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Home , Dutch Gift, John Michael Wright, Peter Lely, Samuel Cooper, William Dobson

Diploma Lecture Series 2012

Absolutism to enlightenment: European art and culture 1665-1765

Charles II and the

Lorraine Kypiotis

15 / 16 February 2012

Lecture summary:

The Restoration had an exhilarating bravado characterised by a lavish and flamboyant court. It saw the return of the theatre, a flourishing of the arts and the founding of the Royal Society in a court that was the glamorous and often scandalous centre of a that would rise from the flames like a phoenix.

The return of Charles II to the throne in 1660 marked a moment of political and cultural change almost as dramatic as that brought about by his father’s execution 11 years earlier. After the repressions of the interregnum and the uncertainties and poverty of the exiled court, there was an appetite for exuberance, indulgence and transgression – an appetite that the king came to symbolize.

After the puritanical sobriety of Cromwell’s parliament, once again flourished in the arts and sciences. Charles, and his court patronised a number of scientists, architects, poets and dramatists whose influences were felt far beyond the reign of the “Merry Monarch”.

Most importantly in the field of the fine arts, Charles was responsible for the recovery of many of the great paintings in the British that had been sold by the Commonwealth after his father’s execution; for the acquisition of a number of fine works by the great artists of the ; and in his patronage of portraitists such as Sir . Charles and the artists he patronised were responsible for the enduring images of a monarchy restored. Many of these fine works continue to speak directly to viewers far removed from the heady world of the Restoration.

Slide list:

* 1. Charles II in Coronation Robes (1661-62) Royal collection 2. Peter Lely Charles II (c.1670) . 3. , Charles, Prince of Wales (1642 ) National Galleries 4. Isaac Fuller King Charles II in Boscobel Wood (1660s) National Portrait Gallery

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5. Isaac Fuller King Charles in the Great Oak (1660s) National Portrait Gallery 6. John Michael Wright King Charles II (c1660-1665) National Portrait gallery 7. John Michael Wright , Poet Laureate (1668) Private Collection 8. (1666) National Portrait Gallery, Lon. 9. Sir Anthony Van Dyke The Family of Charles I (1632) Royal Collection 10. Van Dyck The five eldest children of Charles I (1637) Royal Collection 11. Van Dyck The Three eldest children of King Charles I - Charles II, James and Mary (1635) Royal Collection 12. The “La Perla” (c.1518) Prado, Madrid 13. Tintoretto Christ Washing the Feet of the Disciples (1548) Prado, Madrid 14. Pardo Venus: “Jupiter and Antiope” (1540-42) Louvre 15. Titian Venus with Organist and Cupid (c.1548) Prado 16. Caravaggio A Boy Peeling Fruit (c.1592-3) Royal Collection 17. George de La Tour St Jerome (c.1621-4) Royal Collection 18. Hans Holbein William Warham & Sir Thomas More (1526-7) Royal Collection 19. Leonardo da Vinci Studies for an equestrian monument (c.1485-90) Royal Collection * 20. Titian and workshop The Virgin and Child in a landscape with Tobias and the Angel (c.1535-40) Royal Coll. 21. Titian Portrait of Jacopo Sannazaro (c.1514-18) 22. Andrea Odoni (1527) Royal collection 23. Lorenzo Lotto Portrait of a Bearded Man (c.1515-18) Royal Collection 24. Giulio Romano Portrait of Margherita Palaeologa (c.1531) Royal Collection 25. Parmigianino Pallas Athena (c.1531-8) Royal Collection 26. 2 Miniatures of Charles II (c.1660-5) National Maritime Museum, Greenwich & Royal Coll 27. After William Wissing James Scott, Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch (c.1683) National Portrait Gallery 28. Samuel Cooper James Scott, Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch (c.1664-5) Royal Collection 29. Dirk Stoop (c1660-61) National Portrait Gallery 30. Peter Lely Catherine of Braganza (1665) Royal Collection 31. Peter Lely King Charles II (c.1675) Royal Collection 32. Peter Lely Self-Portrait (c.1660) National Portrait Gallery 33. Peter Lely The Windsor Beauties: Diana Kirke, later Countess of (1665-70) Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection; Mary Bagot, Countess of Falmouth & Dorset (1664-65) Royal Collection; Henrietta Boyle, later Countess of Rochester (c.1665) Royal Collection 34. Peter Lely Elizabeth Hamilton, Countess of Gramont (c.1663) Royal Collection 35. Peter Lely James, Duke of York (later King James II) (c.1665-70) National Portrait gallery

* 36. Peter Lely Barbara Villiers as Athena (1663-5) Royal Collection 37. Peter Lely Barbara Villiers as Mary Magdalene (c.1662) Private Collection 38. Peter Lely Barbara Palmer (née Villiers),Duchess of Cleveland with her son, Charles Fitzroy, as Madonna and Child (c.1664) National Portrait Gallery * 39. Peter Lely Frances Teresa Stuart, later Duchess of Richmond and Lennox (c.1662) Royal Collection 40. John Roettier Struck gold medal of Charles II (1667) Maritime Museum, Greenwich 41. Peter Lely The Duchess of Portsmouth (1671) J Paul Getty Museum 42. Pierre Mignard Louise de Kéroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth (1682) National Portrait Gallery 43. Peter Lely Portrait of Nell Gwynne (1680)

* 44. Simon Verelst (c.1680-85) Private Collection 45. Peter Lely Portrait of a young woman and child, as Venus and Cupid : Nell Gwyn (1675) 46. Peter Lely Nell Gwynne(c.1675) National Portrait Gallery, Lon. 47. Thomas Hawker (attr.) King Charles II (c.1680) National Portrait Gallery

Bibliography:

Brown, Jonathan, Kings and Connoisseurs: Collecting Art in 17th Century Europe (Princeton University Press. 1995)

Mahon, Denis, Notes on the ‘Dutch Gift’ to Charles II, The Burlington Magazine, Vol 91, No 560 (Nov., 1949) pp303- 05, 349-50; Vol 92,,No 562 (Jan., 1950) pp 12-18

Marciari Alexander, Julia & McLeod (eds), Politics, Transgression and Representation at the Court of Charles II (Yale University Press 2007)

Uglow, Jenny, A Gambling Man: Charles II’s Restoration Game (Faber.2009)

John Michael Wright Charles II in Coronation Robes (1661-62) Royal collection

Titian and workshop The Virgin and Child in a landscape with Tobias and the Angel (c.1535-40) Royal Coll.

Peter Lely Barbara Villiers as Athena (1663-5) Royal Collection

Peter Lely Frances Teresa Stuart, later Duchess of Richmond and Lennox (c.1662) Royal Collection

Simon Verelst Nell Gwyn (c.1680-85) Private Collection

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