Exhibition in Focus an Introduction to the Exhibition Introduction for Teachers and Students Charles I Was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1625 to 1649
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Exhibition in Focus An Introduction to the Exhibition Introduction for Teachers and Students Charles I was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1625 to 1649. During this time, England was at war, both at home and overseas. The Protestant Reformation under Henry VIII (1491–1547) had splintered Catholic Europe, and in the first half of the seventeenth century the two Christian factions, the Catholics and Protestants, remained resolutely opposed. A tempestuous relationship between Charles and his government, paired with his desire for a single religious system across England and Scotland sent Great Britain into almost a decade of bloody Civil War. After one of the most turbulent reigns in British history, Charles I was eventually overcome Written by Lucy Chiswell by Parliament, imprisoned, tried and found guilty of high treason. On 30 January 1649, he was executed on a scaffold outside the Banqueting House at Whitehall For the Learning Department Palace, London. This was the first, and last, time that England has seen a monarch © Royal Academy of Arts overthrown by the people. Charles had never been destined for the throne. Born into the Stuart family in Scotland on 19 November 1600, he was the second son and youngest surviving Charles I: King and Collector child of King James VI of Scotland and Queen Anne of Denmark. He was described Main Galleries as a shy child, who suffered a speech impediment and spent his formative January – April years bound up in leg braces in an attempt to cure rickets. Ill health kept him at Dunfermline Palace in Fife until 1603, when he was deemed well enough to travel to England to join the rest of his family. That same year, Queen Elizabeth I of England died without an heir, and was succeeded by James VI of Scotland Charles’s father, who became King James I of England, marking the union of the English and Scottish crowns. There had been little prospect for the young Prince Charles, who lived in the shadow of his charismatic older brother and heir to the throne, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales. In 1612, the family and nation fell into despair when Prince Henry died suddenly at the age of 18, leaving Charles as the heir-apparent. The year after, Charles’s sister, Elizabeth, left England for Europe to marry Frederick V, Prince Palatine of the Rhine. In the space of one year, at just thirteen years old, Charles had become an only child and the future King of England. As in all royal households, support extended far beyond the reach of the Exhibition organised in partnership with immediate family. Charles was surrounded by a network of attendants who both facilitated his mounting responsibilities and formed strong personal bonds with the future King. In addition, an inner circle of sophisticated courtiers were to have a great impact on Charles. His father, James I, had already built some of these Designed by Isambard London. Thomas, relationships. Notably, James shared a close bond with his ‘favourite’, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, who would later accompany Charles on a pivotal FRONT COVER Cat.3, Anthony Van Dyck, Charles I in Three Positions, 1635–36 (detail) visit to Madrid in 1623. Another important figure was Thomas Howard, 14th Earl BACK COVER Cat. 28, Andrea Mantegna, The Triumph of Caesar: The Vase Bearers, c.1485–1506 (detail) of Arundel, whose family had always had close ties with the Crown. In 1625, after the death of James I, Charles ascended the throne and married 15-year-old Henrietta Maria (1609–1669), daughter of King Henry IV of France and Marie de’ Medici. It was around this time and in this context that Charles began to collect and commission works of art. Printed by Geoff Neal Group e RA is a unique organisation that remains true to its origins in as a place where art is made, exhibited and debated. Our aim is simple: to be a clear, strong voice for art and artists. e RA’s Learning Department fulfils this objective by engaging people in the practice of art through hands-on creative experiences and exploring the art of the past and the present. 