December 20: Mary I
Today, we have a portrait of Queen Mary I by Flemish artist Hans Eworth. This panel painting, which is on display at Burlington House, is from the collection of the Society of Antiquaries of London. It was painted in 1554. The Society of Antiquaries says of the painting: "This is the first major portrait of Mary (1516–58; reigned 1553–58) after her coronation on 1 October 1553 and it was probably painted around the time of her thirty-eighth birthday (18 February 1554)."
It depicts the queen standing in front of a red velvet cloth of estate and wearing a table diamond with a pearl pendant. The Society notes that this brooch corresponds with one listed in the inventory of the Queen's Jewels under Catherine Parr: an "ouche or flower containing a fair diamond tabled holden by Antiques with a large pendant pearl". , and that the pendant hanging from her waist appears in "Henry VIII’s Jewel Book of 1521 as: ‘A tablet of gold wt Reliques called the tablet of Burbone garnished wt the iiij Evangelists vii sapphires not fine and 5 course balacys the glasse of the leves broken in many places and divers of the Reliques shaken out lacking one claspe waiying 10 gidders ... clxxvij oz d’." Mary had it repaired for her use.