffe bete with silver occupying all the felde, pris 00—03 
 —04. 
 
 Item, one coat for my lordis body, bete with fine gold^ 
 pris 01—10—00. 
 
 Item, for a grete stremour for the ship of xl yerdis 
 length, and vin yerdis in brede, with a grete bere and 
 gryfon holding a ragidd staffe, poudrid full of raggid staves ; 
 
 VOL, I. F 
 
66 STATE OF PAINTING FROM THE REIGN OF 
 
 and for a grete crosse of St* George, for the lymmyng and 
 portraying — 01 — 06 — 08. 
 
 There are several other articles which the reader 
 may find at length in the original from whence I 
 have copied these. * 
 
 If it is objected to me, that this was mere herald's 
 painting, I answer, that was almost the only paint- 
 ing we had. The art was engrossed by and con- 
 fined to the vanity or devotion of the nobility. 
 The arms they bore and quartered, their missals, 
 their church - windows and the images of their 
 idols were the only circumstances in which they 
 had any employment for a painter. Even por- 
 traits, the object of modern vanity, seem not to 
 have been in fashion. I know not one except of 
 the blood royal or of a bishop or two, painted 
 during the period of which I am writing. Devout 
 subjects were held in sufficient estimation. Isabel 
 countess of Warwick, in 1439, bequeathed her 
 tablet with the image of Our Lady to the church of 
 Walsingham, and it is even mentioned that this 
 tablet had a glass over it. I cannot pass over 
 this magnificent lady without taking a little notice 
 of some other particulars of her will. She was 
 daughter and at length sole heiress of Thomas le 
 Despenser Earl of Gloucester, widow of Richard 
 Beauchamp Earl of Worcester, and afterwards by 
 dispensation married to his cousin that potent and 
 warlike peer, Richard Beauchamp Earl of War- 
 wick, Their portraits on glass with others of 
 
 * Dugdales Warwickshire, p. 408, 
 
HENRY III. TO THE END OF HENRY VI. 67 
 
 their lineage were long extant in the church at 
 Warwick. Her great templys* with the baleys 
 sold to the utmost, she gave to the monks of 
 Tewksbury, so that they grucht not with her 
 burial there, and what else she had appointed to 
 be done about the same. To Our Lady of Wal- 
 singham, her gown of green alyz cloth of gold 
 with wide sleeves, and a tabernacle of silver like 
 in the timbre to that over our lady of Caversham, 
 and ordered that her great image of wax, then at 
 London, should be offered to our lady of Wor- 
 cester. To the abbey of Tewksbury she gave 
 her wedding gown, and all her cloaths of gold 
 and cloaths of silk without furs, saving one of 
 russet velvet which she bestowed on St. Winifrede. 
 But having thus disposed of her wardrobe for the 
 use of the saints, she seems to have had very dif- 
 ferent thoughts about herself, ordering that " a 
 statue of her should be made all nakyd with her 
 hair cast backward, according to the design and 
 model that one Thomas Porchalion had for that 
 purpose." This extreme prohibition of all cover- 
 ing, I suppose, flowed from some principle of 
 humility in this good lady, who having divested 
 herself of all vain ornaments in favour of Our 
 Lady and St. Winifrede, would not indulge her 
 own person even in the covering of the hair of 
 her head. And it looks, by the legacy to the 
 
 * Jewels hanging on the foreheads of ladies by bodkins 
 thrust into their hair. See Dugdales Warwickshire, p. 413. 
 
68 STATE OF PAINTING FROM THE REIGN OF 
 
 monks above, as if she had some apprehensions 
 that they would not relish or comprehend the 
 delicacy of such total rejection of all superfluities. 
 I was willing to mention this testament too, be- 
 cause it seems to record even the name of an 
 ancient statuary. Other statuaries and founders 
 are mentioned in the cost bestowed on the tomb 
 of the Earl her husband. Dugdale has preserved 
 the covenant between the executors and the artists. 
 There I find John Essex, mar bier, William Austin, 
 founder, Thomas Stevens, coppersmyth, John 
 Bourde of CorfFe castle, marbler, Bartholomew 
 Lambspring a Dutch goldsmith ; they agree on 
 all the particulars for the image on the tomb, and 
 the little images and escutcheons round it. The 
 tomb with the image still extant in polished brass 
 of the highest preservation witnesses that the 
 artists were excellent enough to deserve this memo- 
 rial. John Prudde of Westminster, called simply, 
 glazier, appears to have painted the windows of 
 the chapel; and it was particularly stipulated 
 that " he should employ no glass of England, but 
 with glass beyond the seas, and that in the finest 
 wise, with the best, cleanest, and strongest glasse, 
 of beyond sea that may be had in England, and of 
 the finest colours of blew, yellow, red, purpure, 
 sanguine and violet, and of all other colours that 
 shall be most necessary and best to make rich and 
 embellish the matters, images and stories that 
 shall be delivered and appointed by the said exe- 
 cutors by patterns in paper, afterwards to be newly 
 
HENRY III. TO THE END OF HENRY VI. 69 
 
 traced and pictured by another painter in rich 
 colour at the charges of the said glazier." By all 
 these circumstances it is plain that the executors 
 thought that the magnificence of the intended 
 monument must consist in the value and show of 
 the materials, rather than in any excellence of the 
 workmanship. This covenant carries us still far- 
 ther, and has even brought to light a history- 
 painter of that time. John Brentwood citizen and 
 steyner of London engages ee to paint on the west 
 wall of the chapel the dome of our Lord Jesus 
 and all manner of devises and imagery thereunto 
 belonging, of fair and sightly proportion, as the 
 place shall serve for, with the finest colours and 
 fine gold ;" and Kristian Coleburne, another painter 
 dwelling in London, undertakes to paint " in most 
 fine, fairest and curious wise four images of stone, 
 of our lady, St. Gabraell the angel, St. Anne and 
 St. George ; these four to be painted with the 
 finest oil colours, in the richest, finest and freshest 
 clothings that may be made of fine gold, azure, of 
 fine purpure, of fine white, and other finest colours 
 necessary, garnished, bordered and poudered in 
 the finest and curiousest wise." 
 
 This singular record contains too the prices 
 stipulated for the several performances. The tomb 
 was to cost 1251. sterling; the image 40/. the 
 gilding of the image and its appurtenances, 13/. 
 The glass-painter was to have 2s. for every foot of 
 glass, and so for the whole VlL Is. lOd. The 
 
70 STATE OF PAINTING FROM THE REIGN OF 
 
 scripture-piece on the wall was to cost 13/. 6s. 8d. 
 and the painting of the four images 12/. The 
 whole expence of the chapel and monument, which 
 were not compleated under one and twenty years, 
 amounted to 2481/. 3s. Id. 
 
 The wealth and splendour of that family was so 
 great, that Henry Beauchamp, son of Richard and 
 Isabel, was at the age of nineteen created premier 
 Earl of England, and three days after he was 
 made Duke of Warwick, with precedence next to 
 the Duke of Norfolk and before the Duke of 
 Buckingham— an act of power so destructive of 
 all the vanity of nobility and blood, that the duke 
 of Buckingham could not digest it : It occasioned 
 such animosity, that the king was obliged to qua- 
 lify his grant, by establishing between the con- 
 tending parties a rotation of seniority, each to 
 take place alternately for a year> the survivor to 
 precede for his life the heir of the other, and so 
 in perpetuum. A senseless jumble, soon liquidated 
 by a more egregious act of folly, the king with 
 his own hand crowning the young Duke of War- 
 wick king of the isle of Wight — nor can one easily 
 conceive a more ridiculous circumstance, than a 
 man who had lost the kingdom of France amusing 
 himself with bestowing the diadem of the little 
 isle of Wight — but to return to our artists — I find 
 the name of another sculptor at the same sera ; 
 not employed indeed in any considerable work, 
 and called only Richard the carver ; he and one 
 
HENRY III. TO THE END OF HENRY VI. 71 
 
 brother Rowsby, a monk, were engaged on some 
 repairs in the church of St. Mary at Stanford.* 
 
 But the most valuable artists of that age were 
 the illuminators of manuscripts. Their drawing 
 was undoubtedly stiff, but many of the ornaments, 
 as animals, flowers and foliage they often painted 
 in a good taste, and finished highly. To several 
 missals were added portraits of the princes and 
 princesses to whom they belonged, or for whom 
 they were designed as presents. The dresses and 
 buildings of the times are preserved, though by 
 frequent anachronisms applied to the ages of 
 scripture ; and the gold and colours are of the 
 greatest brightness and beauty. Several receipts 
 for laying these on, are extant, particularly in the 
 British Museum.^- Dugdale from some of these 
 illuminations has given cuts of two remarkable 
 combats or tournaments performed in the 15th 
 year of king Henry VI \ in which the designs are 
 far from unworthy of a better age ; and the cus- 
 toms and habits delineated with great accuracy. 
 
 Henry himself, I suppose, had no taste for the 
 arts — the turbulent ambition of his queen left her 
 as little — yet she was the daughter of a prince, 
 
 * See Peck's Antiquities of Stanford, lib. 14, cap. 5. 
 
 t See Catal. Harl. MSS. No. 273. art. 34, where is also a 
 receipt for painting on glass. In that collection is a MS. in 
 which Henry VI. is represented looking out of a window in 
 the Tower. In Dufresnes Greek Glossary are three receipts 
 for illuminating under the article ^gugoygu^ix. There are two 
 others in Montfaucon's Palaeographia Graeca. 
 
 § See Warwickshire, p. 110. 
 
72 STATE OF PAINTING FROM THE REIGN OF 
 
 who was not only reckoned the best painter of his 
 age, but who would really appear no mean per- 
 former in the present : This was Rene of Anjou, 
 king of the two Sicilies, Duke of Lorrain and 
 Count of Provence, much known from having lost 
 almost all his dominions ; yet it has been little 
 remarked that he was one of the very few princes 
 who did not deserve to lose them, having merited 
 from his subjects the title of the good. His own 
 picture painted by himself is still extant in the 
 chapel of the Carmelites at Aix, and the print 
 from it in Montfaucon's Antiquities of France will 
 justify what I have said of this prince's talent. 
 
 In this age was finished the cloyster adjoining 
 to the old church of St. Paul : It was built round 
 a chapel in Pardon-church Hawgh, a place situated 
 on the north side of the church, where Thomas 
 More dean of St. Paul's in the reign of Henry V. 
 restored an ancient chapel, but dying before he 
 had accomplished it, it was finished by his execu- 
 tors, by license from Henry VI. On the walls of 
 this cloyster was painted, at the charge of Jenkyn 
 Carpenter, a citizen of London, the Dance of 
 Death, in imitation of that in the cloyster adjoin- 
 ing to St. Innocent's church-yard at Paris. Un- 
 derneath were English verses (to explain the paint- 
 ings) translated from the French, by JohnLidgate 
 the famous poetic monk of Bury. Dugdale has 
 preserved the lines, and Holbein by borrowing 
 the thought, ennobled the pictures. * 
 
 * See Dugdale s St. Paul's, p. 134, and Stowe, 354. 
 
HENRY III. TO THE END OF HENRY VI. 
 
 73 
 
 Ik this reign John de Whethamsted abbot of 
 St. Albans, a man of great learning and merit, 
 adorned the chapel of our lady there with various 
 paintings, as he did the sides the church and his 
 own lodgings, under all which paintings he caused 
 mottos and inscriptions to be placed. At his 
 manor of Tittenhanger he had pictures in the 
 church of all the saints of his own name* 
 
 I shall close my notes on the state of painting 
 under Henry VI. with observing that the portraits 
 on glass in the windows-}- of the college of All 
 Souls at Oxford were painted in his reign. 
 
 * Chauncy, 445. 
 
 f [Mr. Pennant discovered at Canon's Ashby, the seat of the 
 Marquis of Northampton, two portraits painted in oil, upon 
 pannel, of the age of Henry VI. They represent the great 
 warrior, Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury and his countess. The 
 Earl is in his tabard of arms. A duplicate, which had been 
 placed near his tomb, in Old St. Paul's Cathedral, was brought 
 after the fire of London, to the College of Arms, where it is 
 still preserved.] 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 Mr. Walpole, who wrote an account of Noble Authors, and 
 who lived himself to be one of them, possessed a felicitous 
 style. He always thought with animation, and expressed 
 himself with perspicuity. His was a well-stored mind, under 
 the guidance of Taste. The History of Painting in England, a 
 subject, in its first sera, necessarily barren in itself, he has 
 rendered interesting to common inquirers, by the novelty of 
 his remarks, and valuable to the lovers of the antiquities of 
 their own country, by authentic memorials of the arts, as 
 they then existed. 
 
74 STATE OF PAINTING FROM THE REIGN OF 
 
 These pursuits, which before his time, had been mostly 
 confined to the obscure and plodding investigator, having been 
 thus adopted by a man of rank and consideration, enjoyed the 
 protection of fashion ; and a curiosity having been excited, 
 collections were formed, and inquiries discussed which have 
 much encreased the fund of information. 
 
 Should we judge only, by the present state of knowledge 
 and general acquirement, which every man of taste and litera- 
 ture now possesses, we should be little aware of the confined 
 and partial acquaintance, which our immediate predecessors 
 had with such subjects, before the appearance of these volumes 
 in their first edition. 
 
 We certainly owe to Mr. Walpole, a direction of the mind 
 to pursuits of high gratification, to be experienced by those who 
 value the arts, as well in their origin, as their perfection, and 
 who love to ascertain, and to contemplate the efforts of skill, 
 ingenuity and fancy, which were displayed in the habits of our 
 forefathers. Rude magnificence, in their external shows, did 
 not engage all their attention. Their richly painted oratories 
 and cabinets, their tapestries, and their embossed and illumi- 
 nated manuscript books, shared their delight and expenditure, 
 in no inferior degree. Among the first efforts of design and 
 painting, were limnings* or illuminations, introduced as embel- 
 
 * [Du Cange ascertains the origin and meaning of the word limning, 
 or as he terms it " Illumination" — " illuminare, coloribus adum- 
 brare — " illuminator, Enlumineur, Gallice, Aurarius Pictoras occur- 
 ring in Ordericus Vitalis, L. 3, p. 480. 
 
 Spelman in his Glossary. " Illuminare," Anglice to limne — and he 
 quotes Higden de Osmundo Episc. Sarisburiensi " ut ipsemet Episc. 
 libros scribere, ligare, et illuminare non fastidiret." " Miniare" quasi 
 minio describere, miniator " relieveur in vermilion." The custom of 
 writing the great initial letters, in MSS. with red lead, or vermilion, 
 was the most ancient variation, for the sake of ornament, and that 
 which eventually introduced the exquisitely finished miniatures, in- 
 closed within the space once occupied by the letter. In many MSS. 
 common-place books, or collections made by the more ingenious 
 monks, we find secrets and recipes of the various modes and processes, 
 by which colours and the laying on of solid gold were effected. 
 
HENRY III. TO THE END OF HENRY VI. 
 
 75 
 
 lishments of the more splendidly written missals and chronicles, 
 which when finished in the greatest degree of excellence, of 
 which they were capable, were extremely rare, and of vast 
 expense, the pride of the possessor in life, and the subject of 
 testamentary bequest. 
 
 The devastation committed by the early reformers upon 
 these exquisite specimens of art, exceeded the destruction and 
 mutilation of stained windows, or the obliterating of fresco 
 paintings from the walls. Humphrey Duke of St. Albans, 
 and Tiptoft Earl of Worcester, presented many of the very 
 rich MSS. to the newly founded library at Oxford, the annihi- 
 lation of which (a copy of Valerius Flaccus only excepted) is 
 so deeply deplored by A' Wood. 
 
 The whole life of an individual artist was not unfrequently 
 spent in completing a single MS. ; so great was the number 
 and so exquisite the finishing of the subjects. Others, and 
 the more common, have a limning, as a frontispiece, repre- 
 senting the artist offering his book to his patron, a king or 
 nobleman ; and with the initial letters and bordures wrought 
 in gold, intermixed with the brightest colours.* 
 
 To some readers, perhaps, a concise view of the MSS. of 
 this description, still extant in England ; and particularly those 
 
 * A more curious instance of minute representation than that of 
 the MS. Froissart, above quoted, does not remain to our time. We 
 have the chamber and bed in which Anne wife of Richard II. died. 
 Rich specimens of dossers, or clothes of estate placed behind the 
 king at the high table ; arras, insides of royal tents, trappings of 
 horses, which reach the ground, composed of silk boudekin, and gold : 
 views of the interior of churches, and large trees with scrolls and 
 mottoes placed across their stems, single letters, &c. 
 
 The prurient imagination of these ingenious scribes incited them to 
 introduce frequently ridiculous combinations, intended to convey 
 satire upon certain orders of ecclesiastics. These devices were usually 
 inserted into the arabesque bordures of each page. One has a cock 
 tilting on the back of a fox — a hare riding on a greyhound — a monkey 
 carrying a fox upon his shoulders — preaching to geese ; — and in a 
 Cardinal's cloak, holding a mitre. Cocks fighting, &c. not unfre- 
 quent allusion to the intercourse between monks and nuns. 
 
76 STATE OF PAINTING FROM THE REIGN OF 
 
 which are accessible to the curious, in the British Museum, 
 may give satisfaction. The subjoined account commences with 
 the reign of Edward III. and is continued with the contents 
 of this chapter, to the end of that of Henry VI. 1327-1460. 
 
 I. <( La Bible Historiaux." — A large folio covered with 
 velvet, King's MSS. 19 D 2. This richly ornamented book was 
 taken after the battle of Poytiers by William Montacute, Earl 
 of Shrewsbury, and given by him to his lady Elizabeth. It 
 was began in 1350. " Ce commence La Bible Historiaux, 
 ou les histoires escolastres. C'est le proheme de celuy, qui 
 mist cest livre de Latin en Francois." — The buildings and 
 figures represented, are all of them in the style of the 14th 
 century. 
 
 II. The Histories of Froissart, now in the British Museum, 
 MSS. Harl. No. 4380, large folio, written about 1490. Mont- 
 faucon in his Monarchic Franchise, has engraven similar 
 illuminations from two copies of equal curiosity, in the Royal 
 Library, Paris, No. 8320 ; and the other in that of Mons. 
 Colbert. This MS. remains in a state of great perfection. 
 
 III. The history of the deposition of K. Richard II. MSS. 
 Harl. No. 1319, containing sixteen illuminations, exquisitely 
 finished, and superior to the Froissart. " Ce livre de la privee 
 du Roy Richard d'Angleterre est a Mons. Charles d'Amon, 
 Conte du Maine et de Mortaing, et gouverneur de Languedoc," 
 with his autograph. It bears sufficient internal evidence of its 
 authenticity, is the production of an eye-witness, and the MSS. 
 probably finished under his own immediate inspection. 
 
 IV. Legenda Aurea. Folio of the largest size bound in 
 green velvet, with silver clasps. It was translated into French 
 by Jean de Vignay, at the request of Jane, wife of Philip de 
 Valois, about 1330, and contains more than two hundred minia- 
 tures of the martyrdom of Saints. After the Revolution it was 
 brought to England by Gilbert Heathcote, Esq. and is now in 
 the collection of the Duke of Norfolk. 
 
 V. The Sherburne Missal, dated 1339, with very numerous 
 and most delicate miniatures, bordures, &c. It is a large folio, 
 purchased at the sale of G. Mills, Esq. in 1S00, by the late 
 Duke of Northumberland, for 2101. 
 
HENRY III. TO THE END OF HENRY VI. 
 
 77 
 
 VI. The Lutterell Psalter, which belongs to H. Weld, Esq. 
 of Lulworth Castle, Dorset. <( Dominus Galfridus Loterell me 
 fecit." It was once in the possession of Lord W. Howard, and 
 was inherited by the Welds, from a daughter of Sir Nicholas 
 Sherburne. 
 
 VII. The Life of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, by 
 Rous, the hermit of Guy's Cliff. It is a quarto, containing 
 fifty-five drawings, in black and white, as if preparatory to 
 illumination, and drawn with great skill. MSS. Cotton. The 
 whole engraved by Strutt. Among the Norfolk MSS. in the 
 Herald's College are the portraits of all the Earls of Warwick. 
 
 VIII. The Bedford Missal, executed for John Duke of Bed- 
 ford and Anne of Bretagne his wife in 1430, whose portraits 
 appear in it, with many other highly wrought paintings. It 
 is eleven inches long by seven and a half wide and two and a 
 half thick, with gold clasps. It was presented to K. Henry VI. 
 by the Duchess, and was purchased out of the Arundel Collec- 
 tion by the late Duchess of Portland. At the sale of her col- 
 lection, in 1786, Mr. Edwards of Pali-Mall gave 2131. for it. 
 The late king offered 200 guineas. When Mr. Edwards's books 
 were sold the present Duke of Marlborough advanced its price 
 to 700Z. and it is now added to the singular and superb library 
 of Earl Spencer.* 
 
 This short catalogue might be extended, and we should 
 hardly be excused for omitting a most splendid and elegant 
 MS. on vellum, which was undoubtedly a present to K. Henry 
 VI. during his retirement to the Abbey of St. Edmundsbury 
 from the Feast of Christmas to St. George's day, (April 23,) 
 1433. It contains a set of Lidgate's (the monk of Bury) 
 poems in honour of their patron St. Edmund, the king, embel- 
 lished with 120 pictures of various sizes, and amongst them 
 the portraits of the young monarch, and his guardian uncles. 
 MSS. Harl. 2278, 4to. and Wartoris Hist, of Poetry, v. 2, p. 
 365, 8vo. 
 
 But Lidgate appears to have been a translator only. The 
 
 * A small 4to. describing this missal, with four facsimiles, cle- 
 verly etched in outline, was published in 17^4, by the late Mr, Gough. 
 
78 STATE OF PAINTING FROM THE REIGN OF 
 
 late John Towneley, Esq. possessed the original in Latin, 
 written in the early part of the twelfth century with 32 illumi- 
 nations, exhibiting the architecture, shipping, arms, armour, 
 and various habits of that period. In the same Collection was 
 a MS. entitled the miracles of St. Edmund, with 23 illuminated 
 initials, differing from those in the British Museum. MSS. 
 Cotton Tib. B. 2, and Tit. A. 8. 
 
 These references are offered merely for the gratification of 
 the more curious reader, and not with a view to supply a defi- 
 ciency in Mr. W.'s work. It is evident, that he mentions 
 ct limning" only incidentally, not as necessarily connected 
 with his plan, and that he considers Painting, as simply applied 
 to any wall or surface. The genuine and very early Saxon 
 illuminations were therefore omitted, by him, upon that account; 
 yet those who may be interested in an inquiry after them may 
 consult Warton Hist. Poet. v. J. Dissert, p. 129-130, 8vo. and 
 inspect also those in MSS. Cotton Calig. 1. — Vespas : A. 8. and 
 the Missal of Ethelred Bish. Winton. A. D. 970— -all in the Bri- 
 tish Museum — and what information is given, cannot be consi- 
 dered as irrelevant to the history of painting in England before 
 the use of oil, and pictures upon pannel or canvas were in fact 
 known. The designs and portraits were then transferred and 
 enlarged j but miniature limnings were their true prototype. 
 
 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 Mr. W. published this work. 
 The subjoined notes concerning these portraits extracted from 
 the memoir by Sir H. Englefield, accompany several copies of 
 fine engravings 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 
 century, who is represented as kneeling.* These are the por- 
 
 * The following patent seems to ascertain the chief artist employed 
 
HENRY III. TO THE END OF HENRY VI. 79 
 
 traits of K. Edward III. with his five sons, accompanied 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 but that they 
 were intended for the Royal family j 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 5 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 represented 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, PI. XVI. 
 
 PI. XVII. On the other side of the altar, under the great 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 sur- 
 coats, 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 fac-simile, for the Antiquarian Society, 
 by the late R. Smirke t and are exhibited in their library. 
 
 There is besides a series of scriptural subjects : 1. Presen- 
 tation of Christ in the Temple. 2. History of Job. 3. His- 
 tory of Tobit and three Angels. 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 are bordured, and other- 
 wise decorated, shews that the art of embroidery had attained 
 to a very high perfection, at that early period. Splendour of 
 
 in this elaborate work. " Hugoni de S ct0 Albano magistro picto- 
 rum pro Capella S u Steph. Westraonast. Rymer. v. 5. p. 670. 
 
80 
 
 STATE OF PAINTING, %c. 
 
 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 embroidery. Some of these were of 
 so great eminence j 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 unusual dexterity but 
 knowledge of design. 
 
 Inventions are commonly considered as instantaneous efforts 
 or productions of genius. This is not a correct view of the 
 subject, for art is absolutely progressive, and perfection is ob- 
 tained by experiment, and long practice. Whether the inven- 
 tion of painting in oil be more accurately traced to Cimabue or 
 ab Eyk, is not the whole of the question 5 for it was gradually 
 effected by those early painters, who well knowing the defi- 
 ciency of the vehicle employed, bent their mind to improve it, 
 by repeated trials, and application of the materials ; and the 
 eventual success, was the greater skill, or the better fortune of 
 the individual artist, who has been styled the sole inventor.* 
 
 * Like the inventions of Engraving or Printing, there is little pro- 
 bability that the precise date will ever be ascertained, because perhaps 
 it has never existed. Colours used in painting, appear to have been, 
 at first, prepared with water or with size, but it must have been soon 
 discovered to be liable to obliteration or destruction, it is therefore 
 easy to imagine, that other expedients would be sought for, and vege- 
 table mucilage and gums and oil of various sorts have been adopted. 
 That the vehicle to paint upon pannel has been oil, or oil mixed with 
 certain kinds of varnish, even when the colour itself was compounded 
 with size, is also probable ; and thus by degrees the use of oil may 
 have gradually insinuated itself into the process, and rendered preci- 
 sion as to the time of its first introduction, as hopeless, as it is, at 
 this day, to ascertain when cotton was first introduced into the manu- 
 facture of paper, or when linen supplied its place, in common with 
 inventions of a similar kind. 
 
 D. 
 
[ si ] 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Continuation of the State of Painting to the end 
 of Henry VII, 
 
 Whether it was owing to the confusions of 
 his reign,, or to his being born with little propen- 
 sity to the arts, we find but small traces of their 
 having flourished under Edward IV. Brave, aspi- 
 ring and beautiful, his early age was wasted on 
 every kind of conquest ; as he grew older, he 
 became arbitrary and cruel, not less voluptuous 
 nor even* more refined in his pleasures. His 
 
 * His device, a falcon and fetter-lock, with a quibbling 
 motto in French, had not even delicacy to excuse the witticism. 
 
 [f ( 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 fetterlock, whereat 
 when the young gentlemen studied, the father said, " Well, if 
 you cannot tell me, I wiU tell you. Hie hcec 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 commanded 
 that his 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* J 
 VOL. I, G 
 
82 
 
 CONTINUATION OP THE STATE OF 
 
 picture on boards stiff and poorly painted, is pre- 
 served 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 Belcomp, 
 of whom an account will be given hereafter. A 
 portrait,^ said to be of his queen, in the Ash- 
 molean Museum at Oxford, conveys no idea of 
 her loveliness, nor of any skill in the painter. 
 Almost as few charms can be discovered in his 
 favourite Jane Shore, preserved at Eton, and pro- 
 bably an original, as her confessor was provost of 
 that college, and by her intercession recovered 
 their lands, of which they had been despoiled, as 
 having owed their foundation to Edward's com- 
 petitor. In this picture her forehead is remark- 
 ably large, her mouth and the rest of her features 
 small ; her hair of the admired golden colour 
 
 * [Portrait-painting, which was the true likeness of an indi- 
 vidual 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, certainly, a few contemporaneous copies. Edward 
 IV. — others at Q. College Cambridge, and at Hatfield, exactly 
 like. — Richard III. with three rings, one of which he is placing 
 on his finger,— others at Hatfield.] 
 
 t There is another at Queen's College Cambridge, of which 
 she was second foundress j it seems to be of the time, but is 
 not handsome. 
 
 t This picture answers to a much larger mentioned by Sir 
 Thomas More ; who, speaking of her, says, e ' her stature was 
 mean 5 her hair of a dark yellow, her face round and full, her 
 
PAINTING TO THE END OF HENRY VII. 
 
 83 
 
 A lock of it (if we may believe tradition) is still 
 extant in the collection of the Countess of Cardi- 
 gan, and is marvelously beautiful, seeming to be 
 poudered with golden dust without prejudice to 
 its silken delicacy. The King himself, with his 
 Queen, eldest son and others of his court,* are 
 represented in a MS. in the library at Lambeth, 
 from which an engraving was made, with an 
 account of it, and prefixed to the Catalogue of 
 Royal and Noble Authors. It was purchased of 
 
 eyes grey 5 delicate harmony being betwixt each part's propor- 
 tions, and each proportion's colour 5 her body fat, white and 
 smooth ; her countenance chearfull, 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 5 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 3 the body quite naked, the hair dressed with 
 jewels, and a necklace of massive gold. It is painted on board, 
 and from the meanness of the execution seems to be original. 
 
 * [Portraits of Edward IV. and V. Richard III. and Henry 
 VII. are painted in distemper, in the Royal 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 Canterbury j 
 and in a less perfect state, in the church of Little Malvern 
 Priory, Worcestershire. These were not imaginary, but from 
 drawings or patterns made from the life, and attempting an 
 actual resemblance of form and feature. At Donnington, the 
 ancient seat of the Earls of Huntingdon, are portraits, on 
 pannel, of Edward IV. and George Duke of Clarence.] 
 
84 
 
 CONTINUATION OF THE STATE OF 
 
 Peacham 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 por- 
 traits, 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 ex- 
 pected — one I have found, the particulars of whose 
 work are expressed with such rude simplicity, that 
 it may not be unentertaining to the reader to 
 peruse them.-f* They are extracted from a book 
 belonging to the church of St. Mary RatclifFe, 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 Bartholemew, and John Brown, procura- 
 tors of RatclifFe beforesaid, a new sepulchre well- 
 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, 
 
 * [The original is in the possession of the Duke of Norfolk, 
 from which there are several very early copies belonging to 
 the other noble branches of the House of Howard.] 
 
 t [This extract is authentic, and an exception to the self- 
 detecting falsifications of the ill-fated Chatterton, in his pre- 
 tended discoveries in the Muniment-room of Redcliff Church, 
 Bristol.] 
 
PAINTING TO THE END OF HENRY VII. 85 
 
 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 sepul- 
 chre, with their weapons in their hands, that is to 
 say, two spears, two axes, two paves. 
 
 Item. Four pair of angel's wings, for four angels, 
 made of timber and well-painted. 
 
 Item. The fadre, the crown and visage, the bell 
 with 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 four chevelers.* 
 
 Henry VII. seems never to have laid out any 
 money so willingly, as on what he could never 
 enjoy, his tomb-f~ — on that he was profuse; but 
 
 * 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. 
 
 t The whole chapel, called by his name, is properly but his 
 mausoleum, he building it solely for the burial place of him- 
 self and the royal family, and accordingly ordering by his will 
 that no other persons should be interred there. See Dart's 
 Antiquities of Westminster Abbey, vol. i. p. 32. The tomb was 
 the work of one Peter, a Florentine, as one Peter, a Roman, 
 made the shrine of Edward the Confessor. 
 
86 CONTINUATION OF THE STATE OF 
 
 the very service for which it was intended, pro- 
 bably 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 con- 
 veyancer 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 penu- 
 rious, the nobles humbled, what encouragement 
 was there for abilities ? what theme for the arts ! 
 barbarous executions, chicane, processes, and 
 mercenary treaties, were all a painter, a poet or a 
 statuary had to record — accordingly not one that 
 deserved the title (I mean natives) arose in that 
 reign. The only names of painters that Vertue 
 could recover of that period were both foreigners, 
 and of one of them the account is indeed exceed- 
 ingly slight ; mention being barely made in the 
 register's office of Wells, that one Holbein lived 
 and died here in the reign of Henry VII. Whe- 
 ther 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 limnings-f' in a cabinet at Kensington, 
 
 * Raphael was born in 1483. 
 
 f Two miniatures of Henry VII. each in a black cap, and 
 one of them with a rose in his hand, are mentioned in a MSS. 
 in the Harleian collection. 
 
LOND ON, 
 Published "by John Major. 50.Tleet Street. 
 Fe"b y 15 ,i lB26. 
 
PAINTING TO THE END OF HENRY VII. 
 
 87 
 
 drawn before the great master of that name could 
 have arrived here. Among them is the portrait 
 of Henry VII. from whence Vertue engraved his 
 print. The other painter had merit enough to 
 deserve a particular article ; he was called 
 
 JOHN MABUSE or MABEUGIUS,* 
 
 and was born at a little town of the same name in 
 Hainault/f- but in what year is uncertain, as is 
 the year J of his death. He had the two defects 
 of his contemporary countrymen, stiffness in his 
 manner, and drunkenness. Yet his industry was 
 sufficient to carry him to great lengths in his pro- 
 fession. His works were clear and highly finished. 
 He was a friend rather than a rival of Lucas § of 
 
 * [Pilkington says, without stating his authority, that he 
 died in 1562, aged 63.] 
 
 t Le Compt says it was in Hungary. 
 
 % Le Compt and Descamps say it was in 1562 ; a print of 
 him published by Galle, says, ' ' Fuit Hanno patria Malbodiensis 
 obiit Antwerpiae anno 1532, in cathedrali 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 expressly that he could not discover when Mabuse 
 died. Vertue conjectured, that he lived to the age of fifty two. 
 
 § Lucas made an entertainment for Mabuse and other artists 
 that cost him sixty florins of gold. 
 
 * [Mr. Bryan's {Diet, of Painters, 4to. 1816) has given sufficient 
 evidence of the inaccuracy of Le Compt and Deschamps, in stating 
 that the death of Mabuse took place in 1562. If Vertue's conjecture 
 of his having been only fifty-two years old, when he died, be allowed, 
 he could not have painted Henry the Seventh's children before 1502 ; 
 according to those authors. The time of his appearance in England 
 is no longer uncertain, for it must have preceded that particular date.] 
 
88 
 
 CONTINUATION OF THE STATE OF 
 
 Leyden. After some practice at home he tra- 
 velled into Italy, where he acquired more truth in 
 treating- naked subjects than freedom of expres- 
 sion. Indeed Raphael himself had not then struck 
 out that majestic freedom, which has since ani- 
 mated painting, and delivered it from the servility 
 of coldly copying motionless nature. Mabuse so 
 far improved his taste, as to introduce among his 
 countrymen poetic history, for so I should under- 
 stand* 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 allegorically. I never 
 could conceive that riddles and rebus's (and I 
 look upon such emblems as little better) 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 intel- 
 ligible, is forced to have its name written by the 
 accompaniment of symbols. You must be a 
 natural philosopher before you can decypher the 
 vocation of one of these simplified divinities. Their 
 dog, or their bird, or their goat, or their imple- 
 ment, or the colour of their cloaths, 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 
 
 * P. 234. 
 
 t Descamps, Vies des Peintres Flamands, p. 83. 
 
PAiNTING TO THE END OF HENRY VII. 89 
 
 there in expressing the passions of the soul in the 
 lineaments of the countenance ! Would Messa- 
 lina's character be more ingeniously drawn in the 
 warmth of her glances, or by ransacking a farm- 
 yard 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 Durer 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 Middleburgh was destroyed 
 by lightning. A great number of Mabuse's works^ 
 
 * Painted for the abbot Maximilian of Burgundy, who died 
 1524. 
 
 t [Mr. Bryan has observed " that to appreciate the extraor- 
 dinary merit of John de Mabuse, it is necessary to have seen 
 his genuine pictures, instead of the wretched remains of go- 
 thicity, which are frequently ascribed to him. His colouring is 
 fresh and clear, his design as correct as that of Albert Durer, 
 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 surprising 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 composition of several 
 figures admirably grouped, with a fine expression of the heads 5 
 and the draperies and ornamental accessories, coloured and 
 finished in the most beautiful manner. It appears by the 
 registers of the abbey, that this picture occupied the painter 
 for seven years (occasionally ?) and that he was paid two thou- 
 
90 
 
 CONTINUATION OF THE STATE OF 
 
 were preserved in the same city in the time of 
 Carl Vernander. 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 decollation 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, bor- 
 rowing the ideas of their heads from the Mar- 
 quis's lady and son. This was reckoned his 
 capital piece. It afterwards passed into the cabinet 
 of M. Frosmont. 
 
 While he was in this service, the Emperor 
 Charles V. was to lodge at the house of that lord, 
 who made magnificent preparations for his recep- 
 tion, and among other expences ordered all his 
 houshold 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 
 
 sand 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 the 
 rest of his pictures, and afterwards brought to this country. 
 It is now in the possession of the Earl of Carlisle.'' 
 
 One of the most excellent of these was purchased in the 
 Low Countries, by Dudley Earl of Leicester, (< deinde admi- 
 randum illud maximumque Diluvii opus pingebat quod post- 
 modum comes Leycestriae in Angliam accepit. Sandrart, p. 278.] 
 
 * Mint-master of Zeland. 
 
PAINTING TO THE END OP HENRY VII. 91 
 
 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 procession, between a philosopher 
 and a poet. Other pensioners of the Marquis, who 
 being 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 con- 
 vinced 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 Mabuse ; whose excesses some time after 
 occasioned his being flung into prison at Middle- 
 burgh, 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 ; Vermander says expressly that he was 
 here, and the portraits drawn by him are a confir- 
 mation. 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 
 
 * [These 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 excel- 
 lence of that at Wilton, that it bears a date, 1495. The chil- 
 dren are represented as being dressed in black, playing with 
 
92 
 
 CONTINUATION OF THE STATE OF 
 
 design for it, in black and white oil-colours, is 
 at the Duke of Leeds's, 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 anti-chamber at St. James's is his 
 picture of Adam and Eve, which formerly hung in 
 the gallery at Whitehall, thence called the Adam 
 and Eve gallery .-f- Martin Papenbroech, formerly 
 
 fruit, which 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 colour- 
 ing, particularly in the head of Prince Henry, which having a 
 half reflected light, presented a considerable difficulty to the 
 artist. Each of these pictures is on pannel, with a small differ- 
 ence in point of size. The Wilton, is one foot three inches and 
 a half, by one foot one inch — the Methuen twenty inches by 
 fourteen. It is one of G. Vertue's historical engravings. The 
 best portrait of Henry VII. on pannel, perhaps by Mabuse, is 
 at Strawberry Hill.] 
 
 * There is another of these in small, in Queen Caroline's 
 closet at Kensington another, very good, at Wilton j and ano- 
 ther 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 gra- 
 dations. 
 
 t 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 j the former is only worthy 
 of a critical man-midwife. 
 
PAINTING TO THE END OF HENRY VII. 93 
 
 a famous collector in Holland, had another of 
 them. It was brought over as a picture of Raphael 
 in his first manner, in the time of Vertue, who by 
 the exact description of it in Vermander disco- 
 vered it to be of Mabuse. It was sold however 
 for a considerable price.* In a MS. catalogue of 
 the collection of King Charles I. taken in the year 
 1649, and containing some pictures that are not 
 in the printed list, I find mention made of an old 
 man's head by Mabuse ; Sir Peter Lely had the 
 story of Hercules and Deianira by him.-f- The 
 only;}; work besides that I know of this master in 
 England, is a celebrated picture in my possession. 
 It was bought for 2001. by Henrietta Louisa 
 Countess of Pomfret, and hung for some years at 
 theirjseat at Easton Neston in Northamptonshire, 
 whence it was sold after the late Earls death. The 
 Earl y of Oxford once offered 5001. for it.;£ 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 
 
 * It is now at the Grange, in Hampshire, the seat of the Lord 
 Chancellor Henley, [at whose sale it produced 10Z. 10s !] 
 
 f See catalogue of his collection, p. 48. No. 99. 
 
 X I have since bought a small one of Christ crowned with 
 thorns by him, with his name Malbodius, on it ; and Mr. 
 Raspe mentions another at Rochester : Essaij on Oil Painting, 
 p. 56. 
 
 § I gave eighty-four pounds. 
 
94 
 
 CONTINUATION OF THE STATE OF 
 
 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 queenyf - 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 emblematic perso- 
 nage, 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 is green, his feet bare, and a spear in his 
 hand. As the frock of no religious order ever 
 was green, this cannot be meant for a friar. Pro- 
 bably it is St. Thomas, represented, as in the 
 martyrologies, with the instrument of his death. 
 
