Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, 1561–1635, Flemish, active in Britain (from 1568)
Title:
Portrait of a Woman, probably Mary, Lady Scudamore
Date:
1601
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on panel
Dimensions:
44 3/4 x 33 inches (113.7 x 83.8 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1975.1.9
Gallery Label:
This cannot be Ursula Pakington (d. 1558), the wife of William Scudamore of Holme Lacy, Herefordshire. Nor can it be the first wife of their son, the courtier Sir John Scudamore (1542-1623), Eleanor Croft (d. 1569), whom he married in 1563. But it could be Sir John's second wife, Mary, the daughter of Sir John Shelton of Norfolk. The Scudamores married in January 1574. Lady Scudamore was a member of the queen's privy chamber, and known at court as "a barbarous, brazen-faced woman." Mysteriously, the arrow-head pendant is a conspicuous emblem not of the Sheltons or Scudamores, but of the Sidney family. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2005