Friday 26 September 2014

Week 2 : The Arundel and Buckingham Collections.

“Certainly, in this land I do not find the barbarous conditions which might be presumed from its climate, so remote from Italian elegance. On the contrary, I confess that in what concerns excellent pictures by the hands of the masters, I have never seen so large a mass together as in the royal collection, and in that of the late Duke of Buckingham; while the Earl of Arundel possesses an infinity of ancient statues, both Greek and Roman.” Rubens, London, 9th August, 1629.[1]

Overview of Arundel’s Collection.

Anyone expecting a complete record of the art possessed by the Earl of Arundel is in for a disappointment; the original record and inventory has been lost, possibly in a fire at Worksop Manor (his father-in-law’s house) in 1722. However, we are lucky that an inventory, probably drawn up in 1655 in Amsterdam after the death of Countess Arundel has survived. [2] It is thought that “the larger part of the pictures, drawings and objets de vertu” (Hervey) followed the Arundels to the Netherlands when they left England for good in 1641, though the 1655 document still lists an incredible 799 works.  This 1655 inventory was originally in Italian, badly organized and presented in an unsystematic way. To aid understanding, Arundel’s biographer, Lady Mary Hervey brought the inventory under four headings: alphabetical list of artists (and works attributed to them); portraits (to which no artist’s names are appended); subjects (to which no artists names are appended); various objects of art, decoration etc. She also numbered it and I have included these numbers in the list of selected slides shown here. The intention here is give you a flavour of the broad nature of Arundel’s collection and throw some light on his collecting habits.

Anthony Van Dyck, Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, with his grandson Thomas Howard, c. 1635-6, oil on canvas, 145.4 x 121.9 cm, Arundel Castle, Duke of Norfolk, (119)

Sir Anthony Dyck, Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, 1621, oil on canvas, 102.8 x 79.4 cm, Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Wenceslaus Hollar, Arundel House from the South, 17th century, etching, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.Add caption

Wenceslaus Hollar, London from Arundel House, print, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.


Arundel’s Holbeins.

 If there is one artist associated with Arundel, it is Holbein; the inventory of 1655 lists no fewer than 44 works by this. The Earl inherited many of his works, some of which were portraits of his ancestors. Arundel admitted a “foolish curiosity” for Holbein, particularly because the artist’s work linked back to his predecessors and the Tudor court, e.g. Holbein’s Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. Looking at Holbein portraits is the visual equivalent of reading a historical chronicle and so he would have greatly appealed to a man with a love of history and a deep reverence for the accomplishments of his family. By the eve of the Civil War Arundel owned some 40 paintings by Holbein’s posthumous fame owed much to Arundel, and it is through him that Van Dyck and Rubens learnt about the German artist.[3]

Fruytiers (possibly based on a lost Van Dyck) Portrait of the Earl and Countess of Arundel with their children, c. 1643, oil on copper, Arundel Castle, Duke of Norfolk (136).

Hans Holbein, Portrait of Thomas Howard, third Duke of Norfolk, c. 1539, oil on panel, 80. 6 x 60.9 cm, Royal Collection. (198)

Hans Holbein, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, c. 1542, oil on panel, 55.5 x 44 cm, Sau Paolo, (197)

Hans Holbein, Sketch for The Triumph of Wealth, 1532-3, pen, watercolour and washes heightened with white, (drawing for the lost painting no. 170 in the inventory), Musée du Louvre, Paris.


Old Master Drawings.

Arundel was one of the earliest courtiers to collect a large number of old master drawings in Europe. In 1632 Arundel’s son claimed “he chiefly affects drawings” and Arundel was proud of them- he had many engraved, not only finished work but also sketches.[4] Arundel’s love of drawings goes back to 1612, but by 1637 his collection had grown so much that he created a special room for them reported by his librarian, Francis Junius. Apart from Holbein, Arundel’s favourite draughtsmen were Leonardo da Vinci and Parmigianino, though he owned works by other renaissance masters such as Michelangelo and Raphael. The history of collecting Leonardo drawings is complex, but Arundel owned a volume containing something like 600 hundred drawings by Leonardo or copyists and artists connected with him.[5] As far as Parmigianino is concerned, Arundel was the first serious English collector of this eccentric artist who specialised in a strange blend of disproportion and grace.[6] Some of these were originally in Vasari’s collection, though many were acquired from a different source, probably Venetian. After the Earl’s death at Padua in 1647, the fate of the drawings is a matter of speculation. Some might have gone to Holland and been dispersed there; others were sold at Tart Hall, the London residence of the Earl’s son, Lord Stafford, in 1720.[7]


