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.    

Lord Arundel's Collections

Ancient Roman Gemcutter
Diomedes and Odysseus (the Felix Gem)
1st century AD
sardonyx intaglio
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

In the 1460s Pope Paul II owned the Felix Gem.  His inventory rated it as the most valuable object he possessed.  In time it passed to the Gonzaga court where Andrea Mantegna is known to have studied and copied the figures.  Late in the 1630s a dealer named Daniel Nys came to London and offered King Charles a rich "cabinet of gems" said to derive from the Gonzaga collection and including the Felix Gem.  Charles balked at the price, but Lord Arundel did not.  He reportedly paid £10,000 for this group of 263 cameos and intaglios, both ancient and modern.  Difficult as it is to compare money-values across centuries, several sources estimate that in the early 17th century £1 had the buying power of at least $100 today.  By that measure Arundel's purchase-price for the gems in modern currency works out tidily to about $1,000,000.  

Ancient Greek Gemcutter
Satyr with Grapes
2nd century BC
garnet intaglio
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Ancient Roman Gemcutter
Augustus
AD 41-54
sardonyx cameo
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Ancient Roman Gemcutter
Cupids erecting a Trophy
1st century BC
onyx cameo
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Ancient Roman Gemcutter
Bust of Apollo
1st century BC - 1st century AD
sardonyx cameo
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Ancient Roman Gemcutter
Head of Cicero
50 BC 
carnelian intaglio
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Anonymous Italian Gemcutter
Death of Meleager
late 16th century
shell cameo
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Ancient Roman Gemcutter
Young Satyr supporting Silenus
1st century BC - 1st century AD
sardonyx cameo
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Ancient Roman Gemcutter
Hermaphroditus
1st century BC
sardonyx cameo
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Ancient Roman Gemcutter
Woman and Child
1st century BC
sardonyx cameo
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Ancient Roman Gemcutter
Aurora driving Chariot
1st century BC - 1st century AD
sardonyx cameo
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Anonymous European Gemcutter
One of the Horae
early 17th century
carnelian intaglio
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Anonymous Italian Gemcutter
Germanicus and Agrippina
early 17th century
onyx cameo
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Anonymous Italian Gemcutter
Marcus Aurelius and Faustina
early 17th century
onyx cameo
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Anonymous Italian Gemcutter
Two Satyrs and Cupid
16th century
carnelian intaglio
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Ancient Roman Gemcutter
Wedding of Cupid and Psyche
50-25 BC
onyx cameo
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Bernard Picart
Antique Gem with The Marriage of Cupid and Psyche
(formerly in the Arundel Collection, as noted on the engraving)
1719
engraving
Philadelphia Museum of Art

 

Lord Arundel's Collections

Bernardino Licinio
Portrait of a Young Man caressing a Skull
ca. 1520
oil on canvas
(formerly in the Arundel Collection as by Giorgione)
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Jacopo Bassano
Beheading of St John the Baptist
ca. 1550
oil on canvas
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Correggio (Antonio Allegri)
Head of Christ
ca. 1525-30
oil on panel
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

attributed to Albert van Ouwater
Portrait of a Donor
(altarpiece fragment)
ca. 1460
oil on panel
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Hans Holbein the Younger
Allegory of Passion
ca. 1532-36
oil on panel
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Sebastiano del Piombo
Portrait of Ferry Carondelet and his Secretaries
ca. 1510-12
oil on panel
(formerly in the Arundel Collection as by Raphael)
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Giuliano Bugiardini after Raphael
Pope Leo X de' Medici with Cardinals
Giulio de' Medici and Innocenzo Cybo
ca. 1519-20
oil on canvas
(formerly in the Arundel Collection as by Raphael)
Galleria Corsini, Rome

Master of the Youth of St Rumbold
St Rumbold taking leave of his Parents
ca. 1490
oil on panel
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

Master of the Youth of St Rumbold
Enthronement of St Rumbold as Bishop of Dublin
ca. 1490
oil on panel
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

attributed to Titian
Virgin and Child with St Agnes and young St John the Baptist
ca. 1525-35
oil on canvas
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon

Titian
The Flaying of Marsyas
ca. 1570-76
oil on canvas
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Kroměříž Archdiocesan Museum, Czech Republic

Paolo Veronese
The Twelve Apostles
(fragment)
ca. 1575
oil on canvas
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Kroměříž Archdiocesan Museum, Czech Republic

Paolo Veronese
Christ and the Centurion
ca. 1571
oil on canvas
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Antonello da Messina
St Sebastian
ca. 1478
oil on panel, transferred to canvas
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden

Antonello da Messina
St Sebastian (detail)
ca. 1478
oil on panel, transferred to canvas
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden

