Monarch’s lost masterpieces returned to their virtual palace
CHARLES I’s private Whitehall rooms have been recreated by the Royal Collection Trust, after decades of painstaking detective work to track down his “lost” paintings.
The gallery has designed online rooms that show how the monarch would have seen his famous art work, after experts tracked down pieces from across the world.
About 250 paintings have been discovered as part of the most recent project, with still more thought to be lying unidentified in private collections.
The works formed one of the most spectacular art collections in the world, from Titian to Holbein and van Dyck, but were scattered around Europe after Charles I was beheaded in 1649. Under the eye of Oliver Cromwell, they were sold off to pay the king’s debts, with one Titian given to his plumber.
The record of the lost collection remained only in inventories, which showed about 1,500 works with varying degrees of detail. Curators, who began work in the Sixties, have tracked down about 600 of those, with 250 identifications in the most recent stage.
The Royal Collection has built the first online archive of its kind, along with recreating the private rooms of the Palace of Whitehall, which burnt down in 1698, to show how the Italian Renaissance paintings would have hung in the 17th century.
While an exhibition at the Royal Academy in 2018 displayed a smaller number of the physical paintings, the digital exhibition allows for each and every known picture to be showcased.
The online catalogue is the first time the records – Charles I’s inventories, sales details and the destinations of the paintings – have been consolidated.
The Royal Collection said the private rooms included the “most precious paintings”, shown where “only the privileged few were granted access”.
Among the works are recent discoveries, including Titian’s Holy Family and a van Dyck self-portrait.
A number of notable paintings have yet to be traced, such as Gerrit van Honthorst’s Family of Winter King and Queen, Raphael’s Marquis of Mantua and Two Mice, and Holbein’s portrait of Thomas Wyatt.