The Sale of the Late King's Goods: Charles I and his Art Collection

A dazzling and authoritative account of the acquisition and subsequent sale of King Charles I's great art collection, a collection which - ultimately - cost him his throne 'So wonderful and glorious a collection, that the like will never again be met with.' This is how one awed and wistful observer described King Charles I's extraordinary collection. Paintings by Mantegna, Leonardo, Raphael, Holbein, Correggio, Giorgione, Durer, Titian and Bassano flooded into England, supplementing Charles's patronage of two of Europe's finest contemporary painters, Rubens and Van Dyck. Charles's extravagance in amassing such a collection in spite of the Crown's financial difficulties only exacerbated the parliamentary disapproval that led to civil war, and the King's own execution. One of the Commonwealth's first decrees after the King's death was to sell off his treasures to raise money for the new regime and one of the most extensive collections of Old Masters ever gathered in one place was broken up. This dazzling book is the story of the king and his pictures, their acquisition, dispersal and remarkable recovery after the Restoration. It reveals the skulduggery behind the purchase of the collection, and the corrupt wheeler-dealing that accompanied the sale. A vivid portrait of the tragic king and his decadent court, set against the backdrop of political conflict and Civil War, it also offers a new and compelling perspective on art and collecting in England.