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Charles I (1600-1649), King of England, Scotland and Ireland (1625-1649) amassed one of the greatest art collections in history, which was disposed of by the Commonwealth after his execution in 30 January 1649. The dispersal of his collection is often considered one of the landmark events in art collecting history, comparable only with the Orleans sale in the end of the XVIII century. Many of today's leading museums, including the Louvre, the Prado and the National Gallery, London display items that once belonged to Charles.

Formation
The exact roots of Charles I's passion for art collecting are difficult to determine. In the history of English and Scottish monarchs up to that point there weren't many art collectors. Henry VIII’s patronage of Hans Holbein the Younger, for instance, was more connected to a dynastic necessity – using portraiture to document his power and lineage – rather than artistic considerations. Charles' father, James I, wasn't much interested in art – he reportedly hated sitting for portraits and isn't known to have made significant additions to the Royal Collection.

Perhaps the first Stuart to have a genuine interest in art collecting was Charles's elder brother, Henry, Prince of Wales. Henry’s untimely death from typhoid fever at just 18 years old meant that Charles became his father's heir and also that he inherited his brother's incipient art collection. Apart from his bother, the other main influences on Charles’ collecting tastes were the Earl of Arundel and, especially, the Duke of Buckingham. An event that is frequently considered a turning point in Charles' collecting activities is his incognito trip to Spain in 1623 with the Duke of Buckingham in the hopes of obtaining a match with a daughter of King Philip IV. While the voyage proved unsuccessful in this aspect, it brought him into contact with the great masters in the Spanish Royal Collection. In this voyage, Charles is known to have sited for a portrait by Velázquez (nowadays untraced) and to have commissioned copies of some of Titian's works in Philip IV’s collection. He also took as gifts Titian’s Equestrian Portrait of Charles V (Prado) and his Venus del Pardo (Louvre). His largest coup was the acquisition en bloc of much of the Gonzaga Collection, owned by the Dukes of Mantua, in 1625-7.



Apart from acquiring pictures, Charles commissioned works of art from some the leading painters of the age, such as Peter Paul Rubens and, famously, Anthony van Dyck. The relationship between the King and Rubens began badly when the painter, not knowing he was sending pictures to Charles, sent a picture of The Hunt that was a workshop production and not by Rubens' hand at all. When Charles rejected it and Rubens was informed of the faux-pas, he proceeded to send the King a Self-Portrait which, unusually, Rubens signed and dated 1623, perhaps to avoid any doubts that it was entirely by himself. Later, in his role as a diplomat, Rubens was received in court in June 1629. In this visit, he presented the King with a large painting depicting a mythological allegory of peace, Peace and War now hanging at the National Gallery, London. Also related to this visit to England was the commission to paint the ceiling of Banqueting House celebrating the reign of James I.

Another painter that received commissions from Charles was the italian Orazio Gentileschi. As a favorite of Queen Henrietta Maria, Gentileschi carried out the ceiling paintings of Queen's House at Greenwich (later transferred to the Marlborough House). He was also commissioned to paint three large canvasses to decorate Queen’s House. Among those, Joseph and the Potiphar’s Wife remains in the Royal Collection and The Finding of Moses is currently on loan from a private collection to the National Gallery, London after hanging for nearly two centuries at Castle Howard. Other artists associated with the court of Charles I include Gerrit van Honthorst, Daniel Mytens and Abraham van der Doort.

Also noteworthy of Charles’ collecting behavior is that he not only purchased works by the renowned old masters such as Titian and Veronese, but also from contemporary artists. The three paintings by Rembrandt he owned are thought to be the first ones of the master to leave the Netherlands – more certain is that they were the first to become part of an English collection. Two of those can still be traced today: The Artist’s Mother remains part of the Royal Collection and the Self-Portrait is almost certainly the one at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.

In the eve of the Civil War, Charles' collection stood out as one of the greatest ever assembled, rivaled only by the Spanish and French royal collections.

