The letters before the date are probably nel, which would mean "in 1878," not ncl. Is it possible to have a close-up photo of the label?

A close-up of the label would be indeed be useful to check the name. I agree with Jacinto about the letters - must be "nel". At public exhibitions in Genova, Turin and Milan, between 1883 and 1884, Rinaldo Giudici exhibited over ten pictures, none of them portraits.

Guidi is a known Italian surname, assuming that is the actual name of the painter. I tend to doubt this is by Reinaldo Giudici, who was only a student in 1878 and would have had no obvious connection to an English prelate. Also, he is said to have concentrated on social realist subjects in the earlier part of his career, only later turning to landscapes and portraits.

I wonder if it just a coincidence that one of Howard's predecessors, as Cardinal-Bishop of the See of Frascati, between 1872 and 1879, was Cardinal Filippo Maria Guidi (1815 - 1879). Could the painter have been related to this latter man? Howard was, apparently, Guidi's assistant during that time.

Howard's Wikipedia entry outlines some of his career moves in the 1870s and 1880s:

"In June 1871, he was made titular Archbishop of Neocaesaria in partibus and assistant bishop to the Cardinal Bishop of Frascati. (He) was promoted to Cardinal-Priest of Ss. Giovanni e Paolo on 12 March 1877 and in 1878 appointed Protector of the English College at Rome, an institution to which he later left his valuable library. ...... He wanted to become a missionary in the East but the Pope Pius IX insisted that he stay in Rome. He served in pastoral ministry in Rome as confessor of the poor and the soldiers. In December 1881 he became Archpriest of Saint Peter's Basilica. On 24 March 1884 he became Cardinal-Bishop of the suburbicarian diocese of Frascati."

As Howard was Protector of the English College at Rome in 1878, it is possible that the portrait was painted in that place.

The date of the portrait is a significant one, as this was the year of the 1878 papal conclave, which was convened following the death of Pope Pius IX on 7th February. It met from the 18th to the 20th February and both Guidi and Howard were in attendance:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1878_papal_conclave

Given the presence in Rome in February 1878 of so many distinguished Catholic prelates, there might perhaps be other portraits from their number by the painter named Guidi from that same year.

A very detailed biographical article on Howard, which contained an illustration very similar to this painting, appeared in The Graphic of Saturday 21st January 1882. The full article is attached. The illustration is after a photograph taken by "L. Suscipj, 48, Via Condotti, Rome". A composite is also attached showing how nearly identical are both images. This portrait could also have been painted after the same photograph. If so, it is quite likely that the photograph dates from 1878 or earlier.

Two articles in the BNA (attached) about a painting of Cardinal Howard have caught my attention. Is the sitter wearing a "gold episcopal cross"? Could this be the 1884 work by the American artist Julian Story (1857–1919) and not a work from 1878?

Julian Story used to live at the Palazzo Barberini in Rome.

My composite compares this work to
'Louisa (1843–1920), Dowager Viscountess Wolseley' from 1884.
https://tinyurl.com/yc6wke6z.

Marcie, your first attachment tells us that the portrait by Julian Story was painted for Howard's cousin the Duke of Norfolk, and this is likely to be the portrait still at Arundel Castle (see the link at the top to 'Open on collection website'). Certainly I see no reason why the Duke or his successors would have disposed of it, given their considerable wealth, ample wall space for hanging, and (most importantly) their pre-eminent position in the Catholic Church in England - all these being true throughout the years since it was painted by Story.

The same link says our portrait was probably given by the cardinal to his brother-in-law Richard Myddleton at Chirk Castle, and that it has remained with that family and/or at the castle ever since.

I also tend to think it's unlikely the damaged label would have got both artist *and* date wrong. On which subject, I'd be grateful if the National Trust could respond to our request of over a year ago to see a clear image of the label. The last 13 months have obviously not been easy, but please don't let this turn into a another multi-year wait to show us a label, like the Adye one at Cragside. If the NT want our help, they must understand that we need them to help us.

Osmund, I have emailed our Curatorial contact at the National Trust and asked for a photographed of the damaged label to be supplied for consideration by the contributors. Regards, David

One possible candidate might be Guido Guidi (1835-1918) who according to his entry on the Istituto Matteucci dictionary of artists:

http://www.istitutomatteucci.it/en/dictionary-of-artists/guidi-guido

worked on various Roman churches in the 1860s and had paintings commissioned from him by Pius IX, who made Howard a Cardinal.

The only images I can find of figurative work by him are black and white and not particularly helpful on this list here:

https://catalogo.beniculturali.it/search/Agent/a9d7f2f53f83e2bdc6b4e943067c01c7

but he does seem to be at the right place and time.

The Guido Guidi who may be our painter should not be confused with another painter of the same name whose dates are 1901-1998.

Based on the images of Guidi works at the link provided by Mark, his style was more academic and less "modern" than what is evident in our portrait. It is possible he used a different style for contemporary subjects, but that remains to be determined.

Thanks, David.

An old photograph of the reverse of the painting is attached. It shows the old inventory number and was taken 12 years ago when all the paintings were removed into store to allow a reservicing of the castle. The painting will be taken down again later this year, as it is due to be cleaned, at which point they will have another look to make sure it’s the same backing as in the photo.

