[Scottish National Memorials Contents]
PORTRAITS, in Oil, of King James V. of Scotland and his wife, Queen Mary of Guise, the father and mother of Queen Mary Stewart. He is represented wearing a fur-lined cloak with furred sleeves. He holds between his thumb and first finger a jewel, which hangs by a chain of gold from his neck. His dress is apparently cut square at the neck. The Queen wears a dress cut in the same pattern, the sleeves of which are lined with crimson. She holds a flower. Her neck is unusually long. The hair of both is of a yellow colour. The arms, Scotland impaling Lorraine, occur. At the top is the Scottish Lion, with two unicorns as supporters. A defaced inscription, apparently, ‘In my defence,’ may be traced. The following legend occurs: (Jacobus Quintus Scotorum rex, anno ætatis suæ 28, Maria Lothoringia illius in secundis nuptiis uxor, anno ætatis suæ 24.’
The portrait of James V. which appears in this work is of the most absolute authenticity. It is similar in general type to that cabinet-sized portrait of the monarch alone at Windsor. The type was adopted in the engraved portrait in Jonston’s Inscriptiones, 1602, and preserved in the subsequent engraved portraits founded upon that print.
The portrait of the Queen here given is her best-authenticated likeness; but Mr. George Scharf now considers that the painting in the National Portrait Gallery, London, formerly known as ‘The Fraser-Tytler Portrait of Mary Queen of Scots,’ represents her mother, Mary of Lorraine, who appears in the present picture. See his letter on the ‘Portraits of Mary Queen of Scots,’ Times, 7th May 1888; and also the Thirty-first Report of the National Portrait Gallery, 1888.
The above portraits of James V. and his Queen are engraved, separately, in Pinkerton’s Iconographia Scotica. [J. M. G.]
(160) Lent by the MARQUIS OF HARTINGTON.
PORTRAIT, of Mary Stewart, in Oil, on panel, 13 ½ inches by 11 inches. A contemporary replica of ‘Le Deuil Blanc,’ in Her Majesty’s possession. From the Hastings Collection, 1869.
This is a version of the portrait of Mary Queen of Scots in her ‘deuil blanc,’ or widow’s dress, after the death of Francis II., of which the drawing by Janet is in the Bibliothèque de Ste. Geneviève, Paris. Another good old version of this drawing was exhibited by the Rev. Dr. Wellesley, of New Inn Hall, Oxford, in the Archæological Institute’s Museum, held in Edinburgh in 1856. See Catalogue, p. 201. The finest oil-colour version of this portrait is in the Royal Collection at Windsor (formerly at Hampton Court), and is first mentioned in Vander Doort’s Catalogue of Pictures at Whitehall Palace, 1639. See Mr. George Scharf’s ‘Royal Picture Galleries,’ in Archæological Institute’s Old London, p. 342. There are various other versions in the same medium, such as those in the National Portrait Gallery, London, in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, and in Jesus College, Cambridge. See Catalogues of the two National Portrait Galleries; Scharfs Portraits of Mary I. of England and Mary Queen of Scots (reprinted from Proceedings of Society of Antiquaries), p. 10, and his Letter on ‘Portraits of Mary Queen of Scots,’ in Times, 7th May 1888. [J. M. G.]
(162) Lent by ALFRED MORRISON.
ENGRAVING (full length), of Queen Mary, by Hogenberg, inscribed ‘Maria Jacobi Scotorum regis Filia, Scotorumque nunc Regina.’ On the left side are the letters ‘F. H.’ and the inscription, ‘Hans Liefinck.’ (Cf. Labanoff, Portraits, Nos. 39 and 41.)
(167) Lent by HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN.
SMALL OIL PORTRAIT, of Mary Queen of Scots. She is crowned and wears a large ruff. This is believed to be one of the four mementoes painted for the Queen’s maids during her lifetime. A version of the portrait on the monument of Barbara Mowbray and Elisabeth Curie, in the Church of St Andrew at Antwerp, of which another version it in the possession of the Earl of Cathcart. It is no doubt derived from a common original with No. 217, the Blairs College Portrait, which see below. [J. M. G.]
(232) Lent by the BARONESS WILLOUGHBY OF ERESBY.
