0:00:06 > 0:00:08It's quite likely that you know this place.
0:00:11 > 0:00:13Windsor Castle.
0:00:13 > 0:00:161.5 million people come here every year...
0:00:18 > 0:00:22..to bathe in our nation's greatest export - British pomp...
0:00:24 > 0:00:27..and immerse themselves in a history that goes back nearly 1,000 years.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33But a ticket to Windsor Castle buys you access to something else as well.
0:00:35 > 0:00:39Now, many of the tourists streaming through these galleries
0:00:39 > 0:00:43haven't travelled halfway round the world to visit an art gallery,
0:00:43 > 0:00:46and yet that, along with many other things,
0:00:46 > 0:00:49is exactly what they're paying to see.
0:00:50 > 0:00:53Every room's an Aladdin's cave.
0:00:54 > 0:00:58In this case Rubens, Rubens everywhere.
0:00:58 > 0:00:59But that's not all.
0:00:59 > 0:01:01A reliquary clock.
0:01:02 > 0:01:04You can wind it up and it'll play Handel.
0:01:05 > 0:01:06Ming porcelain.
0:01:09 > 0:01:11Children of the Duke of Buckingham by Van Dyck.
0:01:11 > 0:01:15Wonderful group portrait of the family of Charles I.
0:01:16 > 0:01:19It's fantastic. And look here, look at this.
0:01:19 > 0:01:20The decorative arts as well.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22This cabinet.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26This would have taken somebody probably three years of his life to make it,
0:01:26 > 0:01:29and yet we pass through in five seconds.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39All of these things are part of the unparalleled Royal Collection.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44More than a million works of art owned by the Queen
0:01:44 > 0:01:46and handed down from monarch to monarch.
0:01:48 > 0:01:50Housed in our nation's palaces,
0:01:50 > 0:01:53as well as many other museums and institutions,
0:01:53 > 0:01:55the Royal Collection projects permanence.
0:01:55 > 0:01:59The reassuring stability of the monarchy and our nation.
0:02:01 > 0:02:05This is Britain, blowing its own trumpet.
0:02:06 > 0:02:08But scratch the surface,
0:02:08 > 0:02:11and a multitude of other stories are revealed as well.
0:02:11 > 0:02:12Oh, my word!
0:02:13 > 0:02:16The fall and rise of great dynasties.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19Private royal passions.
0:02:21 > 0:02:23Unashamed decadence.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28A ruler's quest for control.
0:02:28 > 0:02:30You can sense his aloofness,
0:02:30 > 0:02:34his total conviction that he is right and everyone else is wrong.
0:02:36 > 0:02:38In the first programme of this series,
0:02:38 > 0:02:42I'm exploring the troubled birth of the modern Royal Collection.
0:02:42 > 0:02:46When the Tudors and early Stuarts discovered the hypnotising,
0:02:46 > 0:02:48operatic powers of art...
0:02:49 > 0:02:55changing the way the nation looked at itself and its rulers.
0:02:55 > 0:02:59There's a kind of dangerous magic about the whole of this sequence.
0:02:59 > 0:03:04But then losing everything in a moment of calamity.
0:03:04 > 0:03:09The objects in the Royal Collection have been witness to and part of
0:03:09 > 0:03:11500 years of British history,
0:03:11 > 0:03:16and I believe there is no better way to get inside the minds
0:03:16 > 0:03:20of those who have worn the crown from Henry VIII to Charles I
0:03:20 > 0:03:22to Queen Victoria and beyond,
0:03:22 > 0:03:26than by looking at the objects they collected,
0:03:26 > 0:03:28they wanted to be surrounded by.
0:03:50 > 0:03:54The Royal Collection's by no means just painting and decorative arts.
0:03:56 > 0:04:01In fact, the crown jewels of the collection are the Crown Jewels.
0:04:04 > 0:04:06They embody a fundamental rule,
0:04:06 > 0:04:09that to be a monarch you have to look like one.
0:04:12 > 0:04:17And you do this by surrounding yourself with rare and storied objects.
0:04:19 > 0:04:26St Edward's Crown, weighed down by 5lb of gold, precious stones,
0:04:26 > 0:04:27and a nation's history.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34Wielding these extraordinary creations,
0:04:34 > 0:04:37even the most unremarkable individual can be transformed
0:04:37 > 0:04:39into something other -
0:04:39 > 0:04:42glorious, dazzling.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45Millions of people come to see these objects every year.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49The display cases might be modern,
0:04:49 > 0:04:52but the regalia's doing what it's always done,
0:04:52 > 0:04:55lending an aura of mystery,
0:04:55 > 0:04:58of magic, even, to the monarchy.
0:05:01 > 0:05:03And when I talk about magic,
0:05:03 > 0:05:07I'm talking about objects once invested with supernatural powers.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12The most ancient rite in the Coronation service
0:05:12 > 0:05:17is performed with holy oil and this 12th century spoon,
0:05:17 > 0:05:21an exceptionally-rare survival from the medieval English court.
0:05:23 > 0:05:28The anointing symbolises an individual reborn at the moment of coronation
0:05:28 > 0:05:32into a new person, filled with divine grace.
0:05:34 > 0:05:38- ARCHIVE:- And here in the most mysterious of the rites of coronation,
0:05:38 > 0:05:40the Archbishop anoints her with holy oil
0:05:40 > 0:05:43and consecrates her to her great office.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48A moment so sacrosanct
0:05:48 > 0:05:51but the cameras were shielded back in 1953,
0:05:51 > 0:05:55lest they steal a little piece of the monarchy's enchantment.
0:06:01 > 0:06:03The Imperial State Crown...
0:06:04 > 0:06:09..an object designed to inspire awe and loyalty.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15What a fragile, magnificent thing it is.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19The setting of this crown might be 20th century,
0:06:19 > 0:06:25but several of the gems in it have rich and ancient histories.
0:06:25 > 0:06:30The Black Prince's Ruby is said to have been worn by Henry V
0:06:30 > 0:06:32at the Battle of Agincourt.
0:06:32 > 0:06:37While the sapphire set into the very top of the crown
0:06:37 > 0:06:41is reputed to have belonged to Edward the Confessor.
0:06:41 > 0:06:47Now, kings and queens have long understood the symbolic significance of the crown.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50When this is placed on the head of an individual,
0:06:50 > 0:06:55they become other than the rest of mankind.
0:06:55 > 0:07:00They become irradiated with a sense of the divine.
0:07:03 > 0:07:06These objects don't just impart the intangible aura
0:07:06 > 0:07:08that surrounds a monarch.
0:07:08 > 0:07:10Embodied in them is a very real element of power.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15Charles II certainly understood this.
0:07:15 > 0:07:19He had seen his father executed, his crown melted down.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23But look at him brandishing his new regalia.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27Are these mere objects of state?
0:07:27 > 0:07:30Or are they a kind of shield,
0:07:30 > 0:07:32protection against the worst thing that ever happened,
0:07:32 > 0:07:34ever happening again?
0:07:36 > 0:07:39A king or queen can't wear a crown all the time,
0:07:39 > 0:07:42but they can surround themselves with great art,
0:07:42 > 0:07:46and over time the Royal Collection has come to do much the same job,
0:07:46 > 0:07:50reflecting its brilliance back onto its royal owner.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56Occasionally, you can also see a different side of the great royal
0:07:56 > 0:08:00collectors, a hint of their personalities.
0:08:01 > 0:08:06As in this painted terracotta bust of a cheerful royal child.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10What are you laughing at?
0:08:12 > 0:08:14Meet the Mona Lisa of the Royal Collection.
0:08:15 > 0:08:20Except no mysterious smile, just an enigmatic chuckle.
0:08:20 > 0:08:22In many ways,
0:08:22 > 0:08:26it's a baffling object and it certainly confused the generations.
