![]() ![]() Although religious differences-Charles was Protestant Maria Anna, Catholic-dampened the potential relationship, Charles didn’t return to England disappointed. He witnessed its extensive collection of paintings by Titian, who served as the family’s court painter in the 16th century. When Charles arrived in Madrid in March 1623 to seek an arranged marriage with the Infanta Maria Anna (the younger sister of King Philip IV of Spain), he toured the magnificent Spanish Habsburg court. But it was a foreign trip taken by the 22-year-old prince that truly “opened his eyes to the splendors of collecting,” Lucy Chiswell, an assistant curator of the Royal Academy exhibition, told Artsy. Both his brother and his father, King James I of England, instilled young Charles with a love for the arts. The show reunites more than 100 works previously owned by the king (many of which now belong to institutions like the Louvre and the Museo Nacional del Prado) for the first time since the 17th century.īorn into the House of Stuart in 1600, Charles was only 12 years old when he became heir to the throne. Today, this historic collection forms the focus of “Charles I: King and Collector,” a unique exhibition on view at the Royal Academy of Arts. Looking beyond the island he ruled and towards Continental Europe, Charles I acquired thousands of paintings by such artists as Rubens, Titian, Raphael, and Anthony van Dyck-as well as an impressive selection of tapestries, miniatures, and classical sculptures-over a quarter-century.Ĭharles I introduced his nation to the works of foreign masters and their contemporaries, profoundly altering how the English would appreciate art. Indeed, only moments before being beheaded for treason, the disgraced king was confronted with a reminder of his previous splendor: his massive, extravagant, and boundary-pushing royal art collection. On that January day, Charles I of England was walking to his execution. These opulent surroundings belied the king’s grim destination, however. ![]() The room was lavishly decorated, with Ionic columns jutting from the walls and a group of nine glistening paintings by Peter Paul Rubens-commissioned by the king two decades prior-adorning the ceiling. One bitterly cold Tuesday in 1649, a middle-aged English king walked through the banquet hall at Whitehall Palace, his residence in Westminster, London.
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