Thomas Howard (1585–1646), Second Earl of Arundel, after Rubens 1808

Henry Bone painted this enamel on copper after Rubens’ portrait of Thomas Howard, the Second Earl of Arundel. Howard, an important figure in the court of King Charles I of England, was a patron and collector of art on a scale rarely seen before. Arundel's activities helped to establish collecting art as a noble pursuit. His social standing, as well as his influence on taste, established a canon of art that was distinctly classicizing. Here we see him adorned in armor, an allusion to aristocratic masculinity and status. Bone’s painting, made in the 19th century, speaks to the enduring status that the Earl of Arundel had in the British imagination. To understand the significance of this image, we can look further into the history of the Howard family, the tastes of the British aristocracy, and the collecting of paintings and antiquities. Only through a thorough account of this can we fully grasp its cultural value.