Lot 1509
FOLLOWER OF SIR GODFREY KNELLER (1646-1723(
PORTRAIT OF THOMAS TENISON, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY (1636-1715)
Quarter length, wearing clerical robes, with coat of arms and inscription THOMAS CANTUAR, oil on canvas, within a painted oval
42 x 31cm.
* Tenison was a noted cleric: he attended the Duke of Monmouth's execution, preached Queen Mary's funeral sermon and also preached at Nell Gwynne's funeral, he attended King William's deathbed, crowned Queen Anne in 1702 and crowned George I in 1714. He was Bishop of Lincoln and, later, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1694-1715. Despite these achievements, Swift described him as `a very dull man who had a horror of anything like levity in the clergy, especially of whist'.