0:08:26 > 0:08:32George IV, when he borrowed the bust to put it in Brighton Pavilion,
0:08:32 > 0:08:35referred to it as "the laughing Chinaman".
0:08:35 > 0:08:40Other scholars have seen it as a depiction of a dwarf,
0:08:40 > 0:08:44or, alternatively, a depiction of a laughing girl.
0:08:44 > 0:08:48But I think I know who it really is a portrait of.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52We know the sculptor is Guido Mazzoni,
0:08:52 > 0:08:57and it's assumed that he presented this bust to his patron Henry VII,
0:08:57 > 0:08:59around the end of the 15th century.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03So, who would he have portrayed for the King?
0:09:05 > 0:09:08Perhaps, I think for sure, his son.
0:09:08 > 0:09:15I think that this is young Henry VIII, gold headgear and all,
0:09:15 > 0:09:17having a very good time.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32I love the idea that the boy in the bust would grow to fill this suit
0:09:32 > 0:09:33of Greenwich armour.
0:09:35 > 0:09:41Henry VIII's court was a kind of theatre of Renaissance magnificence.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44When he met the King of France near Calais in 1520,
0:09:44 > 0:09:476,000 men built a temporary palace
0:09:47 > 0:09:51adorned with statues and fountains that flowed with wine.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56Henry's idea of a camping trip was certainly extravagant.
0:09:58 > 0:10:00Tupperware? No.
0:10:00 > 0:10:04He liked to impress with sideboards groaning with gold plate.
0:10:09 > 0:10:11At Hampton Court Palace,
0:10:11 > 0:10:15Henry's most impressive works of art were prominently placed on the walls
0:10:15 > 0:10:17of one of its most public spaces.
0:10:18 > 0:10:19The Great Hall.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24How better to intimidate visiting dignitaries
0:10:24 > 0:10:25on their way to see the King?
0:10:31 > 0:10:33Henry VIII can seem
0:10:33 > 0:10:36dauntingly remote to us now.
0:10:36 > 0:10:38Very little survives of his court,
0:10:38 > 0:10:44and there's almost nowhere where you can see one of his great art
0:10:44 > 0:10:48possessions hanging in the room for which it was intended.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50But there is this magnificent,
0:10:50 > 0:10:58astonishingly-expensive set of tapestries created for this space.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02We know that they hung here because this is the only room big enough
0:11:02 > 0:11:04for them to have been hung.
0:11:04 > 0:11:10These are the great tapestries telling the story of Abraham.
0:11:11 > 0:11:13They cost an absolute fortune.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17Tapestries were far more expensive than paintings.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20What magnificent things they still are,
0:11:20 > 0:11:24despite the fading of their colours with time.
0:11:24 > 0:11:29You can still see the glimmer of gold threads in their surface.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33I think that by choosing the story of Abraham,
0:11:33 > 0:11:39Henry was making very clear and direct claims about himself.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43Especially, I think, in this tapestry,
0:11:43 > 0:11:50where God comes down and anoints Abraham as the first patriarch,
0:11:50 > 0:11:54the first leader of the Jewish people.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59Can we see Henry in that?
0:11:59 > 0:12:02Henry as the chosen one,
0:12:02 > 0:12:07leading the people out of Catholic darkness
0:12:07 > 0:12:10and into the Protestant light.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13Here, perhaps most potent of all,
0:12:13 > 0:12:16and one of the most beautiful of these tapestries with its rich colours
0:12:16 > 0:12:22and beautiful, billowing drapery, it shows the sacrifice of Isaac.
0:12:22 > 0:12:27And I think we can get some sense of the allegorical meanings
0:12:27 > 0:12:30that the court might have been intended to draw from this
0:12:30 > 0:12:33from these figures that we see at the bottom.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37Particularly this one, obedience.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40Because that's what that rather terrifying tale
0:12:40 > 0:12:46of Abraham obeying God's command to sacrifice his own son,
0:12:46 > 0:12:50until the angel at the last minute intervenes.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54I think it's Henry's way of saying to his people, be obedient.
0:12:54 > 0:12:56Be obedient to me.
0:12:56 > 0:12:58In other words, within the allegory of that tapestry,
0:12:58 > 0:13:01Henry himself is God,
0:13:01 > 0:13:05and it's his people who become the Abrahams and the Isaacs.
0:13:11 > 0:13:13I rather think of Henry as the founder of the modern
0:13:13 > 0:13:15Royal Collection.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18He's the earliest king whose acquisitions have survived
0:13:18 > 0:13:23in sufficient quantity to reflect his taste and character.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27Henry was a canny judge of talent
0:13:27 > 0:13:30and he joined forces with an artist of true genius.
0:13:31 > 0:13:33In Hans Holbein the Younger,
0:13:33 > 0:13:35the King found a superlative draughtsman,
0:13:35 > 0:13:39whose painted portraits captured Henry's rule and his court.
0:13:41 > 0:13:45As can be seen by a visit to Windsor Castle's print room,
0:13:45 > 0:13:47home to the Drawing Collection.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55Here, there are over 80 Holbein drawings from Henry's reign,
0:13:55 > 0:13:58the first great age of the portrait in Britain.
0:13:59 > 0:14:03These are preparatory sketches that were gathered up and, we think,
0:14:03 > 0:14:07made into a book that the king himself kept in his study.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10A dossier of the obedient and the troublesome.
0:14:12 > 0:14:19So, nine of the greatest drawings ever produced by anybody anywhere,
0:14:19 > 0:14:20nine Holbeins.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24It's as if you're coming face-to-face
0:14:24 > 0:14:27with people from the distant past.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30They've got their faces pressed up against the glass of history,
0:14:30 > 0:14:34and here we've got Thomas More with his five o'clock stubble.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39It was the intellectual circle around Sir Thomas More
0:14:39 > 0:14:42who first brought the German-born Holbein
0:14:42 > 0:14:43to the attention of the Tudor court.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48Making the introductions is Royal Collection Trust's
0:14:48 > 0:14:49Vanessa Remington,
0:14:49 > 0:14:53who knows these individuals almost as well as her own family.
0:14:55 > 0:14:57This is Thomas More's daughter?
0:14:57 > 0:15:00Yes, this is Cicely Heron, who was his youngest,
0:15:00 > 0:15:02third and youngest daughter.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05She was very, very well-educated, educated with his son,
0:15:05 > 0:15:07which was unusual at that time.
0:15:07 > 0:15:09So she read Greek, she read Latin?
0:15:09 > 0:15:12She read Greek and Latin, she knew astronomy, mathematics, philosophy,
0:15:12 > 0:15:18logic, and some of the intelligence really comes across in the drawing.
0:15:19 > 0:15:23Members of More's circle, like Sir Henry Guildford, were humanists,
0:15:23 > 0:15:28up-to-date thinkers, who thought of themselves very much as individuals.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31They want to know about the insides of each other's minds,
0:15:31 > 0:15:35but they also want to have images of each other that they can exchange.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38Exactly. You can see where the portrait was important
0:15:38 > 0:15:42in all of this, and exchange was a key factor.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45And in England, this is the first age of the portrait.
0:15:45 > 0:15:46There had not been portraits.
0:15:46 > 0:15:49Absolutely not. So when these sitters sat to Holbein,
0:15:49 > 0:15:51they would never have seen anything like this.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57In an age when mirrors were still an expensive luxury,
0:15:57 > 0:16:01a Holbein likeness seemed positively uncanny,
0:16:01 > 0:16:04a magical conjuring of human presence.
0:16:05 > 0:16:09Small wonder that the magician himself was hired by Henry
0:16:09 > 0:16:11to be the King's painter.
0:16:11 > 0:16:13I love the selection that you've made,
0:16:13 > 0:16:17because we are moving through pretty much every layer
0:16:17 > 0:16:20- of the social hierarchy. - That's right.
