lynk2510 Master Member
Number of posts : 368 Warnings : Reputation : 0 Points : 6160 Registration date : 2011-01-21
| Subject: London's Guildhall Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:15 am | |
| After the restoration of Charles II in 1660, Wright's Roman Catholicism became less of a handicap, due to the King's preference for religious toleration. Never a good businessman, Wright encountered some financial difficulties and King Charles granted him the privilege of disposing of his collection of old masters by means of a lottery. The King himself acquired 14 of the paintings.[6] By the early 1660s Wright had established a successful studio in London, and was described by diarist John Evelyn as "the famous painter Mr Write".[9] Later, the Great Plague of London (1665) drove Wright out to countryside, where he painted at least three members of the Catholic family of Arundell of Wardour.[6] Ironically, in the next year, the Great Fire of London (1666) was to be of benefit to him, when he received one of the City of London's first new artistic commissions to paint twenty-two full length portraits of the so-called 'Fire Judges' (those appointed to assess the property disputes arising from the fire). These paintings, completed in 1670, hung in London's Guildhall until it was bombed during World War II; today only two (those of Sir Matthew Hale and Sir Hugh Wyndham) remain in the Guildhall Art Gallery[20] the remainder having been destroyed or dispersed.[6] recyclinginformatica internet perifericos | |
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