09 Works, Today, July 9th, is Sir Adrian Fortescue's day, his story in art #190

Mattia Preti

Blessed Adrian

Oil on canvas

St. John's Co-Cathedral, Valletta, Malta

Mattia Preti (24 February 1613 – 3 January 1699) was an Italian Baroque artist who worked in Italy and Malta. He was also a member of the Order of Saint John. Born in the small town of Taverna in Calabria, Preti was called Il Cavalier Calabrese (the Calabrian Knight) after he was accepted into the Order of St. John (Knights of Malta) in 1660. His early apprenticeship is said to have been with the "Caravaggist" Giovanni Battista Caracciolo, which may account for his lifelong interest in the style of Caravaggio.

Before 1630, Preti joined his brother Gregorio in Rome, where he became familiar with the techniques of Caravaggio and his school as well as with the work of Guercino, Rubens, Guido Reni, and Giovanni Lanfranco. In Rome, he painted fresco cycles in the churches of Sant'Andrea della Valle and San Carlo ai Catinari. Between 1644 and 1646, he may have spent time in Venice, but remained based in Rome until 1653, returning later in 1660-61. He painted frescoes, and participated in the fresco decoration of the Palazzo Pamphilj in Valmontone.

During most of 1653-1660, he worked in Naples, where he was influenced by another major painter of his era, Luca Giordano. One of Preti's masterpieces were a series of large frescoes, ex-votos of the plague, depicting the Virgin or saints delivering people from the plague. The bozzetto of the Virgin with the baby Jesus looming over the dying. 

Having been made a Knight of Grace in the Order of St John, he visited the order’s headquarters in Malta in 1659 and spent most of the remainder of his life there. Preti was fortunate to enjoy a long career and have a considerable artistic output. His paintings, representative of the exuberant late Baroque style, are held by many great museums, including important collections in Naples, Valletta, and in his hometown of Taverna. More Mattia Preti 

Sir Adrian Fortescue (1476 – 9 July 1539), Knight of St. John, justice of the peace for Oxford, martyr, belonged to the Salden branch of the great Devonshire family of Fortescue, he was a descendant of Richard the Strong, shield bearer of William the Conqueror, who gave to his family his surname - le Fort-Escu: "the Strong Shield" - and his devise: "Forte scutum salus ducum". His father, who had followed Richmond to Paris and had landed and fought with him, became the king's stewart when Henry VII succeeded to the throne.

Edward Caruna Dingli

Blessed Adrian Fortescue, pre-1800

Oil on canvas

88 x 60 cm

Museum of the Order of St John

As part of his early practice, Dingli would have copied old master paintings.  The original version of this painting now hangs in the Wignacourt Museum in Rabat, Malta.  This gift was noted in the annual report of the Order of St John, however, the artist is not named – indicating that Dingli had not yet found recognition outside of Malta. More on this painting

Edward Caruana Dingli (Valletta, Malta 10 August 1876–9 May 1950) was a Maltese painter. He followed his father in embarking on a career in the civil service, where he was commissioned to the Royal Malta Regiment of Militia, and later he transferred to the Royal Malta Artillery. He left military service in 1913 and became a full-time artist at the age of 37. 

Due to being born into an artistic family and being well connected with the Maltese elite as well as British government in Malta, Caruana Dingli found work as an artist through his family connections with the art scene in Malta as well as the political class of the country. He was the director of the Government School of Arts in Malta between 1919 and 1947. A number of his students later became notable Maltese artists, including Willie Apap, Anton Inglott, Emvin Cremona and Esprit Barthet.  More on Edward Caruna Dingli

When Henry VIII, then still Prince of Wales, was made a Knight in 1503, a few young gentlemen shared that honour with him; Adrian Fortescue was one of them. A true country gentleman of the period, Adrian Fortescue followed Henry to Calais, in Jun 1513, in the enterprise against Louis XII of France concerning the region of Milan. Not unfrequently attending the court, and at other times acting as justice of the peace or commissioner for subsidies.

After Hans Holbein, (1497/1498–1543)

Henry VIII, c. after 1537

Oil on canvas 

Height: 2,390 mm (94 in); Width: 1,345 mm (52.9 in) 

Walker Art Gallery,  Liverpool

Hans Holbein the Younger (German: Hans Holbein der Jüngere; c. 1497 – between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was one of the most accomplished portraitists of the 16th century. He spent two periods of his life in England (1526-8 and 1532-43), portraying the nobility of the Tudor court. Holbein's famous portrait of Henry VIII (London, National Portrait Gallery) dates from the second of these periods. 'The Ambassadors', also from this period, depicts two visitors to the court of Henry VIII. 'Christina of Denmark' is a portrait of a potential wife for the king.

Holbein was born in Augsburg in southern Germany in the winter of 1497-8. He was taught by his father, Hans Holbein the Elder. He became a member of the Basel artists' guild in 1519. He travelled a great deal, and is recorded in Lucerne, northern Italy and France. In these years he produced woodcuts and fresco designs as well as panel paintings. With the spread of the Reformation in Northern Europe the demand for religious images declined and artists sought alternative work. Holbein first travelled to England in 1526 with a recommendation to Thomas More from the scholar Erasmus. In 1532 he settled in England, dying of the plague in London in 1543.

