Henry VII (1457 - 1509).
One of the Seven Terracotta Busts by Michael Rysbrack,
Accidently Destroyed when a Shelf Collapsed
at Windsor Castle in 1906.
The Original Photographs were taken by Livingstone in 1874 for a royal inventory.
The busts had been moved to Windsor Castle in 1825 when Queen Caroline’s library at St James’s Palace was demolished.
Henry VII, son of Margaret Beaufort and Owen Tudor, Earl of Pembroke. 1485, succeeded on death of Richard III at Bosworth Field. 1486, married Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV (q.v.) and uniting the houses of York and Lancaster.
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Life Size Wooden Funeral Effigy from Westminster Abbey.
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Bronze Funeral Monument by Torrigiano of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York
Westminster Abbey.
A Late 19th Century Electrotype by Elkington
of Henry VII taken from a cast by Bruccianni of the Monument in Westminster Abbey.
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A Stone bust of Henry VII by Torregiano in the Star Chamber.
Sold at the Horace Walpole Sale at Strawberry Hill
Lot 96, 13 May 1742.
Bought by Algernon Percy (Lord Prudhoe) ( later 4th Duke of Northumberland).
It is noted by Gustav Wagen in 1857 in Paintings Drawings Sculptures of 1857 page 269 in the Northumberland Collection in the Ante Room at Sion House
described as being in dark stone and dated MDIX..
Where is it now?
see catalogue entry below.
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Three Terracotta Busts by Torrigiano.
Terracotta Bust of Henry VII c.1509 - 11).
by Pietro Torrigiano (1472 -1528).
Height: 60.6 cm, Width: 69 cm, Depth: 36 cm
All images from Victoria and Albert Museum.
Before 1928 the surface of the bust was covered with grey paint. The present
paint surface though restored locally, is in large part original. The bust is
broken and repaired across the left arm and shoulder, the neck, right shoulder
and right arm. Some areas adjacent to these breaks are made up in plaster. Other
areas repaired in plaster include the lower part of the ermine cloak over the
left shoulder, the front sections of the turned-up cap, and the tip of the nose.
The earliest reference to the bust is in a letter of 10 Novemer 1779 from
Michael Tyson, an antiquary, to the Rev. William Cole (British Museum, Add. MS.
59993, f. 152r-153v) reporting that he had seen in the house of Mr. Wright at
Hatfield Peverell Priory, Essex, three busts, of Henry VII, Bishop Fisher and
Henry VIII, taken from a room over the Holbein Gate at Whitehall Palace. It has
been suggested that an upper room over the Holbein Gate was used as the State
Paper Office and may have contained a secret study used by Henry VIII and Edward
VI (Grossmann, 'Holbein, Torrigiano and Some Portraits of Dean Colet' in Journal of the Warburg Institute, XIII, 1950, p.223, n.4).
According
to J. T. Smith's Antiquities of Westminster (London, 1807,
pp.22-23) the busts were bought, from an iron dealer in Belton Street, by Mr
Wright who had them repaired by the young sculptor John Flaxman. Some sculptors'
tools found inside the bust during conservation probably belonged to Flaxman.
The three busts remained at Hatfield Peverell Priory until 1928, when they were
acquired by Mr Arthur Wilson-Filmer from whose widow, Lady Baillie, the three
busts all passed into museum collections (the busts of Henry VIII and Bishop
Fisher went to the Metropolitan Museum, New York).
Notes from the V and A website.
Bust by Torrigiano possibly John Fisher. Bishop of Rochester.
With the same provenance as the bust of Henry VII (above).
Metropolitan Museum, New York.
John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester by Hans Holbein the Younger.
John Fisher Bishop of Rochester attributed to Holbein.
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Painted terracotta bust by Torrigiano, again with the same provenance as the two busts above.
Suggested as Henry VIII, aged 16.
Metropolitan Museum, New York.
For all three busts see - Article by Preston Remington, Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, November 1936.
The study of the busts of Torrigiano is beyond the current scope of this blog, but is a subject that I would like to return to at some point in the future. The superb painted plaster bust of Colley Cibber (NPG), poet-laureat, in a cap (removable), 'when old, coloured from the life, and extremely like'. given to Kitty Clive, the celebrated actress, and her brother Mr. Raftor gave it, after her death, to Horace Walpole is painted in a similarly lifelike fashion. It is attributed to Henry Cheere but as there is no documented proof that it is by him and I believe should be attributed to Roubiliac who portrayed his sitters warts and all.
