Page:Hutton, William Holden - Hampton Court (1897).djvu/252

172 "exactly the kind of productions which would have proceeded from the hands of good but not pre-eminent masters originally trained in the severe Roman school, and chiefly accustomed to work in tempera or fresco." They represent five subjects in the Passion.

V The Tudor pictures have an interest all their own. Many of them, if not all, have been in the Palace since first they were painted, and all are closely associated with the English rulers who made the place their home.

The first to attract attention is the very problematical Zuccaro, an enormous picture of the giant porter of Elizabeth. It is dated 1580, and is a grim, unlovely thing: a curiosity, and as such it was retained by Cromwell. We then pass through many rooms before we come on any of this period. At length, in the large "Queen's Audience Chamber," we find a number of curious scenes commemorating the chief events of Henry VIII.'s reign. They are of very doubtful authorship, some showing the influence of Holbein, some merely the stiffest early Flemish work. They are certainly contemporary glorifications of the King's victories in diplomacy and war. In one he meets Maximilian outside Terouanne on August 9, 1513, resplendent in gold armour and vizor, as the histories tell. In another he stands on the deck of the Great Harry, ready to sail to France. This is not without