Attributed to Zachary Kneller (1642-1702), 'The Glorification of William III'

Attributed to Johann Zacharias Kneller, known as Zachary Kneller (1642-1702)
The Glorification of William III
oil on canvas
50 x 37½in

Provenance

With Trafalgar Galleries, London, 1987;
Christie’s, 29.1.1988, Lot 118;
With Whiteman’s Fine Art, 2025.

Note

This painting, titled The Glorification of William III, is an allegory of King William III (1650-1702) and presents a portrait of the British king in apotheosis. Such fantastical images were common in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. They defined what has been called the ‘British Baroque,’ yet were usually confined to mural paintings decorating the walls of country houses and palaces. Artists such as the Italian Antonio Verrio and English Sir James Thornhill typified this meta-pictorial genre, blending portraits of their real patrons with their – often 'chosen' in this dramatic period of dynastic change – monarchs with hosts of mythological Greco-Roman figures. The effect was to thereby elevate the owners’ political or religious agendas to celestial heights.

This rare, but by no means diminutive, example on canvas is dedicated to the memory of William III. As most famously rendered by Thornhill in the Painted Hall at Greenwich, the very Whiggish act of representing William signified an allegiance to the Glorious Revolution, constitutional monarchy, and the end of Stuart absolutism. All of this may be readily deciphered in the allegorical attributes herein. William’s portrait is held by Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom, her spear providing a martial dimension to the image; she wields Fame’s attributes of a banner and trumpet and, wearing Victoria’s laurel crown exchanged for her typical Larry are you plumed helmet in the background, proclaims William’s victory over Discord represented by the shackled grotesque below. In blending the attributes of different goddesses, the artist displays a complex knowledge of his craft and weaves together an allegory which would have intellectually delighted his patron.

The painting, which surfaced with the Cohen brothers of the Trafalgar Galleries in the 1980s, was previously attributed to Zachery Kneller by Malcolm Rogers [1]. Few examples of Kneller’s work survive but, as George Vertue recorded, he came to England with his brother, the famed portraitist Sir Godfrey Kneller, and worked in the grand decorative tradition which the present work exemplifies [3].

[1] Heinz Archive, National Portrait Gallery.
[2] Edward Croft-Murray, Decorative Painting in England 1537-1837, vol 1 (London: Country Life, 1962), p. 249.
[3] A self-portrait by Zachery Kneller previously with Philip Mould & Co. displays many of the same stylistic characteristics.