Looking Up Gallery

The Vigil, c1884, (1938). Artist: John Pettie

The Vigil, c1884. The Vigil of Arms was one of the religious exercises, which in the Middle Ages preceded the conferment of knighthood. The artist James Watt was the model for the knight; the background was taken from St Bartholomew?s Church in Smithfield. Painting held at the Tate Britain, London. From World-Famous Paintings edited by J. Greig Pirie [W. & G. Foyle, Ltd, London, 1938.]

© The Print Collector

Ophelia, 1851-2, (1911). Artist: John Everett Millais

Ophelia, 1851-2. Here Millais shows a scene from Shakespeare's Hamlet, in which Ophelia drowns herself in a stream, after been driven out of her mind when her father is murdered by her lover Hamlet. Painting held at the Tate, London. From A History of Painting Volume VIII by Haldane MacFall [T. C. and E. C. Jack, Lodon & Edinburgh, 1911.]

© The Print Collector

Sir J. Fastolffe, (1380-1459), 1830. Creator: Unknown

Sir J. Fastolffe, (1380-1459), 1830. Sir John Fastolf (1380-1459) medieval English landowner and knight who fought in the Hundred Years War. Noted as Shakespeare's character Sir John Falstaff, he was also a writer on strategy and an early industrialist. From "Biographical Illustrations", by Alfred Howard. [Thomas Tegg, R. Griffin and Co. J. Cumming, London, Glasgow and Dublin, 1830]

© The Print Collector/Heritage Images