Jason Sacran More Art

Portrait of Mary Hammond in Sumptuous Attire, Jewels and Lace c.1618-22 Circle of Cornelius Johnson (1593-1661) This portrait of a lady, presented by Titan Fine Art, is an exquisite example of early seventeenth-century portraiture, remarkable both for the lavishness of its subject’s attire and for the distinguished provenance that has accompanied it across four centuries that adds a rich layer of historical significance. It was once part of the notable collection of Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet (1628–1699) at Moor Park, a stately mansion in Hertfordshire. Temple was a diplomat, essayist, philosopher, and the patron of Jonathan Swift. He was a key participate at an important period in English history, helping not only to negotiate the Triple Alliance, but also the marriage between William of Orange and Princess Mary. His collection at Moor Park was well known in its day, reflecting both his cultivated taste in art and literature and his international connections. Its fabulous attire, rendered with almost microscopic attention, is not merely decorative but emblematic of a world in which visual display was a language of power. Its provenance, stretching from the English country house and Enlightenment scholarship to modernist circles, forms a microcosm of cultural exchange across four centuries. Thus, the portrait of Mary Hammond stands as both a masterpiece of early seventeenth-century craftsmanship and a witness to the grand narrative of collecting and connoisseurship—a testament to the enduring fascination of beauty, status, and history intertwined. By tradition the portrait depicts Mary Hammond (born c.1602), who was Sir William Temple’s mother, and the daughter of the royal physician who served James I, Dr John Hammond (c.1555–1617) and whose family owned Chertsey Abbey in Surrey. The woman appears between 18 and 25 years old, and Mary would be about 18–20 when the portrait was painted circa 1620, therefore this matches the apparent age of the sitter and the fashion perfectly. Mary stood at the intersection of learned/courtly and gentry worlds. On 22 June 1627 she married her first cousin (a common practice for consolidating family wealth and influence during that era.) Sir John Temple (1600-1677) at St Michael, Cornhill in the City of London. The couple resided nearby, at Blackfriars. Her marriage to Sir Temple placed her at the heart of the social and political circles that shaped British history. The couple had at least five children, and they became highly significant historical figures: The eldest son, Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet, became a distinguished diplomat, statesman, and essayist, famous for his role in the Triple Alliance and as a patron and mentor to the writer Jonathan Swift – our portrait was in his collection. Their daughter, Martha Temple, later Lady Giffard, was a notable figure in her own right. She became her brother William's first biographer and a respected letter-writer, providing a rare female perspective on the events and high society of the time. Another son, also named Sir John Temple, became Attorney General for Ireland and was involved in the turbulent politics surrounding the English Civil War and the Act of Settlement in Ireland. Mary died in November 1638 after giving birth to twins and was buried at Penshurst, Kent. The family's connection to Penshurst Place is a major point of interest as this historic manor was the seat of the Sidney family, a major aristocratic and literary dynasty. The portrait was in the collection of the Mary’s son, Sir William Temple. From there it descended to his daughter, and then to her nephew, the Reverend Nicholas Bacon of Spixworth Park, Norfolk (his mother was Dorothy Temple who died in 1758). Indeed, by this time, many Temple relics were in the collection at Spixworth including the engagement ring of the illustrious Dorothy Osborne, Lady Temple, wife of Sir William Temple. The portrait thus linked two prominent English families—the Temples and the Bacons—for generations. It is listed in a Spixworth Park inventory of 27 October 1910 by the local collector and art historian, Prince Duleep Singh. He described it with characteristic precision as: “No. 69. Lady Half Length, body and face turned towards the sinister, hazel eyes upwards to the dexter, red hair dressed low and over the ears, a jewelled coronet behind, pearl ear-rings tied with black strings. Dress: black, bodice cut low and square, with lace all round the opening and over shoulders, sleeves with double slashes showing red lining and lace under, falling thin pleated lace collar, black strings tied behind it, a jewel suspended on a black string round the neck, and a double row of agate and silver beads all round to the shoulders. M. In brown veined stone frame. Age 30. Date c.1620. It is called ‘Dutch portrait from Moor Park, mentioned by Nicholas Bacon of Coddenham and Shrubland as a very valuable painting.’ A few years later, when Robert Bacon Longe’s executors sold the contents of Spixworth Park (19–22 May 1912), the portrait appeared as lot 262, described as: “A very valuable half-length portrait on panel, ‘Dutch Lady, with deep lace collar and pearl and amethyst necklace, pendant, and ear-rings, and auburn hair, with coronet’ Early Dutch School 1620.” Following this sale the painting entered the collection of David and Constance Garnett, prominent literary figures of the early twentieth century, before being gifted to Andre Vladimervitch Tchernavin by 1949, and subsequently passed by him to the present owners in 1994. The two great houses associated with the painting, Moor Park and Spixworth Park, further underscore its pedigree. Moor Park, in Hertfordshire, was among the grandest country estates of seventeenth-century England—its gardens famously redesigned by Sir William Temple himself and later influencing landscape design across Europe. Sir William's Temple's secretary was Jonathan Swift, who lived at Moor Park between 1689 and 1699. Swift began to write "A Tale of the Tub" and "The Battle of the Books" at Moor Park. Spixworth Park, near Norwich, was an Elizabethan country house in Spixworth, Norfolk, located just north of the city of Norwich. It was home to successive generations of the Bacon family, one of Norfolk’s most distinguished dynasties (later, the Bacon Longe family), who were considerable land owners (owning Reymerston Hall, Norfolk, Hingham Hall, Norfolk, Dunston Hall, Norfolk, Abbot's Hall, Stowmarket, and Yelverton Hall, Norfolk). Spixworth Hall and the surrounding parkland remained in the Longe family for 257 years until 1952, when it was demolished. Rendered with meticulous precision and sumptuous detail, the painting depicts an elegantly dressed woman—her poise, costume, and jewels all communicating a message of wealth, refinement, and social rank. Every brushstroke conveys an artist deeply attuned to the textures of luxury and the nuances of feminine dignity. The sitter’s attire is nothing short of magnificent. Her bodice and sleeves are fashioned from the finest black silk or satin, the fabric absorbing and reflecting light in equal measure, suggesting both depth and lustre. Around her shoulders lies an opulent lace ruff—a deep, radiating lace collar worked in such intricate detail that it testifies to both the artist’s technical skill and the sitter’s extravagant taste. Lace of this quality, especially Venetian or Flemish bobbin lace, was one of the costliest materials available in early seventeenth-century Europe, its weight worth more than gold, and was a marker of prestige that rivalled jewels in value. The painter has taken great care to delineate every loop and scallop of the lace, achieving an almost tactile realism. Pale skin was also a desired beauty standard, sometimes accentuated with contrasting black ribbons or strings. Her jewels amplify this display of affluence. Matching earrings and a delicate coronet or jewelled hair ornament with a feather adorn her hair, which is styled in the modest yet fashionable manner of the time. These details are far from decorative excess—they serve as visual emblems of social standing, refinement, and lineage. Portraits of this kind were statements of both identity and aspiration, intended to project a family’s prosperity and moral virtue to posterity. The portrait was most likely painted in London around 1618-1622. The low-cut, décolletage-revealing neckline was fashionable in the courts of England and France during the late Elizabethan and Jacobean eras (c. 1590s-1610s), this style did not prevail in the public fashion of the Low Countries at this time. This style of lace ruff — delicate needle lace with geometric openwork — was fashionable from c.1615 to 1622, and the jewelled caul (hair net) and lace edging over a stiffened coif are consistent with high-status English women’s portraiture between 1610–1620. The puffed sleeve slash and the use of pink satin beneath black velvet belong squarely to the late Jacobean...

