The Art of Italy in the Royal Collection

Exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace of Italian art in the Royal Collection bringing together 90 paintings and 85 drawings from royal palaces.

Galleries of paintings focused on Florence, Rome, Venice and Northern Italy in the C16th and the Baroque. Another gallery side gallery had three rooms of drawings looking at the different techniques. Incorporated through the exhibition was furniture, sculpture and books from the collection.

There was some focus on how the items entered the Royal Collection looking in particular at the collecting of Charles I including how it was dispersed on his death and how many items were required on the Restoration.

It was a lovely opportunity to see some great works of art. My particular favourites were two drawings by Michelangelo as a gift for Tommaso de’ Cavalieri one of “A children’s bacchanal” and one of “The Fall of Phaeton”. The best painting was the self portrait by Artemisia Gentileschi which was shown next to works by her father Orazio. It also gave a picture of the eye of a series of collectors and what appealed to them.

A top tip is that if you fill out the form on the leaflet you are given, get it stamped at the end of your visit and hold onto your ticket you can revisit the gallery as many times as you wish in a year.

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