 * He is extremely like his profile on a shilling. 
 
 t Her image preserved in the abbey, among those curious 
 but mangled figures of some of our princes, which were car- 
 ried at their interments, and now called the ragged regiment, 
 has much the same countenance. A figure in Merlin's cave 
 was taken from it. In a MS. account of her coronation in the 
 Cottonian library, mention is made of her fair yellow hair hang- 
 ing at length upon her shoulders. 
 
 X This allegoric figure seems to agree with the account of 
 Descamps, mentioned above, and Mabuse might have learned 
 in Italy that the Romans always represented their divine per- 
 sonages larger than the human, as is evident from every model 
 whereon are a genius and an Emperor. 
 
PAINTING TO THE END OP HENRY VII. 
 
 95 
 
 The queen might have some devotion to that pe- 
 culiar saint, or might be born or married on his 
 festival. Be that as it may, the picture, though in 
 a hard manner, has it's 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 
 
 * [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, Wor- 
 cestershire. Both he and his friend, the celebrated Sir Regi- 
 nald 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 is a tripartite picture, probably 
 intended for an altar-piece at the Royal Chapel at Stirling, on 
 pannel, 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 
 Knowlsley, the Earl of Derby has a head of Margaret Countess 
 of Richmond, wife of the first Earl, a circumstance which 
 favours its originality,] 
 
96 
 
 CONTINUATION OF THE STATE OF 
 
 Richmond, 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 of the house of Somerset, be- 
 sides representations of the twelve months, well 
 painted.* 
 
 In this reign died John Rous/f- the antiquary of 
 
 * [It was sold for 321. 10s. at Mr. West's sale in 1773.] 
 f [If the drawings which are seen in a MSS. Brit. Museum 
 Cotton, (Julius E 4.) of which there are no less than fifty-five 
 excellently done in trick, and uncoloured, in the Life of 
 Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, were the genuine work 
 of the author John Rous, the Hermit of Guy's Cliff, near War- 
 wick, Mr. W. 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 War- 
 wick, with their arms emblazoned, down to R. Beauchamp. It 
 must be confessed that though a curious, it is an inferior per- 
 formance. A similar roll was in the possession of the late 
 Earl of Sandwich, from which the etching in the Historic 
 Doubts. At Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk, Sir R. Bedingfield's, are 
 portraits upon pannel of William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, 
 King Edward IV. and Henry VTI. 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 por* 
 trait of Henry the Seventh, soon after his accession to the 
 throne, (now in the possession of Mr. Gwennap, London) is 
 
PAINTING TO THE END OF HENRY VII. 
 
 97 
 
 Warwickshire, who drew his own portrait and 
 other semblances, but in too rude a manner to be 
 called paintings. 
 
 attributed, from its excellence, to Mabuse. It has a distinguish- 
 ing peculiarity : on the button of the hat is represented, and 
 of course very minutely, a memorable circumstance of Welsh 
 history, the Chief, Rice ap Thomas, prostrating himself on the 
 ground, and the Earl of Richmond, 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, Westminster. They were intended 
 as a present by the magistrates of Dort, in Holland, and pro- 
 bably the work of Adrien de Vrije, an eminent Dutch artist.] 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 The interest we take in the examination of the very early 
 portraits, or family pieces, which are of a date subsequent to 
 their introduction into Missals or other beautified MSS. must 
 greatly depend upon the evidence of their originality, presented 
 to us. Of this evidence the most certain is, that the painting 
 in question has been preserved through descents of the same 
 family, from the time of the individual represented 3 the merit 
 of the performance itself 5 whether that be sufficient to justify 
 its claim, as the work of any particular artist j and lastly, 
 whether it be confirmed by any mark or date which may be 
 fairly considered as authentic ? Any of these circumstances are 
 fortified by a constant tradition, which must not, in certain 
 instances, be admitted without them. Mabuse was a painter 
 of transcendant merit 5 but there are circumstances which 
 induce us to believe that his stay in England was limited to 
 one year, and that, 1495. His immediate successors employed 
 themselves in engraving, or in etching at least, and usually 
 affixed their monogram. Had this practice prevailed more 
 generally with them, in their pictures likewise, we should, in 
 many instances, be relieved by positive proof from mere con- 
 
 VOL. I. H 
 
98 
 
 CONTINUATION, %c. 
 
 jecture, however well supported. Our next assistance maybe 
 derived from dates, where there is an internal evidence that 
 they were originally placed upon pictures before any repaint- 
 ing or varnishing had been applied to them, a circumstance 
 which must ever awaken suspicion. When the name of these 
 very early masters is hazarded, and a confirmation is pretended 
 by a date affixed, we should first of all enquire, whether the 
 painter was in England at the precise time stated ? or whether 
 the man or woman pourtrayed were then not born, or were 
 children, or dead. The known costume must likewise coincide 
 with the date. These chronological tests are safe and decisive. 
 Some of these early specimens have been held in a kind of vene- 
 ration by their possessors, so that other families connected 
 with them, have procured copies in ancient times, to which age, 
 and nearly equal merit, has given a contemporaneous appear- 
 ance. This renders decision, as to the original, too uncertain 
 to be always conceded. Of the first royal portraits from 
 Henry IV. to Henry VII. repeated probably by the master, or 
 under his immediate inspection, out of four or five of each of 
 them, still extant, who shall say which is the genuine picture, 
 for which the monarch sate ? But the grand essential is what 
 is the " faculty of the few," a certain tact in discovering the 
 work of any individual master, which in the language of painters 
 is called a knowledge of hands. 
 
[ 99 ] 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Painters in the Reign of Henry VIII. 
 1509. 
 
 Th e accession of this sumptuous prince brought 
 along with it the establishment of the arts. He 
 was opulent, grand and liberal — how many invi- 
 tations to artists! A man of taste encourages 
 abilities ; a man of expence, any performers ; but 
 when a king is magnificent, whether he has taste 
 or not, the influence is so extensive, and the ex- 
 ample 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 chuse the best of what the 
 then world exhibited to his option. He was gallant, 
 as far as the rusticity of his country and the bois- 
 terous indelicacy of his own complexion would 
 admit. His tournaments 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 Coeur Loyal.\ In his interview 
 
 * See a description and exhibition of this tournament among 
 the prints published by the Society of Antiquaries, vol. i. 
 
 t [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 con- 
 tains 170 figures and seventy-three horses in procession, with 
 he lists, combat, and triumphal return. Some readers will 
 
100 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 with Francis I. in the Vale of Cloth of Gold, he 
 revived the pageantry of the days of Amadis. He 
 
 approve of the following extract, which offers a nearer view of 
 the forms and circumstances, by which these gorgeous cere- 
 monies were conducted. — " At the beginning of the roll, is 
 the Royal cognizance, the red rose impaled with the pome- 
 granate of Arragon — on a scroll, " Vive le noble roy Henry 
 viij." Then follows the procession, with names in French super- 
 scribed, " 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 
 beauvoirs close, riding under superb pavilions of estate, with 
 the letter K. profusely scattered about them, and their " Noms 
 de guerre'* or chivalrous names superscribed. r * Joyeulx Pen- 
 ser" — " Bon vouloir" — " Valiant Desire" — and <( Noble Coeur 
 Loyal." 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 cogni- 
 zances of York, Lancaster or Beaufort, France, Grenada, and 
 Arragon, with those of France and England. La selle d'hon- 
 neur, covered entirely with ermine. Le grand escuyer et le 
 maystre des pages. The barriers and scaffold are next repre- 
 sented. The point of time is the victory of Noble Coeur Loyal 
 {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 her 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 Dacre 
 of the North. 
 
 The scene is now changed — and after the trumpets is 
 L'yssue du champ, or the triumphal return 5 in which sixteen 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 101 
 
 and his favourite Charles Brandon, were the pro- 
 totypes of those illustrious heroes, with which 
 Mademoiselle Scuderi 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.* 
 
 of the young nobility, gorgeously apparelled, lead the proces- 
 sion. 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 desarme. 
 The whole is then closed by a crowd of attendants. 
 
 * [In the royal collection at Windsor, were formerly four 
 large historical paintings of very great interest and curiosity. 
 
 I. The Embarcation 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 
 <f Harry Grace Dieu," a most curious specimen of early naval 
 architecture in England. It has the peculiarity of four masts, 
 Archceologia, V, 6, 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 com- 
 mencement to the conclusion of the interview. A great uncer- 
 tainty has hitherto prevailed concerning the artist of this elabo- 
 rate work. That it is of sufficient excellence to be attributed 
 to one of the Flemish or Italian painters, who were at that 
 
102 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 Francis the first was the standard which these 
 princely champions copied. While he contended 
 with Charles V. for empire, he rivalled our Henry 
 
 time employed by the King, and were resident in England, no 
 reasonable doubt will be maintained. An anecdote of this 
 picture is worthy notice. After the death of Charles I. the 
 Parliament appointed commissioners to dispose of his collec- 
 tion, and an agent from France was in treaty for this particular 
 picture. Philip Earl of Pembroke resolved to 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 deli- 
 vered the dissevered part to King Charles II. at the first levee 
 he attended - } and it was carefully 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 
 Archceologia, V, 3, pp. 1S5-229, by Sir Joseph Ayloffe. 
 
 III. The Battle of the Spurs, which was fought at Guine- 
 gaste in France, in 1513, and was so called from the French 
 having made more use of their spurs than their 9Words. 
 
 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. 
 
 The abovementioned, by the favour of his late Majesty (in 
 1815) now decorate the meeting-room of the Society of Anti- 
 quaries at Somerset-house, at whose expense the Champ de 
 Drap D'or has been engraved. 
 
 At Apuldurcombe in the Isle of Wight, is a small picture on 
 pannel, much in the manner (if not an original) of Mabuse, of 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 103 
 
 in pomp and protection of the arts. Francis han- 
 dled 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 monu- 
 ments, 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, 
 
 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 introduced the Duke's fool, as whispering 
 these monitory verses in his ear. The introduction of privi- 
 leged jesters who called themselves, and were called Fools, 
 into family pictures, is not unfrequent in this, and the subse- 
 quent reigns. In the picture to which Mr. W. alludes,, at 
 Strawberry-hill, the motto is on a label.] 
 
 * [It has been allowed by all who have written concerning 
 the age, or the character 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 I. in all 
 that should promote splendour, was a paramount motive) to 
 offer liberally both to Raffaelle 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, satis- 
 factory proofs, that some of their eminent scholars enjoyed the 
 patronage of that monarch. Mr. W. has mentioned them only 
 cursorily. The records of grants issued to them from the 
 
104 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 and they acquired such solid foundation here, 
 that they were scarce eradicated by that second 
 
 Treasury confound their real designation and names. Anthony 
 Toto was known among his countrymen as fe Toto del Nun- 
 ciato." Lanzi speaks of him as one of the best Italian artists 
 who came to England, " che gY Inglesi computano fra miglior 
 Italiani, in quel secolo, nella lor isola." — There is no certain 
 document 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 painter, 9,1. 13s. Ad. towards his 
 pains and charges in the setting forward the painter's work." 
 Archaeolog. v. 18, p. 324. 
 
 Jerome di Trevisi. Lanzi calls him Girolamo da Trevigi, 
 who studied in the School of RafFaelle. He was born in 1503, 
 and died in 1544, as above mentioned— Vasari and Bryan s 
 Diet, of Painters. As he remained in the greatest favour at 
 Court for thirteen years, from 1531, it is more than probable 
 that the Champ de Drap D'or, and the Embarcation, were 
 among those works which so long a residence in England gave 
 him an opportunity to execute. He made cartoons for tapestry, 
 so many suits of which adorned the Royal palaces. According 
 to Lanzi, he had a pension of 400 crowns from Henry VIII. 
 for his services, as painter, architect and engineer. 
 
 The Greek painters intermixed gilding with their colours, 
 which practice was sometimes adopted by the early Italian 
 and Flemish painters. It had sometimes the appearance of 
 gold dust, as in the family picture of Henry VIII. now at 
 Somerset House. 
 
 Bartholomew Penne, an anglicised name, certainly intended 
 for " Luca Penni." Of this able artist mention is made in 
 almost all the memoirs of painters. Vasari says that his bro- 
 ther Gian Francesco, gained such credit for industry among the 
 contemporaries of Raffaelle, that he was styled ff Fattore. 
 and that Luca was associated in several considerable works with 
 Perino del Vaga. He arrived here about 1537, having pre- 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OP HENRY VIII. 105 
 
 storm which broke upon them during the civil 
 war, — an aera we antiquaries lament with no less 
 devotion than the former. 
 
 viously accompanied Rosso, 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 t( passatoper ultimo 
 in Inghilterra, dipinse pel Re, e piu anche disegno per 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 travelled much 
 and was retained by Francis I. for some years, to decorate his 
 palace at Fontainbleau. Painters of the Flemish or Dutch 
 schools, the disciples of Albert Durer and Mabuse, the followers 
 of John ab Eyk, sought likewise encouragement under the 
 auspices of Henry VIII. Johannes Corvus and Gerberius Fleccius, 
 are ascertained only by their names attached, each of them, to 
 a single portrait, the first, as above remarked, and the other of 
 Archbishop Cranmer, in the British Museum. 
 
 Lucas Cornelij or Cornelisz. Bryan allows him considerable 
 praise. He was born as early as 1493, and we have no certain 
 account of his death. According to Sandrart, he came to Eng- 
 land soon after 1509, and was employed there till he died. 
 Although it would be difficult to authenticate his works, it can 
 not be supposed that he remained in England so long, without 
 having executed many that were excellent. He taught Holbein 
 to paint miniatures in water colours. 
 
 Gerard Luke Horneband, called in Flanders u Guerard Hor- 
 rebout," who enjoyed a great reputation as a painter of small 
 altar pictures, before he left that country. He was greatly 
 patronised both by the king and the nobility, and was pro- 
 bably connected with Cornelij, as he is said to have been born 
 at Ghent in 1498. Deschamps observes " that the patronage 
 extended by Henry VIII. to Horrebout and Holbein, charac- 
 terises the taste of that monarch. 
 
 Before the most unfortunate conflagration of Cowdray- 
 house, Sussex, in 1793, there were several portraits of great 
 curiosity, which were destroyed by that calamity. They were 
 
106 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 Henry had several painters in his service, and, 
 as Francis invited Primaticcio and other masters 
 from Italy, he endeavoured to tempt hither Ra- 
 phael* and Titian. Some performers 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 discovered his name on the 
 ancient picture of Fox, bishop of Winchester, still 
 preserved at Oxford. It was painted in the begin- 
 ning of the reign of this king, after the prelate 
 had lost his sight. The painter s name, Johannes 
 Corvus Flandrus faciebat, is on the frame, which 
 is of the same age with the picture, and coloured 
 in imitation of red marble with veins of green.J 
 
 painted by some of those artists who had preceded Holbein. 
 1. Sir William Fitzwilliam, K. G. the Founder, represented as 
 walking by the sea-side, holding a staff with a head of gold 
 emblazed with his arms in fifteen quarterings. 2. The same, 
 together with Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk, with whom 
 he was sent 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 j a medal of St. George 
 depending from the neck. Of the celebrated fresco -paintings, 
 likewise destroyed, a farther mention will be made.] 
 
 * Raphael did paint a St. George for him, which has since 
 been in Monsieur Crozat's collection. See Recueil des plus Beaux 
 Tableaux qui sont en France, p. 13. 
 
 f He is mentioned by Ridolphi 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 library. 
 
 X There are two or three pictures of the same prelate in 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 107 
 
 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 
 compleat. There appear the following names. 
 
 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, xx/. 
 
 In another book of office-j~ Vertue found these 
 memorandums, 
 
 March 1538. Item, to Anthony Toto and Bar- 
 tilmew Penn, painters, 12 pounds, 10 shillings, 
 their quarterly payments between them ; also pre- 
 sents on new-year s day, 1539. 
 
 To Anthony Toto's servant that brought the 
 king at Hampton Court a depicted table of Co- 
 lonia 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 
 Rymer are his letters of naturalization under this 
 title. 
 
 the college, but this is probably the original ; is flat, and a poor 
 performance. 
 
 * It was in the collection of Mrs. Bridgman, of Hanover- 
 square. 
 
 t In the library of the Royal Society. 
 
108 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 * An . 30 Hen. VIII. 1543. Pro pictore regis de 
 indigenatione. 
 
 Felibien mentions this painter, and his coming 
 to England ;-{*• speaking of Ridolphi, fils de Domi- 
 nique Ghirlandaio, he says, " Chez luy il y avait 
 Toto del Nuntiato, qui depuis s'en alia en Angle- 
 terre, ou il fit plusieurs ouvrages de peinture et 
 d'architecture, avec lequel Perrin fit amitie, et a 
 l'envie Tun de Tautre 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 
 Vasari, not Bartholomew, but Luca Penni ; he was 
 brother of Gio. 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 several 
 pieces for the king, and for some merchants here. X 
 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, par- 
 ticularly the small figures and landscapes in the 
 
 * Foedera, vol. xiv. p. 595. 
 f Tom. ii. p. 158. 
 
 % Vasari adds, that Luca Penni addicted himself latterly to 
 making designs for Flemish engravers. This is the mark on 
 
 his prints, jrtj t ^ iat IS > ^uca l* enn i Romano. 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 109 
 
 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 supposed by Hol- 
 bein, but not only beneath his excellence, but 
 painted (at least two of them) if painted as in all 
 likelyhood they were on the several occasions, be- 
 fore the arrival of that great master in England. 
 
 Of another painter mentioned in the payments 
 above, we know 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 pain- 
 ters, Andrew Oret, and one Ambrose, painter to 
 the Queen of Navarre. The former indeed was of 
 no great rank, receiving 30/. for painting and 
 
 * It is not very surprizing, 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 magnifi- 
 cence of his armament engaged so much of his attention. His 
 ships are as sumptuous as Cleopatra's galley on the Cydnus. 
 
 t This bad judgment was made even by Mr. Evelyn in his 
 Discourse on Medals. 
 
 X Susanna, the sister of Luke Horneband, painter in minia- 
 ture, was invited, says Vasari, into the service of Henry VIII, 
 and lived honourably in England to the end of her life. 
 
110 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 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 Augmenta- 
 tion-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 with a picture ; 
 prints, cloths stained with a picture ; and models 
 and basreliefs, they termed pictures of earth ; for 
 instance : 
 
 " Item, One table with the picture of the Duchess of 
 Milan, being her whole stature. 
 
 * From 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 VIII. 
 
 t [Extracts in a more regular and copious series from MSS. 
 Harl. No. 1419, in two volumes, folio, intitled, ff A Survey of 
 the Wardrobe," dated Sept. 8, 1547, will be added to Mr. W.'s 
 Supplement at the end of this volume.] 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OP HENRY VIII. Ill 
 
 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 with 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."* 
 
 * In an old chapter-house at Christ Church, Oxford, I disco- 
 vered two portraits admirably painted, and in the most perfect 
 preservation, which certainly belonged to Henry VIII. the one 
 an elderly, the other a young man, both in black bonnets, and 
 large as life. On the back of the one is this mark, No. J~J^ 22 ; 
 
 on the other, No. JFj^^' * n tne ca t a l°g ue 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 pro- 
 bability these very pictures. They have a great deal of the 
 manner of Holbein, certainly not 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 England, but 
 the Archduke Philip died when Holbein was not above eight 
 
112 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 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 profes- 
 sors. In the 24th of Henry he built Painters-hall 
 for the company/}- where his portrait is still pre- 
 served 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 IV. but they had existed as a fraternity 
 long before. Holme Clarenceux, in the 1st of 
 Henry VII. granted them arms, viz. azure, a che- 
 vron, 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 Paint er-stainers. 
 
 In this reign flourished 
 
 LUCAS CORNELII^ 
 who was both son and scholar of Cornelius 
 
 years of age : Holbein might have drawn this Prince from 
 another picture, as a small one of him when a boy, in my pos- 
 session, has all the appearance 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 j on a canton, quarterly gules and 
 azure, a leopard's head caboshed, or. 
 
 t 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 5 Gul. Camdenus Clarenceux, 
 filius Samsonis, pictoris Londinensis, dedit. Maitland. 
 
 X See Sandrart, p. 232. 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 113 
 
 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 minia- 
 ture, and hearing the encouragement bestowed on 
 his profession by Henry VIII. came to England, 
 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 par- 
 ticularly, the story of the woman taken in adul- 
 tery. His chief performances extant in England 
 are at Penshurst, as appears by this mark on one 
 
 of them (|^ , that is Lucas Cornelii pinxit. They 
 are a series, in* sixteen pieces, of the constables 
 of Queenborough castle from the reign of Edward 
 III. to Sir Thomas Cheyne, knight of the garter in 
 the 3d of Henry VIII. Though not all originals, 
 they undoubtedly are very valuable, being in all 
 probability painted from the best memorials then 
 extant; and some of them, representations of 
 remarkable persons, of whom no other image re- 
 mains. Of these, the greatest curiosities are, 
 Robert de Vere, the great duke of Ireland, and 
 George, the unfortunate Duke of Clarence. Harris, 
 in his history of Kent/}- quotes an itinerary by one 
 Johnston, who says, that in 1629, he saw at the 
 house of the minister of Gillingham, the portrait 
 
 * 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. 
 
 t P. 377. 
 
 VOL I. I 
 
114 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 of Sir Edward Hobby, the last governor but one, 
 who had carefully assembled all the portraits of 
 his predecessors, 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 Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester 
 into the Low-countries, and who had observed how 
 much this master was esteemed here. However, 
 none of these performers were worthy the patro- 
 nage of so great a Prince ; # his munificence was 
 but ill bestowed, till it centered on 
 
 HANS HOLBEIN. 
 Born 1498. Died 1554.f 
 
 Few excellent artists have had more justice 
 done to their merit than Holbein. His country 
 
 * [Mr. W.'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 they 
 had studied, and the value of their works, in their own 
 country, after death, absolutely excludes the idea of their posi- 
 tive inferiority.] 
 
 f [The addition of the date to the name of each painter, 
 omitted by Mr. W., is made with a view to the verification of 
 portraits, and to detect discordant periods when marked upon 
 them.] 
 
F. ' Krig letuarl . sculp 1 
 
 SLOTS Ho miss: 
 
 London. 
 • TnlJislu-.M.y .lolui l£sjox.50,Ileet Street. 
 Fels7 r lS*1826 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OP HENRY VIII. 115 
 
 has paid the highest honours to his memory and 
 to his labours. His life has been frequently 
 written; every circumstance that could be reco- 
 vered in relation to him has been sedulously pre- 
 served ; and, as always happens to a real genius, he 
 has been complimented 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 hap- 
 pened in 1498, and the latter most probably was 
 Basil. His father was a painter of Ausburg, and 
 so much esteemed, that the Lord of Walberg 
 paid an hundred florins to the monastery of St. 
 Catherine for a large picture of the salutation 
 painted by him. He executed too in half figures 
 the life of St. Paul, on which he wrote this inscrip- 
 tion, " This work was completed by J. Holbein, 
 a citizen of Ausburg, 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 VII. Had it been the father, 
 it would probably have been mentioned by some 
 of the biographers of the son ; but I find it no 
 
116 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 where hinted that the father was ever in England. 
 It is more likely to have been the uncle, who, we 
 have seen, was a painter, and do not find that he 
 was 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 him- 
 self instructed him ; and he learned besides, grav- 
 ing, casting, modelling and architecture ; in the 
 two latter branches he was excellent. Yet with 
 both talents and taste, he for some time remained 
 in indigence, 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 protes- 
 tants, while his time-serving had an air of mode- 
 ration ; and his very poverty that threw him into 
 servile adulation, expressed itself in terms that 
 were beautiful enough to be transmitted to poste- 
 rity. His cupboard of plate, all presented to him 
 
 * Holbein had two brothers, Ambrose and Bruno, who were 
 also painters at Basil. 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 117 
 
 by the greatest men of the age, was at once a 
 monument of his flattery and genius. With a 
 mind so polished no wonder he distinguished* the 
 talents of young Holbein. He was warmly recom- 
 mended to employment by Erasmus and Amer- 
 baehyf- a printer of that city. He painted the 
 picture of the latter in 1519, who showing him the 
 Moriae 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 politeness of either. 
 
 * [Holbein, in his portraits is admirable for his truth and pre- 
 cision, both, with respect to colour and drawing j but the prin- 
 ciple of colouring and chiaro-scuro, as applicable to the conduct 
 of the whole picture, so well understood by the great masters 
 of the Venetian School, was not known in Switzerland and 
 Germany, during his time. This deficiency gives an air of 
 dryness to his portraits, and their want of roundness and 
 breadth of colour and effect, makes us, at first view, disposed 
 to undervalue the merit, which he always displays in the deli- 
 cacy of his pencil, and the truth of his local tints. On this 
 master, Fuseli has observed, {Lecture on Painting II. p. 93.) 
 " that the scrupulous precision, the high finish and his Titian- 
 esque colour, make the least part of his excellence, for those 
 who have seen his designs of the Passion, and that series of 
 emblematic groups, known as Holbein's Dance of Death." 
 " As for Holbein, his execution surpassed even that of RafFaelle 
 and I have seen a portrait of his painting, with which one of 
 Titian's could not come in competition." Du Fresnoy, Abbe 
 Dubos.'] 
 
 t See an account of him in Palmers History of Printing, 
 p. 218. 
 
118 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OP HENRY VIII. 
 
 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 Arundelf* returning from Italy through Basil, 
 
 * In the Moriae 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 j 
 Rex Macedon Coo tumidus pictore, cani se 
 
 Maeoniae doluit non potuisse sene. 
 Stultitiae potior sors est : hanc alter Apelles 
 Pin git, et eloquium laudat, Erasme, tuum. 
 
 Seb. Feschius Basil, 
 t 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 Sir Thomas More immediately 
 knew it to be that lord. 
 
 [Dates and other circumstances, by no means, correspond 
 with the identity of either the Earl of Arundel or Surrey. 
 William Earl of Arundel died, an old man, in 1524, and Tho- 
 mas Howard, Earl of Surrey, became Duke of Norfolk, in the 
 same year, and for several years before, had been engaged in 
 military transactions, in Ireland and Scotland. Sandrart men- 
 tions only of Holbein, " cum inter confabulandum, mentionem 
 forte injecisset, Comitis Angli, qui se olim Basiliae, ut Angliam 
 petiret, fuisse exhortatus." — A name has been attributed to 
 this English Count by other biographers.] 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 119 
 
 saw his works, was charmed with them, and ad- 
 vised 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 off the 
 fly — and found the deceit. The story soon spread, 
 and as such trifling deceptions often do, made 
 more impression than greater excellencies. Orders 
 were immediately given to prevent the city being 
 deprived of so wonderful an artist — but Holbein 
 had withdrawn himself privately. Erasmus* had 
 given him recommendatory letters to Sir Thomas 
 
 * [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, quan- 
 quam est insignis artifex. Si cupiat visere, Quintinum (Matsys) 
 ejus poteris commonstrare domum. Hie (Basle) artes frigent, 
 petit Angliam, ut corrodat, aliquot Angellotos" alluding to an 
 English gold coin, then called " Angels/' current in the reigns 
 of Henry VII. and VIII.] 
 
120 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 More, with a present of his own picture by Hol- 
 bein, which he assured the Chancellor was more 
 like than one drawn by Albert Durer.* Holbein 
 stopped for a short time at Antwerp, having other 
 
 * At Lord Folkston's at Longford in Wiltshire, are the por- 
 traits of Erasmus and Aegidius, said to be drawn by Holbein j 
 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 attollere lumen 
 Qui felix potuit, primus Erasmus erat. 
 On Aegidius. 
 Aegidium musis charum dilexit Erasmus j 
 Spirat ab Holbenio pictus uterque tuo. 
 The latter is far the better j 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,f 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 €atal. No. 13, p. 154.) where it is said to have been 
 painted by George Spence of Nuremberg. Quintin Matsis too 
 painted Aegidius, with which Sir Thomas More was so pleased 
 that he wrote a panegyric on the painter, beginning, 
 Quintine, o veteris novator artis, 
 Magno non minor artifex Apelle. 
 Aegidius held a letter in his hand from Sir Thomas, with his 
 hand-writing 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. 
 
 f [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.] 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OP HENRY VIII. 121 
 
 letters for P. Aegidius, a common friend of Eras- 
 mus and More. In those letters the former tells 
 Aegidius, that Holbein was very desirous of seeing 
 the works of Quintin Matsis, the celebrated black- 
 smith painter, whose tools, it is said, love con- 
 verted into a pencil. Of this master Holbein had 
 no reason to be jealous : with great truth and 
 greater labour, Quintin's pictures are inferior to 
 Holbein's. The latter smoothed the stiffness of 
 his manner by a velvet softness and lustre of 
 colouring; the performances 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 Ann 
 Boleyn. Employed by More, Holbein was em- 
 ployed 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 counte- 
 nance into which any master has poured greater 
 energy of expression than in the drawing 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, not 
 in the sweetness of his pleasantry — Here he is the 
 
 * [This sentence is a memorable instance of Mr. W.'s extreme 
 taste for antithesis.] 
 
122 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OP HENRY VIII. 
 
 unblemished magistrate, not that amiable philo- 
 sopher, 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 
 superstitions 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 accomplice, 
 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 which ever he liked — but he enquired 
 for the painter, who was introduced to him. Henry 
 immediately took him into his own service, and 
 told the chancellor, 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 being paid 
 for his pictures : the price of them I no where 
 find. 
 
 Patin says that after three years Holbein re- 
 turned to Basil to display his good fortune, but 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OP HENRY VIII. 123 
 
 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 Ca- 
 therine 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 here- 
 after. 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 
 
 * [Mr. Dawson Turner of Yarmouth, Norfolk, has a portrait 
 attributed to Holbein, of this queen, from which an engraving 
 has been lately taken for Mr. Lodge's Portraits of Illustrious 
 Personages. It differs, considerably from the beautiful minia- 
 ture of her at Strawberry-hill ] 
 
124 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OP HENRY VIII. 
 
 not easily overlook such insults, and bad him wait 
 in the apartment till he had learned more of the 
 matter. Immediately arrived the lord with his 
 complaint, but sinking 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 pea- 
 sants I can make as many lords, but not one 
 Holbein — begone, and remember, that if you ever 
 pretend to revenge yourself, I shall look on any 
 injury offered to the painter as done to 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 Milanyf- 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 Har- 
 leian 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 equi- 
 vocal. 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 
 
 * Lovelace, in his collection of poems called Lucasta, has 
 an epigram on this subject, but it is not worth repeating. 
 
 t Christiana daughter of Christiern king of Denmark. Lord 
 Herbert says that Holbein drew her picture in three hours, 
 p. 496. 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 125 
 
 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 dispatched by Cromwell to 
 draw the lady Anne of Cleve, and by practising 
 the common flattery of his profession, was the 
 immediate cause of the destruction of that great 
 subject, and of the disgrace that fell on the prin- 
 cess herself. He drew so favorable 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 
 
 * 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. 
 
 f This very picture, as is supposed, was in the possession of 
 Mr. Barrett of Kent, whose collection was sold a few years 
 ago, but the family reserved this and some other curiosities. 
 The print among the illustrious heads is taken from it 5 and 
 so far justifies the king, that he certainly was not nice, if from 
 that picture he concluded 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 Holbein 
 saw a little with the king's eyes. 
 
 I have seen that picture in the cabinet of the present Mr. 
 Barrett of Lee, and think it the most exquisitely perfect of all 
 Holbein's works, as well as in the highest preservation. The 
 print gives a very inadequate idea of it, and none of her Fle- 
 mish fairness. It is preserved in the ivory box in which it 
 came over, and which represents a rose so delicately carved as 
 to be worthy of the jewel it contains. 
 
 [Now in the possession of his great nephew T. Brydges 
 Barret, Esq.] 
 
126 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 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 that in 1538, the city of Basil, on the 
 increase <>f 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 
 so ever 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 Eng- 
 land. 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 Scot- 
 land-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 
 
 * [Vita Johannis Holbenii Gerardi Listrij, 8vo. 1676. Sandrart 
 Acad. Picture Nobilis, fol. 1683. Holbein, L. 7, p. 238. Oeuvres 
 de lean Holbein, ou Recueil de Gravures oVapres ses plus beaux 
 ouvrages, par Chretien Michel, Basle, 4 to. 1780. In which, among 
 several exquisite engravings, is a portrait of Holbein, in ad- 
 vanced life, without a beard.] 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 127 
 
 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.-f- 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 design from 
 ignorance of the place. Strype in his edition of 
 Stowe's Survey says that he was buried in St. 
 Catherine-Cree church, which stands in the ceme- 
 tery of that dissolved priory, and consequently 
 close to his patron s house. 
 
 Who his wife was, or what family he left we 
 are not 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 gene- 
 rally painted on a green ground; in his small 
 pictures often on a deep blue. There is a tradi- 
 tion that he painted with his left hand, like the 
 
 * 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. 
 
 t Holbein was not likely to be in favour in that reign, being 
 supposed a protestant. 
 
128 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 Roman knight Turpilius, but this is contradicted 
 by one of his own portraits that was in the Arun- 
 delian 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 Moriae 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 1521. In the 
 same place the Lord's supper, much damaged. 
 
 Another there on the same subject, drawn by 
 
 * [It is evident that 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-dex- 
 trous.] 
 
 t [Engraved in Michel's work ; which contains likewise Le 
 Triomphe des richesses et de la pauvrete, hereafter noticed.] 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 129 
 
 Holbein when very young. Christ scourged ; in 
 the same place, but not very well painted. 
 
 Ibidem, A board painted on both sides; a 
 school-master teaching boys. It is supposed to 
 have been a sign to some private school, 1516. 
 
 Ibidem, A profile of Erasmus writing his Com- 
 mentary 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 stroaking 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 Co- 
 rinthiaca 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, collected 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 
 
 VOL. I. K 
 
130 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OP HENRY VIII. 
 
 know whether father or son) in a red hat, and a 
 white habit trimmed with black. 
 
 The portrait of James Mejer, Consul or Burgo- 
 master of Basil and his wife, 15 16, with the sketches 
 for both pictures. In the museum of Feschius. 
 
 Erasmus, in the same place. 
 
 In the street called Eissengassen, is a whole 
 house painted by him on the outside, with build- 
 ings and history. For this he received sixty florins. 
 
 The Emperor Charles V. Le Blond, a Dutch 
 painter, 5 * gave an 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 an hundred ducats. 
 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 
 
 * So I find him called in the list of Holbein's works prefixed 
 to the English edition of the Moriae Encomium ; Sandrart 
 mentions another person 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 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. Le Blon had also some figures by 
 Holbein, particularly a Venus and Cupid, finely modelled. 
 There is a print of the Swedish Le Blon, after Vandyck by 
 Theo. Matham, thus inscribed, Michel Le Blon, Agent de la 
 Reyne et couronne de Suede chez sa Majestie de la Grande 
 Bretagne. 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 131 
 
 Frobenius. Both pictures are now* at Kensing- 
 ton ; 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 daughters on the other, all praying before 
 an altar. This was sold at Basil for an hundred 
 pieces of gold; the same Le Blond in 1633 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 w T orks. 
 
 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 Pellican, professor of 
 Theology and Hebrew at Zurich ; in the house of 
 Mr. Martyn Werdmyller, senator of Basil. 
 
 * But the Erasmus is thought a copy : the true one King 
 Charles gave to Mons. de Lien court, 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. 
 
132 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 Christ in his cradle, the Virgin and Joseph: 
 Shepherds at a distance; in the church of the 
 Augustines at Lucern. 
 
 The Adoration of the Wise men. ibidem. 
 
 Christ taken from the cross, ibidem. 
 
 The Sancta 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 Rhodes. 
 
 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 stran- 
 gers through a grate. And yet, as Vertue observed, 
 our painter had undoubtedly no hand in it. Pope 
 Eugenius IV. appointed the council of Basil in 
 1431, and it sat there 15 years, during which time 
 a plague raged that carried off all degrees of 
 people. On the cessation of it, the work in ques- 
 tion was immediately painted as a memorial of 
 that calamity. Holbein could not be the original* 
 
 * [Mr. Ottley (Hist, of Engraving, v. ii. p. 760-764) considers 
 Holbein as the original designer, but that the pictures were 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OP HENRY VIII. 133 
 
 painter, for he was not born till 1498 ; nor had 
 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 was done (which was about 
 the time of his short return thither) it is not pro- 
 bable that mention of him would have been omitted 
 in the inscription which the magistrates caused to 
 be placed under those paintings, especially when 
 the name of one Hugo Klauber, a painter who 
 repaired them in 1569, 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 paintings 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 
 
 not engraven on wood by him. His reasoning is very ingenious. 
 At Munich Mr. Dibdin saw a series of these figures, which are 
 (he says) indisputably the oldest of their kind extant, as old 
 probably as the middle of the fifteenth century. The figure of 
 death is always entwined by a serpent, and when before a Pope 
 is represented as playing upon bag-pipes.'' (Bibliograph. Tour, 
 v. iii, p. 278. The fact appears to be, that Holbein was not 
 the inventor of the original idea, but that he very greatly im- 
 proved it. The earliest Edition of the Dance of Death, known, 
 was published at Lyons in 1538. Warton, in his Essay on 
 Spenser, (v. ii. pp. 115-121) gives an admirable critique on 
 this subject, which must be injured by an attempted abridge- 
 ment. The book from which Hollar copied these designs 
 was published at Basle, in 1554, intitled " 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, Warton s Hist. Poet, v. ii. p. 364 n. 8vo.] 
 
134 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 prints which Hollar has given of Holbein's draw- 
 ings of Death's Dance, a design he borrowed from 
 the work at Basil, there are groupes 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 Razet ; 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 offers 200 florins to whoever will pro- 
 duce and sell them to him, p. 241. 
 
 In the king of France's collection are the fol- 
 lowing:^: 
 
 I. Archbishop Warham, aet. suae 70. 1527. 
 There is another of these 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. 
 
 * [This subject was originally painted in fresco on the walls 
 of the cloisters of Old St. Paul's Cathedral, about 1440. Stowes 
 Survey of London, p. 264. Dugdales Hist, of St. PauTs, and 
 Lidgates Daunce of Maccabre.~\ 
 
 t Mr. George Augustus Selwyn has one that answers exactly 
 to this account, and is in good preservation. Mr. Walpole 
 has another, and better preserved. 
 
 X [These pictures are still in the collection of the King of 
 France at the Louvre. St. Germain, Guide des Amateurs, 1818.] 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 135 
 
 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 highness to pardon me ; 
 what can a man learn in only thirty years ?" These 
 two last pictures* were in the collection of An- 
 drew de Loo, a great virtuoso, who bought all the 
 works of Holbein he could procure ; among others 
 a portrait of Erasmus, which king Charles after- 
 wards 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.SouthweHs,and engraved among 
 the illustrious heads. -J- 
 
 * 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, p. 118. Another of Cratzer remained 
 at Holland-house, till the death of the countess of Warwick, 
 wife of Mr. Addison j a fine picture, strongly painted, repre- 
 senting him with several instruments before him, and an inscrip- 
 tion expressing that he was a Bavarian, of the age of 41 in 15*28. 
 In one of the office-books are entries of payment to him. 
 
 April, paid to Nicholas the Astronomer, - III. 
 
 Anno 23, paid to ditto - - 51. 4s. Od. 
 
 Cratzer in 1550 erected the dial at Corpus Christi coll. Oxford. 
 Brit. Topogr. vol. ii. p. 159. 
 
 t 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 at King's Weston 
 
136 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 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. 
 
 George Gysein.-f- 
 
 But the greatest and best of his works were done 
 in England, many of which still remain here. 
 Some were lost or destroyed in the civil war; 
 some sold abroad at that time and some, parti- 
 
 n ear Bristol, and a repetition at Sir T. Clifford's, Tixal, Staf- 
 fordshire.] 
 
 * There is a small head of him at Devonshire-house with this 
 date, aet. 15, 1515. 
 
 t This is a Dutch name : Peter Gyzen, born about 1636, 
 was a painter, and scholar of Velvet Breughel. Descamps, vol. 
 iii. p. 41. 
 
 [The four portraits abovementioned, 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.] 
 
 X [In the Florence Gallery, were small portraits of H. Earl 
 of Surrey, and Richard Southwell, both purloined during its 
 occupation by the French, in 1800. 
 