OIL PAINTING, of Mary Queen of Scots, from Windsor Castle. Similar to the Blairs College Portrait, No. 217 of present Exhibition. For an account of the slight variations between these two works and the third similar portrait at Cobham Hall (described by Mr. F. G. Stephens in Archæologia Cantiana, vol. xi.) see Mr. George Scharf’s letter in The Times, 7th February 1888, which also refers to a similar memorial portrait of Queen Mary (perhaps of a reduced size) which was bought by Woodburn at Lord Godolphin’s sale, on 6th June 1803, and seeks information regarding its present resting-place.
The above Windsor version of the memorial portrait is described in the ‘Travels of the Marchese Luca Casimiro degl’ Albizzi in 1683,’ written by the Dottore Andrea Forzoni, a MS. now in the British Museum. The picture was then in Windsor Castle. See Catalogue of Archæological Museum of 1856, p. xxii. [J. M. G.]
(169) Lent by HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN.
PORTRAIT, of Mary Stewart, generally known as the Blairs College Portrait, from the place of its present custody. (See Plate IX.) It was originally the property of Elizabeth Curle, one of the Queen’s attendants at her execution, and was by her bequeathed in 1620 to the Scottish College at Douay, where at that time Elizabeth Curle’s brother was a professor. Of its importance as a genuine portrait of the Scottish Queen there can be only one opinion. It is probable that it was painted by Amyas Cawood, from a drawing made during Mary’s lifetime, after Jane Kennedy and Elisabeth Curle had returned to France.
It represents Mary Stewart standing in the Hall of Fotheringhay Castle, immediately before her execution. Her dress is black, trimmed with fur. A long white cloak reaches to the ground from the shoulder. In her right hand she holds a crucifix, and in her left a book of prayers. A small group on the right of this figure represents the details of the execution, which shows the Queen with her head on the block; the executioner (who wears an apron) prepares to strike a second blow, the effect of the first being perceptible. The figures of Jane Kennedy and Elizabeth Curle are here introduced; and some account of the event is given in a long Latin inscription.
[See above. No. 169 (Windsor version of same memorial portrait), with notes thereon. The history of the present picture is given as follows in the Archæologia Scotica, vol. iv. pp. 370-1:-
‘Communicated to the Secretary by John Menzies of Pitfoddels, Esq. [in whose house in York Place, Edinburgh, the picture then was]; and the Rev. James Gillis.
• • • • • •
‘MY DEAR SIR,
‘The following is the extract from Mrs. Curle’s will relative to the picture of Queen Mary which you saw here this afternoon.
‘ “Traduction de l’Espagnol d’une partie du Testament de Dame Elizabeth Curle,
du 24 Avril 1620.
‘ “En signe de cette fondation, je laisse audit Séminaire (Douai) un joiau d’or… qui renferme un petit portrait de la Reine Marie d’Ecosse, ma maitresse, chose que j’estime grandement, parce qu’elle me fut donnée par sa Majesté la matinée même qu’elle fut martyrisée: de plus, je laisse aussi un grand portrait de sa Majesté vetue comme elle etoit à son martyre; c’est à condition &c. &c.”
‘The above is copied from a manuscript of the Rev. John Farquharson, President of the Scots College of Douay in 1793, who himself intrusted the picture to the care of a niece of Martin of Douay, during the time of the reign of terror. She concealed it in a condemned chimney-vent, from whence it was removed by Mr. Farquharson to the English Convent, Paris, where it remained till 1830, when the late Dr. Paterson, Roman Catholic Bishop in Edinburgh, then at Paris, brought it over with him to Scotland. Dr. Paterson was Vice-President of Douay College in 1793, and remembered the picture well. – I am, with respect,
’My dear Sir,
‘Your most obedient Servant,
24 YORK PLACE, 25th March 1853 [sic, in error for 1833]. JAS. GILLIS,
‘DONALD GREGORY, Esq.’ Catholic Clergyman.
[J. M. G.]
(217) Lent by THE TRUSTEES OF BLAIRS COLLEGE.
Plate IX. – Queen Mary – The Blairs College Portrait.
MINIATURE, of Mary Stewart, Queen of Scots. Figure shown to below waist, crowned, and holding two large white flowers in front of the breast. This miniature appears to be founded upon a portrait of the Antwerp type. See Note on No. 232, p. 78. [J. M. G.]
(220) Lent by the EARL OF MAR AND KELLIE.
