Photo: © Bob LaughtonĬould this be a previously unrecognised Eworth? The technique in the head, as well as much of the dress and jewels, seemed to me to be clearly by Eworth.

The eyes of Magdalen, Viscountess Montague resemble those of a Hans Eworth painting at the Fitzwilliam Museum © Burghley House Preservation Trust Limited. Both portraits also showed their sitters wearing similar medallions depicting multiple jewelled figures. But zooming in on the face, something reminded me of a 1550s portrait of a lady in Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum by Hans Eworth, a Flemish artist who worked for Mary Tudor. The dress was clearly not by a 16th-century artist.

Described as “Manner of Anthonis Mor” and hung four or five metres up, it showed a tall figure surrounded by a bright billowing pink dress. In Burghley’s great hall, a magnificent full-length portrait of Magdalen, Viscountess Montagu (1538-1608) gave me an opportunity to test mine. If you want to test your connoisseurship, there are few better places. It is probably the best displayed country house art collection I’ve seen the pictures are well lit, in excellent condition and clearly numbered, so they can be cross referenced in a dedicated paintings guidebook. The collection includes over 700 paintings, with works by Claude, Guercino and the Gentileschis. I use them in museums, but they really come into their own for altarpieces, and-my favourite-portraits hung third row up in stately homes.Įlizabethan Burghley House in Lincolnshire, England, which I visited last month, is definitely a place for binoculars. Binoculars are an essential part of my art historical toolkit.

Bendor grosvenor