Alethea Talbot with her Husband

Alethea Howard, 13th Baroness Furnivall, Countess of Arundel , née Lady Alethea Talbot, was the wife of Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel. She was the youngest daughter of... Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury and his wife Mary Cavendish; and the sister of two other countesses: Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke and Elizabeth Grey, Countess of Kent. Lady Alethea Talbot was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire in 1585. In September, 1606, she married Thomas Howard, and they had four children; their first son died as a teenager: Along with her sister Elizabeth and cousin Arbella Stuart, she performed in a masque of the Queens, celebrating the investiture of Henry Stuart as Prince of Wales in 1610. Lady Arundel wished to join her husband abroad, but was dissuaded from doing so. Alethea and her husband accompanied the Elector Palatine Frederick V and his bride Princess Elizabeth Stuart as far as Heidelberg on their marriage in 1613. Lady Arundel used her money to buy back Arundel House and she financed their trip to Italy in 1613-1614, travelling with Inigo Jones. The Earl of Arundel was one of the first Englishmen to buy antique statues.
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The Baroque is a period of artistic style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance,... and grandeur in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature, dance, and music. The style started around 1600 in Rome, Italy and spread to most of Europe. The popularity and success of the Baroque style was encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church, which had decided at the time of the Council of Trent, in response to the Protestant Reformation, that the arts should communicate religious themes in direct and emotional involvement. The aristocracy also saw the dramatic style of Baroque architecture and art as a means of impressing visitors and expressing triumphant power and control. Baroque palaces are built around an entrance of courts, grand staircases and reception rooms of sequentially increasing opulence. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word baroque is derived from the Portuguese word "barroco", Spanish "barroco", or French "baroque", all of which refer to a "rough or imperfect pearl", though whether it entered those languages via Latin, Arabic, or some other source is uncertain.
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