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| follower of Cornelis Massys Landscape ca. 1550 Royal Collection, Great Britain |
Yesterday's paintings were sent out of England by force during the 1650s and they never returned. Today's paintings also belonged to Charles I and also were seized by the Parliament after the King's execution. Chance decreed that these too would be dispersed during the revolutionary period, but would in time return by a variety of routes to the Royal Collection, and remain there.
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| Jacopo Bassano Journey of Jacob ca. 1561 Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Paulus Bril Landscape with Goatherds ca. 1620 Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Denis Calvaert Assumption of the Virgin ca. 1605 Royal Collection, Great Britain |
In the Royal Collection, hanging in a special-built gallery of their own at Hampton Court Palace, are nine large tapestry cartoons by Andrea Mantegna from the late 1400s with imaginative yet historically-documented recreations of Roman Triumphs. Four are shown below. Commonwealth officials had listed all nine to be sold, along with the Raphael cartoons of scenes from the New Testament. At the last minute both sets were retained in London, not because of their present-day status as masterpieces of Renaissance painting, but because Oliver Cromwell had a fondness for tapestries, and it was thought these designs might be useful for weaving new ones. That diligent and wise art historian Francis Haskell (1928-2000) tells the full story and many others of equal oddness and irony in The King's Pictures : the Formation and Dispersal of the Collections of Charles I and his Courtiers (New Haven : Yale University Press, 2013).
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| Andrea Mantegna Roman Triumph : Elephants ca. 1484-92 Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Andrea Mantegna Roman Triumph : Paintings ca. 1484-92 Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Andrea Mantegna Roman Triumph : Sculpture ca. 1484-92 Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Andrea Mantegna Roman Triumph : Vases ca. 1484-92 Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Hans Holbein Portrait of William Reskimer ca. 1532-33 Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| workshop of Giulio Romano Nero Fiddling while Rome Burns ca. 1536-39 Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| workshop of Giulio Romano Sacrifice of a Goat to Jupiter ca. 1536-39 Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| workshop of Giulio Romano The Omen of Claudius's Imperial Power ca. 1536-39 Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Peter Paul Rubens Self-portrait 1623 Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Peter Paul Rubens Peace & War (Minerva protects Pax from Mars) 1629-30 National Gallery of Art (U.K.) |
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| Philip Fruytiers Four of the Children of Peter Paul Rubens with Two Maids 1638-39 Royal Collection, Great Britain |