Year 1550 Artist Hans Eworth | Type Oil painting Created 1550 | |
 | ||
Owner Courtauld Institute of Art | ||
Sir John Luttrell is an allegorical oil painting of a Tudor soldier.
Details
Sir John Luttrell was an English soldier, diplomat, and courtier under Henry VIII and Edward VI. The Flemish artist Hans Eworth produced a portrait of him in 1550, noted for its use of allegorical images. The painting shows John shaking his fist at a woman carrying an olive branch, while a ship founders on a stormy sea in the background. The painting is thought to represent John's anger at the peace treaty of 1550 between England and France; the ship is probably the Mary of Hamburg, which served under John during one of his Scottish campaigns. Historian Oliver Garnett considers the painting to be "one of the most unusual and puzzling of all Tudor images".
The painting is now owned by the Courtauld Institute of Art in London; a copy, made in 1591, hangs at Dunster Castle in Somerset.