0:00:04 > 0:00:08Imagine a world that is very different from today.
0:00:08 > 0:00:12A world where there are no public galleries full of colourful paintings.
0:00:13 > 0:00:17Where the names of great men like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo
0:00:17 > 0:00:19are hardly known.
0:00:19 > 0:00:23Where art is considered purely decorative
0:00:23 > 0:00:26and the artist a mere craftsman.
0:00:26 > 0:00:31It's astonishing, yet this was Britain 400 years ago.
0:00:31 > 0:00:35Since then, great works of art have flooded on to British shores
0:00:35 > 0:00:38and our appreciation of art and artists has been transformed.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42This is the story of the private collectors
0:00:42 > 0:00:44who brought a wealth of treasures from overseas,
0:00:44 > 0:00:47whose patronage encouraged British-born artists
0:00:47 > 0:00:50and whose personal passion for art and individual taste
0:00:50 > 0:00:53helped create this cultural revolution
0:00:53 > 0:00:56and shape the artistic direction of our nation.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02In this programme, I am going to reveal
0:01:02 > 0:01:04the pioneers of British art collecting.
0:01:06 > 0:01:10How, in the 17th century, just a handful of aristocratic adventurers
0:01:10 > 0:01:15sought to redress the visual austerity of the Tudor era.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18They opened Britain's eyes to the Renaissance
0:01:18 > 0:01:22and introduced a passion for the Baroque to a British court.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26From the first picture-collecting trips to Europe
0:01:26 > 0:01:28by the intrepid Lord Arundel...
0:01:28 > 0:01:31He gets the dust of Italy on his feet.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34He falls in love with the place.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37And this is the leitmotif of English collecting for the next 300 years.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40..to the art-loving circle of Charles I,
0:01:40 > 0:01:45who brought old masters into the county on an unprecedented scale.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49There was a revolution in looking and in seeing
0:01:49 > 0:01:52greater than at any other time in British history.
0:01:52 > 0:01:55And finally, by the end of the century,
0:01:55 > 0:02:01to an earl and his wife who made their entire house a hymn to art.
0:02:01 > 0:02:06Look at that wonderful, spectacular shaft of rainbow light.
0:02:27 > 0:02:31400 years ago, Britain was considered by Europeans
0:02:31 > 0:02:33a miserable damp island.
0:02:33 > 0:02:39And, in terms of the visual arts, it was an isolated and backward place.
0:02:40 > 0:02:44For one German visitor to London in 1598,
0:02:44 > 0:02:47there was so little of cultural value to be seen
0:02:47 > 0:02:49that all he could describe in his letter home
0:02:49 > 0:02:55was the 30 decapitated heads he had counted on the spikes of London Bridge.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01When Henry VIII broke from the Church in Rome,
0:03:01 > 0:03:05in effect, he started 70 years of cultural isolation.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11The Catholic continent was shut off to England
0:03:11 > 0:03:15and so the light of the Italian Renaissance that was sweeping
0:03:15 > 0:03:19through the rest of Europe barely touched England's closed-off shores.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24Here, even the word "art" was associated
0:03:24 > 0:03:26with artifice and deception
0:03:26 > 0:03:30and it was illegal to import paintings from abroad.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34Paintings did exist in Tudor England, of course,
0:03:34 > 0:03:36but mostly they were portraits
0:03:36 > 0:03:39and portraits, above all, were practical.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43They told you what someone looked like or their status.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46And for the English artists who painted them
0:03:46 > 0:03:49there was little freedom of expression.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52They were controlled by the Painters and Stainers' Guild
0:03:52 > 0:03:57who made sure that painting remained a craft used for decorative purposes.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02This spectacular portrait of the young Queen Elizabeth
0:04:02 > 0:04:05is known as the Coronation Portrait.
0:04:05 > 0:04:09But what is fascinating about it is that three quarters of the painting
0:04:09 > 0:04:13is taken up with her gold coronation robes and her crown,
0:04:13 > 0:04:15which are what define her image here.
0:04:15 > 0:04:17There is little attempt at perspective,
0:04:17 > 0:04:22nor to convey any sense of her personality through her facial expression.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25The importance lies in the detail.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28The jewels, the sumptuous gold fabric
0:04:28 > 0:04:33with its folds and its embroidered decoration.
0:04:33 > 0:04:37And the orb and sceptre, symbols of her authority.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42Even more telling is the fact that this painting,
0:04:42 > 0:04:44like most of the others here in the Tudor Rooms
0:04:44 > 0:04:48in the National Portrait Gallery, is by an unknown hand.
0:04:48 > 0:04:54The identity of the artist was not important enough to be recorded.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57And a painting itself wasn't valued either.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01A courtier could spend £500 on a single costume,
0:05:01 > 0:05:05while just £50 bought a full-length portrait by Holbein.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10But then, in 1603, Elizabeth I died
0:05:10 > 0:05:14and the Tudor dynasty came to an end.
0:05:16 > 0:05:20The door opened to a new Britain and in the next two decades
0:05:20 > 0:05:23art was transformed in this country.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26Where once the only tourist attraction had been those heads on spikes,
0:05:26 > 0:05:29by the 1620s, a visitor to London
0:05:29 > 0:05:33could have seen many of the finest paintings in the world,
0:05:33 > 0:05:37all within a mile radius of our current National Gallery.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41And the man credited with starting this enormous cultural
0:05:41 > 0:05:46and aesthetic change is Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel,
0:05:46 > 0:05:49known to history as the Collector Earl.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55Arundel was a descendent of the great Catholic family, the Dukes of Norfolk.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59He would become one of the most distinguished patrons
0:05:59 > 0:06:02and collectors of art that this country has ever known.
0:06:04 > 0:06:06But at his birth in 1585,
0:06:06 > 0:06:09this illustrious future was not at all clear.