Wenceslaus Hollar, after Cornelius Schut, Allegory of the Death of the Earl of Arundel, etching, Ashmoleon Museum, Oxford. (book of drawings at bottom left)

Parmigianino, Four Studies of Figures in Architectural Settings, 1531-3, black chalk underdrawing, pen and ink with wash and white heightening, Royal Collection.

Hans Holbein, Jane Seymour, c. 1536-7, Black and coloured chalks, pen and ink, and metalpoint, on pale pink prepared paper , Royal Collection, (167)

Leonardo da Vinci, Study for Head of St Anne, c. 1510-15, black chalk, wetted in places, 18.8 x 13.0 cm, Royal Collection.

Arundel’s Masterpieces.

A look through the Arundel 1655 inventory reveals a bias, unsurprisingly, towards Italian art. The big guns like Titian (37 listed), Tintoretto, Veronese are there, but we also see that he collected lesser-known artists like Dosso and Correggio (12 listed). Apart from the Italians the Earl owned a lot of “Northern” (German, Dutch, Flemish) art ranging from leading masters like Dürer to obscure artists like Spranger. The greatest Italian pieces in Arundel’s collection would be Titian’s Flaying of Marsyas, Sebastiano’s Portrait of Carondolet, which Arundel bought as a Raphael. We gain some inkling of how Arundel displayed his old masters from a report by Sandart, the German artist and critic who visited Arundel House in 1627.

Sebastiano del Piombo, Portrait of Ferry Carondelet and his Secretaries, 1510-12, Oil on panel, 113 x 87 cm, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, (296, listed as Raphael)

Albrecht Dürer, Self-Portrait, 1498, Oil on panel, 52 x 41 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid (110)

Correggio, Head of Christ about 1530, (cd be the Veronica ref to as 81), Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Bernardo Licinio, A Man holding a Skull, 1520, oil on canvas, 75.7 x 63.5 cm, Ashmoleon, Oxford, (matches the description of no. 145 in the “Giorgione” section of the inventory).


The Fate of Arundel’s Pictures

The Arundels made arrangements for their pictures to go to the Low Countries where they arrived about 1643. Examples of the art to arrive in the Low Countries included Holbein’s Dr Chambers (Vienna) and studio versions of Titian’s Three Ages of Man. The impact of these two artists in Antwerp must have been considerable where connoisseurship was enthusiastically pursued. Towards the middle of 1645 Arundel left Antwerp for Italy while Lady Arundel left for the Low Countries. He lived most in Padua, but also visited Parma. Sadly, Arundel’s eldest grandson was now a lunatic and another grandson had become a Dominican monk; he was also angry that his wife had “scattered” his collection. The Arundel sons failed to sell their father’s art, the best items having been sent abroad to avoid looting. However, the Spanish Ambassador in London had his eye on Arundel’s impressive Raphael (Pope Leo X with his Cardinals). It was obtained and sent to Spain where Velasquez pronounced it a copy as the cardinal in the background differed from Rossi. It is now thought to be a third version painted by Bugiardini (Rome, Galleria Corsini) for Cardinal Cibo who is substituted for de’ Rossi. In 1654 Lady Arundel died in Amsterdam, just two years after her eldest son- Lord Maltravers (1608-1652). They quarrelled over Arundel’s inheritance and her Catholic faith- so she left the collection to her younger son, Lord Stafford (1612-1680). Stafford was also a Catholic, and he lost no time in selling his inheritance. Amongst the pictures to go were Veronese’s Christ and the Centurion. At this stage Lady Arundel’s will was contested by the son of her eldest son, so eventually Lord Stafford and his nephew compromised by dividing the pictures between them. Some of the Arundels were brought back to England, e.g. Holbein’s Portrait of Erasmus (NG, on loan from Longford Castle Collection). John Evelyn was scathing about the dispersal of Arundel’s collection. Most of Arundel’s pictures remained in Amsterdam for the next thirty years until they were finally dispersed by auction in 1684.[8]


