Parmigianino, Pallas Athene, c.1531-38. Credit line: The Royal Collection (c) 2007, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

LONDON.- The first exhibition to survey 16th- and 17th-century Italian art in the Royal Collection for over 40 years brings together 90 paintings and 85 drawings from royal palaces and residences across Britain. It celebrates the artistic legacy of the Stuart kings, Charles I and his son, Charles II, whose taste profoundly influenced the character of the British Royal Collection. Described by the painter Peter Paul Rubens as ‘the greatest amateur of paintings among the princes of the world’, Charles I built up a collection of Italian masters to rival that of any European court of the period. Although Charles I’s collection was sold after his execution in 1649, a significant number of paintings were reclaimed or bought back by Charles II after the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660. Charles II’s own acquisition of an extraordinary group of Italian Renaissance and Baroque paintings was a conscious attempt to reinstate his father’s outstanding collection.

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Lorenzo lotto, portrait of Andrea Odoni, 1527. Credit line: The Royal Collection (c) 2007, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.