75. Auction

Portrait of Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury (1364-1443)

Oil on canvas, unsigned, circa 1810, rear labeled and titled multiple times on handwritten labels, life-sized portrait of the historically most famous Archbishop of Canterbury, inquisitor, and founder of All Souls College at the University of Oxford, Chichele survived three reigns from Henry IV to Henry VI during his tenure, ruled ruthlessly at the helm of the Anglican Church, and propagated his rise from poverty to the highest ecclesiastical office in Britain as a model for the faithful; the source for this portrait was an engraving by E. Brayley (publ. 1806 in London) after a portrait of the Archbishop from the 15th century, which is located in Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop's residence for stays in London; the Latin inscription attached to the engraving at the top and bottom of the image was handwritten on a label here and attached to the stretcher together with an English translation; the depiction of the Archbishop differs in the colors of the vestments from the original painting, suggesting that the author of this depiction only knew the engraving, blue is used here as the color of the vestments, which is the heraldic color of the jurisdiction of the Archbishopric of Canterbury, the decorative elements have been slightly altered, and the bishop's staff is not quite accurately rendered, overall, the portrait conveys a reverent, uncritical image of Chichele in high artistic quality, age-appropriate good condition, restored, edge doubled, fine craquelure network, overall, qualitatively restored, hand-carved wooden frame, age-appropriate good condition, frame width 16 cm, 102 x 83 cm (HxW).