Old Rags

Portrait of a Lady (probably Mary Hungate), attributed to Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, ca 1620 England, Royal Albert Memorial Museum

This description is from here.

This painting and an earlier portrait were given by a descendant of the Browne family of Kiddington, Oxfordshire. Considering the apparent ages of the sitters and the dates of their costume, it is thought that they represent the two wives of Sir Henry Browne (c.1562-1628). This one probably depicts the later wife, Mary Hungate, about 1620. The full-length nature of the portrait, the fine detail and naturalistic setting are consistent with paintings by Marcus Geeraerts the younger. He had found significant success as court painter for Elizabeth I and then James I, significantly influencing Tudor and Jacobean portraiture.

Margaret Stuart, Lady Mennes, Great-Great Granddaughter of Mary Boleyn, attributed to Cornelius Janssens van Ceulen, ca 1620

Portrait of a Woman in Red by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, 1620, Tate Britain

An example of maternity clothing from the early 17th century.

(Source: tate.org.uk)

Three Young Girls by a follower of William Larkin, ca 1620 England, Berger Collection

These three unidentified sisters are dressed in matching outfits, a sort of family uniform, albeit an expensive and fashionable one. They wear the new taste for low necklines and high waists. Their scarlet damask dresses are exquisitely decorated with yellow-toned accessories and feature yellow-lace décolletage edgings, standing collars, and ruffs, as well as yellow braiding, silk ribbons, and bow belts; the girls wear matching yellow-lace hair bands. Yellow lace was introduced in around 1610 and remained in fashion for about ten years, helping to date the picture. The color coordination extends to the jewelry: two of the girls wear red and yellow coral bracelets, and all three have red coral hunting-horn earrings. The horn is a heraldic motif, suggesting that the girls come from an important landowning family.

The sisters, with their fair skin and rosy cheeks, are a picture of beauty. Their gray-blue eyes are as jewellike as the diamonds of their gold three-drop pendants. Each girl’s hair–golden for the youngest, auburn for the middle, and tawny for the eldest–is brushed in the same style and contains an arrangement of fresh flowers representing symbols of spring, childhood, and fertility. The two youngest have marigolds set against a sea of blue hyacinths, with white antennaelike periwinkles; the eldest wears a red carnation and a white-feather plume.

It is hoped that further research will help to identify these three young girls and also reveal the significance of the various objects that they are holding. Traditionally in art, ripe fruit has represented male and female fecundity. Taken with the doll of a grown-up woman held by the youngest child and the ring worn by the middle girl, the grapes and the pears may be symbols of the sisters’ future roles as mothers and wives.

Portrait of Anne Wortley by British School, ca 1620 UK, Tate Britain

Click to see a supersized version of this incredible portrait

Isabel de Bourbon by anonymous, ca 1620 Spain