Antonello da Messina
St Sebastian (detail)
ca. 1478
oil on panel, transferred to canvas
(formerly in the Arundel Collection)
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden

Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel (1585-1646), remembered as the Collector Earl by the few who care to remember, was a high-ranking courtier to James I and then to his son Charles I.  Arundel's rank would under ordinary circumstances have been higher – his grandfather was second cousin to Queen Elizabeth.  But exactly because of their nearness to the crown, the Howards suffered under the Tudors and were only beginning to recover under the Stuarts.  Their dukedom of Norfolk had been revoked.  James offered it back to Arundel if he would accept precedence behind the new-made dukes of Buckingham and Hamilton (James's favorites).  Arundel could not bend his neck that low.  The dukedom of Norfolk was ultimately returned to one of Arundel's grandsons – after both a Revolution and a Restoration. 

The Collector Earl was the first nobleman to render art collecting really fashionable in England.  Young Charles I and the new-made young dukes of Buckingham and Hamilton all three caught the contagion from the older Arundel and all three built up marvelous collections of paintings to rival his.  Unlike Arundel, who favored Renaissance work, the three younger men tended to buy modern art – late Mannerist and early Baroque.  Once obtained, paintings also continued to change hands among the four courtly collectors.  Yet all four collections had ceased to exist by the middle of the century, broken up and dispersed in the aftermath of deaths and political disasters.  

There is no surviving inventory of Arundel's art collections at their height, installed in special-built galleries at Arundel House on the Strand in London during the 1620s and 1630s.  In the early 1640s, fleeing Cromwell's revolution, Lady Arundel sailed to the Low Countries, taking with her many of the most valued paintings, drawings and antique gems.  Partial inventories have survived of what she carried out of the country, though she reportedly began to sell pieces off almost immediately.  The inventories have since been studied by scholars, collectors and museum-staff to trace surviving paintings – such as those reproduced above – and it is known that few ever returned to Britain.

Estranged from his wife, estranged from the world, Arundel exiled himself to Italy, where he died a few years later.  His then-famous collection of Greek and Roman sculpture, the first of its kind in England and nearest to his own heart, had of necessity been left behind at Arundel House.  There will be more to say about the subsequent fortunes of those sculptures.    

Carven

Anonymous Christian-Roman Sculptor
Christ healing the Paralytic
AD 400-415
ivory relief (fragment of altarpiece)
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Norwegian Sculptor
Chess Piece (King)
ca. 1200
walrus ivory
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous French Sculptor
Mourning Virgin from Crucifixion scene
ca. 1225-1250
ivory (originally painted)
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous French Sculptor
Descent from the Cross
ca. 1270-80
ivory (originally painted)
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous German Sculptor
St Sebastian
ca. 1600-1650
ivory (Rothschild bequest)
Musée du Louvre

Jacobus Agnesius
St Sebastian
ca. 1610
ivory
Musée du Louvre

attributed to Francesco Terilli
Christ aux outrages
ca. 1615
ivory
Musée du Louvre

attributed to Jürgen Kriebel
St John the Evangelist from Crucifixion scene
ca. 1620
ivory
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous French Sculptor
Portrait of Cardinal de Retz 
borne by Allegorical Figures
ca. 1654
ivory relief
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Pierre Jaillot
St Sebastian
1662
ivory
Musée du Louvre

Gérard van Opstal
Triton and Nereid
before 1668
ivory relief
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Chinese Sculptor
Head of a Woman
17th century
ivory relief (partly painted)
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous European Sculptor
The Unrepentant Thief
17th century
ivory (fragment of Crucifixion scene)
Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York

Anonymous French Sculptor
The Judgment of Paris
17th century
pierced ivory relief
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Anonymous German Sculptor after Gianlorenzo Bernini
Bowl with Marine Deities
(imitation of Triton Fountain)
18th century
ivory
Musée du Louvre

Claude-Antoine Rosset
Portrait of Voltaire
after 1760
ivory bust
Musée du Louvre

Jean-Auguste Barre
Mademoiselle Rachel of the Comédie française
1848
ivory
Musée du Louvre

from Lines

(written at Geneva)

                        Although no flowers or grass

Grow from the corpse of a deceased sound,

Somewhat, methinks, should mark the air around

Its dying place and tomb,

A gentle music, or a pale perfume:

For hath it not a body and a spirit,

A noise and meaning? and, when one doth hear it

Twice born, twice dying, doubly found and lost,

That second self, that echo, is its ghost.

But even the dead are all asleep this time,

And not a grave shakes with the dreams of crime –

The earth is full of chambers for the dead,

And every soul is quiet in his bed;

Some who have seen their bodies moulder away,

Antediluvian minds, most happy they,

Who have no body but the beauteous air,

No body but their minds.

– Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1824)