{
"data": {
"id": 127232,
"accession_number": "1949.549",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Portrait of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1715. Christian Friedrich Zincke (German, 1683/85\u20131767). Enamel on copper in a gilt metal frame; framed: 6.4 x 5.1 cm (2 1/2 x 2 in.); sight: 5.9 x 4.8 cm (2 5/16 x 1 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Edward B. Greene Collection, 1949.549",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Portrait of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough",
"creation_date": "1715",
"creation_date_earliest": 1715,
"creation_date_latest": 1715,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"England, 18th century"
],
"technique": "enamel on copper in a gilt metal frame",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "European Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "P - British before 1800",
"type": "Portrait Miniature",
"measurements": "Framed: 6.4 x 5.1 cm (2 1/2 x 2 in.); Sight: 5.9 x 4.8 cm (2 5/16 x 1 7/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"framed": {
"height": 0.064,
"height_inch": 2,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5,
"width": 0.051,
"width_inch": 2,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0
},
"sight": {
"height": 0.059,
"height_inch": 2,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.3125,
"width": 0.048,
"width_inch": 1,
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},
"state_of_the_work": null,
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"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "signed on back: CF Zincke fecit/ 1715. [CF in monorgram].",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 311503,
"title": "Intimate Images: Portrait Miniatures from Europe and America",
"description": "Intimate Images: Portrait Miniatures from Europe and America. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 26-October 17, 1993).",
"opening_date": "1993-03-26T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 202388,
"title": "Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives",
"description": "Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 10, 2013-February 16, 2014).",
"opening_date": "2013-11-10T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Main Gallery Rotation (Gallery 202), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 20, 2008 - September 22, 2008).",
"opening_date": "2008-06-20T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Main European Rotation (Gallery 202), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 23, 2013 - May 20, 2014).",
"opening_date": "2013-07-23T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Nyberg, London",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "(Leo Schidlof (1886-1966), London. England)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "-1949",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "Edward B. Greene (1878-1957), Cleveland, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1949",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1949-",
"sortorder": 4
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Although miniatures are often regarded as a private art form exchanged between loved ones, the nature of this enamel was likely political.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Unlike fragile portrait miniatures painted in watercolor on vellum or ivory, which are prone to cracking, fading, and flaking, enamels are resilient, impervious to the effects of light, and retain their striking original colors over time. Partly for this reason enamel was considered ideal for reproducing famous paintings and treasured portraits in a reduced and luminous form. The complicated and labor-intensive process of enameling required the artist to fire numerous layers of colored metal oxide at different temperatures, which made it difficult to produce a faithful portrait likeness, though masters of the medium were able create portraits of remarkable subtlety imbued with the sitter's personality. The heyday of enamel painting was the late 1600s and early 1700s. Among the enamel specialists was Zincke, who worked in England where he was patronized by Queen Anne, King George I, and King George II.",
"external_resources": {
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],
"internet_archive": [
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]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. Portrait Miniatures; The Edward B. Greene Collection. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1951.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 32, no. 49, pl. IV",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/PortraitMiniatures/page/n51"
},
{
"citation": "Carlsen, G. Robert. Western Literature; Themes and Writers; Teacher's Resources Guide. St. Louis: Webster Division, McGraw-Hill, 1967.",
"page_number": "p. 442",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Coffin, Sarah, and Bodo Hofstetter. Portrait Miniatures in Enamel: The Gilbert Collection. London: Philip Wilson in association with the Gilbert Collection, 2000.",
"page_number": "p. 116",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Korkow, Cory, and Dario Robleto. Disembodied: Portrait Miniatures and Their Contemporary Relatives. 2013.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 86",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Korkow, Cory, and Jon L. Seydl. British Portrait Miniatures: The Cleveland Museum of Art. 2013.",
"page_number": "Cat. no. 22, pp. 117-119",
"url": ""
}
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"creditline": "The Edward B. Greene Collection",
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"athena_id": 127232,
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"id": 3697,
"description": "Christian Friedrich Zincke (German, 1683/85\u20131767)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Christian Friedrich Zincke was born in Dresden, Germany, where he apprenticed with his goldsmith father.1 At the invitation of the master enamelist Charles Boit (1663\u20131727), Zincke traveled to England in 1706, became Boit\u2019s pupil, and later established the most successful enamel-painting studio in England. Several generations of British monarchs patronized Zincke, including Queen Anne, King George I, and particularly King George II, a great lover of enamels.
During the early years of his practice, Zincke charged under 7 guineas for a portrait, and although inflation remained steady, he was able to command up to 30 guineas by the end of his career. This substantial increase not only indicates the artist\u2019s rise in popularity, but it also speaks to his deteriorating vision, as the larger fees were implemented to
limit the number of commissions taxing Zincke\u2019s failing eyesight, which forced him to give up painting professionally in the mid-1740s.
The enameling techniques utilized in portrait miniatures were developed during the early seventeenth century, but the first half of the eighteenth century was the heyday of enamel painting in Britain. The art form was prized for its resilience and brilliant colors, though the complicated and labor-intensive process of individually firing multiple layers of colored metal oxide made it more difficult to create a faithful likeness. Zincke executed portraits from life as well as copied
older portraits in oil from artists including Peter Lely (1618\u20131680) and Godfrey Kneller (1646\u20131723). Always willing to flatter his sitters, Zincke was known to make some of his sitters appear more youthful and to work from earlier portraits. In spite of the fact that many miniatures by Zincke are signed on the counter-enamel, attribution is complicated by the fact that he kept an industrious studio populated with students and assistants of varying talents. He began to teach over a decade after his eyesight failed, and among his better-known students were William Prewett (active 1733\u2013c. 1750) and Jeremias Majer (1735\u20131789), whose work is also in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1683",
"death_year": "1767",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1949-12-23T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1715,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1715",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
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"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Duke of Marlborough",
"John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, K.G."
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 06:33:30.445000"
}
}