The Exhibition of Miniatures at South Kensington. 97 



The Protector Somerset, by Hilliard, 1560. A posthumous 

 portrait, or perhaps a copy of a portrait from life, the decapi- 

 tation of the Protector having taken place in 1552. 



Queen Mary I., by Sir Antonio More. Oil. — By Luis de 

 Vargas, 1555. Oil. A very fine head-and-shoulders portrait, 

 of fair size. — Another, author anonymous (No. 1282). Ap- 

 pears to our eyes of more than doubtful authenticity. The 

 costume belongs rather to some twenty or thirty years after 

 Mary's death, and the type of face suggests a princess of the 

 Austro- Spanish family. — By Holbein. At an early age, perhaps 

 sixteen, when, according to the evidence of this portrait, the 

 princess had pale golden hair, 



Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon, the suitor regarded with 

 some favour by " Bloody Mary." " He is represented in a 

 white shirt, with open lace collar, holding a chain or bracelet, 

 and locket, the latter being suspended round his neck ; behind 

 him, in the background, rise flames." This last is a very 

 curious detail in a fine miniature. 



The Regent Murray, "An. 1566, Mta. 33," by Antonio 

 More. Oil. Very fine. 



Queen Elizabeth, by Hilliard. A somewhat broader face 

 than in most portraits. — Another, anonymous. Seems about 

 the age of nineteen, with a boyish look. — By I. Oliver. A 

 very pretty miniature, with an almost Chinese absence of 

 shadow. — By Hilliard, in a very richly jewelled dress and lace 

 ruff. This is one of those old miniatures in which the almost 

 entire absence of colour from the flesh is a salient peculiarity, 

 and a defect. We scarcely know how far this may be the 

 intentional manner of the artist, or how far it may be the 

 effect of time and exposure. As Mr. Redgrave says in his 

 catalogue, " It is truly painful to see how many fine miniatures 

 have been exposed to the sun, till all their colour has been 

 absolutely burnt out, while others have equally suffered from 

 damp, or from the absence of the most ordinary protection 

 required for works of such minute delicacy." Certain it is, 

 however,, that this facial pallor is often found associated with 

 sufficiently full tints in the costume, as in the miniature of 

 which we are now speaking. — By Zucchero, cc A Young Lady, 

 supposed to be Queen Elizabeth as Princess." This gives a 

 front and a back view of the head, and is, in all respects, most 

 charming. We wish it were possible to " suppose " the 

 original to have been Elizabeth, but the evidence of dates 

 makes such a suggestion quite absurd. When Elizabeth 

 was about sixteen, the age to which these portraits may be 

 referred, in 1549, Eederigo Zucchero was a boy of six; when 

 Zucchero came to England in 1574, Elizabeth was a woman of 

 forty-one. — By Hilliard, at about sixty years of age. — A pro- 



VOL. VIII. — NO. II. H 



