Hampton Court ... Illustrated with forty-three drawings by Herbert ...

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HAMPTON COURT
" exactly the kind of productions which would have
proceeded from the hands of good but not pre-eminent
masters originally trained in the severe Roman school,
and chiefly accustomed to work in tempera or fresco."
They represent five subjects in the Passion.
V
The Tudor pictures have an interest all their own.
Many of them,if not all, have been in the Palace since
first they were painted, and all are closely associated
with the English rulers who made the place their home.
The first to attract attention is the very problematical
Zuccaro, an enormous picture of the giant
porter of Elizabeth. It is dated 1580, and is a grim,
unlovely thing:a curiosity, and as such it was retained
by Cromwell. We then pass through many rooms before
we come on any of this period. At length, in the
large " Queen's Audience Chamber," we find a number
of curious scenes commemorating the chief events of
Henry VIII.'s reign. They are of very doubtful
authorship, some showing the influence of Holbein,
some merely the stiffest early Flemish work. They
are certainly contemporary glorifications of the King's
victories in diplomacy and war. In one he meets
Maximilian outside Terouanne on August 9, 1513,
resplendent in gold armour and vizor, as the histories
tell. In another he stands on the deck of the Great
Harry, ready to sail to France. This is not without