Alathea [Aletheia] Talbot, Countess of Arundel
Not on view
This print is mounted in an album containing 92 drawings and prints of anonymous and famous women of Europe. Hollar's etching shows Aletheia Talbot, Countess of Arundel seated in front of a swagged brocaded curtain, wearing a coronet, necklace, jeweled chain, and holding string of pearls–the image based on Van Dyck's "Madagascar Portrait of Thomas Howard and his wife Aletheia Talbot," 1635, at Arundel Castle, Sussex. The sitter was the youngest daughter of Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury and his wife Mary Cavendish and, after her 1606 marriage to Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel, with him formed a significant collection of paintings, sculptures and drawings. Several of the latter are now at the Met (see: 10.45.4, 62.120.3 by Parmigianino, 2001.200 by Adam Elsheimer and 2011.36 by Perino del Vaga). This is the first lettered state of the print, before Meyssens's name as publisher was erased.
