Valour: Arms and Armour in Old Master Portraits

Intriguing online talk from London Art Week looking at the role armour and weapons play in Old Master portraits.

This was well chaired by Charlie Mackay from the Weiss Gallery who currently has an exhibition of the same title showing portraits with examples of armour borrowed from one of the other speakers. He brought together Toby Capwell, from the Wallace Collection, and Red Finer, from Peter Finer, a dealer specialising in fine art and armour, to discuss the armour being worn in some of pictures in the show.

Unfortunately I had a bad connection at the start of this zoom talk so I missed some of it while I logged out and back in again. I’m hoping a recorded version appears sometime as I came in at the end of them talking about Gerard Reynst, the 2nd Governor General of the Dutch East India Company from 1613. I would love to have known more about the symbolism in this work.

Other pictures included Lord Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk by John Michael Wright which they used to talk about how people often chose to be painted in armour which was no longer used at the time. In this case he is in jousting armour despite is being painted circa 1660. Was this a nod to his ancestors? Was there a pride in wearing granddad’s armour?

Finally they talked about a portrait of Prince James Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender, by Antonio David circa 1717-18. In this case he is in armour from circa 1620-30 which does make me wonderer if it is old royal armour and if he is making a point about his lineage.

Exhibition viewing room

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