0:06:09 > 0:06:15Like many great Catholic families, his had fallen foul of Elizabeth.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19And he grew up not in the splendour of a family seat
0:06:19 > 0:06:22but in a humble parsonage in Essex.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27His father had been committed to the Tower by Queen Elizabeth
0:06:27 > 0:06:29for alleged involvement in Catholic plots.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32Their fortunes had been confiscated
0:06:32 > 0:06:38and his mother had been left to bring him and his sister up alone.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42On we go. Up and up.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45John Martin Robinson is the curator at Arundel Castle
0:06:45 > 0:06:48and he believes that Arundel's early life
0:06:48 > 0:06:52had a profound impact on his later career.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54His mother was very pious.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58And she did her best to instil
0:06:58 > 0:07:02a strong religious upbringing in these two children.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06This is a biography of his mother and it goes all through her life.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09And of interest to us, chapter 12,
0:07:09 > 0:07:12"Of the Education of her Children,
0:07:12 > 0:07:14"and her Love and Affection towards them."
0:07:14 > 0:07:19"The young lord, her son, now Earl of Arundel, being but 10 years old,
0:07:19 > 0:07:25"so much profited in learning that besides her skill in working and writing very well,
0:07:25 > 0:07:28"she not only understood the Latin and Italian tongue
0:07:28 > 0:07:31"but could read in English very readily at first sight
0:07:31 > 0:07:34"anything written in either of those languages."
0:07:34 > 0:07:36- That's amazing. - Yes.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40One can't help wondering whether his love of Italy and his knowledge of Italian
0:07:40 > 0:07:43somehow stimulated his love of the visual arts.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45Obviously, somebody who is Catholic
0:07:45 > 0:07:48is automatically attracted towards the visual arts
0:07:48 > 0:07:51because it's one of the aspects of the Catholic religion.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55You come to love their beauty and art, music and so on.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02In 1603, when the new Stuart king,
0:08:02 > 0:08:05James I of England and VI of Scotland, came to the throne,
0:08:05 > 0:08:09things began to change for the 18-year-old Arundel.
0:08:10 > 0:08:12James was sympathetic to the family
0:08:12 > 0:08:15and restored some of their titles and estates,
0:08:15 > 0:08:18including the family seat Arundel Castle in Sussex.
0:08:21 > 0:08:25In James's court, Arundel began to feel at home.
0:08:26 > 0:08:29James was also an intellectual
0:08:29 > 0:08:32and perhaps saw in Arundel a kindred spirit.
0:08:32 > 0:08:38This was the time of the King James Bible, Shakespeare and Jonson.
0:08:38 > 0:08:40The written word and masques
0:08:40 > 0:08:44were the main cultural pursuits of James and his courtiers.
0:08:44 > 0:08:46But a few members of the court
0:08:46 > 0:08:50began to express a tentative interest in the visual arts.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55And now, with his place secured and his seat and title restored,
0:08:55 > 0:09:00the Earl of Arundel's thoughts turned to marriage.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03His sights were set on Lady Alethea Talbot,
0:09:03 > 0:09:08youngest daughter of the rich and powerful Earl of Shrewsbury.
0:09:08 > 0:09:10The current Duchess of Norfolk
0:09:10 > 0:09:12is married to one of Arundel's descendents
0:09:12 > 0:09:16and Arundel Castle is still their family home.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19She has documents that give an insight
0:09:19 > 0:09:23into Arundel's relationship with his young wife.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26It's rather lovely to see a picture, a portrait of her, looking so pretty.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30I know. And that must be 1619, just about the time...
0:09:30 > 0:09:32It's rather wonderful, also, the clothes that she's wearing.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35They're quiet masculine, actually, if you look at them.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39I mean, she was quite a strong woman for that day and age.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43That's what I like about her because she seems to have been quite a force in that marriage.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47Oh, she was the heiress, so the money all came from her.
0:09:47 > 0:09:49That's how the Collector Earl could go off
0:09:49 > 0:09:51and do his travelling and his buying.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53He was brought up penniless, married Alethea
0:09:53 > 0:09:56and suddenly this is where the wealth came back into the family.
0:09:56 > 0:10:02Her wealth that came into the family has kept the family going ever since.
0:10:02 > 0:10:08This is a letter from Thomas, the Collector Earl, to Alethea.
0:10:08 > 0:10:13Isn't that so lovely? "My dearest heart, my thoughts are without intermission
0:10:13 > 0:10:15- "fixed on thee." - Fixed on thee.
0:10:15 > 0:10:17Wouldn't you like that from your husband?
0:10:17 > 0:10:20It's so lovely, it's so touching.
0:10:20 > 0:10:22He was really quite affectionate, which is sweet,
0:10:22 > 0:10:25because you don't necessarily get that from all his portraits.
0:10:25 > 0:10:27- You don't, no. You don't get that. - He looks quite stern.
0:10:27 > 0:10:29And those old portraits,
0:10:29 > 0:10:32they don't really give out so much of the character of them.
0:10:32 > 0:10:36They give out their posture and who they are in their status.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39But you don't see the innerness of them and this you do.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42- No, you don't.- It's just nice to see the affection between them.
0:10:42 > 0:10:48I love this picture here of her dancing, her frivolity, her gaiety.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52- That must have been at one of these masques here.- Yes.- Yes.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56This drawing of Alethea is by the architect Inigo Jones.
0:10:56 > 0:11:00Jones was 12 years older than the Earl of Arundel and was already seen
0:11:00 > 0:11:04as an authority on the visual culture of James's court.
0:11:04 > 0:11:08Designer of masques and Surveyor of the King's Works.
0:11:09 > 0:11:14He would form a lifelong friendship with the young couple and together
0:11:14 > 0:11:18they would undertake a trip that would change the course of art history in Britain.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22Their destination was Italy.
0:11:31 > 0:11:36For almost a century, England had been cut off from Italy
0:11:36 > 0:11:39when its Church broke away from Catholicism.
0:11:39 > 0:11:43The English had to obtain licences to travel on the continent.
