Brief Biography-John Joseph) Michael Wright was born in London in 1617. He was a disciple of George Jamesone in Edinburgh before going to Rome, where he excelled, and in 1648 the Florence Academy admitted him as a member along with the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. He worked as an antiquarian for Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, Governor of the Netherlands, to acquire pieces from England, where on his return in 1656, he became second only to Peter Lely. He was, however, in the service of Charles II. James II later dispatched him to Rome as a steward with a diplomatic mission to Pope Innocent XI, of which he wrote an account in Italian and English. When back in England, Godfrey Kneller had eclipsed his position next to Lely and in his last years with William of Orange on the throne, he led a meagre existence. Today Wright is deemed the most prominent painter of royalties when foreign artists dominated the English courts.