0:16:20 > 0:16:26We've got royal sitters, we've got every sort of official at court,
0:16:26 > 0:16:30poets, the powerful and influential, but also those who are at court,
0:16:30 > 0:16:32but lesser figures.
0:16:32 > 0:16:34I'm very drawn to...
0:16:35 > 0:16:39..Southwell. He's got such a strong character.
0:16:39 > 0:16:41He was. He was a henchman of Thomas Cromwell,
0:16:41 > 0:16:45and he was involved in the downfall of Sir Thomas More.
0:16:45 > 0:16:46And you can see as well,
0:16:46 > 0:16:49an interesting example here of attention to detail,
0:16:49 > 0:16:52he's even included the tubercular scars,
0:16:52 > 0:16:54- which Sir Richard Southwell bore on his chin.- Oh, that's what that is.
0:16:54 > 0:16:57- And up here on the forehead. - How amazing.
0:16:57 > 0:16:59So he's certainly not flattering.
0:16:59 > 0:17:01How fantastic.
0:17:01 > 0:17:03Do you know, I'd assumed that was a bit of paper damage.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07It was thought to be a repaired tear for a while.
0:17:07 > 0:17:09How brilliant. Not a repaired tear, it's a skin tear.
0:17:09 > 0:17:11Yeah. It's a scar.
0:17:11 > 0:17:12That's fantastic.
0:17:12 > 0:17:14That's fantastic.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17I think, also, Holbein is quite responsive to the sense of the difference
0:17:17 > 0:17:19between one sitter and another.
0:17:19 > 0:17:20So, Jane Seymour.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24It's not one of my favourite Holbein drawings, because I think,
0:17:24 > 0:17:27partly because he has armoured her in the impersonality
0:17:27 > 0:17:29that he feels is befitting to a queen.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32He's really not giving anything away about her.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34This is an official picture, to me.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37Yes, Holbein knew what was required of him,
0:17:37 > 0:17:39and he was portraying a queen,
0:17:39 > 0:17:43and a queen with decorum and restraint, and that comes across.
0:17:43 > 0:17:45A tight-lipped lady.
0:17:52 > 0:17:54For Henry VIII's Palace of Whitehall,
0:17:54 > 0:17:56long since destroyed by fire,
0:17:56 > 0:18:00Holbein created an enormous mural, propaganda for the Tudor monarchy.
0:18:04 > 0:18:06A copy survives in the Royal Collection.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11Jane and Henry's long-awaited son had just been born,
0:18:11 > 0:18:13hence the King's bullish stance.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21Most daring of all, there are no royal trappings.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25Henry and Holbein knew the King's physical presence was enough.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30Who could ever out-stare this broad-shouldered giant
0:18:30 > 0:18:32with his ruthless eyes?
0:18:33 > 0:18:37The King's image was copied and copied, haunting the centuries,
0:18:37 > 0:18:40until it became not just the definitive picture of Henry,
0:18:40 > 0:18:42but of royal power itself.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50Henry VIII demonstrated the power of art.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56But his children took a very different approach.
0:18:58 > 0:19:01At the height of the Reformation, Henry's son,
0:19:01 > 0:19:03the deeply-Protestant Edward VI,
0:19:03 > 0:19:06ordered that the thousands of paintings and carvings
0:19:06 > 0:19:09that had filled English churches for centuries
0:19:09 > 0:19:12be smashed or whitewashed over.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19A few ghosts survive, but everything else went.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23The greatest destruction of art in the history not just of British,
0:19:23 > 0:19:25but of all European civilisation.
0:19:29 > 0:19:33What Edward began, his sister Elizabeth I continued.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36And when it came to secular art,
0:19:36 > 0:19:39Elizabeth understood that the royal portrait could now occupy a special
0:19:39 > 0:19:46place in the Protestant age as a new kind of icon, an object of devotion.
0:19:48 > 0:19:50You can see this in the Royal Collection's
0:19:50 > 0:19:523,000 portrait miniatures,
0:19:52 > 0:19:56which include some of the finest examples by masters of the form -
0:19:56 > 0:20:01Isaac Oliver and Elizabeth's court artist, Nicholas Hilliard.
0:20:03 > 0:20:07So from the portrait, suddenly you get this development,
0:20:07 > 0:20:12which becomes a positive obsession in Elizabeth's time
0:20:12 > 0:20:15with the notion of the miniature portrait, or keepsake.
0:20:15 > 0:20:19Something that can be worn close to the heart,
0:20:19 > 0:20:25an image that can be put inside a locket to demonstrate
0:20:25 > 0:20:27love, affection, closeness.
0:20:28 > 0:20:29This is...
0:20:30 > 0:20:34I think this is one of the greatest miniatures ever painted.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37We're not sure, we don't know who it's of.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41It's a man in a landscape,
0:20:41 > 0:20:43and he looks at us with this...
0:20:44 > 0:20:51Oh, infinitely soulful, melancholic expression on his face.
0:20:52 > 0:20:54He's so miserable.
0:20:54 > 0:20:56He really needs someone else to be with him.
0:20:58 > 0:21:03But in Elizabeth's case, and these four images are all of Elizabeth...
0:21:04 > 0:21:10..it isn't just about love, I think it's also about realpolitik.
0:21:10 > 0:21:16Her very canny sense of how to use the image
0:21:16 > 0:21:20to promote her political ends.
0:21:20 > 0:21:26We see her first of all in this image as a relatively-young lady.
0:21:26 > 0:21:31Here she is again, early 30s, determined young woman.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34A very fine costume, roses in her hair.
0:21:34 > 0:21:39Now, she's in her 50s.
0:21:39 > 0:21:41She's a little bit weathered by age,
0:21:41 > 0:21:44but you still wouldn't want to cross her.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49And the best of all, I think, is this image.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53She's now near the end of her reign, it's the 1590s.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56I'm going to pick it up, because I think when you pick it up,
0:21:56 > 0:21:59you really feel the power of the image.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03I'm holding the Queen in my hand.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07But if I'm one of her courtiers,
0:22:07 > 0:22:12and I've been given this image to wear close to my heart,
0:22:12 > 0:22:15I know that it's not really me in control of her,
0:22:15 > 0:22:19it's her in control of me.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23No monarch policed the royal image more fiercely than Elizabeth.
0:22:25 > 0:22:28All likenesses had to adhere to a standard template.
0:22:30 > 0:22:32And what she's done, which was
0:22:32 > 0:22:34brilliantly clever...
0:22:35 > 0:22:40..in this new age in England where no religious images are allowed,
0:22:40 > 0:22:43images of the Saints - proscribed,
0:22:43 > 0:22:46images of the Virgin Mary - proscribed,
0:22:46 > 0:22:52she, the Queen, has taken on to herself all of those ancient,
0:22:52 > 0:22:54magical properties of the image.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57She has become the Virgin Mary.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03This notion of the monarch as semi-divine only grew in strength
0:23:03 > 0:23:06after Elizabeth's death in 1603,
0:23:06 > 0:23:10not least because the incoming Stuarts truly believed
0:23:10 > 0:23:12they had a divine right to the throne.
0:23:14 > 0:23:18These long-time kings of Scotland had just inherited the Tudor crown,
0:23:18 > 0:23:19lands and palaces.
0:23:20 > 0:23:24Had a dynasty ever been so favoured by the Almighty?
0:23:24 > 0:23:29And if the present seemed bright, the future seemed brighter still.
0:23:29 > 0:23:34The young heir to the throne, Henry, Prince of Wales, was handsome,
0:23:34 > 0:23:40dashing, intelligent, a gifted swordsman, a master jouster.
0:23:40 > 0:23:44This young man was destined one day for the Crown.
