Man Clasping a Hand from a Cloud, perhaps Lord Thomas Howard

“NICHOLAS HILLIARD

83 Man Clasping a Hand from a Cloud, perhaps Lord Thomas Howard, 1588

Victoria & Albert Museum (P.21-1942)
Vellum mounted on to a plain brown card, which is probably a later addition, oval, 60 mm x 49.5 mm, 2 ¾ x 1 in.

Lord Thomas Howard, later 1s t Earl of Suffolk and 1st Baron Howard de Walden (1561-1626) was the second son of Thomas, 4th Duke of Norfolk, executed in 1572. He served as volunteer in the fleet sent against the Armada (1588); was commander in the Azores expedition (1591); admiral in the Cadiz expedition (1596) and in 1597, created Baron Howard de Walden. Although closely connected with Essex, he led the forces that besieged Essex House in 1601. In July 1603 he was created Earl of Suffolk; in 1614 he became Lord-Treasurer and survived the disgrace of his daughter, the notorious Frances, in 1615 but eventually both he and his wife fell from power in 1618 for embezzlement. Humble submission to the King and the promise to repay brought a restoration to favour two years later.

There are two versions of this miniature, the second of which is in the possession of Dr Leslie Hotson who made it the subject of his book, Shakespeare by Hilliard, London, 1977. The existence of a repetition indicates that the sitter was of some social standing. A close comparison of both miniatures, accompanied by technical examination should establish which is the ad vivum, although this one, in spire of the large amount of damage on the sitter’s left cheek and the fading, is of high quality.

There can be not question that the sitter is not William Shakespeare, as Dr Hotson believes, an identification supported by wholly speculative arguments. Proof of identity must depend on provenance. The V&A version was known as Robert Devereaux, 2nd Earl of Essex, when in the collection of Sir Hans Sloane, again an identification that cannot be sustained. The Hotson version was part of a group of miniatures that belonged to the Howards of Naworth Castle and Castle Howard.

The only certain clue to the true identity is this Howard connexion and the now certainly identified Raleigh miniature. This leads us to Lord Thomas Howard. In 1591 Raleigh was appointed to serve under Lord Thomas on an expedition to the West Indies and he also attempted to reconcile Raleigh with Essex. Later serving under Essex on the Cadiz expedition he was closely connected with the Earl throughout this period. Howard was twenty-seven in 1588, the date of the miniature, during which period he was active in court fetes, taking part in the Accession Day Tilts of 1584, 1585, 1586 and 1589 (Strong The Cult of Elizabeth, pp. 206-7) and made his second marriage to Catherine, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Henry Knevet of Charlton, in 1583.

IN 1588 Howard accompanied, as a volunteer, the fleet sent to oppose the Spanish Armada and in the attack off Calais displayed such courage that he was knighted at sea June 25th 1588. certainly an event to commemorate in a miniature. This brings us to the allegory of the symbolic linked hands. The sitter’s right hand is raised clasping a female left hand issuing from a cloud with a ruff-cuff. A comparison with many other miniature by Hilliard leaves it indisputable that this is a female and not a male hand as Hotson tries to argue (Shakespeare by Hilliard, op. cit. pp. 37 ff.) The formula is paralleled in Hans Eworth’s portrait of Sir John Luttrell (1550) in which Peace, ensconced in the clouds, embraces his raised arm (Strong, The English Icon, p. 86 (no. 22)). Clasped hands are a common emblem of Concord and plighted faith:

Of Concord firme, the Romans in their coine,
This symbole gave, their peace about to make,
That as their hands, as in one their hearts should ione,
And sooner first they would their lives forsake…
(H. Peachum, Minerva Britanna, London, 1612, p. 135).

The Hand-in-hand, which Plighted faith implies… (George Wither, A Collection of Emblemes, London, 1635, p. 166).

(Hotson, op. cit., cites more, pp. 49-50). More confusing is the motto which no one has satisfactorily explained or translated. The Raleigh-Essex-Howard links during the mid to late 1580s would at least make this identification a possibility. Lord Thomas’s role as a courtier, used to assuming the allegorical guise demanded of actors in the tiltyard, would also fit. Surviving portraits of him are much later in date and depict him as an older man. An early copy of a lost portrait of c. 1605 now in the National Portrait Gallery (no. 4572), depicts Lord Thomas as Earl of Suffolk aged about forty-five. The hair is brown streaked with grey and the beard is differently cut, darker and also streaked with grey. The hair matches the miniature in colour as do they grey eyes. (For a discussion of his meagre iconography see Strong Tudor and Jacobean, I, pp. 359-60, II, pls. 685-88). If it is Howard in the miniature it is Howard the younger courtier, the budding naval Thomas and not the degenerate Jacobean courtier of the century that followed.

INSCRIBED: On either side of the head: Attici amoris ergo. / Ano. Dni. 1588

COLLECTIONS: This should be identical with a group of Hilliard miniatures sold in May 1726 from the collection of a writer, Mr Halstead: “there likewise several hds of Hilliard with writing about, gold letters. One of Leonard Dorns Aeta 37. Ano. 1591…another Aeta. 33. 1611. the Earl of Essex. 1588. William Earl of Pembroke by Hoskins” (Vertue, Notebooks, II, Walpole Society, XX,1932, p. 13); the Essex could be this miniature (and not assumed by Hotson (p. 202) the Naworth one) acquired by Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753); this passed with his collection to the British Museum in 1754 (BM No. 3; Sloane 272) and it is recorded in the Sloane Inventory: “The picture of the Earl of Essex in whose hand is another coming from the clouds, supposed to be that of Queen Elizabeth, wrote upon Attici Amoris Ergo 1588 in miniature!, purchased or valued at £2.2.0d; transferred to the V&A, 1939.

LITERATURE: Winter, Elizabethan Miniatures, p. 24, pl. IV (b).
V&A, 1947 (35).
Pope-Hennessy, Lecture, 1949, p. 23.
Auerbach, Hilliard, pp. 109, 299 (no. 73).
L. Hotson, Shakespeare by Hilliard, London, 1977, passim.”

Exhibition History

Artists of the Tudor Court: the portrait miniature rediscovered, 1520-1620 (Victoria and Albert Museum 09/07/1983-06/11/19833)

Materials

Watercolour; Vellum

Techniques

Painting

Subjects depicted

Man; Clouds; Hat; Emblem; Impressa

Categories

Portraits; Paintings

Collection code

PDP