Valentine Jenkin or Jenkins was an English decorative painter working in Scotland in the 17th century. [1]
Contents
Valentine Jenkin or Jenkins was an English decorative painter working in Scotland in the 17th century. [1]
Accounts of his work mention that he was an "English man". [3] He was a burgess of Glasgow. In 1627 he painted the globe and the weather vane of the steeple at the Glasgow Tolbooth. [4]
Jenkins redecorated the Chapel Royal at Stirling Castle in 1628, [5] refreshing painted decoration from 1594 inside and out. Within the chapel, a painted frieze with festoons of leaves and fruit and (now blank) medallions, is his work. The frieze was described in 1628 as a "course of panels, arms, and badges conform to the roof and border". [6] The painted freize is visible (with some restoration) within the chapel, and external paintwork has left discernible traces and shadows on the courtyard façade. [7]
Materials bought for Jenkin and his team of painters at Stirling in 1617 included, red lead, florey (a kind of indigo), umber, linseed oil, skins for making glue size, butter, and jars called "pigs". In 1628 he was bought chalk, oil, and colours. [8]
Jenkin made two contracts for painting the rooms of the palace of Stirling Castle and the Chapel Royal in 1628. [9] On the exterior of the palace he gilded and painted the royal initials and crowns, and painted the window grills or yetts with red oil paint. Details on the gatehouse and its coat of arms were painted the same. Inside, the window shutters were painted, and he restored the existing painted borders and royal ciphers. He marbled the chimneys. The queen's bedchamber was to be "fair wrought with arms and antiques" according to the ceiling details. He also painted the rooms and passages on the floor above, including two rooms for the Duke of Buckingham which were above the king's bedchamber, accessible via a private stair. [10] The upstairs rooms were painted gray and white, with imitation panelling in the passages. Nothing survives of this work, although nearly all the rooms mentioned in Jenkin's contract survive. [11]
Jenkin rode from Stirling to paint and gild three great carved oak heraldic panels for the exterior of the gate house of Falkland Palace in 1629. The wooden armorials today are 19th-century replacements. [12]
A vaulted first-floor room at Kinneil House, known as the Arbour Room, was redecorated around the year 1620 for James Hamilton, 2nd Marquess of Hamilton and his wife Ann Cunningham. Her "shakefork" and the rabbit supporters of Cunningham heraldry can still be seen. This painting was almost certainly the work of Valentine Jenkins, who worked for the family elsewhere. [13]
The 19th-century writers on genealogy and heraldry R. R. Stodart and G. Harvey Johnston refer to a manuscript known as the "Valentine Jenkins' Collection" or the Armes of "Vallentyn Jenkyns" in connection with family of Hamilton of Innerwick. Compiled between 1640 and 1645, the manuscript was later owned and used by another 17th-century Edinburgh painter and herald, Joseph Stacie (1625–1686), and is now held by the Lord Lyon office in Edinburgh. [14] [15] Stacie, originally from Nottingham, also acquired an armorial manuscript compiled by James Workman and another from the widow of John Sawers (National Library of Scotland Adv. MS 31.4.4). [16]
There were several painters at work in Scotland at the time, and Andrew Home was recorded as Jenkins' assistant at Stirling. Some decorative painters based in London worked in Scotland, including Edward Arthur, George Crawford, and Matthew Goodrick.
Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the largest and most historically and architecturally important castles in Scotland. The castle sits atop an intrusive crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological formation. It is surrounded on three sides by steep cliffs, giving it a strong defensive position. Its strategic location, guarding what was, until the 1890s, the farthest downstream crossing of the River Forth, has made it an important fortification in the region from the earliest times.
The ruins of Linlithgow Palace are located in the town of Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland, 15 miles (24 km) west of Edinburgh. The palace was one of the principal residences of the monarchs of Scotland in the 15th and 16th centuries. Although maintained after Scotland's monarchs left for England in 1603, the palace was little used, and was burned out in 1746. It is now a visitor attraction in the care of Historic Environment Scotland.
Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox was a leader of the Catholic nobility in Scotland. He was the paternal grandfather of King James VI of Scotland. He owned Temple Newsam in Yorkshire, England.
Falkland Palace, in Falkland, Fife, Scotland, is a royal palace of the Scottish Kings. It was one of the favourite places of Mary, Queen of Scots, who took refuge there from political and religious turmoil of her times.
The Master of Works to the Crown of Scotland was responsible for the construction, repair and maintenance of royal palaces, castles and other crown property in Scotland. The main buildings were; Holyroodhouse; Edinburgh Castle; Stirling Castle; Linlithgow Palace; and Falkland Palace. The position was roughly equivalent to that of Surveyor of the King's Works in the English Royal Household. The emergence of the position reflected a shift in responsibility from the masons, or administrators in holy orders, to designers with little hands-on knowledge of stonemasonry. Earlier holders of the office were often courtiers: James Hamilton of Finnart was the king's kinsman; John Scrymgeour was a heraldic expert; while William Schaw, an administrator, was a key figure in the development of Freemasonry, itself a 'craft' having little to do with building. Later holders filled a role similar to that of architects in the modern sense. Some Masters were craftsmen; Robert Robertson, who was master of work at Stirling Castle after the execution of the aristocrat Hamilton of Finnart, was a carpenter. During the reign of James V there was also a Principal Master Wright or carpenter, John Drummond of Milnab, and as well as building works he was concerned with the artillery and its logistics.
Sir Robert Drummond of Carnock was Master of Work to the Crown of Scotland from 1579 to 1583. This was the responsibility for building and repair of palaces and castles. His appointment was made to be "as Sir James Hamilton of Finnart had it."
The Stirling Heads are a group of large oak portrait medallions made around the year 1540 to decorate the ceiling of a room at Stirling Castle. The style, in origin, was based on Italian architectural decoration and at Stirling was probably derived from a French source. Similar medallions carved in stone adorn Falkland Palace.
Scottish renaissance painted ceilings are decorated ceilings in Scottish houses and castles built between 1540 and 1640. This is a distinctive national style, though there is common ground with similar work elsewhere, especially in France, Spain and Scandinavia. An example in England, at Wickham, Hampshire, was recorded in 1974. There are records of over 100 examples, and a much smaller number of painted ceilings survive in-situ today. Some salvaged painted beams and boards are stored by Historic Environment Scotland. The paintings at Crathes Castle, dating from 1597 and 1602 are probably the best known.
Kinneil House is a historic house to the west of Bo'ness in east-central Scotland. It was once the principal seat of the Hamilton family in the east of Scotland. The house was saved from demolition in 1936 when 16th-century mural paintings were discovered, and it is now in the care of Historic Environment Scotland. The house now consists of a symmetrical mansion built in 1677 on the remains of an earlier 16th- or 15th-century tower house, with two rows of gunloops for early cannon still visible. A smaller east wing, of the mid 16th century, contains the two painted rooms. The house is protected as a Category A listed building.
The Scottish royal tapestry collection was a group of tapestry hangings assembled to decorate the palaces of sixteenth-century kings and queens of Scotland. None appear to have survived.
Pierre Quesnel was a 16th-century French artist who worked in Scotland, before returning to Paris with his family after the death of James V of Scotland.
Andrew Mansioun, or Mentioun or Manschone or Manson, was a French artist who worked at the court of James V, King of Scots. He was the master carpenter of the Scottish artillery for Mary, Queen of Scots and James VI of Scotland.
A masque was held at the baptism of Prince Henry on 30 August 1594 at Stirling Castle. It was written by the Scottish poet William Fowler and Patrick Leslie, 1st Lord Lindores.
The tournament of the Wild Knight and the Black Lady was an event held twice in Edinburgh by James IV of Scotland, in June 1507 and May 1508.
James, Duke of Rothesay was the first of the two sons and three children born to King James V of Scotland and his second wife, Mary of Guise. From the moment of his birth James was Duke of Rothesay and heir apparent to the Scottish throne.
Andrew Aytoun, was a Scottish soldier and engineer, and captain of Stirling Castle.
John Workman or Warkman was a decorative painter working in Edinburgh.
Walter Binning, or Bynning was a painter in 16th-century Edinburgh.
Thomas Peebles or Peblis was a Scottish glazier who worked for James IV, Margaret Tudor, and James V of Scotland.
John Sawers was a Scottish decorative painter based in Edinburgh.