{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O72552"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O72552/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2018LC7393/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2018LC7393/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2018LC7393","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018LC7395","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AP6269","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O72552/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O72552","accessionNumber":"P.8-1947","objectType":"Portrait miniature","titles":[{"title":"Portrait Miniature of an Unknown Woman","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"This had been assumed to be an unfinished miniature. But V. J. Murrell, V&A Conservator suggested in the 1983 'Artists of the Tudor Court' exhibition catalogue that the painting was probably a demonstration piece kept in the studio. The evidence for this, in particular, the carelessness in the preparation of the vellum which has been crudely trimmed and fails to reach the upper edge of the playing card upon which it has been mounted. Nonetheless this miniature shows something of what Hilliard would have have achieved after two of the three customary sittings, working directly onto the vellum support (fine animal skin). The ‘carnation’ - the flesh-coloured ground painted in the area of the face - has been laid down. Some of the features have been modelled over the carnation, using hatches of red and brown, but more detail is needed on the face and on the costume. ","physicalDescription":"Portrait miniature of a woman, oval, looking to front, the head turned slightly to the right and wearing a ruff. The features incomplete and modelled over a carnation ground in transparent hatches of red and brown; the hair loosely washed over the carnation ground to indicate its disposition; the almost complete and worked up with ransparent grey over a white ground, and its lace raised in thick white; the background has been taken only so far as the first thin wash of blue bice; the costume has been indicated with dark lines of brown and black over the vellum, below which there are faint signs of graphite underdrawing. The portrait is backed with a playing card with three spades showing at the reverse. \n\n\n\n","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Hilliard, Nicholas","id":"A8506"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"vellum","id":"x42751"},{"text":"card","id":"x30344"},{"text":"watercolour","id":"AAT15045"}],"techniques":[{"text":"painting","id":"AAT54216"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Watercolour on vellum stuck to a playing card ","categories":[{"text":"Images Online","id":"THES48937"},{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"},{"text":"Portraits","id":"THES48906"}],"styles":[{"text":"Elizabethan","id":"AAT21036"},{"text":"Tudor","id":"AAT21035"},{"text":"English School","id":"x44855"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2018LC7393","2018LC7395","2006AP6269"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"90a","id":"THES49164"},"free":"","case":"CA018","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"miniature","id":"AAT33936"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"England","id":"x28826"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1575-1580","earliest":"1575-01-01","latest":"1580-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by E. Peter Jones","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"39","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"32.5","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions taken from: Strong, Roy. Artists of the Tudor Court: the Portrait Miniature Rediscovered 1520-1620.. London: The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983. ","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"COLLECTIONS: Bequeathed by E. Peter Jones, 1948, previous history unknown but conceiveably this is the miniature recorded at Strawberry Hill in Horace Walpole's collection: ‘A lady’s head, by Hilliard, unfinished' bought at Mr Lovibonde’s’ (Description of the villa at Strawberry Hill, 1774, p.22).\r\n\r\n\n","historicalContext":"Probably used as an artist's demonstration piece.","briefDescription":"Portrait Miniature, Portrait Miniature of an Unknown Woman, by Nicholas Hilliard, watercolour on vellum, 1575-1580.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Strong, Roy. Artists of the Tudor Court: the Portrait Miniature Rediscovered 1520-1620.. London: The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983. Cat. II, p.28. Part citation: \"Both Graham Reynolds and Erna Auerbach date this miniature c. 1580. But the small ruff and closely dressed hair are more typical of the years before 1580. Federigo Zuccaro’s drawing of Elizabeth I dated 1575 is a very close parallel for dress (see Roy Strong The English Icon, p. 164 (108)) as are a number of ladies by Gower (e.g. ibid, p. 174 (121)). The oval shape, however, first appears in 1577 and the miniature could have been painted in France. \r\n\r\nV. J. Murrell suggests that this is not as has been assumed, an abandoned miniature but probably a demonstration piece kept in the studio. The evidence for this, in particular, the carelessness in the preparation of the vellum which has been crudely trimmed and fails to reach the upper edge of the playing card upon which it has been mounted. This latter would have obviated its possibility as a finished portrait....\""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"p. 111","free":"Catharine MacLeod with Rab MacGibbon, Victoria Button, Katherine Coombs and Alan Derbyshire. Elizabethan treasures : miniatures by Hilliard and Oliver. London : National Portrait Gallery, 2019. ISBN: 9781855147027"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Damiët Schneeweisz, Rosalind McKever, and Adriana Concin. The Portrait Miniature: A New History. London: Thames & Hudson and the V&A, 2026."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Katherine Coombs, The Portrait Miniature in England, V&A Publications, 1998, pp.87-92."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Katherine Coombs, Finney, Samuel (1719-1798)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004."},{"reference":{"text":"Damiët Schneeweisz, Rosalind McKever, and Adriana Concin. The Portrait Miniature: A New History. London: Thames & Hudson and the V&A, 2026.","id":"AUTH411474"},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"Portrait of a woman, head and shoulders, looking to front and wearing a white ruff.","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"woman","id":"x35642"},{"text":"ruff","id":"AAT210072"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["P.8-1947"],"accessionNumberNum":"8","accessionNumberPrefix":"P","accessionYear":1947,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LP7424","2019LP3477","2019LW3293"],"recordModificationDate":"2026-05-14","recordCreationDate":"2003-01-06","availableToBook":false}}