RUBENS, Peter Paul
(b. 1577, Siegen, d. 1640, Antwerpen)

Allegorical Glorification of King James I

1633-35
Oil on canvas
Banqueting House, Whitehall, London

During his visit to London in 1629 Rubens was commissioned by King Charles I to decorate the great banqueting hall in his newly built Whitehall palace with a set of ceiling paintings. This set of paintings had to be conceived as an allegorical demonstration of homage to Charles's father, James I, in which he would be glorified as the supreme authority, the supreme judge, defender of the faith, learning and art. In particular the prosperity and peace that England had enjoyed under James I had to be symbolized. Attention also had to be paid to the union between England and Scotland brought about by James I. This propagandist glorification of the divine right of kings had to be presented in a series of alternating oval and rectangular paintings contained in wide, ornamental gilded frames. Similar ceiling paintings by Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese in Venice were the immediate model.

Rubens was inspired by the illusionist art of Venetian ceiling painting to give a distinctly Italianate building by Inigo Jones the pictorial decoration that best suited its interior.

Rubens delivered the entire set in 1635.