Lady Margaret Beaufort

Lady Margaret Beaufort, painted around 1510 by Meynnart Wewyck and now at St John's College, Cambridge, is one of the most important portraits of this formidable Tudor matriarch, the mother of Henry VII and grandmother of Henry VIII. Lady Margaret was the founder of Christ's College and St John's College, Cambridge, and one of the most powerful and learned women in England. Wewyck, a Flemish painter working in England, brought Netherlandish portrait conventions — rigorous attention to physiognomy, precise rendering of costly dress, and the use of heraldic or devotional accessories — to the depiction of English aristocratic and royal subjects. The portrait documents both the subject's immense social standing and the internationalism of English Renaissance patronage.

Flemish portrait conventions dominate: three-quarter view, dark neutral background, meticulous rendering of headdress and vestment. The aged face is rendered with unflinching realism, while the hands and attributes signal the sitter's status and piety.