An Unknown Young Man
Portrait Miniature
1590-1593 (painted)
1590-1593 (painted)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This miniature is unique among Hilliard's miniatures, because the sitter is placed against a black background. Conservation assessment has shown how the sitter’s demand for this unusual colour caused Hilliard difficulties. He had to marry it to the hair, which resulted in a hard, unbroken edge. Usually in his works he was able to extend the hair over a lighter background. The colour black is emblematic of constancy, because it will take no other colour.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | An Unknown Young Man (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Watercolour on vellum, stuck to a playing card. |
| Brief description | Portrait miniature of an unknown young man, ca. 1590-1593, watercolour on vellum, painted by Nicholas Hilliard, 1590-1593. |
| Physical description | Portrait miniature of a young man, head and shoulders, oval. The six of hearts is printed on the reverse of the backing sheet. |
| Dimensions |
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| Content description | Portrait of a man, head and shoulders, the head turned slightly to left and looking to front; the sitter's left hand is tucked inside the right breast of his shirt; his hair is shoulder-length; the shirt that he wears is made of a patterned lace. |
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| Gallery label |
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| Object history | This is one of five miniatures from the Radnor collection (P.1 to 5-1974), all of which were reframed at the time of acquisition for conservation reasons and are now housed in 1970s frames. The original ivory box and lid for each medallion is currently held in storage. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | This miniature is unique among Hilliard's miniatures, because the sitter is placed against a black background. Conservation assessment has shown how the sitter’s demand for this unusual colour caused Hilliard difficulties. He had to marry it to the hair, which resulted in a hard, unbroken edge. Usually in his works he was able to extend the hair over a lighter background. The colour black is emblematic of constancy, because it will take no other colour. |
| Associated object | |
| Bibliographic reference | Strong, Roy. Artists of the Tudor Court: the Portrait Miniature Rediscovered 1520-1620.. London: The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983.
Cat. 93, p. 80. Part Citation:
Vellum stuck to a playing card with six hearts at the reverse, oval, 50 x 42 mm, 2 ¾ x 1 5/8 in.
It is in very poor condition with sever flaking of the shirt, abrasions to the features and background, which is also damaged by water, and very faded. Nonetheless the miniature is unique amongst Hilliard’s oeuvre in placing the sitter against a black background. V. J. Muirrell points out that the demand of the sitter for this colour has caused Hilliard difficulties in marrying it to the hair, resulting in a hard unbroken edge in contrast to his usual ability to extend the hair over a lighter background.
The young man looks about twenty and is presenting himself as a lover. Black as a colour is emblematic of constancy because it will take not other colour (see Leslie Hotson, Mr W H, London, 1964, p. 211 for a list of references to this). Both REYNOLDS AND Auerbach date this miniature to c. 1585 which, on grounds of the hairstyle, is impossible. The hair is long and curly at the sides and brushed away from the forehead, a fashion adopted by young men at the opening of the 1590’s (Strong, The English Icon, 1969, p. 217 (175); 220 (179-80). The still free calligraphic rendering of the hair dates it before c. 1593 when Hilliard’s style changed.
No identity can be suggested but the miniatures, as a group, relate to Elizabeth Stafford, Lady Drury.
COLLECTIONS: See P.2-1974.
LITERATURE: Countess of Radnor and W. B. Squire. Catalogue of the Collection of the Earl of Radnor, 1909, II, p. 109 (4).
V&A, 1947 (27).
Auerbach, Hilliard, pp. 93-4; pl. 64; 297 (59).
Strong, “The Radnor Miniatures”, Christie’s Review of the Season 1974, ed. John Herbert, 1974, pp. 254-57.
Strong, Hilliard, p. 30, pl. 9 (a).” |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | P.3:1-1974 |
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| Record created | July 8, 2003 |
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