"Because No One Can Seize me from Behind": Sir Christopher Hatton's Double Portrait and Elizabethan Textual Paintings

Abstract

Many researchers have emphasised the special use of inscriptions and texts in Tudor paintings. Especially in Elizabethan times, emblematic images emerge and contain texts which present riddles to their audience, address an implicit or explicit beholder, and also give information about their own function. The enigmatic double-sided portrait of Christopher Hatton serves as an outstanding example of the various relations that texts and images form in this era. Two elements of its composition will be discussed here: the inscription and the depiction of Father Time, both on the verso-side. One, a textual element, forms a unit with the other, a pictorial element. On their own and in combination, both built up a reference to emblem books and sources outside the picture and contextualise themselves in humanistic discourses about opportunity and time. Thus, their exclusive presentation forms a dialogue with the beholder and opens up a meta-level of artistic expression. The ancient pictorial tradition of the God Kairos is addressed in the combination, while it labels itself as a depiction of time. Overall, the object briefly examined in this study is an outstanding example of Elizabethan artistic culture and remains a desideratum in art history.