Accessibility statement

What's your greatest virtue? And what's your biggest vice?

Explore your best side - and your worst - in our exhibition at Hardwick Hall.

Perched high on a Derbyshire hillside, Hardwick Hall feels like a world apart. Yet the Hall, like its builder, Elizabeth Shrewsbury (better known as Bess of Hardwick), was caught up in the whirl of religious, political and cultural change that transformed Elizabethan and Jacobean England.

Visit the 'Virtue and Vice' exhibition to learn how England was shaped by the political, religious, and social upheaval known as the Reformation, and by encounters with new ideas, societies and beliefs. All of these threads twine together in the rich history of Hardwick Hall and the colourful life of its builder, Bess. 

The exhibition was curated by Dr Helen Smith and the Conversion Narratives project team, in collaboration with staff and volunteers at Hardwick Hall. Find out about the inspiration for the exhibition, or discover the unique challenges of working in a remarkable Elizabethan house. 

Image Gallery

Explore our illustrated introduction to some of the key themes of the exhibition. 

Image: Explore the key themes of the Virtue and Vice exhibition.
Image: Domestic devotion: The Elizabethan household shaped the lives of its inhabitants. 'Virtue and Vice' shows how Bess used furniture and decoration to express her views, and influence those around her, and brings the Eglantine table to noisy life! (c)NTPL
Image: An expanding world: This beautiful walnut table may be the most important surviving piece of sixteenth century furniture in England. It is supported by elaborately carved sea dogs, resting on tortoises. Creatures like this frolic in the seas of early modern maps which show the expansion of the known world, travel, and commerce - all themes we explore in the exhibition. (c)NTPL
Image: Wonderful women: Find out more about Bess and about the centrality of women to social and political life in this period. This portrait flaunts Bess's wealth, and reminds us of the importance of French and Spanish fashions (her hood and sleeves) in early modern England. (c)NTPL
Image: Four painted hangings showing scenes from the life of St Paul now hang in the Chapel at Hardwick Hall. We trace the importance of this story to the Renaissance period, and how Bess made it her own. (c)NTPL
Image: Telling tales: The judgement of Solomon was a popular decorative theme. This delicate cushion cover shows how bible stories were adapted for a contemporary audience - the figures are wearing French fashions from the 1580s. (c)NTPL
Image: Encountering Islam: The exhibition explores attitudes to other cultures and religions, and the global politics of the Elizabethan age - and reveals the secret material histories which enrich our view of this complex period. (c)NTPL
Image: Reformation and Dissolution: William Cavendish, Bess's second husband, was an agent of the Reformation. The exhibition showcases his correspondence with Thomas Cromwell, and explores the lasting effects of the dissolution of the monasteries. (c)NTPL
Image: Popery and plots: Bess's life story was tightly bound to Mary, Queen of Scots, held prisoner by the English queen, and looked after by Bess's fourth husband, George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury. 'Virtue and Vice' explores the fate of local Catholics, and the plots that threatened Bess and her loved ones. (c)NTPL
Image: Books and reading: Part of the exhibition deals with Bess's reading. This figure of 'Arithmetique', one of the liberal arts, is surrounded by books. The image is based upon an engraving by Etienne Delaune, reminding us that Bess and her companions' reading inspired and guided their needlework. (c)NTPL
Image: The exhibition and app use images from other important collections to offer new ways of understanding Hardwick. This stained-glass roundel, in the V&A, gives a striking view of what Bess's reading table might have looked like! (c) Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Image: Explore further: This screenshot shows the main menu for our Virtue and Vice mobile app, available for Android and iOS phones and handheld devices.

Virtue and vice

The exhibition picks up on a popular Elizabethan theme: the contrast between virtue and vice. We explore how ideals of virtue were used to proclaim and enforce cultural and personal values, and how stereotypes of vice and corruption attached to other faiths, nations, and practices. Drawing on the rich collections at Hardwick, we show how stories, objects, and actions came together in the pursuit of the good life - and the good death. And we reveal that the material histories of these objects - their own stories of making and use - are frequently at odds with the messages they are supposed to convey.

This hanging is one of three, comissioned by Bess and made by her household staff. They depict the theological virtues - faith, hope, and temperance - and their opposing vices. They are linked to hangings of the cardinal virtues - justice, prudence, fortitude, and temperance - now displayed on the Chapel Landing at Hardwick.

The tradition of personifying moral qualities stretches back to Ancient Greece and Rome. After the Reformation, the saints that featured in medieval images were replaced by Old Testament or classical figures. Bess's theological virtues are unusal in looking like elite Elizabethan women: Temperance looks suspiciously like Bess, and Faith bears a striking resemblance to Elizabeth I. Only a fragment of Hope and Judas remains.

In the middle ages, Faith was contrasted with idolatry or with the Egyptian priest and arch-heretic Arius. By the Renaissance, the military might of the Ottoman Empire meant that Islam was seen as the greatest threat to the Christian faith. Rumours and stereotypes about Islam and the East circulated widely. In the seventeenth-century, it was even believed that drinking coffee might change your religion!

This is not the only fabric representation of this theme: the tapestry series known as Los Honores (The Honours) was woven for Charles of Habsburg when he became Holy Roman Emperor in 1519. In that version, Faith crushes the figure of Mahomet underfoot. In the Hardwick hanging, rather than crushing Mahomet, Faith offers him the cup of true religion, reflecting English fantasies that the trading treaty Elizabeth signed with Sultan Murad III in 1580 might lead to the conversion of 'the Turk'.

‌In 1588, the writer Anthony Munday translated a French romance in which the hero, exploring a city under Turkish rule, enters a hall 'hanged round about with rich Tapistrie, wherein, the Historie of great Mahomet was curiously wrought'. This intriguing description suggests both French and English readers were aware of Muslim textile traditions which celebrated the prophet.

A sixteenth-century flash mob

See what happened when we took 'Les Canards Chantants' to Hardwick Hall to celebrate the launch of our exhibition...

The group are singing from the famous Eglantine table, which features inlaid wooden sheet music. The song, 'Lamentation' was first printed at the end of the 1562 edition of The whole booke of Psalms, translated into English verse by Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins. According to the book's authors, psalms and devotional songs were 'very mete to be used of all sortes of people privately for their solace & comfort, laying apart all ungodly songes and ballades, which tende only to the nourishing of vyce, and corrupting of youth'.

Download our app 

We've created an app for mobile and handheld devices to accompany the exhibition. Use the app to navigate Hardwick when you visit, explore the exhibition themes before you arrive, or revisit favourite objects and moments from the comfort of your own home. There's even an estate walk, if you're feeling adventurous! Download the app for Android or iOS devices. If you enjoy the app please do rate it, and share your feedback with us!