William Pope, first Earl of Downe

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Artist: William Larkin (British, 1580–1619)
Medium: Oil on panel
Size: 23 x 17 1/2 inches (58.4 x 44.5 cm)
Museum: Yale Center for British Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

Larkin portrays these men in the mirrored poses typically reserved for a husband and wife, capturing the intensity of male friendship in seventeenth-century England. The oval frames recall those of the portrait miniatures commonly exchanged as gifts between intimates. The men are similarly dressed: both wear high-necked silk doublets and standing linen collars, the impressive spans of which were achieved through heavy starching and the use of the supports that can be seen beneath the lace.

Pope, on the left, was both Brydges’s neighbor and his nephew by marriage. Often participating in performances at court, Brydges was the archetypal Jacobean courtier, spending prodigious sums to maintain his household at Sudeley Castle, which was open for his neighbors to enjoy three days a week.

Text: Yale Center for British Art.