Titian, the Three Ages of Man (385 as “A Shepherd with a Girl and three putti), 1512-16, oil on canvas, 106.7 x 182.9 cm, Edinburg, NGS (on loan from Duke of Sutherland)

Titian, The Flaying of Marsyas, 1576, Oil on canvas, 212 x 207 cm, State Museum, Kromeriz (356)

Paolo Veronese, Twelve Apostles (fragment), 1575, oil on canvas, 170 x 178 cm, State Museum, Kromeriz

Paolo Veronese, The Ascension of Christ, c. 1575, oil on canvas, 394 x 194 cm, San Francesco, Padua.


Surveying Buckingham’s Collection.

Unlike Arundel, we do not have as much information about the Duke of Buckingham’s collection. It was not until 1907 that an inventory (the Rawlinson MS) of the pictures and goods in Buckingham’s house were published.[9] A catalogue of a portion of the collection was printed in 1758; but that was compiled as late as 1649, and only included pictures sent to Antwerp to be sold, - about 215 in number (Davies). However, the Rawlinson MS numbers 330 pictures which were at York House. The Rawlinson MS was later supplemented by three documents, now in the Wiltshire Record Office.[10] Apart from details of the artists and titles, the list also gives their location in Buckingham’s house, which I have done in brackets in this brief selection. We also have a revealing document, an account by the agent Balthasar Gerbier of his picture-buying activities (on behalf of the Duke) in Italy.[11]


Peter Paul Rubens, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (1592-1628), 1625, black, red and white chalk; ink on the eyes, 15 1/16 x 10 ½ inches, Albertina, Vienna

John Hoskins, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, c. 1628-9, watercolour on vellum laid on playing card, 5.2 x 4.2 cm, Royal Collection.

After Anthony van Dyck, Katherine Manners, c. 1623, oil on canvas, 92.2 x 78.5 cm, Lyfrgell Collection, Genedlaethol Cymru, National Library of Wales.


The Nature of Buckingham’s Collection.

Buckingham’s taste was very close to Arundel, though he lacked the meditative and scholarly approach of his great rival. Their attitude towards collecting was reflected in their polar temperaments. Arundel’s “high bred reserve” stood in stark contrast to Buckingham’s “presumptuous self-confidence” (Hervey). Still, they both could recognise quality when they saw it. So Buckingham owned 8 Holbeins, a few Titians, of which the greatest was the Ecce Homo, a series of Tintorettos, some Veroneses (both Buckingham and Arundel had the advantage that the King did not like Veronese) a handful of Palmas and others. And like Arundel, Buckingham had little success in getting paintings by Raphael and Leonardo since most paintings by these artists had been inherited by the King of France. But that did not deter Buckingham: he tried to buy the Mona Lisa from the French Royal Collection. Unsurprisingly, he failed and had to make do with a copy instead; but Buckingham did buy a Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (Prado) then thought to be by Leonardo, but today thought to have been painted by Luini. Charles I beat both by obtaining from France Leonardo’s John the Baptist (Louvre) in exchange for a Titian (untraced) and a “magnificent portrait by Holbein, an artist for whom he did not much care.” Correggio’s pictures were hard to get and Buckingham only owned two. A curious feature of Buckingham’s holdings is that owned some 27 pictures attributed to Bassano and his followers which may mark the formation of a distinct taste.[12] Can this taste reflect the view that “pictures are noble ornaments, a delightful amusement, and histories that one may read without fatigue”? (Gerbier).[13]


Titian, Cardinal Armignac and his Secretaries, oil on canvas, 104 x 114 cm, Alnwick Castle, Northumberland

Titian, Ecce Homo, 1543, Oil on canvas, 242 x 361 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, (“In the Sumpter Room.”

Jacopo Bassano, Entrance of the Animals into the Ark,oil on canvas, 207 x 265, Prado, Madrid. (cd be “The Arke of Noah” in “the next chamber next to the King’s withdrawing chamber.”