Holbein was a highly versatile and technically accomplished artist who worked in different media. He also designed jewellery and metalwork. More on Hans Holbein

He attended the Field of the Cloth of Gold (1520); he was charged with guarding Queen Catalina of Aragon. In 1522, he fought under the Earl of Surrey in Picardy. In 1523, he took part in the capture of Bray and of Montdidier, under the command of the Duke of Suffolk. These activities had not kept him from marrying Anne Stonor (1499) and from becoming a widower. It does seem that he had finished his military career when, though no longer young, he married Anne Reade (1530).

Unknown artist

Anne Boleyn

Oil on panel

National Portrait Gallery

When Anne Boleyn became Queen, Sir Adrian, whose mother, Elizabeth Boleyn, was Anne's grand-aunt. 

Ralph Hammann

Knights of St. John of Jerusalem

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

Late in life (1532) Fortescue became a Knight of St. John of Jerusalem, which opposed the religious errors of the King of England.

Fortescue thus drew the lightning. All the property that the Order had in England had just been seized. Without considering the military services rendered by the pacification and policing of the Mediterranean Sea, Henry VlII destroyed as much as he could of a maritime power which dared to condemn his fancies. 

As a consequence, the members of the Order were not welcome at court. Although he had no office, Adrian was asked to take the Oath of Succession. Fortescue refused to take that oath. Whatever may be the case, Sir Adrian was taken to Woodstock where he was questioned. Then he was removed by boat as far as Southwark here he was lodged in the prison of Marshalsea 29 Aug 1534.

Hans Holbein, (1497/1498–1543)

Thomas Cromwell, c. 1532–1533

Oil on oak panel

Height: 78.4 cm (30.8 in); Width: 64.5 cm (25.3 in)

The Frick Collection,  New York City

Hans Holbein the Younger (German: Hans Holbein der Jüngere; c. 1497 – between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was one of the most accomplished portraitists of the 16th century. He spent two periods of his life in England (1526-8 and 1532-43), portraying the nobility of the Tudor court. Holbein's famous portrait of Henry VIII (London, National Portrait Gallery) dates from the second of these periods. 'The Ambassadors', also from this period, depicts two visitors to the court of Henry VIII. 'Christina of Denmark' is a portrait of a potential wife for the king.

Holbein was born in Augsburg in southern Germany in the winter of 1497-8. He was taught by his father, Hans Holbein the Elder. He became a member of the Basel artists' guild in 1519. He travelled a great deal, and is recorded in Lucerne, northern Italy and France. In these years he produced woodcuts and fresco designs as well as panel paintings. With the spread of the Reformation in Northern Europe the demand for religious images declined and artists sought alternative work. Holbein first travelled to England in 1526 with a recommendation to Thomas More from the scholar Erasmus. In 1532 he settled in England, dying of the plague in London in 1543.

Holbein was a highly versatile and technically accomplished artist who worked in different media. He also designed jewellery and metalwork. More on Hans Holbein

Sir Adrian's imprisonment grew long. No doubt Thomas Cromwell wished to take time to strengthen his power; he was keeping in check a possible leader of the opposition and of the resistance. Then, for no apparent reason, our Knight was released.

Mattia Preti

St. Nicasius in prison

Oil on canvas

210 x 159 cm

Oratory of the Decollation, St.John's Cathedral, Valletta, Malta

All of a sudden this quiet, worthy gentleman was overwhelmed by some unexplained whim of the Tudor tyrant. On 3 Feb 1539, when he refused to take the Oath of Supremacy supporting Henry VIII' s separation for Rome, he was arrested a second time and sent to the Tower. On the 18, an inventory was drawn up of all his real and personal possessions, in London and in the country, and they were declared seized by the Crown.

Henry VIII Suppresses the Pope

There was no trial, or at least no traces of it are to be found. To condemn with certainty those whom he wanted to eliminate, Cromwell had revived the Bill of Attainder of 1459 and applied it to the Catholics, "enemies of the throne"; their property was confiscated to "pay for the insult". On the same day and under the accusation of having incited the people against the King, we find with Fortescue the Countess of Salisbury, first cousin of the mother of Henry VIII and mother of Reginald Cardinal Pole, the Marchioness of Exeter, Sir Thomas Dingaly, a Knight of Malta, and 12 other persons, priests and laymen.

Parliament passed a bill of attainder, and the duke’s enormous wealth — his castles and holdings and titles — passed to the crown. The illustrious Stafford clan never rose to prominence again. They were the first noble family to be crushed by Henry VIII … but definitely not the last.

In April he was condemned untried by an act of attainder; in July he was beheaded at Tower Hill, London. No specific act of treason was alleged against him, but only in general "sedition and refusing allegiance". The attainder, however, went on to decree death against Cardinal Pole and several others because they "adhered themselves to the Bishop of Rome". Catholic tradition was always held that Sir Adrian died for the same cause, and modern Protestant critics have come to the same conclusion. His cultus has always flourished among the Knights of St. John, and he was beatified by Leo XIII in 1895. More on Sir Adrian Fortescue

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