Although the king was ostensibly absent from the paintings, every panel above was designed to magnify his authority below. Without his presence they become as they appear to some today – contrived, overblown allegories. But with the King enthroned and his court in attendance, they ceiling represented a brilliant fusion of Catholic Counter-Reformation style with the Protestant symbolism and political imagery of Caroline personal rule.
J. Brotton, The sale of the late King's goods (2006), 171
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