Le Sage Gouvernement de Jacques Ier

Charles I ordered these canvases in 1629 and 1630, at the start of the years when he governed England without calling a parliament, and what he wanted from Rubens was an argument in paint that his father had ruled wisely. In this panel James I sits enthroned in a setting that hints at Solomon, pointing towards Peace embracing Plenty, while Minerva beats Mars down with a shield and a bolt of lightning. Rubens painted it in his Antwerp workshop with his assistants and shipped it to London, and it went into the ceiling in 1636. After that Charles stopped holding masques in the hall, because the smoke from the torches and candles would have damaged the pictures. On 30 January 1649 he walked the length of this room and stepped out of a window onto a scaffold built in the street outside.