Cromwell, Protector of the Vaudois [SEP] creator
Cromwell, Protector of the Vaudois
Cromwell, Protector of the Vaudois (1877) is a painting by Ford Madox Brown which depicts Oliver Cromwell in conversation with John Milton dictating a letter to Andrew Marvell protesting at the Piedmontese Easter massacre (1655), an attack on the Vaudois (Waldenses), a persecuted Protestant sect in Piedmont, northern Italy. It was Brown's second Cromwell painting, following "Cromwell on his Farm" (1875).
Historical background.
After a series of massacres and dispossessions of Vaudois
had been regularly portrayed in a heroic light in British art. His actions with regard to the Vaudois had been illustrated several times. Charles Rowley commissioned Brown to create the picture.
I commissioned him to paint for me the fine picture now at Manchester, "Cromwell, 
Protector of the Vaudois." I wanted a picture of John Milton, and the result is this masterpiece: Cromwell, Milton, and Andrew Marvell, who was then secretary to the blind poet. 
Brown's painting differs from earlier versions of