Marion, is that the highest -res version of that photo available? If so, then I'd suggest a better snap be taken when the painting comes down** - at this resolution it's hard to be sure if that's '...uidi', and there seems to be a tiny bit showing of what precedes it, too. See attached image tweak. Unfortunately Getty's ULAN (https://bit.ly/3IyciKI) does not permit wildcard searches with a left-hand truncation - a rather annoying deficiency.

[**the Collection might also consider protecting what remains of the label behind a piece of clear plastic taped to the cross-bar.]

Osmund, it's an old digital image, so quite small. I've emailed it to you anyway, but I don't think it will look any better than it does here.

Thanks, Marion - but you're right, it's identical in every way to the other one, as downloaded from AD. We will hope for a high-res close-up in due course, though I'm far from sure it'll help significantly.

Meanwhile here's a quite interesting memoir of Howard, who seems to have been something of a peacock in his Roman days: https://bit.ly/3P1DeVZ. There's also a little about his elevated social milieu in Rome (though not in very specific terms), which perhaps provides a clue as to the sort of artist we should be looking for.

Just to confirm that this is not the portrait by Julian Story, which is pictured here https://bit.ly/3PjKtYM. It is fully inscribed (lower left) with the artist's signature and '[Ro]me 1884' - see attached image.

Good find, Osmund.

And, this is not the portrait of Cardinal Howard by Julian Story that was described in a letter from 1881 since that one had a red background. https://tinyurl.com/yjc5699b

Could this be by the Italian artist Erulo Eroli (1854–1916)?

His portrait of Cardinal Angelo Jacobini (1825–1886) has a similar floral background, including a vertical line near one of the shoulders.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Quadro-ritratto-card-Angelo-Jacobini.jpg

worth looking into - 1854-1916

possibly of the Eroli family which has a Palazzo in Narni
There is an artcle about him in L'Urbe, 3/4 LI , 1988 , pp.61-6
and he is in the mutivolume Dizionario Biografico degi Italiani

best known as a designer of tapestries in the latter part of his career

He wil undoubtedly have an entry in K G Saur's Kunstlerlexikon on open access in the British Library

'L'urbe' seems to be taken by the British Library PP 7615.sq

The background is similar in Eroli’s portrait of Cardinal Mario Mocenni (1823–1904), especially the swirl near the top right corner of each work, but the robes are very different.

https://tinyurl.com/2p7mvmjw

I thought it would be helpful to post a composite based on that work that I mentioned above, ‘Ritratto di Mario Mocenni’ by Erulo Eroli, 1877.

Although the image that I used is from Wikimedia Commons, the original image was on another website and photo credit is “Inventario dei beni storici e artistici della diocesi di Viterbo”.

https://tinyurl.com/4v2u99r5

From your second composite they are clearly not the same artist - the technique could not be more different. The first one is very slightly closer to the freer brushwork seen in our portrait, but not much. That they both/all have a patterned wallpaper background is scant evidence of anything, except perhaps fashion. And how you can you reconcile Eroli's name with what's on the rear label?

Eruli was the subject in 2002 of a one man exhibition at the Galleria Paolo Antonacci , Rome = information from Paul Nicholls

That gallery closed c. 2018 - the few iluustrations on that gallery's website do not encourage an attribution to him

we should probably look for portraitists who painted members of the English College at Rome, where Howard was Protector from 1878
John Martin Robinson's book on the Dukes of Norfolk might be a help
There is a steel engraving relating to this portait on line - source of the image not given
The peerage.com has a related head and shoulders portrait and there is also a contemporary photograph from which the artist may have worked
Arundel Castle may have some of these

The Venerable English College, Rome also has archives -vecarchives.org - in the process of being catalogued

There is no trace of the artist Eroli exhibiting this picture in his lifetime according to Paul Nicholls - but however he says that Eroli is the sort of painter who might have executed this - it was probably a commission

I think Eroli is fairly unlikely to be our artist. His paintings were mainly subject pictures (genre, historical) rather than portraits.

See http://www.istitutomatteucci.it/it/artisti-censiti/eroli-erulo

for Arundel Castle archive@arundelcastle.org

The painting probably reached Chirk through the marriage in 1881 of Robert Myddelton Biddulph [of Chirk] 1837 -1913 to Catherine Arabella Howard [died 1899]

to go back to much earlier- Lorenzo Suscipi[j} possibly was an artist as well as a photographer - 1802-85

has anyone looked at the best Kunstlerlexikon to date the KG Saur multivolume works continued by De Gruyter for Guidis ofthe 19th century?. The entries generally have short bibliographes?Earlier , of course , there are the Thieme-Becker volumes
All can be easily consulted at the British Library and the National Art Library

Francis W Steer ed. Arundel Castle Archives , West Sussex County Council 1968-1980

I'm not sure Arundel Castle archives will come into it, Martin, as Catherine Arabella (who was our sitter's brother) had actually married Richard (not Robert) Myddelton Biddulph in 1862, 16 years before the portrait was painted. It is thus more likely that it was a gift from the Cardinal directly to his sister and her husband; at any rate that's what the NT suggest, and it makes sense to me. See https://bit.ly/3y4QNwE.

There is a similar image of Cardinal Howard at this link. Unfortunately, there is no source shown.

https://sites.google.com/site/gnostickos/bishopshoward