0:11:43 > 0:11:48So the Arundels' visit to Italy was truly pioneering.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58Even now, arriving in Italy feels very different.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00The light, the warmth, the atmosphere.
0:12:00 > 0:12:06So imagine what it must have been like for an English traveller in 1613.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14Now that Italy seems so close, it's hard to appreciate
0:12:14 > 0:12:16just how pioneering the Arundels' trip was.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21Before them, there was no tour, no itinerary of places to visit.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24This was virgin territory for English travellers.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30It was on this trip that the Arundels developed a passion for art
0:12:30 > 0:12:33that would remain with them throughout their lives.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37Here was a country where the understanding and appreciation
0:12:37 > 0:12:41of the visual arts was central to everyday life.
0:12:41 > 0:12:46And the city that captured their imagination more than anywhere else was Venice.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52Arundel was determined to explore
0:12:52 > 0:12:55every street, palace and church in Venice.
0:12:55 > 0:12:59And he later wrote, "We all declare that Venice is truly paradise."
0:13:03 > 0:13:06The Arundels' Catholicism undoubtedly opened doors
0:13:06 > 0:13:09that had remained firmly closed to other Englishmen
0:13:09 > 0:13:12and, in this respect, their visit was crucial.
0:13:12 > 0:13:17They provided a bridge between two cultures.
0:13:17 > 0:13:21The Arundels stayed here in the Palazzo Grimani.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24Today, it's a museum but then it housed
0:13:24 > 0:13:27an astonishing private art collection.
0:13:27 > 0:13:31The Grimani were one of the richest and most powerful families in Venice
0:13:31 > 0:13:34and their collection would have been full of works
0:13:34 > 0:13:37by the great Renaissance Venetian masters,
0:13:37 > 0:13:39Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese.
0:13:39 > 0:13:44For the first time, Arundel could experience what it was like
0:13:44 > 0:13:48to have an art collection on such a scale.
0:13:50 > 0:13:54The impact of the Arundels' Italy trip on the history of collecting
0:13:54 > 0:13:57has been charted by writer James Stourton.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02Arundel was presumably a very erudite man.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06He is erudite but he's visual first.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09And his eyes are opened by Italy.
0:14:09 > 0:14:11He's a very unusual person.
0:14:11 > 0:14:13He was brought up separate as a Roman Catholic.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16The Earl of Essex called him the Winter Pear.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19He's clearly seen as very different.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23And art becomes almost like a parent for him.
0:14:23 > 0:14:26And going to Italy, it's an awakening.
0:14:26 > 0:14:28Yes, it's a lovely thought that.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30Everything that he didn't find at home
0:14:30 > 0:14:32- he finds when he goes to Italy. - Correct. Correct.
0:14:32 > 0:14:37I think it was a spiritual home and he relaxed there.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40I think he just appreciated the life in Italy,
0:14:40 > 0:14:43the way Italians are, being so different to ourselves.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47Back in London, at court, he was considered very haughty.
0:14:47 > 0:14:52He was very conscious of his pride and conscious of who he was.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55And he never really came off his pride. But in Italy he did.
0:14:55 > 0:14:57In Italy, he warmed to the country
0:14:57 > 0:15:00and clearly he sort of let his hair down.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04There was a famous scene of him coming over the Channel in a boat,
0:15:04 > 0:15:06laughing and being intimate with artists.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10He would never have done that with his fellow peers at court.
0:15:10 > 0:15:12How lovely. What a lovely thought.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14So he really sort of escaped when he went to Italy.
0:15:14 > 0:15:16Yes, it was the other side of his personality.
0:15:18 > 0:15:23It was the way in which art was central to everyday life that so enraptured Arundel.
0:15:23 > 0:15:28It wasn't confined just to private houses, it was everywhere.
0:15:28 > 0:15:30Particularly in the churches.
0:15:32 > 0:15:37As part of their patronage, noble families paid for decoration of churches,
0:15:37 > 0:15:41not only as an expression of their status and piety
0:15:41 > 0:15:44but also as a way of bringing art into everyday life.
0:15:44 > 0:15:51This is the Church of San Sebastiano and behind this restrained facade
0:15:51 > 0:15:54an exuberant world of colour opens up.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03The Arundels would undoubtedly have visited this church
0:16:03 > 0:16:07as it was largely paid for by their hosts the Grimani family.
0:16:10 > 0:16:16The church is covered in paintings and frescoes by the artist Veronese.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22Paolo Veronese came from Verona, as his name suggests,
0:16:22 > 0:16:27and he was adopted as a protege by the great Venetian master Titian.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31His work here is typical of what is so striking
0:16:31 > 0:16:34about Venetian Renaissance painting,
0:16:34 > 0:16:37with its emphasis on colour and movement.
0:16:39 > 0:16:44And how he sensitively depicts the subjects' faces,
0:16:44 > 0:16:46humanising these religious figures.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51The Veronese paintings dominate the church here.
0:16:51 > 0:16:56But it is charming that in this unassuming spot by the side door
0:16:56 > 0:17:00there's a Titian of Saint Nicholas.
0:17:00 > 0:17:02Titian would become a passion for Arundel
0:17:02 > 0:17:06and the most collectable artist of all the Venetian school.
0:17:08 > 0:17:13Even for me today, walking into a church like that is so impressive.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17So put yourself in the Arundels' shoes. They must have been amazed.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19In England, the Protestant churches were bare
0:17:19 > 0:17:22and they would never have seen painting like this.
0:17:22 > 0:17:28Arundel would have understood that the mark of a connoisseur was to be able to read a painting,
0:17:28 > 0:17:32to appreciate the skill of an artist and take pleasure from it.
0:17:33 > 0:17:38In Italy, the Arundels witnessed the miracles of the Renaissance
0:17:38 > 0:17:42in Venice and dug for ancient marbles in the Forum in Rome.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45Now they wanted to bring art back with them
0:17:45 > 0:17:48but it wasn't always so straightforward.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52Arundel bit off more than he could chew when he decided
0:17:52 > 0:17:56that in Rome he wanted the obelisk in the Piazza Navona.
