Nothing is definitely known as to the paintings produced by these three artists in England, though it is very possible that certain of the numerous portraits of Henry VIII still in existence were painted by Luke and Gerard, and that some of the miniatures of him were from the brush of Susanna, all such paintings, in earlier days, being attributed to Holbein. The portrait of Henry VIII in Warwick Castle, and similar versions in Kimbolton Castle, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, and elsewhere, are now generally ascribed to one or other of the Hornebolts. The last-named version is dated 1544, so that Holbein could not have painted it. Another version, belonging to the Marquis of Bute, was said by Dr. Waagen, who saw it at Luton House, to be “exactly like the picture by Holbein at Warwick Castle, only less finished. If by Gerard Horebout, as stated here, it is a copy from Holbein.”

The very fact that tradition attached the name of an almost unknown artist to this picture of the King, in the days when it was the fashion to regard every portrait of Henry VIII as a work of Holbein’s, is sufficient to suggest that the tradition is in all probability the correct one. “When tradition,” says Mr. Wornum, “notwithstanding the mischievous activity of presumptuous ignorance, has still handed down works with comparatively obscure names attached to them, the fact alone should go a great way towards its confirmation as truth.”[[562]] Dr. Waagen, however, never hesitated to discard such attributions, and often saw Holbein in pictures which more modern criticism has shown could not have been from his brush.

Lucas is said to have given Holbein his first instructions in miniature-painting, and no doubt all three members of the family were miniaturists and illuminators, and were employed in producing the small portraits of the King and the members of his family so often required by Henry for sending abroad as gifts to other reigning monarchs or as presents to subjects whom he wished to honour. Thus, in the summer of 1527, the King sent, through his representative in Paris, portraits of himself and the Princess Mary to Francis I. Whether these were miniatures or not is uncertain, but upon the backs of them were painted various royal devices, which were explained to the French King, who “liked them singularly well, and at the first sight of Henry’s ‘phisonamye’ took off his bonnet, saying he knew well that face, and further, ‘Je prie Dieu que il luy done bone vie et longue.’ He then looked at the Princess’s, standing in contemplation and beholding thereof a great while, and gave much commendation and laud unto the same.”[[563]] These two portraits may have been painted by one or other of the Hornebolts.

MINIATURES OF THE KING IN DEEDS

More than one deed of the period, preserved in the Record Office, is ornamented with an initial letter containing a portrait of Henry VIII. Thus, on one confirming to Wolsey’s College at Oxford all the possessions granted to them by the King, dated 5th May 1526, there is a fine miniature of Henry in the initial letter done by an artist of considerable ability.[[564]] Other deeds having reference to the Cardinal’s College at Ipswich have the royal miniature and arms, as well as Wolsey’s arms and insignia, beautifully tricked by some foreigner; and another, dealing with the same college, with a miniature of the King, the royal supporters, &c. &c., with an architectural column by the side of the initial letter, and an angel bearing the letters “H.R.”[[565]] These are all of the year 1528, while another, dated 1st January 1529, is illuminated in the same way, and is equally well done.[[566]] In an account of Wolsey’s for preparing these deeds for the college there is an item: “For vellum and making great letters for my Lord his patents, 13s.” Also “To Hert, for vellum, parchment and drawing of great letters, 39s. 2d.” The writing appears to have been chiefly done by Stephen Vaughan, for which he received £6, 17s. 9d., and among the payments made to several people “for writing,” there is mention of one “Gerarde,” who was very possibly Gerard Hornebolt.[[567]] It is, therefore, not unlikely that Lucas and Gerard were responsible for the miniatures at the head of such deeds. Who “Hert” or Hart, was, who drew the “great letters,” there is so far no evidence to show, but he was probably an Englishman.

