Cardinal Pole (1500 - 1558)

after Cristofano Dell' Altissimo (c.1525 - Florence 1605) . Oil painting on canvas, Cardinal Pole (1500 - 1558) by Cristofano Dell' Altissimo (c.1525 - Florence 1605), inscribed, in yellow, at the top: RIGINALDUS CARD: POLO, from 1556 to the end of the 16th century. Pole was described by his private secretary Boccadelli (Lodovico Boccadelli, The Life of Cardinal Pole, translated by B. Pye, London, 1766, pp.132-33) as being “of the middle stature and of a lean habit of body; he was fair, and yellow hair’d, which is the usual colour and complexion of his countrymen. The oval of his face was rather large, but enlivened with an eye benign and cheerful. His beard, when he was young, was of a very light colour...” Shute Barton, Devon