 The Editor, not without diffidence, offers an extended cata- 
 logue 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 Mr. 
 W. 3 but he has passed over, without offering any criticism, a 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 137 
 
 cularly of his miniatures were, I believe, consumed 
 when Whitehall was burned. There perished the 
 
 few which have certainly long enjoyed 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 Royal Palaces. 
 Windsor. 
 
 1. Sir Thomas More. 
 
 2. Thomas, third Duke of Norfolk. 
 
 3. Henry, Earl of Surrey, w. 1. 
 
 4. Holstoff, a merchant. 
 
 Kensington. 
 
 Holbein's Father, and his Mother, by J. H. sen. or his son 
 
 Sigismond. 
 Himself and wife, (sm.) water-colours. 
 Henry VIII. a head, white fur in the shoulders. 
 Katherine of Arragon, with a Dwarf. 
 Sir Henry Guldeford. 
 
 William Somers, the King's Jester, looking through a lattice. 
 
 Erasmus, valued at Charles the First's sale at 200Z. 
 
 Frobenius, his printer, (the Architecture added by Steinwyck.) 
 Others at Hatfield, before 1527, at Althorp and Strawberry- 
 hill. 
 
 Erasmus, at Althorp j and at Strawberry-hill, (round) at Long- 
 ford Castle, formerly Dr. Mead's, sold for 110Z. 
 
 iEgidius, or Peter Giles the Lawyer of Antwerp, his friend. In 
 the same collection. 
 
138 PAINTBRS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 large picture of Henry VII.* and of Elizabeth of 
 York, of Henry VIII. and Jane Seymour ; it was 
 
 Hampton Court. 
 
 Erasmus. 
 
 John Reiskimer, 
 
 Several portraits by Holbein are said to have been preserved 
 in the Royal Palaces of Somerset or Denmark house, taken 
 down in 1775. Whitehall was burned in 1698, and St. James's 
 in 1809, and the pictures have been either destroyed, or re- 
 placed in others of the king's residences. 
 Erasmus, (sm.) Greystoke Castle, Cumberland. The Original. 
 Thomas, Third Duke of Norfolk, (sm.) H. Howard, Esq. 
 Corby Castle. 
 
 f (h. 1.) Norfolk House. 
 
 I (h. 1.) Castle Howard, with a View of two Castles. 
 Thesame '<(h.l.) Thorndon. 
 
 (h. 1.) Gorhambury. 
 Henry VIII. (w. 1.) bought at Lord Torrington's sale in 1778, 
 
 for 112/. sitting, holding a walking staff, at Knowle. 
 Francis I. at Lord Harrington's 1780, brought from Spain. 
 Henry VII. and Henry VIII. sketch in black chalk, size of life, 
 Chatsworth. 
 
 Henry VIII. (sm.) was in the Duke of Buckingham's collection, 
 
 (w. 1.) at Petworth. 
 
 (w. 1.) at Belvoir Castle. 
 
 fr , J (head) Apuldercombe. 
 
 j. ne same, ( 
 
 from Lee Court, Kent, Sir T. Baring, 
 and Q. Catherine with the divorce, in her hand^ 
 (sm.) Dalkeith. 
 
 Q. Anne Boleyne, half length, with a velvet bonnet and single 
 feather, many jewels, ANNA REGINA, IH. 1533. 
 
 * 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. 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 139 
 
 painted on the wall in the privy chamber. The 
 copy which Remee* made of it for Charles II. in 
 
 Q. A.Boleyne, Warwick Castle. 
 
 Q. Jane Seymour, (1336.) Woburn. 
 
 Q. Katherine Par, Dawson Turner, Esq. 
 
 Margaret, Q. of Scotland, Newbattle Abbey. 
 
 K. Edward Sixth (w. 1.) Petworth. 
 
 The same, when a child, with a rattle, Apuldercombe. 
 
 Ditto, small whole length, Houghton. 
 
 W. Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, Lambeth. At Ditchley. 
 Martin Luther, Stowe. 
 
 J. Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, St. John's Coll. Camb. ; Did- 
 
 dlington, Norfolk. 
 Sir John Gage, K. G. Belvidere, Kent. 
 Judge Montagu, Liscombe, Bucks. 
 Lord Paget, (a repetition,) Beaudesert. 
 Sir Nicholas Carew, Lumley Castle. 
 Sir W. Petre, Thorndon. At Lumley Castle. 
 H. Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, Longleat. 
 John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, Penshurst. 
 Sir J. Brydges, 1st. Lord Chandos, Avington. 
 Sir A. Denny and his Lady, Northumberland House. 
 The same, when Lord Denny, Longford Castle. 
 Sir H. Guldeford and his Lady, Northumberland House. 
 Sir J. More, (Judge) Longleat. 
 
 Sir Edward Grimstone, (1548, set. c 20.) Gorhambury. 
 Sir Thomas Smyth, Secretary of State. 
 
 Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, at Longleat, Stowe, and 
 Castle Ashby. 
 
 Thomas, Lord Seymour of Sudeley, at Longleat, and at Stowe. 
 Gregory Lord Cromwell, Tixhall, Purnham, Dorset. 
 Sir T. Chaloner, (aet. 28, 1548.) 
 Henry Chesman, (1533) Falconer to Henry VIII. 
 This portrait, or a repetition of it, is noticed by Sir J.Reynolds 
 
 * Remee was a scholar of Vandyke and died in 1678, aged 68. 
 [This was Remegius or Reme'e Van Lemput.] 
 
140 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII, 
 
 small, and for which he received 150/. hangs in 
 the king's bedchamber below stairs at Kensington ; 
 
 (Works, v. ii. p. 346,) at the Hague, as being " admirable 
 for its truth and precision, and extremely 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 Tittenhanger, Herts. At Wroxton. 
 
 Holbein, his wife, four boys and a girl, (sm.) Mereworth Castle, 
 Kent. 
 
 " As a whole it has no effect 5 but the heads are excellent. 
 They are not painted in the common flat style of Holbein, 
 but with a round firm glowing pencil, and yet exact 
 imitation of nature is preserved — the boys are very inno- 
 cent beautiful characters."— Gilpin. 
 
 May not this be a repetition of the family picture mentioned 
 by Mr. W. in a note p. 147, as 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, Knowlsley. 
 
 Sir T. Wyat.— E. of Romney, The Moat, Kent. 
 
 John Lord Berners, Didlington, Norfolk, as Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer. He holds a lemon in one hand to prevent 
 infection j 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 Northumber- 
 land, 1545, Penshurst. 
 
 The Princess, afterwards Q. Elizabeth, when young, in red, 
 holding a book, formerly at Whitehall, now at Kensington. 
 
 Sir Brian Tuke. Corsham. 
 
 Sir John Gage, 1541. 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 141 
 
 from that Vertue engraved his print. Holbein's 
 original drawing of the two kings is in the collec- 
 tion 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 
 Arimathea, and in that at St. James's, Lazarus 
 rising from the dead — both now destroyed.* 
 
 That he often drew the king is indubitable; 
 several pictures extant of Henry are ascribed to 
 
 W. Par, Marquis of Northampton, Kensington. 
 Anne Boleyne, sold at Sir L. Dundas's sale for 78Z. 15s. 
 W. Herbert, first Earl of Pembroke, Wilton. 
 Dr. Butts, Henry VIII.'s Physician, and his Wife, at Anthony, 
 Cornwall. 
 
 W. Fitzwilliam, Earl of Southampton, destroyed at Cowdray. 
 In the Collection of G. Villiers, Duke of Bucks, were four 
 
 portraits, none exceeding two feet square. 
 1. K. Henry VIII. 2. Mary Queen of France. 3. Erasmus. 
 
 4. T. 3d. Duke of Norfolk. Attributed to Holbein, in B. 
 
 Fairfax's Catalogue. 
 
 Miniatures by Holbein. f 
 Himself, (round) Strawberry-hill. 
 Katherine of Arragon, ditto. 
 Q. Katherine Par, ditto. 
 Q. Anne of Cleves, Lee Priory, Kent. 
 
 Henry Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and Frances (Grey) Duchess 
 of Suffolk, two children of Charles Duke of Suffolk, 
 (limning) Kensington. 
 
 Himself, (small round) Althorp. 
 
 * See Peacham on limning. 
 
 t [Several of Holbein's miniatures were preserved in carved 
 boxes of ivory and ebony, in Charles the First's Cabinet ; and 
 some of the smaller portraits perished in the fire, at Whitehall, 
 in 1698.] 
 
142 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 him — I would not warrant many of them. There 
 is one at Trinity college Cambridge,* another at 
 LordTorrington'sat Whitehall, both whole lengths, 
 and another in the gallery of royal portraits at 
 Kensington, which, whoever painted it, is exe- 
 crable; 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 pictu- 
 resque merit, allows 16 degrees for colouring to 
 Holbein, when he had allotted but 12 to Raphael. 
 I conclude that it was in the same light that Fre- 
 deric Zucchero considered our artist, when he told 
 Goltzius that in some respects he preferred him 
 to Raphael. Both Zucchero and Depiles under- 
 stood 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 
 
 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 Holbein from its resemblance to the 
 family picture at Somerset-House. Althorp.] 
 * It has Fecit upon it ; and was probably a copy by 
 
 Lucas de Heere, of whom hereafter. 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 143 
 
 much inferior, called in the catalogue Lord Arun- 
 del, or Howard ;* 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 Ed- 
 ward 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 remained in the royal collection; 
 Charles I. appears by his catalogue to have pos- 
 sessed but about a dozen. All the rest were dis- 
 persed 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 
 opening 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 
 
 * 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.] 
 
144 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 accession of the late King, Queen Caroline found 
 in a bureau at Kensington a noble collection of 
 Holbein's original drawings for the portraits of 
 some of the chief personages of the Court of 
 Henry VIII. How they came there is quite* un- 
 
 * [In the British Museum is a MS. of great curiosity, Harl. 
 No. 6000, in which an account of these limnings is given, which 
 greatly elucidates the subject. It is evidently written in the 
 reign of Charles I. and from strong internal evidence, compiled 
 from the notes of Hilliard. Concerning this work of Holbein, 
 Sanderson, or rather Flatman, who composed the extraordinary 
 book which was published in his name, has taken great liber- 
 ties with the original notice. P. 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 Holbein, 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 j 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 booke, 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 j but is now happily 
 fallen into the hands of my Noble Lord the Earl Marshal (T. 
 Earl of Arundel) of England, a most eminent 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." 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OP HENRY VIII. 145 
 
 known. They did belong to Charles I.* who 
 
 In a MS. bequeathed by Dr. Rawlinson to the Bodleian 
 Library, (No. 336) intitled "Miniature or the Arte of Limning, 
 by Edw. Norgate,'' after treating of crayons, he says, " abetter 
 way was 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 heare it has been a 
 great 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 Norfolk, in 1686, 
 London Gazette of that year. 
 
 By the order of Q. Caroline, they were framed and glazed. 
 His late Majesty released them, and they were placed in port- 
 folios. He gave permission to J. Chamberlaine, 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 36 guineas imperial folio), which contain 
 eighty-two portraits, of which twelve are unknown. Of these, 
 all excepting eight were engraved by F. Bartolozzi, and the 
 biographical notices were written by Edmund Lodge, Esq. then 
 Lancaster Herald. They are intitled, " Imitations of original 
 drawings by Hans Holbein, in the Collection of His Majesty, for the 
 Portraits of Illustrious Persons of the Court of Henry VTLh with 
 biographical Tracts. Published by John Chamberlaine, 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 Mr. W.] 
 
 * After Holbein's death they had been sold into France, 
 VOL. r. L 
 
146 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 changed them with William Earl of Pembroke for 
 a St. George by Raphael, 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 por- 
 traits. The heads of Sir Thomas More, % Bishop 
 
 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. 
 Saunderson in his Graphice, p. 79, commends this book highly, 
 but says some of the drawings were spoiled. 
 
 * See the list of them, subjoined to the catalogue of the col- 
 lection 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. 
 
 f Some have been rubbed, and others traced over with a 
 pen on the outlines by some unskilful hand. In an old inven- 
 tory 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. 
 
 X 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. 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 147 
 
 Fisher, Sir Thomas Wyat, and Broke lord Cob- 
 ham are master-pieces.* It is great pity that they 
 have not been engraved, not only that such frail 
 performances of so great a genius might be pre- 
 served, but that the resemblances of so many 
 illustrious persons, no where else existing, might 
 be saved from destruction. Vertue had under- 
 taken 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 ; 
 they were presented to Queen Caroline by Sir 
 Robert Walpole, my father.^ And a circular 
 drawing ; the story of Solomon and the Queen of 
 Sheba. 
 
 * 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 
 Suffolk. 
 
 f The father of Lord Treasurer Oxford passing over Lon- 
 don bridge, was caught in a shower, and stepping into a gold- 
 smith's shop for shelter, he found there a picture of Holbein 
 (who had lived in that house) and his family. He offered the 
 goldsmith 100Z. for it, who consented to let him have it, but 
 desired first to shew it to some persons. Immediately after 
 happened the fire of London and the picture was destroyed. 
 
148 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 In one of the kings cabinets is a miniature of 
 two children 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 repre- 
 sented. 
 
 He drew Will. Somers,* King Henry's jester, 
 from which there is a print. It is perhaps a little 
 
 * There is a burlesque figure of him in the armoury at 
 the Tower. 
 
 [Of those extraordinary characters denominated Fools or 
 privileged Jesters, which were not merely tolerated at Court, 
 and in the houses of the higher nobility, most interesting in- 
 formation is given by Mr. Douce, in a Dissertation on the Clowns 
 and Fools of Shakspeare, v. ii. p. 299. The very frequent intro- 
 duction of them, and likewise of Dwarfs of either sex, into 
 groups of family pictures, affords ample evidence of the estima- 
 tion in which they were held by their masters, even to so low 
 an era as that of Charles I. 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 him- 
 self as David playing on the harp, and likewise in the large pic* 
 ture of himself and family, abovementioned, as now being in 
 the Antiquaries room at Somerset Place. At Kensington, he is 
 standing behind a glazed lattice. The two last are by Holbein. 
 There is a portrait of him at Billingbear, Berks, perhaps a repe- 
 tition. 
 
 The Burford Picture was bought in at Christie's a few years 
 since for 1000Z. with a view to ascertain its value. As Mr. W. 
 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. Caecilia Heron, his daughter, set. 20. 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OP HENRY VIII. 149 
 
 draw-back on the fame of heroes and statesmen, 
 that such persons, who shared at least an equal 
 portion of royal favour formerly, continue to oc- 
 cupy a place even in the records of time — at least, 
 we antiquaries, who hold every thing worth pre- 
 serving, merely because it has been preserved, 
 have with the names of Henry, Charles, Elizabeth, 
 Francis I. Wolsey, Sir Thomas More, &c. trea- 
 sured 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 succeeded ; Patch, Wolsey's fool; Harry 
 Patenson, Sir Thomas's More's ; and of Bisquet 
 and Amaril, the Jesters of Francis I. not to men- 
 tion Hitard,* King Edmund's buffoon ; Stone/}* 
 and JefFery Hudson, the dwarf of Henrietta Maria. 
 Of some of these personages I have found the fol- 
 lowing anecdotes : Saxton is the first person re- 
 
 4. Alicia More, second wife of Sir Thomas, aet. 57. 5. Sir John 
 More, the Judge, his father, eet. 76. 6. Anne Grisacre, be- 
 trothed to John More, his son, aet. 15. 7. John More, last 
 mentioned, at 19. 8. Sir Thomas More, aet. 50. 9. Henry 
 Patenson, his Fool, aet. 40. 10. Margaret Roper his heroic 
 daughter, aet. 22. who died in 1544. aet. 36. An outline of this 
 picture is prefixed to the Tabellce Selectee Catharine Patina, 
 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. Lenthal, at Besilsleigh, Berks, says that it had an inscrip- 
 tion in golden letters, of about sixty lines, 1670.] 
 
 * See Dart's Antiq. of Canterbury, p. 6. 
 
 t A fool mentioned in Seldens Table-Talk. 
 
150 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 corded 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, 20s." 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 Deny, Her Majesty's Jester, 
 13 weeks, 10/. ISs. 6d" 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 of religion and 
 folly with which four successive courts had amused 
 themselves or tormented every body 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 pictures 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 Hall, of Henry VIII. giving 
 the charter to the company of surgeons. The 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 151 
 
 character of His Majesty's bluff haughtiness is 
 well represented, and all the heads are finely exe- 
 cuted. 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 Shakespear.* 
 
 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 Bride- 
 well into an hospital and workhouse. Holbein 
 has placed his own head in one corner of the pic- 
 ture. Vertue has engraved it. This picture, it is 
 believed, was not completed by Holbein, both he 
 and the king dying immediately after the dona- 
 tion. 
 
 The third and fourth were two large pictures, 
 painted in distemper, in the hall of the East erlings 
 merchants in the Steelyard. Where Descamps 
 found, I do not know, that they were designed for 
 ceilings. It is probably a mistake. These pic- 
 tures 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 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. 
 
152 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 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 avaritious persons 
 of note. 
 
 Poverty was an old woman, sitting in a vehicle 
 as shattered 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 Diligence, 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 expres- 
 sion in the latter, were universally admired. It 
 was on the sight of these pictures that Zucchero 
 expressed such esteem of this master ; he copied 
 them in Indian ink, and those drawings came 
 afterwards into the possession of Mons. Crozat. 
 Vosterman jun. engraved prints from them, at 
 least of the triumph of Poverty, but Vertue could 
 never meet with that of Riches : however, in Buck- 
 ingham-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 Vosterman had made, in 
 order to engrave. These drawings I suppose were 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 153 
 
 sold in the Duchess's auction.* For the large 
 pictures themselves Felibien and Depiles say that 
 they were carried into France from Flanders, whi- 
 ther they were transported I suppose after the 
 destruction of the company, of which Stowe~f~ 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 III. 
 at the request of his brother, Richard Earl of Corn- 
 wall and King of Almaine, gave them great privi- 
 leges, they then having a house called, Guilda 
 Aula Teutonicorum. Edward I. confirmed their 
 
 * So I concluded, but have since been so lucky to find that 
 they were preserved 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 resem- 
 blance 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 Voster- 
 man' s copy and that of Poverty, Zucchero's. They are now at 
 Strawberry-hill. 
 
 t Survey of London, p. 249. 
 
154 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 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 con- 
 sideration of their privileges, and which they suf- 
 fered to run to ruin. Being 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 Richard Lions, a famous lapidary, one of the 
 sheriffs, who was beheaded by the Kentish rebels 
 in the reign of Richard II., and another for which 
 they paid 70/. per aim. But still continuing to 
 engross the trade, they were suppressed in the 
 reign of Edward VI. who seized the liberties of 
 the Steelyard 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 the sketch of it ; but there is great 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 155 
 
 presumption, that though Holbein made the de- 
 sign, it was not he who executed the picture in 
 large, as will appear by the following accounts 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 his supposed author, is not always an 
 argument sufficient 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 
 Vertue 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 of Lenthall is uncertain ; the re- 
 mains of the family of More are seated at Barn- 
 borough 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 relicks which belonged to 
 that great man ; as a George enamelled, and within 
 it a miniature of Sir Thomas ; a gold cross with 
 pearl drops, and the cap he wore at his execution. 
 
156 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII* 
 
 The second picture is at Heron in Essex, the 
 seat of Sir John Tyrrel, but having been repainted 
 it is impossible 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 collection, after whose death it was 
 bought by Mr. Roper, Sir Thomas's grandson. As 
 Deloo was a collector of Holbein's works, and his 
 contemporary, it sounds extraordinary, that a pic- 
 ture, 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 pic- 
 ture 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 
 unanswerable, and demonstrate it no genuine pic- 
 ture of Holbein, 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 chan- 
 cellor's service for the king's, before he had drawn 
 out the great picture, which however Sir Thomas 
 always understood was to be executed ; that Hol- 
 bein's business increasing upon him, some other 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 157 
 
 painter was employed to begin the picture, and to 
 which Holbein was to give the last touches ; in 
 short that inimitable perfection of flesh which cha- 
 racterizes his works. And this is the more pro- 
 bable as Vertue observed that the faces and hands 
 are left flat and unfinished, but the ornaments, 
 jewels, &c. are extremely laboured. As the por- 
 traits 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 indiffe- 
 rent, in single heads, some from the right, some 
 from the left, but which make a ridiculous con- 
 tradiction when transported into one piece. This 
 picture, purchased as I have said by Mr. Roper, 
 the son of that amiable Margaret, whose beha- 
 viour when Sir Thomas returned to the Tower 
 was a subject not for Holbein, but for Poussin or 
 Shakespear! This picture remained till of late 
 years at Wellhall in Eltham, Kent, the mansion 
 of the Ropers. That house being pulled down, it 
 hung for some time in the king's house at Green- 
 wich, soon after which, by the death of the last 
 Roper, whose sole daughter married Mr. Henshaw 
 and left three daughters, the family-picture, then 
 valued at 300/. came between them, and Sir Row- 
 land Wynne, who married one of them, bought 
 the shares of the other two, and carried the pic- 
 ture into Yorkshire, where it now remains. 
 
 The other small one is in the collection of 
 
158 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 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 grandson, 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. 
 
 The fifth was in the palace of the Delfino family 
 at Venice, where it was long on sale, the price 
 first set 15001. When I saw it there in 1741, they 
 had sunk it to 4001. 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 sits 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 daugh- 
 ters. The old man is not only unlike all repre- 
 sentations of Sir Thomas More, but it is certain 
 that he never had but one son* — For the colour- 
 ing 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 of this picture 
 
 * There is recorded a bon 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 an idiot — " You 
 have prayed 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." 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 159 
 
 by Bischop was brought over in 1723, from whence 
 Vertue doubted both of the subject and the painter ; 
 but he never saw the original ! By the description 
 of the family-picture of the consul Mejer, men- 
 tioned above, I have no doubt but this is the very 
 picture — Mejer and More 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 Richard Sy- 
 monds,* 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. 
 
 In the Earl of Pembroke's collection was a lady 
 in black satin, which Zucchero admired exceed- 
 ingly.* 
 
 The Duke of Buckingham had eight of his hand, 
 
 * In one of his pocket books, which will be mentioned more 
 particularly in the second volume, 
 t They were at Tart-hall. 
 
 X There is a view of the Siege of Pavia, at Wilton, said to be 
 by Holbein, but it is by Albert Durer. I even question whe- 
 ther the profile of Edward VI. there be an original. 
 
160 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 in particular the story of Jupiter and Io. See his 
 catal. p. 16. 
 
 At the Earl of Uxbridge's at Drayton, his an- 
 cestor Lord Paget. 
 
 At the Earl of Guilford's at Wroxton, Sir Tho- 
 mas Pope, the founder of Trinity-college, Oxford. 
 
 At Blenheim, a very lively head of a young man. 
 
 At Buckingham house was the portrait of Ed- 
 mund Lord Sheffield.* 
 
 Henry VIII. and Francis I. exchanged two pic- 
 tures ; the King of France gave to Henry the 
 Virgin and child by Leonardo da Vinci ; the Eng- 
 lish present was painted by Holbein, but the sub- 
 ject 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 VIII. 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 Arragon, a miniature, ex- 
 
 * This is a mistake. It was painted by Antonio More, and 
 is now at Strawberry-hill, and is the portrait of John Lord 
 Sheffield. 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 161 
 
 quisitely finished ; a round on a blue ground. It 
 was given to the Duke of Monmouth by Charles II. 
 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. 
 
 Cath. Howard, a miniature, damaged. It was 
 Richardson's, who bought it out of the Arundelian 
 collection. It is engraved among the illustrious 
 heads ; and by Hollar, who called it, Mary Queen 
 of France, wife of Charles Brandon Duke of Suf- 
 folk. 
 
 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 Anti- 
 quities 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 design 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 Anthony Denny and intended for a 
 new-year's gift to Henry VIII. From the collection 
 of Mons. Mariette at Paris. 
 
 VOL. I. M 
 
162 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 A head of Melancthon, in oil on board, a small 
 round, very fine. 
 
 Several drawings by Holbein, and some minia- 
 tures are preserved in various collections. 
 
 There is a very curious picture in the collection 
 of Col. Sothby, said to be begun in France by 
 Janet,* and which Vertue thinks might be retouched 
 by Holbein, as it was probably painted for his 
 patron, the Duke of Norfolk, from whom it de- 
 scended immediately to the Earl of Arundel, out 
 of whose collection the father of the present pos- 
 sessor purchased it. It represents three royal pair 
 dancing in a meadow, with a magnificent building 
 at a distance ; they are Henry VIII. and Anne 
 Boleyn ; and his sisters Margaret Queen of Scots 
 and Mary Queen of France with their second hus- 
 bands, Archibald Douglas and Charles Brandon.-f- 
 
 * [Francois Clouet, dil 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 Ken- 
 sington are the portraits of Francis II. and Mary 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 Fontainbleau, and a collection of them made by the 
 celebrated President De Thou.] 
 
 t 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 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 163 
 
 The circumstances 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, how- 
 ever 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 galant Earl of 
 Surrey for quartering 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 am- 
 bitious 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 Royal 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. 
 
 person in the middle is a black swarthy man with a sharp 
 beard, like Francis I. 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 pic- 
 ture, and exhibits little more than the face. 
 
164 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 Holbein's talents were not confined to his pic- 
 tures ; he was an architect, he modelled, carved, 
 was excellent in designing ornaments, and gave 
 draughts of prints for several 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 VIII. 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, 
 
 * The noble seal appendent to the surrender of Cardinal 
 Wolsey's college at Oxford, has all the appearance of being de- 
 signed by Holbein. The deed is preserved in the augmenta- 
 tion-office, and the seal has been engraved among the plates 
 published by the Society of Antiquaries. 
 
 f The dagger, in Her Grace's collection, is set with jacynths, 
 and cost Lord Oxford 45/. 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 an 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 Mr. W. gave fifty guineas.] 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 165 
 
 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 figures 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 every 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.* 
 
 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 
 every where 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 surprizing, the fruitfulness of 
 Holbein's invention, his quickness of execution 
 and industry in performing so much. 
 
 To the Catechismus or Instruction of Christian 
 Religion, by Thomas Cranmer, printed by Walter 
 Lynn 1538, quarto, the title is a wooden cut re- 
 
 * In St. John's college Cambridge is Henry the VIII. 's Bible 
 printed on vellum, with Holbein's cuts finely illuminated, and 
 the figures of Henry, Cromwell, and others. 
 
166 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 presenting Edward VI. 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, entituled 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 graphice 5 sed nullus Apelles 
 Exprimet ingenium felix animumque Viati. 
 
 Of his architecture nothing now remains stand- 
 ing but the beautiful porch at the Earl of Pem- 
 broke'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 herein 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 undoubt- 
 edly, at Whitehall, and at Nonsuch were many of 
 his productions. 
 
 It may be wondered that I have said nothing 
 
 * I have a large drawing by him for a magnificent chimney- 
 piece, I do not know if the same. 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN Oi HENRY VIII. 167 
 
 of a work much renowned and ascribed to this 
 master; I mean the chamber at the Lord Mon- 
 tacute's at Coudray ; but it is most certainly not 
 executed by him. Though the histories repre- 
 sented 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, disposition, or colouring. 
 
 *There are three other historic pieces in the 
 same house, of much more merit, ascribed like- 
 wise 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 on the foreground; one wears the crown of 
 France, another a coronet, like that of an English 
 prince, composed of crosses and fleurs 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 
 
 * [In the third volume of the Archaeologia, is given a minute 
 account of these most curious paintings upon the walls of a 
 large apartment in Cowdray House, Sussex, all of which pe- 
 rished 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 Antiquary Society ; and Mr. 
 Gough's complete description will supply a competent idea of 
 the rest.] 
 
168 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 finished, are sitting- to see the tilt. On the back 
 ground is the French kings 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 ha- 
 ranguing 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 Vaux, and others." These pictures I 
 should not think of Holbein ; 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 cotemporary with Holbein, and whose 
 works are often confounded with our painters.* 
 Holbein's fame was so thoroughly established-^ 
 
 * In the great drawing-room at Coudray is a chimney-piece 
 painted with grotesque ornaments in the good taste of Holbein, 
 and probably all he executed at that curious old seat, the tradi- 
 tion in the family being, that he staid there but a month. 
 
 f Sandrart. 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 169 
 
 even in his life, that the Italian masters vouch- 
 safed to borrow from him. In particular Michael 
 Angelo Caravaggio was much indebted to him in 
 two different pictures. Rubens was so great an 
 admirer of his works that he advised young San- 
 drart to study his Dance of Death, from which 
 Rubens himself had made drawings. 
 
 This account of a man, dear to connoisseurs for 
 the singular perfection of his colouring, become 
 dear to antiquaries 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 Ausberg ; and 
 that in a roll* of New-years gifts in the 30th 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 
 penny weights, 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; 
 
 * It was in the possession of Mr. Holmes, keeper of the 
 records in the Tower, and was exhibited to the Antiquarian 
 Society, in 173(5. 
 
170 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 Holbein gave a picture of the Prince's grace. 
 Lucas a screen to set before the fire. 
 Richard Atsyll, a broach of gold with an antique 
 head.* 
 
 In the library of the Royal Society is a book of 
 the chamberlains office,, containing payments made 
 by Sir Bryan Tuke, treasurer of the king's chamber, 
 beginning in Feb. 1538, in the 29th of Henry VIII. 
 There appear the following accounts. 
 
 Payd to Hans Holbein, paynter, a quarter due 
 at Lady-day last 8/. 10s. Od. 
 
 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 Hol- 
 bein, one of the king's paynters, by the kyng's 
 commandment certify'd by my Lord privy seal's 
 letter, xl. for his cost and charge at this time, 
 sent about certeyn his grace's affairs in the parts 
 of High Burgundy,-}- 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 
 
 * He was an engraver of stones. See the end of this 
 chapter. 
 
 t It was to draw the picture of the Duchess of Milan, men- 
 tioned above. 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 171 
 
 hand, after the rate of xxx/^ 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. 
 
 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, 1519. It was made, 
 adds the same author, by one Peter, a painter of 
 Florence, for which he received a thousand pounds, 
 for the whole stuff and workmanship. This Peter, 
 Vertue discovered to be, Pietro Torreggiano, a 
 valuable sculptor. § That he was here in the pre- 
 
 * Sandrart by mistake says only 200 florins. 
 
 t [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, 61." It probably contained his 
 designs for the scenes.] 
 
 % Page 499. 
 
 § [Pietro Torrigiano, or as he was called in England, Peter 
 Torisa, or Torrysani. Vasari says, that he was born at Florence 
 about the year 1470, and was an eminent sculptor, when he 
 contracted to make King Henry VHth's tomb, as appears by 
 the original deed of contract, in the archives of Westminster 
 Abbey, dated in 1516. It was finished in 1519, after which he 
 
172 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII, 
 
 ceding- year appears by a book of acts, orders, de 
 crees and records of the Court of Requests 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 Greenwich, master Peter Torisano, 
 a Florentine sculptor was one of the witnesses. 
 Vasari 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 superiority. — He received, adds Vasari, 
 such noble rewards, that if he had not been a 
 proud, inconsiderate, ungovernable man, he might 
 have 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 
 
 left England for Spain. A cast from the head of Henry VII. 
 is now preserved at Strawberry-hill.] 
 
 * In a passion he had broken an image of the Virgin, that 
 he had just carved. 
 
 [Mr. 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, 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 173 
 
 thrown into the inquisition, tried and condemned 
 — the execution indeed was respited, but he became 
 
 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'Arcas) one of the first 
 Grandees of Spain ; and Torrigiano, who conceived highly of 
 his generosity, and well knew what his own talents could per- 
 form, 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 j and presented to his employer a match- 
 less 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 impa- 
 tient 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 j 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 
 disappointment 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 perfec- 
 tion (or what was to him of more fatal consequence) the sacred 
 character of the image he had made, he broke it suddenly in 
 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 sacrile- 
 gious nature of the act ; presented himself before the Inquisi- 
 tion 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 
 
174 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 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, one should suppose had not 
 suppleness enough to please the monarch, even 
 after that complaisance. In the life of Benvenuto 
 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 
 
 sate in judgment, the decree was death, with torture. The 
 Holy Office lost its victim, for Torrigiano expired in prison, 
 and not under the hands of the executioner.*' 
 
 Mr. Cumberland observes, ' ' for my part, I lament both his 
 offence and his punishment. 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 ap- 
 prehension and fear. It is to be supposed, that Torregiano'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 that 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." p. 17. 
 
 Condivi relates this act of violence. See likewise Duppas 
 Life of M. Angelo, p. 159, 4to.] 
 
 *\Vita di Benvenuto Cellini, scritta da lui stesso," 1730. Trans- 
 lated by Dr. Nugent, and republished with additional notes, 
 2 vol, 8vo. 1822, by T. Roscoe.'] 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 175 
 
 arrived at Florence a sculptor called Pietro Tor- 
 reggiani, 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 pre- 
 sence, 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 strik- 
 ing with amazement, ed ogni giorno ragionava 
 delle sue bravure con quelle bestie di quelli Inglesi 
 every day relating his brave treatment of those 
 beasts the English. But as much struck as Cellini 
 was with this lofty behaviour to us savages, he 
 took an aversion to his new master, on the latter 
 boasting 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 fled, and entered into the army, 
 where he obtained a captains commission, but 
 being soon disgusted with that life, he retired to 
 Florence, and from thence came to England. 
 
176 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OP HENRY VIII. 
 
 To Torreggiano Vertue ascribes likewise the 
 tomb of Margaret Countess of Richmond, the 
 mother of Henry VII. and that of Dr. Young, 
 master of the rolls, in the chapel at the rolls in 
 Chancery-lane. There is a head of Henry VIII. 
 in plaister in a round at Hampton-court, which I 
 should suppose is by the same master. 
 
 Among the Harleian MSS. is an estimate of the 
 charge and expense of the ^monument to be 
 erected for Henry VII. in which appear the names 
 of other artists who worked under Torreggiano, 
 as Laurence Ymber, kerver, for making the pa- 
 trons in timber ; Humphrey W alker, founder ; 
 Nicholas Ewer, copper-smith and gilder; John 
 Bell and John Maynard, painters ; Robert Vertue, 
 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 VII. engaged with John Hylmer, to 
 vault and roof the choir of the chapel of St. George, 
 at Windsor for 700/.-f- Humphrey Cooke,;}; was 
 
 * 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. 
 
 t 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 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 177 
 
 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 Ri£hmondj 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 an hundred shillings. 
 
 It was in the reign of Henry VIII. that the 
 chapel of Kings college Cambridge was* finished, 
 
 piece of the family of Wingfield, containing 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. lxv. 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 Cloos, one of the first fel- 
 lows 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 men- 
 tioned 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 intended buildings 
 VOL. I. N 
 
178 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 a work, alone sufficient to ennoble any age. Se- 
 veral indentures are extant relative to the execu- 
 tion of that fabric. One in the fourth year of 
 this king, between the provost, Robert Hacom- 
 blein, and Thomas Larke surveyor of the works 
 on one part, and John Wastell, 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 VII. they covenanting 
 to pay him 1200/. that is to say, 100/. for every 
 severey (or partition) of the church, there being 
 twelve sever eys. 
 
 Another, dated August 4, in the fifth of the same 
 king, between the same parties, for the vaulting 
 of two porches of the kings college chapel, and 
 also seven chapels, and nine other chapels behind 
 the choir, according to a plat made and to be 
 finished, the vaults and battlements before the 
 feast of St. John Baptist next ensuing 25/. to be 
 paid for each of the said porches ; 20/. for each 
 of the seven chapels ; 12/. 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 c/. 
 
 Another between the same persons, for making 
 and setting up the finyalls of the buttresses of the 
 
 and designs for that college : In the same MS, John Canter- 
 bury, a native of Tewksbury and fellow of the college in 1451, 
 is said to have been clerk of the works there. 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 179 
 
 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 every 
 thing belonging to them. For every buttress to 
 be paid 6/.—13.S. — id. and for all the said but- 
 tresses 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 magnificent windows in the same chapel. 
 
 Indenture of May 3, in the 18th of Hen. VIII. 
 between the foresaid provost and Thomas Larke, 
 Arch-deacon of Norwich, and Francis Williamson 
 of Southwark, glazier, and Simon Symonds of St. 
 Margarets Westminster, glazier, the two latter 
 agreeing curiously and sufficiently to glaze four 
 windows of the upper story of the church of 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 accord- 
 ing to the manner done by Bernard Flower glazier 
 deceased ; also according to such patrons, other- 
 wise called vidimus, to be set up within two years 
 next ensuing, to be paid after the rate of sixteen 
 pence per foot for the glass. 
 
 The last is between the same provost and Tho- 
 mas Larke on one part, and Galyon Hoone of the 
 parish of St. Mary Magdalen, glazier, Richard 
 Bownde of St. Clement's Danes, glazier. Thomas 
 
180 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 Reve of St. Sepulchre's, glazier, and James Ni- 
 cholson of Southwark, glazier, on the other part, 
 the latter agreeing to set up eighteen windows of 
 the upper story of Kings College Chapel, like 
 those of the King's new chapel at Westminster, as 
 Barnard Flower glazier (late deceased) by inden- 
 ture 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 perfection in the arts, it would 
 not be easy for a master of a college now to go 
 into St. Margaret's parish or Southwark and be- 
 
 * An indenture more ancient than these, and containing 
 names of persons employed in this celebrated building, has 
 been discovered in the archives of Caius-college, by the pre- 
 sent master, Sir James Burrough, and is as follows j 
 
 " 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 in- 
 differently 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 of 
 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 
 upon the Evesdroppe in the garden of Ffyshwyke hostle, be- 
 longinge to Gonville hall, &c. Written at Cambr : 17, Aug. 
 1476, 16, Edward IV." 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 181 
 
 speak the roof of such a chapel as that of King s 
 college, and a dozen or two of windows, so admi- 
 rably drawn, and order them to be sent home by 
 such a day, as if he was bespeaking a chequered 
 pavement or a church bible. Even those obscure 
 artists Williamson, Symonds, Flower, Hoone, &c. 
 would figure as considerable painters in any reign ; 
 and what a rarity in a collection of drawings 
 would be one of their vidimus s ! It is remarkable 
 that one of the finest of these windows is the story 
 of Ananias and Saphira as told by Raphael in the 
 cartoons — probably the cartoons being consigned 
 to Flanders for tapestry, drawings from them were 
 sent hither ; an instance of the diligence of our 
 glass-painters in obtaining the best designs for 
 their work. 
 
 John Mustyan, born at Enguien, is recorded as 
 Henry's arras-maker; John de Mayne as his seal 
 graver; and Richard Atsyll* as his graver of 
 stones. ^ Skelton mentions one master Newton 
 as a painter of that time ; 
 
 Casting my sight the chambre about 
 To se how duly eche thyng in ordre was, 
 Towarde the dore as we were commyng out 
 
 * Hillyard (the same person probably, of whom more here- 
 after) cut the images of Henry VIII. and his children on a sar- 
 donyx, in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire. The Earl 
 of Exeter has such another. Lady Mary Wortley had a head 
 of the same king on a little stone in a ring • cameo on one 
 side and intaglio on the other. 
 
 t With a fee of twenty pounds a year. 
 
182 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 I saw maister Newton syt with his compas 
 His plummet, 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 40/. to Levina 
 Tirlinks 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 
 Queens 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 Sher- 
 borne, who erected a monument for himself, yet 
 remaining there. Vermander mentions one Theo- 
 dore Bernardi of Amsterdam, master of Michael 
 Coxie, who Vertue thinks painted those works at 
 Chichester, as they are in a Dutch taste. They 
 were repainted in 1747 by one Tremaine. 
 
 * [Bishop Sherburne employed Theodore Bernardi, a Flemish 
 painter who came to England, with his two sons, in 1519. 
 They painted two pictures of very considerable dimensions 
 upon oak pannel, describing two principal epochs, in the his- 
 tory of that church of Chichester ; the foundation of the See of 
 Selsey by Ceadwalla, and the establishment of four prebends 
 by himself. There is sufficient reason for conjecture, that the 
 chambers in Cowdray 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, v. i. p. 181.] 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 183 
 
 The congenial temper of Wolsey* displayed 
 itself in as magnificent a manner as the king's. 
 
