Portrait of Sir Henry Unton

Unknown

Item type:

painting

Date of creation:

ca. 1596

Height:

740.0 cm  (291 5/16 in.)

Width:

1632.0 cm  (642 1/2 in.)

Technique / Medium:

oil on panel

Description

This memorial painting depicts scenes from the life of Sir Henry Unton, Ambassador to France for Queen Elizabeth I and amateur musician. On the right of the painting are two musical scenes: Unton is playing viola da gamba in a consort of viols, and further right Unton plays lute for a masque in a mixed consort with flute, cittern, violin, viol and a small plucked instrument hidden by the performer's body.

People as subjects

Unton, Henry, Sir (1557?-1596) (Musician portrait)

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Viola da gamba [3604]
Lute [3394]
Transverse flute [4093]
Cittern [3106]
Violin [3573]
Viol [3597]

Image URLs

image link 1
image link 2

Bibliographic references

Bryan, John. "'Their last foile and polishment': Aspects of compositional refinement in the consort dances of Dowland and Holborne", Early music 41/2 (May 2013) 219-238, illus.3. RILM 2013-9321.

Rooley, Anthony. "A portrait of Sir Henry Unton", Companion to medieval and Renaissance music, ed. by Tess Knighton and David Fallows (New York: Schirmer, 1992) 85-92. RILM 1992-2969.

RIdIM record id

4269