Raised work picture
Category
Textiles
Date
1661 - 1685
Materials
Satin, Silk, Silk thread, Wood
Measurements
254 x 470 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
East Riddlesden Hall, West Yorkshire
NT 201636
Summary
Picture of raised work embroidery showing a man and woman in richly decorated clothes. The crowned male figure holds a sceptre in one hand and an open book with the word ‘wisdom’ written across the page. The female figure holds flowers in one hand and possibly a sceptre in the other, with a faint outline of a coronet above her head. Attending the main couple are smaller male and female figures. Below is the image of a fountain and fishpond. In the bottom left corner a reclining lion and in the bottom right a stag. In the top left a walled town with a bush or tree in the top right. Numerous other details, including birds in trees, flowers and insects. Within a glazed gilt wood frame.
Full description
This embroidered picture may be intended to show the 1662 marriage of King Charles II and Catherine of Braganza, daughter of the King of Portugal, using imagery drawn from Biblical story of the marriage of the King Solomon. The flattering comparison of Charles with the wise King Solomon can be seen in the c.1676 portrait of Charles II by John Michael Wright in the Royal Collection, which shows Charles II enthroned in front of a tapestry depicting the wisdom of Solomon. See ‘Posies, Pictures and Promises, Love and the Object: The English in the Seventeenth Century' by Dr Sarah Ann Robin, Lancaster University 2016, p75 footnote (N.B. wrong accession number cited). The marriage of Charles and Catherine secured strong commercial and strategic benefits for England; including the port of Tangier in North Africa, the Seven Islands of Bombay in India, trading privileges in the Portuguese colonies of Brazil and the East Indies and two million Portuguese crowns (about £300,000). In return, Portugal obtained military and naval support against Spain. The attendant standing to the left and behind Charles II appears to be young black man. This is typical of aristocratic portraits of the period where black attendants were often included as objectified symbols of prestige and luxury ornamentation. Images of Charles II are also particularly associated with black figures due to his royal patronage of the Royal Africa Company which traded in enslaved Africans.
Provenance
Bequest to the National Trust of conditionally tax exempt objects from Lady Megaw in 1973.