Nicholas Hilliard and Inigo Jones (Tara Olivero)
Nicholas
Hilliard
In Elizabethan England, one of the most dominating forms of
art was portraiture, especially in miniature. Portrait miniatures were intended
for private viewing, and the subjects of miniatures were often personal
depictions of lovers or mistresses. They were often painted on vellum using
watercolors before being mounted onto playing cards or kept in lockets. One of
the most popular painters best known for his miniatures was Nicholas Hilliard.
Born in 1547 in Exeter, he was apprenticed in his youth as a goldsmith under
Robert Brandon, whose daughter he later married. Hilliard was favored in
Elizabeth I’s court beginning in 1572. He then worked in France from 1576-1579
because he was slow to be paid at court, but returned to high popularity and
employment back in the English court. He earned the position of “court limner”
to James I when he took the throne in 1603. He was not known for his financial
frugality and therefore ended up living in poverty by the time he died in 1619.
Despite his unfortunate end, Hilliard is often known as the first great artist
of Britain.
In his treatise called The
Arte of Limning, Hilliard explained how he trained himself in miniature
painting by following the style of Hans Holbein the Younger. He also practiced
by copying paintings of superior painters, like Holbein and Dürer. His
painting style “emphasized distinctive line and reduced shadow” (The Met).
Essentially, his paintings emphasized flattened, two-dimensional aesthetics,
with even light. Additionally, his miniatures pay attention to intricate
patterning on the sitters’ clothing as well as the sitters’ jewelry.
One of his most well-known miniatures is his Young Man Among Roses, which depicts a
mustachioed young man leaning against a tree trunk and surrounded by bushes of white
roses. According to the Victoria and Albert Museum, the miniature “has come to
epitomise the romantic vision of the sonnet hero of Shakespeare’s England.” The
pose of the young man was seemingly influenced by Hilliard’s time in France
studying French art of the time period. Additionally, miniatures were often an
impress (or imprese, or impresa), in which symbolism of both imagery and words
was meant to send a specific message in a hidden code. Elizabeth I in
particular surrounded herself with such coded art, which led to its popularity
at court. In Young Man Among Roses,
for example, the five-petaled white roses were known as eglantines. Roses
typically alluded to the crown, and eglantines were the personal flower of
Elizabeth I. The colors of the Young Man’s clothing, black and white, often
signified Elizabeth’s constancy and chastity. A tree is also the symbol for
steadfastness. The Latin motto at the top of the miniature reads “Dat poenas
laudata fides,” or “My praised faith procures my pain,” which comes from a
famous speech by the Roman poet Lucan. Other than being reminiscent of most
typical sonnet speakers in the Elizabethan era, the words from Lucan’s speech
references Pompey the Great, whom we can infer the Young Man is identifying
himself with. Because of Pompey’s military greatness, the sitter of Young Man Among Roses was most likely a
young courtier with military ambitions who was involved in either a romantic or
platonic relationship with the Queen. The director of the V&A, Roy Strong,
believed that this evidence pointed to the sitter being Robert Devereaux, Earl
of Essex, who is the only person known to have fit this description. Regardless
of who the figure was intended to be, the miniature still serves as a symbol of
the courtly lover of Elizabethan sonnetry.
Inigo Jones
Inigo
Jones is known as the first notable architect in Renaissance England. He was
born in 1573 in London as the son of a cloth worker, although not much else is
known about his childhood or education. He travelled abroad before the end of
the century, especially in Italy where he was introduced to the architecture of
Andrea Palladio. Queen Anne, the wife of James I, first commissioned him to
design costumes and settings for court masques before he grew in popularity as an
architect. The symmetry and harmony employed by Italian Renaissance architects
finally transferred to England with Jones’ work. His first architectural design
was for the New Exchange in the Strand in London, designed for the Earl of
Salisbury in 1608. When he returned from his 1613 trip to Italy, he was
appointed the surveyor to the king, which is a position he held until the
English Civil War in 1643. One of the most famous works he completed as
surveyor was the Queen’s House at Greenwich. The building process began in 1617
and was finished by 1635, despite the Queen’s death in 1619. The House was then
for Henrietta Maria, the wife of Charles I.
Prior to
the Queen’s House, English structures featured mostly Gothic elements such as
turrets and towers, but this building acts as the first real example of
neoclassical architecture in England. Often called “The White House,” the
building used the geometric designs and harmonious proportions that his Italian
contemporaries valued. One example of this is that the Great Hall, which sits
in the exact center of the building, is a cube of 40 feet by 40 feet by 40
feet, and the designs of squares and circles on the marble floor are reflected
in the pattern of the ceiling. He incorporated classical columns and ionic orders
into the building as well, also influenced by Italian architecture. The House
also included a balcony for the Queen and her ladies to oversee riding or hunting taking place in
the park below. A central bridge on the first floor above ground level originally
joined the two halves of the building, which split a road running through the
park. Finally, the Queen’s House contains the “Tulip Stairs,” planned by Jones
but built by Nicholas Stone. It was the first centrally unsupported spiral
staircase in England, with each stair supported by the one below and
cantilevered from the wall.
Jones also designed a new Banqueting House at Whitehall
Palace (1619) after the old one burned down, and he assisted with the
restoration of St. Paul’s Cathedral. He designed less than 50 buildings in his
career, and of these, only seven have survived. Jones died in 1652, but his
architectural ideas were influential to later Georgian architecture in the 18th
century.
Visual
Presentation:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1DhdtgsjTAbuoHIw1RptOzf1z_k7Br4K9q0SdVJwnfss/edit?usp=sharing
Sources:
Additional
Image Credits:
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O72550/self-portrait-aged-30-portrait-miniature-hilliard-nicholas/
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