DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63299#0020
12
THE PICTURE GALLERT OF CHARLES I.
boy of twelve years, succeeded to his brother’s collection, and thereupon
began to develop that taste which was soon to make of him one of the
keenest connoisseurs and the most enthusiastic collector of his time, is an
exaggeration or rather a condensation of the probable circumstances of the
case. It cannot have been until some years later that he entered into
formal possession of his brother’s treasures, and it is not much before
1620 or 1621, that we obtain evidence of his activity as a collector, and
his precocious critical power in such matters.
The great Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, fills, and fills nobly, the
part of artistic Maecenas during the two reigns, and to him has been given
the title, “ Father of vertu. in England,” one which to-day savours too
much of Wardour Street and miscellaneous bric-a-brac to sound well as
an encomium of the august and gracious nobleman in whose honour it was
coined. Far more worthily is he described by Evelyn as “the great
Maecenas of all politer arts, and the boundless amasser of antiquities.”
It was indeed as a collector of antique marbles, inscriptions, and gems
that his chief celebrity was acquired, although his collection of pictures
comprised an unrivalled series of Holbeins, works by Albert Diirer,
Venetian canvases of price, and famous drawings by the great masters,
a striking record of which treasures is in many cases furnished by the
engravings of his •protege Wenceslaus Hollar. Well known as are the
main facts in connection with the Arundel collection, it may not appear
altogether superfluous to recapitulate a few of them.
Lord Arundel had spent several years of his early manhood in
travelling through Italy, and had there laid the foundation of that taste
for art and archaeology which was to bear such magnificent results. The
Arundelian or Oxford marbles were purchased for him in 1624, by Mr.
(afterwards Sir William) Petty, whom, together with John Evelyn, he
had employed to collect marbles, books, statues, and other curiosities in
Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor. Some of the statues and the bulk of the
inscribed marbles, including the much-discussed Parian Chronicle, or
I/Larmor Chronicon—so long a bone of contention between scholars and
archaeologists—are preserved in the collection of the University of Oxford,
to which they were presented in 1667 by Arundel’s grandson, Henry
Howard, afterwards sixth Duke of Norfolk.
The busts and some of the marbles form part of the collections of the
THE PICTURE GALLERT OF CHARLES I.
boy of twelve years, succeeded to his brother’s collection, and thereupon
began to develop that taste which was soon to make of him one of the
keenest connoisseurs and the most enthusiastic collector of his time, is an
exaggeration or rather a condensation of the probable circumstances of the
case. It cannot have been until some years later that he entered into
formal possession of his brother’s treasures, and it is not much before
1620 or 1621, that we obtain evidence of his activity as a collector, and
his precocious critical power in such matters.
The great Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, fills, and fills nobly, the
part of artistic Maecenas during the two reigns, and to him has been given
the title, “ Father of vertu. in England,” one which to-day savours too
much of Wardour Street and miscellaneous bric-a-brac to sound well as
an encomium of the august and gracious nobleman in whose honour it was
coined. Far more worthily is he described by Evelyn as “the great
Maecenas of all politer arts, and the boundless amasser of antiquities.”
It was indeed as a collector of antique marbles, inscriptions, and gems
that his chief celebrity was acquired, although his collection of pictures
comprised an unrivalled series of Holbeins, works by Albert Diirer,
Venetian canvases of price, and famous drawings by the great masters,
a striking record of which treasures is in many cases furnished by the
engravings of his •protege Wenceslaus Hollar. Well known as are the
main facts in connection with the Arundel collection, it may not appear
altogether superfluous to recapitulate a few of them.
Lord Arundel had spent several years of his early manhood in
travelling through Italy, and had there laid the foundation of that taste
for art and archaeology which was to bear such magnificent results. The
Arundelian or Oxford marbles were purchased for him in 1624, by Mr.
(afterwards Sir William) Petty, whom, together with John Evelyn, he
had employed to collect marbles, books, statues, and other curiosities in
Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor. Some of the statues and the bulk of the
inscribed marbles, including the much-discussed Parian Chronicle, or
I/Larmor Chronicon—so long a bone of contention between scholars and
archaeologists—are preserved in the collection of the University of Oxford,
to which they were presented in 1667 by Arundel’s grandson, Henry
Howard, afterwards sixth Duke of Norfolk.
The busts and some of the marbles form part of the collections of the