Recently I was contacted by Susan Abernathy suggesting I might be able to help the owner of this painting who has owned the panel for the past thirty odd years and is still none the wiser as to who painted it, what it commemorates, who is portrayed and where it has been until it was… Continue reading Solve the puzzle of this 16th century painting for a £5,000 reward!
The face of Sir Thomas More (1478-1535), faithful servant of Henry VIII first as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1525-1529, then as Lord Chancellor from 1529-1532, is known to us because Hans Holbein the Younger (c1497-1543) painted the portrait that now hangs in the Frick Collection, New York. Sir Thomas More as Chancellor… Continue reading Sir Thomas More – how we know him & his family
Nicholas Hilliard was England’s first English artist to become internationally famous. His self portrait (© Victoria & Albert Museum, London) is a mere 41mm in diameter (1.6 inches) and it is for these exquisitely delicate and miniature images of Elizabeth I and her court that he becomes famous. I fell in love with Hilliard’s miniatures… Continue reading Nicholas Hilliard (1547-1619) & Isaac Oliver (1565-1617): Painters to the Elizabethan and Jacobean courts
Some years ago I was asked to mentor a new researcher into Tudor history, Heather Darsie, who was researching a new biography of Anna, Duchess of Cleves - Henry VIII's fourth wife. You would have thought that over the years the various historians specialising in Tudor history had drained this particular pot dry. However, this… Continue reading Anna, Duchess of Cleves: The King’s Beloved Sister
This article focuses on those who created the portrait miniatures from the mid 1520s until 1603 and how, thanks to the talents of the artists employed at the Tudor court, we are able to identify some aristocratic sitters of the 16th century. Links to images and articles are in bold italics. Portraits of the aspiring… Continue reading Illuminators of the Tudor Court
In case you missed it, this article first appeared on http://www.queenanneboleyn.com in July 2018 in commemoration of the execution of Thomas Cromwell on 28th July 1540. Today we are used to seeing the English royals on TV, in photos on social media, and on the front of our newspapers. Back in the 16th century the royal… Continue reading Thomas Cromwell (1495-1540): Creator of the “Tudor Brand”
The dawn of the sixteenth century saw the portrait being used more widely for self-promotional purposes thanks to one man - Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). Albrecht Dürer sketched himself from the from the age of thirteen and as an adult, completing at least three individual self-portraits during his lifetime. The very first of these was a silverpoint… Continue reading Albrecht Dürer : The Master of self-promotion
