Allegorical Portrait of Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield (1666-1732)

Pierre-Joseph-Grison Grisoni (Mons 1699 – Rome 1769). Oil painting on canvas, Allegorical Portrait of Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield (1666-1732) by Pierre-Joseph-Grison Grisoni (Mons 1699 – Rome 1769). 1718-1721. Full-length portrait, facing, in full-bottomed wig and Lord Chancellor's robes, his left hand resting on a table on which stands the Lord Chancellor's Purse. Beneath the table are two winged putti and the figures of the Arts and Virtues.Grisoni, who came to England from Florence around the time that this portrait was painted, was best known for painting a ceiling (since destroyed) in the Duke of Chandos's great house at Canons. He has here introduced the whole apparatus of Italian Baroque allegory into depicting the wisdom, science and clemency of Lord Macclesfield, who was appointed Lord Chancellor in 1718. This dignity is reflected in the purse at the bottom of the original frame, which, with the baron's coronet over the arms at the top, helps to date the picture to between then and 1721, when he was made an earl. Hinton Ampner, Hampshire (Accredited Museum)