Panel Painting Saxon King (standing)
Object number
LDSAL509.2
Artist/Designer/Maker
Unknown artist
Production date
Circa 1515
Production place
England
Material
oak
oil paint
oil paint
Technique
Oil on panel
Dimensions
Height: 1430mm
Width: 760mm
Width: 760mm
Location
Burlington House - (on display)
References
Reference (free text)
Lost Faces: Identity and Discovery in Tudor Royal Portraiture (London: Philip Mould, Ltd.), p. 30, no. 5.
Reference (free text)
Copy of report in Object History File LDSAL 509.
Reference (free text)
David Gaimster, Sarah McCarthy, and Bernard Nurse, eds., Making History, Antiquaries in Britain, 1707-2007 (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2007), pp. 80-1, no. 47.2.
Illustration, p. 81.
Oil on gabled oak panel painting of an unknown Saxon king. The crowned king stands with sceptre held in his right hand. 1 of 6 fragments.
This oil of oak panel painting of an unknown Saxon king is the second largest of the six fragments known collectively as the 'Saxon Kings'.
The six panels are constructed from thirteen oak boards. The minimum height of the composition is 1.75m and the minimum width, allowing for the eight figures that either survive in partial form or that were recorded by Stothard is 6.44m. The panels were thus once part of a large and impressive scheme.
Their derivation from a single composition is indicated by the green brocade curtain behind the kings, powdered with red and gold motifs and with a fleur-de-lis behind Athelstan. A border of white and red runs top and bottom behind the kings, at mouth level behind Athelstan (LDSAL509.1) and the head with a red hat (LDSAL509.4), and at eye level behind the kneeling king (LDSAL509.3) and the king seen here, indicating differing status. This unknown king also shows in perspective the counter-change tiled floor. This curtain and forestage formula for a long frieze had been popular in Italy and Germany since the mid-fifteenth century and, through engravings, had filtered into East Anglian screen painting before 1500.
The six panels are constructed from thirteen oak boards. The minimum height of the composition is 1.75m and the minimum width, allowing for the eight figures that either survive in partial form or that were recorded by Stothard is 6.44m. The panels were thus once part of a large and impressive scheme.
Their derivation from a single composition is indicated by the green brocade curtain behind the kings, powdered with red and gold motifs and with a fleur-de-lis behind Athelstan. A border of white and red runs top and bottom behind the kings, at mouth level behind Athelstan (LDSAL509.1) and the head with a red hat (LDSAL509.4), and at eye level behind the kneeling king (LDSAL509.3) and the king seen here, indicating differing status. This unknown king also shows in perspective the counter-change tiled floor. This curtain and forestage formula for a long frieze had been popular in Italy and Germany since the mid-fifteenth century and, through engravings, had filtered into East Anglian screen painting before 1500.