Edward, the Black Prince at the Age of 49

Art Historical Context

This engraving by Thomas Cecil portrays Edward, Black Prince—eldest son of King Edward III and a celebrated hero of the Hundred Years’ War—at the imagined age of forty-nine. Though the prince actually died at forty-five in 1376, Cecil’s late-sixteenth-century print reflects the enduring fascination with medieval chivalry during the Elizabethan era. Created between 1551 and 1600, the work transforms a fourteenth-century figure into a timeless symbol of English valor for a new generation of viewers. As an engraving measuring just over eight by four inches, the print exemplifies how the medium a...