The work of Lucas Hornebolt as a painter of portrait-miniatures, and his almost certain identity with the “Master Lukas” who first instructed Holbein in this branch of art, is dealt with in a later chapter. In April 1532 he received the grant of a royal licence to export 400 quarters of barley, in which he is called “Luke Hornebolt, a native of Flanders;”[[568]] and in 1536-7 (28 Hen. VIII), in connection with some revels and masques at Hampton Court, occurs the item, “To Lucas Horneholte, painter, for painting with black upon paper, of 3 bulls and 3 small rolls, 5s.”[[569]] Among the presents received by the King on New Year’s Day, 1539, was a fire-screen from Lucas Hornebolt, which is entered in the royal accounts thus: “By Lewcas paynter a skrene to set afore the fyre, standing uppon a fote of woode, and the skrene blewe worsted.”[[570]] He was given in return a gilt cruse weighing 10½ oz., and his servant who delivered it 6s. 8d., Holbein and Antonio Toto receiving similar presents at the same time.

Gerard Hornebolt’s service in the royal household was of shorter duration than Luke’s. Up to May 1531 his name always occurs in the treasurer’s accounts in conjunction with his brother, but there is a break in the records from that date until Lady Day 1538, the household books for that period having disappeared, and from October 1538 Luke’s name alone appears. His death is not recorded, as it was the custom to do when salaries were concerned, by some such entry as “wages nihil quia mortuus,” as was done in the case of his brother Luke in 1544; so that it is probable that he returned to Ghent at some date between 1531 and 1538, leaving his brother and sister permanently settled in England. In this connection it is interesting to note that in a list of payments made by Sir Richard Wingfield in Calais between the 8th January 1513 and the 21st November 1514, there is an entry of £33, 6s. 8d. paid to “the glazier of Antwerp (possibly Galyon Hone) for glazing the great east window in St. Nicholas’ Church, Calais, by the King’s command,” and that 25s. was paid “to a painter of Gaunt for taking the portraiture of the King’s visage to be set in the said window.”[[571]] The name of the elder Gerard may be suggested as the artist employed for this purpose, as one of the leading painters of Ghent. It does not follow from the entry that the drawing was supplied by some painter then settled in England, while the small fee paid almost precludes the possibility that an artist was sent over specially from Calais to London to sketch the King; but Gerard Hoorenbault appears to have been resident in Antwerp at about that time (1513), and the commission may have been given him by the Antwerp glazier who was carrying out the work.

In addition to Susanna Hornebolt, two other skilled Netherlandish miniaturists of her sex came over to England during the later years of Henry VIII’s reign. What little is known of Livina Teerlinc, or Terling, as she was called in this country, is given in a later chapter.[[572]] Nothing is known about the second miniaturist, Katherine Maynor or Maynors, except that she received a patent of denization in November 1540, in which she is described as a “widow, painter, born at Antwerp in Brabant.”[[573]] She may, perhaps, have been some relation of Henry Maynert, painter, one of the witnesses to Holbein’s will; or even the widow of the John Maynard who, with John Bell, was employed upon the painting of Henry VII’s tomb.

JOHANNES CORVUS

Another notable painter from the Low Countries who was a contemporary of Holbein’s in England, was Johannes Corvus, of Flanders, whose style of painting can be judged by two well-authenticated portraits—that of Richard Foxe, Bishop of Winchester, in Corpus Christi College, Oxford, of which college he was the founder; and that of Princess Mary Tudor, sister of Henry VIII and widow of Louis XII, painted in 1532, when she was the wife of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, which was lent to the Exhibition of Early English Portraiture at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1909 by Mr. H. Dent-Brocklehurst (No. 28). A similar manner of painting is to be found in a series of portraits of Princess Mary Tudor, afterwards Queen, including the one in the National Portrait Gallery, dated 1544, which is attributed to Corvus in the catalogue. This picture has much resemblance to a portrait of a Tudor princess, possibly Queen Elizabeth, belonging to Mrs. Booth, of Glendon Hall,[[574]] which has always borne the traditional name of Katherine Parr. To this group may be added the portrait of Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, in the National Portrait Gallery.[[575]] If the portraits of Queen Mary are by Corvus, he may be identified with some certainty as the “one John that drue her Grace in a table,” for which he received £5 in 1544, as noted in the Princess Mary’s Privy Purse Expenses.