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Source Description
Framed by the folds of a circular tent, Sir Anthony Mildmay strikes a relaxed and confident pose, with his right hand resting on a cloth-covered table and his left grasping the hilt of his thin, double-edged sword called a rapier. Helmet, gauntlet, and leg coverings are scattered about, as if Mildmay has been interrupted in the act of putting on or taking off his armor. Despite its small scale, this portrait reveals Nicholas Hilliard’s emulation of (and rivalry with) life-size court portraiture, while his meticulous attention to detail and use of costly materials like shell gold reflect the refined world of courtly tournaments.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
108884
label
Sir Anthony Mildmay, Knight of Apethorpe, Northamptonshire
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
108884
contentType
object
title
Sir Anthony Mildmay, Knight of Apethorpe, Northamptonshire
description
Framed by the folds of a circular tent, Sir Anthony Mildmay strikes a relaxed and confident pose, with his right hand resting on a cloth-covered table and his left grasping the hilt of his thin, double-edged sword called a rapier. Helmet, gauntlet, and leg coverings are scattered about, as if Mildmay has been interrupted in the act of putting on or taking off his armor. Despite its small scale, this portrait reveals Nicholas Hilliard’s emulation of (and rivalry with) life-size court portraiture, while his meticulous attention to detail and use of costly materials like shell gold reflect the refined world of courtly tournaments.
date
c. 1590–93
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q80000810
creators
2562
genreSpecific
Portrait Miniature
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Sheet: 23.2 x 17.1 cm (9 1/8 x 6 3/4 in.); Unframed: 23.3 x 17.4 cm (9 3/16 x 6 7/8 in.); Overall framed: 32.7 x 26.8 cm (12 7/8 x 10 9/16 in.)
cul
England, 16th century
accession
1926.554
Source extras
tec
Watercolor on vellum, laid on card, mounted on wood
tombstone
Sir Anthony Mildmay, Knight of Apethorpe, Northamptonshire, c. 1590–93. Nicholas Hilliard (English, c. 1547–1619). Watercolor on vellum, laid on card, mounted on wood; sheet: 23.2 x 17.1 cm (9 1/8 x 6 3/4 in.); unframed: 23.3 x 17.4 cm (9 3/16 x 6 7/8 in.); overall framed: 32.7 x 26.8 cm (12 7/8 x 10 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1926.554
collection
P - British before 1800
didYouKnow
A little dog gazes adoringly at Mildmay who was by all accounts a very arrogant man.
citations
citation
Thieme, Ulrich, Felix Becker, Fred. C. Willis, and Hans Vollmer. <em>Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart XXV</em>. Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 1907.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 599
citation
Milliken, William M. "A Miniature by Isaac Oliver." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art </em>XIV, no.2, (February 1927) 19-21.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 17
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 23
citation
Bull, H. A., Jr. "Exhibitions." <em>The International Studio </em>92 (April 1929): 72-84.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 82
citation
Grancsay, Stephen V. "Notes on Armor of the Greenwich School." <em>Metropolitan Museum Studies</em> 2, no. 1 (1929): 85-101.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 87, fig. 3
citation
Kelly, Francis Michael, and Randolph Schwabe. <em>A Short History of Costume & Armour, Chiefly in England, 1066-1800.</em> New York, NY: C. Scribner's Sons, 1931.
page_number
Reproduced: pl. 32
citation
Wilenski, R. H. <em>English Painting</em>. London, United Kingdom: Faber and Faber, 1933.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 48, Pl. 7
citation
Kelly, Francis Michael. “Portrait of a Warrior; Robert Sidney, Afterwards Earl of Leicester, Probably by Isaac Oliver.” <em>Connoisseur</em> 100 (July 1937): 25–28.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 28, fig. III
citation
Francis, Henry. "Loans to Important Exhibitions." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art </em>26, no. 7 (July 1939): 123
page_number
Mentioned: p. 123
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art, and William Mathewson Milliken. <em>Masterpieces of Art from the New York and San Francisco World's Fairs; The Cleveland Museum of Art, February 7 Through March 7, 1940</em>. 1940.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 49, p. 22, pl. XVII
citation
Shoolman, Regina, and Charles E. Slatkin. <em>The Enjoyment of Art in America.</em> Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, 1942.
