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Description: | The painting is one in a series of Nine Heroines of Antiquity of which only eight survive. Commissioned by Robert Sherburne, Bishop of Chichester (1508-1536), who became heavily involved with both Henry VIII's marriage and divorce from Catherine of Aragon, the Nine Heroines may have been painted for the occasion of a visit to Amberly Castle by the king in 1526. It has been suggested they were intended to comment on the king's anxiety for a male heir. The inscriptions beneath each panel, possibly composed by the humanist scholar-bishop, may be derived from the ballad of The Nine Ladies Worthy attributed to Chaucer in the late fifteenth century. Queen Thomyris of Massagetae of the tribe of warrior women called Amazons, was famed for subduing Cyrus, King of Persia, so as to avenge the death of her son. She is identified by the couplet in the inscription tablet beneath her image which survives complete: §Sirus the noble king of Percy, / Submitted himsel[f] to Thamoris mercy§. Thomyris is represented half-length turned three quarters to the left within a fictive niche, she wears the typical courtly dress of the period: a Tudor ear-muff' hat and a richly decorated dress, the shield she carries is emblazoned with three maidens' heads on a red ground. | Subjects: | history (Queen Thomyris of Massagetae); mythology; figure | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: Bernardi, Lambert (Italian artist, active 1519) | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=8512... | Go to resource |
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