0:17:56 > 0:18:00- At that point, the pope just said no. - SHE LAUGHS
0:18:00 > 0:18:03So, how important do you think Arundel's visit to Italy was
0:18:03 > 0:18:05in terms of the history of collecting?
0:18:05 > 0:18:09I think it's the foundation visit because he...
0:18:09 > 0:18:14It's a compulsion, energy and passion that he gives it.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17But it's not just about the quantity, it's also about the quality.
0:18:17 > 0:18:21Arundel was terribly, terribly keen on getting the best things.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24So he sets, in a sense, the compass,
0:18:24 > 0:18:27not just on Italy, but also the benchmark of quality.
0:18:27 > 0:18:33And he starts that tradition of people going to Italy
0:18:33 > 0:18:36and scouring the country for great works of art
0:18:36 > 0:18:39and not resting until he came back with the goods.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43And this is the leitmotif of English collecting for the next 300 years.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50The Arundels returned to London transformed.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54They wasted no time in commissioning Inigo Jones
0:18:54 > 0:18:58to design a gallery in the Italian style for their London home,
0:18:58 > 0:19:01which they intended to fill with works of art.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07This pair of portraits by the court artist Daniel Mijtens
0:19:07 > 0:19:11show Lord and Lady Arundel in front of their new galleries.
0:19:11 > 0:19:15Stylistically, they represent quite a big step forward
0:19:15 > 0:19:18from the stiff formal Tudor portrait
0:19:18 > 0:19:22because Mijtens has cleverly used perspective to draw the eye
0:19:22 > 0:19:25down the length of the sculpture gallery
0:19:25 > 0:19:28to a rather Italianate Thames behind.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31But the real importance of these portraits
0:19:31 > 0:19:35is that they present the Earl and Countess of Arundel
0:19:35 > 0:19:37as true connoisseur collectors
0:19:37 > 0:19:40in the great Italian tradition.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43And the works of art that would fill these galleries
0:19:43 > 0:19:45were world-class acquisitions.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50Arundel was bringing the Italian Renaissance to England
0:19:50 > 0:19:55and it was a revelation to those who would see them for the first time in his collection.
0:19:55 > 0:19:58It's difficult to know exactly what came into Arundel's collection and when.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02But in a 1655 inventory,
0:20:02 > 0:20:05we can see the names of all the great Italian masters.
0:20:05 > 0:20:09Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo,
0:20:10 > 0:20:12Raphael,
0:20:12 > 0:20:16Tintoretto and Titian.
0:20:16 > 0:20:1937 paintings by Titian are listed here.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23The Sleeping Venus. Titian's Venus, very rare.
0:20:23 > 0:20:25Diana Bathing.
0:20:26 > 0:20:30Pictures like these have become part of our cultural landscape
0:20:30 > 0:20:34and Arundel was amongst the first to bring them here.
0:20:34 > 0:20:38We know that the Arundels had a Diana by Titian.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42And Lady Arundel even had a Diana room in her London house.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45So it's wonderful to imagine that they might have had a version
0:20:45 > 0:20:49of one of these Titians that now hang in the National Gallery.
0:20:53 > 0:20:55To begin with, Arundel was pretty much alone
0:20:55 > 0:20:58in bringing this wealth of art into the country.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01But then, in 1625, when King James I died
0:21:01 > 0:21:05and the new king Charles I came to the throne,
0:21:05 > 0:21:08collecting stepped up a gear.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12Inspired in part by Arundel's collection,
0:21:12 > 0:21:16Charles decided that building up a great art collection
0:21:16 > 0:21:19was the way to define his majesty in the eyes of the world.
0:21:19 > 0:21:25And, as king, he had purchasing power Arundel could only dream of.
0:21:26 > 0:21:30Now old masters poured into the country.
0:21:30 > 0:21:34Leonardos, Raphaels.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37Charles's timing was fortuitous.
0:21:37 > 0:21:41Italy was in economic crisis and he bought up whole collections
0:21:41 > 0:21:44at a time from the great Italian dynasties.
0:21:44 > 0:21:49Correggios came to England for the first time.
0:21:49 > 0:21:51And, of course, more Titian.
0:21:54 > 0:21:58The king's passion for collecting had a profound effect.
0:21:58 > 0:22:03Realising that art was a way to the king's heart,
0:22:03 > 0:22:06his circle of courtiers began to collect art too.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10This was something completely new in London.
0:22:11 > 0:22:13They had to learn the language of art quickly.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16There was no art market here,
0:22:16 > 0:22:19no exhibitions and no tradition of collecting.
0:22:21 > 0:22:23This new appreciation of art
0:22:23 > 0:22:27was confined to an elite group centred around the king.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31They had grand houses lining the Thames,
0:22:31 > 0:22:35spreading out from the royal palace on Whitehall.
0:22:36 > 0:22:40I love to think of this part of the Thames in the early 17th century
0:22:40 > 0:22:43being lined with great aristocratic houses.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46And imagine the great sense of excitement there must have been
0:22:46 > 0:22:49when a new consignment of pictures arrived.
0:22:51 > 0:22:56This group of connoisseurs became known as the Whitehall Circle.
0:22:56 > 0:23:01And the main protagonists were King Charles I, the Earl of Arundel,
0:23:01 > 0:23:05the Earl of Pembroke and the Duke of Buckingham.
0:23:05 > 0:23:11You've written about them. What do you think are their characteristics?
0:23:11 > 0:23:14Arundel, who was the first of the collectors, was the most earnest,
0:23:14 > 0:23:17awkward, difficult and abrasive man.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21But tremendously passionate about learning and the arts
0:23:21 > 0:23:24and his commitment to booming up this collection.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28The Earl of Pembroke looks a much quieter figure, doesn't he?