page_number
Reproduced: pl. 586
citation
Symonds, R. W. "Standards, Coffers and Trunks." <em>Country Life </em>93 (February 5, 1943): 262-263.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 262
citation
<em>Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art.</em> [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1945.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 16
citation
Winter, Carl. "Hilliard and Elizabethan Miniatures." <em>The Burlington Magazine </em>LXXXIX(1947): 174-183.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 176, 180
citation
Reynolds, Graham, Nicholas Hilliard, and Isaac Oliver. <em>Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver: An Exhibition to Commemorate the 400th Anniversary of the Birth of Nicholas Hilliard</em>. London: Ministry of Education, 1947.
page_number
Mentioned: cat. no. 57
citation
Pope-Hennessy, John Wyndham. <em>A Lecture on Nicholas Hilliard</em>. London, United Kingdom: Home and Van Thal, 1949.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 19
citation
Judson, Alexander Corbin. <em>Sidney's Appearance; A Study in Elizabethan Portraiture.</em> Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1958.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 34
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook.</em> Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 463
citation
Auerbach, Erna.<em> Nicholas Hilliard</em>. London: Routledge & Paul, 1961.
page_number
Reproduced: pl. 93
citation
Mercer, Eric. <em>English Art, 1553-1625</em>. London, United Kingdom: Clarendon Press, 1962.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 204, pl. 70
citation
Rowse, A. L. <em>The Expansion of Elizabethan England</em>. New York: Harper & Row, 1965.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 246-247
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 105
citation
<em>Selected Works: Cleveland Museum of Art.</em> Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 147
citation
Strong, Roy. <em>The English Icon: Elizabethan & Jacobean Portraiture</em>. London, United Kingdom: Paul Mellon Foundation for British Art, in association with Routledge & K. Paul, 1969.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 14, fig. 13
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 105
citation
Reynolds, Graham. <em>Nicholas Hilliard & Isaac Oliver.</em> London, United Kingdom: H.M.S.O., Victoria and Albert Museum, 1971.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 31
citation
Thornton, Peter. "Two Problems." <em>Furniture History</em> 7 (1971): 61-71.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 68-69; Reproduced: pl. 18
citation
Foskett, Daphne. <em>A Dictionary of British Miniature Painters</em>. London, United Kindgom: Faber and Faber, 1972.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 330, vol. 1; Mentioned: p. 51, vol. II, Reproduced: p. 412, pl. 161
citation
Strong, Roy C. <em>Nicholas Hilliard</em>. London, United Kingdom: Joseph, 1975.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 43, pl. 11
citation
Thornton, Peter. <em>Seventeenth-Century Interior Decoration in England, France, and Holland.</em> New Haven: Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press, 1978.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 226-227; Reproduced: p, 411
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 123
citation
Foskett, Daphne. <em>Collecting Miniatures</em>. Woodbridge, United Kingdom: Antique Collectors' Club, 1979.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 52
citation
Taylor, Joshua C. <em>The Fine Arts in America</em>. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1979.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 13
citation
Taylor, Joshua C. T<em>he Fine Arts in America.</em> Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1979.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 13
citation
Finsten, Jill. <em>Isaac Oliver, Art at the Courts of Elizabeth I and James I.</em> New York, NY: Garland Pub, 1981.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 236, fig. 31
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Catalogue of Paintings.Pt. 3. European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries.</em> Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 191-193, no. 79; Reproduced: p. 192, fig. 79
citation
Strong, Roy C. <em>The English Renaissance Miniature.</em> London, United Kingdom: Thames and Hudson, 1983.