 * [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 his History of Britain, p. 1083, has copied a MS. of 
 Nicholas Charles, Lancaster Herald, entitled, u The manner of 
 the Tombe to be made for the king's Grace, at Windsor." Of 
 its extraordinary dimensions and magnificence, both of mate- 
 rials and art, the following extract may communicate some idea, 
 ' 1 The inclosure, 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 embossed, shall stand 
 the king on horseback, in full armour, " of the stature of a 
 goodly man and a large horse,'' Over all, e< the Image of God 
 the Father, holding the king's soul in his left hand, and his 
 right hand extended, in the act of benediction. — 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 VHIth's. 
 Will this Tomb is specified, " an honorable tomb for our bones 
 to rest in, which is well onward, and almoost made therefore, 
 already." Dated, Dec. 30, 1546. The whole of this unfinished 
 pile of statuary was sold by the Parliament commissioners, for 
 600Z. and melted down. Among the Landsdowne State Papers, 
 No. 116, is a certificate of the Lord Treasurer (Burghley) of 
 the state of the Tombs of Henry VII. and VIII. with a view to 
 their repair. It is dated in 1579, when Q.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 sub- 
 dued her filial piety. It had been exerted in vain.] 
 
184 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 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 mo- 
 nument 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 Herbert,* 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 
 4250 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 much as he found fit, and called it his. 
 Dr. Fiddes 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 Antony 
 Cavallari, as gilder of the tomb, whom the Car- 
 dinal is besought to permit to return home to 
 Antwerp, if he means to employ him no farther, 
 and also that Benedict 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 
 
 * Page 342. 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 185 
 
 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- suf- 
 fered by working in the foundery, 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 monu- 
 ment ; but Benedetto of Rovezzano, it seems, was 
 preferred.* 
 
 The sepulchral^ 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 parlia- 
 ment and the rich figures of copper gilt melted 
 down. James II. repaired this building, and em- 
 ployed Verrio to paint it, intending it for a popish 
 chapel— but no destination of it has yet succeeded ; 
 
 * I suppose it was Antony Cavallari or Benedetto da Rovez- 
 zano who made the large statue in metal of Henry VIII. in a 
 cloyster at Gorhambury 5 it is not in a bad taste. 
 
 f 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. 9. 
 
186 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII, 
 
 it remains a ruin/ known by the name of the 
 tomb-house. 
 
 * [In 1SOO, his late Majesty directed, that the whole structure 
 should be repaired and glazed j and the decayed battlements 
 and other ornaments completely restored, but nothing farther, 
 as to its appropriation, was done at that time.] 
 
 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 com- 
 petition which is not always duly allowed. 
 
 Henry VII. was of too penurious a character to patronise 
 artists 5 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 orna- 
 ment 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 5 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 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 187 
 
 Raffaelle, Primaticcio and Titian declined to accept his muni- 
 ficence, 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 cielings, 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 Cor- 
 neliiz, Luca Penni, a favourite scholar of RafFaelle, and pro- 
 bably sent by him to lessen the disappointment consequent 
 upon his refusal of the king's invitation, as Lanzi asserts that 
 he came to England to paint his portrait, (T. ii. p. 90) j An- 
 tonio Toto del Nunciato, and another of Raffaelle'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, Non- 
 such and Hampton-court were, each of them, built or orna- 
 mented during the early part of the sixteenth century j 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 acknowledgment ; but eminent as his powers both of 
 invention and execution must have been, he is familiarised to 
 us, as a painter of portraits. As Mr. W. speaks only of Holbein's 
 general excellence, and chiefly as a colourist j the opinions of 
 other critics may not be irrelevant. De Piles, in his scale of 
 painting, places him but one degree below Rubens and Van- 
 dyck. His immediate successors and those who followed 
 them in the reign of Charles I. considered his portraits as 
 
188 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 models of perfection ; they were frequently employed in copy- 
 ing them 5 and were emulous, to acquire his style. Norgate 
 (in the MS. treatise already quoted) observes, " the incompa- 
 rable H. Holbein, who in all his different and various method 
 of painting, either in oyle, distempre, 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. It is said, 
 that Mirevelt (who was never in England) adopted his colour- 
 ing with admirable facility, and that several portraits by 
 Holbein were sent over to him at Delft, to be copied with 
 such singular success : ff nam cum est arduum similitudinem 
 effingere ex vero ; turn longe difficilius est imitationis imitatio," 
 (Plin.Epist. L.4, 28.) 
 
 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 ad- 
 mired in the Arundel collection. These were principally ap- 
 plied 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 530s, 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 archi- 
 tect, he properly belongs to the next chapter. 
 
 Respecting the cartoons, or, as these designs were then 
 called, et vidimus?' prepared by painters in water-colours to be 
 transferred or copied upon glass, Mr. W. has remarked, an 
 exact adaptation of one of Raffaelle's, in the windows of King's 
 College, Cambridge. Designs of able masters, originally in- 
 tended for tapestry, were easily applied to stained glass, more 
 particularly when the windows were made to represent Scrip- 
 ture histories. 
 
 The celebrated twelve cartoons were designed and executed 
 
PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 189 
 
 by Raffaelle about the year 15 17-* 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 Mr. W.'s conjecture. 
 The exquisite series of the Story of Cupid and Psyche, painted 
 by the same master, in the little Farnese palace at Rome, were 
 copied te en grisaille" for the windows of the gallery of the 
 castle of Ecouen. We had, at this time, the abovementioned 
 artists resident in England, who are known to have had employ- 
 ment 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 equal progress with architecture 
 during the 14th and 15th centuries. Casting in metal succeeded 
 to the art of plating with it upon wood. The faces were 
 wrought from masques taken from the dead subject, and 
 therefore the likeness was preserved entire, of which many cu- 
 rious and authentic specimens are given in Gough's Sepulchral 
 Monuments, 
 
 They occur in the following series : — 
 1272. Henry III. - Copper-gilt Westminster. 
 
 1290. Elinor Q. of, - Bronze or Latten, Ditto. 
 1307. Edward I. - Copper-gilt, - Ditto. 
 
 1327. Edward II. - Alabaster, Gloucester. 
 
 1377- Edward III. - Copper-gilt Westminster 
 
 1369. Q.Philippa, - Alabaster, - Ditto. 
 
 * Fuseli, (Lect. III. p. 138) "-as they are now in the copies of the 
 Tapestry annually exhibited in St. Peter's ; in thirteen compositions." 
 
190 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 1395. Richard II. Anne his Q. Latten, or mixed metal, Ditto, 
 1412. Henry IV. his Queen, Alabaster, Canterbury. 
 1422. Henry V. Oak plated with silver, and the head solid, 
 Westminster. 
 
 Added to these are Aymer de Valence, 1246, of oak plated 
 with copper, and John of Eltham, of alabaster, in Westminster j 
 Edward the Black Prince in Canterbury, and Richard Beau- 
 champ, Earl of Warwick, in his chapel at Warwick, both of 
 copper gilt. The existing contracts are made with English 
 artists, copper-siniths, 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 excep- 
 tion. 
 
 In this aera of the history of Painting in England, it is ob- 
 vious to contemplate the perfection to which it had already 
 attained in Italy. Leonardo da Vinci, Michel Angelo, RafFaelle 
 and Titian were in their full glory 5 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 Primaticcio and Salviati 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 j 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. 
 
^ornfmrp Cattle, ©loucessterssfjtre. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 State of Architecture to the end of the Reign 
 of Henry VIII. 
 
 It is unlucky for the world; that our earliest an- 
 cestors were not aware of the curiosity which 
 would inspire their descendents of knowing mi- 
 nutely every thing 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 agi- 
 tated some thousand of years afterwards who was 
 
192 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END 
 
 the inventor of this stupendous science. In com- 
 plaisance to our enquiries they would undoubtedly 
 have transmitted an account of the first hovel that 
 was ever built, and from that patriarch hut we 
 should possess a faithful genealogy of all its de- 
 scendents : 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 im- 
 pertinence. Necessity and a little common sense 
 produced all the common arts, which the plain 
 folks who practised them were not idle enough to 
 record. Their inventions were obvious, their pro- 
 ductions useful and clumsy. Yet the little merit 
 there was 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 infinite pains to digest and metho- 
 dize those imaginary rudiments. No sooner is 
 any aera 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 any thing 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 pronounc- 
 ing that each received that invaluable utensil from 
 the Phoenicians. Common sense that would inter- 
 pose by observing how probable it is that the 
 
OF THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII, 
 
 193 
 
 necessaries of life were equally discovered in every 
 region, cannot be heard; a hammer could only 
 be invented by the Phoenicians, the first polished 
 people 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 per- 
 sons 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 Hearne, Brown Willis, 
 and such illustrators did sometimes go upon more 
 positive ground ; they did now and then stumble 
 upon an arch, a tower, nay a whole church, so 
 dark, so ugly, so uncouth, 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 pecu- 
 liar ugliness in their fashions. It was difficult to 
 ascertain the period* when one ungracious form 
 
 * 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 
 
 VOL. I. O 
 
194 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF 
 
 jostled out another : and this perplexity at last led 
 them into such refinement, that the term Gothic 
 Architecture, inflicted as a reproach on our an- 
 cient buildings in general by our ancestors who 
 revived the Grecian 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 
 ornaments, a mark of a rude age — if attended by 
 mishapen and heavy decorations, a certain mark 
 of \t.-\- The pointed arch, that peculiar of Gothic 
 
 latter was of the Roman language. Both were debased in 
 barbarous 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. 
 
 t [This definition of the Saxon style by our ingenious author 
 will be considered as rather jejune, and by no means satisfac- 
 tory. When Mr. W. wrote, the subject had not been explored, 
 the points of discrimination discovered, nor the precise boun- 
 dary marked out, which divide the pure Saxon manner, before 
 Edward Confessor, from that introduced by the Norman pre- 
 lates. 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 crypts and 
 
THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 195 
 
 architecture, was certainly intended as an improve- 
 ment on the circular, and the men who had not 
 
 doorcases supply the most authentic evidence. These, in many 
 most curious instances, are sufficiently known to the architec- 
 tural antiquary. Who that has examined the workmanship of 
 capitals, doorcases, bas-reliefs, and soffits of arches, or the 
 carvings of fonts, all of which have a confirmed reference to 
 the Saxon aera ; will hastily condemn them as <e heavy or mis- 
 shapen ornaments ?" Malmsbury, 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 5 for, in both, they are cir- 
 cular. The arcades of St. Frideswyde, (now Oxford Cathedral) 
 and of Waltham Abbey, are exclusively Saxon, according to 
 the learned Mr. King, 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 di- 
 mensions, and simpler ornaments in the moulding. The heads 
 of animals, beaks of eagles and other chimeras were then very 
 rarely introduced, 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 tf Pointed Arch," since this observation of 
 
196 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF 
 
 the happiness of lighting on the simplicity and 
 proportion of the Greek orders., were however so 
 
 Mr. W. 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 inclined, ascribed what is commonly known as 
 Gothic architecture, to the invention of the Saracens, which 
 the Croisaders 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, (Archael. v. viii.p. 191). — yet Mr. Hamil- 
 ton, (in his JEgyptiaca, p. 347.) and Mr. Haggitt, (in Gothic 
 Arch. p. 12 1 .) contend for the Eastern origin of the pointed 
 arch 5 and that remains of Gothic architecture are not less 
 frequent in Egypt than in Palestine j Alexandria, Rosetta, 
 Cairo and Upper Egypt abound with them." 
 
 Mr. Barry, (Works, p. 123,) is convinced ie 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 — Longobardica," the last 
 mentioned was the heavy style j the light Gothic " maniera 
 Tedesca." MafFei, Muratori, and Tiraboschi have shewn " that 
 neither the Goths nor the Lombards introduced any style, in 
 particular j 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-building." Heyne (the 
 well-known) is more decisive in asserting, that the Gothic 
 architects residing at Rome were in reality those who first 
 
THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 197 
 
 lucky as to strike out a thousand graces and effects 
 which rendered their buildings magnificent, yet 
 
 migrated into France with other Goths who professed the arts, 
 from Aquitaine and Spain ; and concludes with his confirma- 
 tion 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 St. Marco at Venice." The 
 Genoese and Pisan merchants were frequently laden on their 
 return from their settlements in Greece, with marble from the 
 ruined cities, which was used in constructing 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. Cassiodorus, who, in the sixth 
 century was secretary to the first Gothic kings of Italy, has 
 this striking observation concerning their ecclesiastical archi- 
 tecture, which had then began to prevail. He inquires, (Op. 
 Cassiod. Venetiis, p. 23.) " Quid dicamus columnarum junceam 
 proceritatem ! moles illas sublimissimas fabricarum ■ quasi 
 quibusdam erectis pastilibus continui, et substantia? qualitate 
 concavis canalibus excavatas; ut magis ipsas estimes fuisse 
 transfusas, alias ceris judices factas, quod metallis durissimis 
 expolitum/' 
 
 Mr. R. Smirke, (drchaol. v. xv. p. 363,) thinks that Gothic 
 architecture was introduced into Italy, at a very early period, 
 and that it acquired a degree of richness, which Gothic build- 
 ings in this country did not assume, till many years afterward." 
 His specimens, in confirmation, are a window of the church of 
 Messina, in Sicily, in the early part of the 10th century j the 
 baptistery at Pisa, by Dioti Salvi, 1152 ; and the Campo Santo 
 begun by Giovanni da Pisa, in 1275. The late Sir H. Engle- 
 field, 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 j and he 
 
198 STATE t)P ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF 
 
 genteel, vast, yet light* venerable and picturesque. 
 It is difficult for the noblest Grecian temple to 
 
 grounds his opinion upon an inscription still to be seen, and 
 quoted in the Theatrum Basilica? Pisanae, (p. 375)' Mr, 
 Smirke replies, in confirmation of his first opinion, to shew 
 that the circular and pointed arch with tracery, were not un- 
 common 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 Archi- 
 tecture, 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 j who has since 
 declared, that it was never authorised by him. (Arch. v. 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. Kerrich, 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 
 later volumes of the Archaeologia, and the treatises which 
 have been mentioned. " Gothic Architecture is said by Torre, 
 to have been first so named by Cesare Cesarini, in his Com- 
 mentary 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 errour has been, to suppose that it came to us, from some 
 distant country, adult, and in its full vigour j and 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, 
 
 * For instance, the facade of the Cathedral at Rheims. 
 
THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 199 
 
 convey half so many impressions to the mind, as 
 a cathedral does of the best Gothic taste — a proof 
 
 to observe the buildings around them • and to consider the 
 objects themselves, with the abilities, required for their pro- 
 duction." — (Arch. v. xvi. p. 292.) 
 
 But the single hypothesis of the origin of the pointed arch 
 was more generally agitated, after the appearance of Mr. Whit- 
 tington's Treatise on the Ecclesiastical Antiquities 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. 
 
 Dr. Milner disallows that fact, in a treatise which imme- 
 diately followed, entituled, " 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 
 in France. " It is probable that the first pointed open arches in 
 Europe were the twenty windows constructed 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 Lombard] c, Saxon, and Anglo- 
 Norman is one and the same style, formed upon the tc Roma- 
 nesque" or debased Roman, and that the pointed arch origi- 
 nated 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 
 
I 
 
 200 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF 
 
 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 perspectives infused 
 such sensations of romantic devotion ; and they 
 were happy in finding artists capable of executing 
 such machinery. One must have taste to be sen- 
 sible of the beauties of Grecian architecture; one 
 only w T ants passions to feel Gothic. In St. Peter s 
 one is convinced 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 — and though stripped of its altars and 
 shrines, it is nearer converting one to popery than 
 all the regular pageantry of Roman domes. Go- 
 thic churches infuse superstition ; Grecian, admi- 
 ration. The papal see amassed its wealth by 
 Gothic cathedrals, and displays it in Grecian 
 temples. * 
 
 in England, by its numerous professors, than our knowledge 
 of the Gothic style and construction. The building of a cathe- 
 dral is no longer a mystery. By the ample elucidation afforded 
 in the publications of the Antiquary 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 Mr. W. says) but to comprehend it.] 
 * In the six volumes of letters published at Home and inti- 
 tuled, Raccolta di Lettere sulla Pittura, Scultura ed Architet- 
 tura, are several of Mons. Mariette, a most worthy man, but 
 too naturally infected by the prejudices of his country, his reli- 
 gion, and his profession of connoisseur. All professions are 
 
THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 201 
 
 I certainly do not mean by this little contrast 
 to make any comparison between the rational 
 
 too apt to be led by words, and to talk by rote. Connoisseurs 
 in the arts are not the least bigotted. Taste has its inquisi- 
 tion as well as popery : and though M. Mariette has been too 
 partial to me, he has put this work in his Index Expurgatorius, 
 from totally misunderstanding my meaning. Here follows his 
 censure of the passage above, in which 1 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 flat- 
 tering mention of the author, he says, f ' Quest' opera e arrichita 
 di presso di cento ritratti, e la stampa e veramente magnifica. 
 Io vi fard ridere, se vi dirb, che la Chiesa di San Pietro non e 
 di suo gusto, e che egli la trova troppo carica d'ornati, il che 
 non gli pare proprio per un tempio degno dello Maesta dell' 
 Essere supremo, che io abita : che gli ornamenti, che vi sono 
 sparsi a profusione, non vi sono posti per altro che per fomen- 
 tare* la superstitione, di che egli accusa malamente la nostra 
 
 * Observe that I have said just the contrary ; (in that Gothic 
 churches infuse superstition; Grecian, admiration.) In my compari- 
 son between the effects of a Grecian and a Gothic church, is there any 
 question of preferring the latter to the former in point of architecture ? 
 Have I not said that Gothic architects had not the happiness of dis- 
 covering the true beauties of the Grecian orders ? Is 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 splendor, 
 makes stronger religious impression, than the cathedral of Rome, 
 though advantaged by all those decorations ! and why, but because 
 gloom and well-applied obscurity are better friends to devotion than 
 even wealth ! A dark landscape, savage with rocks and precipices, by 
 Salvator Rosa, may be preferred to a serene sunshine of Claud Lor- 
 rain ; not because it is a more pleasing, but a more striking picture. 
 Cato is a regular drama, Macbeth an extravagant one ; yet who thinks 
 the genius of Addison equal to Shakspeare's ? The one copies rules, 
 
202 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF 
 
 beauties of regular architecture, and the unre- 
 strained licentiousness of that* which is called 
 Gothic. Yet I am clear that the persons who 
 executed the latter, had much more knowledge 
 of their art, more taste, more genius, and more 
 propriety than we choose to imagine. There is a 
 magic hardiness in the execution of some of their 
 works which would not have sustained 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 engage to buiklf* 
 
 Chiesa Romana. Ed a quale edifizio credete voi, che egli 
 conceda la preferenza sopra a S. Pietro ? A una Chiesa fabri- 
 cata sul gusto Gotico, e le di cui muraglie sieno tutte nude : 
 cosa, che fa Pieta !" 
 
 * [?' We admire commonly those things which are oldest and 
 greatest, old monuments and high buildings do affect us above 
 measure 5 and what is the reason ? Because what is oldest 
 cometh nearest to God for antiquity, and what is greatest 
 cometh nearest his works, in spaciousness and magnitude." 
 Bishop Corbet."'} 
 
 t [This circumstance cannot deserve implicit credit Mr. W. 
 had probably heard it himself from the verger, or copied it 
 
 the other the passions. A Gibbs and money, a French critic and an 
 English schoolmaster, can make a building or a tragedy without a 
 fault against proportion or the three unities ; and the one or the 
 other might make either. It required a little more genius to write 
 Macbeth, or to establish the Roman Catholic religion ; and though 
 Mons. Mariette does not know it, his creed, which he mistakes for 
 architecture, was more obliged to Gothic architects than to Michael 
 Angelo and the rest, who designed St. Peter's, 
 
THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 203 
 
 such another. That there 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, blundered* into 
 
 from Vertue's notes, — but Sir Christopher Wren had too per- 
 fect a knowledge of geometry, ever to have made the ob- 
 servation. This roof and that of Henry Vllth's Chapel of the 
 same date, are either of them composed of twelve substantive 
 divisions, then called e * severeys," and as totally independent on 
 each other for support, and being so considered they were se- 
 parately contracted for, with the builders, u 100Z. to be paid to 
 them upon the completion of each severey, and so from tyme 
 to tyme until all the said twelve severeys be fully and perfectly 
 made and performed. The point of difficulty will be solved 
 in a great measure, if, instead of contemplating the roof as a 
 whole and entire work, we consider the space only which is 
 contained between four buttresses, as independent and com- 
 plete in itself ; and the connection between each several com- 
 partment concealed for the purpose of producing a very sur- 
 prising effect of elongation. Each severey is bonded by two 
 strong arches. Allowing this position, the length ceases to be 
 wonderful, excepting on account of the great labour and ex- 
 pense. The more scientific reader will consult Ware's Essay 
 on Vaults, (Archceol. v. xvii. p. 79) for a very satisfactory de- 
 scription of the roof of King's College Chapel. Particulars of 
 the building of K. Coll. Chapel, MSS. Harleian, No. 433, T. 49.] 
 * In Lincoln's Inn chapel, the steeple of the church at War- 
 wick, the King's Bench in Westminster-hall, the screen at 
 Gloucester, &c. 
 
204 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF 
 
 the heaviest and clumsiest compositions whenever 
 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. When they 
 have built a pediment and portico, the Sibyll'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 Rome, instead of half a dozen temples, I do 
 not doubt but our churches would resemble the 
 private houses of Roman citizens. Our buildings 
 must be as Vitruvian, as writings in the days of 
 Erasmus were obliged to be Ciceronian. Yet con- 
 fined 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 of singular 
 beauty. The application of loggias, arcades, ter- 
 
 * [The reason of the failure of these two most eminent archi- 
 tects was simply their classically confined views of architecture. 
 They were unwilling to copy, and incompetent to invent de- 
 signs, in any degree analogous to original examples of the 
 different Gothic manners.] 
 
THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 205 
 
 rasses and nights of steps, at different stages of a 
 building, particularly in such situations as White- 
 hall to the river, would have a magnificent effect. 
 It is true, our climate and the expense of building 
 in England are great restrictions on imagination ; 
 but when one talks of the extent of which archi- 
 tecture 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 Ger- 
 man. Of English* he owns he did not meet with 
 
 * [Among the MSS. Cotton, in the British Museum, is one 
 of Gervasius, a Benedictine Monk of Canterbury, (Fespas.B. ii. 
 19), relative to the building of that 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 K. 
 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 Eng- 
 lishman, who completed the work, and who is the first archi- 
 tect or at least master-mason, a native of this country, con- 
 
206 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF 
 
 the least trace ; while at the same time the foun- 
 ders of ancient buildings were every where re- 
 corded : so careful have the monks (the only his- 
 torians 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 
 attributed to their want of perspicuity rather than 
 to neglect. As all the other arts* were confined 
 to cloysters, so undoubtedly was architecture too ; 
 and when we read that such a bishop or such an 
 abbot built such and such an edifice, I am per- 
 suaded that they often gave the plans as well as 
 furnished the necessary funds ; but as those chro- 
 niclers 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 replenished the chasms in our his- 
 tory. He quotes Matthew of Westminster for 
 
 cerning whom any thing satisfactory is known ; and that he 
 was the first who boldly attempted to work the ribbed and 
 vaulted ceiling, in stone and toph.] 
 
 * 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 sup- 
 pression, pleads in behalf of the house of Wolstrop, " That 
 there 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, grqffing" 
 Strypes Memor. vol. i. p. 255. 
 
THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 207 
 
 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 injustice 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 An- 
 themius, so able a mathematician that he could 
 make artificial earthquakes, and actually did re- 
 venge 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 effect ; it consisted in nothing 
 but placing several caldrons of hot water against 
 the walls of Zeno's house. The same author has 
 cited Procopius for the origine of dams to restrain 
 the course of rivers, the method of whose con- 
 struction was revealed to Chryses, an architect of 
 Alexandria, in a dream. Dreams, lies, and absur- 
 dities 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 
 consequently they left a mark by which, if we 
 pleased, we might distinguish between the truth 
 and what they invented. 
 
 In Felibienf' the only thing I And to my pur- 
 
 * Felib. vol. v. p. 165. t Ibid. p. 185. 
 
 [That Mr. W. should have consulted Felibien only, for 
 
208 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF 
 
 pose, and all that he really found in Matthew of 
 Westminster, is, that in the kingdom of the Mer- 
 
 information concerning architecture, in England, will excite 
 some surprise. Felibien avows his disappointment, on finding 
 that Dugdales Monasticon, gave no account of Gothic archi- 
 tects ! We may indeed be considered as nationally unfortunate 
 that whilst the great Italian, French and German churches are 
 indubitably ascertained, as the work of architects, whose names 
 have been recorded, and have reached us $ we are 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 emi- 
 nent master-masons, a term in those days, equivalent to archi- 
 tects. 
 
 1. Henry Latomus, (Lithotomus, Stone-cutter) who rebuilt 
 the Church of Evesham, 1319. Leland, Collect, v. i. p. 249. 
 
 2. Walter de Weston, St. Stephen's Chapel, Westm. Pat. 
 
 iv. Edw. III. 
 
 3. Alan de Walsingham. The Octagon and Louvre of Ely 
 Cathedral. In the Life of Bishop Hotham, Leland's Collect. 
 
 v. ii. p. 604. Alan, the sacrist, is said to have built the " Cam- 
 panile Novum," in twenty years, and that the whole cost was 
 24061. 6s. lid. in 1342. Alan is styled "Vir venerabilis et 
 artificiosus Frater." 
 
 4. William Wynford, mentioned in the will 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 Carpenter, 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 stupendous 
 timber-framed roofs of which were probably designed by, and 
 executed under the superintendence of this architect. 
 
 6. John Kendale, Pat. Imo. Edward IF. 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 abbies and churches on the 
 
THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 209 
 
 cians 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 gro- 
 tesque monsters and burlesque faces with which 
 the spouts and gutters of ancient buildings are 
 decorated. It was one Marchion of Arezzo,* ar- 
 chitect to Pope Innocent III. Indeed I speak 
 now critically; Marchion^ used those grinning 
 animals only to support columns — but in so fan- 
 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 presenting a plan to the superior of a monastery, 
 drawn on tablets ; it is of high antiquity, and affords a certain 
 proof, that ecclesiastical buildings were not erected without a 
 plan. Carter s Ancient Sculpture. 
 
 When the zealous, but tasteless reformers seized on the lite- 
 rary treasures of the Romish church, the MSS. in conventual 
 libraries, were frequently destroyed without reserve. But all 
 illuminated books were condemned and dispersed 5 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. 
 
 * Peterborough. 
 
 f Felib. p. 224. 
 
 X [Marchion of Arezzo must resign the merit of this inven- 
 tion 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. (Unedited 
 Antiq. of Attica). Gothic fancy having once adopted them, 
 exerted itself in a great variety of monstrous shapes. They 
 VOL. I. P 
 
210 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF 
 
 tastic an age they were sure of being copied, and 
 soon arrived at the top. 
 
 Vertue, no less industrious than Felibien, could 
 discover but two ancient architects, Gundulphus 
 who built the tower* (the same person who erected 
 the cathedral of Rochester) and Peter of Cole- 
 church, priest and chaplain, who in the year 1163, 
 rebuilt London bridge of timber Edward Fitzodo, 
 we have seen, was 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 grave- 
 stone over a mason of that church, almost perfect, 
 except in that material part the year of his death, 
 
 were generally called Gargouilles, which are literally dragons . 
 yet they are made to represent chimeras and demons. Lidgate 
 mentions them, 
 
 se And many a gargoyle and manie a hidous head.' ? 
 
 Troy Boke.] 
 
 * See the compact between the king and bishop in the 
 Textus RofFensis, published by Hearne ; and that between the 
 same bishop and William Rufus for erecting the castle of Ro- 
 chester, cap. 88. and Stowe's Survey of London. 
 
 f William de Sens soon after the year 1174 temp. Hen. 2di. 
 built the choir of the cathedral of Canterbury as it still exists. 
 Helias de Berham, canon of Salisbury, a prima fundatione 
 (temp. Hen. 3") rector fuit novae fabricae per 25 annos j et 
 Robertus caementarius rexit per 25 annos. See Leland's Iti- 
 nerary, 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. 
 
 X See Stowe's Survey, p. 28. Isembert of Xaintes is men- 
 tioned as a builder of the bridge of London, and of the chapel 
 in it. 
 
THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 211 
 
 the latter figures being obliterated. On each side 
 of him is his trowel and square ; 
 
 Hicjacet Ricardus de Gaynisburgh olym Ce- 
 mentarius hujus ecclesie qui obiit duodecim. Ka- 
 lendarum Junii Anno Domini Mccc. — 
 
 But the brightest name in this list is William 
 of Wykeham^ who from being clerk of the works 
 rose to be Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chan- 
 cellor—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 be- 
 stowing it on noble charities. 
 
 William Rede, Bishop of Chichester in 1369, 
 reckoned the best mathematician of the age, was 
 
 * [ ff Anno 1359, circa haec tempora R. Edoardus castrum 
 de Windlesore pulchris edificiis splendide decoravit, &c. et 
 idem fecit in palatio suo de Westminster, consulente eum ad 
 hoc Dno. Gulielmo de Wykeham, quern Rex de paupere clerico 
 assumens constituit superiorem operum suorum." Leland Col- 
 lect, v. p. 378. 
 
 Lowth (Life of Wykeham, p. 195) says decisively that Wil- 
 liam Wynford was his architect, and employed for the nave of 
 his cathedral, in 1394. May it not be presumed, that Wyn- 
 ford 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. 
 
212 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF 
 
 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. Albans were the 
 following inscriptions : 
 
 " Hie jacet Thomas Wolvey [or Wolven] Lato- 
 mus in arte, nec non armiger illustrissimi Prin- 
 cipis Ric. secundi, quondam Regis Angliae, qui 
 obiit Anno Dom. M,cccc,xxx. in vigilia Sti. Thomae 
 Martyris, cujus animae propitietur Deus. Amen." 
 
 " This man, as far as I understand by this in- 
 scription [says Weaver, p. 582.] was the master- 
 mason, or surveior of the king's stone-works, as 
 also esquire to the king's person." 
 
 u Hie jacet Richardus Wolven [or Wolvey] 
 Lathomus, filius Johannis Wolven, cum uxoribus 
 suis, Agnete et Agnete, et cum octo filiis, et decern 
 filiabus suis, qui Richardus obiit An. 1490. Quo- 
 rum 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 inven- 
 tion enough in their works to make one wish to 
 know the authors .-f- I will say no more on this 
 
 * [" The construction of this castle is upon a geometrical 
 plan which differs in many respects from the military architec- 
 ture 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, v. ii. p. 198.] 
 
 t [Chaucer was appointed Clericus operationum, Clerk of the 
 Works of all the Royal Palaces, with a salary of two shillings a 
 
THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 213 
 
 subject^ than that^ on considering and comparing 
 its progress, the delicacy, lightness and taste of 
 its ornaments, it seems to have been at its perfec- 
 tion 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 
 
 day. Pat. 13 Ric. II. p. 1. m. 30. " Pro capella Regis Vindsoriae 
 emendanda, Galfrido Chaucer/' &c. From these grants it is evi* 
 dent that he was paymaster and director only of the workmen, 
 and not, that he furnished designs, or, in fact, could be profes- 
 sionally considered, as an architect. Notwithstanding, the 
 very minute and correct descriptions of the various architec- 
 tural 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 addi- 
 tions to Kenilworth Castle were made by John of Gaunt, and 
 the great gateway at Lancaster. Dugdale mentions a warrant 
 from K. Richard II. dated in 1392, directed to Robert de Skil- 
 lington, master mason, to impress twenty workmen, carpenters 
 and others. The ruins of this hall show, that it nearly resem- 
 bled, both in plan and dimensions, those of Westminster and 
 Eltham. 
 
 John Druell and Roger Keys were the architects of All- 
 Souls, and W. Orchyerde of Magdalene Colleges, in Oxford. 
 Wood. The original contract, with the last mentioned, is pre- 
 served 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. Frideswide's in Oxford (Christ Church College), and for 
 several years, chief clerk of accounts for all the buildings of K. 
 Henry VIII. within twenty miles of London j" but this may 
 not be considered as a sufficient proof, that he was an architect.] 
 
214 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF 
 
 borrow ornaments in that stile. The fret-work 
 in the small oratories at Winchester, and the part 
 behind the choir at Glocester would furnish beau- 
 tiful models. The windows in several cathedrals 
 offer graceful patterns ; for airy towers of almost 
 filigraine we have none to be compared with those 
 of Rheims.* 
 
 It is certain that the Gothic taste remained in 
 vogue till towards the end of the reign of Henry 
 VIII. His fathers chapel at Westminster is en- 
 tirely of that manner. So is Wolsey's tomb-house 
 
 * Some instances of particular beauty, whose constructions 
 date at different aeras 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 Lan- 
 tern-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 3 it is my own gratitude or vanity that prompts 
 me to name him 3 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 
 Bentham'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 history 
 of Gothic Architecture, for which, if he had ever made collec- 
 tions, they were, at his death, either lost or destroyed.] 
 
THE REIGN OP HENRY VIII. 
 
 215 
 
 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 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 barba- 
 rous mixture. Regular columns, with ornaments, 
 neither Grecian nor Gothic and half embroidered 
 with foliage, were crammed over frontispieces, 
 facades and chimnies, and lost all grace by want- 
 ing simplicity. This mongrel species lasted till 
 late in the reign of James the first. 
 
 * [The chapel, called Wolsey's tomb-house, had been pre- 
 viously erected by Henry VII. 
 
 The Computus, or statement of sums expended on some of 
 the great ecclesiastical buildings begun in the end of the 15th 
 century, are of sufficient curiosity to be inserted. 
 
 1. Beauchamp Chapel, Warwick. Computus for seventeen 
 years from 1443, 1806Z. 3s. 8d. 2. King's College, Cambridge, 
 from 1441 to 1515, 22,469Z. 2s. 7d. 3. Windsor Chapels, 
 from 1478 to 14S2, 6572J. much more was added to this sum. 
 4. Henry Vllth's Chapel, according to an account men- 
 tioned, but not specified, by Holinshed, 14000Z. For the 
 perfect restoration of the external walls of this sumptuous 
 building with their ornamental mouldings, figures, and foliage, 
 Parliament voted, between the years 1807 and 1S22, the aggre- 
 gate sum of 42,028Z. 14s. 3dJ. 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.] 
 
216 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF 
 
 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 of his 
 drawings too in the same kind. Where he ac- 
 quired this taste is difficult to say ; probably it 
 was adopted from his acquaintance with his fel- 
 low-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 some- 
 thing novel in his practice. He was termed De- 
 vizer of his Majesty's buildings. rj- In one of the 
 
 * Brunelleschi began to reform architecture in the four- 
 teenth 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 5 under Francis the First 
 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 j 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 
 Mon. Vetusta, v. i. pi. 171. That of New Hall, in Essex, is 
 likewise taken down, but the abovementioned, at Wilton, is 
 still extant.] 
 
 t [Who was ee Johannes de Padua ?" what was his real 
 
THE REIGN OF HENRY VJII. 
 
 217 
 
 office-books which I have quoted^ there is a pay- 
 ment to him of 36/. 10s. Od. In the same place 
 is a payment of the same sum to Laurence Brad- 
 shaw., surveyor, with a fee of two shillings per 
 diem. To the clerk of the latter, 9/. 2s. Od. for 
 riding* expenses, 531. 6s. Od. and for boat hire 
 13/. 6s. Sd. John de Padua is mentioned again in 
 Rymer's Fcedera, on the grant of a fee of 2s. per 
 diem. 
 
 A. D. 1544. Rex omnibus ad quos, &c. Salutem. Sciatis 
 quod nos, De gratia nostra speciali, ac ex certa scientia et 
 mero motu nostris, necnon in consideratione boni et fidelis 
 servitii quod dilectus serviens noster Johannes de Padua 
 nobis in architectura, ac aliis in re musica inventis impendit 
 ac impendere intendit, 
 
 Dedimus et concessimus, ac per praesentes damus et con- 
 cedimus eidem Johanni vadium sive feodum Duorum Soli- 
 dorum Sterlingorum per diem, 
 
 Habendum et annuatim percipiendum praefato Johanni 
 dictum vadium sive foedum Duorum Solidorum, durante 
 beneplacito nostro de thesauro nostro ad receptam scaccarii 
 nostri, per manus thesaurii et camerariorum nostrorum 
 ibidem pro tempore existentium, ad festa Sancti Michaelis 
 Archangeli et Paschae per aequales portiones ; 
 
 Et insuper sciatis quod, cum dictus Johannes nobis inser- 
 
 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 "Devizor of his 
 Majesty's buildings," which implies likewise, that he had the 
 sole and exclusive appointment. Henry VIII. had then com- 
 pleted his palaces, and little more could have been done, 
 before his death in 1547.] 
 
218 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF 
 
 vivit in dicta arte a Festo Paschae quod erat in anno regni 
 nostri tricesimo quarto, prout certam habemus notitiam, nos 
 de uberiori gratia nostra dedimus et concessimus, ac per 
 praesentes damus et concedimus eidem Johanni praefatum 
 feodum Duorum Solidorum per diem habendum et perci- 
 piendum eidem, a dicto festo Paschae nomine regardi nostri ; 
 
 Eo quod expressa mentio, &c. Teste rege apud West- 
 monasterium tricesimo die Junii. 
 
 Per Breve de Private* Sigillo. 
 
 This grant was renewed to him in the third 
 of Edward VI. 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 imper- 
 
 * 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 
 1583. 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 Kenel worth was another, 
 with the arms of Dudley Earl of Leicester. 
 
 [John of Padua enjoyed the patronage of the Protector So- 
 merset, for whom, in 1549, he designed and built his great 
 palace in the Strand. The walls only were finished, 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 superintendance of John of Padua. The 
 design likewise of the " Gate of Honor" at Caius College, Cam- 
 bridge, has been attributed to him by Mr. Wilkins, architect, 
 in Mon. Vetusta, v. 4. Begun in 1572. These facts being 
 
THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 219 
 
 feet notes may lead curious persons to farther dis- 
 coveries. Jerome di Trevisi, 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 chiefly in gothic (from 
 whence it is clear that the new taste was also in- 
 troduced.) This was Sir Richard Lea, master mason, 
 and master of the pioneers in Scotland.-^ Henry 
 gave him % the manor of Sopewell in Hertford- 
 shire, and he himself bestowed a brazen font on 
 the church of Verulam, or St. Albans, within a 
 mile of which place, out of the ruins of the abbey, 
 he built a seat called Lees-place. The font was 
 
 allowed, it is certain, that John of Padua came to England in 
 the early part of his life, and practised his profession to a good 
 old age. John Shute was sent, in 1550, to study in Italy, by 
 John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, with 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.] 
 * Felibien, vol. ii. p. 71. 
 
 f [This Sir Richard Lea or a Lee was, with greater proba- 
 bility, excellent as an engineer or military architect. He was 
 certainly so employed by his royal master, as Jerome da Tre- 
 vigi had previously been. His grant of the demesnes and site 
 of the nunnery of Sopewell bears date, in 1539. His pedigree 
 is given in Clutterbuck' 's Herts, v. i. p. 105. The inscription on 
 the brazen • font abovementioned, is sufficiently pompous 
 " Lmvs Victor, sic voluit, A. D. 1543." Mr. W. specifies no 
 work which he completed as a civil architect.] 
 
 X Chauncys Hertfordshire, p. 461, where he is called Sir 
 Richard a Leigh. 
 
220 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF 
 
 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 em- 
 ployed 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 ac- 
 count of buildings at Hunsdon-house above nine- 
 teen hundred pounds. 
 
 * See it in Camden s Britannia, p. 355, vol. i. edit. 1722. 
 
 t Nicholas Stone sen. the statuary and master mason, had a 
 portrait of this Sir Richard Lee, 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. 
 
 X [To this account of Hector Asheley, the Editor can make 
 no addition. 
 
 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 Cary, 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 
 engraved by Vertue, which contains the portraits of the Queen 
 and several of her ladies and chief officers of State.] 
 
THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 221 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 Mr. W. has made but a slight allusion to Domestic Archi- 
 tecture, during the reigns of K. Henry VII. and his more mag- 
 nificent successor. 
 
 In endeavouring to supply a certain quantity of information 
 upon that subject j 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 5 without assuming to present them all to 
 the reader's view. 
 
