Palma Vecchio, The Virgin and Child with Saints Catherine of Alexandria and John the Baptist, c. 1527. Royal Collection Trust © His Majesty King Charles III.
Join Desmond Shawe-Taylor, Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures at the Royal Collection Trust until 2020, for an ARTscapades Study Evening on Italian artists of the Renaissance and the creation of the British Royal Collection. Discover how the achievement of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, et al (vividly described in the writings of Georgio Vasari), became the model of what painting should be and how it should be understood.
Study evening - includes two lectures, Q&A and a short break. Tickets £20
Lecture One: The first lecture will cover the acquisition by Charles I (and loss by Cromwell), of one of the greatest collections of Italian art in history. We can deduce what the King liked and why, demonstrating the huge range of Italian art and the different qualities for which it was admired. Charles I’s Queen, Henrietta Maria, the daughter of a Medici, had ideas of her own, commissioning masterpieces and reflecting the latest Italian fashions. Charles II was less interested in art than were his parents, but salvaged something of their collection, after the Restoration, through restitution and like-for-like replacement.
Lecture Two: During the eighteenth century, the age of the Grand Tour, Italian artistic ideas became narrower (basically the worship of Raphael) and more uncritically adopted. Georgian monarchs collected Italian painting to demonstrate this Raphaelite ideal of beauty. Venice was the only region of Italy out of step with the new conformity; its capricious brilliance is perfectly demonstrated in Consul Smith’s magnificent collection (including fifty Canalettos), acquired by George III in 1762. Nineteenth-century collectors, Prince Albert in particular, discovered ‘early’ Italian art, by some called ‘Pre-Raphaelite’, in which they found a purity and spirituality missing in the more flamboyant works of the High Renaissance.
Proceeds from ARTscapades ticket sales benefit museums, galleries and other arts-based organisations and projects.
This is an online event hosted on Zoom which can be watched live, or on-demand for one month afterwards. You will receive your link to access the event in your email confirmation and the on-demand link after the event ends.