To the reign of Henry V., or at latest to the early days of Henry VI., belongs the earliest authentic specimen of historical portraiture in England. It represents _Henry V. and his Relations_, painted on wood, less than life size, and was at one time the altar-piece of Shene Church. The portraits which were attempted in the troublous period of the Wars of the Roses, though unlovely and ghastly to look upon, show that art was gradually emerging from the fetters of monastic teaching, where bad pupils copied bad masters, and reproduced saints and angels, whose want of form and symmetry was atoned for by a liberal allowance of gilding. A fairly expressive portrait of _Richard III._, which must have been painted about this time by a very capable artist, is among the treasures of Knowsley. In the well-known tapestry in St. Mary's Hall, Coventry, there is a representation of King Henry VI. kneeling before the altar, attended by Cardinal Beaufort, the Duke of Gloucester, and many courtiers, in which the drawing will bear comparison with similar work executed in Italy or Flanders at the same time. This tapestry was probably made at Arras, from English designs. [Illustration: ARTHUR, PRINCE OF WALES. [B. 1486. D. 1502.] _From a Miniature at Windsor Castle_.] The gradual spread of knowledge at this period induced the English nobility to promote the adornment of manuscripts, chiefly Missals and Romances of Chivalry. These pictures comprise the best specimens of English later mediaeval art, and in richness and delicacy of colour they closely approach oil paintings. With the discovery of printing came a check to the art of illuminating manuscripts, and the wild fanaticism of the first Reformers led them to burn at once the religious manuals of Rome, and the wit and wisdom of poet or philosopher. To these ruthless iconoclasts we owe the obscurity in which early English pictorial art remains. It must have been during the later years of the reign of Henry VII. that two miniatures, now at Windsor Castle, were painted, probably for the King. One represents _Arthur, Prince of Wales_, who, at the age of fifteen, married Catherine of Aragon; the other is his brother, who became Henry VIII. (_See Engravings_.) In the reign of Henry VI. there was an artist of note, undoubtedly an Englishman, who may not be passed in silence. This was William Austen, sculptor, to whom we owe the monument ("in fine latten," _i.e._ brass) of Richard, Earl of Warwick, in the Church of St. Mary, Warwick, a work which Flaxman somewhat courageously considered equal to the productions of Austen's Italian contemporaries, Ghiberti and Donatello. [Illustration] CHAPTER II. ENGLISH ART IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES.