Kenilworth Castle in 1575
Robert Dudley's Kenilworth Art Collection
In 1854 James Halliwell published 'Ancient Inventories of Furniture, Pictures, Tapestry, Plate, &c.', which included 'An Inventory of the Plate, Household Stuff, Pictures, &c., in Kenilworth Castle, taken after the death of Robert Earl of Leycester, 1588' listing 73 picture items. Although these pictures were not recorded definitively, the descriptions have been used to help reconstruct a representation of the collection. This reconstruction was also informed by the published work of Dr. Elizabath Goldring, specifically 'Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and the World of Elizabethan Art: Painting and Patronage at the Court of Elizabeth I'.
1/2. 'Two great tables of the Queenes Majesties pictures, with one curtaine changeable silck'.
5. 'An other picture of my lo., in halfe proporcion, done in black garments'.
6. 'The picture of St. Jerom naked, with a curtaine of silcke'.
8. 'The picture of the Lord Maltrevers, with a curtaine'.
9/10. 'Two pictures of the Lord of Pembroke, with curtaines'.
11/12. 'Two pictures of the Counte Egmondt, with curtaines'.
15. 'The picture of the Baker’s Daughter'.
16. 'Picture of the Duke of Feria, in clothe, whole proportion'.
17. 'The picture of Alexander Magnus, with a curtaine'.
18. 'The pictures of two Yonge Ladyes, with curtaines'.
19/20. 'Two pictures of Pompoea Sabina'.
21. 'The picture of Frederick Duke of Saxony, without frame and curtaine'.
22. 'The picture of the Emperor Charles, with a curtaine'.
23. 'The picture of King Phillips Wife, with a curtaine'.
24. 'The picture of the Prince of Orange, with a curtaine'.
25. 'The picture of the Wife of the Prince of Orange'.
26. 'The picture of the Marques of Borges, with a curtaine'.
27. 'The picture of the Wife of the Marques, with a curtaine'.
29. 'The picture of Count Holstrate, with a curtaine'.
30. 'The picture of Monsieur Brederode, with a curtaine'.
31. 'The picture of the Duke Alva, with a curtaine'.
32. 'The picture of the Cardinal] Granville, with a curtaine'.
33. 'The picture of the Duches of Parma, with a curtaine'.
34. 'The picture of Henrie Earl of Pembroke'.
35. 'The picture of the young Countess [Mary Sydney, niece of the E. of Leycester]'.
36. 'The picture of the Countis Essex, in a wainscot case'.
37. 'The picture of Occacion and Repentance'.
38. 'The picture of the Lord Mowntacute, with a curtaine'.
39. 'The picture of Sir James Crofts, with a curtaine'.
40. 'The picture of Sir Walter Mildmay'.
41. 'The picture of Sir William Pickering, in clothe, whole proportion'.
42. 'The picture of Edwin [Sandy's], 2d Archbishop of York, with a curtaine'.
43. 'A tabell of an historic of men, women, and children, molden in wax'.
