"An Allegory of Peace and the Arts"
by Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi
From about 1635 to 1638 the Florentine artist Orazio Gentileschi, helped by his daughter Artemisia, painted this ceiling for Queen Henrietta Maria for the Great Hall of the Queen’s House, Greenwich.
All 26 figures in the ceiling, apart from one, are female, embodying the power of women in a residence which was stamped with Henrietta Maria’s taste and patronage.
Figures in the lower section of the composition are much better preserved with rich colours, and a meticulous rendering of fabrics and details, such as the flowers and fruit of Victory’s cornucopia and the head of Medusa on Wisdom’s shield.
High in the heavens at the centre is the personification of Peace, crowned with olive leaves with a staff in one hand and olive branch in the other.
Below her is Victory.
