Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan and Lorraine, 1522-1590Cartwright, Julia
History
Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan and Lorraine, 1522-1590
Cartwright, Julia
Christine, Duchess, consort of Francis I, Duke of Lorraine, 1521-1590; Europe -- History -- 1517-1648
[182] Holbein's portrait is described in the Catalogues of the King's
pictures at Westminster in 1542 and 1547 as "No. 12. A greate Table
with the picture of the Duchess of Myllane, being her whole stature."
After Henry's death it passed into the hands of Fitzalan, Earl of
Arundel, the King's Lord Chamberlain and godson, who married Lady
Katherine Grey, and acquired the Palace of Nonsuch, with most of its
contents. When he died, in 1580, it became the property, first of his
elder daughter Jane, wife of Lord Lumley, and then of her great-nephew,
Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel. This great collector took the Duchess
of Milan's portrait with him abroad during the Civil Wars, and after
his death, in 1645, it hung, with many other Holbeins, in the house
of his widow at Amsterdam. Lady Arundel left the whole collection
to her son, Henry Howard, who became the sixth Duke of Norfolk, and
Holbein's portrait remained in the family until, in 1909, it was
acquired by the National Gallery for the sum of £72,000. A second
portrait of the Duchess of Milan, a half-length, is mentioned in Henry
VIII.'s Catalogues ("No. 138. A Table with a picture of the Duchess of
Myllane"), and was discovered by Sir George Scharf in a waiting-room
near the private chapel at Windsor. This is probably the portrait by
Van Orley which Hutton sent to England before Holbein's arrival at
Brussels. The attitude of the sitter, her dress and features, are the
same as in Holbein's picture, but the face is less finely modelled
and lacks charm and expression. The hands are in a slightly different
position, and instead of one big ruby ring she wears three rings--a
cameo and a gold ring on the right hand, and a black ring, the badge
of widowhood, on the third finger of the left hand. This curious and
interesting portrait is plainly the work of an inferior artist, and,
as the Ambassador justly remarked, bears no comparison with Holbein's
Duchess--"surely," in the words of his biographer, "one of the most
precious pictures in the world" (Wornum's "Life of Holbein," p. 322;
L. Cust in the _Burlington Magazine_, August, 1911, p. 278; and Sir G.
Scharf in "Archæologia," xl. 205).
[183] Calendar of Spanish State Papers, v. 2, 523.
[184] State Papers, Record Office, viii. 21.
[185] State Papers, Record Office, viii. 30.
[186] Calendar of State Papers, xiii. 1, 263.
[187] Kaulek, 29, 33, 35.
[188] Calendar of Spanish State Papers, v. 2, 524.
[189] Calendar of State Papers, xiii. 1, 258.
[190] Calendar of Spanish State Papers, v. 2, 526, 558.
[191] Kaulek, 48, 50, 53, 58, 70.
[192] _Ibid._, 58, 73; Pimodan, 73.
[193] Kaulek, 70, 79, 81; Spanish State Papers, vi. 1, 9.
[194] Balcarres Manuscripts, ii. 20.
[195] _Ibid._, ii. 10.
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