 And now, " that the substance of the far greater part of 
 these fabricks has passed away ; their very shadows may be 
 acceptable to posterity." In the plans, surveys, verbal descrip- 
 tions and engravings of them still to be seen and examined by 
 investigators of curiosity and taste, in the national repositories - } 
 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 effect of the waste 
 or the division of property 5 want of respect to ancient things 
 in individual possessors, as to passed magnificence 5 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 consisted of large and even 
 splendid apartments. As the necessity of defence and seclu- 
 sion abated with the exigences of the times, the palaces and 
 
222 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF 
 
 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 perfo- 
 rated through the external side-walls $ and the projecting or 
 bay-windows were worked into forms of most capricious em- 
 bellishment. 
 
 About the reign of K. Edward IV. a mode of building of a 
 new character, as applied to palatial structures, was intro- 
 duced 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, and likewise in similar edifices, at 
 Bruges, Brussels, and Ghent. The "Maison de la Pucelle"at 
 Rouen is an admirable specimen of the Burgundian domestic 
 architecture. 
 
 Our English architects soon adopted, in part, the Burgun- 
 dian style, aided probably by the increasing intercourse between 
 Flanders and England. 
 
 When any memorable change in the construction or orna- 
 ment of any considerable 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 pictu- 
 resque decoration, may be traced, with scarcely less certainty 
 than in Sacred architecture 5 and although so few instances 
 remain, they are equally to be referred to their own sera. The 
 " Burgundian" may be therefore considered as the true proto- 
 type of our "Tudor" style, and as being merely confined to 
 the two first reigns, of that dynasty.* 
 
 * Speed, (Hist. Britaine, p. 995.) observes concerning Henry VIL 
 
THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 223 
 
 But, in the reigns of the three preceding sovereigns, Cas- 
 tellated Houses of rich and highly decorated architecture had 
 been erected, and it is curious to observe that during the tur- 
 bulent times of the last of those princes, the great ministers of 
 his government had severally built for themselves palatial 
 castles.* 
 
 It appears, that King 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 " Rich- 
 mond." It was in the Burgundian style, being the second 
 instance, as the et Plaisance" at Greenwich was the first. It 
 now remains to us, only in early and accurate delineations. 
 
 King Henry VIII. is styled by Harrison, (Descript. of England, 
 p. 330.) (C The onlie phoenix of his time, for fine and curious 
 masonrie." But he is so to be considered, rather for the addi- 
 tions 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 
 
 " Of his building 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 England.''' 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. K. Henry VIII. contributed nothing! 
 
 * These were, 1 . " Placentia or Plaisance," at Greenwich, by 
 Humphry Duke of Gloucester, Lord Protector, 1440. 2. Hurst- 
 monceaux, Sussex, by James Fiennes, Lord Say and Sele, and Lord 
 High Treasurer, 1447. 3. Sudley Castle, Gloucestershire, by Ralph 
 Lord Sudley, 1450. 4. Tattershal Castle, Lincolnshire, by Ralph 
 Lord Cromwell, 1455. Both the last mentioned enjoyed the same 
 office. Of these structures, Greenwich and Sudley are dilapidated 
 and ruined, Tattershal and Hurstmonceaux, 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 !" 
 
224 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF 
 
 inferior description, were indeed entirely built by him. Non- 
 such was begun , 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, beside 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 (after 
 wards Whitehall), and Esher, in Surrey. Edward Stafford, 
 Duke of Buckingham, rivalled him in his palace at Thornbury, 
 Gloucestershire, from which, when half finished, he was hur- 
 ried to the scaffold. Grimsthorp in Lincolnshire was built by 
 Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. Both the Treasurer Duke 
 of Norfolk and his accomplished son, Lord Surrey, were mag- 
 nificent in their ideas of architecture, as the descriptions of 
 their houses at Keninghall, Norfolk, and Mount Surrey, near 
 Norwich, amply prove. These are said to have had the orna- 
 ments subsequently 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. 
 Cowdray, Sussex, destroyed by fire, in 1793. 3. Hever Castle, 
 Kent. 4. Gosfield Hall, Essex, perfect. 5. Hengrave Hall 
 Suffolk, perfect. 6. Layer Marney, Essex, ruined. 7. Raglan 
 Castle, Monmouthshire, ruined. 8. Hunsdon House, Herts, 
 rebuilt. 9. South Wingfield, Derbyshire, dilapidated. 9. 
 Hill Hall, Essex, built in 1542, by Sir Thomas Smyth. 10. 
 Wolterton, in East Barsham, Norfolk, brickwork, in ruins. 
 11. Harlaxton, Lincolnshire, perfect. 12. Westwood, Wor- 
 cestershire, perfect. 
 
 There seems to have been a leading idea, as to the construc- 
 tion 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 Physicke Doctor, 8vo. 
 
 * Castles, Royal Palaces, and buildings, temp. Edw. IV. Henrici 
 VII. & VIII. Westminster Chapter-house Records, and Vetusta 
 Monum. v. ii. 
 
THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 225 
 
 first printed in 1547, we have directions " howe a man should 
 buiM his house or mansion." " Make the hall of such fashion, 
 that the parlour be annexed to the head of the hall j and the 
 buttrye and pantrye at the lower ende thereof 5 the cellar under 
 the pantrye sett somewhat at a base 5 the kechyn sett some- 
 what at a base from the buttrye and pantry 5 coming with an 
 entrie within, by the wall of the buttrie ; the pastrie house 
 and the larder annexed to the kechyn. Then divyde the log- 
 ginges by the circuit of the quadrivial courte, and let the gate- 
 house 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 5 so that many of the chambers 
 may have a prospecte 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 Cowdray. 
 
 A very principal innovation in the early Tudor style was the 
 introduction of gatehouses, bay-windows and quadrangular 
 areas, of which castles constructed 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 they might be acquired, and 
 they were not unfrequently mixed. Trevisi and Holbein intro- 
 duced both terra cotta or moulded brick work for rich orna- 
 ments and medallions or bas-reliefs fixed against the walls j 
 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 chim- 
 nies were clustered and composed of columns twisted or wrought 
 in patterns with heads or capitals embossed with the cogni- 
 zance of the founder, as at Thornbury Castle and Woolterton- 
 Manor-house, the subjects of the vignettes engraved on wood, 
 and annexed to this chapter. 
 
 Gateways were considered as a great feature in all these 
 VOL. I. Q 
 
226 STATE OF ARCHITECTURE TO THE END OF 
 
 edifices, and constructed with most expensive ornament. That at 
 Whitehall, before mentioned as having been designed by Hol- 
 bein, was composed of square glazed bricks of different colours, 
 over which were appended four large circular medallions of 
 busts, now preserved at Hatfield Peverel, Herts. It contained 
 several apartments, but the most remarkable was the " little 
 study, called the new library,"* in which Holbein was accus- 
 tomed to employ himself in his art, and the courtiers to sit for 
 their portraits. It was probably in this chamber, that the ad- 
 venture took place which Mr. W. repeated, as having been 
 omitted by none of his biographers. The gateways at Hamp- 
 ton Court and Woolterton afford similar specimens. 
 
 Of bay-windows, and the capricious variety in their first 
 formation, some observations occur. 
 
 A bay-window, in common acceptation, means simply a pro- 
 jecting window between two buttresses (a space anciently 
 termed a bay of building), and frequently placed at the end of 
 the mansion. They were invented a century, at least, before 
 the Tudor age ; t in which they were usually composed of di- 
 visions made by right angles and semicircles placed alternately, 
 as may be seen in the buildings of K. 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 be seen, and a rich cupboord sett thereup 
 in a baye window of ix or x stages and haunces of hight, fur- 
 nissed and fulfilled with plate of gold, sylver and regilte." As 
 an interior decoration, carved wainscotting generally of oak in 
 pannels, was introduced into halls, and with greater nicety 
 both of design and execution into parlours and presence cham- 
 
 * Wartorts HisU Poet. v. ii. p. 44. 8vo. MSS. Harl.U\9. 
 
 f In John of Gaunt's palace at Lincoln, built in 1390, there still 
 remains a most beautiful Oriel window, the corbel which supports it 
 having most elaborate sculpture in distinct pannels. 
 
THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. 
 
 227 
 
 bers 5 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 
 ' e Boisseries." MUlin, 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 exangular 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 chimnies. 
 
 By these peculiarities, the sera 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. 
 
[ 228 "I 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 State of Painting under Edward VI. and Mary. 
 
 Un der 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 cele- 
 brate 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, repre- 
 senting the head of Edward VI. * to be discerned 
 only by the reflection of a cylindric mirrour. On 
 the side of the head was a landscape, not ill done, 
 On the frame was written Gulielmus pinxit. This 
 was probably 
 
 MARC WILLEMS, 
 
 Died 1561, 
 
 who was born at Antwerp about 1527, and was 
 
 * [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.] 
 
PAINTING UNDER EDWARD VI. AND MARY. 229 
 
 scholar of Michael Coxie.* He was reckoned to 
 surpass his cotemporaries in his manner and facility 
 of composing*. This picture is the sole evidence 
 of his having been in England : in his own coun- 
 try he painted the decollation of St. John, still 
 extant in the church of St. Rombout, for which 
 too he drew the story of Judith and Holofernes. 
 When Philip II. made his public entry into Mech- 
 lin in 1549, Willems was employed to paint a 
 triumphal arch, on which he represented the his- 
 tory of Dido. He made designs for most of the 
 painters, glass-painters and arras-makers of his 
 time, and died lamented in 1561. -f- 
 
 Another picture of Edward VI. was in the col- 
 lection of Charles I. painted by Hans Hueet, of 
 whom nothing else is known. It was sold for 20/. 
 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 investi- 
 
 * [Descamps says, that Marc Willems was born at Malines 
 and not at Antwerp. Millin (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.] 
 
 f See Descamps and Sandrart. 
 
230 
 
 PAINTING UNDER 
 
 gation, I shall give the extract in the author's own 
 words : 
 
 "Nevertheless, if a man be so induced by na- 
 ture, and live in time of trouble and under a go- 
 vernment wherein arts be not esteemed, and him- 
 self 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 ; who being very poor, and belike wanting 
 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 love of God's 
 divine service upon the liberty of the 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 compleat Somerset-house, would probably have 
 
 * King Philip and the Spaniards. 
 
EDWARD VI. AND MARY. 
 
 231 
 
 called in the assistance of those artists whose 
 works are the noblest furniture. I have already 
 mentioned his portrait by Holbein. His ambi- 
 tious Duchess Anne Stanhope and her son are 
 preserved in a small piece* of oil-colours at Pet- 
 worth, but I know not who the painter was, nor 
 of the portrait of the Protectors brother, Admiral 
 Seymour, at Longleat. A miniature of the same 
 person is in the possession of Mrs. George Gren- 
 ville. Of the Admiral's creature Sir William Sher- 
 rington there are two or three pictures extant ; 
 one, among Holbein's drawings at Kensington. 
 This man was master of t^e mint, and was con- 
 victed by his own confession 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 Sherring- 
 ton 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 6th of Edward to Antony Deric of the office 
 of capital sculptor of the monies in the Tower of 
 London; and at the end of the same year John 
 
 * 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. 
 
 t Strijpes Memorials, vol. ii. p. 123. 
 
232 
 
 PAINTING UNDER 
 
 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 retained 
 under Queen Elizabeth. In Hackluyt's voyages,* 
 that of Richard Chanceler to Cathay is said to be 
 written in Latin by that learned young man Cle- 
 ment Adams. 
 
 Of the Protector s rival, Dudley Duke of Nor- 
 thumberland, there is a good head in the chamber 
 at Knowle, where there are so many curious por- 
 traits, supposed to have been assembled by the 
 Treasurer Buckhurst.'f' 
 
 Another person of some note in this reign was 
 Sir John Godsalve, created knight of the carpet 
 at the King's coronation and commissioner of 
 visitation the same year ;§ and in the third year 
 comptroller of the mint. His portrait is in the 
 closet at Kensington, and Vertue 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, 
 
 * Page 270. 
 
 t Biographical Sketches of eminent persons whose portraits form 
 part of the Duke of Dorset's Collection, at Knowle, Kent, 8vo. 
 1795. Nearly fifty portraits are noticed, the majority of which 
 have certainly no claim, as original. 
 
 % See Strype. § Heylin. 
 
 || Vertue says that Betts learned of Hilliard. [But this minia- 
 ture must have been a copy from Holbein.] 
 
EDWARD VI. AND MARY. 233 
 
 between three croslets pattee, or, as many cres- 
 cents sable. The knight was drawn with a 
 spear and shield. This picture belonged to Chris- 
 topher Godsalve, clerk of the victualling-office 
 in the reign of Charles I. in whose cause he lost 
 7000/. and was near being hanged. He was em- 
 ployed by Charles II. 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 recompence 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 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 494. 
 
 t [Henry Howard, the highly gifted and unfortunate Earl 
 of Surrey, was beheaded January 19, 1546-7. He is standing 
 under a Roman arch, habited in a close dress of brown silk, 
 profusely embroidered with gold. He has the Order of the 
 Garter, a sword and dagger j the motto, <f Sat superest JJJ. aet. 
 29, 1547 5" and two escocheons, upon one the arms of France 
 and England, quarterly 5 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 dimen- 
 sions, and nearly of a square shape, and has never been en- 
 graved. At Knowle, there is a half length of Lord Surrey 
 exactly copied from this portrait. 
 
 It was purchased in 1720, at the sale of the Arundel collec- 
 tion at Stafford house, near Buckingham gate, for Sir Robert 
 Walpole, who, with liberality extremely honourable in his 
 
234 
 
 PAINTING UNDER 
 
 by the council's commandment fetched from the 
 said Guillim's house." The peculiarity of these 
 last words induce me to think that I have disco- 
 vered this very picture. In my father's collection 
 was a very large piece representing- that unfortu- 
 nate 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 Ed- 
 ward, 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 Gruillims house by the councils com- 
 mandment, 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 compound of Grecian and Gothic. It 
 was built on the scite of Chester inn, where the 
 ancient poet Occleve formerly lived. As the pen- 
 sion to J ohn of Padua was renewed in the third of 
 this king, one may suppose that he owed it to the 
 Protector, and was the architect of this palace. 
 In the same style and dating its origine from the 
 
 political station, made a present of it to the late Edward Duke 
 of Norfolk. It is now at Arundel Castle.] 
 
Seipse. pinx' 
 
 §IEI& AMTOOT® Kill 
 
 London, 
 r.iUisli^l W Jotoi &faj«r.50,:%el Street 
 
EDWARD VI. AND MARY. 
 
 235 
 
 same power as Somerset-house, is Longleat, though 
 not 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 conside- 
 rable figure in the annals of painting. It was dis- 
 tinguished by more good painters than one ; the 
 principal was 
 
 SIR ANTONIO MORE, 
 
 Born 1519. Died 1575. 
 
 He was a native of Utrecht, and scholar of John 
 Schorel,* but seems to have studied the manner 
 
 * Schorel was scholar of Mabuse, and was a poet, musician 
 and orator. See an account of him in Sandrart, p. 235. 
 
 [In Cumberland's Anecdotes of eminent Painters in Spain, we 
 have the following 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 Car- 
 dinal to the service of the Emperour, 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 was magnificently rewarded. 
 Having succeeded so well in this commission, he was next dis- 
 patched 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 
 
236 
 
 PAINTING UNDER 
 
 of Holbein, to which he approached 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 
 
 copies of his picture ; one of which I have seen in the posses- 
 sion of a noble family,, by which it appears that More was not 
 only a good painter, but an excellent courtier. Having en- 
 riched 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 fami- 
 liarity. 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 carmine, 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 surveyed it seriously awhile, and in that perilous mo- 
 ment 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 all was well, or at least seemed 
 to be so : but the person of the King was too sacred in the con- 
 sideration 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 tra- 
 veller, had either learned the art magic, or more probably 
 obtained, in England, some spell or charm, wherewith he had 
 bewitched the king." v. ii. p. 97 > 8vo. 1787. Palomino, on 
 Painting in Spain, 2 vol. fol. from whom this statement, which 
 is the true one.] 
 
EDWARD VI. AND MARY. 237 
 
 at his extreme delicacy of finishing ; on the con- 
 trary, Antonio sometimes struck into a bold and 
 masculine style, with a good knowledge of the 
 Chiaro Scuro. In 1522 he drew Philip II. and 
 was recommended by Cardinal Granvelle to 
 Charles V. who sent him to Portugal, where he 
 painted John III. 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 thou- 
 sand florins, and other presents. He had one 
 hundred ducats* for his common portraits. But 
 still ampler rewards were bestowed on him when 
 sent into England, to draw the picture of Queen 
 Mary,-}- the intended bride of Philip. They gave 
 him one hundred pounds, a gold chain, and a pen- 
 sion of one hundred pounds a quarter as painter 
 to their Majesties. He made various portraits of 
 the Queen ; J one was sent by Cardinal Granvelle 
 to the Emperor, who ordered two hundred florins 
 
 * Titian himself had but one hundred pieces of gold. See 
 Sandrart, p. 224. 
 
 t Sandrart says she was very handsome. It is certain that 
 the drawing of her (when about sixteen) by Holbein at Ken- 
 sington is not disagreeable, though her later pictures have all a 
 stern hard-favoured countenance. 
 
 X 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 minia- 
 ture was a present to the King from the Earl of Suffolk. 
 
238 
 
 PAINTING UNDER 
 
 to Antonio. He remained in England during the 
 reign of Mary, and was much employed ; but hav- 
 ing neglected, as is frequent, to write the names 
 on the portraits he drew, most of them have lost 
 part of their value, by our ignorance of the persons 
 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 imagi- 
 nary ancestors. 
 
 On the death of the Queen, More followed 
 Philip [and probably his religion 5 *] 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 biographer gives but an aukward account of 
 the sequel ; and I repeat it as I 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 thi- 
 ther, after a temporary banishment; and this 
 
 * He was suspected by the Inquisition of making use of his 
 interest with the King in favour of his countrymen, says San- 
 drart. This might be meant either of their religious or poli- 
 tical principles. But sure the inquisitors knew Philip too weU 
 to be apprehensive of his listening to any insinuations of ten- 
 derness on either head. 
 
EDWARD VI. AND MARY. 
 
 239 
 
 supposition is the more likely, as Philip, for once 
 forgetting' majesty in his love of the arts, dis- 
 patched a messenger to recall him, before he had 
 finished his journey. But the painter, sensible of 
 the danger he had escaped, modestly excused him- 
 self; 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 56th year of his age. 
 
 His portrait, painted by himself, is in the cham- 
 ber 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 
 
 * [The passage in Descamps (T. 1, p. 200) has been misun- 
 derstood by Mr. W. from inadvertence. " Le Due d'Albe lui 
 demanda, un jour, si ses enfans etoient pourvus, il repondit 
 qu'ils l'etoient, excepte son gendre, qui avoit beaucoup d'esprit, 
 et qui etoit capable d'exercer un emploi. Le Due lui donna, 
 sur le champ la recette generale d'Ouest-Flandres, une des 
 plus belles et des plus lucratives de la Province." This prefer- 
 ment was given to the painter's son-in-law, and not to himself. 
 The editor cannot find this contempt of his profession, in con- 
 sequence of good fortune, in any one author who has recorded 
 his life, and in which he has searched for that fact.] 
 
240 
 
 PAINTING UNDER 
 
 by Antonio Maria Salvini, his Greek professor, to 
 be affixed 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 5 
 Chalybis quidem nitenti 
 Speculo se ipse cernens. 
 Manus O ! potens magistri ! 
 Nam pseudo-morus iste 
 Fors, More, vel loquetur. 
 
 Another picture of himself, and one of his wife, 
 were in the collection of Sir Peter Lely. Mores 
 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 catalogue, p. 18.* 
 
 * [In Brian Fairfax's catalogue of the Duke of Bucking- 
 ham's pictures, p. 18. no. 2. William Kay (a celebrated Flemish 
 painter) by More, and More by Kay 5 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 are two daughters of Philip II. 
 of Spain. 1. Isabella Clara fil. Phil. II. Regis Hisp. aet. 11, 
 1571. 2. Catherina, aet. 10. Whole lengths of Philip and 
 Q. Mary at the Earl of Westmoreland's, Abthorp, 1553. John 
 Lord Sheffield, at Strawberry-hill. Sir T. Gresham, once at 
 
EDWARD VI. AND MARY. 
 
 241 
 
 A print of him in profile* was published by Hon- 
 diuSj 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 Somersetshire. A very good por- 
 trait 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 Richardson 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 mentioned in the catalogue of 
 pictures of James II. and by that of Charles 1.-^ 
 appears to be Margaret of Valois, sister of Henry 
 II. of France, and Duchess of Savoy, at the tour- 
 nament 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. 
 
 Houghton. Sir Richard Southwell, 1554, at King's Weston. 
 Sir Philip Sidney, Woburn. This portrait has been attributed 
 to More, but unluckily for that assertion, Sidney was born in 
 the year immediately following the painter's arrival in England. 
 At Windsor, Emanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoye, 1570. In 
 the Napoleon Collection there was a single picture, the Resur- 
 rection of Our Lord. Six portraits by him were in the collec- 
 tion of Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.] 
 
 [* The engraving given in this edition is taken from the 
 picture in the Florentine Gallery.] 
 
 t See p. 108, No. 7. 
 
 VOL. I. R 
 
242 
 
 PAINTING UNDER 
 
 At Newstede Abbey in Nottinghamshire, the 
 beautiful seat of the Lord 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. aet. 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 por- 
 traits. He painted several historic pieces, parti- 
 cularly 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 a fine copy of Titian's Danae for the 
 King; and left unfinished the Circumcision, de- 
 signed 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. 
 
 * Thorotons Nottinghamshire, p. 261. 
 
I 
 
 r 
 
. r. O N D o H , 
 Published by John Major. 50, Fleet Street 
 Feb715l h 1826. 
 
EDWARD VI. AND MARY. 243 
 
 Another performer in this reign was 
 JOAS VAN CLEEVE, 
 
 Died 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 profes- 
 sion, who living secluded from the world and see- 
 ing little but their own creation rising around 
 them, grow intoxicated with the magic of their 
 own performances. Cleeve came to England, ex- 
 pecting 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 recommendation of Sir 
 Antonio More, his countryman ; but Philip was too 
 much charmed with the beauties of the Venetian 
 master, and overlooked the labours of the Fleming. 
 This neglect compleated his frenzy, the storm of 
 which first vented itself on Sir Antonio. Cleeve 
 abused him, undervaluing 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 cloaths, and spoiled his own pic- 
 tures, 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. 
 
244 
 
 PAINTING UNDER 
 
 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 
 
 * See his catal. p. 153. Cleeve's portrait is still in the 
 lower apartment at Kensington. 
 + Mentioned in a MSS. Catalogue. 
 + See his cat. No. 540, and 830. 
 § See his catal. p. 18. 
 
 || [Bescamps gives him decided commendation, that he was 
 the scholar and most successful imitator of Q. Matsis, and one 
 of the best colourists of his time. Felibien, (T. ii. p. 322) at- 
 tributes to him a greater degree of force than Q. Matsis has 
 ever exhibited. He states, that the time of Van Cleef s death 
 is not ascertained. Both Pilkington and Bryan place it in 
 1536, a date totally incompatible with the anecdote respecting 
 the arrival of Titian's pictures in England, and the expected 
 patronage of King Philip II. in 1554. His insanity and death 
 followed in a year or two after that period;] 
 
WJZWerthingten. s,mlp! 
 
 XOND ON. 
 Published Ly John Major.50,Heet Street, 
 
EDWARD VI. AND MARY. 
 
 245 
 
 had been granted to the serjeant-painters John 
 Brown and Andrew Wright. Of Lysard I find no 
 farther mention, but that in a roll of Queen Eliza- 
 beth's New-year's gifts he presents her with a table 
 painted of the history of Ahasuerus, and her Ma- 
 jesty gives him one gilt creuse and cover. This 
 in the first year of her reign. He died in her ser- 
 vice 1570. In the register of St. Martin's is this 
 entry, "April 5, buried Nicholas Lyzard serjeant- 
 painter unto the Queen's majestic" 
 
 There was in this reign another person too illus- 
 trious a lover and even practicer of the art to be 
 omitted, though I find no mention of him in Ver- 
 tue'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 hap- 
 piness peculiar to him to be able to amuse himself 
 with drawing,-}* in an age in which there were so 
 
 * 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. 
 
 f My authority is Strype, who produces undoubted autho- 
 rity 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, 
 
240 
 
 PAINTING UNDER 
 
 many prisoners and so few resources ; and it gives 
 one very favorable ideas of his being naturally ac- 
 complished, of a spirit not easily to be depressed, 
 when we find that Queen Mary no sooner deli- 
 vered him from his captivity than she wished to 
 
 and the French, Spanish and Italian languages, Sir Thomas 
 adds, " Tanta etiam expingendarum effigierum cupiditate ar- 
 debat, ut facile et laudabiliter cujuscumque imaginem in tabula 
 exprimeret." See Strypes 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 autho- 
 rity) would insinuate, is rather that the Earl possessed 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 con- 
 sidered 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 Artemisia 
 Gentileschi and Maria Beale. Mr. W. has recorded her as u 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 : 1. Preserved in the collection of her 
 own family at Wrest. 2. At Stowe. It is not improbable that 
 K. Edward VI. in his partiality to her, should be possessed of 
 her portrait 5 and that it was removed by his successors from 
 the Royal Collection, in any catalogue of which it is not seen. 
 In Lord Oxford's copy of the Heroologia, (Brit. Mus.) the por- 
 traits, from which the prints were taken, are authenticated. 
 That of Lady J. Grey, by Holbein, is said to belong to Mr. J. 
 Harrison — Query, if a retainer of the court?] 
 
EDWARD VI. AND MARY. 
 
 247 
 
 marry him ; and that he, conscious of his great 
 blood and yet void of interested ambition, de- 
 clined 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 histo-' 
 rians* all reject this accusation, and declare that 
 Wyat cleared him at his death; and indeed the 
 Earl's gratitude would not have been very shin- 
 ing, had he plotted to dethrone a princess who 
 had delivered him from a prison and offered him 
 a throne. The English, who could not avoid 
 feeling partiality to this young prince, were pleased 
 with King Philip, to whose intercession they as- 
 cribed the second release of the Earl, as well as 
 the safety of the Lady Elizabeth. Court enay 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 sus- 
 pected of being a Lutheran, and as his epitaph/}- 
 written in defence of the Spaniards, formally de- 
 clares 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 
 
 * See Holinsheadj Heylin, and Burnet. 
 
 f See it at length in the Genealogical History of the Noble 
 House of Courtenay, by Edward Cleaveland, fol. 1735, p. 261. 
 
I 
 
 248 PAINTING UNDER 
 
 the Queen and Princess. After his death one 
 Cleybery was executed for pretending to be this 
 Earl, and thence endeavouring to raise com- 
 motions. 
 
 There is a very good portrait of him at the 
 Duke of Bedford's at Woburn, painted, I should 
 think, by Sir Antonio More ; on the back ground 
 a ruined tower. 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 Two painters only of eminence are known to have visited 
 this country during twelve years, in which Edward and his 
 sister Mary were its sovereigns. Holbein was their contem- 
 porary, but from all that can be collected, was not sufficiently 
 occupied in painting portraits to be considered as their rival in 
 point of employment > for his own patron, Thomas Duke of 
 Norfolk, was not released from the Tower till a year before 
 Holbein's death, and More possessed so much greater an inte- 
 rest at Court, that little encouragement was afforded to others, 
 who, it is certain, were neglected by King Philip. It is there- 
 fore 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, 
 Surgeons-hall, and Bridewell of that description, engrossed 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 co- 
 louring, may be, with more correctness, assimilated to Holbein, 
 
EDWARD VI. AND MARY. 249 
 
 whose works he had studied previously to his arrival in Eng- 
 land. With much delicacy of finishing, somewhat of a dry and 
 hard manner is always to be remarked. He was a precise fol- 
 lower of nature, painted in a bold and masculine style, and pos- 
 sessed 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 Hol- 
 bein, 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 tra- 
 vellers 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 degree, and principally 
 in door cases, window frames and parapets. This innovation 
 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 sera, are the following : 
 The Chateau of Gaillon, finished in 1500 by Francis I. 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. Le Scot 
 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 " Nouvelles 
 Inventions pour bien bdtir." 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 building 
 was brought to us from Italy, through France ; and it is equally 
 probable, that John of Padua was one of those Italian artists 
 who had accompanied Vignola into France, and from thence had 
 been invited into England. 
 
 This subject will be investigated in its progress after this 
 introduction (in perhaps a single instance, that of Somerset 
 House) through the reign of Q. Elizabeth, at the close of which 
 
 * D* Argenville Vies des Architectes, 8vo. 1787. 
 
250 PAINTING UNDER EDWARD VI. AND MARY. 
 
 the mixed Gothic or lower Tudor style of building 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 supposed to excel all the rest that he found standinge 
 in this realme, so they are, and shall be, a perpetuall precedent 
 unto those, that do come after, to follow in their workes and 
 buildings of importance. Certes, masonrie did never better 
 flourish, in England, than in his time." 
 
[ 251 ] 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Painters in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 Th e long and remarkable reign of this Princess 
 could not but furnish 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 pro- 
 fession justice, they seem to have flattered her the 
 least of all her dependents : there is not a single 
 portrait of her that one can call beautiful. The 
 profusion of ornaments with 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 painters genius than if he had 
 been employed to copy an Indian idol, totally 
 composed of hands and necklaces. A pale Roman 
 nose, a head of hair loaded with crowns and pow- 
 dered with diamonds, a vast ruff, a vaster fardin- 
 gale and a bushel of pearls are the features by 
 which every body knows at once the pictures of 
 Queen Elizabeth.* Besides many of her Majesty, 
 
 * [The rational pleasure we receive from the inspection of 
 portrait s, added to excellence in point of art, is the assurance 
 of identity ; and that they reflect, as in a mirrour, real per- 
 sonages, with their features, dress and character, such as they 
 were in life. 
 
252 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 we are so lucky as to possess the portraits of al- 
 most all the great men of her reign, and though 
 
 That this genuine resemblance was falsified by personal 
 vanity and the painter's adulation, is certain, and in no subse- 
 quent instance, more decidedly, than in many portraits, which 
 are called those of Q. 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 Eliza- 
 beth (to be noticed hereafter), accompanied by emblems, which 
 was painted during her residence there. It represents a young 
 woman, fair, but not beautiful. From thence, she sent a letter 
 with a portrait of herself in miniature, to her brother K. 
 Edward VI. and observes, " for the face I might well blusche 
 to offer — and I beseche your Majestie to think that when you 
 shall loke in my pictur, you wiil witsafe {vouchsafe) to think 
 that you have the outwarde shew of the body before you, &c." 
 Ellis' 's Coll. of Orig. Letters, vol. ii. p. 158. There is another, 
 when Princess Elizabeth, at Kensington, said to be by Hol- 
 bein. It is a half length, in a red dress. 
 
 Sir James Melville, (in his Memoires, p. 46) describes in a 
 very interesting manner, his interview aad conversation with 
 Q. 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 
 (M. Q. Scots) hair or hers was best, and which of them two 
 was fairest?" Melville's reply was very courtly, but not satis- 
 factory j 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 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 253 
 
 the generality of painters at that time were not 
 equal to the subjects on which they were employed, 
 
 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 minia- 
 ture 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 bedchamber, 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 3 yet my importunity prevailed for a sight 
 thereof, and I found it to be " my Lord of Leycester's" (p. 49). 
 In 1563 she issued a proclamation, now in the State Paper 
 Office, and which may be seen, Arch. v. ii. p. 169, by which 
 none but " a special cunninge paynter' is permitted to draw her 
 likeness, and Zuccaro was then, probably, appointed. Raleigh, 
 in his preface to the History of the World, 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 1598. " Next came the Queen, very majestic, her 
 face oblong, fair but wrinkled, her eyes small yet black and 
 pleasant 5 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 5 and she had on a necklace of 
 exceeding fine jewels 5 her hands were small, her fingers long, 
 and her stature neither tall nor low." Itinerary, p. 65, trans- 
 lated by Mr. W. Long before this period she had quarrelled 
 with her looking glasses j and her indignation was so great, 
 because they would not flatter, that her female attendants 
 removed the mirrours (at that time small) from any room 
 
254 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 yet they were close imitators of nature,, and have 
 perhaps transmitted more faithful representations,* 
 
 through which she was about to pass. Hearne (in his edition 
 of Camden s Eliz.) says " specula amovebant famulae, ne vultum 
 forte conspicerit, et e mutationis contemplatione iracundia. in- 
 cenderetur." So gratified was she with the unceasing incense 
 of inordinate adulation, which she felt naturally and encou- 
 raged politically, because she wished to be represented to her 
 people, as the " beau ideal" of a " Virgin Queen," both by poets 
 and painters, who will wonder that the die for coinage, which 
 Mr. W. had engraved for his Royal and Noble Authors, was 
 immediately broken ?] 
 
 * 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 appre- 
 hension of their concealing arms under them) as of late be 
 used, and before two years past hath not been used in this 
 realm ; no persons to wear such great ruffes about their necks ; 
 to be left off such monstrous undecent attyring/' Also another 
 against wearing any sword rapier, that shall passe 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 par- 
 liament was passed in his twenty-fourth year against inordi- 
 nate use of apparel, directing that no one should wear on his 
 apparel any cloth of gold, silver or tinsel, satyn, silk, or cloth 
 mixed with gold or silver, any sables, velvet, furrs, embroidery, 
 velvet in gowns or outermost garments, except persons of 
 distinction, dukes, marquisses, earls, barons and knights of 
 the order, barons' sons, knights or such that may dispend 2501. 
 per ann. This act was renewed in the second of Elizabeth. 
 Edward VI. carried this restraint still farther : In heads of a 
 bill drawn up with his own hand 1551 (though it never passed 
 into a law), no one, who had less than 100Z. a year for life, or 
 gentlemen, the king's sworn servants, was to wear satten, 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 255 
 
 than we could have expected from men of brighter 
 imagination. The first painter who seems to have 
 made any figure in this reign, was 
 
 LUCAS DE HEERE,* 
 
 Died 1584. 
 
 Born at Ghent in 1534, of a family peculiarly 
 addicted to the arts. John his father was a good 
 statuary and architect : Anne Smitter his mother 
 painted in miniature, and with such diminutive 
 neatness, that she executed a landscape with a 
 windmill, millers, a cart and horse and passen- 
 gers ; 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 improved 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 Fontain- 
 bleau, where he married Eleanor Carboniere, he 
 
 damask, ostrich-feathers, or furs of conies j none not worth 
 200/. or 201. in living certain, to wear chamblet ; 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 Heere,Mr. W. has taken almost 
 literally from Descamps ; but he has omitted to mention his 
 r 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.] 
 
256 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 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. 
 Peters, 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 
 Emaus, and his apparition in the garden. 
 
 Lucas was not only a painter, but a poet : He 
 wrote the Orchard of Poesie ; 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 dis- 
 covered several of them. 
 
 1. The first of these was a portrait of Sir Wil- 
 liam Sidney, grandfather of Sir Philip ; but as Sir 
 William died in 1563 at the age of 72, 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 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 257 
 
 less probable that he had been in France, had 
 married, and arrived here by the age of nineteen. 
 This picture which Vertue found at Penshurst, was 
 in all likelyhood a copy. 
 
 2. The next was a portrait of Henry Lord Mal- 
 travers, eldest son of Henry Fitzalan, Earl of 
 Arundel, dated 1557, the year before the acces- 
 sion of Queen Elizabeth ; but as this young lord 
 died at Brussels,* it is probable that De Heere 
 drew his picture there, and that very acquaint- 
 ance might have been a recommendation of Lucas 
 to England. 
 
 3. The third is a picture in my possession, well 
 known by the print Vertue made from it. It con- 
 tains the portraits of Frances Duchess of Suffolk, 
 mother of Lady Jane Grey, and her second hus- 
 band Adrian Stoke. Their ages, and De Heere's 
 mark HE 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 
 
 * [The original is a small half length now at Norfolk House, 
 with an inscription, which mentions his death at Brussels in 
 1556, aged xix. 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 
 was 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 ] 
 VOL. I. S 
 
258 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 stiff. This picture was in the collection 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 Eliza- 
 beth said, " What ! has she married her horse- 
 keeper ? Yes, madam, replied 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, after- 
 wards father of the Lady Arabella. There are two 
 of these ; one as large as life, in the room going 
 into the kings 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 
 
 * [Other portraits there are of Queen Elizabeth, equally 
 abounding in (t concetto," and accompanied by emblems of 
 animals or inanimate things. Her likeness displayed itself, 
 but the transcendant qualities of her mind could be typified 
 only by mythological figures. 
 
 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. Q. 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 $ 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 259 
 
 drest, with her crown^ scepter, and globe, is com- 
 ing- out of a palace with two female attendants. 
 Juno, Pallas, and Minerva seem flying before her ; 
 Juno drops her scepter, and Venus her roses ; 
 Cupid flings away his bow and arrows, and clings 
 to his mother. On the old frame remain these 
 lines, probably written by the painter himself, who, 
 we have seen, dabbled in poetry too ; 
 
 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 compleated the flattery, he should have 
 made Juno or Venus resemble the Queen of Scots, 
 and not so handsome as Elizabeth, who w T ould not 
 have blushed like the last goddess. # 
 
 her hair is yellow depending in two long tresses. She is re- 
 presented young. The lining of her robe is wrought 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 5 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 appre- 
 hension. The pastoral poems of that age abound in compli- 
 ments to her beauty, but as T. Warton sensibly observes, " the 
 present age sees her charms and her character in their proper 
 colours.'' Observ. on Spenser, v. ii. p. 20 j and he gives a very 
 masterly sketch of her habits, in the conclusion of the sixty- 
 first section of the History of English Poetry.] 
 
 * Another curious picture painted about the same time, 
 I know not by what hand, was in the collection of James 
 
2(50 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 6. There is a small whole length of Queen Eli- 
 zabeth by De Heere at Welbec: on the back 
 ground^ a view of the old fabric at W anstead. 
 
 7. At Lord Dacres 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 
 
 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 pro- 
 portion 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 Shrewsbury 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 seats of the Walsinghams, 
 and is now at Strawberry-hill. 
 
 * [The portraits painted by Holbein and De Heere have been 
 frequently mistaken, as the work of each other, for, even when 
 they marked their pictures, their monogram was similar. The 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 261 
 
 De Heere, whose mark is still discernible. It is 
 the portrait of Mary Neville daughter of George 
 Lord Abergavenny, and widow of Thomas Fienes 
 Lord Dacre, executed for an accidental murder 
 in the reign of Henry VIII. a picture of her hus- 
 band, oet. 22, 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 Jane Grey, he thought, was drawn too 
 by Lucas ; # but that is liable to the same objec- 
 tion as his painting Sir William Sidney 
 
 Since the first edition of this work, I have dis- 
 covered 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 re- 
 semblance, her sister. The first lady has tags of 
 a particular form, exactly like those on the dress 
 of my Duchess of Suffolk, as is the colouring, 
 though not so highly finished ; yet the heads have 
 great nature. Before them are seven young chil- 
 dren, their ages marked, which show that three of 
 
 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.] 
 
 * [Lady Jane Grey was born in 1537, married in 1553, and 
 beheaded in 1554. De Heere was not in England during that 
 time.] 
 
262 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 them were born at a birth. They are playing 
 with fruit, and by them are a parrot and a mon- 
 key : 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 Cobham. I suppose Sir George Brooke 
 Lord Cobham, who died in the first year of Queen 
 Elizabeth, leaving eight sons and two daughters. 
 He had been committed to the Tower by Queen 
 Mary, as privy to Wyat's rebellion. I have like- 
 wise found two more pieces of this master at 
 Drayton, the ancient castle-like mansion of the 
 Mordaunts, now of the Lady Elizabeth Germain. 
 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 back ground: 
 but the picture has suffered. 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 22, 1563. This 
 piece is finely preserved and strongly coloured. 
 In the life of Holbein I have mentioned the Henry 
 VIII. at Trinity Coll. Cambridge, with De Heere's 
 mark. The face has been repainted, but the rest 
 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 Ad- 
 miral.* He was to represent the habits of diffe- 
 
 * At the Duke of Bedford's at Woburn are two heads of a 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 263 
 
 rent nations. When he came to the English, he 
 painted a naked man with cloth of different sorts 
 lying by him, and a pair of sheers, as a satire on 
 our fickleness in fashions. # This thought was bor- 
 rowed from Andrew Borde, who in his introduc- 
 tion 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 rayment I shall wear.f 
 
 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 following master, Ketel, rather than 
 by Lucas de Heere. 
 
