The Marquess and Marchioness of Buckingham, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the eighteenth-century context for Rembrandt’s Bellona in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Abstract

Abstract Rembrandt’s style has often been seen as antithetical to the aesthetics of classicism. Yet, in the eighteenth century – a period that saw a revival of those very principles – the English enthusiastically collected works attributed to the Dutch master. This paper considers George and Mary Nugent-Temple-Grenville, 1st Marquess and Marchioness of Buckingham, and their acquisition of Rembrandt’s imagined portrait of the goddess Bellona. Their artistic taste, like that of many of their contemporaries, has been described as strictly classical, hence the reasons for their interest in Rembrandt are examined here. In fact, Bellona was recommended to the Marquess and Marchioness by Sir Joshua Reynolds, himself well known for his affinity with the artist. The relationship between Reynolds and the Temple-Grenville family of this painting is explored and the acquisition situated within an eighteenth-century context and the vogue for portraying contemporary women in the guise of mythological figures, just as Rembrandt did in his depiction of Bellona.