0:23:28 > 0:23:32- He looks rather sour. - He does. Rather disillusioned.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35He looks slightly shifty. He looks as if you've just
0:23:35 > 0:23:38interrupted him doing something he'd rather you hadn't noticed.
0:23:38 > 0:23:43But he had this wonderful house that Charles loved to go hunting at.
0:23:43 > 0:23:49And he clearly was an amazingly successful patron.
0:23:49 > 0:23:54He created what remains the finest domestic interior
0:23:54 > 0:23:56of the period in all of England.
0:23:56 > 0:24:00- Then we turn to Buckingham.- The most beautiful man in Europe, Buckingham.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04Extraordinary charisma. Admired by almost everybody.
0:24:04 > 0:24:06Very charismatic.
0:24:06 > 0:24:11They form a kind of close-knit group but very different personalities.
0:24:11 > 0:24:16And here is Charles I, who was surrounded by these courtiers
0:24:16 > 0:24:22who flattered him, encouraged him, gave him presents.
0:24:22 > 0:24:24It was a very exciting period
0:24:24 > 0:24:27because people's taste was developing,
0:24:27 > 0:24:32a whole range of styles and schools, Northern painting, Italian painting,
0:24:32 > 0:24:34everything was possible then.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38- So there was a truly remarkable contrast.- Huge contrast.
0:24:38 > 0:24:42A revolution in looking and in seeing and in appreciating
0:24:42 > 0:24:46greater than at any other time in British history, I think.
0:24:49 > 0:24:51Though Arundel was the pioneer collector,
0:24:51 > 0:24:55it was the dashing George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham,
0:24:55 > 0:24:58who collected with an ostentation designed to woo the king.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03This Italianate gate is the last vestige
0:25:03 > 0:25:06of the great London house of the Duke of Buckingham.
0:25:06 > 0:25:11It must have been agony for Arundel to stand by and watch the king
0:25:11 > 0:25:14fall under the spell of the glamorous young duke.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17And worse still, in just five years,
0:25:17 > 0:25:22Buckingham had built up a collection to rival Arundel's own.
0:25:24 > 0:25:28Buckingham and Arundel's duties at court meant that most of the time
0:25:28 > 0:25:32they had to rely on agents to scour the art markets of Europe for them.
0:25:32 > 0:25:37And the agents they chose said as much about their characters as their art.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43In the case of Buckingham, being the fount of all patronage, being the king's favourite,
0:25:43 > 0:25:47he simply couldn't spend the time wandering around
0:25:47 > 0:25:49art galleries looking at things.
0:25:49 > 0:25:51So he basically gave carte blanche to this man to buy in a hurry.
0:25:51 > 0:25:57Whereas, Arundel trained up for a long time, for nearly ten years,
0:25:57 > 0:26:00his chief agent, a man called the Reverend William Petty.
0:26:00 > 0:26:06Petty was indefatigable and would do anything and travel anywhere.
0:26:06 > 0:26:11And often would see a painting and pursue it doggedly
0:26:11 > 0:26:14and finally manage to secure it.
0:26:14 > 0:26:16Buckingham's approach was entirely different.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19Buckingham's agent swept through Paris
0:26:19 > 0:26:22buying collections with an open cheque book.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25He went for flamboyance, he went for sensuality,
0:26:25 > 0:26:28for the big pictures.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33But while Buckingham went after the big pictures, the Italian masters
0:26:33 > 0:26:36with their voluptuous women and brilliant colours,
0:26:36 > 0:26:38like Guido Reni's Four Seasons,
0:26:38 > 0:26:43Arundel bought items that some collectors failed to value at all,
0:26:43 > 0:26:45like drawings.
0:26:46 > 0:26:51Today, a volume of 600 anatomical drawings by Leonardo da Vinci,
0:26:51 > 0:26:57bought by Arundel, are amongst the most prized treasures of the Royal Collection.
0:26:59 > 0:27:03Leonardo was a pioneer in the understanding of human anatomy.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06He made discoveries which would take centuries
0:27:06 > 0:27:09for their significance to be fully realised.
0:27:09 > 0:27:14This volume was in Arundel's collection by the 1640s.
0:27:14 > 0:27:18The fact that Arundel understood that this was an exceptional mind
0:27:18 > 0:27:21is rather incredible because
0:27:21 > 0:27:25not that many people would have noticed that about Leonardo, probably, at that stage.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29I imagine to open that album of drawings with 600 sheets of all this
0:27:29 > 0:27:33different subject matter would have been a rather baffling experience.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36And, for many people, it would have been incomprehensible.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38But Arundel really engaged, I think,
0:27:38 > 0:27:43with the variety of material that Leonardo was concerned with.
0:27:43 > 0:27:48The survival of Leonardo's works is entirely down, through the centuries,
0:27:48 > 0:27:53to people understanding that the drawings contain his genius,
0:27:53 > 0:27:57for want of a better word. They are 90% of what we have by Leonardo.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00Without the drawings, we'd have so little understanding
0:28:00 > 0:28:02of what he actually achieved in his life.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05But, through the drawings, through the single album of drawings,
0:28:05 > 0:28:07- you get the whole man. - Absolutely.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10And I think that's something that would have appealed to Arundel.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13His collecting of drawings is so unique in England at the time
0:28:13 > 0:28:17that he wasn't competing with anybody else, if you see what I mean.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21Nobody was pursuing drawings with a single-mindedness like Arundel was
0:28:21 > 0:28:23- in the whole of Europe at the time. - No, that's incredible.
0:28:23 > 0:28:27And this really was a mark of his connoisseurship, I suppose,
0:28:27 > 0:28:30the fact that he was prepared to go beyond the big canvases
0:28:30 > 0:28:33and collect these beautiful sheets of paper.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36Yes, it's something which marked Arundel out
0:28:36 > 0:28:41as the most astonishing collector in England of the period.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47Arundel's intense rivalry with Buckingham
0:28:47 > 0:28:50came to an abrupt end in 1628.
