Lord Arundel's Collections

attributed to Garofalo (Benvenuto Tisi)
Youth with Cap
ca. 1505-1520
drawing
(formerly in the Arundel Collection
incorrectly attributed to Leonardo da Vinci)
British Museum

Wenceslaus Hollar after Garofalo
Youth with Cap
1646
etching
(copied while owned by Lord Arundel) 
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Peter Aubry after Anthony van Dyck
Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel
1644
engraving
(book illustration)
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel

Anonymous British Printmaker
Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel
18th century
engraving
National Portrait Gallery, London

Parmigianino (Francesco Mazzola)
Studies for Eve
ca. 1523
drawing
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Anonymous Copyist
after Parmigianino
Study for Eve
ca. 1635-50
drawing
Royal Collection, Windsor

Nicholas Lanier
after Parmigianino
Study for Eve
1656
etching
British Museum

Anonymous Copyist
after Parmigianino
Study for Eve
ca. 1635-50
drawing
Royal Collection, Windsor

Nicholas Lanier
after Parmigianino
Study for Eve
1656
etching
British Museum

Parmigianino (Francesco Mazzola)
Studies for Moses with the Tablets of the Law
ca. 1523
drawing
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Anonymous Copyist
after Parmigianino
Study for Moses
ca. 1635-50
drawing
Royal Collection, Windsor

Lucas Vorsterman the Younger
after Parmigianino
Study for Moses
ca. 1640-50
etching
British Museum

Arundel Society
Virgin and Child with an Angel
(after painting by Fra Filippo Lippi in the Uffizi)
1877
chromolithograph
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Arundel Society
Adoration of the Mystic Lamb
(after central panel of the Ghent Altarpiece by Jan van Eyck)
1868
chromolithograph
Wellcome Collection, London

London's 19th-century Arundel Society, named for the great 17th-century collector, was "an organization founded in 1848 by Prince Albert, John Ruskin and others that was dedicated to the reproduction of paintings by Giotto and other artists for the education and improvement of public taste in art."  The emphasis, in keeping with wider current thinking, was on providing instruction rather than enjoyment.  The prospectus issued in 1849 stated that "in their execution, that manner will be preferred which most truthfully expresses the original, rather than that which presents the greatest attraction to the eye."  By the time of the Society's closure in 1897 over two hundred chromolithographs had been circulated.   

Charles William Sherborn
Design for a Bookplate
for the Burlington Arts Club
(Rembrandt and the Earl of Arundel)
1893
drawing, with added gouache
British Museum

Charles William Sherborn
Bookplate for the Burlington Arts Club
(Rembrandt and the Earl of Arundel)
1893
engraving
British Museum

Arundel's memory was likewise kept green in 19th-century London by the Burlington Arts Club.  There, a bookplate was commissioned depicting two – and only two – institutional mascots: Rembrandt van Rijn and Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel.   

Lord Arundel's Collections

Ancient Greek Culture
Head of a Female Figure
2nd century BC
limestone
(discovered at the former site of Arundel House)
British Museum

Roman Empire
Altar Fragment with Married Couple
 AD 100-130
marble
(discovered at the former site of Arundel House)
British Museum

The two battered fragments of Roman sculpture above (only deemed worthy of "reference photos" taken with a crude flash and out of focus) were discovered on separate occasions in the nineteenth century at or near the riverside site where Arundel House had long since been demolished.  Receiving the pieces, officials at the British Museum were not slow to recall the famous collection of antiquities on display in Lord Arundel's gardens two hundred years earlier.  Stories are legion of the indifference of the later Howards to the gloomy lumps of stone left untended at the time of the Civil War, so the level of neglect required to see them reburied in the earth or submerged under water was not inconceivable.  Still, there is no solid evidence that either or both of these pieces did not arrive in London by other means.   

Ancient Greek Culture
Head of Homerus
(later known as the Arundel Sophocles)
2nd century BC
bronze
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
British Museum

Ancient Greek Culture
Head of Homerus
(later known as the Arundel Sophocles)
19th century
plaster cast
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Johann Heinrich Lips
Head of Homerus
(later known as the Arundel Sophocles)
1775
etching
Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Jean Baron after Thomas Wood
Head of Homerus
(later known as the Arundel Sophocles)
ca. 1790-1810
etching
British Museum

Jean Baron
Head of Homerus
(later known as the Arundel Sophocles)
ca. 1790-1810
etching
British Museum

Anonymous Sculptor
King Henry VIII
ca. 1630-40
limestone
(copy commissioned by Arundel)
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Egidio Moretti
An Orator
1614
marble
(commissioned by Arundel in Rome)
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Egidio Moretti
A Senator
1614
marble
(commissioned by Arundel in Rome)
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Again, in the case of the two statues above, a sub-standard level of museum photography indicates a correspondingly low status among museum professionals regarding these generic imitation-antiquities commissioned by Lord Arundel in Rome.  Egidio Moretti, the artist, was a low-end restorer with no reputation for independent work.  Better artists were certainly active in Rome at this time, but a foreign heretic like Arundel, even though a nobleman of political significance, could not obtain access to sculptors already committed to princes, cardinals, the emperor and the pope.      

