Dalya Alberge's article in The Sunday Telegraph yesterday on the attribution of portrait by Marcus Gheerarts the Younger

 I was more than suprised to see an article by this journalist in The Sunday Telegraph yesterday. It argued that Dr Chris Laoutaris and Dr Yasmin Arshad had identified the sitter as Lady Penelope Rich the wife of the 3rd Lord Rich and sister of the 2nd Earl of Essex, using the clues in the portrait's emblems, including its cartouche with its reference to Penelope, the wife of Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey. I found this claim hard to understand since the case for this attribution was made as long ago as 26th October, 2013 in a seminar at the University of Sheffield. Let me quote a report made by one of those attending this seminar:

" Whilst all of the papers demonstrated a high quality of new research and were each fascinating, the final paper of the day was, for me, the icing on a very rich cake. Chris Laoutaris (Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham) and Yasmin Arshad University College London) presented their theory surrounding Marcus Gheeraerts’ portrait of a Persian lady: ‘”Still renewing wronges”: Gheeraert’s Persian Lady Revealed’. Through their own close analysis of the painting itself, they have been able to construct a narrative about the painting and believe that they may have identified the sitter of the painting itself as the Earl of Essex’s sister, Lady Penelope Rich. Their argument involved an awareness of the symbolism associated with Essex, his sister’s involvement in politics, and close scrutiny of aspects of the painting that had previously gone unnoticed, such as a bezoar stone and the species of bird in the background. They argued that the painting could have been Lady Rich’s gift to Elizabeth as an apology for her involvement in the political events surrounding her brother, Essex. The story is not done and dusted yet, however, and I look forward to hearing more about it as it develops."

 

 

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