Towering over the throne, fifty-five feet from the floor, and oriented towards the king, the twenth-eight- by twenty-foot The Union of the Crowns celebrates the peaceful unification of the kingdoms of Scotland and England when the Scots King James VI was proclaimed King James I of Great Britain in 1604. The painting shows James commanding personfications of England and Scotland to bring his infant son Charles to the throne. Accompanied by Minerva, the Roman goddess of the arts and crafts of peaceful civilization, England and Scotland hold the crowns of the two kingdoms over his head. The torch of peace consumes the arms of war at the bottom.