Life size Plaster bust of Colley Cibber (1671 -1757) in old age.
Sometimes attributed to Henry Cheere.
or Benjamin Rackstraw.
The NPG cannot make its mind up!
Here suggested as possibly Roubiliac.
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Henry VII by Nicholas Hilliard.
34mm in diam. under the frame.
Royal Collection Trust / © HM Queen Elizabeth II, 2015.
This miniature, and three others by Hilliard, date from around 1600 and were part of the 'Bosworth Jewel', which commemorated the start of Tudor rule after Henry VII's victory over Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. The four portraits show Henry VIII's father, Henry VII, founder of the Tudor dynasty; Henry VIII himself; Queen Jane Seymour; and their son Edward, later Edward VI. The Jewel was intended to show the continuation of the dynasty through Henry VIII to Prince Edward. It was presented to Charles I by Nicholas Hilliard's son. The four miniatures were contained in an enamelled gold box which bore a depiction of the Battle of Bosworth on the lid. The Jewel seems to have been one of the items sold from the collection under Oliver Cromwell and, although the four miniatures had returned to royal ownership in the late seventeenth century, the box was lost. The four miniatures are now in Victorian frames.
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Engraving by Henry VII by Jodocus Hondius (1563 - 1611).
7.5 x 6.8 cm (image).
Royal Collection Trust / © HM Queen Elizabeth II, 2015.
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Engraving by Michael Lasne (1590 -1667)
13.6 x 8.7 cm.
Royal Collection Trust / © HM Queen Elizabeth II, 2015.
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Dutch Engraving of Henry VII.
Engraved by Pieter Stevens van Gunst (1659 - 1724) after Adriean van der Werff (1659 - 1722).
Plate to Isaac de Larrey's Histoire d'Angeleterre (1697-1713).
1697 -1713.
318 x183 mm (platemark).
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Bronze Medallion of Henry VII.
By Jean Dassier 1732.
41mm in diam.
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Henry VII with a portrait of his wife Elizabeth of York.
Engraving by George Vertue.
From Rapin and Tindall - History of England, pub. 1732.
Lettered to image "From an antient Limning in the Royal Collection." and "G. Vertue Inv. Sc."
280 x 177 mm.
British Museum.
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Original watercolour of Henry VII by George Vertue.
150 x 201 mm.
British Museum.
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Henry VII.
Mezzotint by Faber 1731.
172 x 126mm.
British Museum.
See previous blog post.
John Faber Jr., the son of John Faber, also an engraver, was born in Amsterdam. His family settled in England and he learned drawing and mezzotint engraving from his father before enrolling at the academy in St Martin's Lane founded by Louis Cheron and John Vanderbank 1724. A prolific portraitist, Faber became a well-respected engraver of portraits.Sir Godfrey Kneller and Peter Lely had him make prints after their works. He is best remembered for his forty-seven plates of members of the Kit-Kat Club after Kneller and a series of twelve portraits entitled Beauties of Hampton Court.
The above are a selection, by no means exhaustive, of the engravings and representations of Henry VII, the intention being here to give some idea of the sources for the Rysbrack bust. It is possible that the series by Faber were the inspiration for the busts from Queen Caroline's library which were initially to be set up at Kew.
Henry VIII, Henry VII, his wife Elizabeth of York and Jane Seymour 3rd wife of Henry VIII.
George Vertue 1743.
47.8 x 57.3 cms.
Royal Collection Trust / © HM Queen Elizabeth II, 2015.
This engraving is a copy of a small painting by Remigius van Leemput, who made a copy of Holbein's original for Charles II, see RCIN 405750.
Holbein's original mural at the Privy Chamber in Whitehall was painted by Holbein for Henry VIII in 1537, and was destroyed by the fire at the palace on 4 January 1698.
Watercolour Copy signed and dated G. Vertue, 1737.
45.7 x 57.3 cms.
The Original by Remigius van Leemput, is in the Royal Collection was painted for Charles II The painting by van Leemput is the only complete record of the mural. Holbein's original preparatory cartoon for the left half of the composition is in the National Portrait Gallery.
Royal Collection Trust / © HM Queen Elizabeth II, 2015.
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The surviving Holbein Cartoon for the original Mural in the Privy Chamber at Whitehall Palace destroyed in the fire of 1698.
2578 x 1372 mm.
National Portrait Gallery.
