Panel Painting Saxon King (with red hat)
Object number
LDSAL509.4
Artist/Designer/Maker
Unknown artist
Production date
Circa 1515
Production place
England
Material
Oak
Oil Paint
Oil Paint
Technique
Oil on panel
Dimensions
height: 338mm
width: 320mm
width: 320mm
Location
Burlington House - (on display)
References
Reference (free text)
Cooy of report in Object History File LDSAL 509.
Oil on oak panel painting of an unknown Saxon king wearing a red hat. 1 of 6 fragments.
The subject of these six fragments of painted panelling is the unification in AD 926/7 of the lesser kingdoms of Britain under Athelstan (reigned AD 925–40). In AD 924/5 King Edward died, and his son, Athelstan, was chosen king by the Mercians. In AD 926/7, Athelstan succeeded to the throne of Northumbria and brought under his rule ‘all the kings who were in this island: first Hywel, king of the West Welsh and Constantine, king of the Scots, and Owain king of the people of Gwent, and Aldred son of Eadwulf from Bamburgh. And they established peace with oaths in the place which is called Eamont [Cumbria] on 12 July’. This occasion is described in all subsequent chronicles of British history.
Analysis of the tree-ring sequence in the eleven component boards of the four major fragments (including this Saxon king wearing a red hat) has established that they came from a tree still growing in central or southern England in AD 1490 and felled between 1500 and 1531.
Analysis of the tree-ring sequence in the eleven component boards of the four major fragments (including this Saxon king wearing a red hat) has established that they came from a tree still growing in central or southern England in AD 1490 and felled between 1500 and 1531.