Artists of the Tudor court

The Yorkist dynasty overthrown by the Tudors had been very close to their Burgundian allies, and English diplomats had their portraits painted by the finest Early Netherlandish painters – Edward Grimston by Petrus Christus and Sir John Donne by Hans Memling (both National Gallery, London[a]).

[4] The Netherlandish painters remained predominant, though French influence was also important on both Lucas Horenbout and Nicholas Hilliard, respectively the founder and the greatest exponent of the distinctively English tradition of the portrait miniature.

The main artistic interests of Henry VIII were music, building palaces and tapestry, of which he had over 2,000 pieces, costing far more than he ever spent on painters.

Elizabeth spent far less, hardly building anything herself, but took a personal interest in painting, keeping her own collection of miniatures locked away, wrapped in paper on which she wrote the names of the sitter.

Levina Teerlinc, in turn, taught the art of limning to Nicholas Hilliard, an apprentice goldsmith who would marry the daughter of Queen Elizabeth's jeweller and rise to become the supreme miniaturist of the age.

Hilliard's most famous student, Isaac Oliver, later limner to Anne of Denmark and Henry, Prince of Wales, was married to the niece of Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger.

De Heere was also a religious refugee from Flanders; although the upheavals of the Protestant Reformation acted to reduce artistic contacts, especially with Italy, England could also benefit from them.

Inscriptions are often later than the paintings themselves, and may reflect wishful thinking; many anonymous Tudor ladies were identified as "Mary I", or, especially, one or other of Henry VIII's queens, by the owners of pictures.

[25][g] A well-known painting (left) was identified by George Vertue in 1727 as Lady Frances Brandon and her second husband Adrian Stokes, an attribution that stood unquestioned until the sitters were properly identified as Mary Nevill, Baroness Dacre and her son Gregory Fiennes, 10th Baron Dacre and the artist as Hans Eworth in 1986.

Today, attributions are made on the basis of style, sitter, accepted date, and related documentation such as receipts or bills for payment and inventories of collections or estates.

Some of the most well-known images of the period, such as the portrait of Elizabeth I when a Princess, age 13, have been attributed to many artists over the years, but remain cautiously labelled "?Flemish School" in recent catalogues.

The Rainbow Portrait by an unknown artist, possibly Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger , an image of Elizabeth I as the "Queen of Love and Beauty" c. 1600, epitomizes the elaborate iconography associated with later Tudor court portraiture. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ]
Portrait of Jane Seymour by Holbein, 1536–37
Drawing of Jane Seymour by Holbein, 1536–37
Detail of Georg Hoefnagel 's 1568 watercolour of the south frontage of Nonsuch Palace , one of the only two good images - which differ considerably. The stucco reliefs are shown in blue-ish grey.
Exiled Flemish artists in England? [ b ] Detail of A Fête at Bermondsey .
Mary I by Hans Eworth , c. 1555
Posthumous terracotta bust of Henry VII by Pietro Torrigiano
George Gower's 1579 self-portrait shows his tools as an artist outweighing his arms as a gentleman; he was the first serjeant painter who was also a portraitist [ 18 ] [ 19 ]
This portrait was misidentified for 250 years.