Visualising James VI and I in Continental Europe

The article charts the European circulation of James’s images from cradle to grave, elucidating their contexts and their ideological and commercial ramifications. Some, notably miniatures and full-length portraits made in Scotland and, after 1603, in England, served as diplomatic gifts. They attest to James’s keen cultivation of his—and his dynasty’s—visual brand. Others, mainly engravings by Dutch, German, and French artists originating on the continent, circulated individually or were inserted into printed compendia on royalty. Their proliferation and diversity, far exceeding those of James’s Scottish and English predecessors, testifies to the international appetite for the king’s likeness. Yet except for a brief interval in 1580–84, when a few continental engravings fuelled a cross-confessional contest over his future, James’s visualisations did not court controversy. Rather, they bear witness to his success as dynast, ruler, and author.