![]() Today, this historic collection forms the focus of “Charles I: King and Collector,” a unique exhibition on view at the Royal Academy of Arts. Looking beyond the island he ruled and towards Continental Europe, Charles I acquired thousands of paintings by such artists as Rubens, Titian, Raphael, and Anthony van Dyck-as well as an impressive selection of tapestries, miniatures, and classical sculptures-over a quarter-century.Ĭharles I introduced his nation to the works of foreign masters and their contemporaries, profoundly altering how the English would appreciate art. Indeed, only moments before being beheaded for treason, the disgraced king was confronted with a reminder of his previous splendor: his massive, extravagant, and boundary-pushing royal art collection. On that January day, Charles I of England was walking to his execution. These opulent surroundings belied the king’s grim destination, however. The room was lavishly decorated, with Ionic columns jutting from the walls and a group of nine glistening paintings by Peter Paul Rubens-commissioned by the king two decades prior-adorning the ceiling. One bitterly cold Tuesday in 1649, a middle-aged English king walked through the banquet hall at Whitehall Palace, his residence in Westminster, London. ![]()
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