Lot 316: Portrait of James Crichton, the Admirable Crichton (1560-1582), half-length, in a dark coat and white ruff

JOHN MEDINA (1721-1796) Portrait of James Crichton, the Admirable Crichton (1560-1582), half-length, in a dark coat and white ruff With inscription and date 'IACOBUS CRITONIUS CLUNIUS MUSARUM PARITER AC MARTIS ALUMNUS, OMNIBUS IN STUDIIS, IPSIS ETIAM ITALIS ADMIRABILIS; MANTUAE, A DUCIS MANTUANI FILIO EX NOCTURNIS INSIDIIS OCCISUS EST, A° CHRISTI 1581' (upper left), and with inscription 'ET GENUS, ET CENSUM DAT SCOTIA. GALLIA PECTUS EXCOLIT ADMIRANS ITALA TERRA VIRUM AMBIT; ET ESSE SUUM VELLET. GENS AEMULA VITAM ABSTULIT AN SATIS HOC DICAT UT ILLA SUUM? MANTUA HABET CINERES SCELUS EXSECRATA NEFANDUM AT TUMULI TANTI GAUDET HONORE TAMEN' (upper right) oil on canvas 29½ in. x 24 in. (75 x 61 cm.) in an 18th century carved giltwood and papier-mâché frame attributed to Joseph Duffour

Painted for William Crichton, 5th Earl of Dumfries (1699-1768) and paid for on 15 May 1758 (3 gns.).

The sitter was the son of Robert Crichton, Lord Advocate of Scotland, and Elizabeth Stewart. While officially recorded as of Clunie, Perthshire, some sources maintain that he was born in Dumfries. A renowned polymath, James Crichton studied at St. Andrews before travelling to France and Italy, where he entered the service of the Duke of Gonzaga. He was murdered by the Duke's son, Vincenzo Gonzaga, having attracted the attentions of Vincenzo's former mistress.

The earliest version of this portrait type, which was executed in Italy during the 16th century, is recorded at Holyroodhouse (see O. Millar, op.cit, p. 70, no. 61). Miller recorded other copies at Lennoxlove, Malahide and Airth. These later versions usually bear a memorial inscription taken from John Johnston's Heroes of 1603.

The artist was the grandson of Sir John Baptist de Medina (1659/60-1710), who trained in Brussels, before moving to London in 1686 and Edinburgh in circa 1693, where he enjoyed immense success as a portrait artist to the Scottish nobility.

This romantic portrait of James Crichton, commissioned by Lord Dumfries, is an example of his virtue of Pietas in honouring an Elizabethan ancestor. Its picturesque frame, designed in Chippendale's 'Modern' fashion, is antique rippled and gothic-fretted at centres and corners with bubbled and shell-scalloped cartouches that are wreathed in Roman foliage. This frame pattern, particularly associated with the French-born carver, gilder and papier-mâché maker Joseph Duffour(d.1757) of Berwick Street, was adopted in particular by Thomas Hudson in the later 1740s (J. Simon, The Art of the Picture Frame, London, 1997, no. 36)