PORTRAIT, of Mary Stewart, on panel, taken when she was about the age of seventeen. Her hair, of light brown, is enclosed in a net of gold cord, with a coronal of jewels and a single pearl on the forehead. She wears a small ruff, a close-fitting white dress with diagonal stripes of gold, and buttoned up to the neck, a rich collar and pendant of pearls; a crimson mantle with sleeves of the same colour, furred with ermine to the waist, high on the shoulders, and banded with white fur. This painting bears considerable resemblance to the portrait at Hat field House, which has been attributed to Sir Antonio More.
(221) Lent by SIR JOHN STIRLING MAXWELL, BART.
Small full-length PORTRAIT, in Oil, of Mary Stewart, in Highland dress, the under part of which is green, the upper part tartan. In one hand she holds a rose, the other rests on a table covered with red velvet.
(223) Lent by HENRY BURNLEY HEATH.
PORTRAIT, of Mary Stewart, in Oil, of life-size, half-length.
(223) Lent by MRS. GRAHAM.
PORTRAIT, in Oil, on Copper, of Mary Stewart, either by or after Zucchero. A cabinet- sized version, reversed and to below the waist only, from the same original as No. 231 (p. 81). See Note on that picture. Probably the present version has been made from the reversed half-length line-engraving by Vertue, – as the colours of the costume do not agree with those in the original painting, and the thistle on the back of the chair to the right does not appear in this latter (as was evident from a careful examination made when Chatsworth was exhibited at the Stuart Exhibition, 1889), but was added by Vertue, in his print, from a device appearing on the old Scottish coinage. [J. M. G.]
(224) Lent by JAMES BARCLAY MURDOCH.
PORTRAIT, in Oil, of Mary Stewart, a copy by Keith (an Edinburgh artist of the early part of the present century) from that at Versailles. This is a modem version of the ‘Orkney Portrait.’ [J. M. G.]
(225) Lent by MRS ARTHUR.
PORTRAITS, of Henry Lord Darnley, second husband of Queen Mary Stewart, and of his brother Charles, the father of Arabella Stewart. (See Plate X.)
At the top is inscribed
and to the left, ‘CHARLLES STEWARDE HIS BROTHER ÆTATIS, 6,’ (not ‘5’ as given in Law’s Historical Catalogue).
On front of the dais is the date ‘1563.’ On the cross-rail of the table is the monogram of the painter, ‘
,’ for Heere Fecit, as it appears on his portrait of ‘Queen Mary Tudor,’ 1554, in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries, London; on his other portrait of that Queen, dated the same year, in the possession of Lord Chesham, at Latimer; on his ‘Allegorical Picture of Queen Elizabeth,’ 1569, at Hampton Court; and on his portrait of Mary Nevill, Lady Dacre, in the possession of Sir Thomas Barrett Lennard, Bart. He sometimes marked his works with another monogram, ‘LHF,’ for Lucas Heere Fecit, as is the case with his portrait of ‘Frances Duchess of Suffolk and Adrian Stoke,’ 1559, formerly at Strawberry Hill, and afterwards in the possession of the Rev. Mr. Finch, of Oakham (now the property of Colonel Wynne Finch). See letter by Mr. George Scharf in The Times, 22d January 1880.
‘This interesting picture belonged to Charles I., from whose collection it was sold at the Commonwealth:- “The Lord Darnley with his brother at length in little, sold to Mr. Murray as appraised, 23rd Oct 1651, for £6” (Inventory, folio 142). He also had a larger, similar picture, which was formerly here, but was sent by command of the Queen to Holyrood. This one is the original and the best. The head of Darnley was engraved by Vertue from this picture.
‘The inscribed date is contemporary, and perhaps the inscription also; as Darnley was eighteen on December 7th, 1563, the picture was probably painted before that month. He and his parents were then in London, whence he set out in the spring of 1565 to join his father at the court of Mary Queen of Scots. His brother Charles married, in 1574, Elizabeth Cavendish, by whom he had a daughter, the ill-fated Lady Arabella, and died in 1577.’ – Law’s Historical Catalogue of Pictures at Hampton Court, pp. 219-20. This picture is now preserved at Windsor Castle. [J. M. G.]
(170) Lent by HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN.
