Francis Bacon’s Portraits from Life Photo 1

Paintings of babies were not uncommon among the families of the Elizabethan elite. Francis’s first portrait, however, is charged with symbolism verging on the mystical. Why would a child less than two years old be depicted as holding in his right hand an apple, the pre-eminent symbol of the knowledge of good and evil? And why is his other hand placed in a superior position directly over his heart? Other than representations of the infant Christ, how many other paintings of children are composed with such deliberate esoteric symbolism? What is more, the picture contains a secret. In his book, “Dedication to the Light” (1984), Peter Dawkins exposes the significance of the two miniature portrait pendants suspended on two gold chains, one hiding the other. Dawkins’ close examination of the pendants concludes that they hint at Francis’s royal parentage – that he was indeed the legitimate progeny of Robert Dudley and Elizabeth I. Two versions of this mysterious portrait exist: the original which resides at Gorhambury House, and a copy which is in the Clark Art Institute Collection in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Although the Gorhambury portrait is probably the more reliable in terms of facial likeness, only low resolution digital images of the original portrait are available. Fortunately, permission has been
granted by the Clark Art Institute to use a larger image of their copy in order to see the pendants more clearly. The identities of the artists of both portraits are unknown.