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Francesco Albani Circle Italian Mythological Painting This important oil painting on wood depicts a subject that is very rare in the iconography of ancient mythological paintings: the birth of Erittonio. Erichthonius who succeeded Amphictyon becoming the fourth mythological king of Athens and married the naiad Praxithea who made him the father of Pandion. The extremely high quality of this very rare painting suggests that it was painted by an artist who frequented Francesco Albani's studio. The period, the mythological subject, the harmony of the colours and, above all, the sublime quality of the flesh tones all point in this direction. This artwork, never before on the market, comes from an important Italian private collection Every item of our Gallery, upon request, is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Sabrina Egidi official Expert in Italian furniture for the Chamber of Commerce of Rome and for the Rome Civil Courts. ERYTHTONIOS (᾿Ερυχϑόνιος, Erychthonios) Born of Hephaestus' love for Athena, from the breast of Ghe, who was impregnated by the god; welcomed by Athena, who placed him in a basket together with one or two snakes, entrusting him to the care of Cecrops' three daughters. Against the goddess's wishes, they opened the chest, from which emerged, according to different versions of the myth, either the child wrapped in snakes or a snake, which, in some versions, killed the girls, while in others, they threw themselves from the Acropolis in fear. Erittonio, in the form of a snake, is welcomed by Athena into her temple and curls up under the goddess's shield. Alongside this myth, of Ionian origin, are others due to the doubling of the figures of E. and Erechtheus The scene of the birth appears in figurative tradition: in a Melian terracotta relief from the early 5th century, Ghe, half-emerging, holds out the baby Erittonio. to Athena, who welcomes him in the presence of Cecrops; the same scene appears on various painted vases, such as a red-figure kölix by the Painter of Kodros, from Tarquinia, in the Berlin Museums, dating from around 440 BC, where Hephaestus also appears alongside Cecrops. A modest red-figure vase from Camiro, in the British Museum, depicts the moment when the fleeing Cecropids discover the cista, from which the infant Erittonio. emerges between two snakes, greeting Athena. The moment when the chest was opened was depicted by Phidias on the xiii and xiv S metopes of the Parthenon, where Cecrops and Pandrosus appear in the first and Erisichthon and Aglaurus with the chest uncovered in the second. A kölix in the style of the Brygos Painter in Frankfurt, on the other hand, depicts the large snake E. chasing the fleeing Cecropids towards their father's palace. Luciano (De dom., 27) recalls a painting depicting the scene of the birth and the representation of the myth in pantomime on the theatre (De salt., 39). Bibliography: Engelmann, in Roscher, cc. 1303-1308, s. v. Erichthonios; P. Jacobstahl, Die Melischen Reliefs, Berlin 1931, pp. 96-98, plate 75 a; W. Züchner, in Jahrbuch, LXV-LXVI, 1950-51, p. 200 ff., figs. 34-35; J. D. Beazley, Red-fig., p. 720; G. Becatti, Problemi fidiaci, Florence 1951, p. 22. Questo Francesco Albani (Bologna, August 17, 1578 – Bologna, October 4, 1660) was an Italian painter. Albani was born in Bologna, Papal States, in 1578. His father was a silk merchant who intended his son to go into his own trade. By the age of twelve, however, he had become an apprentice to the competent mannerist painter Denis Calvaert, in whose studio he met Guido Reni. He soon followed Reni to the so-called "Academy" run by Annibale, Agostino, and Ludovico Carracci. This studio fostered the careers of many painters of the Bolognese school, including Domenichino, Massari, Viola, Lanfranco, Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi...

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