The statue of James II is a bronze sculpture located in the front garden of the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster, Central London, laid out in the early 19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. At its centre is a high column bearing a statue of Admiral Nelson commemo ...

, London, United Kingdom. Probably inspired by French statues of the same period, it depicts James II of England as a Roman emperor, wearing

Roman armour Ancient Times, Roman. - 017 - Costumes of All Nations (1882). Military of the Roman Republic and Empire wore loosely regulated dress and armour. The contemporary concept of uniforms was not part of Roman culture and there were considerable differen ...

and a

laurel wreath A laurel wreath is a round wreath made of connected branches and leaves of the bay laurel (), an aromatic broadleaf evergreen, or later from spineless butcher's broom ('' Ruscus hypoglossum'') or cherry laurel (''Prunus laurocerasus''). It is a s ...

(traditionally awarded to a victorious Roman commander). It originally also depicted him holding a

baton Baton may refer to: Stick-like objects *Baton, a type of club *Baton (law enforcement) *Baston (weapon), a type of baton used in Arnis and Filipino Martial Arts *Baton charge, a coordinated tactic for dispersing crowds of people *Baton (conductin ...

. It was produced by the workshop of

Grinling Gibbons Grinling Gibbons (4 April 1648 – 3 August 1721) was an Anglo-Dutch sculptor and wood carver known for his work in England, including Windsor Castle and Hampton Court Palace, St Paul's Cathedral and other London churches, Petworth House and other ...

. The execution was most likely, according to contemporary accounts, the work of the Flemish sculptors

Peter van Dievoet Peter van Dievoet (; French: Pierre, Dutch: Peeter, Latin: Petrus; 16611729) was a sculptor, statuary, wood carver, and designer of ornamental architectural features from Brussels. He achieved fame for his work on a number of the Baroque guil ...

and

Laurens van der Meulen Laurens van der Meulen, also Laureys or Laurent van der Meulen, known in England as Laurence Vander Meulen (Mechelen, 1643 – Mechelen 1719), was a Flemish sculptor, painter and frame-maker who, after training in his native Mechelen, worked for s ...

, rather than of Gibbons himself. The statue has been relocated several times since it was first erected in the grounds of the old

Palace of Whitehall The Palace of Whitehall (also spelt White Hall) at Westminster was the main residence of the English monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when most of its structures, except notably Inigo Jones's Banqueting House of 1622, were destroyed by fire. He ...

in 1686, only two years before James II was deposed.

Description

The statue is executed in bronze and depicts James II as a Roman emperor. He is shown standing in a ''

contrapposto ''Contrapposto'' () is an Italian term that means "counterpoise". It is used in the visual arts to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot, so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs in the a ...

'' pose and pointing downwards in "great ease of attitude and a certain serenity of air", as Allan Cunningham described it. It formerly held a baton in its right hand, though this is now missing. The face is said to be an excellent depiction of the king. Unusually for the time, the sculptor sought a degree of fidelity to original classical styles; James is depicted wearing a laurel wreath on top of short hair, whereas other imperial-style statues of both Charles II and James II depicted the two kings with an anachronistic combination of Roman armour and a 17th-century

periwig A wig is a head or hair accessory made from human hair, animal hair, or synthetic fiber. The word wig is short for periwig, which makes its earliest known appearance in the English language in William Shakespeare's ''The Two Gentlemen of Verona ...

. The statue was probably inspired by similar imperial portrayals of

Louis XIV of France , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ve ...

. One in particular, a colossal statue by

Martin Desjardins Martin Desjardins, born Martin van den Bogaert (1637 – 2 May 1694) was a French sculptor and stuccoist of Dutch birth. He was born at Breda, the son of a milliner in a house that would later carry the name 'de Drye Bredasche Hoeden' ("the Thr ...

of the French king wearing Roman armour with a laurel wreath and baton, is so similar in type to the figures of Charles II and James II that it may have been their direct inspiration. The plinth is inscribed with the legend JACOBUS SECUNDUS/ DEI GRATIA/ ANGLIÆ SCOTIÆ/ FRANCIÆ ET/ HIBERNIÆ/ REX/ FIDEI DEFENSOR/ ANNO M.D.C.LXXXVI, which translates to: "James II, by the grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland. Defender of the Faith. 1686."

History

Studies for a statue by Peter Van Dievoet

The statue of James II is one of three of the Stuart monarchs commissioned by the royal servant

Tobias Rustat Tobias Rustat (bapt. 17 September 1608 – 15 March 1694 N. S.) was a courtier to King Charles II and a benefactor of the University of Cambridge. He is remembered for creating the first fund for the purchase of books at the Cambridge Universit ...

from Grinling Gibbons's workshop in the 1670s and '80s, the others being of James's brother and predecessor Charles II: an equestrian statue in Windsor Castle and a standing figure at the Royal Hospital in

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament const ...

. The statue of James II was commissioned for the Palace of Whitehall, apparently at the same time as the standing Charles II, and the two works might have been intended as pendant pieces. It was produced in the workshop of

at a reported cost of £300 (equivalent to about £42,000 at 2014 prices). While the work was long attributed to Gibbons himself, large-scale sculptures were not his forte. Contemporary accounts attribute it to sculptors

of Brussels who came to London to cast this statue, and

of Mechelen. Whitehall Gardens

The ''James II'' was erected at the

on 24 March 1686, as recorded by a contemporary, Sir

John Bramston the Younger Sir John Bramston, the younger (September 1611 – 4 February 1700), was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1660 to 1679. The son of Sir John Bramston, the elder and his first wife Bridget Moundeford, daughter ...

