<P> James I , for whom the Banqueting House was created , died in 1625 and was succeeded by his son , Charles I . The accession of Charles I heralded a new era in the cultural history of England . The new King was a great patron of the arts -- he added to the Royal Collection and encouraged the great painters of Europe to come to England . In 1623 he visited Spain where he was impressed by Titian , Rubens , and Velázquez . It became his ambition to find a comparable painter for his own court . Rubens while in England as a diplomat was asked to design and paint the Banqueting House ceiling which was sketched in London but completed at his studio in Antwerp due to the scale of the job . The subject , commissioned by the King , was the glorification of his father , titled The Apotheosis of James I , and was an allegory of his own birth . To the King 's chagrin Rubens took his knighthood and decamped back to Antwerp , leaving Anthony van Dyck , lured not only with a knighthood but also a pension and a house , to remain in England as the court painter . The panels for the ceiling were all painted in Rubens ' atelier in Antwerp and sent to London by ship . Inigo Jones later designed another double - cube room at Wilton House , to display Van Dyck 's portraits of the aristocratic Pembroke family . </P>
who painted the nine compartments in the ceiling of the banqueting house whitehall palace in england
Rubens