PORTRAIT, of Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley. It is of full length and life size. Ascribed to Zucchero. The face in this picture, with its fine and slender features, shows no resemblance to the blunt round face which appears in such authentic portraits of Lord Darnley as that with his brother (No. 170, above); the alabaster figure on the monument of his mother, Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox; the recumbent effigy in the memorial picture at Windsor of the Lennox family kneeling beside his tomb; and the print, ascribed to Elstracke, frequently included in Holland’s Baziliwlogia, 1618. [J. M. G.]
(243) Lent by the DUKE OF HAMILTON, K.T.
PORTRAIT, of Queen Mary, by Medina. As this picture is dated 1767, it cannot be the work of Sir John Baptist Medina, Knight (as whose work it was exhibited), who died 5th October 1710, nor of his son, John Medina, who died 1st December 1761, but must be by his grandson, also John Medina, who is known to have executed many similar copies of Queen Mary’s portrait, and who died in Edinburgh, 27th September 1796, in his 76th year. See Stirling’s Artists of Spain, vol. iii. pp. 1051-3, and Redgrave’s Dictionary of Artists of the English School, 2d edition. A bust-sized version from same original as the full-length, No. 231. See Note on that picture in next page. [J. M. G.]
(218) Lent by SIR ROBERT MENZIES, BART.
PORTRAIT, of Mary Stewart, in which she is represented as wearing a red dress highly ornamented, and close up to the throat. Her cap also is much ornamented, and she wears a pearl necklace with a cross, as distinguished from a crucifix. Her hair is parted down the middle. This portrait is traditionally regarded as having been presented by her to the Lord High Treasurer, the Earl of Cassillis, one of the Scottish Commissioners sent into France to negotiate her marriage articles, and to witness her union with the Dauphin Francis. It is believed that it has been preserved since that time as an heirloom in the Kennedy family at the seat of their representative the Marquis of Ailsa, Culzean Castle, Ayrshire. It has been attributed to Zucchero. A version, to waist only, from same original as the full-length portrait which follows (see Note on it). [J. M.G.]
(219) Lent by the MARQUIS OF AILSA.
Plate X. – Portrait of Henry Lord Darnley and his Brother Charles.
Full-length PORTRAIT, of Mary Stewart, life-size. A version of the full-length portrait in Chatsworth, formerly at Chiswick, which was engraved in line (in half-length and reversed) by George Vertue, for its former owner, Lord Carleton, in 1725. Mr. George Scharf characterises the portrait at Chatsworth as a ‘costume portrait,’ ‘probably the work of Francis Pourbus the elder,’ ‘one of the stateliest female portraits of the sixteenth century.’ He does not accept it as a genuine portrait of Queen Mary, and remarks that ‘the portrait of Diana, natural daughter of the Duke of Lorraine, married to the Duke of Angoulême, presents a very similar personal appearance.’ This portrait was frequently copied, to the waist, during the last century, especially by the third John Medina, who died in 1796. See No. 219 (above), ‘The Ailsa Portrait,’ and No. 218 in the previous page, and the versions at Biel, in the possession of Lord Young, Edinburgh, the Merchant Company, Edinburgh, etc. etc. Mr. Scharf is ‘not aware of any copy or repetition’ of the picture at Chatsworth ‘that can be dated earlier than the eighteenth century.’ See his letter in The Times, 30th Oct. 1888. [J. M. G.]
(231) Lent by COLONEL W. W. HOZIER.
TWO MINIATURES, in Limoges Enamel, of Mary Stewart and the Dauphin, her husband. He wears a bonnet with white feathers, and she a green head-dress. The ground is powdered with stars. The mauve tint of these enamels is said to have been used for a period of only about seven years, beginning shortly before the Queen’s first marriage.
(226) Lent by MRS. ZWILCHENBART ERSKINE.
PORTRAIT, of Mary Stewart, while Dauphiness of France, copied from a window in the Church of the Cordeliers at Paris, dated 1587.
(227) Lent by MISS LAING.
PORTRAIT, of Mary Stewart and her son James the Sixth, as a child. She holds a prayer-book in one hand, the other is placed on the child’s head. An engraving after Zucchero, but an impossible fiction. (Labanoff Portraits, No. 102.)
(228) Lent by MISS BROWN.
PORTRAIT, said to be of Mary Stewart, upon panel, by an unknown artist. She wears a black dress close up to the throat.