page_number
Reproduced: fig. 126
citation
Edmond, Mary. <em>Hilliard and Oliver: The Lives and Works of Two Great Miniaturists</em>. London, UK: R. Hale, 1983.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 78
citation
Jones-Davies, Marie Thérèse. <em>Le Roman de Chevalerie au Temps de la Renaissance.</em> Paris: J. Touzot, 1987.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 237
citation
Ashelford, Jane. <em>Dress in the Age of Elizabeth I</em>. London, United Kingdom: Batsford, 1988.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 137, fig. 97
citation
Ridley, Jasper Godwin. <em>The Tudor Age</em>. London: Constable, 1988.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 312
citation
Shakespeare, William. <em>The Sonnets</em>. London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1988.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 36
citation
Tortora, Phyllis G., and Keith Eubank. <em>A Survey of Historic Costume.</em> New York, NY: Fairchild Publications, 1989.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 133, fig. 9.5
citation
Avery, Charles. "Fontainebleau, Milan, or Rome? A Mannerist Bronze Lockplate and Hasp." <em>Studies in the History of Art</em> 22 (1989): 291-305.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 296, fig. 8
citation
Mowl, Tim. <em>Elizabethan & Jacobean Style</em>. London, UK: Phaidon Press, 1993.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 104
citation
Chong, Alan. <em>European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue.</em> Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 290
citation
Turner, Jane. <em>The Dictionary of Art</em>. New York, NY: Grove, 1996.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 546
citation
Highley, Christopher. <em>Shakespeare, Spenser, and the Crisis in Ireland. </em>Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 121-122, fig. 5
citation
Fliegel, Stephen N. <em>Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1998.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 96
citation
Thorne, Alison. <em>Vision and Rhetoric in Shakespeare: Looking Through Language.</em> New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 43, 50; reproduced: pl.6
citation
Anderson, Christy. "The Secrets of Vision in Renaissance England." <em>Studies in the History of Art</em> 59 (2003): 322-47.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 324
citation
Fliegel, Stephen N. <em>Arms & Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 114
citation
James, Susan E. <em>The Feminine Dynamic in English Art, 1485-1603: Women As Consumers, Patrons and Painters</em>. Farnham, England: Ashgate, 2009.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 1999, fig. 4.1
citation
<em>Treasures of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. London, UK. Scala Books, 2012.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 178-179
citation
Korkow, Cory, and Dario Robleto. <em>Disembodied: Portrait Miniatures and Their Contemporary Relatives</em>. 2013.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 84
citation
Korkow, Cory, and Jon L. Seydl<em>. British Portrait Miniatures: The Cleveland Museum of Art. 2</em>013.
page_number
Cat. no. 3, pp. 38-44
citation
Stephen Lloyd, review of <em>British Portrait Miniatures. The Cleveland Museum of Art, by Cory Korkow with the assistance of Jon. L. Seydl</em>, The Burlington Magazine 157, no. 1346 (May 2015).
page_number
Reproduced: p. 349-350, fig. 57
citation
Adshead, David, and David A. H. B. Taylor, eds.<em> Hardwick Hall: A Great Old Castle of Romance.</em> New Haven : Published for The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art & The National Trust by Yale University Press, 2016.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 165, fig. 163
citation
Strong, Roy C., and V. J. Murrell. <em>Artists of the Tudor Court: The Portrait Miniature Rediscovered, 1520-1620 : 9 July-6 November 1983, the Victoria & Albert Museum</em>. [London]: Victoria & Albert Museum, 1983.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no 264, p. 156-158
citation
Heap, William.<em> Elizabeth's French Wars, 1562-1598: English Intervention in the French Wars of Religion</em>. Unicorn Publishing, 2020.
page_number
p. 113
citation
Cleland, Elizabeth A. H., Adam Eaker, Marjorie E. Wieseman, and Sarah Bochicchio. <em>The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England.</em> New York : The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2022.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 184-186, No. 74
citation
Balestrieri, James D. "The Stage and the Set." <em>Art & Antiques </em>XLV, no. 9 (October 2022): 70-77.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 77
creditline
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 05:49:26.948000
sourceId
108884
dept
European Painting and Sculpture
coll
P - British before 1800
med
Watercolor on vellum, laid on card, mounted on wood
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
e0d11177a91e2cfb