A Man, perhaps Ferdinand Ill, Holy Roman Emperor thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level F , Case RMC, Shelf 1, Box E

A Man, perhaps Ferdinand Ill, Holy Roman Emperor

Portrait Miniature
1628-1630 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Portrait, head and shoulders, looking to front and wearing a high lace collar. Features hatched finely in brown and sanguine with grey shadow, over a pale creamy carnation ground; hair washed in brown and hatched in black, the lights in gouache; costume in black wash with collar in thick white; background a blue wash, hatched and shaded in violet and grey; on vellum put down on a playing card (parts of five spades); a gold marginal strip painted on the card.

Frame: Set in the obverse of two silver thalers, divided and threaded to screw together; the portrait heads are of John George I, Elector of Saxony (ruled 1611-56) and of Christian Minden, Duke of Brunswick Luneburg (ruled 1599-1633), lettered: (i) IOHAN: GEORG: D.G. DVX SAX: IVL. CLIV: ET MONTI; (ii) CHRISTIANUS. D:G. EL. EP. MIND: DUX. BR. ET. LU. Inside the latter, scratched: 1/101.25.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleA Man, perhaps Ferdinand Ill, Holy Roman Emperor (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Watercolour on vellum put down on a playing card
Brief description
Portrait miniature of a man, perhaps the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III, watercolour on vellum, painted by Alexander Cooper, 1628-1630.
Physical description
Portrait, head and shoulders, looking to front and wearing a high lace collar. Features hatched finely in brown and sanguine with grey shadow, over a pale creamy carnation ground; hair washed in brown and hatched in black, the lights in gouache; costume in black wash with collar in thick white; background a blue wash, hatched and shaded in violet and grey; on vellum put down on a playing card (parts of five spades); a gold marginal strip painted on the card.

Frame: Set in the obverse of two silver thalers, divided and threaded to screw together; the portrait heads are of John George I, Elector of Saxony (ruled 1611-56) and of Christian Minden, Duke of Brunswick Luneburg (ruled 1599-1633), lettered: (i) IOHAN: GEORG: D.G. DVX SAX: IVL. CLIV: ET MONTI; (ii) CHRISTIANUS. D:G. EL. EP. MIND: DUX. BR. ET. LU. Inside the latter, scratched: 1/101.25.
Dimensions
  • Diameter: 36mm
Dimensions taken from John Murdoch Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: The Stationery Office, 1997.
Styles
Marks and inscriptions
'AC' (Signed in gold, lower left)
Credit line
Bequeathed by Thomas Hugh Cobb
Object history
Provenance: Thomas Hugh Cobb, by whom bequeathed to the Museum, September 1944.
Production
It is unclear if this miniature was painted in England or when the artist was on the Continent in the 1630s.
Subject depicted
Bibliographic references
  • Murdoch, John. Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: The Stationery Office, 1997.
  • Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design & Department of Paintings, Accessions 1944, London: Printed under the Authority of the Ministry of Education 1949.
Collection
Accession number
P.6:1-1944

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
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