The Leeswood Tondo - Summary (Continued)
It is worth repeating Sir Martin Conway's opinion, that
"works of art acquired by a parent, prized by a son, tolerated by a grandson, are often neglected and scattered by his descendants." 583
The picture may have been "casually lost", to use Henrietta Maria's phrase, and therefore its provenance and attribution would also have been "casually lost". British private collections over the years have suffered from continual depredations, and in the history of the Wynn family there have been many occasions when they could have lost, or indeed gained, valuable possessions, without a bill-of-sale the official credentials of a picture are easily lost. All that may be assumed is that as the painting was in North Wales, then Mrs.Wynne-Eyton could have acquired it by inheritance, by gift or by purchase in the open market.
The identification of the pigment turnsole, or related indicator dye, suggests that this original work was produced around or before 1600, when the role of turnsole was downgraded to a shading glaze. This and the possibility that the monogram on the reverse flap of the canvas is Henrietta Maria's cipher, prompted the study of earlier generations of the ancestors of Mrs-Wynne-Eyton, and in particular the generation of Sir Richard Wynn of Gwydir,
Sir Richard was one of the most influential members of the Wynn family. Friend, companion and office-bearer to Charles I, he served Prince and King for over thirty years. He was Treasurer and Receiver General to Henrietta Maria for over twenty years. He managed to avoid the perils of appearing to take sides, even during the Civil war. However from the evidence of his tombstone, and from the opinion of his brother Maurice, a month after Sir Richard died, he was "a servant to both" the King and Queen.
Excerpt from Dr Murdoch Lothian's PhD thesis 'The Methods Employed to Provenance and to Attribute Putative works by Raphael'