Artists of the Tudor court

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Rainbow Portrait, an image of Elizabeth I as the "Queen of Love and Beauty" by an unknown artist c. 1600, epitomizes the elaborate iconography associated with later Tudor court portraiture^[1]

The artists of the Tudor court are the painters and limners engaged by the monarchs of England's Tudor dynasty and their courtiers between 1485 and 1603, from the reign of Henry VII to the death of Elizabeth I.

Typically managing a group of assistants and apprentices in a workshop or studio, many of these artists produced works across several disciplines, including portrait miniatures, large-scale panel portraits on wood, illuminated manuscripts, heraldric emblems, and elaborate decorative schemes for masques, tournaments, and other events.

[edit] Isolation and iconography

The Tudor period was one of unusual isolation from European trends for England. At the start the Wars of the Roses had greatly disrupted artistic activity, which apart from architecture had reached a very low ebb by 1485. The Yorkist dynasty overthrown by the Tudors had been very close to their Burgundian allies, and Yorkist diplomats had their portraits painted by the finest Early Netherlandish painters - Edward Grimshaw by Petrus Christus and Sir John Donne by Hans Memling (both National Gallery, London^[2]). However these were both painted abroad. In the Tudor period foreign artists were recruited and often welcomed lavishly by the English court, as they were in other artistically marginal parts of Europe like Spain or Naples. The Netherlandish painters remained predominant, though French influence was also important on both Lucas Horenbout and Nicholas Hilliard, respectively the founder and the greatest exponent of the distinctively English tradition of the portrait miniature.

Drawing of Jane Seymour by Holbein, 1536-37

Portrait of Jane Seymour by Holbein, 1536-37

With the virtual extinction of religious painting at the Reformation, and little interest in classical mythology until the very end of the period, the portrait was the most important form of painting for all the artists of the Tudor court, and the only one to have survived in any numbers. How many of these have been also lost can be seen from Holbein's book (nearly all pages in the Royal Collection) containing preparatory drawings for portraits - of eighty-five drawings, only a handful have surviving Holbein paintings, though often copies have survived.^[3] Portraiture ranged from the informal miniature, almost invariably painted from life in the course of a few days and intended for private contemplation,^[4] to large paintings such as the Rainbow Portrait of Elizabeth, filled with symbolic iconography in dress, jewels, background, and inscription.^[5].

Much energy was also expended on decorative painting of fixtures and fittings, often of a very temporary nature. In theory the "Serjeant Painters" of the King, a lower rank of painter, did most of this, probably to the designs of the more elevated "King's Painters" (or Queen's), but it is clear that they too spent time on this, as did court artists all over Europe (see Royal Entry). There was also the Master of the Revels, whose Office was responsible for festivals and tournaments, and no doubt called upon the artists and Serjeant Painters for assistance.

Jewellery and metalwork were regarded as extremely important, and far more was spent on them than on painting. Holbein produced many spectacular designs for now-vanished table ornaments in precious metals, and Hilliard was also a practising goldsmith. The main artistic interests of Henry VIII were music, building palaces and tapestry, of which he had over 2,000 pieces, costing far more than he ever spent on painters.

Nonsuch Palace, after Joris Hoefnagel, one of the two later images - which differ considerably. The stucco reliefs can be made out on englargement

Elizabeth spent far less, hardly building anything herself, but took a personal interest in painting, keeping her own collection of miniatures locked away, wrapped in paper on which she wrote the names of the sitter. She is reputed to have had paintings of her burnt that did not match the iconic image she wished to be shown.

The most progessive and spectacular palace of the Tudor period, Nonsuch Palace, begun by Henry VIII in 1538 a little way south of London, was covered inside and out with prodigous quantities of figurative sculpted stucco reliefs - the whole scheme covered over 2,000 square metres (21,000 Sq feet).^[6] There was also probably much decorative painting. As for the similar work at the Château de Fontainebleau, which Nonsuch was certainly intended to compete with, and outshine, Italians were brought in to provide authentic Mannerist work, however much the general plan remains English. The scattered fragments and images that have survived suggest that the awestruck accounts of visitors were not exaggerated.^[7]

[edit] A community of artists

Exiled Flemish artists in England?^[8] Detail of A Fête at Bermondsey.

