His aunt, Emilia Bassano, was the daughter of Venetian musicians at the Tudor court and, before her marriage to Alfonso Lanier, had been the mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth I, and possibly Henry Wriothesly, Earl of Southampton.

The portrait displays the attitude of studied carelessness, called sprezzatura, recommended in The Book of the Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione, defined as "a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it".

[6] Lanier's portrait by van Dyck hangs today in Vienna at the Kunsthistoriches Museum.

[7] In 1626, Lanier became the first composer to hold the title Master of the King's Music; an honour given a musician of great distinction.

There is only one painting which can be identified as being made by Lanier, a self-portrait in the music faculty of Oxford University.