1541 Vellum mounted on playing card, diameter 5,1 cm Royal Collection, Windsor The first portrait miniatures were produced in France, their precursors being the small circular works commissioned by Francis I to celebrate the victory of Marignano in 1515. Jean Clouet was among the early practitioners of this format, which seems to have arrived in England by 1526 in the form of French royal portraits. Ten years elapsed before Holbein's contribution, but his work marks an immediate advance over the productions of earlier native practitioners like Lucas Horenbout. The small scale and different medium - vellum mounted on playing card (and termed `miniature' because of the lead, Latin minium, used in the paint) did nothing to hamper Holbein's sturdy realism. The identity of the lady is uncertain - the Romantic view of the 1840s judged it to be a portrait of Henry VIII's tragic fifth wife, Catherine Howard, executed for alleged adultery, although no ascertainable portrait of her exists elsewhere. What is certain is that Holbein's powers of characterization lost nothing in the confined space. Features of his late style include the clarity and simplicity of the background, often eschewing even the standard biographical information so as to maintain as direct a perception of the sitter as possible.Artist:HOLBEIN, Hans the Younger Title: Portrait of an Unknown Lady Painted in 1501-1550 , German - - painting : portrait
Painting ID:: 63722
Hans Eworth oil on wood, support: 597 x 483 mm, Tate Gallery, T00606
Date 1557(1557)
cyf Portrait of an Unknown Lady Flemish Northern Renaissance Painter, active 1540-1573
Flemish painter, active in England. Jan Euworts was listed in 1540 as a freeman of the Guild of St Luke in Antwerp, but by 1545 he had moved to England, where until 1571 his name, spelt in a wide variety of ways (e.g. Eeworts, Eottes, Euertz, Evance, Eworts, Ewotes, Ewout, Ewoutsz., Eywooddes, Hawarde, Heward, Huett etc), appeared in numerous naturalization, tax and parish documents. About 35 paintings are generally attributed to him, consisting primarily of dated portraits of the English gentry and nobility. The majority are signed with the monogram HE, which led to their being attributed to the Flemish painter Lucas de Heere during the 18th and 19th centuries. Cust reattributed the paintings to Eworth on the basis of an inventory (1590) of the collection of John, 1st Baron Lumley, in which three monogrammed portraits were listed as being by Haunce Eworth
