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Panel Painting Portrait of Henry VII

Object number

LDSAL329

Artist/Designer/Maker

Unknown artist

Production date

Circa 1500

Material

oak
oil paint

Technique

Oil On Panel
Painting and Painting Techniques

Dimensions

height: 380mm
width: 245mm
Height (Of Frame): 460mm
Width (Of Frame): 330mm
Depth (Of Frame): 32mm

Location

Burlington House - (on display)

Inscriptions

Inscription content

The Tudor Exhibition
New Gallery 1890
Name: Henry VII
By:
Lent by: The Society of Antiquaries
Reg. No.: 8.3
Cat. No.:

Inscription content

The Toison d’Or (Golden Fleece) Exhibition, Bruges 1907
(British Committee.)
Name of Owner: The Society of Antiquaries of London
Address of Owner: Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W
Nature of Exhibit: Portrait of Henry VII
Reg. No. 2

Inscription content

9

Inscription content

62
W.C. 7420 5.
7/5/35
1 (encircled)
F

Inscription content

199 [?]

References

Reference (free text)

David Gaimster, Sarah McCarthy, and Bernard Nurse, eds., Making History, Antiquaries in Britain, 1707-2007 (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2007), p. 87, no. 52.Illustration, p. 87.

Reference (free text)

Copy of the report attached and in the object history file. Report by Renate Woudhuysen (produced 2006-2007). Copy also attached to this record.

Reference (free text)

Surface clean carried out with saliva and surface polished with silk cloth. Flaking paint on frame consolidated with gelatine as an adhesive. Hard copy report in Object History File. Scan of report attached to Mobydoc record as a PDF.
    Oil on oak panel portrait of Henry VII with fictive cusped frame
    Tree ring dating shows that the panel was cut from a single vertical oak board, that came from a tree felled in the eastern Baltic region of Europe between 1500-1516, meaning that it is likely that this portrait of Henry VII (r. 1485-1509) was painted during the king's lifetime.
    At the top of the panel, above the head of the king is a gilded fictive cusped arch, which appears in other early sixteenth-century versions of the same image. The gilded arch in the Society's portrait, occurring as it does on one of the earliest examples of this portrait type, probably represents the motif in its least adulterated form.