Charles I: King and Collector

Fabulous exhibition at the Royal Academy looking at the art collection of Charles I.

From the first room of portraits of the main protagonists this was such a sumptuous show. For a long time I’ve been seeing things marked as having been part of Charles I collection so it was wonderful to see so much of it brought back together. I loved the labelling which not only told you about the item but also detailed where the work had hung when it was in the collection and what happened to it at the sale of work by Cromwell and on the Restoration.

It was interesting to see how he collected older works and it was great to see so many Titian’s and in particular to see those which are now in the Louvre and the Prado. It was also good to see the wonderful Mantegna fresco which he acquired as part of the Gonzaga collection from Milan. However it was also interesting to compare that to the contemporary art he commissioned such as the lovely royal portraits by Van Dyck and the tapestries from the Raphael Vatican cartoons which he acquired.
 
We had the added excitement when we were there of a fire alarm! It was amazing to see that the people in the exhibition filled the courtyard of Burlington House, no wonder it felt busy. Thank goodness it was a false alarm or just think what we’d have lost!
 
Closed on 15 April 2018.
 
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