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In this exuberant picture, Rubens seems to suggest that apotheosis – a person being elevated to divine status – is not a wholly majestic and dignified affair, as it is presented in many other contemporary paintings. Here, it seems that any great man taken to heaven and granted immortality by the gods has quite a journey ahead of him. George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, dressed in a seventeenth-century version of Roman armour, is hauled up through the sky in a swirl of moving figures. Minerva, goddess of wisdom and war, and Mercury, messenger of the gods, lead him. His eyes are turned up towards his goal high above: the Temple of Virtue. This is a preparatory oil sketch for a painting commissioned for the ceiling of the Duke’s residence in London.
Title
Minerva and Mercury conduct the Duke of Buckingham to the Temple of Virtue
Date
before 1625
Medium
Oil on oak
Measurements
H 64 x W 63.7 cm
Accession number
NG187
Acquisition method
Bought, 1843
Work type
Painting
The National Gallery, London
Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England
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Stories
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The real George Villiers: social climber, art patron and favourite to King JamesGavia Baker-Whitelaw