George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham

George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (1592–1628), a favourite of James I (r. 1603– 25) and highly influential in the early reign of Charles I (r. 1625–49), was for a time the most powerful man in Britain. His gentle yet masculine countenance and his apparent physical attractiveness, beautifully rendered by Miereveld, contextualise his pet name of ‘Steenie’, which referred to the angelic face of St Stephen. This term of affection was bestowed on the reputedly handsome and charming courtier, along with other more worldly power and privileges, by the infatuated king in 1614.

Born in Delft, Miereveld was the leading Dutch portrait painter in the first decades of the seventeenth century. He painted European royalty and nobility, including members of the English aristocracy. The Duke sat for Miereveld in The Hague sometime in late 1625 during Buckingham’s embassy to the Low Countries. The portrait, one of several versions by Miereveld, gives a vivid impression of the Duke’s opulent appearance fewer than three years before his assassination in 1628.

Tony Magnusson, Curator of European Art, 2016–18