{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O74832"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O74832/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2020MM8312/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2020MM8312/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2020MM8312","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2020MM8313","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AY9386","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BE7465","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AV1329","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014HJ1964","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AN6858","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AF8931","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KJ7264","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O74832/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O74832","accessionNumber":"P.159-1910","objectType":"Portrait miniature","titles":[{"title":"Self-portrait of Simon Bening, aged 75 in 1558","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Simon Benninck never travelled to England, but his daughter was one of a small band of manuscript illuminators (illustrators) who moved from the Low Countries to London in order to work for King Henry VIII. As the invention of printing gradually made both the manuscript and its illumination redundant, illuminators drew on the tradition of secular naturalism to produce equally exquisite small portraits. Thus the techniques used by Benninck in his illuminations are no different from those used in this self-portrait. A sloping easel was used for painting both portraits and more traditional subjects, such as the Madonna and Christ Child. Both illuminators and miniaturists worked by natural light and without magnification, although Benninck’s glasses hint at the strain of such intricate work.","physicalDescription":"Portrait miniature of a man, depicted half-length, seated, turned to the right and looking to right, wearing a black cap and with his hands raised; in his left hand he holds a pair of spectacles; on the right is an easel, and in the background is a window with a view of a house and garden beyond; the upper corners of the painting decorated with gold spandrels; lettered in gold at the bottom.\n\n","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Simon Bening","id":"A1725"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"watercolour","id":"AAT15045"},{"text":"vellum","id":"x42751"}],"techniques":[{"text":"painting","id":"AAT54216"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Watercolour on vellum laid down on card","categories":[{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"},{"text":"Tools & Equipment","id":"THES48883"},{"text":"Portraits","id":"THES48906"},{"text":"Miniatures","id":"THES269968"}],"styles":[{"text":"Ghent-Bruges School","id":"x35991"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2020MM8312","2020MM8313","2006AY9386","2006BE7465","2006AV1329","2014HJ1964","2006AN6858","2006AF8931","2017KJ7264"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"90A","id":"THES49164"},"free":"","case":"1","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"miniature","id":"AAT33936"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Flanders","id":"x36939"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1558","earliest":"1558-01-01","latest":"1558-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Bequeathed by George Salting","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"86","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"58","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"183","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"17/10/2014","earliest":"2014-10-17","latest":"2014-10-17"},"part":"Frame","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"155","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"17/10/2014","earliest":"2014-10-17","latest":"2014-10-17"},"part":"Frame","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"20","unit":"mm","qualifier":"estimate","date":{"text":"17/10/2014","earliest":"2014-10-17","latest":"2014-10-17"},"part":"Frame","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions taken from: Strong, Roy. <u>Artists of the Tudor Court: the Portrait Miniature Rediscovered 1520-1620.</u>. London: The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983. ","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'SIMÕ . BINNIK . ALEXÃDRI. F 8  / SEIPSV PIGERAT . ANO . AETATIS 75 / 1558'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Inscribed below, in gold"}],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Portrait miniature, self-portrait by Simon Bening aged 75, watercolour on vellum, 1558","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Miguel Falomir, ed. <u>El retrato del Renacimiento</u> Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado, 2008. ISBN: 978-8480-155-9."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Strong, Roy. <u>Artists of the Tudor Court: the Portrait Miniature Rediscovered 1520-1620.</u>. London: The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983. Cat. VI, p. 30.  \n\nPart citation:\r\n\r\n\"Two versions exist of this self-portrait, the second being in the Lehman Collection (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).  Both are autographed and signed and technical examination side by side would be the only way of establishing which was the <i>ad vivum</i> portrait and which the repetition.  Technical examination of the V&A’s version does not include the Gothic spandrels and thus must be identical with that included in a still-life painting by Frans Francken, dated 1619, now in the Rubenshuis, Antwerp (see S. Speth-Holterhoff, <i>Les Peintres Flamandes de Cabinet d’Amateurs au XVIIe Siècle,</i> Brussels, 1957, p. 69, pl. 9, 10).\r\n\r\nAs the woodcut gradually replaced the illuminated book, illuminators had to develop other lines, of which the portrait miniature was a logical development.  Benninck’s self-portrait is important evidence of this phase and he was working producing detailed portrait miniatures in the 1520’s.  \n\r\nBenninck has depicted himself, at the age of 75, tense, tired and hermit-like seated at his work easel onto which is pinned the beginnings of a miniature of the Virgin and Child.  A window gives onto a view of a house and garden.  The form of the easel is of interest.  Set up on a table, it is slanted at the usual angle but has a series of racks built into it at the left for holding colours and brushes.\r\n\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"pp. 86-7","free":"<u>Colour : the art & science of illuminated manuscripts</u> edited by Stella Panayotova ; with the assistance of Deirdre Jackson & Paola Ricciardi. London : Harvey Miller Publishers, 2016. 9781909400566 \r\n "},{"reference":{"text":"Damiët Schneeweisz, Rosalind McKever, and Adriana Concin. <i>The Portrait Miniature: A New History</i>. London: Thames & Hudson and the V&A, 2026.","id":"AUTH411474"},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"Portrait of a man wearing a black cap, holding spectacles and seated at an easel; a window in the background.","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Simon Bening","id":"A1725"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"spectacles","id":"AAT236409"},{"text":"table easels","id":"AAT233726"},{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["P.159-1910"],"accessionNumberNum":"159","accessionNumberPrefix":"P","accessionYear":1910,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LP4145","2019LR4156","2019LU2396"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-12-22","recordCreationDate":"2003-02-21","availableToBook":false}}