0:28:50 > 0:28:54Buckingham had led a disastrous military campaign in France
0:28:54 > 0:28:56and on his return to Portsmouth
0:28:56 > 0:29:00one of his disgruntled soldiers stabbed him to death.
0:29:02 > 0:29:05There's an element of schadenfreude to the Arundels' visit
0:29:05 > 0:29:07to Buckingham's assassin in the Tower of London
0:29:07 > 0:29:13the night before his execution and their payment for alms for his soul.
0:29:16 > 0:29:18With Buckingham out of the way,
0:29:18 > 0:29:23Arundel could now take his place as the premier art advisor to the king.
0:29:23 > 0:29:27And, in this position, he was hugely influential
0:29:27 > 0:29:30with another aspect of British art history.
0:29:30 > 0:29:37It wasn't only as collectors that Lord and Lady Arundel led the way but also as patrons.
0:29:37 > 0:29:40Inspired by their visit to Italy, the Arundels recognised
0:29:40 > 0:29:44that the role of a true connoisseur was not only to build up
0:29:44 > 0:29:46a fabulous collection of old masters
0:29:46 > 0:29:50but to commission work from contemporary artists too.
0:29:54 > 0:29:57But there was little home-grown talent,
0:29:57 > 0:30:02so the Arundels determined to attract the best continental painters to England.
0:30:02 > 0:30:07There were two artists who would come to define the reign of King Charles I.
0:30:07 > 0:30:10Rubens and his pupil Van Dyck.
0:30:10 > 0:30:15And it was the Arundels who were largely responsible for introducing
0:30:15 > 0:30:18these two painters to England.
0:30:20 > 0:30:23Rubens was a Flemish painter who had studied in Italy
0:30:23 > 0:30:26and his work had absorbed the colourful influence
0:30:26 > 0:30:31of the Venetian painters that the English collectors so admired.
0:30:31 > 0:30:36In 1620, Lady Arundel had defied convention
0:30:36 > 0:30:38and gone alone to live in Venice for two years
0:30:38 > 0:30:41while her sons were at university in Italy.
0:30:42 > 0:30:46It was on her way there that she visited Rubens' studio in Antwerp
0:30:46 > 0:30:50and it was then that he started work on a portrait of her.
0:30:51 > 0:30:56Rubens rarely agreed to paint portraits but it was a mark
0:30:56 > 0:30:59of his respect for Arundel that he accepted this commission
0:30:59 > 0:31:02because, in his words, he regarded him
0:31:02 > 0:31:06as "one of the four evangelists and a patron of our art."
0:31:06 > 0:31:11This painting, now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich,
0:31:11 > 0:31:14shows how Rubens has elevated Lady Arundel
0:31:14 > 0:31:18to the status of a regal collector surrounded by her courtiers,
0:31:18 > 0:31:21with the majestic family coat of arms in the background.
0:31:23 > 0:31:28In doing so, he was marking out Alethea and, by extension,
0:31:28 > 0:31:32her husband, as players on the world stage.
0:31:33 > 0:31:37But despite the Arundels' reputation, it would take another
0:31:37 > 0:31:41seven years before Rubens could be persuaded to come to England.
0:31:42 > 0:31:48News of the cultural revolution that Arundel and the king had spearheaded at home had not sunk in abroad,
0:31:48 > 0:31:51and many of the great Catholic continental painters
0:31:51 > 0:31:56still considered England a cold, uncultured land full of Protestants.
0:31:57 > 0:32:00However, in 1629,
0:32:00 > 0:32:04Rubens was forced to travel to London on a diplomatic mission
0:32:04 > 0:32:09and he found himself not in the Philistine backwater he had expected
0:32:09 > 0:32:12but in a newly cultured land.
0:32:12 > 0:32:18He wrote, "When it comes to fine pictures by the hands of first-class masters,
0:32:18 > 0:32:20"I have never seen such a large number in one place
0:32:20 > 0:32:25"as in the royal palace and in the gallery of the late Duke of Buckingham."
0:32:26 > 0:32:30Won over, Rubens then began negotiations for a commission
0:32:30 > 0:32:35to paint a great ceiling in the Banqueting House in the Palace of Whitehall.
0:32:36 > 0:32:40Though the palace has gone, the Banqueting House still remains.
0:32:52 > 0:32:54I've been here many times before
0:32:54 > 0:32:57but each time I'm astonished by the ceiling.
0:33:03 > 0:33:07Rubens was a Catholic who claimed he was inspired
0:33:07 > 0:33:11by a passion from the heavens, not from earthly musings.
0:33:12 > 0:33:16The theme is the glorification of the Stuarts and the benefits
0:33:16 > 0:33:19of peace and plenty that the dynasty brought to the kingdom.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27Rubens allegorises the Stuarts here.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30For example, we see James I, Charles's father,
0:33:30 > 0:33:34being carried on the wings of an eagle to the seat of God,
0:33:34 > 0:33:37above him hovers the triumphal crown.
0:33:38 > 0:33:43If we look at this in the context of the time in which it was installed
0:33:43 > 0:33:46we can see what a radical departure it was for the English court.
0:33:46 > 0:33:50Just 20 years before, such a dramatic visual display
0:33:50 > 0:33:54of swirling figures would have been totally unthinkable.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58This was the culmination of two decades of exposure
0:33:58 > 0:34:03to European culture and the way in which art could define majesty.
0:34:03 > 0:34:09This was Charles showing that he could compete with the great European courts.
0:34:19 > 0:34:22Now the pursuit of art was unstoppable.
0:34:22 > 0:34:24And another artist was on his way
0:34:24 > 0:34:27who would have an even greater impact.
0:34:27 > 0:34:32He was a pupil of Rubens and his name was Anthony Van Dyck.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37It was the Arundels, once again, who played a pivotal role
0:34:37 > 0:34:40in introducing Van Dyck to England.
