IX
DR. FRANCK BRIGHT’S PORTRAIT OF HARVEY
This portrait is undoubtedly the most pleasing picture of Dr. William Harvey. It is owned by the Rev. James Franck Bright, D.D., formerly Master of University College, Oxford. The picture is at Hollow Hill, Ditchingham, Norfolk, and the Historical Section is greatly indebted to Dr. Bright for lending the negative from which this collotype has been made. The picture was inherited from Dr. Richard Bright (1789-1858), physician to Guy’s Hospital, to whom it was given by Sir Francis Milman, M.D. (1746-1821). It is unsigned and has always been attributed to Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641), though several later critics prefer to think that it was painted by William van Bemmel (1630-1708).
It is a three-quarter length on canvas measuring 4 ft. 3½ in. by 3 ft. 4½ in., and represents Harvey standing and leaning lightly upon a crutch stick which he holds in his right hand, whilst in his left is a handkerchief with a gold fringe. He is dressed soberly in black with the plain white collar. The hair is iron-grey and long, as we know that he usually wore it. The face is small, drawn, pointed, with a good strong brow and forehead and a delicate mouth, shaded but not concealed by the small moustache and slightly peaked beard. The expression is remarkably thoughtful and almost suffering, for the painter has represented the mood in which Dr. Ent found him, when in reply to the question, ‘Satin’ salva omnia?’ he gave the noble answer, ‘Qui possint, ubi turbarum plena respublica, egoque adhuc ipsemet in alto mari?’ The hands are singularly delicate and are most beautifully painted, with much character. There is no background to the picture, but in the right top quarter of the canvas is painted the coat armour usually assigned to the Harvey family, complete with crest and motto, which are not elsewhere given. The arms are those of the ancient Harvy family quartered with the coat used by Sir Daniel Harvey of Coombe Hill, Surrey, viz. Argent, two bars wavy, sable on a chief of the last three crosses patée fitchée or; and or, a chief indented sable, three crescents argent. The crest is the ‘stemma’ of the lighted candle entwined by two serpents and the motto ‘piu (H)arde, piu Splend(ide)’. The crest is a specially interesting feature of the armorial bearings, for it is similar to the ‘stemma’ or memorial to Harvey discovered at Padua in 1893 and described by Prof. Darwin in the Cambridge Antiquarian Society’s Communications, vol. viii (1894). The motto, too, does not appear elsewhere, so it may be assumed that these armorial bearings were adopted by William Harvey for his individual use. It is interesting to speculate whether the ‘stemma’ at Padua was placed in position when Harvey was a student and was thus prophetic, or whether it was not put into the cloister by his order when he visited Padua many years later and had already made his name as ‘a medical light’, in which case the crest is merely symbolic.
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