01 work, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, Sir Anthony van Dyck's Mary Villiers as Saint Agnes, with Footnotes #198

After Sir Anthony van Dyck, 17th Century

Portrait of Lady, Mary Villiers as Saint Agnes

Oil on canvas

127.6 x 101.2cm (50 1/4 x 39 13/16in)

Private collection

Sold for £5,100 in  April 2022

The original painting (in the Royal Collection, Windsor) was presumably painted for Charles I, who gave the sitter away at her wedding to the Duke of Lennox in 1637. It has been remarked that she looks older than 15, the age she would have been in the year of her first marriage (she was married three times). The cold tonality of the painting is more typical of van Dyck's later work. More on this painting

The present composition is based on van Dyck's original portrait of Lady Mary Villiers, later Duchess of Richmond and Lennox, which is now in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen

Mary Stewart, Duchess of Richmond and Duchess of Lennox (1622–1685), formerly Lady Mary Villiers, was the daughter of the George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Katherine Manners, 19th Baroness de Ros.

On 8 January 1634, at the age of 12, she married the 15-year-old Charles, Lord Herbert, eldest son of the 4th Earl of Pembroke and 1st Earl of Montgomery, but was widowed in 1635 when her young husband died of smallpox or perhaps petechiae. On 3 August 1637, she married the 4th Duke of Lennox, who was created Duke of Richmond in 1641. They had two children.

In October 1670 the duchess, with the queen, and her friend the Duchess of Buckingham decided to go to a fair near Audley End disguised as country women for a "merry frolic", dressed in red petticoats and waistcoats. The costumes were outlandish rather than convincing, and they began to draw a crowd, when they tried to buy stockings and gloves their speech was also conspicuous. A member of the crowd recognised the queen from a dinner she had attended. The party returned followed by as many people at the fair as had horses. More on Lady Mary Villiers

Agnes of Rome (c. 291 – c. 304) was a popular saint about whom little is known, Agnes is said to have been a beautiful, wealthy Roman maiden who had, in childhood, dedicated herself to God. Some say that a rejected suitor betrayed her to authorities; others say that she was asked at 13 to sacrifice to the gods and marry, both of which she refused. Legends tell of her being thrown into a brothel, where her purity was miraculously preserved. Having escaped that fate, she was martyred. In the IV Century, Constantia, the daughter of Constantine, built a basilica on the site of her tomb. St. Ambrose wrote about Agnes in De virginitate, and Damasus I wrote an epitaph for her. Prudentius composed a hymn in her honor. Her emblem in art is the lamb because of the similarity between her name and the Latin word for lamb, agnus. More on Agnes of Rome

Sir Anthony van Dyck, ( 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England, after enjoying great success in Italy and Flanders. He is most famous for his portraits of Charles I of England and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English portrait-painting for the next 150 years. He also painted biblical and mythological subjects, displayed outstanding facility as a draughtsman, and was an important innovator in watercolour and etching. The Van Dyke beard is named after him. More Sir Anthony van Dyck

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