0:34:42 > 0:34:45On Alethea's trip to Rubens' studio in 1620,
0:34:45 > 0:34:47his young apprentice had caught her eye.
0:34:49 > 0:34:53The report came back, "Van Dyck is still with Signor Rubens
0:34:53 > 0:34:57"and his works are hardly less esteemed than those of his master.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00"He is a young man of twenty-one years."
0:35:02 > 0:35:06Van Dyck is a hugely significant figure in British art history,
0:35:06 > 0:35:09not only for his new style of painting but also for the way
0:35:09 > 0:35:13in which he elevated the status of art and the artist in England.
0:35:13 > 0:35:18Before, artists had predominantly been regarded as artisans,
0:35:18 > 0:35:21but Van Dyck was made a member of the royal court,
0:35:21 > 0:35:25he was knighted by the king and he was given his own studio
0:35:25 > 0:35:28where his sitters would come to him to be painted.
0:35:28 > 0:35:33Van Dyck was doing in England what Rubens had already done in Antwerp
0:35:33 > 0:35:37and what the Italian Renaissance painters had done before him,
0:35:37 > 0:35:40asserting the importance of the visual arts.
0:35:40 > 0:35:45This was the coming of age of art in England.
0:35:45 > 0:35:50The Arundels might be recognised as Van Dyck's first English patrons
0:35:50 > 0:35:52but they certainly weren't his only ones.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57I think the most dramatic expression of Van Dyck's work
0:35:57 > 0:36:00still sits in the house for which it was intended
0:36:00 > 0:36:03in the Wiltshire countryside.
0:36:05 > 0:36:09This is Wilton House, home of the Earls of Pembroke.
0:36:12 > 0:36:14It was the country retreat of the 4th Earl of Pembroke,
0:36:14 > 0:36:17who was part of the Whitehall Circle with Arundel.
0:36:19 > 0:36:23In the 1630s, tensions were mounting between the king
0:36:23 > 0:36:25and those who wanted greater parliamentary rule.
0:36:27 > 0:36:31It was against these simmering tensions that Charles commanded
0:36:31 > 0:36:34that noblemen should repair to their country houses
0:36:34 > 0:36:37in order to entertain the king and his court.
0:36:39 > 0:36:44During these years, Wilton was transformed from a Tudor to a Palladian house.
0:36:44 > 0:36:46The court would often move to Salisbury,
0:36:46 > 0:36:49so Pembroke wanted to have his house looking its best.
0:36:49 > 0:36:55A contemporary wrote, "King Charles did love Wilton above all places.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58"It was he that did put the Earle of Pembroke to new build
0:36:58 > 0:37:02"that side of the house that fronts the garden al Italiano."
0:37:02 > 0:37:05The Earl of Pembroke was creating
0:37:05 > 0:37:09an Italian art palace in the English countryside.
0:37:09 > 0:37:12And it wasn't just the exterior.
0:37:13 > 0:37:17The interior is even more astonishing.
0:37:22 > 0:37:25The Earl of Pembroke commissioned Inigo Jones
0:37:25 > 0:37:28to design a suite of rooms for Wilton.
0:37:29 > 0:37:32The first of them is known as the Single Cube Room,
0:37:32 > 0:37:37as it is a perfect cube, 30-feet high and 30-feet square.
0:37:38 > 0:37:40But it's through the next doors
0:37:40 > 0:37:43that you really see the ambition of this project.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49Known as the Double Cube Room, it's been recognised
0:37:49 > 0:37:52as the grandest surviving room of the mid-17th century.
0:37:53 > 0:37:58And I think it's one of the most distinguished rooms in any English country house.
0:38:04 > 0:38:09In between the elaborate carvings and swagger of the decorations
0:38:09 > 0:38:12is an astonishing collection of Van Dycks.
0:38:12 > 0:38:16This is Van Dyck's great English masterpiece,
0:38:16 > 0:38:19the Pembroke family portrait.
0:38:19 > 0:38:23And in it, we can see just how far Van Dyck has transformed
0:38:23 > 0:38:26painting in England over a period of just 20 years.
0:38:26 > 0:38:29What he's done, which is completely new,
0:38:29 > 0:38:32is to make his characters believable.
0:38:32 > 0:38:36Rather than positioning them all facing solidly forwards,
0:38:36 > 0:38:39he has made them move and turn.
0:38:39 > 0:38:42They look completely comfortable in their setting.
0:38:43 > 0:38:45Like the great Italian Renaissance masters,
0:38:45 > 0:38:47Van Dyck has also introduced
0:38:47 > 0:38:51a second symbolic layer of meaning into his picture.
0:38:51 > 0:38:55This is a family portrait but it's also a subtle drama
0:38:55 > 0:38:59of life and death, fertility and mortality.
0:38:59 > 0:39:03Each figure group represents a different stage of life.
0:39:03 > 0:39:07The cherubs in the top left are the babies
0:39:07 > 0:39:10of the Earl and Countess of Pembroke who died in infancy.
0:39:10 > 0:39:14Below them, the three boys playing with their dogs
0:39:14 > 0:39:16represent the carefree stage of childhood.
0:39:16 > 0:39:21The Earl and Countess of Pembroke sit unsmiling in the centre.
0:39:22 > 0:39:25By this stage, their marriage had broken down,
0:39:25 > 0:39:29so they do look very world-weary and full of disappointment.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32Van Dyck has used his Lord Chamberlain's staff
0:39:32 > 0:39:35to act as a visual divide between the two.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39He's also very cleverly used lighting in this painting
0:39:39 > 0:39:43to highlight those figures in the prime of their lives.
0:39:43 > 0:39:46On the right of the painting there are the figures
0:39:46 > 0:39:50of his daughter Anna Sophia who has just married the Earl of Carnarvon.
0:39:50 > 0:39:55They're a beautiful young couple and they've just given birth to an heir.
