Porträt John Dryden (1631-1700)

Book page with portrait of John Dryden. The English poet is presented here as a chest in a profile facing to the left. He turned his head so that he looks out of the leaf head-on. He wears simple clothes. His portrait is surrounded by an oval frame above which a curtain falls from the right. Under the frame there are various attributes of the depicted in the hem of the curtain: books, a mask and an instrument. They present the vocation of Dryden, who was also a literary critic and playwright. The tragedy “All for Love” (1677) is considered his greatest success. Dryden’s ode “Alexander 's Feast” (in the processing of Newburgh Hamilton) and his “Ode for St Caecilia' s Day” were set to music by Georg Friedrich Händel. This paper is a book page from “The Copper plate magazine; or, Bei treasure for the admirers of the imitative arts.” There is the biographical text. There is a second sheet in the Händel-Haus Foundation, which is sideways to this one (cf. BS-III 91). Other copies of this paper are available at the National Portrait Gallery and the British Museum. Signature: G. Kneller pinx. W. Sharp sculp. Published by G. Kearsly. No 46 Fleet Street. Caption: Dryden. (Stiftung Händel-Haus Halle Foundation)