Hieronimo Custodis (also spelled Hieronymus, Heironimos) (died c. 1593) was a Flemish portrait painter active in England in the reign of Elizabeth I. [1]
A native of Antwerp, Custodis was one of many Flemish artists of the Tudor court who had fled to England to avoid the persecution of Protestants in the Spanish Netherlands. [2] He is thought to have arrived in England sometime after the fall of Antwerp to the forces of the Duke of Parma in 1585. [1]
Three English portraits by Custodis signed and dated 1589 firmly establish him as resident in London by that year. Sir Roy Strong attributes a portrait of Sir Henry Bromley dated 1587 to Custodis, suggesting an earlier arrival, and has verified the recent attribution of a portrait of the young Edward Talbot dated 1586 to Custodis. [3] In 1591, he was living in the parish of St Bodolph-without-Aldgate where "Jacobus the son of Ieronyme Custodis A Paynter" was baptised on 2 March. [4] He is assumed to have died in 1593, as all of his known works are dated between 1589 and 1593, and his widow remarried that year. [1] [4]
Custodis's unsigned but dated works are identified by "palaeographical peculiarities" [5] in the inscriptions which can be closely matched to those in his signed portraits. [1]
Hieronimo Custodis (also spelled Hieronymus, Heironimos) (died c. 1593) was a Flemish portrait painter active in England in the reign of Elizabeth I. [1]
A native of Antwerp, Custodis was one of many Flemish artists of the Tudor court who had fled to England to avoid the persecution of Protestants in the Spanish Netherlands. [2] He is thought to have arrived in England sometime after the fall of Antwerp to the forces of the Duke of Parma in 1585. [1]
Three English portraits by Custodis signed and dated 1589 firmly establish him as resident in London by that year. Sir Roy Strong attributes a portrait of Sir Henry Bromley dated 1587 to Custodis, suggesting an earlier arrival, and has verified the recent attribution of a portrait of the young Edward Talbot dated 1586 to Custodis. [3] In 1591, he was living in the parish of St Bodolph-without-Aldgate where "Jacobus the son of Ieronyme Custodis A Paynter" was baptised on 2 March. [4] He is assumed to have died in 1593, as all of his known works are dated between 1589 and 1593, and his widow remarried that year. [1] [4]
Custodis's unsigned but dated works are identified by "palaeographical peculiarities" [5] in the inscriptions which can be closely matched to those in his signed portraits. [1]