Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1973.1.28
Gallery Label:
This portrait has been traditionally identified as the cavalier Sir Francis Godolphin (1605-1667) of Breage, Cornwall, but it may possibly be his younger brother, Sir William, who died in 1636. Jonson represents Godolphin wearing a "love-lock," a long single ringlet or lock of hair that was invariably worn over the left shoulder. The craze for love-locks in the court circle of Charles I attracted the disapproval of Puritans such as the pamphleteer William Prynne (1600-1669), whose The Unloveliness of Love-Lockes…prooving: The Wearing, and Nourishing of a Locke, or Love-locke, to be altogether unseemely, and unlawful unto Christians. In which there are likewise some passages…against Face-painting; the wearing of Suppostitous, Poudred, Frizled, or extraordinary long Haire appeared in London in 1628. Prynne was tried twice in Star Chamber for sedition.\n\n Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2005