Paolo Veronese, The Anointing of David, c. 1560s, Oil on canvas, 173 x 365, cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Buckingham, Rubens and Van Dyck

If Holbein was Arundel’s greatest strength, then the same could be said of Rubens for Buckingham. As a friend of Rubens it is not surprising that Buckingham collection boasted many examples of that artist’s work including Nature Adorning the Three Graces a group portrait of Aletheia Talbot and her retinue, and a number of portraits including a mythological one of the Duke and Lady Manners.[14] When Buckingham was murdered in 1628, he had the greatest collection of Rubens works in the world (about 30); but by the time the Civil War broke out, he had been bested by the King of Spain. Another contemporary artist, Van Dyck was to be found in Buckingham’s collection including the Continence of Scipio, possibly a painting thought up by another mind.[15] Then there is the recently discovered Venus and Adonis, a mythological portrait of Villiers and Lady Katharine Manners which as White says is a portrait historié that would have struck the court as “new in concept” due to its free execution and departure from convention conspicuously lacking in the portraits of the period.[16]


Anthony van Dyck, The Clemency of Scipio, 1620-21, oil on canvas, 183 x 232. 5 cm, Christchurch Gallery, Oxford, (“In the Hall, One Great Piece being Scipio”).

Sir Anthony van Dyck, Sir George Villiers and Lady Katharine Manners (died 1649) as Adonis and Venus, 1620-21, oil on canvas, 233.5 x 160 cm, London, Private Collection.  

Peter Paul Rubens, Portrait of Lady Arundel with her Train, 1620, Oil on canvas, 261 x 265 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich

Peter Paul Rubens, Minerva and Mercury conducting the Duke of Buckingham to the Temple of Virtue, before 1625, oil on oak, 64 x 63.7 cm, National Gallery, London.


Slides.

