The Art of Italy in the Royal Collection Renaissance and Baroque

433 Pages·2016·51.33 MB·English

THE ART OF ITALY
IN THE ROYAL COLLECTION
RENAISSANCE & BAROQUE

THE ART OF
ITA LY
in the Royal Collection
R ENAISSANCE
& BA ROQUE
Lucy Whitaker Martin Clayton
with contributions by
Aislinn Loconte
royal collection publications
This publication has been generously supported by Sir Harry Djanogly, CBE
Published by Royal Collection Enterprises Ltd Designed by Philip Lewis
St James’s Palace, London sw1a 1jr Editorial project management by Johanna Stephenson
Production by Debbie Wayment
For a complete catalogue of current publications, Printed and bound by Studio Fasoli, Verona
please write to the address above, or visit our website
at www.royalcollection.org.uk Printed on Symbol Tatami White,
Fedrigoni Cartiere Spa, Verona
© 2007 Royal Collection Enterprises Ltd
Text by Lucy Whitaker, Martin Clayton and Front jacket: no. 7 (detail)
Aislinn Loconte and reproductions of all items in Back jacket: no. 18 (detail)
the Royal Collection © 2007 HM Queen Elizabeth II. Page 2: no. 99 (detail)
Page 6: no. 81 (detail)
154567 Pages 8–9: no. 76 (detail)
Page 10: no. 66 (detail)
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under
Page 42: no. 17 (detail)
legislation, no part of this work may be photocopied,
Page 118: no. 39.ii (detail)
stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in
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public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or
Page 254: no. 119 (detail)
reproduced in any form or by any means, without
the prior permission of the copyright owner.
isbn978 1 902163 291
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data:
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
Contents
7 preface
11 introduction
‘Art becomes a piece of State’: Italian Paintings
and Drawings and Royal Collectors
Catalogue of Paintings and Drawings
43 Florence and Rome, Sixteenth Century
119 The Courts of Northern Italy, Sixteenth Century
179 Venice and the Veneto, Sixteenth Century
255 The Seventeenth Century
404 map
405 glossary
407 bibliography
426 acknowledgements
427 index
432 picture credits

Preface
At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642 Charles I owned one distribution of paintings be exactly matched (especially in
of Europe’s most important collections of Italian art of the High areas such as the Veneto, where drawing was a less important
Renaissance and early Baroque (from the period 1500–1640). activity than elsewhere in Italy). However,the selection process
Within ten years he had been beheaded and almost the entire has provided an opportunity for less familiar areas of the
collection sold (the major exceptions being Raphael’s tapestry collection to be explored and for well-known sheets to be
cartoons and Mantegna’s Triumphs of Caesar). After the seen in a new context.
Restoration in 1660 Charles II set about reassembling his The story of the acquisition (and in some cases reacquisition)
father’s picture collection where possible, and where it was not, of the collection of paintings and drawings is told in the Intro-
acquiring comparable works. Subsequent monarchs, at least duction. The Catalogue presents the paintings and drawings
until the death of Prince Albert in 1861, continued this work, according to their place and date of creation, arranged under
all to a greater or lesser extent inspired by the example of four broad headings, three for the sixteenth century – Florence
Charles I. While it is possible to reconstruct and appreciate and Rome, the Courts of Northern Italy, and Venice and the
the coherent character of the collection Charles I formed in Veneto – and one for the seventeenth century. The prominence
a mere twenty years, it is in some ways more difficult to gain of the ‘Northern Courts’ reflects Charles I’s acquisition of
a sense of the collection his successors took two hundred years most of the collection of the Dukes of Mantua in 1627–32; the
to accumulate. The present publication and the exhibition it preponderance of early seventeenth-century painting in the
accompanies provide for the first time an opportunity to do final section reminds us that Charles ceased collecting in 1642.
just this. The paintings included here are quite simply the But otherwise these groupings, or something very like them,
best of their type in the Royal Collection. could be seen in any comparably rich collection.
The Italian drawings in the Royal Collection from the same A project as ambitious as this could never have the catalogue it
period are among the finest in the world, but the history of deserves without additional funding. We are therefore extremely
the acquisition of the drawings collection is almost completely grateful to Sir Harry Djanogly, who has supported this publication
unrelated to the same history for the paintings. Nor can the most generously.
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