0:23:44 > 0:23:46The future Henry IX.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49Would he be perhaps the greatest king of all?
0:23:51 > 0:23:54Henry's proud father, James I,
0:23:54 > 0:23:59instructed his son that he was made a little god to rule over men.
0:24:00 > 0:24:06And in portraits, Henry was shown wearing a spectacular exoskeleton,
0:24:06 > 0:24:10a suit of Greenwich armour, still kept at Windsor Castle.
0:24:12 > 0:24:16It's being shown to me by Simon Metcalf, the Queen's armourer.
0:24:20 > 0:24:21So it all clips together,
0:24:21 > 0:24:25this fantastically-elaborate piece of military kit?
0:24:25 > 0:24:27That's exactly right.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30It's completely handmade in about 1608,
0:24:30 > 0:24:32and the balance is to protect you
0:24:32 > 0:24:35but you also have to be able to fight,
0:24:35 > 0:24:36and you have to be able to perform.
0:24:36 > 0:24:39You could run in this, you could jump in it.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43I mean, I notice the thistle, his father is James VI of Scotland,
0:24:43 > 0:24:44James I of England.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47So they're emphasising that he's the heir to the throne,
0:24:47 > 0:24:49he's the heir to the Scottish throne as well.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52But how do they achieve this fantastic golden decoration?
0:24:52 > 0:24:56It's been chased and embossed and etched,
0:24:56 > 0:24:59and then they've used a mixture of mercury and gold leaf
0:24:59 > 0:25:00that's put on in a paste.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03And then that's heated up and the mercury's driven away,
0:25:03 > 0:25:08very dangerous, but leaves this wonderful gold, contrasting gold colour.
0:25:08 > 0:25:09But even more incredible,
0:25:09 > 0:25:16this finish can only be achieved by heating the metal to between 285-295
0:25:16 > 0:25:19degrees C, and you get this wonderful blue appearance
0:25:19 > 0:25:21- appearing on the steel. - So, it's actually, you know,
0:25:21 > 0:25:25although it's spectacular, this contrast, I see black and gold.
0:25:25 > 0:25:28- Yes.- We would have actually been seeing a kind of peacock blue.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32Yes. But it only occurs at this very particular heat.
0:25:32 > 0:25:34It's something from another world, isn't it?
0:25:34 > 0:25:36I mean, what do you imagine people, I don't know,
0:25:36 > 0:25:41were he to ride out onto the streets of London one day in the early 17th
0:25:41 > 0:25:43century, what on earth would they make of him?
0:25:43 > 0:25:44It must have been absolutely amazing.
0:25:44 > 0:25:49I believe it's like somebody arriving from Mars, honestly.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52Nobody else would have an armour like this on horseback.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54Can you imagine it in the daylight, glittering?
0:25:54 > 0:25:56- In the sun.- Gold, blue.
0:25:56 > 0:26:00- Amazing.- With feathers. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:26:00 > 0:26:05And that essential part of Stuart kingship was this belief that the king
0:26:05 > 0:26:09really is not part of the human race in the same sense as the rest of us.
0:26:09 > 0:26:11He has a hotline to God.
0:26:11 > 0:26:14He has been anointed by God, he's divinely appointed.
0:26:14 > 0:26:17Perhaps armour like this on a sunny day in London makes you...
0:26:18 > 0:26:19..really believe it's true.
0:26:19 > 0:26:21I think it would.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24And then for the person wearing it, if you wear armour,
0:26:24 > 0:26:27you feel invincible.
0:26:27 > 0:26:29So, it's going both ways.
0:26:32 > 0:26:37But the destiny of the Stuarts was to be twisted on fortune's wheel.
0:26:37 > 0:26:41In November 1612, Henry, still a teenager,
0:26:41 > 0:26:45contracted typhoid and died at St James's Palace.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51Heir to the throne was now Henry's younger brother,
0:26:51 > 0:26:53the rather less promising Charles, Duke of York.
0:26:55 > 0:26:59Charles was just 12 years old, and physically unimpressive.
0:26:59 > 0:27:04Slight, short, with weak ankle joints probably caused by rickets,
0:27:04 > 0:27:08and a stammer that would afflict him throughout his life.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12But now, he had to step into his older brother's boots.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15Suddenly, he was destined to be king.
0:27:17 > 0:27:19So, here's a question:
0:27:19 > 0:27:22how did weedy Charles, Duke of York,
0:27:22 > 0:27:25become one of the most glamorous kings ever immortalised in paint?
0:27:28 > 0:27:30As Charles I,
0:27:30 > 0:27:34he would grow into the greatest royal collector in all of British history...
0:27:36 > 0:27:40..releasing royal taste from the stiffness of the Tudor past
0:27:40 > 0:27:42into the Baroque sensuality of a new age.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49The transformation began when Charles was just 22.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52He gained his father's permission to travel to Spain,
0:27:52 > 0:27:54and win the hand of the Spanish Infanta.
0:27:55 > 0:27:57So, wearing a false beard
0:27:57 > 0:28:00and accompanied by the Duke of Buckingham,
0:28:00 > 0:28:02Charles set out for the continent.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07They travelled incognito, taking the back roads to Dover.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10In fact, they got rumbled pretty early on.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13Taking the ferry across the river at Gravesend,
0:28:13 > 0:28:18Charles had nothing but a single 20 shilling gold coin
0:28:18 > 0:28:20to pay the boatman -
0:28:20 > 0:28:25the equivalent of trying to pay a cabbie now with a £1,000 note.
0:28:25 > 0:28:28The boatman reported him to the authorities,
0:28:28 > 0:28:33and Buckingham and Charles were stopped, briefly detained.
0:28:33 > 0:28:34You can imagine the scene.
0:28:34 > 0:28:37"Oh, I'm so sorry your Highness, proceed."
0:28:38 > 0:28:43Proceed they did, and once they reached Madrid's Alcazar Palace,
0:28:43 > 0:28:46Charles witnessed the splendour of the Spanish King,
0:28:46 > 0:28:49and a Catholic Imperial court, at first hand.
0:28:50 > 0:28:54Charles fell in love, but not with a princess.
0:28:55 > 0:29:01Few nobles and princes from England had travelled to the continent since
0:29:01 > 0:29:02the Reformation,
0:29:02 > 0:29:04so they'd never seen the art of the high Renaissance,
0:29:04 > 0:29:08they'd never seen Titan, Raphael,
0:29:08 > 0:29:10the great painting of the Baroque period.
0:29:10 > 0:29:15Charles now experienced that on the Continent in its true context,
0:29:15 > 0:29:17and he was entranced, enchanted.
0:29:17 > 0:29:19He had to have more of it.
0:29:19 > 0:29:24And the greatest legacy of his trip was in fact a whole series of
0:29:24 > 0:29:28carriages coming the other way, back from the continent towards London,
0:29:28 > 0:29:32carrying the art that he had acquired.
0:29:37 > 0:29:41And how strange Charles's Spanish acquisitions must have seemed
0:29:41 > 0:29:44when they were unpacked back in rainy London.
0:29:46 > 0:29:49Is this really what they get up to on the Continent?
0:29:54 > 0:29:55As a souvenir,
0:29:55 > 0:29:58Charles gave this sculpture by Giambologna
0:29:58 > 0:30:00to his travelling companion, Buckingham...
0:30:02 > 0:30:05..who put it in his garden to startle passers-by.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14This sculpture was a very adventurous object
0:30:14 > 0:30:17for a young royal to bring back to England.
0:30:17 > 0:30:19What do we get from it?
0:30:20 > 0:30:23The sense that there's something a little bit extreme
0:30:23 > 0:30:25about Charles's taste.
0:30:25 > 0:30:29Very sensual, very passionate.
0:30:29 > 0:30:34He likes art that's got a little taste of danger about it.
