Co State of Painting from ths Reign of 



Naples is an abbefs, and at a diftance a 

 view of a town, that mufl be Tichfield, 

 from whence the queen was led to be 

 married at Southwick. Befides the feem^- 

 ing pregnancy of the queen, there is an- 

 other circumftance, conclufive for this pic- 

 ture being painted after the death of Hen- 

 ry. Round his head is the nimbus or 

 glory : an addition that was as pofterior to 

 his marriage, as the painter feems to in- 

 timate the queen's fruitfulnefs was anterior 

 to it. Round the hem of the queen's robe 

 are fom^e letters J, which are far from be- 

 ing fo intelligible as the other incidents. 

 The words are involved in the folds ; what 

 appear, are Vol falv Regin m. — one knows 

 that Salve Regina mater coelorum is the 

 beginning of a hymn — but I know not 

 what to make of Vol. — the painter pro- 

 bably v;as no Latinill — and indeed the firfl 



X Tills was a faihion as early as the reign of 

 Richiaid II. when Edward Earl of Rutland, the Lord 

 Spencer and others accufed the Earl of Arundel of trea- 

 fbn, tliey appeared before the king at Nottingham in 

 red gowns of filk, garded and bordered \mth tukite Jilk 

 itnd embroidered n-vith letters of gold. Peck's Annals of 

 Stanford, 12, 39. The lady Margaret in this pi(flure is 

 in a gFcen gov\'n bordered with white filk. 



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