Detailed Description Beta - (auction original language)
ENGLISH SCHOOL
16TH CENTURY
81 by 64 cm., 32 by 25 1/4 in.
DESCRIPTION
inscribed u.l.: 8/14, and u.r.: GRATIA DEI SVM QVOD SVM
oil on panel, in a British Renaissance style frame
PROVENANCE
Henry Labouchere, Baron Taunton (1798-1869), Quantock Lodge, Somerset; Anonymous sale, Christie's London, 13 April 1923, lot 21 (as by Zuccaro, Portrait of Lady Jane Grey, bt. Amor for £24.3.0)
CATALOGUE NOTE
The Latin inscription in the upper right of the present painting is a quotation from Augustine's 76th sermon, and translates as 'By the Grace of God I am who I am'. It was the motto of Nicholas West (d.1533), a diplomat and Bishop of Ely. A cultivated man, with an intellectual mind, West was also chaplain to Katherine of Aragon and one of her main supporters.