  1. Sir Anthony Dyck, Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, 1621, oil on canvas, 102.8 x 79.4 cm, Getty Museum, Los Angeles.[17]  
  2. Daniel Mytens, Lord Arundel in his Sculpture Gallery, 1616, oil on canvas, 8 ½ x 50 inches, London, National Portrait Gallery (on loan to Arundel Castle).
  3. Fruytiers (possibly based on a lost Van Dyck) Portrait of the Earl and Countess of Arundel with their children, c. 1643, oil on copper, Arundel Castle, Duke of Norfolk (136).
  4. Homerus, Hellenistic sculpture, c. 2nd century B.C., Ashmoleon Museum, Oxford, height 185 cm. 
  5. Wenceslaus Hollar, Arundel House from the North, 17th century, etching, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
  6. Wenceslaus Hollar, London from Arundel House, print, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
  7. Hans Holbein, Portrait of Thomas Howard, third Duke of Norfolk, c. 1539, oil on panel, 80. 6 x 60.9 cm, Royal Collection. (198)
  8. Hans Holbein, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, c. 1542, oil on panel, 55.5 x 44 cm, Sau Paolo, (197)
  9. Hans Holbein, Nikolaus Kratzer, 1528, Tempera on oak, 83 x 67 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris (192)
  10. Hans Holbein, Sketch for The Triumph of Wealth, 1532-3, pen, watercolour and washes heightened with white, (drawing for the lost painting no. 170 in the inventory), Musée du Louvre, Paris.
  11. Albrecht Dürer, Portrait of Agnes Frey, 1497, Oil on canvas, 56,5 x 42,5 cm, Staatliche Museen, Berlin.[18]
  12. Albrecht Dürer, Self-Portrait, 1498, Oil on panel, 52 x 41 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid (110)
  13. Sebastiano del Piombo, Portrait of Ferry Carondelet and his Secretaries, 1510-12, Oil on panel, 113 x 87 cm, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, (296, listed as Raphael)
  14. Titian, the Three Ages of Man (385 as “A Shepherd with a Girl and three putti), 1512-16, oil on canvas, 106.7 x 182.9 cm, Edinburg, NGS (on loan from Duke of Sutherland).[19]
  15. Titian, The Flaying of Marsyas, 1576, Oil on canvas, 212 x 207 cm, State Museum, Kromeriz (356).[20]
  16. Paolo Veronese, Twelve Apostles (fragment), 1575, oil on canvas, 170 x 178 cm, State Museum, Kromeriz, (398)[21]
  17. Paolo Veronese, The Ascension of Christ, c. 1575, oil on canvas, 394 x 194 cm, San Francesco, Padua.
  18. Correggio, Head of Christ about 1530, (cd be the Veronica ref to as 81), Getty Museum, Los Angeles, [22]
  19. Bernardo Licinio, A Man holding a Skull, 1520, oil on canvas, 75.7 x 63.5 cm, Ashmoleon, Oxford, (matches the description of no. 145 in the “Giorgione” section of the inventory).
  20. Wenceslaus Hollar, after Cornelius Schut, Allegory of the Death of the Earl of Arundel, etching, Ashmoleon Museum, Oxford.
  21. Hans Holbein, Jane Seymour, c. 1536-7, Black and coloured chalks, pen and ink, and metalpoint, on pale pink prepared paper , Royal Collection, (167)
  22. Parmigianino, Four Studies of Figures in Architectural Settings, 1531-3, black chalk underdrawing, pen and ink with wash and white heightening, Royal Collection.
  23. Leonardo da Vinci, Study for Head of St Anne, c. 1510-15, black chalk, wetted in places, 18.8 x 13.0 cm, Royal Collection.
  24. Anthony Van Dyck, Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, with his grandson Thomas Howard, c. 1635-6, oil on canvas, 145.4 x 121.9 cm, Arundel Castle, Duke of Norfolk, (119)
  25. Peter Paul Rubens, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (1592-1628), 1625, black, red and white chalk; ink on the eyes, 15 1/16 x 10 ½ inches, Albertina, Vienna.[23]
  26. Sir Anthony van Dyck, Sir George Villiers and Lady Katharine Manners (died 1649) as Adonis and Venus, 1620-21, oil on canvas, 233.5 x 160 cm, London, Private Collection.  
  27. After Anthony van Dyck, Katherine Manners, c. 1623, oil on canvas, 92.2 x 78.5 cm, Lyfrgell Collection, Genedlaethol Cymru, National Library of Wales.
  28. John Hoskins, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, c. 1628-9, watercolour on vellum laid on playing card, 5.2 x 4.2 cm, Royal Collection.
  29. Anthony van Dyck, The Clemency of Scipio, 1620-21, oil on canvas, 183 x 232. 5 cm, Christchurch Gallery, Oxford, (“In the Hall, One Great Piece being Scipio”).
  30. Peter Paul Rubens, Portrait of Lady Arundel with her Train, 1620, Oil on canvas, 261 x 265 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich.[24]
  31. Titian, Cardinal Armignac and his Secretaries, oil on canvas, 104 x 114 cm, Alnwick Castle, Northumberland. [25]  
  32. Titian, Ecce Homo, 1543, Oil on canvas, 242 x 361 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, (“In the Sumpter Room”.[26]
  33. Paolo Veronese, The Anointing of David, c. 1560s, Oil on canvas, 173 x 365, cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.[27]
  34. Jacopo Bassano, Entrance of the Animals into the Ark,oil on canvas, 207 x 265, Prado, Madrid.[28] (cd be “The Arke of Noah” in “the next chamber next to the King’s withdrawing chamber.”
  35. Gortzius Geldorp, The Penitent Magadelene, oil on panel, 67.6 52. 8 cm, (in a 17th century gilded Florentine frame), location unknown.[29]
  36. Peter Paul Rubens, Minerva and Mercury conducting the Duke of Buckingham to the Temple of Virtue, before 1625, oil on oak, 64 x 63.7 cm, National Gallery, London.[30]