George Vertue George Vertue (1684 – 24 July 1756) was an English engraver and antiquary, whose notebooks on British art of the first half of the 18th century are a valuable source for the period. Life Vertue was born in 1684 in St Martin-in-the-Fields, ...

, who found an agreement and a receipt of payment for the work, wrote that it was "modelled & made by Lawrence Vandermeulen (of Brussels) ic... & DevootOther version :

Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whig politician. He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twi ...

, ''Anecdotes of painting in England: with some account of the principal artists; and incidental notes on other arts; collected by the late Mr.

; and now digested and published from his original MSS. by Mr.

'', London, 1765, vol. III, p. 91: "Gibbons had several disciples and workmen; Selden I have mentioned; Watson assisted chiefly at Chatsworth, where the boys and many of the ornaments in the chapel were executed by him. Dievot of Brussels, and Laurens of Mechlin were principal journeymen — Vertue says they modelled and cast the statue I have mentioned in the privy-garden". According to David Green, in ''Grinling Gibbons, his work as carver and statuary'' (London, 1964), one Smooke sayd to Vertue that this statue "''was modelled and made by Laurence and Devoot (sic)''" ;

, ''Note Books'', ed. Walpole Society, Oxford, 1930–47, vol. I, p.82 : "Lawrence. Dyvoet. statuarys", and ''ibidem'' IV, 50 : "Laurens a statuary of Mechlin... Dievot a statuary of Brussels both these artists were in England and assisted Mr. Gibbons in statuary works in K. Charles 2d. and K. James 2d. time, they left England in the troubles of the Revolution and retird to their own country". .e. Peter Van Dievoet(of Mechlin) icwho was imployed icby ... Gibbons", and that Thomas Benniere was involved in the casting. A series of five drawings in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It documen ...

, which might be for either the standing ''Charles II'' or the ''James II'', is attributed variously to Gibbons or to Van Dievoet. Its artistic qualities were praised by J. P. Malcolm in his 1803 history, ''London Redivivum'', in which he wrote: James II's statue has stood in several locations since it was first erected. It originally stood in the Palace of Whitehall's Pebble Court, where it was installed on New Year's Day, 1686. It was situated behind the

Banqueting House In English architecture, mainly from the Tudor period onwards, a banqueting house is a separate pavilion-like building reached through the gardens from the main residence, whose use is purely for entertaining, especially eating. Or it may be buil ...

and faced the river, a position which attracted much satirical comment after James' flight from London during the

Glorious Revolution The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...

of 1688; it was said that the statue's location indicated his method of escape. It was taken down after the Glorious Revolution but was replaced by order of William III. In 1898 it was moved to a location in the garden of

Gwydyr House Gwydyr House ( cy, Tŷ Gwydyr) is a Grade II* listed mansion in Whitehall, and is the London headquarters of the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales. The house lies on the eastern side of the street, opposite Dover House. History Gwydy ...

, but was taken down four years later to make room for the stands for the coronation of

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...

. It lay on its back amid grass and weeds in a state of total neglect until it was re-erected in 1903 outside the New Admiralty building, but was displaced again when the Admiralty Citadel was built in 1940. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

it was put into storage at

Aldwych tube station Aldwych is a closed station on the London Underground, located in the City of Westminster in Central London. It was opened in 1907 with the name Strand, after the street on which it is located, and was the terminus of the short Piccadilly line ...

. It was relocated to its present site in 1947. The statue is listed by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked ...

as a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, a status which it was granted in 1970. File:Engraving statue James II by N. Smith (1791).jpg, The statue on the grounds of the

Privy Garden of the Palace of Whitehall The Privy Garden of the Palace of Whitehall was a large enclosed space in Westminster, London, that was originally a pleasure garden used by the late Tudor and Stuart monarchs of England. It was created under Henry VIII and was expanded and i ...

. Engraving by N. Smith (1791) File:Engraving statue James II by T. Lester (1816).jpg, Engraving of the statue of King James II by T. Lester (1816), without a baton. File:The Saturday Magazine N82 12 oct 1833.jpg, Engraving of the statue on the cover page of '' The Saturday Magazine'', 1833

References

Bibliography

* George Vertue and Horace Walpole, ''Anecdotes of painting in England'', London, 1765, vol. III, p. 91. * George Vertue, ''Note Books'', ed. Walpole Society, Oxford, 1930–1947, vol. I, pp. 61, 82, 106 ; vol. IV, p. 50. * Antoine-Nicolas Dézallier d'Argenville, de l'Académie Royale des Belles-Lettres de la Rochelle, ''Vie des fameux sculpteurs depuis la renaissance des arts, avec la description de leurs ouvrages'', Paris, chez Debure l'aîné, 1787, tome II, pp. 101–102. * Katherine Gibson, "The emergence of Grinling Gibbons as a statuary", published in ''

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

'', September 1999. * Alain Van Dievoet, "Un disciple belge de Grinling Gibbons, le sculpteur Pierre van Dievoet (1661–1729) et son œuvre à Londres et Bruxelles", in: ''Le Folklore brabançon'', March 1980, vol. 225, pp. 65–91 (with description and history).

External links

* {{Portal bar, London, Monarchy, Visual arts 1686 establishments in England 1686 sculptures Art by Peter Van Dievoet Bronze sculptures in the United Kingdom James II James II of England Relocated buildings and structures in the United Kingdom James II James II Trafalgar Square