John Moore (1646–1714), Bishop of Ely

This 1707 portrait of John Moore, Bishop of Ely, depicts one of the great book collectors of English ecclesiastical history — a man whose library of over 30,000 volumes was eventually purchased by George I and presented to Cambridge University, becoming the foundation of the University Library's historical collections. Moore's portrait captures the Bishop at a moment of great ecclesiastical authority, and Kneller's dignified treatment gives him the gravity appropriate to a senior churchman and scholar. The donation of Moore's library to Cambridge after his death in 1714 was one of the most significant acts of institutional book patronage in English history, and his portrait preserves the appearance of a man whose collection transformed a university's scholarly resources.

The episcopal portrait renders Moore in clerical vestments with Kneller's practiced efficiency, the bishop's scholarly features and dignified bearing captured within the conventional format of ecclesiastical portraiture.