Many of the artists active at the Tudor court were connected by ties of family, marriage, and training. Lucas Horenbout (often called Hornebolt in England), who began painting and illuminating for Henry VIII in the mid-1520s, was accompanied in his workshop by his sister Susanna, who was also an illuminator. It is generally accepted^[9] that Lucas Horenbout taught Hans Holbein the Younger the techniques of painting miniatures on vellum when Holbein was engaged by Henry VIII in the early 1530s.

Lucas and Susanna Horenbout's father, Gerard Horenbout, was an active member of the Ghent-Bruges School of manuscript illustrators and also was employed briefly at the Tudor court.^[10] In Bruges, Gerard was associated with Sanders Bening or Benninck and his son Simon, with whom he worked on the illustrations for the Grimani Breviary. Simon Bening's eldest daughter Levina Teerlinc was also trained as an illuminator. She entered the service of Henry VIII at the close of 1546 following the deaths of Holbein (1543) and Lucas Horenbout (1544), and would remain as court painter to Henry's son Edward VI^[11] and as painter and lady-in-waiting to both his daughters, Mary I and Elizabeth. Levina Teerlinc, in turn, taught the art of limning to Nicholas Hilliard, an apprentice goldsmith who would marry the daughter of Queen Elizabeth's jeweler and rise to become the supreme miniaturist of the age. John Bettes the Elder apprenticed his son, John the Younger to Hilliard. Hilliard's most famous student, Isaac Oliver, later limner to Anne of Denmark and Henry, Prince of Wales, was married to the niece of Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger.^[12] Gheeraerts was also the brother-in-law of Lucas de Heere's apprentice John de Critz the Elder,^[12] who took the dynasty into the Stuart period, and was succeeded as Serjeant-Painter by his son. De Heere was also a religious refugee from Flanders; although the upheavals of the Protestant Reformation acted to reduce artistic contacts, especially with Italy, England could also benefit from them.

Residents

• Lucas Horenbout, pioneer of the portrait miniature, King's Painter from 1531 until his death in 1544
• "Antony Toto" - see below
• Hans Holbein the Younger, spent many years on two visits, painting the best portraits of the Tudor period
• Levina Teerlinc, miniaturist and lady-in-waiting
• John Bettes the Elder, engaged for decorative work at Whitehall from 1531-33; also a portrait-painter and minaturist^[13]
• Hans Eworth, in England from c. 1549; portrait-painter and recorded as a designer for the Office of the Revels
• Steven van der Meulen, arrived 1560, naturalized 1562, and active to c. 1568
• Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, Flemish Protestant refugee portraitist, who arrived as a child
• George Gower, English portraitist
• Nicholas Hilliard, miniaturist and goldsmith to Elizabeth I from c. 1572
• Sir William Segar, portraitist and herald; later Garter Principal King of Arms 1607-1633
• John de Critz the Elder, arrived from Flanders as a child, portraitist
• Robert Peake the Elder, English portraitist; also employed by the Office of the Revels; later serjeant painter under James I
• Isaac Oliver, Hilliard's pupil and later rival

Visitors

• Pietro Torrigiano, Florentine sculptor, on the run after breaking Michelangelo's nose, made Henry VII's tomb and other monuments in an extended stay
• Michael Sittow probably painted Henry VII and a picture of Catherine of Aragon for her mother, his employer
• Girolamo da Treviso, hired mainly as a military engineer (who died in action), but also left a significant painting
• Nicolas Bellin, or Niccolo da Modena, brought in from Fontainebleau for Nonsuch Palace
• William or Guillim Scrots, employed by Henry VIII from at least 1545 and retained by Edward VI until the king died in 1553
• Antonis Mor or Antonio Moro, the Habsburg portraitist, visited with Philip II of Spain
• Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder a Flemish Protestant refugee, stayed nine years, and left his son behind him.
• Quentin Metsys the Younger or Massys
• Cornelius Ketel stayed eight years, painting histories and portraits
• Lucas de Heere Protestant refugee who returned to Flanders after ten years, when it was safe to do so
• Joris Hoefnagel, in England c. 1569-71 making drawings for Civitates Orbis Terrarum; painted A Fête at Bermondsey while in England
• Federico Zuccari visited for six months, painting Elizabeth and Leicester