Dispersal
Weeks after Charles' execution, Parliament authorized the Council of State to sell the collection to settle the late King’s debts. Commissioners with extensive powers were appointed to draw up full inventories and to put a valuation on items so that they could be sold. Not only paintings were to be sold, but all items found in the royal palaces, including statues, tapestries, furniture and furnishings of all kinds. The actual sales were conducted in the great hall of Somerset House. The Commonwealth reserved some items of the collection that were to not to be sold, but to be retained to decorate the government buildings and offices. Among those were the Raphael Cartoons and Mantegna's Triumphs of Caesar. Cromwell reserved some paintings for himself, including two believed to be by the workshop of Giulio Romano (Nero Playing while Rome Burns and The Omen of Claudius’s Imperial Power', both still in the Royal Collection) and Luca Cambiasi's The Assumption of the Virgin (Royal Collection).

Several of the King’s servants, who were not paid during the Civil War as London was held by Parliament, were paid in goods from Charles’s estate. As many of them were owed small sums, they formed syndicates to obtain higher quality pictures that would later be sold. Many foreign collectors took advantage of the sale to increase their holdings. Among them was Philip IV of Spain, who through Luis de Haro and the Spanish Ambassador Alonso Cárdenas, obtained some of the most outstanding pictures. Another competitor was Cardinal Mazarin of France, who also took the opportunity to enrich his collection

Recovery
Immediately following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 orders were issued to recover all paintings sold during the Commonwealth. Even before Charles II returned from exile in the Netherlands, government officials were already pursuing those who had purchased any goods at the sales at Somerset House. However, as the lion's share of the collection had left for the continent in the previous years, the success of the recovery efforts was somewhat limited. Among those who returned pictures and other objects to the crown, Philip, Lord Lisle (later 3rd Earl of Leicester) returned many items by artists such as Basano, Giulio Romano, Polidoro da Caravaggio and Holbein (Portrait of William Reskimer ). After Sir Peter Lely's death, other paintings were returned, including Van Dyck’s Cupid and Psyche and The Three Eldest Children of Charles I. The relative failure the recovery efforts can be illustrated by the fact that, from all Titians owned by Charles (there were over ten recorded in the inventories), none remains in the Royal Collection today. The two paintings by the artist presently in the Royal Collection were added later, in 1660, when the States General of the Netherlands presented Charles II with a collection of 28 paintings.

Paintings formerly in Charles I’s collection with Wikipedia articles

 * Pastoral Concert (Titian, Louvre)
 * Equestrian Portrait of Charles V (Titian, Prado)
 * Saint George and the Dragon (Raphael, National Gallery of Art)
 * Jacopo Pesaro being presented by Pope Alexander VI to Saint Peter (Titian, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp)
 * Peace and War (Rubens, National Gallery, London)
 * Self-Portrait (Durer, Prado)
 * Saint John the Baptist (Leonardo, Louvre)
 * Alfonso d'Avalos Addressing his Troops (Titian, Prado)
 * Christ Washing the Disciples’ Feet (Tintoretto, Prado)
 * Death of the Virgin (Caravaggio, Louvre)
 * The Entombment of Christ (Titian, Louvre)
 * Equestrian Portrait of Charles I (Van Dyck, National Gallery, London)
 * Charles I with M. de St Antoine (Van Dyck, Royal Collection)
 * Cupid and Psyche (Van Dyck, Royal Collection)
 * Venus and Cupid with a Satyr (Correggio, Louvre)
 * Death of the Virgin (Mantegna, Prado)
 * Venus and Music (Titian, Prado)
 * Triumphs of Caesar (Mantegna, Royal Collection)
 * Raphael Cartoons (Raphael, Royal Collection, on long term loan to the V&A)
 * The Muses (Tintoretto, Royal Collection)
 * Esther Before Ahasuerus (Tintoretto, Royal Collection)
 * Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (Artemisia Gentileschi, Royal Collection)
 * Shepherd with a Flute (Giorgione?, Royal Collection)