Portrait of a Knight of Rhodes
1515
National Gallery,
London
Inscribed in provincial French on the parapet: TAR VBLIA CHI
BIEN EIMA (who loves well is slow to forget); at either end of
the inscription is a monogram, consisting of F, R, and C
interlaced, associated with Franciabigio.
The writing on the paper held by the sitter is not legible, but
the date can be read at the end.
The sitter, who has not been identified, wears the cross of the
Order of Saint John at Rhodes.
NG1035 is probably of 1514, although the date has also been
read as 1516.
The Order of Saint John was expelled from Rhodes in 1522-3 and
established in Malta in 1530.
Collection of W. Fuller Maitland by 1863, bought 1878.
McKillop 1974, pp. 140-1; Gould 1975, pp. 90-1.
