The Family Collection of the late Countess Mountbatten of Burma
The Family Collection of the late Countess Mountbatten of Burma
Follower of Hans Holbein the Younger
Portrait of Matthew Parker (1504-1575), Archbishop of Canterbury
Auction Closed
March 24, 08:41 PM GMT
Estimate
2,000 - 3,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Follower of Hans Holbein the Younger
Portrait of Matthew Parker (1504-1575), Archbishop of Canterbury
inscribed upper left: A:B: Cranmer.
oil on panel
45.7 x 32.6 cm.
Catalogue of Portraits, 1920, 'Small Panels', p. 24.
Incorrectly identified as Thomas Cranmer in the inscription, this portrait actually depicts Matthew Parker, Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury (1559-75), who presided over the Elizabethan religious settlement in which the Church of England maintained a distinct identity apart from Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Parker studied at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and was ordained a priest in 1527. From 1535 to 1547 he was dean of a college of priests in Suffolk and from 1544 to 1553 master of Corpus Christi College, occasionally holding other positions concurrently, such as chaplain to Henry VIII (1538) and vice chancellor of the University of Cambridge (1545 and 1549). Forced to resign and retire to private life under the Roman Catholic Mary I, he was consecrated archbishop of Canterbury thirteen months after Elizabeth I’s accession. As archbishop, Parker supervised the revision of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s forty-two doctrinal articles of 1553. This composition is based on a painting at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (inv. no. 50)1 which itself appears to be based on a lost original by Hans Holbein the Younger. Another portrait of the sitter is found at Lambeth Palace (inv. no. 50).2