An Unknown Man
Portrait Miniature
1665 (painted)
1665 (painted)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
Portrait of a man, head and shoulders, turned to, and looking to right. Features hatched and stippled in brown and sanguine, with touches of blue, on a very pale carnation ground; hair in brown wash, lined with darker colour and with the lights in pale gouache; linen washed in white; robe washed in blue; the background an opaque brown wash; on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book.
Frame: Seventeenth-century gold locket, the convex back enamelled in opaque pale blue, on which a landscape (with Youth and Age approaching the bank of a river with a castle on the other side) is enamelled in black; within a border of blue alternating with black, and with a repeating abstract flower ornament in black and white within an outer border of gold, and with a rounded edge of blue and black rope-work enamel; the sides with a deep narrow channel flare out in unenamelled gold to the bezel, which holds the flat glass by its rounded edges; the hanger of shallow D-section enamelled in blue and black to resemble a ribbon, which carries on over flanking double-sided loops; a gold peg at the base, presumably to secure a lid, of which however no trace (such as a hinge filed-off) now remains. Designs for similar ribbon loops, and patterns for the repeating floral edge ornament, were published in Gilles L'Egaré, Livre des Ouvrages d'Orfevrerie, 1663.
Frame: Seventeenth-century gold locket, the convex back enamelled in opaque pale blue, on which a landscape (with Youth and Age approaching the bank of a river with a castle on the other side) is enamelled in black; within a border of blue alternating with black, and with a repeating abstract flower ornament in black and white within an outer border of gold, and with a rounded edge of blue and black rope-work enamel; the sides with a deep narrow channel flare out in unenamelled gold to the bezel, which holds the flat glass by its rounded edges; the hanger of shallow D-section enamelled in blue and black to resemble a ribbon, which carries on over flanking double-sided loops; a gold peg at the base, presumably to secure a lid, of which however no trace (such as a hinge filed-off) now remains. Designs for similar ribbon loops, and patterns for the repeating floral edge ornament, were published in Gilles L'Egaré, Livre des Ouvrages d'Orfevrerie, 1663.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Title | An Unknown Man (generic title) |
Materials and techniques | Watercolour on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book |
Brief description | Portrait miniature of an unknown man, watercolour on vellum, painted by the monogrammist D. M., 1665. |
Physical description | Portrait of a man, head and shoulders, turned to, and looking to right. Features hatched and stippled in brown and sanguine, with touches of blue, on a very pale carnation ground; hair in brown wash, lined with darker colour and with the lights in pale gouache; linen washed in white; robe washed in blue; the background an opaque brown wash; on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book. Frame: Seventeenth-century gold locket, the convex back enamelled in opaque pale blue, on which a landscape (with Youth and Age approaching the bank of a river with a castle on the other side) is enamelled in black; within a border of blue alternating with black, and with a repeating abstract flower ornament in black and white within an outer border of gold, and with a rounded edge of blue and black rope-work enamel; the sides with a deep narrow channel flare out in unenamelled gold to the bezel, which holds the flat glass by its rounded edges; the hanger of shallow D-section enamelled in blue and black to resemble a ribbon, which carries on over flanking double-sided loops; a gold peg at the base, presumably to secure a lid, of which however no trace (such as a hinge filed-off) now remains. Designs for similar ribbon loops, and patterns for the repeating floral edge ornament, were published in Gilles L'Egaré, Livre des Ouvrages d'Orfevrerie, 1663. |
Dimensions |
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Content description | Portrait of a man, head and shoulders, turned to, and looking to right |
Styles | |
Marks and inscriptions |
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Credit line | Bequeathed by Alfred Winter |
Object history | Provenance: Percy Webster (the dealer), from whom purchased, October 1928. |
Subject depicted | |
Bibliographic references |
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Collection | |
Accession number | P.74-1928 |
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Record created | June 30, 2009 |
Record URL |
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