[1] This is included in Mary Hervey, The Life, Correspondence and Collections of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, (Cambridge, 1921), 284.
[2] This is included in Hervey, 473-500.
[3] On Holbein’s afterlife and critical fortunes, See “Holbein’s Fame” in Oskar Bätschmann and Pascal Griener, Hans Holbein (Reaktion, 1997); George Vertue on Holbein, included in Hervey, App X.
[4] On Arundel as a collector of drawings, see Denys Sutton’s “Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel and Surrey, as a Collector of Drawings”, I, II, III, Burlington Magazine 89 (1947); 3-9,32-37, and 75-77.
[5] On Arundel as a collector of Leonardo drawings, see Jane Roberts, “Thomas Howard: The Collector Earl of Arundel and Leonardo’s Drawings” in The Evolution of English Collecting: Receptions of Italian Art in the Tudor and Stuart Periods, (ed) Edward Chaney, Studies in British Art, Yale University Press, 257-283..
[6] The inventory lists 26 works including 2 watercolours.
[7] For a fascinating survey of the Arundel Parmigianino drawings, see A. E. Popham’s The Drawings of Parmigianino,(Faber), 45-51. Popham describes Arundel’s drawing as “one of the most important collections of Parmigianino’s drawings ever brought together.”
[8] Francis Haskell describes the Arundel holdings and their fate: “One gets the impression of a sort of incredible emporium, owned by absentee shareholders, which, over the years, was dipped into by purchasers of all kinds, who presumably paid their bills of exchange into the accounts of the various family members who had a stake in what remained. The name of Arundel provided a plausible guarantee of quality and authenticity, but who made the arrangements, and who determined the price is not at all clear.” The King’s Pictures, 113-114.
[9] Randall Davies, “An Inventory of the Duke of Buckingham’s Pictures, etc at York House” in 1635, Burlington Magazine, Vol. 10, no. 48, 1907, 376-382.
[10] Philip McEvansoneya, “A Note on the Duke of Buckingham’s Inventory”, Burlington Magazine, Vol. 128, No. 1001, (Aug 1986), 607.
[11] L. G. Philip, “Balthazar Gerbier and the Duke of Buckingham’s Pictures”, Burlington Magazine, Vol. 99, np. 650 (May 1957), 155-6.
[12] Francis Haskell argues that Buckingham’s enthusiasm for Bassano, or an artist purporting to be him, “provides us with our first indication of a specific, individual, English taste in Italian painting.” The King’s Pictures, 37. 
[13] See Christopher White, Anthony van Dyck: Thomas Howard: The Earl of Arundel, (Getty, 1995), 26f.
[14] A canon of Antwerp is thought to have bought the Ecce Homo (Vienna); many more were purchased by dealers (especially the Duartes family), one of whom had been jeweller to the King. They were of Portuguese- Jewish origins, nominally converted to Catholicism- and at various times they owned pictures which had been in Arundel’s as well as Buckingham’s collections. Rubens’s Nature Adorned by the Three Graces was sold by Buckingham and in 1776 found by the artist James Thornhill in Paris. On Buckingham and Rubens, see Roger Lockyer, The Life and Political Career of George Villiers First Duke of Buckingham 1592-1628, (Longman, 1981).
[15] Haworth (Arundel and his Circle, 156-7) made the valid point that the moralizing nature of the theme was more appropriate to somebody like Arundel, but wether the older man thought up this subject must remain a hypothesis at best. This is the most over-analyzed Van Dyck in his canon. Shown in Oliver Millar, The Age of Charles I (London, 1973), no. 10 and other references.
[16] White, Anthony van Dyck, 62. For the Venus and Adonis, see Michael Jaffe, “Venus and Adonis”, Burlington Magazine, Vol. 132, No. 1051, (Oct 1990), 696-703.
[17] On this portrait, see White, Anthony van Dyck.
[18] Not listed in the inventory but there is a print of it by Hollar in the Ashmoleon- see White, 23, fig. 19.
[19] Exhibitions: London (2003, no. 8); Edinburgh (2004, no. 15).
[20] Exhibitions: London (1983); Venice and Washington (1990); London and
[21] According to the very helpful web site, “Cavallini to Veronese”, “a fragment from an altarpiece – probably the Ascension painted in 1575 for the church of San Francesco in Padua. Once in the Arundel collection in England, it was acquired by Bishop Karl Liechtenstein of Olomouc in 1673. The fragment was previously displayed in the National Gallery at Prague; the new museum was opened in the Archbishop’s Palace at Olomouc in 2006.”