[edit] The Tudor Serjeant Painters

George Gower's 1579 self-portrait shows his tools as an artist outweighing his arms as a gentleman; he was the first serjeant painter who was also a portraitist^[14][15]

The holders of the office were:^[16]

• John Browne, heraldic painter since 1502, appointed "King's Painter" in 1511/12, and as the first Serjeant Painter in 1527, when the imported artist Lucas Horenbout took over as "King's Painter" - now the superior position. Browne died in office in December 1532.
• Andrew Wright, 1532 - 1544, about whom little is known
• "Antony Toto", really Antonio di Nunziato d'Antonio, a Florentine pupil of Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, from 1544, who died in office in 1554. He was the first Serjeant Painter who can be evidenced as an artist rather than an artisan. None of his paintings are known to survive, but his New Year gifts to Henry, presumably his own work, are documented as including a Calumny of Apelles (1538/39) and a Story of King Alexander (1540/41). He had a Florentine colleague Bartolommeo Penni, brother of the much more distinguished Gianfrancesco, Raphael's right hand man, and Luca, a member of the School of Fontainebleau.^[17] Both probably came to Henry from Cardinal Wolsey, as they first appear in the accounts just after Wolsey's fall in October 1529. "Toto" had been signed on in Florence in 1519 as an assistant to Pietro Torrigiano, who in fact left England for good later that year. Toto and Penni spent most of their time after 1538 working on Nonsuch Palace, including elaborate stucco work for Henry's most advanced building, now vanished.
• Nicolas Lizard (or Lisory), a French artist, held the post from 1554 to his death in 1571^[18]
• William Herne or Heron, 1572 to 1580^[18]
• George Gower 1581 until his death in 1596
• Leonard Fryer 1596-1607, about whom very little is known, joined after the death of Elizabeth by
• John de Critz the Elder from 1603.

[edit] Identification and attribution

This portrait was misidentifed for 250 years

Many surviving images have been badly worn over the years, or incompetently "restored". Inscriptions are often later than the paintings themselves, and may reflect wishful thinking; many anonymous Tudor ladies were identified as "Mary I", or, especially, one or other of Henry VIII's Queens, by the owners of pictures. Anne Boleyn in particular has been said to be the subject of dozens of pictures; even now there is no certain image of her done from life, and the most plausible,^[19] is a later copy and among the least informative. The only probable portrait of Catherine Howard, a miniature by Holbein in the Royal Collection, is only identified by circumstantial evidence (see Gallery).^[20]

A well-known painting (left) was identified by George Vertue in 1727 as Lady Frances Brandon and her second husband Adrian Stokes, an attribution that stood unquestioned until the sitters were properly identified as Mary Nevill, Baroness Dacre and her son Gregory Fiennes, 10th Baron Dacre and the artist as Hans Eworth in 1986.^[21]

Attribution to artists is even more challenging; not all artists signed their work, and those who did may not have done so consistently. Many pictures have been cut down, extended, or otherwise altered in ways that damage or destroy inscriptions. Artists' workshops often churned out copies of the master's work to meet the demand for portraits, as symbols of devotion to the Crown or simply to populate the fashionable "long galleries" lined with portraits.

Today, attributions are made on the basis of style, sitter, accepted date, and related documentation such as receipts or bills for payment and inventories of collections or estates. It is now generally accepted that the artist known as "The Monogrammist HE" is Hans Eworth,^[22] but other identifications remain elusive. Some of the most well-known images of the period, such as the portrait of Elizabeth I when a Princess, age 13, have been attributed to many artists over the years, but remain cautiously labled "?Flemish School" in recent catalogues.^[23] Much scholarly debate also circles around identification of possible portraits of Lady Jane Grey.^[24]

[edit] Payments

The royal accounts for the period survive, but are not always easy to interpret. Payments often covered expensive materials, and in many cases the wages of assistants had to be paid out of them. Some regular annuities, usually supplemented by payments for specific works, are given below. But recipients were expected to give works to the monarch, at New Year or on their birthday.

