(Vol. v., p. 260.)
To most persons the discovery by VOKAROS of a family likeness existing
between the face on the brass of the Abbess of Elstow, and the portrait
of the Marquis of Bristol, after a lapse of three centuries, would
probably seem moderately far-fetched; but when this is adduced as
"valuable evidence on the disputed point, whether portraits were
attempted in sepulchral brasses," a very great demand indeed is made
upon our credulity. I have not the means now of referring to the works
of Fisher and Rokewode; but I have before me a rubbing of the Elstow
brass. Any person tolerably familiar with the subject will at once see
that the face of the lady is identical with that which is repeatedly to
be found on numerous brass effigies of persons of both sexes at the
beginning of the sixteenth century; in fact, it is not very dissimilar
to that of the fellow brass of the Abbot at Dorchester, Oxon. If,
therefore, we might judge by the likeness, very many brazen-faced gentry
of olden time might claim the honour of being ancestors of the noble
lord. And so far from its being a disputed point, whether the faces on
brasses are attempted likenesses, no one, I think, who has at all
studied our monumental brasses, can fail to have come to the conclusion
that they were _not_ intended to be portraits. The great proof of this
lies in the obvious similarity in the faces of cotemporary figures which
have been produced by the same artists, who, probably from their
residing in London, and perhaps in a few other places, very rarely had
an opportunity of seeing the persons to be commemorated. The
instructions forwarded to the engravers would seem to have been confined
to the inscription and other details, chiefly the costume, at least if
we may judge from the large brasses at Digswell, Herts, and other
similar figures. The ready adoption of unaltered palimpsest effigies may
also be cited as an additional proof of the likeness being entirely a
matter of indifference; and it is not improbable that many brasses were
kept ready made, half-length figures of priests for instance; and files
of children, all bearing a strong family likeness, may have been
engraved, ready to be cut off on the shortest notice, and laid down at
so much per foot. The only approach towards a likeness, if it may be
termed such, seems to be the distinction between youth and age, and even
that was almost wholly neglected in the fifteenth and earlier half of
the sixteenth centuries. The foregoing remarks apply chiefly to brasses
before the latter end of the sixteenth century; after that period
portraits were evidently not unfrequently attempted. Very rare
instances, however, before this time, _may_ be found. I may specify the
effigy of Nich. Canteys, 1431, Margate, Kent.
Mr. Doyle, in his able painting of _Caxton submitting his proof-sheet to
Abbot Estney_ (noticed in "N. & Q." No. 54. p. 398.) has taken the
likeness of the Abbot from his brass in Westminster Abbey, which is, I
suppose, as good a likeness of the original as any other that can be
found; but the members of Queen's College, Oxford, have not been so
fortunate. Several years ago, while hunting up a likeness of their
founder (Robt. Egglesfield, 1340), they stumbled upon an old brass in
the College Chapel, from which a painting and engraving was made
purporting to be that of the founder. Recent researches have
unfortunately fatally dispelled this illusion, as the effigy in
question undoubtedly commemorates Dr. Robt. Langton, who deceased 1518.