(229) Lent by MRS. CAMERON CAMPBELL.
ORIGINAL MINIATURE, of Mary Stewart, given by her great-great-grandson, James III. of England, and VIII. of Scotland, to his private secretary, James Edgar, in whose family it still remains. Similar to the larger miniature. No. 242, which follows this. [J. M. G.]
(230) Lent by MISS EDGAR.
ORIGINAL CONTEMPORARY MINIATURE, of Mary Stewart, on copper, in which she is depicted as wearing her French widow’s dress, of black trimmed with fur, with a low flat head-dress. A photograph from this miniature forms the frontispiece of Fotheringhay and Mary Queen of Scots, by Cuthbert Bede, who there states (p. 201) that it was given to him in 1853 by Mr. Joseph Cecil, who had bought it in France at the time when he was making his Mary Stewart collection, a portion of which was at his death purchased for the Print Room of the British Museum. Similar in type to the smaller miniatures, No. 230 (above), and No. 238 (reversed), p. 82. Mr. Scharf traces back the miniatures of this type (in a black ‘Spanish winter costume,’ with white fur round neck and down front, and with a plain black head-dress) to a portrait belonging to the Duke of Hamilton, which ‘Lawrence Crosse, who painted miniatures in the time of Queen Anne, was employed to repair,’’ being ‘ordered to make it as handsome as he could.’ ‘It seems a round face, very different from Mary’s, was his idea of perfect beauty. Innumerable copies were made from it.’ ‘Notwithstanding the numerous repetitions that exist of portraits of this type associated with her name, I have not met with a single example bearing the genuine features of the Scottish Queen.’ See Mr. Scharf’s letter in The Times, 30th October 1888. [J. M. G.]
(242) Lent by REV. EDWARD BRADLEY.
ENGRAVING, of Queen Mary and her husband, Lord Darnley. (See Plate XI.) It bears the following inscriptions: ‘The most illustrious prince Henry, Lord Darnley, king of Scotland, father to our soveraigne lord, King James. He died at the age of 21, 1567.’ ‘The most excellent Princess Marie, Queene of Scotland, mother of our soveraigne lord, King James. She died 1586, and entombed at Westminster.’ (Cf. Labanoff Portraits, No. 146, and Desid. 8.)
(168) Lent by HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN.
PORTRAIT, supposed to be of Mary Stewart, by Holbein the younger. She is represented as dressed in black. She wears a pearl necklace and a cap.
(234) Lent by A. V. SMITH-SLIGO.
A SMALL PORTRAIT, of Mary Stewart derived from the full-length at Chatsworth, but in half-length, reversed (facing towards right), and with changes in the colours of the costume. [J. M. G.]
(235) Lent by JOHN COUBROUGH.
MINIATURE, on ivory, of Mary Stewart wearing a scarlet dress. Inscribed ‘M.R. æt. 16,’ surmounted by a crown. A coat of arms (but indistinct) occurs on an ornament which she wears on her bosom. From the oil portrait in the possession of the Duke of Hamilton, at Holyrood Palace, the face considerably idealised. [J. M. G.]
(236) Lent by JOHN COUBROUGH.
A MINIATURE, on ivory, of Queen Mary, in red dress. From same original as the preceding, but altered in the puffed sleeves, and other details of dress. Little likeness remains in the face, of which the eyes are blue. [J. M. G.]
(237) Lent by JOHN COUBROUGH.
MINIATURE, of Mary Stewart. Of similar type as Nos. 242 and 230 (both in p. 81), but reversed (turned to the left), and showing less of the bust. See Note on No. 242. [J. M. G.]
(238) Lent by JOHN COUBROUGH.
MARY STEWART, as Queen of France. A medallion in silver, by an unknown artist, but contemporary. The bust is to the left. She is represented in a tight dress, close to the chin, and then a ruff. The legend, MARIA REGINA FRANCIÆ. On the reverse is her husband, King Francis II., King of France, with the legend, ‘Franciscus D. G. Francor. R.’ He is in armour and wears a wreath of laurel.
The bust of Queen Mary here is similar to that in the full-length engraving by Hogenberg, with the Scottish arms displayed on a lozenge on the background, No. 167 of the present Exhibition (see p. 77), and to that on the medal commemorating her marriage with the Dauphin, and on the ‘King and Queen’s Ducat’ of the Scottish gold coinage issued in 1559. [J. M. G.] (See Fig. 77.)
