Mary II Stuart, Queen of England and Scotland

John Michael Rysbrack, c. 1735 - c. 1737

For this posthumous portrait of Mary Stuart (1662-1694), consort of King Stadholder William III, the Anglo-Flemish court sculptor Rysbrack based himself on a painting from about fifty years earlier. This notwithstanding, the sculptor succeeded in infusing the marble bust with a sense of grandeur and liveliness through the refined rendering of the jewellery and clothing, and the queen’s resolute and frontal gaze, even though her head is slightly turned to the side.