0:30:36 > 0:30:41Charles was now competing as a collector with the crowned heads of Europe,
0:30:41 > 0:30:44and in Madrid he negotiated the purchase of seven enormous
0:30:44 > 0:30:49coloured drawings by a master of the Renaissance, Raphael.
0:30:50 > 0:30:55The Raphael cartoons are now on long-term loan to the V&A in London.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00I think they represented to him the Renaissance
0:31:00 > 0:31:06that England had never had, that the Reformation had prevented.
0:31:06 > 0:31:08So this was his way
0:31:08 > 0:31:12of getting a piece of the Renaissance, seven pieces of it.
0:31:15 > 0:31:19But he also had a very straightforward and practical reason
0:31:19 > 0:31:25for buying them, because these are the Raphael cartoons,
0:31:25 > 0:31:31and they're called cartoons because they are all preparatory designs
0:31:31 > 0:31:32for tapestries.
0:31:33 > 0:31:35These blueprints were intended to give a boost
0:31:35 > 0:31:38to the English tapestry industry,
0:31:38 > 0:31:42but Raphael's designs were originally created for the Sistine Chapel -
0:31:42 > 0:31:44inner sanctum of the Catholic Church.
0:31:46 > 0:31:49Did the young prince just love art so much that he sometimes forgot
0:31:49 > 0:31:52its more dangerous meanings?
0:31:53 > 0:31:58You have to say that the association of these images in England
0:31:58 > 0:32:03in the 1620s is potentially incendiary.
0:32:05 > 0:32:06Christ...
0:32:08 > 0:32:10..anoints Peter.
0:32:11 > 0:32:16And that gesture announces Peter as the first Pope,
0:32:16 > 0:32:21and by implication every subsequent Pope is likewise anointed.
0:32:21 > 0:32:25But, to a Protestant, to a Puritan, the Pope...
0:32:26 > 0:32:27..represents the Antichrist.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32In buying works by Raphael, Charles, in his mind,
0:32:32 > 0:32:34was showing off his taste.
0:32:34 > 0:32:37He was to be England's first connoisseur King.
0:32:40 > 0:32:42And in the 17th century,
0:32:42 > 0:32:46the most desirable works for any collector were Italian.
0:32:49 > 0:32:53But getting hold of the very best Italian art was extremely difficult.
0:32:56 > 0:32:58Shortly after he came to the throne,
0:32:58 > 0:33:03Charles attempted to persuade the Italian painter Guercino
0:33:03 > 0:33:06to come to London to be his artist.
0:33:06 > 0:33:10But Guercino said no, London was too far away,
0:33:10 > 0:33:13too far north, too cold,
0:33:13 > 0:33:15too many heretics lived there.
0:33:16 > 0:33:18But despite his disadvantages,
0:33:18 > 0:33:21Charles did become one of the greatest collectors of Italian art
0:33:21 > 0:33:22in all of history.
0:33:22 > 0:33:23And how did he manage it?
0:33:26 > 0:33:29The answer is a caper.
0:33:29 > 0:33:33He pulled a stunt, and it happened here in Mantua,
0:33:33 > 0:33:35the very first Italian Job.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41Some people here still think Mantua is the scene of a crime.
0:33:43 > 0:33:45The Palazzo Ducale,
0:33:45 > 0:33:48principal seat of the family who ruled Mantua for 400 years,
0:33:48 > 0:33:50the Gonzaga.
0:33:53 > 0:33:55The walls are bare now,
0:33:55 > 0:33:59but once these rooms were filled with dazzling works of art.
0:34:00 > 0:34:04The Gonzaga court owned one of the greatest collections in the world,
0:34:04 > 0:34:09built up steadily since the family's zenith in the 15th century.
0:34:09 > 0:34:13DOOR CREAKS
0:34:17 > 0:34:21It's taken them centuries to get that creak right.
0:34:21 > 0:34:27This is the nerve centre of the Ducal Palace at Mantua,
0:34:27 > 0:34:29the Camera Degli Sposi,
0:34:29 > 0:34:36once the bedroom and the state apartment of the Gonzaga Princes.
0:34:36 > 0:34:42The whole room was decorated by the great Andrea Mantegna.
0:34:42 > 0:34:47What did Mantegna give his masters to look at?
0:34:47 > 0:34:50Well, images of themselves.
0:34:50 > 0:34:55What a watchful, hard-faced clan they are.
0:34:55 > 0:34:58And up above, all around,
0:34:58 > 0:35:03you have these images of different Roman Caesars...
0:35:04 > 0:35:06..very significant.
0:35:06 > 0:35:10The Gonzaga at that time saw themselves
0:35:10 > 0:35:15as modern versions of the old Roman Emperors, such was their power.
0:35:19 > 0:35:21But wind forward to the 17th century,
0:35:21 > 0:35:24and the dynasty was in terminal decline.
0:35:27 > 0:35:28A conspiracy was hatched...
0:35:29 > 0:35:32..between the Gonzaga and Charles's agent in Italy...
0:35:33 > 0:35:36..to sell the treasures to the English King.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42When word got out, the people of Mantua protested,
0:35:42 > 0:35:45even offering to pay to keep the works in their city.
0:35:46 > 0:35:51This was their heritage, their culture being purloined by a foreign power.
0:35:52 > 0:35:56Nevertheless, a rather complicated deal was done.
0:35:56 > 0:36:01At the end of which, Charles had forked out £30,000
0:36:01 > 0:36:06in exchange for crate after crate after crate of masterpieces.
0:36:06 > 0:36:11Pictures by Caravaggio, Raphael, Titian,
0:36:11 > 0:36:14making their way to far-off England.
0:36:21 > 0:36:24The Mantua purchases in the present collection show art in England
0:36:24 > 0:36:28being taken from 0-60 as fast as a Ferrari.
0:36:30 > 0:36:33Poetic, atmospheric, seemingly from another world,
0:36:33 > 0:36:35yet miraculously natural.
0:36:35 > 0:36:40Remember, art on a grand scale had barely been seen in this country
0:36:40 > 0:36:42since the Reformation,
0:36:42 > 0:36:46so there'd been no native flowering of the Renaissance or the Baroque.
0:36:46 > 0:36:48But here it all was,
0:36:48 > 0:36:51arriving from abroad in one job lot.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56It was held that the greatest of all the Gonzaga treasures
0:36:56 > 0:36:58were nine canvases by Andrea Mantegna,
0:36:58 > 0:37:00The Triumphs of Caesar.
0:37:03 > 0:37:05Charles placed them on display at Hampton Court,
0:37:05 > 0:37:08and here they still are.
0:37:09 > 0:37:13These are The Triumphs of Caesar, and there is the man himself.
0:37:13 > 0:37:19Caesar on his chariot, stern of face, ruthless.
0:37:19 > 0:37:24Before him, a great tide of humanity and possessions.
0:37:24 > 0:37:30Everything that he has come back with from his conquests.
0:37:30 > 0:37:34Not just objects but people, there are the captives.
0:37:34 > 0:37:40They include women and children as well as sullen-faced, defeated men.
0:37:41 > 0:37:48There is the armour of the army that his has defeated,
0:37:48 > 0:37:52and now we begin to see the spoils of war...
0:37:53 > 0:37:57..borne by elephants, by people, by oxen.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01There are vases, there's plate, there's...
0:38:02 > 0:38:05..precious arrays of sculpture.
0:38:05 > 0:38:07More armour.
0:38:07 > 0:38:09The booty piles up.
0:38:09 > 0:38:11But there's a dark side to it all, too,
0:38:11 > 0:38:16a slight feeling of Christian unease,
0:38:16 > 0:38:18Christian revulsion.
0:38:18 > 0:38:23Look at this figure of a soldier...