(252) Lent by ALFRED MORRISON.
AN INTAGLIO PORTRAIT, of Queen Mary Stewart, formerly the property of Cardinal York.
(173) Lent by CAPTAIN ANSTRUTHER THOMSON.
MINIATURE (old), on ivory, in an antique frame, of Mary Stewart, ‘at 20,’ painted therefore in 1562 or 1563. She wears a black dress, and holds a crucifix in one hand and a book in the other.
(239) Lent by MRS. C. E. MORISON DUNCAN.
PORTRAIT, of Mary Stewart, in cap and ruff.
(240) Lent by MRS. C. E. MORISON DUNCAN.
Plate XI. – Queen Mary and Her Husband Lord Darnley.
PORTRAIT, of Mary Stewart, copied from that in the Bodleian Library, for the purpose of being engraved by Whessell in November 1825.
(246) Lent by CHARLES DACK.
MEDAL, of Mary Queen of Scots, by Primavera. Obverse – Bust to the right. Legend – MARIA • STOVVAR • REGI • SCOTI • ANGLI. In the field is the name of the artist, Ia. Primave. This copy varies in small matters of detail from that in the British Museum, as do all medals produced by the cire perdu process. (See Cochran-Patrick’s Catalogue of Scottish Medals, p. 14, PI. I. Fig. 12.)
(251) Lent by D. PEARSON.
CAST, from a very rare medallion of Mary Stewart, of which no original is known. It represents her in profile, to the right; she wears a close dress, buttoned in front, a small ruff; a long veil is attached to her head-dress behind. The inscription is as follows: MARIA STOVVAR REGI SCOTI ANGLI. Behind the head are the words ‘Ia. Primave.’ This medallion is engraved as a frontispiece to the third volume of the Life of Mary Stuart by George Chalmers (London, 1822, 8vo),* with the omission, however, of the name of the artist. Jacopo Primavera was an Italian, probably a native of Milan. His medals indicate that he worked mainly in France and the Netherlands. He does not appear to have visited this country, and the present medal was doubtless executed from a contemporary painting or drawing. This portrait Mr. Scharf assigns to the period of the Queen’s captivity (The Times, 26th December 1888). Among Primavera’s other medals is one of Queen Elizabeth, executed on her recovery from small-pox in 1572. [J. M. G.] (See Fig. 78.)
(253) Lent by C. E. DALRYMPLE.
REVERSE, of the above medallion, by Primavera, of Mary Stewart, but from a cast, of which no original seems to be in existence. It represents a young female figure standing on a rocky foreground. Her left hand raises her drapery, and in her right she holds a palm branch, the arms being charged with a weight linked to the elbow, as if to keep it down; and from this weight large drops of water appear to be falling. In the background is the sea, a town on a hill, a water-mill, etc., with the inscription, ‘Superanda omnis fortuna.’ This motto, with a female figure chained to a rock, is found on a medal of Hercules II., Duke of Ferrara. See Way’s Catalogue, p. 215.
(254) Lent by C. E. DALRYMPLE.
MEDAL, struck on the marriage of Mary Stewart with the Dauphin of France, afterwards King Francis the Second. The original die, from which this is taken, is preserved in the Hôtel des Monnaies at Paris. See Way’s Catalogue, p. 182.
(255) Lent by C. E. DALRYMPLE.
MEDAL, struck during the confinement of Mary Stewart in Lochleven Castle, with the legend: O • GOD • GRANT • PATIENCE • IN • THAT • I • SUFFER • WRANG. On the reverse, HOVRT • NOT • THE • ♥ • QVHOIS • IOY • THOV • ART • QVHO • CAN • COMPARE • VITH • ME • IN • GREIF • I • DIE • AND • DAR • NOCHT • SEIK • RELEIF. In the original of the above copy the ‘heart’ is represented in outline. ‘All known specimens of this piece are modern; but perhaps from some contemporary original. It has been generally supposed to commemorate the sufferings of Mary Queen of Scots, but the portrait has no resemblance to those assigned to that Queen. The introduction of the heart has led to the conjecture that the lady represented might be of the House of Douglas, and therefore of Lady Margaret Douglas, mother of Darnley. Another attribution seems, however, a more probable one, namely to Lady Arabella Stewart, daughter of Charles Stewart, Duke of Lennox, and first cousin of James I. The two hands on the reverse denote a marriage, and may refer to her marriage with William Seymour, grandson of the Earl of Hertford. The sentiments expressed in the inscriptions would apply to the unhappy separation from her husband, as well as to the sorrow and to the ill-treatment which she underwent during her imprisonment in the Tower, and from the effects of which she died in 1615.’ – Hawkins’s Medallic Illustrations, vol. i. pp. 207-8. [J. M. G.]
