'Fisher. Bishop of Rochester'

Half-length portrait of John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester by Jacobus Houbraken after Hans Holbein. The sitter is represented within a baroque cartouche surmounted by St Peter's keys. Below, a putti is holding a Galero (a broad-brimmed tasseled hat worn by cardinals as a crown symbolizing the title of Prince of the Church); the sitter's mitre is depicted on the left-hand side; his severed head and an axe are shown in the foreground.

John Fisher became Bishop of Rochester and Chancellor of Cambridge University in 1504. Opposed to Henry VIII’s divorce, he was imprisoned along with Sir Thomas More and beheaded on 22 June 1535.

Object Details

ID: PAH6068
Type: Print
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Jacobus Houbraken, Jacobus; Holbein, Hans
Date made: circa 1760
People: Fisher, John
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Herschel Collection
Measurements: Overall: 365 x 231 mm; Sheet: 441 mm x 284 mm