Ludovick Stuart, 2nd Duke of Lennox and Duke of Richmond

by Isaac Oliver
watercolour and bodycolour on vellum, heart-shaped, circa 1605
2 1/4 in. x 1 3/4 in. (57 mm x 44 mm)
Transferred from British Museum, 1939
Primary Collection
NPG 3063

Images

The outline of the iris has been marked with…

The space of the lips is visible as a negativ…

Details showing the deftly painted shirt tass…

Sitterback to top

Ludovick Stuart, 2nd Duke of Lennox and Duke of Richmond (1574-1624), Nobleman, courtier and politician. Sitter in 7 portraits.

Artistback to top

Isaac Oliver (circa 1565-1617), Miniature painter. Artist or producer associated with 72 portraits, Sitter in 5 portraits.

This portraitback to top

The unusual shape of this miniature refers to the badge of the Lennox family, a heart. A miniature of the Duke - apparently this one - is worn by his widow in a number of later oil portraits, including one by van Dyck.

Linked publicationsback to top

Bolland, Charlotte, Tudor & Jacobean Portraits, 2018, p. 150 Read entry
A cousin to James VI and I, Lennox acted as governor of the kingdom when James travelled to Scandinavia to marry Anne of Denmark. He went on to hold high office at both the Scottish and English courts; he was a privy councillor and steward of the household in Scotland, and was naturalised as an English citizen at James's accession to the English throne in 1603. The unusual shape of this miniature refers to the heart-shaped badge of the Lennox family. Lennox wears the blue ribbon of the Lesser George, signifying his status as a knight of the Order of the Garter, to which he was installed with Prince Henry soon after the Scottish royal family's arrival in England. It is not known for whom this distinctively shaped miniature was commissioned, but his widow, Frances, whom Lennox had married in 1621, chose to be depicted wearing it in a number of portraits following Lennox's death in 1624.
MacLeod, Catharine; Rab, MacGibbon; Button, Victoria; Coombs, Katherine; Derbyshire, Alan, Elizabethan Treasures: Miniatures from Hilliard and Oliver, 2019 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 21 February - 19 May 2019), p. 156
Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 522
Strong, Roy, Tudor and Jacobean Portraits, 1969, p. 264

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Tudor Miniatures (From 6 November 2004)

Portrait setback to top

Miniatures: Highlights

Subject/Themeback to top

Miniatures

Events of 1605back to top

Current affairs

The Gunpowder Plot is foiled when Guy Fawkes is discovered with barrels of gunpowder under the House of Lords. The coup, to blow up the House at the State Opening of Parliament, thereby assassinating James I, was conceived by a group of Catholics angered by the king's repression of recusants.

Art and science

In the first of many collaborations with architect Inigo Jones, playwright Benjamin Jonson presents The Masque of Blackness for James I's, in which Queen Anne makes an appearance. The production secures future masque commissions for Jones and Jonson at court.
Philosopher, Francis Bacon, publishes his treatise The Advancement of Learning.

International

Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes publishes the first part of his satirically romantic novel Don Quixote.
Within a matter of months, three popes would ascend the papal throne, Clement VIII, Leo XI, Paul V respectively.

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