Antonio Zoppi (Italian, 1860-1926). Meeting of William II of Orange and Mary Stuart, Princess Royal with Marie de Medici...

Description

Antonio Zoppi (Italian, 1860-1926)
Meeting of William II of Orange and Mary Stuart, Princess Royal with Marie de Medici
Oil on canvas laid on Masonite
30 x 38-1/2 inches (76.2 x 97.8 cm)
Signed lower left: A. Zoppi

Antonio Zoppi's history painting is a fictionalized portrayal of the meeting between William II of Orange and Mary Stuart, Princess Royal, and Mary's maternal grandmother, Marie de Medici, Queen Mother of France. The event depicts the young couple's visit to Cologne in 1641 to meet with the exiled Queen Mother, immediately following their marriage in London. William and Mary are shown in a pose and in costumes taken nearly verbatim from Van Dyck's well-known portrait of the couple in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

As a Victorian artist, Zoppi took a number of liberties with Van Dyck's presentation. He prettified the figures' faces, elongated their proportions, and, notably, aged Princess Mary so that she would not appear to be the mere ten-year-old child bride she was when she wed the 15 year-old William. Van Dyck's painting shows their ages much more accurately.

The cardinal depicted in the painting is a "Richelieu-type" figure although there is no indication that he was present at the event. His historical reputation began as Marie de Medici's advisor, but eventually he switched his allegiances to her son. His presence at this event is historically incongruous, but during the Victorian period, when there was a vogue for "cardinal paintings," historical inaccuracies were of secondary importance.

We wish to thank historian Craig Schemer for his kind assistance in cataloguing this lot.


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