On Valentine’s Day, the wedding anniversary of the Winter King and Queen, “Bringing a Painting to Life: Honthorst’s Triumph of the Winter Queen” will be unveiled in the Loring Gallery. This recently conserved painting, measuring almost 10’ by 15’ and dated 1636, depicts Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia (the Winter Queen), seated on a chariot drawn by three lions and surrounded by her numerous children. Her beloved husband, Frederick V, Elector of the Palatinate (the Winter King), and her oldest son, Frederick Henry, both deceased when Gerrit van Honthorst (Dutch, 1590–1656) painted this work, are bathed in a golden celestial light at left. Neptune, Envy, and Death are shown trampled by the chariot's spiked wheels.

Explore the political and personal history of the figures in the painting—stories of warfare, exile, separation, and loss—which will aid in understanding the elaborate allegory, the artist’s production, and the age in which it was created.

 

Above: Gerrit van Honthorst, The Triumph of the Winter Queen: Allegory of the Just, 1636. Oil on canvas. Anonymous loan.