Minerva and Mercury conduct the Duke of Buckingham to the Temple of Virtue

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

How you can use this image

This image can be used for non-commercial research or private study purposes, and other UK exceptions to copyright permitted to users based in the United Kingdom under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised. Any other type of use will need to be cleared with the rights holder(s).

Review the copyright credit lines that are located underneath the image, as these indicate who manages the copyright (©) within the artwork, and the photographic rights within the image.

The collection that owns the artwork may have more information on their own website about permitted uses and image licensing options.

Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.

Buy a print or image licence

You can purchase this reproduction

If you have any products in your basket we recommend that you complete your purchase from Art UK before you leave our site to avoid losing your purchases.

Notes

Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.

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.

The National Gallery, London

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

Tags

This artwork does not have any tags yet. You can help by tagging artworks on Tagger.

Normally on display at

The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

This venue is open to the public. Not all artworks are on display. If you want to see a particular artwork, please contact the venue.
View venue