 * [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 speake parte of al maner of languages, 
 and to knowe the usage and fashion of all 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 Coplands, and dedi- 
 cated to the King's daughter, the Princess Mary. From Mont- 
 pellier, 1542. Wartons Hist. Engl. Poet. v. iii. p. 357, 8vo.] 
 
 f It is not extraordinary that this witticism should have been 
 adopted into the Lord Admiral's gallery. Andrew Borde, or 
 Andreas Perforatus, as he called himself, was an admired wit in 
 the latter end of Henry VIII. to whom he was sometime 
 
264 
 
 PAINTERS 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 pic- 
 tures. He used for an anagram these words, 
 Schade leer u, which Sandrart says signify, Nocu- 
 menta tibi sint documenta. 
 
 CORNELIUS KETEL,* 
 
 Died after 1600, 
 
 was born at Gouda in 1548, and early prosecuted 
 his art with great ardour, under the direction of 
 
 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 j 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 Intro- 
 duction to Knowledge, 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 chaplet of laurel. The title 
 of the chapter is, (t 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, de- 
 claring the properties of all the regions, countries and 
 provinces, the which he did travel thorow.'* He wrote besides, 
 The Breviary of Health j a Dietary of Health $ The merry 
 tales of the mad men of Gotham j 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 Wood, vol. i. p. 75. 
 
 * See Sandrart, 272. and Carl Vermander, from whence 
 Vertue collected most of the particulars of Ketel's life ; and 
 Descamps who copied Vermander, p. 69, 
 
Seipse. piruc.' 
 
 W.H. Worthing ton. sculp? 
 
 <D CD irf m ilhtj s mm t m 3L 
 
 TjO NTD < iN 
 
 mid Major . O.Flfet Street. 
 
 el?" 15*1826: 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 265 
 
 his uncle, a tolerable 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 Fontain- 
 bleau, where he worked with great applause, in 
 competition with three of his countrymen; but 
 the court coming to Fontainbleau, they were or- 
 dered to leave the palace ; Ketel went to Paris 
 and lodged with John de la Hame, the king's 
 enameller, where he painted some histories ; but 
 an edict obliging the subjects of the King of Spain 
 to quit France, Ketel returned to Gouda and re- 
 mained there six years. The troubles in his own 
 country continuing, and consequently little en- 
 couragement being given to the arts, Ketel em- 
 barked 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 wo- 
 man, and his works growing into esteem, he was 
 much employed by the merchants in painting 
 portraits, but was seldom engaged on history, to 
 which his inclination chiefly led him. However, 
 having painted an allegoric piece of Strength van- 
 quished by Wisdom, it was purchased by a young 
 merchant, and presented to Sir Christopher Hatton, 
 afterwards Lord Chancellor. This incident intro- 
 duced Ketel to court ; he drew a good whole 
 length of Sir Christopher, now at the Earl of 
 Litchfield's at Ditchley ; the portrait of Edward 
 
266 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 Vere Earl of Oxford, of William Herbert Earl of 
 Pembroke ; of the Lord Admiral Lincoln, now at 
 Woburn, and of Henry Fitzalan Earl of Arundel, 
 and of several others. At last, in 1578, he had 
 the honour of painting the Queen herself, at the 
 request of the Countess of Hertford ;* Elizabeth 
 being then entertained at Hanworth by the famous 
 Anne Stanhope, widow of the Protector, and mo- 
 ther of the Earl of Hertford, then very aged.-}- 
 
 Ketel left England in 1581, and settled at Am- 
 sterdam, where he painted a large picture of the 
 trained bands with their portraits, and their cap- 
 tain Herman Rodenburgh Beths at their head. 
 In this picture too he introduced his own portrait. 
 The disposition, resemblances, and the different 
 stuffs of the habits, well imitated, were much ad- 
 mired 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 Rosencraus. It was reckoned not 
 inferior to the former, and was neither confused 
 nor unanimated, notwithstanding the number of 
 portraits it contained. 
 
 * 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 disgrace for his first marriage 
 with the Lady Catherine Grey. 
 
 t The Duchess died nine years afterwards at the age of 
 ninety. 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 267 
 
 In another of his works, under the figures of 
 Christ and the Apostles, he represented Henry 
 Keyser, an architect of Amsterdam, and the prin- 
 cipal 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 
 Dantzick. 
 
 In the Duke of Buckingham's collection was a 
 large picture* by this master, representing the 
 Virtues and Vices. See his catal. p. 19. 
 
 But Ketel, not content with the glory he ac- 
 quired by these performances, instead of aiming 
 at greater perfection, took it into his head to make 
 himself known by a 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 Ne- 
 mours, who was a performer himself, was charmed 
 with the latter, and bought it. Another, was the 
 
 * [This picture was 4-feet-6 inches high, and 7-feet broad.] 
 + Descamps mentions a fine picture painted by Weeninx 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. 
 
268 PAINTERS IN THE REIGJ* OF 
 
 picture of Vincent Jacobson, a noted Wine-mer- 
 chant 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 mounte- 
 bank, the greater was his merit, were so good as 
 to applaud even this caprice. 
 
 Ketel, like De Heere, was a poet too, and wrote 
 descriptions of several of his own works in verse. 
 He understood architecture, geometry and per- 
 spective, 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 Rome, 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, 
 Ketel's 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 and with 
 
!Fo STDT(D(SAm(2) 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 269 
 
 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 
 
 FREDERIC ZUCCHERO,* 
 
 Died 1616. 
 
 The younger brother of Taddeo, and born like 
 him at Vado, in the Duchy of Urbino, in the year 
 1550. Frederic was carried by his parents to 
 Rome, where their elder son was 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 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 a^e of thirty-seven, Frederic finished 
 
 * See Sandrart, Felibien, and Baglione. 
 
 t [Memoirs of " Federigo Zuccaro," are given by Lanzi, 
 Bellori and Vasari, who speak of his residence in England, 
 slightly, but who refer chiefly to his great historical works on 
 the continent. He is mentioned in Cumberland's Lives of Pain- 
 ters in Spain, vol. i. p. 110. The late Mr. Rogers, who pub- 
 lished " A Collection of Prints, in imitation of Drawings, with 
 Lives of their Authors, fyc. in two volumes, Imp.fol. 1778.'' has 
 made a large collection of notes relative to F. Zuccaro, and 
 added many judicious criticisms.] 
 
270 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 his imperfect works, among which were the paint- 
 ings at the magnificent palace then lately built at 
 Caprarola by Cardinal Farnese. His picture in 
 distemper of Calumny, borrowed from the descrip- 
 tion of one painted by Apelles, was supposed a 
 tacit satire on that Cardinal, with whom he had 
 quarrelled on some deficience of payment. Zuc- 
 chero's temper seems by another instance to have 
 been pretty strongly tinctured with resentment ; 
 while he was employed by Gregory XIII. to paint 
 the 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 Rome ; 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/}- 
 
 * Verrio quarrelling with Mrs. Marriot the housekeeper at 
 Windsor, drew her picture for one of the furies. This was to 
 gratify his own passion ; to flatter that of the court, he has 
 represented Lord Shaftsbury among the Demons of faction, in 
 St. George's Hall. 
 
 t [This portrait of Mary Queen of Scots, is a copy by Zuc- 
 caro, and that lately at St. James's, another by Mytens. In 
 Charles the First's Collection was a small whole length, which 
 was brought from Scotland, as stated in the catalogue. She 
 had been in England, and under the^trictest confinement, since 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 271 
 
 for that well known portrait at Chiswick, which 
 has been engraved by Vertue. Another picture of 
 Elizabeth., in a fantastic habit, something like a 
 Persian, is in the gallery of Royal personages at 
 Kensington. Melville* mentions her having and 
 
 1568, several years 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 circumstances. 
 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 
 1561, she is known to have sate to the court painters, to Janet, 
 and F. Pourbus the elder. In the Bodleian Gallery at Oxford 
 is a head of her by the first named, represented as in mourn- 
 ing 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 Scot- 
 land, from which an elegant engraving has been made. It is 
 inscribed e f Mary Queen of Scots, said to have been painted 
 during her confinement in Lochleven Castle."' Yet the name 
 of the painter will elude the most laborious search. Who 
 were the Scotch artists known to have been capable of taking 
 such a portrait, at that period ?] 
 
 * [Mr. Rogers has given an exact fac-simile of a sketch in 
 black and red chalk, taken in 1575, for a portrait of Q. Eliza- 
 beth. It is a whole length. In compliance with the taste of 
 the times, Zuccaro has introduced emblematically, a column, a 
 serpent, an ermine, and a dog. Her arms are crossed, and in 
 one hand she holds a feather fan. Another sketch is the por- 
 trait of her favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, stand- 
 ing in complete armour, done at the same time, and in a similar 
 manner, both of them in the collection of the late Lord Frede- 
 rick Campbell, 
 
 In proof of the extent of this extraordinary love of va- 
 riety in dress, a quotation may be allowed from a MSS. folio 
 
272 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 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 in- 
 scribed these mottoes and verses, which as we 
 know not on what occasion the piece was painted, 
 are not easily to be interpreted : 
 
 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 5 
 Her juste complaints 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 : 
 (i) His teares in silence and my sighes unknowne 
 Are all the physicke that my harmes redresse. 
 
 intitled " A Book of all such garments, jew els, silks, &c. belonging to 
 the Queens wardrobe, in 1600." Exclusively of coronation, 
 mourning, and parliament robes, and of the Garter robes, being 
 ninety-nine, in all ; there were French gowns, 102. — Round 
 ditto, 67. — Loose ditto, 100. — Kirtles, 126. — Foreparts, 136. 
 Petticoats, 125. — Clokes, 96. — Safeguards, 13. — Jupes, 43. — 
 Doubletts, 85. — Lap-mantles, 18. — Fans, 27. — Pantofles, 9. 
 Nichols's Q. Eliz. Progresses, v. ii. p. 53. She was then sixty- 
 eight years old, and had been a very careful preserver ! — Of 
 the peculiarities of English dress, a summary but satisfactory 
 account is given in Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, 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."] 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 273 
 
 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 beplaintes, 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, at Hampton-court,*f and of Sir 
 Francis Walsingham, 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 Steelyard as I have mentioned. A 
 chapel at Roehampton^: belonging to Mr. Bagnols, 
 
 * [In the catalogue of the collection of Lady Holderness 
 (1802), was a whole length of Q. 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." 
 Haec talis est.] 
 
 f There too by his hand was a picture of Venus passing 
 sentence on the boar that had killed Adonis. It was sold for 
 at the sale of King Charles's collection. 
 
 X [" The Chapel at Roehampton" is an altar-picture, and 
 still so applied. Lijsons. At Strawberry - hill, Sir Francis 
 
 VOL. I. T 
 
274 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 was said to be painted by him. What other 
 works he performed here I do not find ;* probably 
 not many; his stay was not long; historic sub- 
 jects 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 Rome, where he built 
 a house for himself on the Monte di Trinita, 
 adorned with four portals, and painted on the 
 
 Walsingham, by Zuccaro. As Mr. W. 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 pre- 
 sumptuous 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 was in England. Of Robert Dudley, 
 Earl of Leicester, the portraits are some of them so highly 
 finished, that although they are not appropriated with satisfac- 
 tory evidence to Zuccaro, or to his contemporary artists, they 
 deserve to be noticed. At Hatfield ; Woburn 3 Wroxton, Ox- 
 fordshire 3 Parham, Sussex 3 Lumley Castle 3 Knowle 3 Straw- 
 berry-hill 3 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 <e Des nominis 
 hujus honor em ? M ] 
 
 * V ertue 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 
 painted in England. Mr. Pennant mentions a head of Sir 
 Lionel Talmache by Zucchero. Tour to Scotl. vol. ii. p. 15. 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 275 
 
 outside in fresco by his own hand. On the ac- 
 cession of Sixtus V. Zucchero was invited to Spain 
 by Philip II. to paint the Escurial, but his frescos 
 not pleasing, he returned to Rome, 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 expences however drained 
 him so much, that he again quitted Rome, and 
 went to Venice* to print some treatises that he 
 had written on painting and some poems too, 
 for Zucchero was a poet like others of his profes- 
 sion. From Venice he passed into Savoy, where 
 he was favourably received by the Duke, for whom 
 he began to paint a gallery. Returning, he 
 
 * There he was competitor with Tintoret for painting the 
 chapel of St. Roch. Cat. Rais. des Tableaux du Roi, vol. ii. p. 70. 
 
 t [Zuccaro was among the earliest of the eminent painters 
 who wrote on the subject of art. His Idea de Pittori, Scultori 
 et Architetti divisa in due libri," was printed in folio (1607) at 
 Turin , not at Venice. This book had become so extremely 
 scarce, as to induce the publishers of the " Letter -e sulla Pittura* 
 to reprint it in their fifth volume. They state, that they searched 
 all over Italy for it, in vain • when 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 metaphy- 
 sical 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 cen- 
 tury than the age in which he wrote." v. i. p. 88. For further 
 information concerning these rare books consult Mariette's 
 Letter in the " Lettere sulla Pittura," v. vi. p. 199.] 
 
276 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 visited Loretto, and died at Ancona in 1616, aged 
 66, leaving the remains of his fortune to his 
 academy. 
 
 MARC GARRARD* 
 
 Died 1635. 
 
 The son of a painter of the same nainesyf- was born 
 at Bruges in 1561, and practised history, land- 
 scape, architecture and portrait. He engraved, 
 .lluminated, and designed for glass-painters. His 
 etchings for ^Esop's Fables and View of Bruges 
 were much esteemed. He came to England 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. 
 
 * 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 chil- 
 dren, so long done and unpaid. 
 
 f [The father of Marc Garrard, excelled principally in paint- 
 ing animals, and was the author of <s Ours dessine's par Marc 
 Guerard, 1559, gravies a Veau forte, par Marc de Bye, 1664, 
 4to. 12 morceaux." The designs for ^Esop's fables, were by 
 the elder M. Garrard.] 
 
 X [Some of those which confirm his reputation, may be 
 mentioned. The portraits in the procession to Hundsdon 
 House, now at Sherburn, Dorsetshire, in the Collection of Earl 
 Digby, are taken from the life. Lord Treasurer Burleigh, 
 at Burleigh } Mary Sydney, Countess of Pembroke, Penshurst 
 Frances Howard, Duchess of Richmond, Strawberry-hill ; 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 277 
 
 In general they are neat, the ruffs and habits 
 stiff, and rich with pearls and other jewels. His 
 flesh-colours are thin, and light, tending to a 
 blueish 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 Tho- 
 mas More's family at Burford might have been 
 compleated by this painter. 
 
 Garrard drew a procession of the Queen and 
 knights of the garter in 1584, from whence Ash- 
 mole took his plate for the history of that order. 
 The portraits, though small, have great resem- 
 blance, with that uncommon fidelity of represent- 
 ing the air, stature and bulk of the persons exhi- 
 bited. Vertue made a copy of this roll in water- 
 colours, which I bought at his sale. It is not 
 quite compleat, the original not having been en- 
 tirely 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. 
 
 An introduction to the general art of drawing, 
 first set out by Marc Gerard of Bruges, was trans- 
 lated and published in English, quarto, 1674. 
 
 Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Hatfield; James, First 
 Marquis of Hamilton, Sir W. Maitland, and John First Lord 
 Thirlestane, E. of Lauderdale. Camden the Historian, Bodleian 
 Gallery, Oxford] 
 
 * [Inherited by the present Lord Viscount Dillon.] 
 
278 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OP 
 
 HENRY CORNELIUS VROOM .* 
 
 was born in 1566 at Harlem, where his 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 staid a year ; and passing through 
 * See Sandrart, 274, and Descamps, T. i. p. 254. 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 279 
 
 Milan, Genoa, Turin and Paris, returned to Har- 
 lem, where he employed himself on devout sub- 
 jects in little, and having stocked himself with a 
 quantity, again set out for Spain, where he pro- 
 posed 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 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 de- 
 tail 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 en- 
 gaged Vroom to draw the designs. The excel- 
 lence of the performance, obvious to the public 
 eye, makes encomiums unnecessary.* 
 
 * [These designs, for which Sandrart says that Lord Not- 
 tingham remunerated him with one hundred florins, were 
 
280 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 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 II. and Louis XIV. 
 
 made for ten compartments. The whole series with the mar- 
 ginal 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 imagi- 
 nary, but that the brave individuals, who formed a constella- 
 tion of heroes, were faithfully delineated to complete Vroom's 
 designs for the tapestry. The names are given alphabetically. 
 I. 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. 3. Charles Howard, 
 Baron of Effingham, the Lord Admiral. 9. Sir Martin Fro- 
 bisher. 10. Sir Thomas Garrat. 11. Captain Benjamin Genson. 
 12. Sir John Hawkins. 13. Sir Edward Hobye. 14. Lord 
 Thomas Howard. 15. Mr. Knevet. 16. Earl of Northumber- 
 land. 17. Sir Horatio Palavicini. 18. Captain George Penner. 
 19. Captain Penton. 20. Lord Henry Seymour. 21. Lord 
 Sheffield. 22. Sir Robert Southwell. 23. Sir Thomas Cecil. 
 24. Sir Roger Townshend. 25. Mr. Thomas Vavasor. 26. Mr. 
 Willoughby. 27. Sir William Wynter. 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 honour of the victory.] 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 281 
 
 Vroom received an hundred pieces of gold for 
 his labour: the arras itself containing 708 ells 
 Flemish, at 10/. Is. per ell, cost 1628/. * which was 
 paid by the crown to the Earl in the 14th of King 
 James — but it was during the Republic that this 
 noble trophy was placed in a temple worthy 
 of it. -J- 
 
 The painter came to England to receive instruc- 
 tions and execute his commission; and contract- 
 ing a friendship 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 the seventh day's action of the fight 
 above-mentioned. Vroom died rich, in what year 
 is not mentioned. 
 
 In the collection of King James II. were two 
 sea-pieces, and in that of Sir Peter Lely a land- 
 scape, both described to be of old Vroom, whence 
 I suppose he had a son who followed his profes- 
 sion, and his style too, as in the former catalogue 
 is mentioned a sea-piece with King Charles com- 
 ing 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 
 
 * [There is a discrepancy between the number of ells and 
 the amount as here stated, which should be 71 15Z. 8s.] 
 
 t See Journals of the Commons, January 1, 1650. The 
 House of Lords was then used for committees of the Commons. 
 
282 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 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 
 
 PETRUCCIO 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, King David on his knees. At the end 
 of the book this inscription : 
 
 Petruccius Ubaldinus Florentinus Henrico co- 
 miti Arundeliae, Maecenati suo, scribebat Londini 
 M.D.LXV.f 
 
 Another book of vellum, written and illumi- 
 nated by the same person, containing the sen- 
 tences of scripture painted in the Lord Keeper's 
 gallery at Gorhambury.^: This book was made 
 
 * Vertue says he taught the Italian language, 
 f [Henry Fitz Alan, the last Earl of that name.] 
 X 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 Henry VIII. in 
 armour, busts of Sir Nicholas Bacon and his lady, and of Lord 
 Bacon when a boy. This mansion was built by the Keeper, and 
 much improved by Sir Francis Bacon, who added Italian por- 
 ticos, and loggias, but artfully preserved from being too disso- 
 nant from the older parts of the building. It is a sweet retire- 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 283 
 
 by order of Sir Nicholas Bacon, and by him pre- 
 sented to the Lady Lumley. 
 
 Another, containing various kinds of writing, 
 chiefly in the Italian language, very neatly exe- 
 cuted. This was in the Cotton library. 
 
 There were besides, in the King s library, (most 
 of them now in the Museum) Scotiae descriptio a, 
 Deidonensi quodam facto A. D. 1550. et per Pe- 
 truccium Ubaldinum transcripta A. D. 1576, in 
 charta. 13. A. viii. 
 
 Petruccio Ubaldino, un libro d'essemplari. carta 
 14. A. i. 
 
 un libro della forma et re- 
 
 gola dell' eleggere e coronare gli Imperadori. 
 carta 14. A. viii. 
 
 . comentario del successodelV 
 
 Armata Spagnuola, &c. 14. A. x. * 
 
 ment, without ostentation, and adapted to his motto, Medio- 
 cria jirma. It was purchased by Sir Harbottle Grimston, and 
 much of the old furniture the purchasers and present possessors 
 have had the good taste to preserve. 
 
 [Beside 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. v. ii. p. 228, who gives a minute and interesting descrip- 
 tion of it, attributes the whole design to Lord Bacon j 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.] 
 
 * [" A Discourse concerning the Spanish Fleet, in 1588, over- 
 
284 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 Petruccio Ubaldino, dell' impresa fatta contro il 
 regno d'Inghilterra dal re Cattolico, &c. scritta 
 da Petruccio Ubaldino cittadino Florentino, in 
 Londra, il di 15 d'Aprile 1589, 14. A. xi. 
 
 Le vite et i fatti di sei donne illustri. 14. A. xix.^ 
 
 Another Italian book, presented by Petruccio 
 to the 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 reposited in the 
 jewel-office, and in which the names of Hilliard, 
 Oliver and Marc Garard do not appear. 
 
 In the 21st year of Elizabeth — 
 To Petruccio ■ — v/. 
 
 thrown by the Queenes Navy, the 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 conflictes had with the said Fleet, graved 
 by Ryther, 4to. 1590.*' Herbert, Hist. Printing, vol. i.p. 1212.] 
 t He published a book of this kind, intituled, Le Vite delle 
 Donne illustri del regno dUnghilterra, e del regno di Scotia, e di 
 quelle, che oValtri 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 pro- 
 duce two of his Heroines. The first was Chembrigia, daugh- 
 ter 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 cu- 
 rious to know who this nameless yet illustrious lady, who 
 deserved to have her life written, was, it is the mother of 
 Ferrex and Porrex in Lord Dorset's Gorboduc, who because 
 one of her sons killed the other, that was her favourite, killed 
 a third son in a passion. 
 
LONDON, 
 
 Published "by Jolui Major. .5 0. Fleet Street 
 TeW '15^1826. 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 285 
 
 He returns, a book of Italian, with pictures to 
 the life, and metamorphosis of Ovid. 
 
 Another in 1585, by Petruccio Ubaldini, a pedi- 
 gree : 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 HILLIARD, 
 
 Died 1619, 
 
 limner, jeweller and goldsmith to Queen Eliza- 
 beth, and afterwards to King James, was son of 
 Richard Hilliard of Exeter, high sheriff of that 
 city and county in the year 1560. Nicholas (I 
 suppose a younger son)* was born in 1547, and 
 
 * [The pedigree of Hilliard, MSS. Coll. Arm. Vis. London, 
 
 1634, seems to affirm the contrary. 
 
 John HilliardT 
 of Cornwall 
 
 Richard Hilliard TLaurence, daughter of John 
 of Exeter. | Wall, Goldsmith of London. 
 
 r -1 
 
 Nicholas Hilliard, = Alice, daugter of John Bran- 
 Goldsmith to Q. Eliz. and K. don, Chamberlain of London. 
 James, the Painter, ob. 1619. ; 
 
 r -j 
 
 Laurence Hilliard, == 
 of London, living 1634, 
 only son. 
 
 i — : 1 — 1 J ~-\ 
 
 1. Brandon Hilliard. 2, Thomas. 3. Charles. 4. Laurence, 
 1634. a daughter. 
 
286 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 brought up to the business of a jeweller and gold- 
 smith, to which his inclination soon added that of 
 painting in miniature. The want of an able in- 
 structor directed him to study the works of Hol- 
 bein, 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 works. Hil- 
 liard arrived at no strength of colouring ; his faces 
 are pale, and void of any variety of tints, the fea- 
 tures, 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 surprized returning 
 from the island voyage, says, 
 
 a hand or eye 
 
 By Hilliard drawn, is worth a history 
 By a worse painter made 
 
 And Peacham on limning says, " comparing an- 
 
 * [This MS. has been alluded to, (p. 144 n.) In the Cata- 
 logue of Charles the First's limnings, he is styled " old Hil- 
 liard, as having painted a miniature presented by his son 
 " young Hilliard," who was a goldsmith only. Peacham like- 
 wise calls him " old Mr. Hilliard," but Norgate, « N. Hilliard,'' 
 in the MS. abovementioned. If the son had been an artist of 
 eminence, his works would have appeared in the Royal Gal- 
 lery. Hilliard's will is dated, Dec. 24, 1618.] 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 287 
 
 cient and modern painters, brings the comparison 
 to our own time and country ; nor must I be un- 
 gratefully unmindful of my own countrymen, who 
 have been and are able to equal the best if occa- 
 sion served, as old Hilliard, Mr. Isaac Oliver, infe- 
 rior to none in Christendome for the countenance 
 in small, &c."* Richard Heydock too of New 
 College, Oxon. in his translation of Lomazzo on 
 Painting, published in 1598, says, ec Limnings, 
 much used in former times in church-books, as 
 also in drawing by the life in small models ; 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 skil- 
 ful master, Nicholas Hilliard, and his well-pro- 
 fiting scholar, whose farther commendations I 
 refer to the curiositie of his works." 
 
 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 perfection of painting (in 
 them is) so extraordinary, that when I devised 
 with 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 pro- 
 miseth a treatise of his own practice that way, 
 with all convenient speed." This tract Hilliard 
 
 * See an account of him in Wood's Athena, vol. ii. p. 296. 
 
288 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 actually wrote but never published. Vertue met 
 with a copy of it, which I have among- his MSS.* 
 Blaise Vigenere mentions Hilliard and the neat- 
 ness of his pencil very particularly ; " Telle estoit 
 aussi l'ecriture et les traits dun peintre Anglois 
 nomme Oeillarde, d'autant plus a emerveiller, que 
 cela se faisoit avec un pinceau fait des poils de la 
 queue d'un escureuil, qui ne resiste ni ne soutient 
 pas comme feroit une plume de corbeau, qui est 
 tres ferine." 
 
 Hilliard's portrait, done by himself at the age 
 of thirteen, was in the cabinet of the Earl of Ox- 
 ford. He was still young when he drew the Queen 
 of Scots. Queen Elizabeth sat to him often. 
 Charles I. had three of her portraits by him, one, 
 a side face in the clouds, another, one of his most 
 capital performances, a whole length of her in her 
 robes sitting on her throne. In the same collec- 
 tion were several more of his works, particularly a 
 view of the Spanish Armada; and a curious jewel, 
 containing the portraits of Henry VII. Henry VIII. 
 Edward VI. 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 was purchased by the King, of Hilliard's 
 son.-f* 
 
 * An extract of it is in Browns Ars Pictoria, p. 95. Lond. 
 1675, and some of his receipts in Sanderson's Graphice. 
 
 f [The tablets upon which Hilliard painted his miniatures, 
 were seldom of ivory. u Hippolito Donato, a celebrated limner 
 at Rome, used a card, or smooth piece of pasteboard, which 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 289 
 
 In the essay towards an English school of pain- 
 ters,* it is said that Mr. Fanshaw had the portraits 
 of Hilliard-f- and his father, finely executed, with 
 inscriptions on gold letters ; on the former, 
 
 Nicolas Hilliardus, aurifaber, sculptor et Cele- 
 bris illuminator serenissimae reginae Elizabeth ae, 
 anno 1577, aet. suae 30. 
 
 On the other, 
 
 Ricardus Hilliardus, quondam vicecomes civi- 
 tatis 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,;}; espe- 
 
 after he had rubbed with a slickstone, he, with starch finely 
 laid on, pasted an abortive skin upon the same, upon which, 
 when it was thoroughly dry, smoothed, pressed and prepared, 
 he did draw the form of the face, with lines of lake." Peacham, 
 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.] 
 
 * Printed in 1706, at the end of the translation of De Piles' 
 Art of Painting. See p. 430. 
 
 f 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. 
 
 % [Of this fact doubts may be reasonably entertained, be- 
 cause so much time was requisite for a degree of finishing so 
 VOL. I. U 
 
290 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 cially of ladies, are extant.* He obtained still 
 greater favour from King James, drawing his 
 Majesty's and Prince Henrys pictures ; and re- 
 ceiving a patent/^- printed by Rymer, to this effect, 
 
 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.] 
 
 * [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 First's limnings, were thirteen by Hilliard. 
 
 1. Q. 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 
 Q. 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. Q. 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. 
 Q.Elizabeth, given to Lord Chancellor Bacon, at Gorhambury.] 
 
 + [A curious specimen of the panegyrical style so much in 
 fashion in the reign of Elizabeth occurs in Heydoc/cs Preface to 
 Lomazzo on Painting, translated by him, small fol. 1585. <( I wish 
 I had the skillful pen of G. 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 Plutarch did the Roman captaines with the 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 291 
 
 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 extraordinary skill in drawing, grav- 
 ing, 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 
 
 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, (the perfection of painting is so extraordinary, &c." 
 continued by Mr. W. p. 287.] 
 
 * [The last clause, (Pat. 15. Jac. I. 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 representa- 
 tions of ourselves and others, we do give and grant the privi- 
 lege 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 monopoly gave Hilliard a controul over all 
 the engravers and printsellers of that time, and having died in 
 1616, his son enjoyed the patent during the remainder of its 
 term.] 
 
292 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 still used for counters. Simon Pass and other en- 
 gravers were employed by him in these works. 
 
 Hilliard died January 7, 1619, and was buried 
 in St. Martins church in the Fields, Westminster 
 (as appears by the register), in which parish he 
 had a house. He made his will* in the preced- 
 ing December, leaving twenty shillings to the poor 
 of the parish ; to his sister Anne Avery 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 Laurence 
 Hilliard, his sole executor. But the greatest obli- 
 gation we have to Hilliard is his having contri- 
 buted to form X 
 
 ISAAC OLIVER^ 
 
 Born 1555. Died 1617- 
 
 Hitherto we have been obliged to owe to other 
 
 * From the Registers in Doctor's Commons. 
 
 t He had the same salary as Holbein. 
 
 % John Betts, whom I have mentioned as painting the por- 
 trait 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 Tyrrel, a carver in wood. 
 
 [This notice cannot occur in Hall's Chronicle, which com- 
 mences with the reign of Henry IV. and concludes with that of 
 Henry VIII. 1399-1547 — neither are the names of Bettes and 
 Tyrell found in the reign of Q. Elizabeth, by Holinshed or 
 Stowe.] 
 
 § I must not disguise, that, though Oliver was probably 
 born in England, he was in all likelyhood of French extrac- 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 293 
 
 countries the best performances* exhibited here in 
 painting ; but in the branch (miniature) in which 
 
 tion : In his will he spells his name Oliver, but on his draw- 
 ings writes it Olivier. Vertue found mention of one <e Aubin 
 Olivier natif de Boisy, inventeur des engins de monoyes a 
 Moulins and in Palmer's History of Printing, p. 274, are 
 accounts of Peter Olivier printer at Caen in Normandy 1515, 
 and of Jean Olivier printer in the same city 1521. But Hon- 
 dius, 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 preceding 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."] 
 
 * [There are assertions in the MS. Harleian, no. 6000, in the 
 Museum, which excite a doubt, whether it were the work of 
 Hilliard, which is above adverted to : " An exact and compen- 
 dious discourse concerning the arte of Miniature or Limning 
 the names, nature and 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, et and this was the manner of our late excellent 
 N. Hilliard, in making his sattins." These directions appear to 
 have been sent to a young artist — (c 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 excellent, 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 pro- 
 bably, 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 
 
294 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 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 
 
 well as his MS. " this 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 Quinto.] 
 
 * [His merit was known and acknowledged on the Continent. 
 Sandrart, p. 311.) mentions "Oliveirius membranarum Pictor 
 Londinensis," alluding to the very general practice of all limners 
 to lay their colours upon abortive vellum, duly prepared. He 
 speaks likewise with admiration, of the durability of Oliver's 
 colours, " ut ut durando dimidium jam excesserint saeculum, 
 incorruptae tamen et integerrimae perseverint," p. 312. 
 
 f [Dom. Giulio Clovio was born in 1498, and died in 157S. 
 He was at first an ecclesiastic, but received the dispensation of 
 the Pope. He studied design in the school of Michael Angelo, 
 but afterward confined his practice entirely, to limning and 
 miniature, in which his eminence was such as to command the 
 patronage of sovereigns and princes, for whom he chiefly 
 painted. Vasari is his great panegyrist, who places him at the 
 head of all limners j and although his success in that kind of 
 painting induced many to adopt limning solely, none of his 
 successors of any age or nation have eventually arrived at an 
 equal degree of perfection. For Cardinal Farnese he illumi- 
 nated "the Office of the Virgin Mary," in which the figures 
 did not exceed the size of an ant 5 yet all the limbs were 
 anatomically perfect, when seen through a magnifying glass : 
 another of the " Corpus Domini," consisting of twenty-six 
 figures, employed him during nine years. 
 
 Lanzi and Pilkington both assert that he painted portraits in 
 miniature, for particular persons but that it was not his usual 
 practice. " Per privati, lavoro ritrattini, in gran numero, 
 (nella qual arte h dal Vasari ugualito a Tiziano) ed anche 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 295 
 
 and taste in grotesque were exquisite, cannot be 
 compared with Isaac Oliver, because Clovio never 
 painted portraits, and the latter little else. Petitot, 
 whose enamels have exceeding merit, perhaps 
 owed a little of the beauty of his works to the 
 happy nature of the composition: We ourselves 
 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 
 Vandyke, 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 Hil- 
 liard, he had some instructions from Zucchero ; 
 Vertue even thought, from variety of his drawings 
 
 qualche quadretti. Questi pero sono rarissimi nelle raccolte." 
 T. iv. p. 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 be- 
 longed 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 vellum) repre- 
 senting a cardinal, sitting before a table with St. Andrew and 
 other tutelar Saints, at Kensington. 
 
296 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 after the great masters,* especially Parmegiano, 
 that he had been in Italy. For whatever else 
 relates to him, let his works speak. 
 
 Dr. Meade possessed some of the most capital; 
 as Olivers own portrait, extremely small; the 
 head of the Queen of Scotsman admirable piece, 
 though very doubtful whether of her ; Queen Eli- 
 zabeth, profile; Henry Prince of Wales,;}; Ben 
 Johnson and the whole length of Sir Philip 
 Sidney, sitting under a tree. All these were pur- 
 chased by the late Prince of Wales. I have ano- 
 ther 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 
 
 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. 5 not 
 inferior to any of Clovio's known works.] 
 
 * [Vertue does not tell us, where these drawings of I. 
 Oliver after the Italian masters were preserved 5 if he means 
 limnings, none of them after Parmegiano were in Charles the 
 First's Cabinet. There were seven oil-paintings by Parme- 
 giano (called erroneously Parmentius) some of which appear 
 subsequently in K.James the Second's Catalogue.] 
 
 f 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. 
 
 X There are one or two others of this prince by the same 
 hand. 
 
 § It is engraved among the illustrious heads, but is very 
 unlike the old pictures and prints of that poet. 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 297 
 
 largest magnifying glass only calls out new beau- 
 ties.* But the first, at least the best preserved 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 co- 
 lour, 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 Cowdray-f-is another 
 invaluable 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,^: ano- 
 ther person is coming into the room, aged twenty- 
 one. The picture is ten inches by seven. 
 
 His painting of James I. served Rubens and 
 
 * Col. Sothby has another larger, and containing only the 
 head, but bold, and admirably painted. 
 
 t [This invaluable picture was fortunately preserved from 
 the effects of the conflagration, in 1793, and is now in the 
 cabinet of the Hon. Mrs. Poyntz, at Cowdray. It represents 
 three brothers, 1. Anthony. 2. John. 3. William, sons of An- 
 thony Browne, the second Viscount Montacute, whole length, 
 in black, their ages 24, 21, and 18, with the painter's mark 3>. 
 Motto "Figurae conformis afFectus." 1598.] 
 
 j Vertue met with a print, from whence he supposed Oliver 
 borrowed his design. It was inscribed., Colignaei Fratres, 
 Odetus, Gaspar, Franciscus. 
 
298 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 Vandyke, when they had occasion to draw that 
 Prince after his decease 
 
 In an office-book of the Lord Harrington, trea- 
 surer 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 appeareth by a 
 bill thereunto annexed, 40/. 
 
 In King Charles's catalogue* are accounts of 
 several of his works : King James II. had still 
 
 * [As it is possible that some readers, who are more inte- 
 rested in the earlier history of miniature painting in England, 
 may consider Mr. W.'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 abovementioned sources of infor- 
 mation : — 
 
 In the Royal Collection. 
 1. Entombing of Christ, above mentioned, 11 J inches by 
 1 foot 3 J. In the MS. before cited — " But that which is 
 instar omnium, (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 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 j 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. 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 299 
 
 more ; the Earl of Arundel many. He drew a 
 whole length of Robert Earl of Essex, in white, 
 
 2. Henry Prince of Wales, the larger 5J by 4 ; another in 
 a white turned ivory box. 
 
 3. Robert Earl of Essex abovementioned, 8| inches by 5. 
 
 4. Anne, Q. of James I. 8. Another portrait of her. 
 
 5. Henry Prince of Wales, 9. The Lady Shirley, 
 
 6. Charles I. when D. of York. 10. The same, in a Persian 
 
 7. Princess Elizabeth before dress 
 
 her marriage. 1 1 . 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 K. James II. 's Collection, Isaac Oliver and Laniere, in 
 one piece. 
 
 Several were disposed of at the sale of the Duchess of Rich- 
 mond (Lond. Gazette, 1702), which she had received as pre- 
 sents from K. Charles II. to which circumstance Mr. W. alludes. 
 
 Strawberry Hill. 
 
 1. Isaac Olive r, 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 Northum- 
 berland, and wife of Sir Edward Stanley, younger son of the 
 Earl of Derby, mother of Venetia Lady Digby. 5. Lady Ara- 
 bella Stuart when a child. 6. Sir Philip Sidney 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 
 
300 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 and heads of him several times, and of many others 
 of the nobility ; but his works are much scarcer 
 than those of his master Hilliard. 
 
 Colonel Sothby has a fine Magdalen by him, 
 and the Duchess of Portland a head of Christ, 
 that was Dr. Meade's. 
 
 Of his drawings several are extant, particularly 
 a capital one in Queen Caroline's closet at Ken- 
 sington ; the subject, the placing of Christ in the 
 sepulchre, consisting of twenty-six figures.* This 
 
 Hastings at Donnington, are miniatures 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 mot- 
 toes, either allusive or explanatory, were so frequently in- 
 vented and so much admired, it was not unusual to introduce 
 upon the ground of the miniature, above the portrait, in the 
 Italian writing character, with letters of gold most delicately 
 pencilled, a few words expressive of some complimentary sen- 
 timent. The Editor remembers to have seen two (probably of 
 lovers) which bore these very elegant inscriptions. On the 
 young man's, (c Nonpoco 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 Harring- 
 ton family. Miniatures so inclosed were sometimes worn as 
 ornaments of dress. In the King's Collection was a miniature 
 of Q. Elizabeth by Hilliard (abovementioned), with a black 
 dress, richly wrought with gold and pearls, (( and a picture- 
 box hanging at her right breast the upper lid was commonly 
 very richly carved as a rose.] 
 
 * Mr. Hollis has a fine drawing of the same, inscribed Isa. 
 Ollivier, which he bought at Vertue's sale. It has been re- 
 touched in several places. 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 301 
 
 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. Laurence, touched and 
 heightened by Oliver with great skill. Sir John 
 Evelyn in 1734 showed to the Society of Anti- 
 quaries* a drawing by Oliver from a picture of 
 Raphael in the Escurial, of the Virgin, Child and 
 St. John; it was copied by Isaac 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.^ 
 
 * V. Minutes of the Society, vol. i. p. 206. 
 
 f Four heads on board in oil, by Oliver, are at Lord Guild- 
 ford'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 
 Thomas 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, conjecturally, 
 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 3f , after having 
 
302 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OP 
 
 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 Black-friars, 
 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 Pre- 
 rogative-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 Black-friars ; 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 Peters 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 a daughter. 
 His other paintings or Collections to be sold, al- 
 lowing 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. 
 
 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.] 
 
