Sir Henry Wotton (1568–1639)

Sir Henry Wotton was one of the most cultivated English diplomats of his age — poet, art theorist (his Elements of Architecture of 1624 introduced Vitruvian ideas to English readers), and long-serving ambassador to Venice. Mierevelt painted him in 1620 during what was almost certainly a visit to The Hague, where Wotton was engaged in Protestant diplomatic business surrounding the crisis in Bohemia. The Bodleian Library's collection of portraits of notable scholars and statesmen makes it a fitting resting place for this likeness of a man who embodied the union of diplomatic service and humanist learning. Wotton is also known for the aphorism that an ambassador is an honest man sent abroad to lie for his country — a witticism that circulated widely and speaks to the self-aware irony the English diplomatic class cultivated. Mierevelt's image of Wotton contributes to the international network of intellectual portrait culture that flourished in the early seventeenth century.

The canvas support has been prepared with the smoothness typical of Mierevelt's practice for foreign sitters, suggesting a careful sitting process despite the portrait's likely diplomatic context. The handling of the face shows Mierevelt's full command of tonal modelling — warm highlights, cool half-tones, and carefully judged shadows that define an intelligent, slightly weathered face. The costume is treated flatly to concentrate attention on the physiognomy.