[22] Cavallini to Veronese: “This small panel depicts the Vera icon – the veil of St Veronica which was miraculously imprinted with Christ’s features during the Passion. A late work, probably dating after 1530. It might have been painted for a patron called Veronica – possibly Veronica Gambara, wife of Conte Gilberto of Correggio. It is possibly the ‘Correggio Veronica’ listed in the inventory drawn up in Amsterdam in 1655 of the estate of Aletheia, Countess of Arundel. It was later in France (the collection of Monsieur de Sereville), and was bought by Viscount Gage in 1812. Until 1996 it was at Firle Place in Sussex.”
[23] Millar, The Age of Charles I , no. 11.
[24] On this painting see Hervey (173 f) for its provenance and the problems attached to its interpretation. The crux of the mystery is the man in the background who is seen by Hervey as an 18th century painted addition to unite the Countess with her husband; but another view is that it could be Sir Dudley Carleton which seems more plausible. Amongst the viewers of this picture in the 18th century was Sir Joshua Reynolds who stated that it was a portrait of the Earl and the Countess with their son (on the right) and a dwarf next to the dog. The “son” is thought to be The Countess’s dwarf and the other man her jester. Some even reject the work as from the hand of Rubens and instead give it to Van Dyck. The documentation supports its attribution to Rubens, but one is bound to say it is the most Van Dyckian picture Rubens ever painted.
[25] Cavallini to Veronese: "Georges d’Armagnac, Bishop of Rodez, was French ambassador to Venice from 1536 to 1539, when this portrait was presumably painted. His secretary was Guillaume Philandrier (a pupil of the architect Serlio). The picture – one of the first by Titian to come to England – was acquired in France by the Duke of Buckingham in 1624. It was apparently appropriated by the Earl of Northumberland after Buckingham’s pictures were confiscated during the Civil War, and it has remained at Alnwick since 1671.”
[26] Cavallini to Veronese. “Signed and dated 1543 on the scroll on the steps. Painted for the Flemish merchant Giovanni d'Anna (Jan van Haanen), whose palazzo (frescoed by Pordenone) was on the Grand Canal. The picture is packed with portraits. According to Ridolfi (1648), Pontius Pilate, dressed in shimmering blue satin, is a likeness of Pietro Aretino. The two horsemen on the right are portraits of Alfonso d'Avalos (mistakenly called Charles V by Ridolfi) and Suleyman the Magnificent. The imposing fat man, opulently dressed in a red robe and ermine collar, probably represents the High Priest Caiaphas in the guise of a wealthy contemporary Jew (though he is sometimes said to be a portrait of the reigning Doge, Pietro Lando). The thin bearded man, dressed in black and leaning on a staff, was once thought to be Titian himself or the donor Giovanni d'Anna, but has been identified more recently as the Sienese preacher and religious reformer Bernardino Ochino. The blonde girl dressed in white and the child whom she draws towards her are often said (on little evidence) to be portraits of Titian's adolescent daughter Lavinia and Aretino's daughter Adria. After Henry II of France had tried unsuccessfully to buy the picture for 800 ducats in 1574, it was purchased from the d'Anna family in 1620 by the English envoy Sir Henry Wootton for George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. After Thomas, Earl of Arundel, had failed to acquire it with an extraordinary offer of £7,000, it was sold (for a much smaller sum) in 1648 to Canon Hellewerve of Antwerp and then acquired by Archduke Leopold Wilhelm for his brother Emperor Ferdinand III at Prague.”
[27] Cavallini to Veronese. Once attributed to Zelotti or to Farinati, but now regarded as an early work of Veronese (1550s). In the Duke of Buckingham’s collection, which was sold at Antwerp in 1648; acquired by Archduke Leopold Wilhelm for his brother Emperor Ferdinand III at Prague.
Marco Curzio. Canvas, 222 in dia.
[28] Cavallini to Veronese: “Probably a work of collaboration between Jacopo and Francesco. Ridolfi claims that Titian bought a painting of this subject from Jacopo Bassano for the high price of 25 scudi.”
[29] Sold at Christies, 1997, for £17,250, no provenance given so impossible to say if it’s the picture in Buckingham’s gallery listed as “Geldorp’s Father- A Picture of Mary Magdalene.”
[30] Millar, The Age of Charles I, no. 12.