Illuminated manuscripts, portrait miniature, Portraiture, Renaissance, Subjects for discussion, Tudor portraiture

Monkey business at 16th century royal courts

In 1492 Christopher Columbus (1451 – 1506) sailed under the Spanish flag and discovered a whole new land. Six years later the Portuguese explorer, Vasco de Gama (1460 – 1524) reached India’s Malabar coast, which had been a centre of trade between Arab and far eastern merchants for at least fifteen hundred years.  Columbus’s voyage west… Continue reading Monkey business at 16th century royal courts

Artists of Northern Europe, portrait miniature, Portraiture, Royal Portraits, Tudor portraiture

A Portrait of Anna, Duchess of Cleves : The King’s Beloved Sister

Anna, Duchess of Cleves (?) Hans Holbein the Younger (1497 - 1543) (?). Rosenbach Museum, Philadelphia, USA. Accession Number 1954.1923. When Heather Darsie’s consideration of Anna’s life and marriage was published in April 2019, the cover portrait (above) presented us with a completely different aspect of the duchess from the Holbein portrait that now hangs… Continue reading A Portrait of Anna, Duchess of Cleves : The King’s Beloved Sister