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Attributed to Wierix brothers

Mary, Queen of Scots c. 1587

Engraving | 35.2 x 27.1 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 618301

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  • An engraving of Mary, Queen of Scots. Bust length portrait with hair under a lace cap and veil, with open ruff, gown with high collar, bodice and crucifix. Within an oval border, supported by allegorical figures on either side and with angels above bearing wreaths. Below, scenes from the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. To the left the scene of the executioner holding her severed head aloft and to the right a depiction of the Queen, kneeling before the executioner with his axe raised. With coat of arms above and twenty lines Latin verses below by 'G. Cr. Scotus', supposed to be George Crichton. This print is lettered along bottom in two columns: "En tibi magnanimæ spirantia Principis ora, / Omnia quam mundi mirantur regna, venustæ … // Præpositi populis Reges, quos publica causa / Spretaque Maiestas et Regia iura mouebunt. / G. Cr. Scotus."; in pen and ink at the lower right: "M. Stuart".


    The print formed part of an album of British royal portrait prints assembled by Cassiano and his younger brother Carlo Antonio dal Pozzo in Rome. Described in an early nineteenth-century inventory of prints in George III's library as Kings of England and their Families from Henry VII to James II, the album was arranged chronologically, with kings and their consorts together. It was dismantled later in the nineteenth century and its prints incorporated into the series of Engraved Royal Portraits (organised dynastically).

    For more information see Mark McDonald, The Print Collection of Cassiano dal Pozzo. I: Ceremonies, Costumes, Portraits and Genre, 3 vols, Royal Collection Trust 2017, part of The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo: A Catalogue Raisonné, cat. no. 1356.

    Provenance

    From the collection of Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588-22 October 1657); inherited by his brother, Carlo Antonio dal Pozzo (1606-1689); sold by Carlo Antonio's grandson to Clement XI, 1703; acquired by Cardinal Alessandro Albani by 1714, from whom the collection was purchased by George III in 1762

  • Medium and techniques

    Engraving

    Measurements

    35.2 x 27.1 cm (sheet of paper)


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