Sold....portrait of Sir Maximilian Norris; Manner of Robert Peake

SIR MAXIMILIAN NORRIS (also known as Norreys) was a relative of Henry Norreys, Keeper of the King's Privy Purse, who was executed in 1536 for alleged adultery with Queen Anne Boleyn.

Maximilian was one of five brothers who campaigned in Ireland and on the Continent against the Spanish; he was killed fighting in Brittany in 1593.

The present representatives of the Norris family are the Berties, Earls of Abingdon.

This painting dates from c.1800 (the frame dating from that period) and is a copy of a lost 16th century original. It is typical of much Elizabethan portraiture in it's iconic feeling, use of symbolism and the fashionable poetic melancholic appearance of the sitter, who wears the 'sable harness' or black armour also in fashion at that time.

Upper right the copyist has misspelt the knight's name as 'Maximisian' and upper left has incorrectly copied the Latin inscription as 'His Aut Nullis', which should read 'Hic Aut Nullus'. One can only presume the inscriptions on the original were indistinct.

Beneath the sitter's name can faintly be discerned an overpainted inscription.

The symbolism of the hand, sword and armillary sphere is interesting.

The use of the armillary would suggest that the sitter was linked to the Court of Elizabeth l; it was much used there, especially by the Queen, as a symbol of constancy and (specifically) Protestant religious fidelity.

The sword and hand represent military valour in pursuit of these virtues and the Latin translates as 'Without this, nothing'.

ROBERT PEAKE the Elder (c. 1551 – 1619) was an English painter active in the later part of Elizabeth I's reign and for most of the reign of James I.

Peake was the only English-born painter of a group of four artists whose workshops were closely connected. The others were De Critz, Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, and the miniature painter Isaac Oliver. Between 1590 and about 1625, they specialised in slightly 'stiff feeling' portraits that are unique to England at this time. It is not always possible to attribute authorship between Peake, De Critz, Gheeraerts and their assistants with certainty.

SIZE: 45 x 41 inches inc frame.

PROVENANCE: Collection of a Lady of Title.