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Richard Haydock, title to his translation of Lomazzo's Artes of Curious Paintinge, Carvinge & Buildinge, 1598

1 of 7 portraits by Richard Haydock

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Richard Haydock, title to his translation of Lomazzo's Artes of Curious Paintinge, Carvinge & Buildinge, 1598

possibly by Richard Haydock
line engraving, published 1598
9 7/8 in. x 6 5/8 in. (250 mm x 167 mm) paper size
Given by the daughter of compiler William Fleming MD, Mary Elizabeth Stopford (née Fleming), 1931
Reference Collection
NPG D25462

Sitterback to top

  • Richard Haydock (1569 or 1570-circa 1642), Physician and engraver. Sitter in 1 portrait, Artist or producer associated with 7 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • Richard Haydock (1569 or 1570-circa 1642), Physician and engraver. Artist or producer associated with 7 portraits, Sitter in 1 portrait.

This portraitback to top

Title page to A Tracte containing the Artes of Paintinge, Carvinge and Building.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Bolland, Charlotte, Tudor & Jacobean Portraits, 2018, p. 135 Read entry

    The physician and translator Richard Haydock had an amateur interest in the visual arts and taught himself engraving. His translation of the first five books of the Italian author Paolo Lomazzo's Trattato dell'arte della pitturai (1584), published as A Tracte Containing the Artes of Curious Paintinge, Carvinge and Buildinge (1598), was one of the earliest books on the visual arts to be published in English. It was intended not only to teach practical skills – on proportion, gesture, colour, light and perspective – but also to instruct patrons in how to judge workmanship, outlining the problem that deficiencies in English art often arose because the buyer refused to pay adequately, which in turn meant that the artist did not use all their skill. The title page includes a portrait of Haydock at the base and a profile portrait of Lomazzo at the top, integrating the English translator into the wider framework of European artistic theory. The page is also illustrated with images of Juno, with a peacock; Minerva with a dragon; Prometheus blowing a flame through a stick; and Daedalus holding dividers. Haydock executed all of the engravings in the book, basing some of them on Albrecht Dürer's studies of proportion, and it is likely that his image is a self-portrait.

  • Bolland, Charlotte, The Tudors Passion, Power and Politics, 2022, p. 150

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Events of 1598back to top

Current affairs

Death of William Cecil, Lord Burghley. His son, Sir Robert Cecil (later Earl of Salisbury), replaces him as the dominant statesman of the age.
Battle of Yellow Ford: A force of Irish Catholic rebels under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone routs the English army in Ireland.
Following raids on Dublin, Queen Elizabeth I is granted a loan from the City to finance troops in Ireland under Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex.

Art and science

The playwright Ben Jonson writes the comedy Every Man in his Humour.
William Shakespeare writes Much Ado about Nothing.
The historian John Stowe publishes A Survey of London, a unique account of the architecture, living conditions and society of Elizabethan London.

International

Henry IV of France passes the Edict of Nantes. Huguenots are granted freedom of worship and political equality with Catholics. The edict concludes the French Wars of Religion.
The Treaty of Vervins ends war between Henry IV of France and Philip II of Spain. Spanish forces leave France and Calais is returned to the French.
Death of Philip II of Spain.
Death of Feodor I, Tsar of Russia. His brother-in-law Boris Godunov seizes the throne.

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