An Unknown Man Aged 27
Sobre el cuadro
Oliver could paint miniatures in the same jewel-like style as Nicholas Hilliard, but he was probably also trained in Continental art and could produce very different work, such as this miniature showing the influence of the Netherlandish print-maker Hendrik Goltzius. Inscribed on either side of the head ‘Ano Dm 1590/Aetatis Suae 27’, the sitter is thus identified as being 27 years old in the year 1590, which therefore discounts the erroneous identification on the later frame as a portrait of the essayist and statesman Sir Francis Bacon. Although the sitter remains unidentified, the miniature is still a striking example of a portrait drawn from life. By the use of a strong light cast on the man’s face from the front left, Oliver is able to manipulate shadow to create a more dramatic effect than is to be seen in Hilliard’s work of the same period.
Museo de Victoria y Alberto
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