0:38:24 > 0:38:29..in the middle of the procession, lost in thought.
0:38:29 > 0:38:34He's one of the victors, but he, more than anyone else,
0:38:34 > 0:38:36seems to be counting the cost.
0:38:38 > 0:38:39And I think if you...
0:38:40 > 0:38:46If you were to take his expression away with you and apply it,
0:38:46 > 0:38:51if you like, to the meaning of this whole vast panorama of triumph...
0:38:52 > 0:38:55..I think you might come away with the thought that, yes...
0:38:56 > 0:39:03..every great civilisation is founded on a crime.
0:39:03 > 0:39:06There's a kind of dangerous magic about the picture.
0:39:08 > 0:39:11And in fact I think there's a kind of dangerous magic
0:39:11 > 0:39:16about the whole of this sequence of nine great paintings.
0:39:16 > 0:39:20And their history is almost part of their message, because...
0:39:22 > 0:39:26..as power passes from the Gonzaga to Charles,
0:39:26 > 0:39:28he purchases them.
0:39:29 > 0:39:31But when Charles falls...
0:39:32 > 0:39:34..what happens to his great art collection?
0:39:36 > 0:39:40The pictures might almost be a prediction of it,
0:39:40 > 0:39:45because this is what Cromwell will do to Charles's paintings.
0:39:46 > 0:39:51He will form them into a great caravan and send them away.
0:39:54 > 0:39:56For now, the Royal Collection was safe,
0:39:56 > 0:40:00carefully guarded behind the walls of Charles's palaces.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04Its epicentre was still the Palace of Whitehall.
0:40:05 > 0:40:09The only substantial part of which to survive is the banqueting house,
0:40:09 > 0:40:12adorned with a ceiling by Rubens.
0:40:13 > 0:40:15Is that a Saint ascending to heaven?
0:40:15 > 0:40:17No, it's a Stuart King.
0:40:17 > 0:40:20Charles's father, James I.
0:40:21 > 0:40:24But this is just one fragment of a lost palace
0:40:24 > 0:40:26that overflowed with art.
0:40:27 > 0:40:31In the cabinet room at Whitehall were no less than 73 paintings...
0:40:33 > 0:40:35..including Giorgione's Judith.
0:40:37 > 0:40:40A painting of Lucretia thought to be by Titian.
0:40:40 > 0:40:42Mantegna's Death of the Virgin.
0:40:43 > 0:40:45Raphael's St George and the Dragon.
0:40:45 > 0:40:48And, if that wasn't enough,
0:40:48 > 0:40:51Leonardo Da Vinci's St John the Baptist.
0:40:56 > 0:41:00In 1625, Charles had appointed a Dutch medal maker,
0:41:00 > 0:41:01Abraham Van Der Doort,
0:41:01 > 0:41:06as surveyor of all our pictures at Whitehall and other houses.
0:41:07 > 0:41:09It's a role that still exists,
0:41:09 > 0:41:12and is currently held by Desmond Shawe-Taylor.
0:41:14 > 0:41:18This is an inventory, a manuscript inventory,
0:41:18 > 0:41:21written by Abraham Van Der Doort,
0:41:21 > 0:41:25the first holder of my job, the surveyor of the Queen's pictures,
0:41:25 > 0:41:29and it's a list of everything in the cabinet room at Whitehall.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32He gives the... He says, for example here, it says,
0:41:32 > 0:41:34"A Mantua piece done by Titian."
0:41:34 > 0:41:37Now, somebody's decided that his spelling of Titian...
0:41:38 > 0:41:41..pretty illegible, is not correct, so he's corrected that.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44It might even be Charles I correcting his spelling there.
0:41:44 > 0:41:46This had a very high value, I think it was even £200.
0:41:46 > 0:41:49It's a Lucretia, which is still in the collection.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52And it's interesting that it describes it as holding
0:41:52 > 0:41:56with her left hand a red veil over her face.
0:41:56 > 0:42:00It's not absolutely obvious that that's how to interpret the painting now,
0:42:00 > 0:42:03so he's clearly reading the painting and suggesting
0:42:03 > 0:42:06she's holding the veil out of shame, I think is the idea.
0:42:06 > 0:42:08Goodness. It's quite detailed.
0:42:08 > 0:42:10Yeah, very, very detailed indeed.
0:42:10 > 0:42:14I mean, it strikes me that he's a king who wants someone to write down
0:42:14 > 0:42:17everything that he's got. He is seeking to introduce, perhaps,
0:42:17 > 0:42:19a bit more order into the Royal Collection
0:42:19 > 0:42:21than has hitherto existed.
0:42:21 > 0:42:25Completely, and I think order always starts in a cabinet room
0:42:25 > 0:42:30because a cabinet room contains coins, medals, silver, reliefs, precious books.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33And the cabinet room for Charles I, it's in Whitehall Palace.
0:42:33 > 0:42:36- In Whitehall, yes.- And it's almost the Fort Knox of the collection.
0:42:36 > 0:42:38It's where the very most precious things are kept.
0:42:38 > 0:42:40It is completely that,
0:42:40 > 0:42:43and there's a lot of discussion in Van Der Doort's manuscripts,
0:42:43 > 0:42:44particularly the draft manuscripts,
0:42:44 > 0:42:47about arguments with other members of the household
0:42:47 > 0:42:49as to whether they've got a key or not,
0:42:49 > 0:42:53whether they've been removing a coin or not.
0:42:53 > 0:42:56And you can see this man sort of struggling with a household
0:42:56 > 0:43:00where people are obviously coming from all sorts of different directions with different agendas.
0:43:00 > 0:43:03So, it's sort of the sound of a Dutchman sweating.
0:43:04 > 0:43:06It is. I mean it is...
0:43:06 > 0:43:09And you really feel for him.
0:43:09 > 0:43:10In the end he committed suicide,
0:43:10 > 0:43:13and it was said that he did so because he worried
0:43:13 > 0:43:15that he had lost a miniature,
0:43:15 > 0:43:19which had been personally assigned to him by the King,
0:43:19 > 0:43:22- which he in fact had not lost, so it's a sort of tragic...- Oh, no!
0:43:22 > 0:43:24That's one account.
0:43:24 > 0:43:27So, he killed himself because he thought he'd lost the miniature,
0:43:27 > 0:43:30but in fact he'd just put it in the fridge or something, so to speak.
0:43:30 > 0:43:33- I've done that with my car keys! - It's like losing your glasses.
0:43:33 > 0:43:35Exactly! That's terrible!
0:43:39 > 0:43:43By the 1630s, Charles was at the apex of his power.
0:43:45 > 0:43:48Parliament had been dissolved indefinitely.
0:43:48 > 0:43:50The King governed by personal rule...
0:43:51 > 0:43:54..or tyranny, depending on your historical perspective.
0:43:57 > 0:43:59And in this new political climate,
0:43:59 > 0:44:03Charles forged a partnership with a former assistant of Rubens,
0:44:03 > 0:44:06whom he lured to England in 1632.
0:44:08 > 0:44:09Anthony Van Dyck.
0:44:13 > 0:44:16Never had a king and his painter being better matched.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20Charles would visit Van Dyck's Thames-side studio to sit for him
0:44:20 > 0:44:24and, presumably, discuss art with a like mind.
0:44:27 > 0:44:31I've come to Buckingham Palace to see the result of their collaboration,
0:44:31 > 0:44:34a glamorous new vision of royal power.
0:44:35 > 0:44:37I'm hoping it's here, in the East...
0:44:37 > 0:44:38Yes, it is.
0:44:38 > 0:44:40This is the painting I've come to see,
0:44:40 > 0:44:44Van Dyck's portrait of Charles I on horseback,
0:44:44 > 0:44:49with his equerry, Monsieur De St Antoine.
