|
Elizabeth Vernon (1573-c. 1655) was an oft-painted court beauty. The present portrait, painted around 1620 when the sitter was a mature woman in her forties, is one of a number to adorn various English manors and estates.
By 1620 the countess would have been very much in her prime at the Jacobean court, and van Somer has skilfully represented the artifice of Elizabeth's well-preserved powdered skin and rouged cheeks. She wears a costly black silk gown with slashes that reveal red and gold embroidered silk beneath, and a fashionable saffron lace ruff with matching cuffs and headdress. Her jewels are impressive, with a long double-strung quartz or agate necklace on a red thread across her shoulders, with a diamond studded 'S' for Southampton, and a blue enameled miniature case to which she gestures with her right hand (presumably containing a portrait of her husband. Her earring is unusual, with red stones (rubies or almandine pyrope garnets) linked together and then looped up at each end for attachment and she has an unusual double-ear piercing.
|
