Attributed to Antonio Toto, called Toto del Nunziata Florence 1498 - 1556 London

Probably Thomas Cawarden (circa 1514-1559), Keeper of Nonsuch Palace and Master of the King's Tent, from whom the works passed to Sir William More, his executor;
Thence by descent to Mr. and Mrs. More-Molyneux, Loseley Park;
A gift to John Paul Getty, Sutton Place.

Edward Croft Murray, Decorative Painting in England 1537-1837, 1962, Vol. I, p.18, ill. p.87, Vol.II, p.313.

These fine decorative panels were probably part of a larger decorative scheme, of which ten others still survive at Loseley Park. They are known as the ‘Nonsuch panels’, being traditionally considered to have been painted for Nonsuch Palace (Henry VIII’s last architectural enterprise that was built to rival Chambord, the new palace of François I^er). A more likely hypothesis is that the panels formed part of the decoration for one of the Royal tents or pavilions and found their way to Loseley park through Thomas Cawarden, Master of the King's Revels, Keeper of Nonsuch Palace and Master of the King's Tents. The Royal Tudor tents were renowned for their extravagance and ostentation, a painting at Cockfield Hall, Yoxford, records the “Field of the Cloth of Gold”, a meeting between Henry VIII and François I of France in 1520, which clearly displays the desire of the respective kings to give a sense of their grandeur and status through their lavish tents and pavilions and those of their courts.

The present panels, which bear the arms and ciphers of both Henry VIII and his last wife Catherine Parr, must date from the four years between her marriage to the King in 1543 and Henry’s death in 1547 and are believed to have been painted by the Florentine painter Toto del Nunziata, a pupil of Ridolfo Ghirlandaio. Toto del Nunziata is recorded working for Thomas Cawarden, for whom there is an extant receipt signed by Toto Del Nunziata for payment by Thomas Cawarden for the “painting of hatchments, arms and arms of the King’s to be set upon his Highness’s tent’s and pavilions”.

Toto probably came to England in 1519, entering the service of Cardinal Wolsey before being employed by Henry VIII who appointed him Serjeant-Painter in 1543/44. The groteschi panels which are clearly influenced by the rediscovery of the Nero’s Domus Aurea and Raphael’s Vatican Loggia provide an extremely rare example of Italian artists working in England during the 16^th century.