Egidio Moretti
Armed Man
1614
marble
(commissioned by Arundel in Rome)
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Egidio Moretti
Armed Man
1614
marble
(commissioned by Arundel in Rome)
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Ancient Greek Culture
Torso of a Youth
5th century BC
marble
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Ancient Greek Culture
Metrographical Relief
460-450 BC
marble
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

" . . . the foot in relief measures 29.42 centimeters, while the proportional foot of the four-cubit measurement represented by the outstretched arms is 34.33 centimeters, a 7 to 6 ratio with the shorter foot."  

Roman Empire
Sphinx
1st-3rd century AD
marble
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Daniel Mytens
Portrait of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel
1630
oil on panel
Temple Newsam House, Leeds

 

Lord Arundel's Collections

James Basire after Peter Paul Rubens
Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel
1763
engraving
(frontispiece to Marmora Oxoniensia)
British Museum

Anonymous Copyist after Wenceslaus Hollar
Plan of Arundel House in the Strand ca. 1675 (demolished soon after)
printed 1808
etching
Yale Center for British Art

In the plan above, the complex of Arundel House is the central dark rectangle with a tail, its gardens maked out by paler rectangles marching down to the Thames.  In those gardens during the 1620s and 1630s – and in an adjoining indoor gallery – was displayed the first collection of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture to exist in England.  This group of works – both statues and carved inscriptions – came to be known as the Arundel Marbles, assembled by the Stuart courtier Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel.  

Wenceslaus Hollar after Adam Alexius Bierling
Arundel House from within the Courtyard, facing North
1646
etching
British Museum

Wenceslaus Hollar after Adam Alexius Bierling
Arundel House from within the Courtyard, facing South
1646
etching
British Museum

Wenceslaus Hollar
London from the top of Arundel House
1643
etching
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Wenceslaus Hollar
London from Milford Stairs below Arundel House
ca. 1643-44
etching
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

"Arundel had expressed the wish that his collection be kept together permanently, but this was not to be.  A series of family disputes ended with Henry Howard, Arundel's grandson, taking Arundel House and its contents.  . . .  The marbles seem to have survived the Civil War, but suffered from vandalism.  Of the two hundred and fifty inscriptions collected by Arundel one hundred and fourteen had already disappeared when in 1667 Henry was persuaded by John Evelyn to give the remainder to the University of Oxford.  The Vice-Chancellor's accounts for 1667-68 include entries for the 'Water carriage of the Arundell Marbles' and 'for cleansing the Marbles.'  The gift was commemorated with an inscription and the publication in 1676 of Humphrey Prideaux's Marmora Arundelliana [below]."  

– Michael Vickers, The Arundel and Pomfret Marbles in Oxford (2006)

Humphrey Prideaux
Marmora Oxoniensia
1676
title page to printed book
(marking the gift of the Arundel Marbles)
Staatsbibliothek Bamberg

Anonymous British Printmaker
Arrival of the Pomfret (Arundel) Marbles at Oxford in 1755
printed 1757
engraving
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

More Arundel Marbles were donated to the University in 1755.  These came from Arundel descendants with the family name Pomfret.  The new arrivals were commemorated in a fanciful engraved landscape in the Oxford Almanack. 

Roman Empire
Greek doctor Claudius Agathemerus and his wife Myrtale
AD 90-110
marble funerary relief
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Humphrey Prideaux
Marmora Oxoniensia
1676
printed book
(funerary relief from the Arundel Collection)
Staatsbibliothek Bamberg

Roman Empire
The Oxford Bust 
(identified as Sappho or Faustina the Younger)
1st-2nd century AD
marble
(non-matching head and torso assembled ca. 1600)
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Wenceslaus Hollar
The Oxford Bust
1645
etching
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Hollar etched the Oxford Bust during its time at Arundel House.  Two centuries later Frederick Sandys painted Gentle Spring after his encounter with the Oxford Bust in its museum setting.  