 * The monument and bust were destroyed in the great fire 
 in 1666, but a model of the latter is probably extant, Vertue 
 having seen it. 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 303 
 
 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, 
 
 Olivere, 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 inscribed, " 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, 
 Isaacus jacet hie Olivarius, 
 Cujus vivifica manu paratum est, 
 Ut nihil prope debeant Britanni 
 Urbino, Titianoque. Angeloque. 
 
 * " Mr. Hilliard and his rare disciple Mr. Isaac Oliver." 
 
 [' f As histories in limning were strangers in England, the 
 King (Charles) commanded 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, finished 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 super at o gli antichi e moderni ; e che sia stato a i 
 tempi nostri, un nuovo Michel Agnolo." A Madonna of Mr. Isaac 
 Oliver's limning, cost him two yeares, as himselfe told mee." 
 MS. Norgate, Bodl. Lib.'] 
 
304 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 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. * 
 
 * Vertue had seen on a large skin of vellum a plan of the 
 town and boundaries of Dunvvich in Suffolk, with its churches, 
 adjacent villages, &c. and several remarks, made by Radulphus 
 Aggast in March 1589. Whether this person was a professed 
 painter does not appear ; but from him was probably descended 
 Robert Aggas, commonly called Augus, "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 playhouse in Covent- 
 garden." Few of his works are extant j 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 I quote 
 means by a playhouse in Covent-garden before the year 1679 — 
 1 suppose it should be the theatre in Dorset-gardens. 
 
 t [Ralph Aggas, was a surveyor, maker of maps and engraver, 
 whose works are known, 1. Celeberrimse Oxon. Academiae 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 plan. 3. The City of 
 London. See British Topog. V. i. p. 209, 1744. 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 past- 
 ing to poastes. London, 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.] 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 305 
 
 At the Duke of Bedford's at Woburn is a por- 
 trait of Elizabeth Bruges, daughter of the Lord 
 Chandois, with this inscription, Hieronyrnus Cus- 
 todio, 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 was Levinus V ogela- 
 rius or Venetianus. As it is as little certain whe- 
 ther 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 
 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 Hack- 
 luyt in his translation 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 the 
 Blackfryars London, he whom Monsieur Chatillon, 
 then Admiral of France, sent thither with Lau- 
 donniere for that purpose."-}- 
 
 * Indorum Floridam provinciam habitantium Icones pri- 
 mum ibidem ad vivum expressae a Jacopo Le Moyne cui 
 nomen De Morgues, 1591. 
 
 f [A work of singular curiosity has lately been brought to 
 England, which introduces an artist hitherto unknown, as 
 
 VOL. I. X 
 
306 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 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, 
 u The first and chief groundes of architecture, 
 used in all the auncient and famous monyments 
 with 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 ordinary, the author, as he tells 
 
 having practised here. It is a very large collection of Topo- 
 graphical Drawings by Antonius Van Den Wynegaarde, chiefly 
 in England, but others at Rome, in Spain, and the Nether- 
 lands. It contains views and perspectives of London, as taken 
 from the top of Old Suffolk House, in South wark (since called 
 the Mint), and included the old Bridge, and the whole North- 
 western bank of the River Thames, from the Tower to West- 
 minster Abbey, with all the conspicuous palaces and buildings. 
 There are likewise separate views, in detail, of the Royal 
 Palaces of Westminster, St. James's, Plaisance at Greenwich, 
 Richmond, Hampton Court and Oatlands. These are given 
 in elevations and parts, with many delineations of each. The 
 artist has affixed his name with dates, ee Antonius van den 
 Wynegaarde 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 domi- 
 nions. 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 in the possession of Messrs. 
 Harding, Triphook and Lepard, booksellers, by whom propo- 
 sals have been published for facsimiles, on a reduced scale.] 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 307 
 
 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 architects. 
 This person published another work, intituled, 
 Two notable Commentaries, the one 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 Rowland 
 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 Commonwealth, published 
 in 1598 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 (Gar- 
 rard) Jacques de Bruy, Cornelius, Peter Golchi, 
 Hieronimo (de Bye) and Peter Vandevelde. As 
 Lysippus, Praxiteles and Pyrgoletes were excel- 
 lent engravers, so have we these engravers, Ro- 
 gers, Christopher Switzer and Cure."^ I quote 
 
 * Ames's History of Printing, p. 217. 
 
 f [William Cure, afterwards master-mason to K. James I, 
 made the monument of Sir Roger Aston, at Cranford, Mid- 
 dlesex, with seven figures kneeling, for 180/. in 161 1. Ly sons s 
 Middlesex."} 
 
308 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 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. 5 * By Nicholas Lockie, mentioned in 
 this quotation, there are several portraits; Dr. 
 Rawlinson 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 Eliza- 
 beth, Bartholomew Campaine presents one piece 
 of cloth of silver 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 appear the names of 
 the following artists ; amongst the gilt and silver 
 
 * [This caution, as given by Mr. W. 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 charac- 
 ters, among the crowd in the repository of the picture-dealer 
 and auctioneer ? In fact, there were several competent, 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 own names were sunk in obscurity, 
 as in the instance of Nicholas Lockie and Richard Steevens.] 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 309 
 
 plate, one great pair of gilt vases richly wrought 
 by Derick ; others made by Campion. Pots en- 
 graven and made by Martin, many other vessels 
 by Derick, and others by Metcalfe. 
 
 The contract for the tomb of this great peer, 
 Thomas Radcliffe Earl of Sussex, Lord Chamber- 
 lain to the Queen and a signal antagonist of Lei- 
 cester, is still extant.* He bequeathed 1500/. to 
 be expended on it ; and his executors, Sir Chris- 
 topher Wray, Lord Chief Justice of her Majesty's 
 Bench, Sir Gilbert Gerard, Master of the Rolls, 
 Sir Thomas Mildmay and others, agreed with 
 Richard Stevens for the making and setting it up 
 in Boreham Church in Suffolk, where it still re- 
 mains. The whole charge paid to Stephens for 
 his part of the work was 292/. 12s. 8d. In a list 
 of debts to be paid after the EaiTs death by his 
 executors, one was to Horatio Palavicini ;*f pro- 
 
 * This contract and inventory Vertue saw among the MSS. 
 of Peter Leneve Norroy, 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. 
 
 t 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 with his 
 arms over the portal, at Little Shelford j which was pulled 
 down in 17 50. 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 Scaevola, 
 his arms still remain. His family were buried at Baberham, 
 
310 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 bably for a set of hangings mentioned in the 
 inventory; and 6/. 16s. Od. to Randolph the 
 painter. 
 
 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, corroborative of 
 the tradition abovementioned $ 
 
 Here lies Horatio Palavazene, 
 
 Who robb'd the pope, to lend the queene. 
 
 He was a theif : a theif ! thou lyest 5 
 
 For whie ? he robb'd but Antichrist. 
 
 Him Death wyth besome swept from Babram 
 
 Into the bosome of oulde Abraham : 
 
 But then came Hercules with his club, 
 
 And struck him down 1o Belzebub. 
 
 In Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, vol. ii. p. 52. lib. 7. it is said 
 that when the Lord Arundellf was imprisoned by Queen Eliza- 
 beth 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 Palavicini, Sir Robert Sidney, Mr. 
 Dyer, or some other, can witness a truth therein." But Pala- 
 vicini had higher merit, as appears by an incontestable record 
 he was one of the commanders against the Spanish Armada in 
 
 * [An account of the family of Palavicini and their connection 
 with that of Cromwell, is given in Noble's Mem. of the Cromwells, 
 v. ii. p, 178.] 
 
 f [Sir Thomas Arundell created a Count of the Sacred Roman 
 Empire by the Emperor Rodolph II. in 1595 j and Baron Arundell 
 of Wardour, in 1607, 5 Jac. I.] 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 311 
 
 Richard Stephens * 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/f 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 
 
 1 588, and his portrait is preserved amongst those heroes in the 
 borders of the tapestry in the House of Lords, engraved by 
 Pine. 
 
 * [The more eminent artists of the sixteenth century prac- 
 tised the arts universally : and equally excelled in painting, 
 sculpture and architecture. Richard Steevens deserves to be 
 enumerated among them. The Earl of Sussex had bequeathed 
 1500Z. for his sumptuous funeral and monument, but Steevens 
 was paid for the figures only. It is probable, that he was ex- 
 tensively employed, and that monuments, which partook alike 
 of the three arts, of vast size and magnificence (of which West- 
 minster Abbey is the chief repository), composed of alabaster 
 and various marbles, were finished, or contracted for, by Stee- 
 vens. Another subject of his art, were the magnificent chim- 
 ney pieces, similar to the sepulchral monuments, both in com- 
 position, dimensions and ornament, of which grand specimens 
 remain at Hatfield, Burleigh, Kenilworth, Audley End, and 
 other palaces of that age.] 
 
 t 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. 
 
312 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 length, and others, were painted by this Richard 
 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 bust, 1562. Ste. H. F. that is, Stephens, Hoi- 
 landus, fecit. 
 
 Dr. Meade had two more, one of William Parr 
 Marquis of Northampton; the other of Robert 
 Dudley Earl of Leicester, engraved in Evelyns 
 Discourse on English 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 re- 
 markable for the impertinence of the reverse; 
 sheep grazing, and a dog turning from them ; 
 under his feet, Invitus desero — round, Non gre- 
 gem sed ingratos. Vertue mentions others by the 
 same workman, of the Earl of Pembroke and Sir 
 Thomas Bodley. 
 
 Robert Adams,* surveyor of the Queens build- 
 ings, 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 parchment roll, drawn 
 
 * [Robert Adams translated Ubaldini's account of the defeat 
 of the Spanish Armada, from the Italian into Latin, 4to. 1589, 
 with eleven maps. — Herbert, p. 1697 •] 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 313 
 
 with the pen and intituled Thamesis Descriptio : 
 shewing- by lines cross the river how far and from 
 whence cannon-balls may obstruct the passage of 
 any ship upon an invasion, from Tilbury to Lon- 
 don, 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 inscrip- 
 tion ; Egregio vim, Roberto Adams, operum re- 
 giorum supervisor^ architecturae peritissimo, ob. 
 1595. Simon Basil, operationum regiarum con- 
 trarotulator 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 en- 
 graved caskets and vases of rock chrystal for 
 Pope Clement VII. and performed an infinite 
 number of other works. He certainly was in 
 England in this reign, and carved many portraits 
 in cameo/f' 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 Trea- 
 surer Burleigh, affixed to the back of an antique 
 intaglia of Caracalla, and appendant to it, a smaller 
 head of the Queen, both in cameo on onyx. The 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 121. 
 
 t [Several very small bas-reliefs, of histories, by this artist, 
 cast in copper, are preserved in a frame, in the Brit. Mus.] 
 X Lord Charlemont bought it at Dr. Mead's sale. 
 
314 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 Duke of Devonshire has several of his works s* two 
 profiles in cameo of Queen Elizabeth : another 
 gem with the head of Edward VI. cameo on one 
 side, and intaglia on the other ; and two pieces of 
 chrystal with intaglias of several figures from the 
 antique. To these two last is the sculptors 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 Eliza- 
 beth, incircled with foliage : at bottom, a knight, 
 compleatly armed, in the act of tilting : on the 
 back ground the front of a castle with columns ; 
 on the bases of which are the syllables, Es — sex; 
 intimating 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 Valerio Belli Vicentino, and a third of his 
 son, dated 1572. 
 
 Among the Harleian MSS. is a list of jewels 
 belonging to Queen Elizabeth ; Item, a flower of 
 
 * The Earl of Exeter has also one or two. 
 
 f [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, oval fashion, 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^] 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 315 
 
 gold garnished with sparkes of diamonds, rubyes 
 and ophals, with an agath of her Majesties 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 oeconomy or 
 want of taste restrained her from affording great 
 encouragement to genius, that the riches and flou- 
 rishing situation of the country offered sufficient 
 invitations to the arts. Archbishop Parker re- 
 tained in his service at Lambeth a printer, a pain- 
 ter, 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 to the Archbishop's life, printed at 
 Lambeth, is a cut of his grace, inscribed, R. Berg f. 
 Above twenty books were published by the arch- 
 bishop from his own printing-house :* two only 
 have this head. At Ruckolt in the parish of Low- 
 layton in Essex (the mansion of the Hicks's) 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, Remigius Hogenbergius, 
 servus D. Matt, archiep. Cant, sculpsit 1574/f- 
 
 [* These artists are farther particularised by Mr. W. in his 
 Catalogue of Engravers.] 
 
 f Ames's Typography Antiqu. p. 540. 
 
316 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 There was another such genealogic chart, inti- 
 tuled, Regnum Britanniae tandem plene in Hep- 
 tarchiam redactum a Saxonibus, expulsis Britannis, 
 &c. Ao. 686. executed in wood very plain and well ; 
 the name, Richardus Lyne, servus D. Matth. ar- 
 chiep. Cant, sculpsit 1574. 
 
 One Lyly too is mentioned as curious in copy- 
 ing 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 Na- 
 thaniel Bacon* Knight of the Bath, a younger son 
 
 * He married the daughter of the famous Sir Thomas Gres- 
 ham, by whom he was ancestor of the present Lord Towns- 
 hend. See Collins s 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 afford a satisfactory 
 proof that he valued himself upon his love of, and proficiency 
 in the art. In a MS. by Edward Norgate, to the account of 
 whom, in this work, notes will be added, Sir Nathaniel Bacon 
 is mentioned, with much interest. Speaking of "Pinke" which 
 is a colour soe usefull 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 cou- 
 sinell P. Oliver, (without disparagement to any the most excel- 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 317 
 
 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. Peacham on 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 Suf- 
 
 lent in this art) making proofe of some that I gave him, did 
 highly commend it, and used none other to his dyinge day 5 
 wherewith, and with Indian lake, hee made sure expressions of 
 those deep and glowing shadows, in those histories he copied 
 after Titian, that no oyle painting should appeare 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 browne pinke.'' 
 " About Midsummer, take as much of a greene 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 scummed, 
 before you put it in. You will know when it is well sodde, 
 when the leaves and the barke 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 the 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 to it 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 from 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 en- 
 graving will give a proof of Sir N. Bacon's great talent, exhi- 
 bited in a portrait of himself.] 
 
318 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 folk (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 colouring. In the same 
 house is a whole length of him by himself* draw- 
 ing on a paper ; his sword and pallet hung up : 
 and a half length of his mother by him. At Red- 
 grave-hall in Suffolk were two more pieces by the 
 same hand, which afterwards passed into the pos- 
 session 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 Natha- 
 niel Bacon.^ 
 
 Of the engravers in the reign of Queen Eliza- 
 beth, who were many and of merit, I shall say 
 nothing here ; Vertue having collected an ample 
 and separate account of them, which makes ano- 
 ther volume of this work. I shall only mention 
 now, that that age resembled the present in its 
 
 * 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 maybe seen in the Appendix 
 to Masters's History of Corpus Christi Coll. Camb. p. 85. It is 
 said in the note that Sir Nathaniel was famed for painting 
 plants, and well skilled in their virtues. 
 
 f [Now, or formerly, in the Ashmolean Museum, at Oxford.] 
 
].ONI) O N. 
 Published by John Major. 50 Fleet Street, 
 T->bri5 , hft26. 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 319 
 
 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 cus- 
 tom of publishing representations of magnificent 
 
 * In the Cecil papers is a letter to the Lord Mayor of Lon- 
 don, 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 j and although her Highness is not miscon- 
 tented that either her own face or the said King's should be 
 painted or portraited j yet to be joined with 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 inerefore 
 your Lordship 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 j " Had Queen Elizabeth been thus circum- 
 spect, there had not been so many vile copies multiplied 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. 
 
320 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 funerals. There is a long roll exhibiting the proces- 
 sion at the obsequies of Sir Philip Sidney. It was 
 (as is said at the bottom of it) contrived and in- 
 vented by Thomas Lant,* gentleman, servant to 
 the said honorable knight, and graven in copper 
 
 * [Of this most rare publication two copies are extant in 
 the Library of the College 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 com- 
 municate some idea of the pomp, with which the funeral of 
 the illustrious Sydney was conducted. " Here followeth the 
 manner of the whole proceedinge of the Funerall, which was 
 celebrated in Saint Paule'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 caparison — 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 Cor- 
 poration, 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."] 
 
 This Thomas Lant was Portcullis Poursuivant ; there are 
 several copies extant in MS. of a treatise called, the Armoury 
 of Nobility, first gathered by Robert Cook Clarencieux, cor- 
 rected by Robert Glover, Somerset Herald, and lastly aug- 
 mented with the Knights of the Garter by Thomas Lant, Port- 
 cullis, anno 1589. One copy of this work is in the possession 
 of the Rev. Mr. Charles Parkin of Osburgh in Norfolk, to whom 
 I am obliged "for this and other curious communications. 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 321 
 
 by Derick or Theodor de Brie in the city of Lon- 
 don 1587. It contains about thirty-four plates. 
 Prefixed is a small oval head of Mr. Lant. aet. 32. 
 The same person wrote a treatise of Heraldry. 
 
 John Holland* of Wortwell, Esq. livingin 1586, 
 is commended as an ingenious painter in a book 
 called the excellent Art of Painting," p. 20. But 
 it is to the same hand,~f- to which this work owes 
 many of its improvements, 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 Sapientiae, 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 shewing the Roman architecture reviv- 
 ing, 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 extruebatur, ad earn 
 scilicet formam et effigiem, quam Doctor Caius, 
 dum viveret, architecto praescripserat, elaborata." 
 
 * See the pedigree of Holland in Blomfield's Norfolk. 
 t Mr. Gray. 
 
 VOL. I. Y 
 
322 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 This gate cost 128/. 9*. Dr. Cams died July 29, 
 1573. In the same year are these words, " Posi- 
 tum est Joh. Caio ex alabastro moimmentum 
 summi decoris et artificii eodem in sacelli loco, 
 quo corpus ejus antea sepeliebatur : cui praeter 
 insculpta illius insignia, et annotatum aetatis 
 obitusque diem et annum (uti vivus executoribus 
 ipse praeceperat) duas tantummodo sententias 
 has inscripsimus, Vivit post funera Virtus — Fui 
 Cains? 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 support- 
 ing 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 
 
 To Theodore and others for carving 33 16 5 
 
 To labourers - - 18 1 
 
 Charges extraordinary - 2 2 
 
 Then in the year 1576 are these words, " In 
 atrio doctoris Caii columna erecta est, eique lapis 
 miro artificio elaboratus, atque in se 60 horologia 
 complexus imponitur, quern Theodorus Haveus 
 Cleviensis, artifex egregius, et insignis architec- 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 323 
 
 turae professor, fecit, et insignibus eorum genero- 
 sorum, qui turn in collegio morabantur, depinxit ; 
 et velut monumentum suae erga collegium bene- 
 volentiae eidem dedicavit. Hujus in summitate 
 lapidis constituitur ventilabrum ad formam Pegasi 
 formatum." 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 circumstances seems to have been 
 an architect, sculptor, and 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 (praeter plurima aedi- 
 ficia ab eo praeclare facta) duo collegia, Emanuelis 
 hoc, Sidneii illud, extruxit integre : magnam etiam 
 
324 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 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, Vertue found 
 mention " of a fair bason and lair (Ewer) guilt, 
 the bason having in the bushel (body) a boy be- 
 striding an eagle, and the ewer of the worke of 
 Grotestain, with gooses heads antique upon the 
 handle and spoute, weighing together xx ounces." 
 In the same book was this memorandum, " remain- 
 ing in the hands of Robert Brandon and Assabel 
 Partrage, the queen s goldsmiths, four thousand 
 ounces of guilt plate, at five shillings and four- 
 pence 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 Powtran, - 170/. 
 
 Patrick Blacksmith, - - 95/. 
 
 John de Critz, # the painter, - 100/. 
 
 * 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 Maximi- 
 lian Colte, and by which name Mr. W. mentions him, had a 
 writ of privy seal in 1607 for 140Z. for a monument in West- 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 325 
 
 Besides the stone, the whole cost 965/.* 
 
 minster Abbey, for Princess Sophia, fourth daughter of James I. 
 Lodges Illustrations, v. iii. p. 319. 
 
 Of the several individuals of the De Critz, a farther account 
 will be given when they occur.] 
 
 * This monument, and those of the Queen of Scots, and of 
 the two young princesses Mary and Sophia, daughters of King 
 James, cost 3500Z. 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 A sketch of the History of the Architecture in use, to the 
 close of the reign of Elizabeth, may now be resumed. More 
 interesting specimens of that peculiar style could not be ad- 
 duced, 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 ex- 
 ample. She neither built nor rebuilt any palace, for she consi- 
 dered that her father's magnificence had supplied them j and 
 excepting the gallery at Windsor Castle, no royal building 
 claims her for its founder. Lord Leicester is said to have 
 expended 60,000Z. 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 aera j reserv- 
 ing others, the foundations only of which were laid in the reign 
 of Q. Elizabeth, to that of her successor. Some curiosity re- 
 specting 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 know- 
 ledge, will confirm the appropriation. Yet there is undoubted 
 authority for the names of certain individuals, as architects 
 whose works are not exactly known at this period, but whose 
 fame must have been acquired by the eminent talents they 
 
326 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN OF 
 
 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 Brad- 
 shaw, Hector Ashley and Thomas Grave, as holding the em- 
 ployments of architects, surveyors or master-masons to the 
 Queen, and her Nobility. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Present 
 
 
 Date 
 
 County. 
 
 Founder. 
 
 Architect. 
 
 State- 
 
 1 T? 1 1 pT c* i nrTv 
 
 iOOV 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 T A Xt 1 • 1. 
 
 ■Lord ourleign 
 
 John lhorpe 
 
 
 2. Kenilworth. 
 
 1575 
 
 Warwick 
 
 Earl of Leicester 
 
 Skillington 
 
 Ruins 
 
 3. Hunsdon. 
 
 
 Herts 
 
 Lord Hunsdon 
 
 
 Rebuilt 
 
 4. Stoke Pogeis. 
 
 1580 
 
 Bucks 
 
 Earl of Huntingdon 
 
 
 Rebuilt 
 
 5. Gorhambury. 
 
 1565 
 
 Herts 
 
 Sir N. Bacon 
 
 
 Ruins 
 
 6. Buckhurst. 
 
 1565 
 
 Sussex 
 
 Lord Buckhurst 
 
 
 Destroyed. 
 
 7. Knowle. 
 
 1570 
 
 Kent 
 
 The Same 
 
 
 Perfect 
 
 8. Catledge. 
 
 1560 
 
 Cambridge 
 
 Lord North 
 
 
 Destroyed 
 
 9. Longleat. 
 
 1579 
 
 Wilts 
 
 Sir J. Thynne 
 
 
 Perfect 
 
 10. Basinghouse. 
 
 1560 
 
 Hants 
 
 Marquis of Winton 
 
 
 Ruins 
 
 11. Wanstead. 
 
 1576 
 
 Essex 
 
 Earl of Leicester 
 
 
 Destroyed 
 
 12. Wimbledon. 
 
 1588 
 
 Surrey 
 
 Sir T. Cecil 
 
 
 Rebuilt 
 
 13. Westwoood. 
 
 1590 
 
 Worcester 
 
 Sir J. Packington 
 
 
 Perfect 
 
 14. Penshurst. 
 
 1570 
 
 Kent 
 
 Sir H. Sydney 
 
 
 Perfect 
 
 15. Kelston. 
 
 1560 
 
 Somerset 
 
 Sir J. Harrington 
 
 
 Rebuilt 
 
 16. Toddington. 
 
 1580 
 
 Bedford 
 
 Lord Cheyney 
 
 
 Destroyed 
 
 17. Hard wick hall. 
 
 1597 
 
 Derby 
 
 Ctss. of Shrewsbury 
 
 
 Ruins 
 
 18. Theobalds 
 
 1580 
 
 Herts. 
 
 Lord Burleigh 
 
 
 Destroyed 
 
 The principal deviation 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 stair-cases. The two last mentioned were rendered 
 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 porticos were 
 overlaid with carved entablatures, figures and armorial devices 
 — the lofty and wide galleries generally exceeded one hun- 
 dred 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^, 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH. 327 
 
 began now to extend its influence, although partially. At Bur- 
 leigh 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 having letters placed within them, as a conceit 
 indicative of the founder, were then first introduced. 
 
 The large manor-houses, dispersed through tho several 
 English counties, constructed 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 chesnut, with exuberance of fancy, and good 
 execution. The counties of Chester, Salop, and Stafford 
 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 gene- 
 rallie to such an excellencie of devise in the frames now made, 
 that they farre pass the finest of the olde." <e 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, doo 
 dailie imagine new devises of their owne to guide their work- 
 men withall, and those more curious and excellent than the 
 former." Harrison's Desc. of Engl. p. 336. 
 
 In the more ancient cities and towns, houses of timber-frame, 
 but in a peculiar and not less ornamented style of carvings, 
 were frequent ; and in their fronts towards the street, and in 
 the wainscoting of the apartments, the supporting figures were 
 of extremely whimsical forms. It is not easy to determine, 
 what they were intended to represent. 
 
 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 representations are preserved only 
 in the portfolios of local antiquaries. On the Continent, 
 although more ancient, as we have been merely imitators, they 
 
328 
 
 PAINTERS IN THE REIGN, &C. 
 
 have been better preserved to the present day. All the eccen~ 
 tricities of the Burgundian manner have been adopted in their 
 buildings of timber-frame, as well as of brick and stone. Nu- 
 merous 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 preceding 
 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 capitals, 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. Armorial bearings were emblazoned, and the effigies 
 painted and gilt in exact resemblance 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 Ratcliffe Earl of Sussex, 
 at Boreham, before noticed ; of the Countess, in Westminster 
 Abbey j of Dudley, Earl of Leicester, at Warwick, and of 
 Carey Lord Hunsdon, in Westminster-Abbey, will amply con- 
 firm these observations. The taste, in which these monuments 
 are executed, is alike cumbrous and confused; and to the 
 figures, the anomaly of form with colour, is indiscriminately 
 applied. 
 
[ 329 ] 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 By the favour of the Earl of Warwick, I am 
 enabled to bring to light a very capital artist, who 
 designed or improved 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 conde- 
 scension to point out a volume of drawings of that 
 individual architect 
 
 JOHN THORPE, 
 
 who has left a folio of plans,* now in Lord War- 
 wick's possession. There are not many uprights, 
 
 * [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 John Soane, Esq. Regius 
 Professor of Architecture in the Royal Academy, Architect 
 to the King's Board of Works, and to the Bank of Eng- 
 land, who offered it to Lord Warwick for the price he had 
 given, when it was declined, with a merited compliment. The 
 Editor requested of Mr. 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 pre- 
 sent 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 com- 
 mon 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 proprie- 
 tors are written (though sometimes with a pencil only) in 
 a very difficult running hand, these plans or elevations are, of 
 
330 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 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 particulars. There 
 are ground plans of Somerset House of Buck- 
 course, authenticated. We have sometimes one, without the 
 other. Several of them were merely designs prepared for 
 houses to be built, and to be offered for approbation. 
 
 The Elevations are very neatly tricked, and shaded with 
 ink. The more common form is that of three sides of a qua- 
 drangle, the portico in the centre being an open arcade, 
 finished by a turretted cupola, roofed with lead. Where the 
 quadrangles are complete, they are for convenience intersected 
 by an open corridore. The windows of the front are large and 
 lofty, sometimes alternated with bows or projecting 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 frizes, or applied in open work 
 in the parapets. The effort by which chimnies were concealed 
 was to couple or group them with Roman-Doric pillars, hav- 
 ing a plain entablature, of which manner Burghley offers a 
 particular instance.] 
 
 * [The result of the present examination varying from that 
 here printed by Mr. W. 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 Sackville, Earl of Dorset, Lord High Treasurer 
 to Q. Elizabeth. Ground plan and Elevation. Front extend- 
 ing 230 feet. Quadrangle 100-80 5 Hall, 50-80. Very incon- 
 siderable remains. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 331 
 
 hurst House in Sussex^ an immense pile ; of 
 Woolaton ; Copthall ; Burleigh House ;* Burleigh 
 
 3. P. 24. " A garden side for a nobleman's house/' pro- 
 bably never executed. 
 
 4. " The way 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. e< Sir Thomas Dorrell, Lincolnshire." Elevation. 
 
 7. " Godstone," an open corridore upon Roman Doric 
 arches. 
 
 8. " Copthall," Essex, built by Sir Thomas Heneage, to 
 whom the manor was granted by Q. Elizabeth. Gallery 168 
 feet long, 22 wide and 22 high. Inner court 83 feet square 5 
 destroyed. 
 
 9. "Wollaton," Nottinghamshire, built according to the 
 inscription, "En has Francisci Willoughb;Ei jEdes, rara 
 
 ARTE CONSTRUCTAS, WlLLOUGHBiEIS RELICTAS INCHOATE 
 
 1580-1588. A part only of the front. An inscription in the 
 church at Wollaton appears to invalidate Thorpe's claim. "Mr. 
 Robert Smithson architector and survayor unto the most 
 worthy house of Wollaton, with divers others of great ac- 
 count, ob. 1614." He was probably the pupil and successor of 
 Thorpe. 
 
 10. Three sides of a quadrangle with a corridore intersect- 
 ing. A Design. 
 
 11. Sir John Bagnall. A gallery above 60 feet in length. 
 
 12. " Burghley juxta Stamford,'* built by W. Cecil, Lord 
 Treasurer. Plans only. 1. Ground plan. 2. First floor. Sketches 
 and designs for the scroll parapet. 
 
 13. " Four turrets at the four corners, and a lanthorn in the 
 middle leaded all over, and no tunnels appeare, for Sir George 
 St. Poole." 
 
 * Cliefden, built by the second Villiers Duke of Bucking- 
 ham, was evidently copied in little from his father's seat, 
 Burleigh on the Hill. 
 
332 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 on the Hill, (the Duke of Buckingham's;) Sir 
 Walter Cope's, now Holland-house at Kensington ; 
 
 14. " Thornton College, (Lincolnshire) Sir Vincent Skinner." 
 Gallery 100 feet, with circular projecting windows at either 
 end. 
 
 15. Ground plan. " Sir Thomas Holte." 
 
 16. A design of more elegance, with Corinthian pilasters. 
 
 17. " Sir Walter Coapes at Kensington, erected by me I. T." 
 This, now Holland House, was finished by Thorpe in 1607, 
 but afterwards altered and added to by Inigo Jones and Stone. 
 
 18. "Giddea Hall," Essex, altered for Sir Anthony Coke, 
 who entertained Q. Elizabeth there. Taken down. 
 
 19. " for Sir George Coppen." 
 
 20. " Burghley on the Hill : the garden side j lodgings below 
 and a gallery above, J. T." 
 
 21. f( A front or garden side for a nobleman, three breadths 
 of ordinary tenements.*' Conjecturally for Sir Fulke 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 1588. Fuller calls it " a daring 
 structure nearly equal to Nonsuch." 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 5 all his 
 offices are under grounde." 
 
 26. " Jarmin's howse v leagues from Paris, A. 1600." The 
 elevation is very spacious, and exhibits windows 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 construc- 
 tion was erected by Sir Thomas Gorges and his lady, the Mar- 
 chioness Dowager of Northampton, in 1591. Now the seat of 
 the Earl of Radnor. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 333 
 
 Giddy Hall in Essex ; Audley Inn ; Ampthill (now 
 called Houghton;) and Ampthill Old House, ano- 
 ther spacious palace, in which Catherine of Arra- 
 gon some time resided, and of which he says he 
 
 29. u Sir Percival Hart." Plan. Lullingst one, Kent. 
 
 30. te Mr. Panton." A large and compact house, not 
 much ornamented, having lofty octagon turrets, leaded coni- 
 eally, at each corner. 
 
 31. "Holdenby." (written in pencil). Two large quadrangles 
 in the plan, and an elevation of the front. Built in 15S0 for 
 Sir Christopher Hatton, and now in ruins. 
 
 32 and 33. Plans. " Mr. William Fitzwilliams, and Sir 
 Henry Neville." 
 
 34. " Audley End." Plan of the two courts. Thorpe's part 
 of this once enormous building appears to have been com- 
 pleted 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-octagon projections at the ends. 
 
 36. " Mr. Tayler at Potters-barr." 
 
 37- " Sir Walter Covert's," at Slaugham near Horsham, 
 Sussex. The ruined walls are still standing. 
 
 38. « Hatfield Lodge." A plan. 
 
 39. " Ampthill, the topp plott." 
 
 40. Ampthill Old House enlardged, ff per J. Thorpe." 
 
 4 1. ' e Kerby wherof 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 (Burgh- 
 ley) about 1578, mentions the death of John Kirby, who built 
 a fair house on Bethnal-green, which house, lofty like a castle, 
 occasioned certain rhimes, abusive of him and some other city 
 builders of great houses, who had prejudiced themselves 
 thereby, viz. " Kirby's Castle, and Fisher's Folly, Spinola's 
 Pleasure, and Megg's Glory." Lysons Env. Lond. v. ii, p. 29. 
 These were probably erected in the suburbs, from the plans 
 abovementioned, which Thorpe calls of London houses.] 
 
334 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 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 set- 
 tlement of the kingdom after the termination of 
 the quarrel between the Roses, to abandon their 
 fortified dungeons, and consult convenience and 
 magnificence ; for I am persuaded that what we 
 call Gothic architecture was confined solely to 
 religious buildings, and never entered into the 
 decoration of private houses. * Thorpe's orna- 
 ments on the balustrades, porches, and outsides 
 of windows, are barbarous and ungraceful, and 
 some of his vast windows advance outwards in a 
 sharp angle ; but there is judgment in his dispo- 
 sitions of apartments and offices ; and he allots 
 most ample spaces for halls, staircases and cham- 
 bers of state. He appears also to have resided at 
 
 * [This assertion certainly requires some qualification. Could 
 Mr. W. have overlooked 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 aera ? — or those, 
 still Gothic, of Christ Church, Oxford, and Hampton Court ?— 
 In what ecclesiastical building are there roofs in a similar 
 style of construction or ornament ? 
 
 This question might be pursued much farther, but the dis- 
 tinction between Gothic architecture, as applied to ecclesias- 
 tical buildings, or to the interior of castles, or to Bishop's 
 palaces, abbeys, and large houses, in the middle centuries, is 
 sufficiently evident,] 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 335 
 
 Paris, and even seems to have been employed 
 there : at least he gives alterations for the Queen- 
 mothers house, Faber St. Germains, which I sup- 
 pose 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 gentle- 
 men for whom they were built. One, which he 
 calls Cannons, his Father Fakes house ; # and ano- 
 ther is a whimsical edifice designed for himself, 
 and forming the initial letters of his name I^C"^ 
 conjoined by a corridore [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 MS. has <c my fa : Lakes house, Canons." Sir T. 
 Lake, who was implicated with the Earl of Suffolk, and severely 
 fined in the reign of James I. built the first house at Canons, 
 where the magnificent Duke of Chandos erected a palace, 
 which was deservedly satyrised 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, 
 f [The orthography is different, 
 " Thes 2 letters I and T 
 Joyned together as you see 
 Is meant for a dwelling house for mee." 
 The I, is applied as Offices 5 the T, skilfully distributed into 
 large and small apartments.] 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 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. 
 
 * There is a draught of the chapel of Henry VII. which he 
 sa3^s cost 14,000£. 
 
 \_" Capellam istam Henrici 7mi, impensis 14000Z. adjecit 
 ipse 1502."] 
 
 'Burleigh tymt, 3UttCQTitftytre. 
 
[ 3,37 ] 
 
 [SUPPLEMENT, No. II. 
 
 The wardrobe accounts of King Henry VIII. 
 preserved in the British Museum, (MSS. Harl. 
 1419, two volumes) are replete with most curious 
 evidence, particularly interesting' to those of our 
 antiquarian readers, who delight 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 Henry 
 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 prin- 
 cipal extract therefore which the Editor will 
 venture to offer at length, will be a catalogue of 
 Henrys collection, which exhibits no small num- 
 ber ; and it is an allowable conjecture, that many 
 of them were fine specimens of the Flemish and 
 Italian schools, exclusively of those by Holbein 
 
 vol. i. z 
 
338 
 
 SUPPLEMENT, 
 
 and other eminent artists, who were resident m 
 England, and enjoyed the royal patronage. By 
 the extreme simplicity used in these descriptions 
 and the obsolete terms applied, much satisfactory 
 information is obscured. Though the subjects are 
 mentioned, and sometimes even with minuteness? 
 the name of the master is never given. The frames 
 are as exactly described. Over many, of the por- 
 traits in particular, curtains of white and yellow 
 tafFety were placed, in order to preserve 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. 13 ) 
 
 Tcbles with Pictures, (on pannel, 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 scrip- 
 ture upon it, in th' one hande, and a bracelett 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 head, in th' other hande. 
 
 6. Lucretia Romana in a gowne like crimosin velvett with 
 greene foresleeves cutte. 
 
 7. The same being alle nakid. ( There are three others of this 
 subject.) 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 339 
 
 8. On a table of walnut-tree, St. George on horsebacke, 
 probably that by Raffaelle which was known to have been in this 
 Collection. 
 
 Stained Clothes. {Pictures on canvas.) 
 
 1. A table of St. Michel and St. George, being in harnesse 
 {armour) holdinge a stremer. 
 
 2. The Decollation of St. John. 
 
 3. A table of the naked truthe having the woorkes of the 
 byshopp of Rome sette forthe in it. 
 
 4. Filius Prodigus. 
 
 5. A table of an olde manne dallyinge with women, and a 
 Pheasant-cocke hanginge by the bill. 
 
 6. St. John Baptistes headd. 
 
 7. A Table of the Frenshe Kinge {Francis I.) the queene his 
 wife, and a foole standynge behinde hym. {with a curtain of yel- 
 low and white sarcenet before 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 sub- 
 jects of which are repeated several times, having 
 probably been the work of different Flemish 
 and Italian masters, as ordered by the King him- 
 self, and painted by those artists, who preferred 
 to send him their works, before living under his 
 auspices, in England. 
 
 The prevailing subjects of these are, — the Ma- 
 donna and Child. The Virgin Mary with 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 
 Raffaelle, as above-mentioned. 
 
340 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 (Tables orsteyned clothes.) Portraits, upon canvas or panel. 
 
 1. A Table of the Frinshe Kinge havinge a dublet of crim- 
 sin and a gowne garnished with knottes made like perle. 
 (Francis I.) 
 
 2. Ditto, The Frinshe queene Elonora, in the Spanyshe 
 arraie, and a cap on her headd, with an orange in her hande- 
 (Sister of the Emperour.) 
 
 3. Ditto, Three children of the Kinge of Denmarke. (Fre- 
 derick I.) 
 
 4. The Duchesse of Myllaine (Christina*) beinge her whole 
 stature. 
 
 5. Th' olde Emperoure, th' Emperor that nowe is, and 
 Ferdinande, (Maximilian I. Charles V. and Ferdinand I. suc- 
 cessively Emperours of Germany.) 
 
 6. The Ladye Margarite, Duchesse of Savoye. 
 
 7. Friderike Duke of Saxon^ (John Frederick styled the- 
 Magnanimous.) 
 
 8. Elizabethe of Austne, Queene of Denmarke. 
 
 9. " Queene of Hungarie being regente of Flanders." (Donna 
 Maria, widow of Louis II. King of Hungary, and sister of the 
 Emperour.) 
 
 10. Prince Arthure. 
 
 1 1 . Ditto of Prince Arthure, wearing a redde capp, with a 
 brooch upon it, and a collar of redde and white roses. 
 
 12. King Henry t'eyght, when yonge. 
 
 13. Th' hoole stature of the Kynges Majestie, in a gowne 
 like crimsin satten, furred with luzernes. 
 
 14. In the newe libraryc, a table of the picture of oure late 
 souverayne lorde Kinge Henrie th'eyght, not fynishid. 
 
 15. Ditto, of the Ladye Elizabeth, her grace, with a booke, 
 
 * [" Cromwell, lord privy seale, 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 Holbin, being 
 the 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. viij. p. 496. This was probably a sketch only in crayons.] 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 341 
 
 in her hande her gowne like crimsin clothe of golde, with 
 woorkes (needlework or embroidery.) 
 16. Kinge Rychard III. 
 
 17- A stained clothe being Solymanie the Turque, being the 
 hoole stature. 
 
