Opere Tectorio Fecit Holbenivs Ivbente Henrico VIII,” and a little below, on a plinth: “Ectypvm A Remigio Van Leempvt Breviora Tabella Describi Volvit Carolus II. M.B.F.E.H.R. A°. DNI. M.DCLXVII.” [Illustration: VOL. II., PLATE 18 HENRY VII AND HENRY VIII _Cartoon_ Duke of Devonshire’s collection UNTIL RECENTLY AT HARDWICK HALL, NOW AT CHATSWORTH ] [Sidenote: CARTOON OF HENRY VII & HENRY VIII] Van Leemput’s inferiority as an artist is shown most clearly in his rendering of the faces. In that of Henry VIII, in particular, the drawing is weak and lacking in character, and as a likeness it bears no close resemblance to the many portraits still existing which were copied or adapted from the fresco. It must be regarded, therefore, as a not very reliable record of the facial appearance of the four sitters as Holbein painted them. The pedestal was, no doubt, Van Leemput’s own invention, and the Latin verses must have been specially written for the purpose of his copy. As already pointed out, the wall on which the fresco was painted contained either a window or a fireplace. Charles Patin describes it as “sur le pignon de la croisée”; but it has been suggested that “croisée” is a typographical error for “cheminée.” Patin, however, was not a very careful observer, for he speaks of the subject as “de la main d’Holbein, le portrait d’Henry huit et des Princes ses enfants.”[210] In this, nevertheless, he may not be so completely wrong as at first sight appears. In 1897 Mr. Ernest Law, the historian of Hampton Court Palace, discovered another copy of the great wall-painting, also by Van Leemput, and of the same size and scale as the Hampton Court example, but with one important difference. In the middle foreground the copyist has placed a standing figure of Edward VI. This interesting little picture belongs to Lord Leconfield, and is in one of the private bedrooms at Petworth, Sussex. Patin may have seen this copy, and afterwards may have confused it with the wall-painting; or again, he may have confused the fresco with the picture of Henry VIII and his family, by an unknown artist of the school of Holbein, now in Hampton Court, No. 340 (510), but probably in Patin’s day hanging in Whitehall.[211] Footnote 210: Patin, _Relations historiques_, Basel, 1673, p. 211 _et seq._ Footnote 211: It is hardly possible that the figure of Edward VI was added to the wall-painting itself after the death of Holbein, or otherwise it would appear in both Van Leemput’s copies. It was, no doubt, taken from some independent portrait of the young king then hanging in Whitehall.