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Portrait of Sir Anthony Mildmay, Knight of Apethorpe, Northants

c. 1590–93

Nicholas Hilliard

(British, c. 1547–1619)

England, 16th century

Watercolor on vellum mounted on card, mounted on wood

Unframed: 23.3 x 17.4 cm (9 3/16 x 6 7/8 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1926.554

Location

not on view

Did you know?

A little dog gazes adoringly at Mildmay who was by all accounts a very arrogant man.

Description

Standing in a luxurious tent filled with beautiful furniture, Anthony Mildmay pauses while donning his gold-embellished armor. Born into a wealthy and powerful family, Mildmay was a member of the English royal court of King James I. He held several prominent positions, including ambassador to France and chancellor of the exchequer, responsible for the expenditures of the king and his court. Hilliard represents Mildmay preparing for a tournament surrounded by objects that allow the artist to feature a variety of rich textures including red velvet, blue ostrich feathers, and gleaming metal. Hilliard first trained as a goldsmith, which honed his keen sense of design and attention to minute detail. He was the first miniaturist to break away from painting smaller, bust-length portraits; instead, he portrayed his subjects in full-length and often in outdoor settings.

Provenance

1590/9 ?-1617

Sir Anthony Mildmay, Knight of Apethorpe [c. 1549-1617] Northants, England by descent to his daughter, Mary, Countess of Westmoreland (née Mildmay)

1617-1640

Mary, Countess of Westmoreland [1593?-1640] Northhamshire, England, by descent to her son, Sir Francis Fane

1640-1681

Sir Frances Fane [1611-1681], Fulbeck, Lincolnshire, England by descent to his son Sir Francis Fane

1681-1691

Sir Francis Fane [d. 1691], Henbury, Gloucestershire, England by descent to his son Henry Fane

1691-1726

Henry Fane [1669-1726], Brympton, Yeovil, Somerset, England by descent to his son, Henry Fane

1726-1777

Henry Fane [1703-1777], Wormsley, Oxfordshire, England by descent to his daughter, Mary Stapelton (née Fane)

1777-1835

Mary Stapleton (née Fane) [c.1744-1835], Oxfordshire) by descent to her grandson, Rev. Hon. Sir Francis Jarvis Stapleton

1835-1874

Rev. Hon. Sir Francis Jarvis Stapleton [1807-1874], 7th Bt. Mereworth Rectory, Kent, England by descent to his son, Richard Talbot Plantagenet Stapleton

1874-1899

Richard Talbot Plantagenet Stapleton [1834-1899], Grey’s Court, Oxfordshire, England by descent to his son, Sir Miles Talbot Stapleton

1899-1926

Sir Miles Stapleton, Bart of Greys, [1893-1977], Henley-on-Thames, United Kingdom consigned to Christie's London for sale

1926

(Christie’s, London, United Kingdom, May 11, 1926, lot 79 sold to S.J. Phillips for 510 gns.)

1926

(S.J. Phillips, London, United Kingdom, sold to Durlacher Brothers)

1926

(Durlacher Brothers, New York, NY sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1926-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Thieme, Ulrich, Felix Becker, Fred. C. Willis, and Hans Vollmer. Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart XXV. Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 1907. Reproduced: p. 599

Milliken, William M. "A Miniature by Isaac Oliver." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art XIV, no.2, (February 1927) 19-21. Reproduced: p. 17

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928. Reproduced: p. 23 archive.org

Bull, H. A., Jr. "Exhibitions." The International Studio 92 (April 1929): 72-84. Reproduced: p. 82

Grancsay, Stephen V. "Notes on Armor of the Greenwich School." Metropolitan Museum Studies 2, no. 1 (1929): 85-101. Reproduced: p. 87, fig. 3

Kelly, Francis Michael, and Randolph Schwabe. A Short History of Costume & Armour, Chiefly in England, 1066-1800. New York, NY: C. Scribner's Sons, 1931. Reproduced: pl. 32

Wilenski, R. H. English Painting. London, United Kingdom: Faber and Faber, 1933. Reproduced: p. 48, Pl. 7

Kelly, Francis Michael. “Portrait of a Warrior; Robert Sidney, Afterwards Earl of Leicester, Probably by Isaac Oliver.” Connoisseur 100 (July 1937): 25–28. Reproduced: p. 28, fig. III

Cleveland Museum of Art, and William Mathewson Milliken. Masterpieces of Art from the New York and San Francisco World's Fairs; The Cleveland Museum of Art, February 7 Through March 7, 1940. 1940. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 49, p. 22, pl. XVII

Shoolman, Regina, and Charles E. Slatkin. The Enjoyment of Art in America. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, 1942. Reproduced: pl. 586

Symonds, R. W. "Standards, Coffers and Trunks." Country Life 93 (February 5, 1943): 262-263. Reproduced: p. 262

Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1945. Reproduced: p. 16 archive.org

Winter, Carl. "Hilliard and Elizabethan Miniatures." The Burlington Magazine LXXXIX(1947): 174-183. Mentioned: p. 176, 180

Reynolds, Graham, Nicholas Hilliard, and Isaac Oliver. Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver: An Exhibition to Commemorate the 400th Anniversary of the Birth of Nicholas Hilliard. London: Ministry of Education, 1947. Mentioned: cat. no. 57

Pope-Hennessy, John Wyndham. A Lecture on Nicholas Hilliard. London, United Kingdom: Home and Van Thal, 1949. Reproduced: p. 19

Judson, Alexander Corbin. Sidney's Appearance; A Study in Elizabethan Portraiture. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1958. Reproduced: p. 34

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 463 archive.org

Auerbach, Erna. Nicholas Hilliard. London: Routledge & Paul, 1961. Reproduced: pl. 93

Mercer, Eric. English Art, 1553-1625. London, United Kingdom: Clarendon Press, 1962. Reproduced: p. 204, pl. 70

Rowse, A. L. The Expansion of Elizabethan England. New York: Harper & Row, 1965. Reproduced: p. 246-247

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 105 archive.org

Selected Works: Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967. Reproduced: p. 147

Strong, Roy. The English Icon: Elizabethan & Jacobean Portraiture. London, United Kingdom: Paul Mellon Foundation for British Art, in association with Routledge & K. Paul, 1969. Reproduced: p. 14, fig. 13

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 105 archive.org

Reynolds, Graham. Nicholas Hilliard & Isaac Oliver. London, United Kingdom: H.M.S.O., Victoria and Albert Museum, 1971. Reproduced: p. 31

Thornton, Peter. "Two Problems." Furniture History 7 (1971): 61-71. Mentioned: p. 68-69; Reproduced: pl. 18

Foskett, Daphne. A Dictionary of British Miniature Painters. London, United Kindgom: Faber and Faber, 1972. Mentioned: p. 330, vol. 1; Mentioned: p. 51, vol. II, Reproduced: p. 412, pl. 161

Strong, Roy C. Nicholas Hilliard. London, United Kingdom: Joseph, 1975. Reproduced: p. 43, pl. 11

Thornton, Peter. Seventeenth-Century Interior Decoration in England, France, and Holland. New Haven: Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press, 1978. Mentioned: p. 226-227; Reproduced: p, 411

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 123 archive.org

Foskett, Daphne. Collecting Miniatures. Woodbridge, United Kingdom: Antique Collectors' Club, 1979. Reproduced: p. 52

Taylor, Joshua C. The Fine Arts in America. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1979. Reproduced: p. 13

Taylor, Joshua C. The Fine Arts in America. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1979. Reproduced: p. 13

Finsten, Jill. Isaac Oliver, Art at the Courts of Elizabeth I and James I. New York, NY: Garland Pub, 1981. Reproduced: p. 236, fig. 31

Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of Paintings.Pt. 3. European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. Mentioned: p. 191-193, no. 79; Reproduced: p. 192, fig. 79

Strong, Roy C. The English Renaissance Miniature. London, United Kingdom: Thames and Hudson, 1983. Reproduced: fig. 126

Edmond, Mary. Hilliard and Oliver: The Lives and Works of Two Great Miniaturists. London, UK: R. Hale, 1983. Reproduced: p. 78

Jones-Davies, Marie Thérèse. Le Roman de Chevalerie au Temps de la Renaissance. Paris: J. Touzot, 1987. Mentioned: p. 237