Royal annuities:

• Lucas Hornebolte (scholarly dissention) £33 6s^[25] or £62 10s from 1525 "until his death"^[26]
• Hans Holbein £30 (but he did more work outside the court)^[27]
• Levina Teerlinc £40^[28]
• Nicholas Hilliard received £400 as a gift in 1591, and an annuity of £40 from 1599;^[29] he typically charged £3 for a non-royal miniature.

The sums spent on metalwork, building palaces, and by Henry on tapestries, dwarfed these figures.

[edit] Galleries

[edit] Miniatures

Manuscript portrait of Henry VIII, Lucas Horenbout, 1525-26

Catherine Howard by Holbein, c. 1540; probably the only image of her from life - see text.

An Elizabethan Maundy, attributed to Levina Teerlinc, c. 1560

Young Man Amongst Roses by Hilliard, c. 1588

[edit] Preparatory drawings

Sketch of Lady Elyot by Holbein in chalk, pen and brush on paper, 1532-33, Royal Collection, Windsor

Companion sketch of Sir Thomas Elyot by Holbein, Royal Collection, Windsor. Neither portrait has survived.

Preliminary chalk sketch for a portrait of Elizabeth I by Federico Zuccari, 1570s, which has not survived.

[edit] Panel paintings

Henry VII by Michael Sittow, ca. 1505	Christina of Denmark in mourning, 1538. A prospective bride for Henry VIII, who Holbein was sent to portray.	Mary I by Anthonis Mor, c. 1541	Elizabeth I as a Princess, unknown artist, c. 1546
Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk by Hans Eworth, 1563	Margaret Audley, Duchess of Norfolk, 1562, companion to portrait of the Duke	Portrait of Lady Kitson by George Gower, 1573	The Earl of Essex in tilting armor by William Segar, 1590

[edit] Paintings on canvas

Henry VIII after a Holbein of 1537. Later copy by unknown artist after Hans Holbein the Younger's destroyed mural at Whitehall Palace.[30]

The Ditchley Portrait of Elizabeth by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, 1592

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Hearn, Karen, ed. Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England 1530-1630. New York: Rizzoli, 1995. ISBN 0-8478-1940-X
• Honig, Elizabeth: "In Memory: Lady Dacre and Pairing by Hans Eworth" in Renaissance Bodies: The Human Figure in English Culture c. 1540-1660 edited by Lucy Gent and Nigel Llewellyn, Reaktion Books, 1990, ISBN 0-948462-08-6
• Kinney, Arthur F.: Nicholas Hilliard's "Art of Limning", Northeastern University Press, 1983, ISBN 0930350316
• Reynolds, Graham: Nicholas Hilliard & Isaac Oliver, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1971
• Strong, Roy,The English Icon: Elizabethan and Jacobean Portraiture, 1969, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London (Strong 1969)
• Strong, Roy: Nicholas Hilliard, 1975, Michael Joseph Ltd, London, ISBN 0718113012 (Strong 1975)
• Strong, Roy: The Cult of Elizabeth, 1977, Thames and Hudson, London, ISBN 0500232636 (Strong 1977)
• Strong, Roy: Artists of the Tudor Court: The Portrait Miniature Rediscovered 1520-1620, Victoria & Albert Museum exhibit catalogue, 1983, ISBN 0905209346 (Strong 1983)
• Strong, Roy: "From Manuscript to Miniature" in John Murdoch, Jim Murrell, Patrick J. Noon & Roy Strong, The English Miniature, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1981 (Strong 1981)
• Strong, Roy: Gloriana: The Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I, Thames and Hudson, 1987, ISBN 0500250987 (Strong 1987)
• Waterhouse, Ellis; Painting in Britain, 1530-1790, 4th Edn, 1978, Penguin Books (now Yale History of Art series)