THE ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST

Exhibition Highlights

Albrecht D ürer (1471 –1528) The Apocalypse: The Four Horsemen , 1498 Woodcut, 39.7 × 28.5 cm

The Book of the Revelation of St John, commonly known as the Apocalypse, was a popular subject for illustration throughout the Middle Ages. Its predictions of violent turmoil were increasingly referred to in

the approach to the year 1500, when it was widely believed that the

world would end. The Apocalypse was the first illustrated book to be

produced by Dürer and included 15 full-page illustrations. This image shows the four horsemen, representing Conquest, War, Famine and Death – omens of the Last Judgment.

Albrecht Dürer (1471 –1528) Pupila Augusta , c.1498 Pen and ink, 25.4 × 19.4 cm

This enigmatic drawing was clearly intended as a design for a print, as the lettering on the basket to the left and the artist’s monogram are both in reverse. The print however appears never to have been made. The

design seems to draw a contrast between the three elderly women in

the foreground and the three young women who approach them, riding

on the back of a large fish. It has been suggested that the background group depicts Venus or Aphrodite, who was born from the sea and came to land on the island of Cyprus. Dürer assembled his composition from a number of Italian prints and watercolour studies that he made of

the cityscapes of Trent and Innsbruck. He returned to the composition for a number of different works, including his painting, The Feast of the Rose Garlands of 1506.

Albrecht Dürer (1471 –1528) Burkhard of Speyer , 1506 Oil on panel, 31.7 × 26.0 cm

In 1506 the German merchants in Venice who belonged to the Confraternity of the Rosary commissioned Dürer to produce an altarpiece, The Feast of the Rose Garlands , for the German church of San Bartolommeo. The sitter in this portrait has been recognised as one of the figures in this painting, who wears almost identical clothes. He has been identified as Burkhard of Speyer and he may have been one of the German chaplains attached to San Bartolommeo. Burkhard wears secular Venetian dress, including the rounded Italian bonnet or beret and gown over a red under-jacket. Dürer’s work in Venice shows an interesting meeting of German and Venetian techniques. He combined his exacting record of faces and mastery of line with Venetian colour.

Quinten Massys (1465/6 –1530) Desiderius Erasmus , 1517 Oil on panel, 50.5 x 44.9 cm

This portrait of Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536), the Netherlandish

scholar, is one of Massys’s most famous works. It was commissioned

with a pendant portrait of Pieter Gillis, a fellow humanist and town

clerk of Antwerp, to be sent as a gift to Sir Thomas More. More’s

Utopia had been conceived while staying with Gillis, who features in the text, and Erasmus became the editor of the first edition published in 1516. In presenting themselves surrounded by their books, both men must have hoped these portraits would further seal their bonds of intellect and friendship with a like-minded thinker.

Jan Gossaert ( c.147 8–1532) Adam and Eve , c.1520 Oil on panel, 169.2 × 112.0 cm

Gossaert created numerous versions of Adam and Eve, of which this painting is the largest, with the figures almost life-size. Adam and Eve are shown at the moment after they have eaten the forbidden fruit. Gossaert’s couple appear overwhelmingly aware of their nakedness and shame. Adam gestures to his mouth to indicate what he has just done, and Eve’s eyes register her calm acceptance of their fate. The Trees of Life and of Knowledge of Good and Evil frame the figures, who cling to each other as though they might literally ‘fall’. Two simple plants are depicted in the foreground – sea holly to symbolise lust and columbine to represent fear of God. It is speculated that the painting inspired passages in John

Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ .

Lucas Cranach the Elder (c.1472 –1553)

Apollo and Diana , c.1526

Oil on beech panel, 83.8 x 56.5 cm

This outstanding Cranach shows the sun god Apollo, admired for his moral standing and physical beauty, and his twin sister Diana or Artemis, goddess of the moon, who was associated with chastity, archery and hunting. The emphasis on humanity closely related to the primeval forest and hunting is given a particular intensity by the way in which the figures are seen in relief but also related to the forest behind them. Diana’s precisely rendered hair curls around the stag’s antlers, which in turn are deliberately confused with the branches of the trees behind. Cranach may have drawn on many sources in creating this work, including prints

of the same subject by Jacopo de’Barbari and Dürer, both of whom were influenced by classical sources.

Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/8 –1543) ‘Noli me Tangere ’, 1526-8 Oil on panel, 76.7 × 95.8 cm

Noli me tangere is the Latin for ‘touch me not’, the words spoken by Christ to Mary Magdalene after she discovers him risen from the tomb. Holbein’s unusual depiction focuses on the moment when the weeping Magdalene, having found two angels in the empty place of Christ’s body at the tomb, turns and encounters a man whom she takes to be a gardener. It seems likely that it was painted in 1526-8, during Holbein’s first visit to England, particularly since it is painted on oak (which the artist did not use in Basel).

Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/8 –1543) Sir Henry Guildford , 1527 Oil on panel, 82.7 × 66.4 cm

Sir Henry Guildford (1489 -1532) was one of Henry VIII’s closest friends. On the king’s accession in 1509 he was appointed Esquire of the Body, a personal attendant on the king, and Master of Revels, responsible for organising the lavish entertainments at court. He later developed a distinguished career as Comptroller of the Royal Household and is seen in this portrait holding the white staff of this office.

Guildford was one of the first in England to commission a portrait from Holbein – both the preparatory drawing and the finished oil painting are in the Royal Collection. The painting is one of Holbein’s most impressive surviving portraits. It shows the sitter, aged 38, standing three-quarter length, richly dressed in velvet, fur and cloth of gold.

Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/8 –1543) Derich Born , 1533 Oil on oak panel, 60.5 × 45.0 cm

Derich Born (1509/10–after 1549) was a merchant from Cologne and the youngest member of the London Hanseatic League. This is one of a group of seven surviving portraits of German merchants all painted c.1532-3 and perhaps intended to be sent home to the sitters’ families. Derich’s wealth is subtly displayed in the very expensive satin doublet and black fur-lined gown. This restrained elegance was the fashion in Cologne. His face is centrally placed and confronts the viewer; his elbow is precisely central below his face, and his body is turned at a perfect angle. An accompanying inscription celebrates Holbein’s talent as an artist.

Augustin Hirschvogel (1503 –1553) The Crucifixion , 1533 Pen and black ink, 55.5 × 39.4 cm

In this impressive drawing Hirschvogel presents Golgotha, the site of the Crucifixion, as a crowded showground, in which the suffering figures on the crosses are raised high above a throng of supporters and onlookers, and dwarfed against a broad sky. The ground is strewn with bones and skulls, and a group of figures kneel to gamble for Christ’s garments. At centre right, separated from the crowd, stand the Virgin Mary and Christ’s followers, wringing their hands in anguish. The purpose of this drawing is unclear, but its size and detail may indicate that it was made as a finished drawing for display, rather than as a preparatory study for a painting or piece of stained glass.

Follower of Marinus van Reymerswaele (c.1490/95 –c.1567) The Misers , 1548–51 Oil on panel, 118.0 x 98.0 cm

In Milan c. 1520 the Venetian nobleman Marcantonio Michiel saw Jan van Eyck’s painting of a banker and his client, painted in 1440. The lost original appears to have been the catalyst for a popular type of painting of two tax collectors in which the figures wear 15th-century dress and have grotesque features. It was commonly believed that moral depravity would manifest itself in ugliness and deformity, and comic depictions of grotesque individuals found a ready market across Europe. The French language in the ledger, suggests the picture was made for a French patron.

François C louet (1485/90 –1540/1) Mary, Queen of Scots , c.1558 Watercolour on vellum, 8.3 × 5.7 cm

This exquisite miniature of Mary, Queen of Scots, is most likely to have been commissioned by the French royal family to commemorate her marriage to the French dauphin, the future Francis II, in 1558. She is shown placing a ring on the fourth finger of her right hand. Mary, Queen of Scots had been betrothed to the dauphin since the age of 5 and was raised at the French court.

The jewel-like colours and contrasts of blue background and pink dress emphasise the Scottish Queen’s renowned beauty, with sparkling hazel eyes and auburn hair. Clouet’s miniature was an important prototype for future portraits of the Scottish and French Queen.