- ARTIST:
- Attributed to Thomas de Critz (1607-53)
- DIMENSIONS:
- (Canvas)
Height 107 cm, Width 132 cm; (Frame) Height 129 cm, Width 155 cm
- DESCRIPTION:
- In the
left foreground a table heaped with large sea shells, to the right of
which stands the half-length figure of Tradescant, three-quarters to
the spectator's right, and close behind him the apparently taller figure
of his friend, half turned towards him, against a dark background in
which there is, to left of centre, a masonry block protruding into a
small rectangular window, with inward sloping sill; beyond, a blue sky
with pinkish clouds. The table-top, shown by convenient misuse of perspective
as though tilted forward, is completely covered with reddish cloth.
Tradescant's hair is brown and bushy, his beard full. He looks sidelong
and upwards, as though into his friend's face, yet his head is turned
a little away. He wears a broad soft white collar; his black coat, buttoned
in front, is largely concealed by a mid-grey cloak lined with buff velvet,
from which his hands emerge, his left holding a close-ribbed bamboo
cane, behind the silver knob of which his right hand grasps his companion's
left hand. Friend has shorter curling grey-white hair, balding on top,
and a full beard; his purplish nose is unusually large. He looks across
at the shells. He wears a similar collar over a russet tunic buttoned
at the front. The back of his left hand is shown. Inscribed in yellow
above the shells Sr. John Tradescant Junr. & his frind Zythepsa of Lambeth,
and in black above Tradescant, 1645. Oil on canvas (relined), in a flat
black and gold frame with a cherub at each corner and a leaf at the
centres.
- COMMENTARY:
- The painting
has long been held as remarkable for the quaintness of the name ‘Zythepsa',
and for the uniqueness in Carolean painting of such a still-life, as
much as for its eccentric composition and the portrait of Tradescant.
The extraordinary division of the painting into a double portrait on
the right and a display of shells on the left cannot have merely been
a costly whimsy. Tradescant turns from the shells, while his consciousness
of them is indicated by his gesture with his cane in their direction,
to look earnestly at, and grasp the hand of, Roger Friend, perhaps in
thanks for such a splendid contribution to his closet of rarities. The
willingness of Friend's generosity was evidenced by the embrace with
his right hand, seen (under a strong light) clasping Tradescant's cloak
just above the far edge of the table. The elimination of this hand has
weakened the picture's explicitness: the feeble painting of his left
hand is due to later repairs intended to remedy the ‘very bad state
of canvas'. Traces of earlier paint loss are still evident.
- Museum Id. No:
- 1685 A f. 50, no. 91:
Pictura Joh: Tradescanti junioris cum amico suo...
Friend Zythepsa Lambethano. 667
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