Sir Percival Hart (1496-1560) was Chief Serverer and Knight Harbinger under Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I. In his right hand he holds the staff of his office, the hilt of which contained a watch said to have been presented to Henry VIII by the French king, Francois I, at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Hart supervised the provision of bread and salt to the monarch and had all food tasted by a Yeoman of the Guard before it was brought to the royal table. In his left hand, he grasps his elaborately decorated tasting knife. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016
Sir Percival Hart (1496-1560) was Chief Serverer and Knight Harbinger under King Henry VIII, and all of his children and successors, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. He oversaw the tasting of the sovereign's food. In his right hand he holds the staff of his office, the hilt of which contained a watch said to have been presented to King Henry by François I, at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2005
British Art at Yale, Apollo, v.105, April 1977, pp. 238-40, fig. 2, N1 .A54 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]
Catalogue of an exhibition of late Elizabethan art, in conjunction with the tercentenary of Francis Bacon. , Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1926, pp. 39, 81, no. 5, no. 33, pl. 5, N6765 B81 + (YCBA) [YCBA]
Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 28-29, N590.2 A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]
English portrait 1500-1830, November 18th-December 19th, Sabin Galleries. , Sabin Galleries Ltd., London, 1970, p. 7, DealerCat Sabin Galleries Ltd. [ORBIS]
Diana Scarisbrick, Jewellery in Tudor and Jacobean Portraits at New Haven, Apollo, vol. 126,, November 1987, pp. 323-33, N1 A54 + (YCBA) [YCBA]
Ian Tyers, The tree-ring analysis of 23 panel paintings from the Yale Center for British Art , New Haven : dendrochronological consultancy report 470, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2011, p. 9, CC78.3 .T94 2011 (YCBA) [YCBA]
Ellis Waterhouse, An Impressive Panorama of British Portraiture, Apollo, v. 105, no. 182, April 1977, pp. 238-40, fig. 2, N1 A54 + (YCBA) Another copy of this article may be found in a separately bound and catalogued copy of this issue located on the Mellon Shelf [call number : N5220 M552 A7 1977 + (YCBA)] [YCBA]
This portrait of Sir Percival Hart was painted on three vertically oriented boards using an unusually complex process. The boards were first prepared with a chalk ground followed by a thinner, brighter coat of lead white. Infrared photography reveals that the artist used a dry medium to transfer sketches of the sitter’s face and hands and then traced over these drawn lines with a wet material. Areas to be gilded were prepared first with a light buff-color paint that served as an adhesive layer atop which gold leaf, like that on Hart’s heavy chain and the hilt of his staff, was applied. Hart’s flesh and costume were blocked in next with a flat, thin paint mixture that left the under drawing of the face partially visible. The artist then used a transparent brown oil paint to trace the lines of his preliminary sketch, including the wrinkles around Hart’s eyes, broken capillaries on his nose, and the small wart between his nose and mouth. Upper flesh tones were applied more smoothly, the brushwork blended with a sable brush to articulate the contours of the face and impart soft rosy cheeks. Surprisingly, given the high cost of gold, certain passages of gilding were painted over at this stage. The aglets on the ties used to secure Hart’s surcoat were painted light brown with details in yellow ocher, lead tin yellow, black, and white to emulate gold and enamel. The hilt of the dagger in Hart’s left hand was likewise originally gilded before it was painted with a light grey to mimic silver. Though it may reflect a mistake on the part of the gilder, this technique may have also been intended to impart a metallic luminousness to the upper paint layer. The work’s green background, which was applied before the final details were added to Hart’s head and body, was painted in two layers that are visible under magnification. The first is a transparent, copper-based green. The second is a thinner copper green glaze that is now highly abraded. The structure of the painting was considerably altered after 1973 when conservators sought to stabilize warping in the painting’s boards by thinning them and affixing them to a new oak support. This treatment has caused the painting’s surface to take on a bumpy texture. In addition, large portions of the painting’s background were lost and have been subsequently re-painted. Painting Conservation, 2023
