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16 Portraits in set: The Hornby Castle set of early Kings and Queens: paintings by unknown artists, late 16th century-circa 1620
A set of representations of monarchs which formerly hung in Hornby Castle. Similar sets of portraits were popular in later Elizabethan and Jacobean houses, and were used to decorate long galleries. Sets could be purchased from a painter's workshop, but the style of these portraits indicates that they do not all come from the same studio. The portraits of the earliest kings are mostly fictitious; the rest, from Edward III on, are usually related to some painting or effigy believed to be from life. Sometimes substitutes were made where no authentic likeness could be found, as in the portrait of Edward V, which seems to derive from portraits of Edward VI.