 18 to 23. Kinge Henrie 5 the . Kinge Henrie 6 the . Kinge Ed- 
 warde4 the . Q. Elizabethe hys wife. King Henrie 7 the . alle with 
 yellow and white sarcenet. ( They are heads only.) 
 
 24. Louise the Frenshe Kinge. (Louis XII.) 
 
 25. The Queene of Castyle. (Joan Queen of Castile and Leon.) 
 
 26. A litell rounde table of the Frenshe Kinge (Francis I.) 
 when he was yonge. 
 
 27. Charles VIII. the Frenshe Kinge, (ob. 1498.) 
 
 28. St. with the picture of Charles th' emperoure. 
 
 29. The Duke of Burbon. 
 
 30. Th* emperoure., his dublett beinge cutte, and a rose- 
 marine branche in his hande. 
 
 31. Isabelle Quene of Castyl, (the wife of Ferdinand V. King 
 ef Arragon.) 
 
 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. Emperour. 
 
 39. Duke of Sabaudie (Savoy (Philibert II.) 
 
 40. Jacobbe Kinge of Scottes (James IV.) with a hawke on 
 his fiste. 
 
 41. Ferdinande Kinge of Arragon. 
 
 42. Duchesse of Millayne (repetition). This was the princess 
 who being solicited to marry K. Henry VIII. objected " that she 
 had only one neck!' 
 
 43. The wyfe of the Lorde Fiennes. ( ) 
 
 44. A table of a woman called "Michaell," with a redde 
 rose in her hande. 
 
342 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 45. Friderike Duke of Saxon, stayned upon a linen clothe, 
 being his whole stature {repetition.) 
 
 46. The Prince of Orange. ( ) 
 
 47. The Phisnomy 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 bussopp of Rome, the four Evangelists 
 castinge 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 inventory, to one hun- 
 dred and fifty-three. 
 
 If it be allowed, 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 nu- 
 merous portraits of himself, repetitions of those of 
 his contemporary princes, particularly those of the 
 Emperour and Francis I. with whom he was per- 
 petually conversant ; of his predecessors ; two of 
 the Duchess of Milan, who refused to marry him ; 
 but not one of his six wives ! The historical and 
 scriptural subjects were, the violation and death 
 of Lucretia ; the Decollation of St. John Baptist, 
 and his head in a chardger ; a similar exhibition 
 of Judith and Holofernes ; St. George, his patron 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 343 
 
 saint : The Virgin and Child, and with the dead 
 Christ; sundry Flemish moralities, in which 
 Death is personified ; and drolls of the imbecility 
 of old men ; with caricatures of the Pope, after 
 the Reformation ! 
 
 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 would 
 induce him to add other equally curious particu- 
 lars, which elucidate the manners of the monarch, 
 and his times. Of those more immediately con- 
 nected with the arts of design, tapestry will be 
 noticed in the next volume, 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. Rycharde the thirde usurper of the same ; and 
 with th' other hande holdinge a swoord crowned. 
 Given by the Master of the 'orse, (Sir Anthony 
 Browne). 2. One piece of arras of the Marriage 
 of the Kinge and Quene. (Henry vij. and Eliza- 
 beth of York). Given by the same. There were 
 many maps " streyned on borde." Of the Cinque 
 Poortes; Callis and Bulloign; of the sieges of 
 Bulloign, Rome, Vienna, &c. &c. Views of Paris, 
 Antwerp, 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. 
 
344 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 But, that those who think the investigation 
 would repay their trouble may not lose the grati- 
 fication, the necessary references are as follow, 
 in the British Museum. 1. Wardrobe books of 
 Sir Nicholas Vaux and Sir Henry Guldeford, anno 
 12mo. Henrici 8vi. MSS. Harl. 4217. 2. An In- 
 ventorye 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 commissioners of Edward VI. 
 September 8, 1547. MSS. Harl. 1419. 3. The 
 Inventorye of Cardinal Wolsey's householde stuff 
 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 cardi- 
 nal's arms emblazoned: and suites of tapestry of 
 infinite number and richness. In the Chapel Fur- 
 niture is noticed " Seyntes apparell." A coote of 
 crymson velvatte garded with contrefayte perles, 
 for Our Ladye." " A coote of blewe for Seynte 
 Johan." 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.J 
 
[ 345 ] 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 This Indenture* made the day of 
 in the fourth yere of our sovrain Lord Kyng 
 Herry the 8th betwyne Mr. Robert Hacombleyne 
 provost of the kynge's college royal at Cambrydge 
 and the scolers of the same with the advise and 
 agrement of Mr. Thomas Larke surveyor of the 
 kynge's works there on the oon partye, and John 
 Wastell master mason of the seid works, and 
 He fry Severick-f* oon of the wardens of the same 
 on the other partye. Witnesseth that hit is cove- 
 naunted bargayned and agreed betwyne the par- 
 tyes aforesaid, That the seid John Wastell and 
 Herry Severick shall make and sett up, or cawse 
 to be made and sett up at ther costs and charges, 
 a good, suer, and sufficient vawte for the grete 
 churche there, to be workmanly wrought, made, 
 and sett up after the best handlyng and forme of 
 good workmanship, according to a plat thereof 
 made and signed with the hands of the lords ex- 
 ecutors to the kyng of most famous memorye 
 Herry the 7th, whose sowle God pardon. And 
 the seid John Wastell and Herry Severick shall 
 provide and fynde at ther cost and charges, as 
 moche good sufficyent able ston of Weldon quar- 
 
 * See page 178. t [The name is Semerke.] 
 
346 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ryes, as shall suffise for the performing of all the 
 said vawte, together with lyme, sound scaffoldyng, 
 einctores, moles, ordinaunces, and evry other 
 thyng concerning the same vawtyng, as well work- 
 men and laborers, as all manner of stuff and ordi- 
 nances that shall be required or necessary for the 
 performance of the same ; except the seid Mr. 
 Provost and scolers with the assent of the seid 
 surveyors granted to the seid John Wastell and 
 Herry Severick* for the great cost and charge that 
 they shall be at in remevyng the great scaffold 
 there, to have therefore in recompence at the end 
 and performyng of the seid vawte the timber of 
 two severeyes of the seid grete scaffold by them 
 remeved to their own use and profight ; And on 
 that the seid John Wastell and Herry Severick 
 shall have duryng the tyme of the seid vawtyng, 
 certeyne stuffs and necessaryes there, as gynnes, 
 whels, cables, hobynatts sawes and such other 
 as shall be delyvered unto them by indenture; 
 And they to delyver the same agayne unto the 
 college there at the end of the seid worke. The 
 said John Wastell and Herry Severick granten 
 also and bynde themselves by these covenauntes, 
 that they shall performe and clerely fynysh all the 
 seid vawte within the time and space of three 
 yeeres next ensuying after the tyme of their be- 
 gynning upon the same ; And for the good and 
 suer performyng of all the premysses as is afore 
 specyfyed, The seid Provost and scolers covenaunt 
 * [Semerke.] 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 347 
 
 and graunte to pay unto the seid John Wastell 
 and Herry Severick* 1200/. that is to sey, for every 
 severey in the seid churche 100/. to be payd in 
 forme followyng, from tyme to tyme as moche 
 money as shall suffise to pay the masons and 
 others rately after the numbre of workmen ; And 
 also for ston in suche tymes and in suche forme 
 as the seid John Wastell and Herry Severick 
 shall make their bargaynes for ston, so that they 
 be evyn paid with 100/. at the end of the per- 
 formyng every severey ; and if there remayne ony 
 parte of the seid 100/. at the fynishing of the seid 
 severey, then the seid Mr. Provost and scholers 
 to pae unto them the surplusage of the seid 100/. 
 for that severey, and so from tyme to tyme unto 
 all the seid 12 severeys be fully and perfyttly 
 made and performed. 
 
 This Indenture made the fourth day of 
 August in the fifth yere of the reign of our sove- 
 rayn lord kyng Herry the 8th, betwene Mr. Robert 
 Hacombleyn provost of the kynge's college royal 
 in Cambrydge and the scolers of the same with 
 the advice and agrement of Mr. Thomas Larke 
 surveyor of the kynge's works there on the oon 
 partye, and John Wastell master mason of the 
 seid works on the other partye, witnesseth, That 
 it is covenaunted, bargayned, and agreed betwene 
 the partyes aforeseid, that the seid John Wastell 
 shall make and sett up or cawse to be made and 
 * [Semerke.] 
 
348 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 sett upp at his propre costs and charges the vawt- 
 ing of two porches of the newe churche of the 
 kynge's college aforeseid with Yorkshere ston, 
 And also the vawtes of seven chapels in the body 
 of the same churche with Weldon ston accordynge 
 to a plat made as well for the same seven chapels 
 as for the seid two porches ; and nine other cha- 
 pels behynd the quyre of the seid churche with 
 like Weldon ston to be made of a more course 
 worke, as appereth by a platte for the same made ; 
 And that the seid John Wast ell shall make and 
 sett up or cawse to be made and sett up at his 
 cost and charge the batelments of all the seid 
 porches and chapels with Weldon ston accordynge 
 to another platte made for the same remayning 
 with all the other plattes afore rehersed in the 
 kepynge of the seid surveyor signed with the 
 hands of the lords the kynge's executors ; All the 
 seid vawtes and batelments to be well and work- 
 manly wrought, made and sett up after the best 
 handlynge and forme of good workmanshyp, and 
 according to the platts afore specifyed ; The fore- 
 seid John Wastell to provide and fynde at his cost 
 and charge not only as moche good sufficient and 
 hable ston of Hampole quarryes in Yorkshere as 
 shall suffise for the performance of the seid two 
 porches, but also as moche good sufficient and 
 hable ston of Weldon quarryes, as shall suffise 
 for the performyng of all the seid chapels and 
 batelments, together with lyme, sand, scaffoldyng, 
 mooles, ordinaunces, and every other thyng con- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 349 
 
 cernyng the fynyshing and performyng of all the 
 seid vawtes and batelments, as well workmen 
 and laborers, as all manner of stuff and ordi- 
 naunce as shall be requyred or necessary for 
 performance of the same : provided alwey that 
 the seid John Wastell shall kepe continually 40 
 fre-masons workyng upon the same. The seid 
 John Wastell graunteth also and byndeth hym- 
 self by these presents to performe and clerely 
 fynysh all the seid vawtes and batelments on this 
 side the ffeeste of the Nativitie of Seynt John 
 Baptiste next ensuyng after the date hereof ; And 
 for the good and suer performyng of all these 
 premysses, as is afore specyfyed the seid provost 
 and scolers granten to pay unto the seid John 
 Wastell for ston and workmanship of every the 
 seid porches with al other charge as is afore 
 rehersed 25/. 
 
 And for evry of the seid seven chapels in the 
 body of the churche after the platt of the seid 
 porches 20/. 
 
 And for vawtyng of evry of the other nine cha- 
 pels behind the quyre to be made of more course 
 work 121. 
 
 And for ston and workmanship of the batel- 
 ments of all ths seid chapels and porches devided 
 into twenty severeys evry severey at 100s. 
 
 And for all and singler covenaunts afore re- 
 hersed of the partye of the seid John Wastell wele 
 and truly to be performed and kept, he byndeth 
 himself, his heirs and executors in 400/. of good 
 
350 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 and lawfull money of England to be paid unto the 
 seid Mr. Provost, scolers and surveyor at the 
 ffeeste of the Purification of our blessed Lady next 
 comyng after the date of these presentes ; And in 
 lyke wise for all and singler covenauntes afore 
 rehersed of the party of the seid Mr. Provost, 
 scolers and surveyor wele and truly to be perform- 
 ed and kept, they bynde themselves, their succes- 
 sors and executors in 400/. of good and lawfull 
 money of England to be paid unto the seid John 
 Wastell at the seid ffeeste of the Purification of 
 our blessed Lady, In witnesse whereof the parties 
 aforeseid to these present indentures interchange- 
 ably have sett their seales, the day and yere above 
 wryten. 
 
 This Indenture made the fourth day of 
 January in the fourth yere of the reign of our 
 soverayn lord kyng Herry the 8th, betwene Mr. 
 Robert Hacombleyn provost of the kynge's col- 
 lege royal in Cambrydge and the scolers of the 
 same with the advice and agrement of Mr. Tho- 
 mas Larke surveyor of the kynge's works there on 
 the oon partye, and John Wastell master mason 
 of the seid works on the other partye, witnesseth, 
 That it is covenaunted, bargayned, and agreed 
 betwene the partyes aforeseid, that the seid John 
 Wastell shall make and sett up or cawse to be 
 made and sett up at his propre costs and charges 
 the fynyalls of the buttrasses of the grete churche 
 there, which be 21 in numbre ; the seid fynyalls 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 351 
 
 to be well and workmanly wrought made and 
 sett up after the best handelyng and forme of 
 good workmanship, according to the platts con- 
 ceyved and made for the same, and according to 
 the fynyall of oon butterasse which is wrought 
 and sett up, except that all these new fynyalls 
 shall be made sum what larger in certayne places, 
 according to the mooles for the same conceyved 
 and made ; Also it is covenaunted, bargayned and 
 agreed between the partyes aforeseid that the 
 seid John Wastell shall make and sett up or cawse 
 to be made and sett up at his propre cost and 
 charges the fynyshing and performyng of oon 
 towre at oon of the corners of the seid churche, 
 as shall be assigned unto him by the surveyor of 
 the seid works ; all the seid fynyshing and per- 
 formyng of the seid towre with fynyalls, ryfaat 
 gabbletts, batelments, orbys, or crosse quarters, 
 and every other thynge belongyng to the same to 
 be well and workmanly wrought made and sett 
 up after the best handelyng and forme of goode 
 workmanship, accordyng to a plat thereof made 
 remayning in the kepyng of the seid surveyor. 
 The seid John Wastell to provide and fynde at 
 his cost and charge as moche good suffycyent and 
 able ston of Weldon quarryes, as shall suffise for 
 the performyng of the fynyalls of all the seid but- 
 trasses, and also for the performyng and fynysh- 
 ing of oon of the towres, as is afore specified, 
 together with lyme, sand, scaffolding, mooles, or- 
 
352 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 dinances and evry other thyng concernyng the' 
 fynyshyng and performying of all the buttrasses 
 and towre aforeseid, as well workmen and labo- 
 rers, as all manner of stuff and ordenances as 
 shall be required or necessary for performance of 
 the same, except the seid Mr. Provost, scolers and 
 surveyor granten to lend to the seid John Wastell 
 sum parte of old scaffoldyng tymbre, and the use 
 of certayne stuff and necessaryes there, as gynnes 
 whels, cables, hobynatts, sawes, and such other as 
 shall be delyvered to him by indenture : and the 
 seid John Wastell to delyvre the same agayne 
 unto the seid surveyor as sone as the seid but- 
 trasses and towre shall be performed. The seid 
 John Wastell graunteth also and byndeth himself 
 by these covenaunts to perform and clerely fynysh 
 all the seid buttrasses and towre on this side the 
 feest of the Annunciation of our Blessed Lady 
 next ensuyng after the date hereof ; And for the 
 good and sure performyng of all these prernysses, 
 as is afore specifyed, the seid Provost andscholers 
 covenaunten and granten to paye unto the seid 
 John Wastell for the performyng of evry buttrasse 
 61. — 13s. — 4d. which amownteth for all the seid 
 buttrasses 140/. and for performyng of the seid 
 towre 100/. to be paid in forme followyng ; That 
 is to sey, from tyme to tyme as moche money as 
 shall suffise to pay the masons and other laborers 
 rately after the numbre of workmen: And also 
 for ston at suche times and in suche form as the 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 353 
 
 is^id John Wastell shall make his provisyon or 
 receyte of the same ston, from tyme to tyme as 
 the case shall requyre ; provided alway that the 
 seid John Wastell shall kepe continually sixty 
 fre-masons working upon the same works, as sone 
 as shall be possible for him to call them in by 
 vertue of suche commissyon as the seid surveyor 
 shall delyvre unto the seid John Wastell for the 
 same entent; and in case ony mason or other 
 laboror shall be found unprofytable or of ony such 
 ylle demeanor whereby the worke should be hyn- 
 dred or the company mysordred, not doing their 
 duties accordyngly as they ought to doo, then the 
 seid surveyor to indevor hymself to performe them 
 by such wayes as hath byn there used before this 
 time ; And also the forenamed Mr. Provost, scolers 
 and surveyor shall fynde as moche iron worke for 
 the fynyalls of the seid buttrasses as shall amounte 
 to five shillings for every buttrasse; that is in all 
 41. — 5s. And whatsoever iron werke shall be 
 occupyed and spent about the seid werkes and for 
 suertie of the same above the seid five shillings 
 for a buttrasse, the seid John Wastell to bere hytt 
 at his own cost and charge ; And for all and sin- 
 guler covenaunts afore rehersed of the partie of 
 the seid John Wastell wele and truly to be per- 
 formed and kepte, he byndeth himself, his heirs 
 and executors in 300/. of good and lawfulle money 
 of England to be paid unto the seid Mr. Provost, 
 scolers and surveyor at the feste of Ester next 
 
 VOL. I. A A 
 
354 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 comyng after the date of thes presentes ; And in 
 lyke wise for all and singular covenauntes afore 
 rehersed of the partie of the seid Provost, scolers 
 and surveyor well and truly to be performed and 
 kepte, they bynde them their successor and exe- 
 cutors in 300/. of good and lawfulle money of 
 Englande to be paid unto the seid John Wastell 
 at the seid ffeste of Ester, in witnesse whereof the 
 parties aforeseid to this present indenture inter- 
 changeably have sett their seales the day and yere 
 above wry ten. 
 
 This Indenture made the thirde day of the 
 moneth of May in the yere of the reigne of Henry 
 the 8th by the Grace of God Kyng of England 
 and Ffraunce, Defendor of the Ffeyth and Lorde 
 of Ireland the eightene, betwene the Right Wor- 
 shepfulle masters Robert Hacombleyn Doctor of 
 Divinitie and Provost of the Kynge's college in 
 the universitie of Cambridge, William Holgylle 
 clerk e master of the hospitalle of Seint John Bap- 
 tiste called the Savoy besydes London, and Tho- 
 mas Larke clerke Archdeacon of Norwyche on 
 that oon partie, And Ffraunces Wylliamson of the 
 parysshe of Seint Olyff in Southwerke in the 
 countie of Surrey glasyer, and Symond Symonds 
 of the parysshe of Seint Margaret of the towne of 
 Westminster in the countie of Middlesex on that 
 other partie, witnesseth, That it is covenaunted 
 condescended and aggreed betwene the seid par- 
 
APPENDIX. 355 
 
 ties by this indenture in manner and forme Mow- 
 ing, that is to wete, the seid Ffraunces Wylliamson 
 and Symond Symondes covenaunte, graunte and 
 them bynde by these presents that they shalle at 
 their owne propre costes and charges wele, suerly, 
 clenely, workmanly, substantyally curyously and 
 sufficyently glase and sett up or cause to be glased 
 and sett up foure windowes of the upper story of 
 the great churche within the Kynge's college of 
 Cambridge, that is to wete, two wyndowes on the 
 oon syde of the seid churche, And the other two 
 wyndowes on the other syde of the same church 
 with good, clene, sure and perfyte glasse and 
 oryent colors and imagery of the story of the old 
 lawe and of the newe lawe after the forme, maner, 
 goodenes, curyousitie and clenelyness in every 
 poynt of the glasse windowes of the Kynge's newe 
 chapell at Westmynster ; And also accordyngly 
 and after suche maner as oon Barnard Fflower 
 glasyer late deceased by indenture stode bounde 
 to doo ; And also accordyngly to suche patrons 
 otherwyse called vidimus, as by the seid masters 
 Robert Haccombleyn, William Holgylle and 
 Thomas Larke or by any of them to the seid 
 Ffraunces Wylliamson and Symond Symondes or 
 to either of them shal be delyvered, for to forme 
 glasse and make by the foreseid foure wyndowes 
 of the seid churche; And the seid Ffraunces 
 Wylliamson and Symond Symondes covenaunte 
 and graunte by these presentes that two of the 
 
356 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 seid wyndowes shall be clerely sett up and fully 
 fynyshed after the fourme aboveseid within two 
 yeres next ensuyng after the date of these pre- 
 sentes, And that the two other wyndowes resydue 
 of the seid foure wyndowes shal be clerely sett up 
 and fully fynyshed within three yeres next ensu- 
 yng after that without any furder or longer 
 
 delay ; Furdermore the seid Ffraunces Wylliamson 
 and Symond Symondes covenaunte and graunte 
 by these presentes that they shalle strongely and 
 suerley bynde all the seid foure wyndowes with 
 double bands of leade for defence of great wyndes 
 and other outragious wethers ; And the seid mas- 
 ters Robert Haccombleyn, William Holgylle and 
 Thomas Larke covenaunte and graunt by these 
 presentes that the seid Ffraunces Wylliamson and 
 Symond Symondes shall have for the glasse. work- 
 manship and settyng up of every foot of the seid 
 glasse by them to be provided, wrought and sett 
 up after the forme aboveseid sixtene pence ster- 
 linges ; And where the seid Ffraunces Wylliamson 
 and Symond Symondes., and also John a More of 
 the parysshe of Seint Margarett of the towne of 
 Westmynster in the countie of Middlesex squyer, 
 John Kellet of the same parysshe towne and 
 countie yoman, Garrard Moynes of the parysshe 
 of Seint Olyffe in Suthwerke in the countie of 
 Surrey joyner, and Henry Johnson of the parysshe 
 of Seint Clement Danes without the barres of the 
 newe temple of London in the countie of Mid- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 357 
 
 dlesex cordwaner by their writtyng obligatory of 
 the date of these presentes be holden and bounde 
 to the seid masters Robert Haccombleyn, William 
 Holgylle and Thomas Larke in the summe of two 
 hundred poundes sterlinges to be paid at the ffeeste 
 of the Nativitie of Seint John Baptiste, now next 
 comyng after the date of these presentes, as in the 
 same writtyng obligatory more plainly at large 
 doothe appere ; Neverthelesse the same masters 
 Robert Haccombleyn, William Holgylle and Tho- 
 mas Larke for them and their executors covenaunte 
 and graunte by these presentes, that yf the said 
 Ffraunces Williamson and Symond Symondes on 
 their part wele and truly performe, observe, ful- 
 fille and kepe all and every the covenaunts, bar 
 gaynes, graunts, and promyses and agreements 
 aforeseid in maner and fourme as is above declared, 
 That then the same writtyng obligatory shal be 
 voyd and had for nought, And else it shall stande 
 in fulle strengthe and effect. In witnesse whereof 
 the seid parties to these indentures interchange- 
 ably have sett their sealles. 
 
 YOVEN the day and yere aboveseid. 
 
 This Indenture made the laste day of the 
 moneth of Aprelle in the yere of the reigne of 
 Henry the 8th by the Grace of God Kyng of Eng- 
 land and Ffraunce, Defendor of the Ffeyth and 
 Lorde of Ireland the eightene, betwene the Right 
 Worshepfulle masters Robert Hacombleyn Doctor 
 
358 APPENDIX. 
 
 of Divinitie and provost of the kynge's college in 
 the universitie of Cambridge, master William Hoi- 
 gylle clerke master of the hospitalle of Seint John 
 Baptiste called the Savoy besides London, and 
 master Thomas Larke clerke archdeacon of Nor- 
 wyche on that oon par tie, and Galyon Hoone of 
 the paryssh of Seint Mary Magdelen next Seint 
 Mary Overey in Suthwerke in the countie of 
 Surrey glasyer, Richard Bownde of the parysshe 
 of Seint Clement Danes without the barres of the 
 newe temple of London in the countie of Middle- 
 sex glasyer, Thomas Reve of the parysshe of Seint 
 Sepulcre without newgate of London glasyer, and 
 James Nycholson of Seint Thomas Spyttell or 
 Hospitalle in Suthwerke in the countie of Surrey 
 glasyer on that other partie witnesseth, That it is 
 covenaunted condescended and aggreed between 
 the seid parties by this indenture in manner and 
 forme Mowing, that is to wete, The seid Galyon 
 Hoone, Richard Bownde, Thomas Reve and James 
 Nicholson covenaunte, graunte and them bynde 
 by these presentes that they shalle at their owne 
 propre costes and charges well, suerly, clenely, 
 workmanly, substantially, curiously and sufficiently 
 glase and sette up, or cause to be glased and sett 
 up eightene wyndowes of the upper story of the 
 great churche within the kynge's college of Cam- 
 bridge, whereof the wyndowe in the este ende of 
 the seid churche to be oon, and the windowe in 
 the weste ende of the same churche to be another; 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 359 
 
 And so seryatly the resydue with good, clene, sure 
 and perfyte glasse and oryent colors and imagery 
 of the story of the olde lawe and of the newe lawe 
 after the forme, maner, goodenes, curiousytie, and 
 clenelynes, in every poynt of the glasse wyndowes 
 of the Kynge's newe chapell at Westminster ; and 
 also accordyngly and after suche maner as oon 
 Barnard Fflower glasyer late deceased by inden- 
 ture stode bounde to doo, that is to sey, six of the 
 seid windowes to be clerely sett up and fynysshed 
 after the forme aforeseid within twelve moneths 
 next ensuyng after the date of these presentes; 
 And the twelve wyndowes residue to be clerely 
 sett up and fully fynysshed within foure yeres next 
 ensuying after the date of these presentes ; And 
 that the seid Galyon, Richard, Thomas Reve and 
 James Nicholson shalle suerly bynde all the seid 
 windowes with double bands of leade for defence 
 of greate wyndes and outragious wetheringes ; 
 Furdermore the seid Galyon, Richard, Thomas 
 Reve and James Nycholson covenaunte and 
 graunte by these presentes that they shall wele 
 and sufFycyently sett up at their own propre costs 
 and charges all the glasse that now is there redy 
 wrought for the seid wyndoowes at suche tyme 
 and whan as the seid Galyon, Richard, Thomas 
 Reve and James Nicholson shal be assigned and 
 appoynted by the seid masters Robert Haccom- 
 bleyne, Wylliam Holgylle, and Thomas Larke or 
 by any of them ; And wele and suffyciently shall 
 
360 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 bynde all the same with double bandes of leade 
 for the defence of wyndes and wetheringes, as is 
 aforeseid after the rate of two pence every ffootte ; 
 And the seid masters Robert Haccombleyne, Wyl- 
 liam Holgylle and Thomas Larke covenaunte and 
 graunte by these presentes, That the foreseid 
 Galyon, Richard Bownde, Thomas Reve and 
 James Nicholson shall have for the glasse work- 
 manship and setting up twenty foot of the seid 
 glasse by them to be provided, wrought, and sett 
 up after the forme aboveseid eightene pence ster- 
 linges ; Also the seid Galyon Hoone, Richard 
 Bownde, Thomas Reve and James Nicholson co- 
 venaunte and graunte by these presentes that they 
 shalle delyver or cause to be delyvered to Ffraunces 
 Williamson of the parysshe of Seint Olyff in Suth- 
 werke in the countie of Surrey glasyer, and to 
 Symond Symondes of the parysshe of Seint Mar- 
 garete of Westmynster in the countie of Middle- 
 sex glasyer, or to either of them good and true 
 patrons, otherwyse called a vidimus, for to fourme 
 glasse and make by other four wyndowes of the 
 seid churche, that is to sey, two on the oon side 
 thereof and two on the other syde, whereunto the 
 seid Ffraunces and Symond be bounde, the seid 
 Ffraunces and Symond paying to the seid Galyon, 
 Richard Bownde, Thomas Reve and James Ny- 
 cholson for the seid patrons otherwyse called a 
 vidimus as moche redy money as shal be thought 
 resonable by the foreseid masters William Hoi- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 361 
 
 gylle and Thomas Larke; And where the seid 
 Galyon Hoone, Richard Bownde, Thomas Reve 
 and James Nycholson by their writtyng obliga- 
 tory of the date of these presentes be holden and 
 bounden to the seid masters Robert Haccombleyne, 
 William Holgylle and Thomas Larke, in the some 
 of five hundred markes sterlinges to be paide at 
 the fFeiste of the nativitie of Seint John Baptiste 
 now next comyng after the date of these presentes, 
 as in the writtyng obligatory more plainly at large 
 may appere; Neverthelesse the same masters 
 Robert Haccombleyne, William Holgylle and 
 Thomas Larke for them and their executors wille 
 and graunte by these presentes that yf the seid 
 Galyon Hoone, Richard Bownde, Thomas Reve 
 and James Nycholson well and truly performe, 
 observe, fullfille and kepe all and every the cove- 
 nauntes, bargaynes, graunts, promyses and aggre- 
 mentes aforeseid in maner and forme as is above 
 declared, That then the seid writtyng obligatory 
 shall be voyde and had for nought, and else it 
 shall stand in full strength and effect : In witness 
 whereof the seid parties to these indentures inter- 
 changeably have sett their sealles. 
 
 YOVEN the day and yere aboveseid. 
 
INDEX 
 
 OF 
 
 NAMES OF ARTISTS 
 
 IN THIS VOLUME 
 
 Ranged according to the times in which they lived. 
 (As published in former editions, adapted to this). 
 
 In the Reign of King JOHN. 
 Elyas, architect, page 4. 
 
 HENRY III. 
 
 Odo, goldsmith, 17. 
 
 Edward Fitzodo, or Edward of 
 
 Westminster, 17. 
 Master William, painter, 21. 
 Master Walter, painter, 27. 
 Peter Cavalini, sculptor, 32. 
 
 RICHARD II. 
 
 John Sutton, carver, 53. 
 B. and Godfrey, of Wood Street, 
 goldsmiths, 54. 
 
 HENRY IV. 
 John Sifernas, monk, illuminator, 
 56. 
 
 John Thornton, glazier, do. 
 Thomas Occleve, poet and painter, 
 57. 
 
 HENRY V. 
 Richard Frampton, illuminator, 60. 
 
 HENRY VI. 
 William Seburgh, painter, 65. 
 Thomas Porchalion, statuary, 67. 
 
 John Essex, marbler, page 68. 
 William Austin, founder, do. 
 Thomas Stevens, coppersmith, do. 
 John Bourde, marbler, do. 
 Barth. Lamb spring, goldsmith, do. 
 John Prudde, glazier, do. 
 John Brentwood, painter, 69. 
 Kristian Coleburne, painter, do. 
 
 Richard , carver, 70. 
 
 Brother Rowsby, monk and archi- 
 tect, 71. 
 
 EDWARD IV. 
 Master Cumings, sculptor, 84. 
 
 HENRY VII. 
 John Mabuse, painter, 87. 
 John Rous, antiq. and painter, 96. 
 
 HENRY VIII. 
 Johannes Corvus, painter, 106. 
 Jerome di Trevisi, do. 
 Antony Toto, painter, 107. 
 Barth. Penne, painter, 108. 
 Gerard Luke Horneband, painter, 
 109. 
 
 Susannah Hornebrand, paintress, 
 do. 
 
 Andrew Wright, painter, 110. 
 
364 
 
 INDEX OF NAMES OF ARTISTS. 
 
 John Brown, painter, page 112. 
 Lucas Cornelii, painter, do. 
 Hans Holbein, painter, 114. 
 Pietro Torreggiano, sculptor, 171. 
 Laurence Ymber, carver, 176. 
 Humphrey Walker, founder, do. 
 Nicholas Ewer, coppersmith, do. 
 John Bell, painter, do. 
 John Maynard, painter, do. 
 Robert Vertue, mason, do. 
 Robert Jenings, mason, do. 
 John Lebons, mason, do. 
 William Vertue, mason, do. 
 John Hylmer, carpenter, do. 
 Humphrey Cooke, carpenter, do. 
 Robert Cook, painter, do. 
 James Hales, carver, 177- 
 John Wastell, mason, 178. 
 Francis Williamson, glass-painter, 
 179. 
 
 Simond Symonds, glass-painter, do. 
 Barnard Flower, glass-painter, do. 
 Galyon Hoone, glass-painter, do. 
 Richard Bownde, glass-painter, do. 
 Thomas Reve, glass-painter, do. 
 James Nicholson, glass-painter, 180 
 John Mustyan, arras maker, 181. 
 John de Mayne, seal-engraver, do. 
 Richard Atsyll, graver of stones, 
 do. 
 
 Master Newton, painter, do. 
 Levina Tirlinks, paintress, 182. 
 Theodore Bernardi, painter, do. 
 Benedetto da Rovezzano, sculptor, 
 184. 
 
 Antonio Cavallari, sculptor, do. 
 
 Architects in various Reigns. 
 
 Gundulphus, 210. 
 Peter of Colechurch, do. 
 William de Sens, do. 
 Helias de Berham, do. 
 
 Isembert de Xaintes, page 210. 
 William of Wykeham, 211. 
 William Rede, bishop of Chichester, 
 do. 
 
 Holbein, 216. 
 John of Padua, do. 
 Sir Richard Lea, 219. 
 
 EDWARD VI. and MARY. 
 Marc Willems, painter, 228. 
 Hans Hueet, painter, 229. 
 John Bossam, painter, 230. 
 Antony Deric, medallist, 231. 
 Guillim Stretes, painter, 233. 
 Sir Antonio More, 235. 
 Joas Van Cleve, 243. 
 Nicholas Lysard, 244. 
 E. Courtney, Earl of Devonshire, 
 245. 
 
 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 Lucas de Heere, painter, 255. 
 
 Cornelius Ketel, 264. 
 
 Frederic Zucchero, 269. 
 
 Marc Garrard, 276. 
 
 H. Cornelius Vroom, 278. 
 
 Petruccio Ubaldini, 282. 
 
 Nicholas Hilliard, painter in minia- 
 ture, 285. 
 
 Isaac Oliver, 292. 
 
 Tyrrell, carver, do. 
 
 Robert Aggas, painter, 304. 
 
 Hieronymus Custodio, painter, 305. 
 
 Levinus Vogelarius, do. 
 
 James Morgues, painter, do. 
 
 John Shute, painter and architect, 
 306. 
 
 Antonius Van Den Wynegaarde, do. 
 Tho.and John Bettes, painters, 307. 
 Will, and Fran. Segar, painters, do. 
 Lyne, P. Cole, Arnolde, painters, 
 do. 
 
 Jacques de Bruy, painter, do. 
 
INDEX OF NAMES OF ARTISTS. 
 
 365 
 
 Peter Golchi, painter, page 307. 
 
 Hieronymo de Bye, painter, do. 
 
 Peter Vandevelde, painter, do. 
 
 Rogers, Chr. Switzer, Cure, en- 
 gravers, do. 
 
 Nicholas Lockie, painter, 308. 
 
 Master Stickles, architect, do. 
 
 Barth. Campaine, or Campion, 
 chaser, do. 
 
 Martin and Metcalf, 309. 
 
 Richard Stevens, painter, statuary, 
 and medallist, do. 
 
 Horatio Palavicini, arras maker, 
 
 page 309. 
 Randolph, painter, 310. 
 Rob. Adams, architect, 312. 
 Valerio Vincentino, engraver of 
 
 stones, 313. 
 Dr. J. Twisden, painter, 316. 
 Sir Nath Bacon, painter, do. 
 John Holland, painter, 321. 
 Theodore Haveus, architect, 322. 
 Ralph Simons, architect, 323. 
 
INDEX 
 
 OF 
 
 NAMES OF ARTISTS 
 
 Ranged Alphabetically. 
 
 Adams, Robert, page 312. 
 Aggas, Robert, 304. 
 
 Arnolde, , 307. 
 
 Atsyll, Richard, 181. 
 Austin, William, 68. 
 
 Bacon, Sir Nath. 316. 
 Bell, John, 176. 
 Berham, Helias de, 310. 
 Bernardi, Theodore, 182. 
 Bettes, John and Thomas, 307. 
 Bossam, John, 230. 
 Bourde, John, 68. 
 Bownde, Richard, 179. 
 Brentwood, John, 69. 
 Brown, John, 112. 
 Bruy, Jacques de, 307- 
 Bye, Hieronymo de, do. 
 
 Campaine or Campion, Barth. 308. 
 Cavalini, Peter, 32. 
 Cavallari, Antony, 184. 
 Cleeve, Joas Van, 243. 
 Cole, Peter, 307- 
 Coleburn, Kristian, 69. 
 Colechurch, Peter of, 210. 
 Cooke, Humphrey, 176. 
 Cook, Robert, 176. 
 Cornelii, Lucas, 112. 
 Corvus, Johannes, 106. 
 Courtney, Earl of Devonshire, 245. 
 
 Cumings, , 84. 
 
 Cure, , 307. 
 
 Custodio, Hieronymus, 305. 
 
 Deric, Antony, page 231. 
 Devonshire, Earl of, 245. 
 
 Elyas, , 4. 
 
 Essex, John, 68. 
 Ewer, Nicholas, 176. 
 
 Flower, Bernard, 179. 
 Frampton, Richard, 60. 
 Fitzodo, Edward, 17- 
 
 Garrard, Marc, 276. 
 
 Godfrey, , 54. 
 
 Golchi, Peter, 307- 
 Gundulphus, 210. 
 
 Hales, James, 1 77- 
 Haveus, Theodore, 322. 
 Heere, Lucas de, 255. 
 Hilliard, Nicholas, 285. 
 Holbein, Hans, 114. 
 Holland, John, 321. 
 Hoone, Galyon, 179. 
 Horneband, Gerard Luke, 109. 
 Horneband, Susanna, do. 
 Hueet, Hans, 229. 
 Hylmer, John, 176. 
 
 Jenings, Robert, 176. 
 
 Ketel, Cornelius, 264. 
 
 Lambspring, Barth. 68. 
 Lea, Sir Richard, 219. 
 
INDEX OF NAMES OF ARTISTS. 
 
 367 
 
 Lebons, John, page 176. 
 Lockie, Nicholas, 308. 
 
 Lyne, , 316. 
 
 Lysard, Nicholas, 244. 
 
 Mabuse, John, 87. 
 
 Martin, , 309. 
 
 Maynard, John, 176. 
 Mayne, John de, 181. 
 
 Metcalfe, , 309. 
 
 More, Sir Antonio, 235. 
 Morgues, James, 305. 
 Musty an, John, 181. 
 
 Newton, , 181. 
 
 Nicholson, James, 180. 
 
 Occleve, Thomas, 57- 
 
 Odo, , 17- 
 
 Oliver, Isaac, 292. 
 
 Padua, John of, 216. 
 Palavicini, Horatio, 309. 
 Penne, Barthol. 108. 
 Porchalion, Thomas, 67. 
 Prudde, John, 68. 
 
 Randolph, , 310. 
 
 Rede, Bishop of Chichester, 211. 
 Reve, Thomas, 179. 
 
 Richard, , 70. 
 
 Rogers, — , 307. 
 Rovezzano, Benedetto da, 184. 
 Rous, John, 96. 
 Rowsby, , 71- 
 
 Seburgh, William, 65. 
 Segar, Francis, 307. 
 Segar, William, do. 
 Sens, William de, 210. 
 Shute, John, 306. 
 Sifernas, John, 56. 
 
 Simons, Ralph, page 323. 
 Stevens, Richard, 309. 
 Stephens, Thomas, 68. 
 
 Stickles, , 308. 
 
 Stretes, Guillim, 233. 
 Sutton, John, 53. 
 Switzer, Christopher, 307- 
 Symonds, Simon, 179. 
 
 Thornton, John, 56. 
 Tirlinks, Levina, 182. 
 Torreggiano, Pietro, 171. 
 Toto, Antony, 107. 
 Trevisi, Jerome di, 106. 
 Twisden, Dr. John, 316. 
 Tyrrel, , 292. 
 
 Vandevelde, Peter, 307- 
 Vertue, Robert, 176. 
 Vertue, William, do. 
 Vincentino Valerio, 313. 
 Vogelarius, Levinus, 305. 
 Vroom, H. Cornelius, 278. 
 
 Ubaldini, Petruccio, 282. 
 
 Walker, Humphrey, 176. 
 
 Walter, , 27. 
 
 Wastell, John, 178. 
 Willems, Marc, 228. 
 
 William, , 21. 
 
 Williamson, Francis, 1 79. 
 Wright, Andrew, 110. 
 Wykeham, William of, 211. 
 Wynegaard, Antonius Van Den, 
 306. 
 
 Xaintes, Isembert de, 210. 
 
 Ymber, Laurence, 176. 
 Zucchero, Frederic, 269. 
 
Loudon : Printed by W. NicoJ, Cleveland-row, St. James's. 
 
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