Levina Teerlinc

Court Miniaturist to Elizabeth I

At the time of Levina Teerlinc's birth in the sixteenth century, the education of most European women below the highest social rank was devoted to producing a good wife and mother. Even if a particular talent appeared, there would have seemed little point in developing it. Attitudes toward women in intellectual and artistic circles were complicated: their moral and physical capacities could be inferior or superior to men but never equal. Women could be educated by a tutor, but they were not permitted to attend universities. Queen Elizabeth is said to have banned women from university premises because she felt their presence would distract men from their studies. In general, a woman's best chance for an education was in a convent.

In the world of art, "one particular belief, that women had an innate lack of originality and imagination had a huge effect on their training and the reception of their work."¹ Apprenticeship, the common route for boys to follow, was outlawed for girls except for the daughters of artists who could train in the family workshop. Drawing from nudes, necessary to paint the most admired historical, classical and Biblical subjects, was also taboo for women.

Although on the surface it must have appeared impossible for a woman to learn to be an artist, there were one or two situations where a young woman's artistic talent could be developed. One of the most certain ways for a woman to get training similar to male apprentices was to be the daughter of an artist.

Such is the case of Levina Teerlinc, the eldest of the five daughters of the successful Flemish illuminator and miniaturist Simon Benning (or Benninck) and his wife Catherine Stroo. Levina was born in 1520 in Bruges (in modern-day Belgium). She was first instructed by her father in his studio, where she assisted him in his illuminations. She married George Teerlinc sometime before 1545. She was so well known as a miniaturist by that time that she was invited to the court of Henry VIII in England where many miniaturists were employed to meet the high demands for this popular art form. She left with her husband for England soon after their marriage.

Levina is listed as the "King's paintrix" in the accounts of the Exchecquer in 1546.² She remained in court as a miniaturist for three successive monarchs - Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. Teerlinc was paid more for her miniatures than the noted painter Hans Holbein received for his court portraits and she received a lifetime yearly stipend of forty pounds in comparison to Holbein's thirty-four pounds. Levina received her annual stipend from 1547 to 1576, when she died in London. Her husband subsequently returned to the Netherlands.

Portrait miniatures are very small, full-color illuminated paintings that were highly prized among royalty and the aristocracy as very personal items. They can be thought of as the wallet-size snapshots of the time. Official documents record Teerlinc's creation of a succession of miniature portraits for the monarchs from 1551 until her death in 1576. In 1556 she presented Queen Mary with a small painting of the Trinity as a New Year's gift. A portrait of Queen Elizabeth during the first year of her reign is recorded in 1558 and another in 1561 which the Queen greatly admired and kept for her personal use.

One of the few miniatures firmly attributed to Teerlinc is the Portrait of Lady Hudson of 1575, executed on ivory and now in Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum. It has a traditional ultramarine background, with "a severe-looking woman suspiciously eyeing the viewer."³ Another piece tentatively attributed to Teerlinc is Lady Catherine Grey, n.d., of which Nancy Heller says, "An interesting additional feature here is the sitter's meditative expression, with lips slightly pursed and blue eyes gazing into space."⁴ Both pieces are marked by meticulous detail in the subjects' clothing and hair. Because of her skill in miniatures and her association with other well-known English court painters, some art scholars surmise that Teerlinc must have invented major elements in the political iconography of the Tudor monarchs. The Great Seal of Elizabeth I is frequently mentioned as a likely work.

One major difficulty in attributing miniatures is that they weren't consistently signed. Unlike paintings, they were very private things. According to Heller, "Attempts to assign particular miniatures to Teerlinc have met with varying degrees of success, but scholarly knowledge about her oeuvre remains sadly incomplete."⁵ Elsa Fine describes the research of someone noted only as Bergmans, who has deduced that the teetorum (dice, which Teerlinc means in Flemish), found between two dress pleats of the Portrait of a Lady in the Victoria and Albert Museum was Levina's signature and concludes it is a self-portrait since no sitter would have wanted to be painted with such a peculiar ornament as dice. Bergmans has also identified a whole group of portrait miniatures as part of Teerlinc's oeuvre. All have the previously mentioned fine details, expressive faces and fresh color tones.⁶

In 2000, Johns Hopkins University undergraduate Jamie Franco received a Provost's Award to conduct research into her theory that some of Teerlinc's fine work was falsely attributed to male painters and some inferior paintings were unfairly attributed to her. Franco believed that just by the fact Teerlinc was patronized by royals ranging from Henry VIII to Elizabeth during a very long career, she must have been a good draftsman. They wouldn't have patronized her otherwise.

Franco read extensively on the matter and made several trips to London to examine original portrait miniatures and royal court payroll records and gift inventories. With the assistance of an aunt, Susan James, who holds a doctorate in British history, Franco assembled a convincing case that supports her theory, in particular that works previously attributed to a painter named Nicholas Hilliard as copies of "Lost Teerlincs" were actually painted by Teerlinc. She also concluded that "Teerlinc has been confidently identified as the creator of all second-rate art deemed unfit for Hilliard whether there is any evidence to support these attributions or not"⁷, noting Teerlinc's contemporaries obviously held a higher opinion of her talent than many modern scholars. James, who has written several articles on art history, calls this "groundbreaking research" ⁸ that will "change how we look at 16th-century English art."⁹

As researching the history of women artists continues to capture the imagination of new generations of scholars, it appears likely that Levina Teerlinc's works will be determined to be of significantly greater breadth and quality than previously documented and that she was more important to the development of the art of the miniature portrait in England than previously assumed. This seems consistent with the fact that in addition to the mere novelty of having a woman court painter, a succession of monarchs were sufficiently impressed with the quality of her work to compensate her handsomely over a long career and to award her a generous lifelong stipend.

FOOTNOTES

1 Frances Borzello, A World of Our Own: Women as Artists since the Renaissance, New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2000, p. 20.
2 Elsa H. Fine, Women and Art, Montclair, NJ: Allenheld & Schram / Prior, 1978, p. 28.
3 Ibid.
4 Nancy Heller, Women Artists: An Illustrated History, New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, Third Edition, 1997, p. 26.
5 Heller, p. 26.
6 Fine, p. 28.
7 Glenn S. Homewood, "Hopkins Undergrad Finds Missing Teerlincs", The Johns Hopkins Gazette, 30:34,
May 14, 2001, p. 7
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Borzello, Frances. A World of Our Own: Women as Artists since the Renaissance.
New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2000.

Fine, Elsa H. Women and Art.
Montclair, NJ: Allenheld & Schram / Prior, 1978.

Gaze, Delia, ed. Dictionary of Women Artists, Volume 2.
London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1997.

Heller, Nancy G. Women Artists: An Illustrated History.
New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, Third Edition, 1997.

Homewood, Glenn S. "Hopkins Undergrad Finds Missing Teerlincs",
The Johns HopkinsGazette, 30:34, May 14, 2001, 1-7.

Levina Teerlinc: Court Miniaturist, by Dean Ennis 2001-12-19
for "A Historical Survey of Women Artists", Chestnut Hill College