Charles I. King and Collector.

From Titian to Rembrandt, King Charles I owned one of the most stupendous art collections ever assembled

During his reign, King Charles I (1600–1649) came to own one of the most stupendous art collections ever assembled. Indeed, by the time of his death, it contained some 2,000 paintings and sculptures, including Renaissance masterpieces, modern portraiture and ancient busts.

Charles I: King and Collector explores the origins of this extraordinary collection, the way it was assembled and what it came to represent. Authoritative essays provide a revealing historical context for the formation of the King’s taste. They analyze key areas of the collection, such as Italian Renaissance art, and how the paintings that Charles collected influenced the contemporary artists he commissioned.

Following Charles’s execution, the treasures of his collection were sold and scattered across Europe. This book, which accompanies a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition in London, reunites its most important works in sumptuous detail. Featuring paintings by Van Dyck, Rubens, Titian, Holbein, Mantegna and Rembrandt, among many others, this striking publication offers a unique insight into this fabled collection.

Desmond Shawe-Taylor is Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures. Per Rumberg is Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. David Ekserdjian is Professor of Film and Art History at the University of Leicester. Dr Barbara Furlotti is Associate Lecturer at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Gregory Martin, formerly Curator of Baroque Paintings and Assistant Keeper of the National Gallery, London, is Editor of the Corpus Rubenianum. Guido Rebecchini is Lecturer and Head of the Renaissance Section at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Vanessa Remington is Senior Curator of Paintings at The Royal Collection. Dr Karen Serres is the Schroder Foundation Curator of Paintings at the Courtauld Gallery, London. Lucy Whitaker is Assistant Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures. Jeremy Wood is Professor Emeritus of Art History at the University of Nottingham. Helen Wyld is Curator at National Museums Scotland.