0:44:49 > 0:44:53What a masterpiece, and what a shockingly new,
0:44:53 > 0:44:56extraordinary type of royal painting.
0:44:56 > 0:44:58When it was first created,
0:44:58 > 0:45:02no-one in England had seen anything like this before.
0:45:02 > 0:45:06Think of Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII.
0:45:06 > 0:45:10Impressive, yes, but nonetheless static, frozen,
0:45:10 > 0:45:15compared to this swirl of Baroque movement.
0:45:15 > 0:45:17This is painted theatre.
0:45:17 > 0:45:21And the horse is loaded with symbolism.
0:45:21 > 0:45:27In this type of Baroque portraiture, the horse stands for the nation
0:45:27 > 0:45:31that Charles, its rider, rules.
0:45:31 > 0:45:36If you see, it's raised one fore leg and one hind leg
0:45:36 > 0:45:43at the slightest pressure from Charles's kid-booted foot.
0:45:43 > 0:45:47But imagine how this picture must have struck those who first saw it,
0:45:47 > 0:45:51where they first saw it, hung in St James's Palace...
0:45:53 > 0:45:57..a Tudor building, much, much smaller.
0:45:57 > 0:46:03And this painting was hung at the far end of the room,
0:46:03 > 0:46:04where it filled the wall.
0:46:06 > 0:46:08It was like a magnificent illusion.
0:46:08 > 0:46:12You would have had the feeling that Charles was actually riding into the
0:46:12 > 0:46:16room, to impress you with his mastery of his horse, his nation.
0:46:18 > 0:46:20In the Royal Collection,
0:46:20 > 0:46:23you can see Van Dyck ripping up the rules of English portraiture.
0:46:24 > 0:46:26He plays with light,
0:46:26 > 0:46:30comparing the gleam in a jewel to the gleam in a human eye.
0:46:33 > 0:46:35And he introduces a new intimacy to British art.
0:46:39 > 0:46:40This is a royal family.
0:46:41 > 0:46:44Henrietta Maria, the first Queen of England ever painted,
0:46:44 > 0:46:46holding a baby.
0:46:48 > 0:46:50But Van Dyck's greatest royal portrait was created
0:46:50 > 0:46:52for an audience of one,
0:46:52 > 0:46:55the great sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini,
0:46:55 > 0:46:59who needed source material for a marble bust of the King.
0:47:00 > 0:47:02Van Dyck sent him this,
0:47:02 > 0:47:06a study of a man prematurely worn down by power.
0:47:07 > 0:47:10I saw it out of its frame at Royal Collection Trust's
0:47:10 > 0:47:12conservation studios,
0:47:12 > 0:47:15as it was worked on by conservator Nicola Christie.
0:47:17 > 0:47:19Nicola, I don't want to break your concentration
0:47:19 > 0:47:22but would you mind explaining to me
0:47:22 > 0:47:23what you're looking for?
0:47:23 > 0:47:25Well, the painting's going out on loan,
0:47:25 > 0:47:30so I'm checking it against existing photographs and reports,
0:47:30 > 0:47:32to make sure that the condition hasn't changed.
0:47:32 > 0:47:34It's a curious object in some ways,
0:47:34 > 0:47:36because it's a work of art designed
0:47:36 > 0:47:39- to enable another work of art to be created.- Absolutely.
0:47:39 > 0:47:40This painting had a function, yes.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43It's a sort of three-dimensional painting, isn't it?
0:47:43 > 0:47:46Yes, and possibly also Van Dyck saying to Bernini,
0:47:46 > 0:47:47"Well, better that!"
0:47:47 > 0:47:53The colours are just superb, and the face, when you put your light on it,
0:47:53 > 0:47:55it's interesting, it really comes to light.
0:47:55 > 0:47:57- It does.- The skin tones.
0:47:57 > 0:48:00Yes, and the hands, the back of the hand is so colourful too.
0:48:00 > 0:48:04Yeah. And you've got your magnifying glasses.
0:48:04 > 0:48:06Yes, at my age you need to wear these.
0:48:06 > 0:48:07I think I need one of those.
0:48:07 > 0:48:12And in fact, I see that there's a pair over there, which I'm going to borrow.
0:48:12 > 0:48:15- Welcome to my world. - No, this is great.
0:48:15 > 0:48:17- Oh, this is great.- Yes.
0:48:17 > 0:48:18Goodness me.
0:48:19 > 0:48:21The painting of the eye is just...
0:48:21 > 0:48:24I mean, they're surprisingly colourful, aren't they,
0:48:24 > 0:48:27these sort of rather red-rimmed eyes.
0:48:27 > 0:48:29There's a little touch of yellow here.
0:48:29 > 0:48:32And the highlights, the catch lights are actually blue.
0:48:32 > 0:48:36And tell me about how he's done the lace, because it's very fine.
0:48:36 > 0:48:39Well, yes, but if you look at it, it is painted very, very swiftly.
0:48:39 > 0:48:43He's actually added these touches of red that you see
0:48:43 > 0:48:47of his garment underneath the lace, he's actually added those.
0:48:47 > 0:48:49- They're on top of the white. - They're on top.- Yes...
0:48:49 > 0:48:51He hasn't painted the gaps, he's just...
0:48:51 > 0:48:52That seems perverse.
0:48:52 > 0:48:56It's almost as if he's painted the lace backwards.
0:48:56 > 0:48:57Yes, he has.
0:48:57 > 0:48:59It strikes me that of all the pictures of Charles...
0:49:01 > 0:49:03..this is the one,
0:49:03 > 0:49:07or these are the three, that somehow take you closest to his...
0:49:09 > 0:49:10..rather difficult character.
0:49:11 > 0:49:16You really feel that you can sense his aloofness.
0:49:18 > 0:49:21His determination, his total conviction
0:49:21 > 0:49:24that he is right and everyone else is wrong.
0:49:26 > 0:49:31This is where Charles's art joins up with the march of great events.
0:49:31 > 0:49:35The King spent less on paintings than he did on other forms of display -
0:49:35 > 0:49:38clothes, lavish court entertainments.
0:49:38 > 0:49:42But they were all part of a gilded bubble into which he would retreat.
0:49:43 > 0:49:46Cocooned within, Charles was evermore distant
0:49:46 > 0:49:48from the nation that he ruled.
0:49:51 > 0:49:53With the country on the brink of civil war,
0:49:53 > 0:49:57Van Dyck produced a distillation of Charles's artistic vision.
0:49:59 > 0:50:04A single glorious image that I'm going to see at Kensington Palace,
0:50:04 > 0:50:07a warning to those who would seek out beauty.
0:50:10 > 0:50:14Ah... Here you are.
0:50:16 > 0:50:20There are more than a million objects in the Royal Collection.
0:50:20 > 0:50:23Over 7,000 paintings.
0:50:24 > 0:50:29But if I had to choose my desert island object,
0:50:29 > 0:50:33the one thing that I could take home and keep in my house,
0:50:33 > 0:50:36hang on my wall, I'd choose this -
0:50:36 > 0:50:37Cupid and Psyche.
0:50:39 > 0:50:42For my money, the greatest painting in the Royal Collection,
0:50:42 > 0:50:45an absolute astonishing masterpiece,
0:50:45 > 0:50:49painted just a year before Van Dyck died.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52His greatest work.
0:50:52 > 0:50:57An image of love painted with immense love.
0:50:57 > 0:50:59Such a beautiful thing.
0:51:01 > 0:51:06Psyche is a mortal woman, lover of Cupid, god of desire.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09She's been asked by Cupid's mother, Venus, to go to the underworld
0:51:09 > 0:51:12and come back with a box containing beauty.
0:51:12 > 0:51:15Psyche is overcome with curiosity.
0:51:16 > 0:51:18Venus has tricked her.
