Revisiting the origins of the Sheffield series of portraits of Mary Queen of Scots

• Autores: Jeremy L. Smith
• Localización: Burlington magazine, ISSN 0007-6287, Vol. 152, Nº 1285, 2010, págs. 212-218
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The writer argues that, despite the prevailing view, the so-called Sheffield series of patterned portraits of Mary Queen of Scots began with a painting made in 1578 rather than in the Jacobean period. The paintings were clearly designed to depict the queen during her notorious English captivity at Sheffield. There are good reasons to question the current view of the Jacobean origins of the works on both stylistic and documentary grounds. Explaining how and why the extant evidence of a 1578 provenance has been misread for more than a century, the writer offers a new interpretation of the original context and purpose of these portraits, in so doing revealing an unappreciated aspect of Mary's use of painting as a political instrument. This type of portrait, presenting her essentially as a victim, offered believers in her cause a positive statement of her case: an innocent, pious Catholic queen, claiming her right to rule and by no means resigned to the tragic end that actually awaited her.