Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban
5 of 58 portraits of Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban
by Elkington & Co, cast by Domenico Brucciani, after Unknown artist
electrotype, circa 1875, based on a work of 1630s
60 in. (1524 mm) high
Purchased, 1875
Primary Collection
NPG 408
Sitterback to top
- Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (1561-1626), Philosopher and Lord Chancellor. Sitter associated with 63 portraits.
Artistsback to top
- Domenico Brucciani (1815-1880), Sculptor. Artist or producer associated with 23 portraits.
- Elkington & Co, Sculptors. Artist or producer associated with 22 portraits.
- Unknown artist, Artist. Artist or producer associated with 6578 portraits.
This portraitback to top
This electrotype is a copy from the marble tomb effigy in St Michael's Church, St Albans. The seated formula is rare among the iconography of Elizabethan and Jacobean tomb effigies. It depicts Bacon as the musing melancholic philosopher. It is one of a series of electrotype reproductions of tomb effigies made for the National Portrait Gallery by Elkington & Co in the 1870s. An electrotype sculpture of this type is made by electro-deposition of copper onto a mould or cast of an object. The electrotype could then be patinated like bronze.
Linked publicationsback to top
- Charles Nicholl, Shakespeare and his Contemporaries, 2015, p. 118
- Nicholl, Charles, Character Sketches: Elizabethan Writers, 1997, p. 55
- Nicholl, Charles, Insights: Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, 2005, p. 94
- Piper, David, The English Face, 1992, p. 68
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 27
- Strong, Roy, Tudor and Jacobean Portraits, 1969, p. 12
Subjects & Themesback to top
Events of 1630back to top
Current affairs
Charles I's first surviving child, Charles, is born in St. James's Palace. He is baptised by the Anglican Bishop of London, William Laud, and brought up in the care of the Protestant Mary Curzon, Countess of Dorset.Art and science
The Cottonian Library, containing the greatest resource of Old English and Middle English literature, founded by antiquary and anti-royalist, Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, is confiscated by the authorities.International
Philip IV of Spain and Charles I sign the Treaty of Madrid, ending hostilities between the two countries. Spanish diplomat, Cesare Alessandro Scaglia, assists with the conclusion of the peace deal.German, Protestant land is regained from Catholic allies on account of Swedish intervention in the Thirty Years' War.
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