Mother of the Arts: Italy and the Royal Collection

Intriguing online lecture from ARTscapades looking at Italian art in the Royal Collection and how it got there.

Desmond Shawe-Taylor, Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures from 2005 to 2021 led us clearly through the topic with an emphasis on what, how and why the monarchs bought.

We spent the first half looking at Charles I’s collection and I really enjoyed a section where we looked at where all the major works hung at Whitehall Palace. This led to a discussion on what Charles II reacquired on his restoration.

In the second half we looked at the late Stuart’s and Georgians noting how taste for Italian art changed and the prevalence of anything the style of Raphael. The only major purchase came under George III when he bought the collection of John Smith, the British consul in Venice and agent to Canaletto.

We finished by looking at Prince Albert’s love of early art such as a Duccio Triptych for which he made a frame.

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