After Hans Holbein the Younger

This carefully executed portrait takes as its prototype Hans Holbein’s portrait of Sir Henry Guildford, circa 1527, in the Royal Collection at Windsor (RCIN 400046). Guildford, a long-time favourite of Henry VIII, is luxuriously dressed in cloth-of-gold, furs and velvet and holds the staff of the office of the Comptroller of the Household, a role he had taken over from Sir Thomas Boleyn in 1521. Unusually, the present portrait differs from the prototype in the cartouche on Guildford’s hat. Where the current work depicts the bust of a philosopher, possibly Aristotle, the original shows a clock and geometrical instruments.