Ashelford, Jane. Dress in the Age of Elizabeth I. London, United Kingdom: Batsford, 1988. Reproduced: p. 137, fig. 97

Ridley, Jasper Godwin. The Tudor Age. London: Constable, 1988. Reproduced: p. 312

Shakespeare, William. The Sonnets. London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1988. Reproduced: p. 36

Tortora, Phyllis G., and Keith Eubank. A Survey of Historic Costume. New York, NY: Fairchild Publications, 1989. Reproduced: p. 133, fig. 9.5

Avery, Charles. "Fontainebleau, Milan, or Rome? A Mannerist Bronze Lockplate and Hasp." Studies in the History of Art 22 (1989): 291-305. Reproduced: p. 296, fig. 8

Mowl, Tim. Elizabethan & Jacobean Style. London, UK: Phaidon Press, 1993. Reproduced: p. 104

Chong, Alan. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. Reproduced: p. 290

Turner, Jane. The Dictionary of Art. New York, NY: Grove, 1996. Reproduced: p. 546

Highley, Christopher. Shakespeare, Spenser, and the Crisis in Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Reproduced: p. 121-122, fig. 5

Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1998. Reproduced: p. 96

Thorne, Alison. Vision and Rhetoric in Shakespeare: Looking Through Language. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000. Mentioned: p. 43, 50; reproduced: pl.6

Anderson, Christy. "The Secrets of Vision in Renaissance England." Studies in the History of Art 59 (2003): 322-47. Reproduced: p. 324

Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms & Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007. Reproduced: p. 114

James, Susan E. The Feminine Dynamic in English Art, 1485-1603: Women As Consumers, Patrons and Painters. Farnham, England: Ashgate, 2009. Reproduced: p. 1999, fig. 4.1

Treasures of the Cleveland Museum of Art. London, UK. Scala Books, 2012. Reproduced: p. 178-179

Korkow, Cory, and Dario Robleto. Disembodied: Portrait Miniatures and Their Contemporary Relatives. 2013. Mentioned: p. 84

Korkow, Cory, and Jon L. Seydl. British Portrait Miniatures: The Cleveland Museum of Art. 2013. Cat. no. 3, pp. 38-44

Stephen Lloyd, review of British Portrait Miniatures. The Cleveland Museum of Art, by Cory Korkow with the assistance of Jon. L. Seydl, The Burlington Magazine 157, no. 1346 (May 2015). Reproduced: p. 349-350, fig. 57

Adshead, David, and David A. H. B. Taylor, eds. Hardwick Hall: A Great Old Castle of Romance. New Haven : Published for The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art & The National Trust by Yale University Press, 2016. Reproduced: p. 165, fig. 163

Strong, Roy C., and V. J. Murrell. Artists of the Tudor Court: The Portrait Miniature Rediscovered, 1520-1620 : 9 July-6 November 1983, the Victoria & Albert Museum. [London]: Victoria & Albert Museum, 1983. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no 264, p. 156-158

Heap, William. Elizabeth's French Wars, 1562-1598: English Intervention in the French Wars of Religion. Unicorn Publishing, 2020. p. 113

Exhibition history

Masterpieces of Art. New York World’s Fair, New York, NY (May-October 1939).

Masterpieces of Art from the New York and San Francisco World's Fairs. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 7-March 7, 1940).

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).

Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver: An Exhibition to Commemorate the 400th Anniversary of the birth of Nicholas Hilliard. Victoria and Albert Museum (organizer) (May 31-August 31, 1947).

Art: The International Language. The Cleveland Museum of Art (October 2-November 4, 1956).

Water Color. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 6-August 27, 1962).

Artists of the Tudor Court: The Portrait Miniature Rediscovered 1520-1620. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (organizer) (July 4-November 6, 1983).

Intimate Images: Portrait Miniatures from Europe and America. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 26-October 17, 1993).

Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (November 10, 2013-February 16, 2014).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Portrait of Sir Anthony Mildmay, Knight of Apethorpe, Northants|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1926.554|author=Nicholas Hilliard|year=c. 1590–93|access-date=29 January 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Portrait of Sir Anthony Mildmay, Knight of Apethorpe, Northants

Portrait of Sir Anthony Mildmay, Knight of Apethorpe, Northants

Nicholas Hilliard

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