The Somerset House Conference: 1604
Unknown artist
Category
Art / Prints
Date
Unknown
Materials
Paper, Wood
Measurements
575 x 715 x 20 mm
Order this imageCollection
Knole, Kent
NT 130000
Summary
Print, The Somerset House Conference, 1604 by unknown artist. A reproduction print of a painting of the Somerset House Conference of 1604. The original by an unknown Flemish artist in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.This group portrait commemorates the peace treaty between England and Spain in 1604 which brought an end to a war which had dragged on for almost twenty years. Between 20 May and 16 July 1604, eighteen conference sessions were held at Somerset House, and the treaty was signed on 16 August. While those depicted were not all present at the same time, the painting may well record the appearance of the room in Old Somerset House where the negotiations took place. On the left are the members of the Hispano-Flemish delegation, on the right, the English commissioners. Although it apparently bears the signature of the Spanish painter Juan Pantoja de la Cruz, this painting also bears an impossible date, 1594. It is generally thought that both signature and the date are false and that it is by a hitherto unidentified Flemish artist. It may be associated with John de Critz the elder, whose paintings were probably the source for the portraits of Robert Cecil and Thomas Sackville.(NPG)
Makers and roles
Unknown artist, original artist