(256) Lent by W. MURRAY THREIPLAND.
CAST, of the head of Mary Stewart, from the tomb in Westminster Abbey, which cast belonged to the late John Hosack, Esq. Engraved as the Frontispiece to Way’s Catalogue; also in Mr. Hosack’s history of Mary Queen of Scots and her Accusers. 1869, 8vo.
Plaster cast of the head from the full-length alabaster effigy on the monument of Queen Mary, the erection of which in Westminster Abbey by her son, King James, was begun about 1606, nineteen years after her death. Some interesting notices of the execution of this tomb are quoted, from the Pell Records, in Way’s Catalogue, under the heading ‘Frontispiece,’ and inserted between pp. xxviii and xxix, where it is stated that ‘we are indebted to Mr. Peter Cunningham for calling our attention to these entries in the Pell Records, while this work was passing through the press,’ and in the Catalogue of the National Portrait Gallery, London, (1888), p. 303, as follows:- ‘ “By order, 7th of May 1606. To Cornelius Cure, master mason of His Highness’s works, the sum of 200l., parcel of a more sum due to him for the framing, making, erecting, and finishing of a tomb for Queen Mary, late Queen of Scotland, according to certain articles indented between the Right Honourable the Lord Treasurer of England, the Earls of Northampton and Salisbury, and the said Cornelius Cure.” Before the completion of the tomb Cornelius appears to have died, as the next payment on January 17th, 1610, was made to “William Cure, His Majesty’s master mason, son and executor unto Comelius Cure.” He also on the 31st August 1613 received the sum of 85l., 10s. in full payment of 825l., 10s., “for making the tomb for his Majesty’s dearest mother.” The painting of the tomb was intrusted to James Mauncy or Manuty, “By order, dated 24th of May 1616, to James Mauncy, painter, the sum of 265l., in full satisfaction of the charges of painting and gilding of a monument to be erected for the memory of His Majesty’s most dearly beloved mother, the Lady Mary, late Queen of Scotland.” ’ [J. M. G.]
(245) Lent by JAMES HOSACK.
PORTRAIT, of James VI. Head – life-size by Cornelius Janssens.
(296) Lent by J. S. FRASER TYTLER.
PORTRAIT, of James Douglas, Earl of Morton, Regent of Scotland. He wears a black dress and a large ruff. His armorial bearings and the initials of his name (J. M.) are given. A bust-sized version of the three-quarters-length portrait, with a landscape background, preserved at Dalmahoy. Another bust-sited version, older than the present, without the shield or arms, is at The Binns; and there is a three-quarters-length version at Newbattle Abbey. [J. M. G.]
(271) Lent by the DUKE OF HAMILTON, M.T.
PORTRAIT, of William Maitland of Lethington, Secretary of State to Mary Stewart, eldest son of Sir Richard Maitland of Thirlstane. Painted by Meriwell (Mierevelt). He wears a red dress with a ruff. On his head is a cap. This portrait bears no resemblance to that in the possession of the Earl of Lauderdale in Thirlestane Castle, engraved in Pinkerton’s Iconographia Scotica, which has generally been accepted as authentic; and this appears to represent a man of a more advanced age than Lethington had attained at the time of his death. [J. M. G.]
(272) Lent by the BARONESS WILLOUGHBY DE ERESBY.
–
* RSH is in possession of both an 1818 and the mentioned 1822 publication of Chalmers’ ‘Life of Mary, Queen of Scots,’ but don’t appear to have this particular frontispiece image. Our copy of the 1822 version was in some state when obtained and was rebound by Cameron’s, Glasgow, so it may very well have originally been present. An alternative medal or coin bearing her image appears on the 1818 publication.
2 thoughts on “Portraits of Queen Mary and of Others Connected with her Period and History, pp.77-86.”