| Method | Copper engraving |
| Artist | Thomas Cross |
| Published | Are to be sold by Will. Gilbertson. c.1640 |
| Dimensions | Image 205 x 126 mm, Plate 209 x 130 mm, Sheet 221 x 137 mm |
| Notes |
A somewhat crude half length portrait of Thomas Taylor set within an oval, wearing a lace-edged skull-cap, ruff, and gown, and writing in a book. Likely to be after the portrait engraved by William Marshal (1633). The inscription below the image reads: 'The picture represents his face,/This Booke his Soules interior Grace,/Though both exact, you soon may tell/Which of the two doth most excell,/One serves but onely to declare/The Shadow of him, and his Ayre,/But heere his Book within makes known/His Soule, and can improve your own.' Thomas Taylor (1576 - 1633) was a Puritan cleric and Calvinist who held strong anti-Catholic views, writing extensively on the subject. In 1625 he became minister of St Mary, Aldermanbury, London, and in 1630 he obtained his degree of Doctor of Divinity at Cambridge Thomas Cross (fl. c.1632-1682) was a British engraver, best known for his production of frontispieces including engraved portraits of authors and other celebrities published in the middle of the seventeenth century. The Dictionary of National Biography comically notes that 'his style shows no attempt at artistic refinement, but merely an endeavour to render faithfully the lineaments of the persons or objects portrayed; this he executed in a dry and stiff manner' but goes on to mention. 'His portraits are, however, a valuable contribution to the history of the period, and some of them are the only likenesses we possess—e.g. that of Philip Massinger, prefixed to an edition of his plays in 1655.' Thomas Cross also had a son also of the same name, who was also an engraver, making it difficult to distinguish between the works of the two. William Gilbertson (c.1626-1665) a book and ballad-publisher, the son of the Guildford bookseller Francis Gilbertson, he was apprenticed to John Wright Senior in the Stationers Company in 1647. O'Donoghue Undescribed Condition: Clean impression, thread margins. |
| Framing | unmounted |
| Price | £65.00 |
| Stock ID | 51312 |