Frederick Sandys
Gentle Spring
1865
oil on canvas
(figure based on the Oxford Bust)
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Ancient Hellenistic Culture
Torso of a Man
(called the Arundel Homerus)
3rd-1st century BC
marble
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Peter Paul Rubens
Homerus
cs. 1603
drawing
Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Rubens studied and drew the Homerus fragment in Rome a decade before Arundel arrived in the city and acquired the piece.  Twenty years after making the drawing Rubens built the antique figure into one of his monumental Medici Cycle canvases.  In the sketch below, Homerus has assumed the shape of Chronos in the upper left background, arms distinctively folded over lighter robe.  

Peter Paul Rubens
Council of the Gods
1622
oil on canvas
(sketch for Medici Cycle painting in the Louvre)
Alte Pinakothek, Munich

William Westall
Sculpture Gallery in the Examination Schools, Oxford
1813
ink and watercolor on paper
(the Arundel Marbles on display, scale exaggerated)
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Lord Arundel's Collection

Francesco Salviati
Doubting Thomas
ca. 1543-47
oil on panel, transferred to canvas
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Musée du Louvre

Wenceslaus Hollar after Francesco Salviati
Doubting Thomas
1637
etching
(copied from a painting in the Arundel Collection)
British Museum

Raphael and workshop
Madonna della Rosa
ca. 1517
oil on panel
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Wenceslaus Hollar after Perino del Vaga (as stated)
Madonna della Rosa
1642
etching
(copied from a painting in the Arundel Collection
then believed incorrectly to be by Perino del Vaga)
Royal Collection, Windsor

Albrecht Dürer
Self Portrait at age 26
1498
oil on panel
(presented to Arundel by officials in Nuremberg
for presentation to King Charles I)
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Wenceslaus Hollar after Albrecht Dürer
Self Portrait at age 26
1645
etching
(copied from a painting conveyed by Arundel
for presentation to King Charles I)
British Museum

Anonymous Copyist after Albrecht Dürer
Portrait of goldsmith Albrecht Dürer the Elder
1497
oil on panel
(copy of Dürer painting presented to Arundel
in Nuremberg for presentation to King Charles I)
National Gallery, London

Wenceslaus Hollar after Anonymous Copyist
Portrait of goldsmith Albrecht Dürer the Elder
1644
etching
(copied from a copy of a painting believed to be
by Dürer, conveyed by Arundel to King Charles I)
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Adam Elsheimer
The Realm of Venus
ca. 1600-1605
oil on copper
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Wenceslaus Hollar after Adam Elsheimer
The Realm of Venus
1646
etching
(copied from a painting in the Arundel Collection)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Adam Elsheimer (figures) and Paul Bril (landscape)
Mercury and Herse with the Daughters of Aglaurus
ca. 1605
oil on copper
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Chatsworth House, Derbyshire

Wenceslaus Hollar after Adam Elsheimer
Mercury and Herse with the Daughters of Aglaurus
ca. 1646
etching
(figure group copied from a painting in the Arundel Collection)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Hans Holbein the Younger
The Triumph of Riches
ca. 1533-34
drawing
(study for a now-lost painting in the Arundel Collection)
Musée du Louvre

Lucas Vorsterman the Elder after Hans Holbein the Younger
The Triumph of Riches
ca. 1624-29
ink and bodycolour on paper
(copied from a now-lost painting in the Arundel Collection)
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Above, Holbein's study-drawing for and Vorsterman's small copy of a twenty-foot mural painted by Holbein and later owned by Lord Arundel.  It has not survived.  

Parmigianino (Francesco Mazzola)
Arcadian Shepherds
ca. 1535
drawing
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Lucas Vorsterman the Elder after Parmigianino
Arcadian Shepherds
ca. 1624-29
engraving
(copied from a drawing in the Arundel Collection)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The biggest group of drawings in the Arundel Collection – after those by Leonardo da Vinci – were by Parmigianino, born Francesco Mazzola (1503-1547).  Two of Arundel's household artists, Wenceslaus Hollar and the younger Hendrik van der Borcht, drew and etched Parmigianino copies by the dozens.  Others aided in this task at times, including Lucas Vorsterman the Elder (whose work is seen directly above), Lucas Vorsterman the Younger, and the gentleman-artist Nicholas Lanier.  These reproductive etchings, in particular, functioned to establish the reputation of Parmigianino in northern Europe as a paragon of elegant figure-composition.