0:51:18 > 0:51:21It contains sleep, and not just any kind of sleep.
0:51:21 > 0:51:26Stygian sleep, the eternal sleep of death.
0:51:27 > 0:51:30Psyche falls down in a dead faint.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37And Cupid has come to save her.
0:51:39 > 0:51:43He will brush the sleep from her body,
0:51:43 > 0:51:48that's the meaning of his outstretched right hand.
0:51:50 > 0:51:56At this moment, 1639, 1640, British art suddenly, and for a very,
0:51:56 > 0:51:59very short moment,
0:51:59 > 0:52:05joins the great traditions of continental post-Renaissance art,
0:52:05 > 0:52:09from which it had been severed by the Reformation.
0:52:09 > 0:52:11But now, under Charles I, it's back.
0:52:12 > 0:52:16British art suddenly has its Titian, he's called Anthony Van Dyck.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19That's why this is such a significant painting.
0:52:19 > 0:52:23We often think of Stuart art as representing a kind of ending,
0:52:23 > 0:52:27as being doom-laden, as having the shadow of death about it.
0:52:27 > 0:52:30But this picture, this picture is a fresh start.
0:52:30 > 0:52:34It's a dawn. This is where art would have gone in this country
0:52:34 > 0:52:37if Charles I had lived.
0:52:38 > 0:52:40It would have gone in this direction.
0:52:40 > 0:52:44This is what we would have had all over the palaces of the Royal family,
0:52:44 > 0:52:47all over our aristocratic homes.
0:52:47 > 0:52:49This is what British art would have become, but it didn't.
0:52:50 > 0:52:51It didn't.
0:52:53 > 0:52:58Shortly after Cupid and Psyche was completed, Van Dyck was dead,
0:52:58 > 0:53:00and civil war had broken out.
0:53:05 > 0:53:09The paintings and treasures of the Royal Collection gathered dust
0:53:09 > 0:53:11in abandoned Royal palaces.
0:53:12 > 0:53:14A nation tore itself apart.
0:53:17 > 0:53:22In December 1648, a few weeks before going on trial for his life,
0:53:22 > 0:53:24Charles was a prisoner at Windsor Castle.
0:53:26 > 0:53:29A relic from this time is still part of the Royal Collection.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34Despite the King's reduced circumstances,
0:53:34 > 0:53:37he was initially afforded a degree of Royal respect.
0:53:38 > 0:53:40Then suddenly there's a great change.
0:53:40 > 0:53:44Orders are given that Charles is to be treated less like a king
0:53:44 > 0:53:47and more like a prisoner.
0:53:47 > 0:53:51The days are short and the nights are getting long.
0:53:51 > 0:53:56What does he do to console himself during this darkest period of his life?
0:53:58 > 0:54:00This is one of the things that he does.
0:54:00 > 0:54:05This is Charles's very own copy of Shakespeare,
0:54:05 > 0:54:09the second folio edition published in 1632.
0:54:10 > 0:54:12And if I turn to...
0:54:14 > 0:54:17..the list of the plays which it contains...
0:54:19 > 0:54:23..we can see that Charles has actually marked them up.
0:54:23 > 0:54:30We can see what he was reading that Christmas, a month before his death.
0:54:31 > 0:54:33Much Ado About Nothing.
0:54:34 > 0:54:35A Midsummer Night's Dream.
0:54:35 > 0:54:36As You Like It.
0:54:36 > 0:54:37All's Well That Ends Well.
0:54:37 > 0:54:38Twelfth Night.
0:54:38 > 0:54:40And not only that,
0:54:40 > 0:54:44but Charles has written the names of his favourite characters.
0:54:44 > 0:54:46Benedict and Beatrice.
0:54:46 > 0:54:48Pyramus and Thisbe.
0:54:48 > 0:54:49Rosalind.
0:54:49 > 0:54:51Malvolio.
0:54:51 > 0:54:54Absurd Malvolio, poor Malvolio.
0:54:54 > 0:54:58I think it's very interesting that at this time
0:54:58 > 0:55:00what he's reading is the comedies.
0:55:01 > 0:55:03He's reading the comedies.
0:55:03 > 0:55:04His life is a tragedy.
0:55:04 > 0:55:09His life reminds me, at this point, of King Lear.
0:55:10 > 0:55:13But, he didn't want to think about that.
0:55:13 > 0:55:19He remained remarkably defiant up until the end,
0:55:19 > 0:55:22as you can see in this, the most precious inscription
0:55:22 > 0:55:26in this very precious book.
0:55:27 > 0:55:31On the very first page, his spidery handwriting.
0:55:33 > 0:55:34"Dum spiro spero."
0:55:35 > 0:55:39"While I breathe, I hope."
0:55:39 > 0:55:43Charles's own personal motto.
0:55:43 > 0:55:47And he's signed it with his monogram, CR, Carolus Rex.
0:55:48 > 0:55:51He's not going to go gently into that good night.
0:55:58 > 0:56:02In January 1649, Charles was tried and sentenced to death.
0:56:02 > 0:56:06Whitehall Palace, still filled with his works of art,
0:56:06 > 0:56:08was the backdrop for the execution.
0:56:09 > 0:56:12The whole event was a kind of black mask,
0:56:12 > 0:56:15turning the King back from a god to a mortal human being.
0:56:18 > 0:56:23But if you want to get rid of a monarchy, you go one step further.
0:56:23 > 0:56:25You get rid of the way they'd projected their power,
0:56:25 > 0:56:27their specialness.
0:56:27 > 0:56:28You get rid of their art.
0:56:29 > 0:56:33Fortunately, Charles's collection was too valuable to be destroyed
0:56:33 > 0:56:35in an act of righteous fury,
0:56:35 > 0:56:39and so it was decided that everything must go.
0:56:39 > 0:56:42The sale of the late King's goods, as it was billed,
0:56:42 > 0:56:44took place on this site,
0:56:44 > 0:56:47Denmark House, as it was in Cromwell's time,
0:56:47 > 0:56:49Somerset House as it is now.
0:56:52 > 0:56:56The main purpose of it all was to pay back the King's creditors,
0:56:56 > 0:56:59and they came clamouring for their money.
0:56:59 > 0:57:03The royal plumber, who was owed £903,
0:57:03 > 0:57:08got just £403 in cash and £500 worth of paintings -
0:57:08 > 0:57:09which he didn't know what to do with -
0:57:09 > 0:57:13but they included at least one priceless Titian.
0:57:13 > 0:57:17The result was loss, loss, and more loss.
0:57:17 > 0:57:23The most magnificent, the most spectacular royal car-boot sale in history.
0:57:24 > 0:57:29And so it was that Charles's art collection was disassembled.
0:57:30 > 0:57:34The pictures that had projected a divine aura of monarchy,
0:57:34 > 0:57:36available to anyone, for the right price.
0:57:39 > 0:57:42But I think it's rather telling that Cromwell kept back
0:57:42 > 0:57:45The Triumphs of Caesar for himself.
0:57:47 > 0:57:51Nothing projects power like the greatest art in the world.
0:57:52 > 0:57:55Of course, the Royal Collection would survive.
0:57:55 > 0:57:57Indeed, it would be significantly rebuilt
0:57:57 > 0:58:00by a succession of later monarchs.
0:58:00 > 0:58:04But its character from now on would be fundamentally different.
0:58:04 > 0:58:06It would be more earthbound.
0:58:06 > 0:58:11Never again would the monarchy use art to project the image of itself
0:58:11 > 0:58:13as a force from heaven above.
0:58:18 > 0:58:20In the next episode,
0:58:20 > 0:58:23the Royal Collection is rebuilt by Charles II...
0:58:24 > 0:58:27..and reinvented by a king more interested
0:58:27 > 0:58:31in understanding the world than ruling it, George III.