print
- Museum number
- 1848,0911.529
- Title
- Object: Robertus Sherley
- Description
-
Portrait of Sir Robert Shirley, half-length in frontal view but looking towards the left, wearing Persian dress and a turban surmounted by a small crucifix; in an oval in decorative border, with audition scene in an oval underneath showing Shirley bowing in front of Pope Paul V
Etching and engraving
- Production date
- 1609 (c.)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 145 millimetres (trimmed)
-
Width: 98 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- After a miniature by Peter Oliver (formerly attributed to Isaac Oliver), once in the collection of Horace Walpole and listed in the 1842 Strawberry Hill sale on day 14, lot 14 ("An exquisite miniature in water colours, by Isaac Oliver, of Sir Anthony Shirley, ambassador from the Sophy of Persia to King James I., the dress is half English and half Persian, richly and beautifully painted", bought by William Blamire for £17.17.0). [Information from Gary Schwartz and Cynthia Roman]
A facsimile was engraved in 1789 by "T.s F." (published by William Richardson in 1803).
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1848
- Acquisition notes
- Inscribed on verso, in pen and brown ink, by Gulston: "N.3882 £2.2.0". and "I bought this of Torre for 1 shilling / I never heard of another".
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1848,0911.529
