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HISTORY paintings

Seventeenth-century ‘History’ paintings – ambitious visualisations of historical, Biblical or mythological events – were made for the walls and ceilings of private houses and public buildings and also in the form of moveable pictures. After Charles II commissioned the Italian Baroque artist Verrio to paint murals at Windsor Castle in the 1670s it became fashionable for aristocrats and gentlemen to do the same.

Most of the major commissions for history painting had traditionally been given to foreign painters who were regarded as the specialists in this field. But early in the 1700s a new sense of patriotism coupled with continuing concerns about the corrupting influence of foreign, Catholic art led to changes.

The pictures shown here are all sketches for larger paintings. Two are for private houses and by foreign artists, but the third is by a British painter, James Thornhill, and designed for a public space. What do the differences in subject and style tell us about the development of history painting in this period?

Vulcan Catching Mars and Venus in his Net by Louis Chéron

Sketch for a Ceiling Decoration: An Assembly of the Gods by Antonio Verrio

St Paul Preaching at Athens by James Thornhill