The Family Collection of the late Countess Mountbatten of Burma
The Family Collection of the late Countess Mountbatten of Burma
Portrait of Peter Martyr Vermigli (1500-1562)
Auction Closed
March 24, 08:41 PM GMT
Estimate
1,500 - 2,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
English School, 17th century
Portrait of Peter Martyr Vermigli (1500-1562)
inscribed upper left and right: Petrus Martir.
oil on panel
57.7 x 44.2 cm.
Martyr was born in Florence and later studied in Padua, becoming Abbot of St. Peter and Aran in Naples in 1537. Here he studied in the company of Juan de Valdes the works of the early Protestant reformers. Falling under suspicion of the Catholic hierarchy, he fled to Zurich in 1542. Now as a Protestant he was invited by Cranmer to come to England to become Regius Professor at Oxford and whilst there took part in the famous 1549 debate on the nature of the Eucharist. He is also credited with influencing Cranmer's 1552 Book of Common Prayer. On Queen Mary's accession he fled England, first to Strasbourg and then Zurich where he became professor of Hebrew. This portrait is loosely based on an anonymous picture painted in 1560, now in the National Portrait Gallery, London (inv. NPG 195).1 It was engraved by Hondius in 1602.