1 CHARLES1st_EiF_vF2.indd 4 17/01/2018 16:42 There had been a long tradition of portrait painting for the royal family. Hans Beginnings: Madrid Holbein the Younger had been court painter to Henry VIII, and James I employed Dutch painters Daniel Mytens and Paul van Somer to preserve his royal image. In an attempt to make peace with Catholic Spain, James I initiated lengthy War had hindered travel to the continent and prevented exposure to the wider negotiations with the Spanish court around the marriage of Prince Charles to the developments in art throughout the rest of Europe. Charles’s brother, Henry, had Infanta Maria Anna, daughter of King Philip III of Spain. The ‘Spanish Match’, as it however started to develop a small collection before his premature death, and the became known, was unpopular with Protestants in England, whose memories of early decades of the seventeenth century certainly witnessed a growing appetite the recent Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) were still fresh. In the Spring of 1623, for collecting among England’s nobility. Despite the stormy political climate, Charles visited Madrid, where the newly instated King of Spain, 18-year-old Philip IV, financial pressures and fragile relations with the rest of Europe, Charles stood welcomed him with lavish celebrations. However, it became apparent from early on at the epicentre of this cultural phenomenon. He collected mainly paintings, but that the marriage would never happen. Although Charles returned to England with also sculpture, prints and drawings, and decorative arts. His wealth of fifteenth- no bride, his visit to Spain introduced him to collecting practices in Europe and the and sixteenth-century Renaissance paintings was matched by first-class works scale and riches of the art collection at the Habsburg court. from contemporary artists, notably those by his court painter, Anthony van Dyck George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, accompanied Charles on the trip. Just (1599–1641). Henrietta Maria contributed significantly to the collection, actively eight years older than the future King, Buckingham’s renowned charm and beauty commissioning works of art for her own palaces. Charles received advice and had won him a fast ascent from humble beginnings in Lancashire to Dukedom and support from agents and advisors, and was driven by rivalry with other significant unrivalled favour at court. Unlike his fellow courtier Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, collectors at court. As a result, Charles I cultivated arguably the greatest art Buckingham was impetuous and interested in the social advantages of collecting collection the country had ever seen. art, rather than its beauty or intellectual value. Only a few years earlier, he himself The art inherited, collected and commissioned by Charles and Henrietta Maria had started to build an impressive collection with the guidance of Balthasar Gerbier, was dispersed across their many palaces. The primary residences of the King his agent and advisor, who had successfully acquired many masterpieces for the were Whitehall (fig.1) and St James’s Palace, while the Queen inherited Somerset Duke. Buckingham’s collection hung in York House, his residence on The Strand House from Charles’s mother, Anne of Denmark, and the unfinished Queen’s in London. Charles and Buckingham had invited Gerbier and Endymion Porter, art House in Greenwich, eventually completed in 1636. The art was displayed both advisor and groom of the royal bedchamber, to be part of the entourage travelling to in private spaces and in devoted galleries at each palace and overseen by the Madrid. Surveyor of the King’s Works. The earliest record detailing the pictures in Charles’s The Spanish royal collection was among the most splendid in all of Europe. collection was drafted in 1623–24, when he was still Prince of Wales, listing El Escorial, the King’s residence just outside Madrid, housed approximately 1,000 just 21 paintings. Twenty-five years later, after his death in 1649, accounts and paintings. Most notable was their unrivalled collection of paintings by the Venetian inventories reveal that he owned around 1,500 paintings. artist Titian (c. 1488/90–1576). Titian had shared a close personal and professional Following the execution of Charles I, the King’s possessions, including his relationship with Philip IV’s great-grandfather, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, works of art, were sold off in the Commonwealth Sale, held at Somerset House. and continued to paint for his successor, Philip II. Philip IV inherited spectacular Upon Restoration of the throne in 1660, Charles’s son, Charles II re-acquired a Fig. 1 portraits, religious paintings and mythological scenes by Titian. The collection made WENCESLAUS HOLLAR a great impression on the young Charles, and he began buying paintings by Titian, large number of the works that had belonged to his mother and father, which now Whitehall Palace, form part of the riches of the Royal Collection. The works he was not able to reclaim 1637–43 among others, on the open market in Madrid. Arguably the greatest acquisitions are still scattered in public and private collections. For the first time since the Pen and grey ink and during his eight-month trip were two gifts from Philip IV: Titian’s Pardo Venus and watercolour on paper, Charles V with a Dog. seventeenth century, this exhibition at the Royal Academy brings together some of 9.8 × 29.3 cm the most important works owned by Charles I, and gives a sense of the quality and The British Museum, London, inv.