0:39:55 > 0:40:00Van Dyck portrays them almost as one intertwined figure here.
0:40:00 > 0:40:04And look at that intimate hand gesture.
0:40:04 > 0:40:06But the central irony of the painting
0:40:06 > 0:40:09lies with the figure of the Earl of Pembroke himself,
0:40:09 > 0:40:13head of the family, seated rather hesitantly at the back.
0:40:13 > 0:40:16He should be the one in control here
0:40:16 > 0:40:20but, actually, Van Dyck is hinting that they are all,
0:40:20 > 0:40:23in fact, being controlled by time.
0:40:27 > 0:40:32This room is a testament to just how important these collector earls were
0:40:32 > 0:40:34in patronising art in the 1630s.
0:40:37 > 0:40:41The visual arts were now part of the cultural landscape of England.
0:40:41 > 0:40:47But it was a world confined to a small elite centred around the king
0:40:47 > 0:40:51and the gap between them and the rest of the country was widening.
0:40:53 > 0:40:55While their circle of men and women were becoming connoisseurs,
0:40:55 > 0:40:58understanding and appreciating art,
0:40:58 > 0:41:02this sort of sophistication was lost on the general population.
0:41:02 > 0:41:07What they saw was a king ruling without Parliament,
0:41:07 > 0:41:10surrounded by a small close-knit group of aristocrats
0:41:10 > 0:41:16who were encouraging him to spend the country's money on foreign art.
0:41:21 > 0:41:24The storm broke in 1642.
0:41:24 > 0:41:29Civil war was declared, Royalist against Parliamentarian.
0:41:31 > 0:41:35For the pioneer collectors this spelt disaster.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41The fiercely royalist Arundels were forced into exile,
0:41:41 > 0:41:44selling most of their collection to survive.
0:41:44 > 0:41:49Lord Arundel died in 1646 in his beloved Italy.
0:41:51 > 0:41:55Three years later, after seven years of civil war,
0:41:55 > 0:42:00King Charles I was led to a scaffold through Banqueting House.
0:42:00 > 0:42:05As he did so, he passed under Rubens' magnificent ceiling
0:42:05 > 0:42:10that represented the apogee of his reign and the collecting era.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18A week later, the Royal Collection was put up for sale
0:42:18 > 0:42:22and Oliver Cromwell ruled over a commonwealth.
0:42:25 > 0:42:28The Civil War could have spelt disaster for collecting in Britain
0:42:28 > 0:42:32but it had another completely unexpected effect.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36There had never been an art market here before
0:42:36 > 0:42:39but the sale of the century was about to begin.
0:42:41 > 0:42:46Art historian Jerry Brotton has written about the sale of King Charles's collection.
0:42:46 > 0:42:49It all goes on sale in Somerset House.
0:42:49 > 0:42:53They take everything in 1649, they dump it in Somerset House,
0:42:53 > 0:42:55and they literally put price tags on them.
0:42:55 > 0:43:00And ordinary men and women go in, tradespeople go in,
0:43:00 > 0:43:04and they inventory everything, they inventory cushions,
0:43:04 > 0:43:08bolsters, tables, but they also inventory the artworks,
0:43:08 > 0:43:11they inventory Titians, Raphaels, Correggios.
0:43:11 > 0:43:13- They put a price on absolutely everything.- Yes.
0:43:13 > 0:43:17- They're putting a value on pictures. - They're putting a value.
0:43:17 > 0:43:19- How much is a Titian worth? - Which they don't know about
0:43:19 > 0:43:24because the history of the collection has not been about talking publicly about money.
0:43:24 > 0:43:29So you get people... You get tailors who go in to inventory this stuff
0:43:29 > 0:43:34and they go, "Oh, picture on the wall of Holy Family, quite large, £20?"
0:43:34 > 0:43:37When overseas buyers come in,
0:43:37 > 0:43:39so the French and the Spanish ambassadors come in,
0:43:39 > 0:43:42and are quietly told by their own sovereigns,
0:43:42 > 0:43:46"Buy back the stuff that they bought from us."
0:43:46 > 0:43:50Once that starts to happen and you get competition between people who do know,
0:43:50 > 0:43:53so the French ambassador knows what a Titian is,
0:43:53 > 0:43:55the Spanish ambassador does.
0:43:55 > 0:43:58So the guy who's living in Bethnal Green who's got a Titian goes,
0:43:58 > 0:44:03"Why are they so interested in this funny picture of a naked woman? Oh, it's a Titian."
0:44:03 > 0:44:06And that's when that process starts to happen.
0:44:06 > 0:44:09So the guy in Bethnal Green says, "How much will you give me for it?
0:44:09 > 0:44:12"500 quid? He'll give me 650 quid. Oh, £1,000."
0:44:12 > 0:44:18So what this sale did was spread the art market to a wider public.
0:44:18 > 0:44:21It was no longer just a tight group of courtiers.
0:44:21 > 0:44:25Yeah, absolutely. This is a bill of sale that you would get.
0:44:25 > 0:44:29Goods sold to this guy Colonel John Hutchinson.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33And I love the fact that Hutchinson is one of the regicides.
0:44:33 > 0:44:36He signed Charles I's death warrant. He's a Puritan.
0:44:36 > 0:44:42What on earth is a Puritan doing buying sexy Titians of naked ladies?
0:44:42 > 0:44:44- For £1,000. - For £1,000.
0:44:44 > 0:44:47He takes them home to Northamptonshire where he lives.
0:44:47 > 0:44:49And I love the story of him going back
0:44:49 > 0:44:51and, being a Northerner, I can parody him saying,
0:44:51 > 0:44:55"Look, Lucy, look what I bought." And she goes, "Oh, good grief! It's a naked lady."
0:44:55 > 0:45:00It's an extraordinary story and here you have that kind of transaction.
0:45:00 > 0:45:04People start to see that there is a monetary value to a painting.
0:45:04 > 0:45:06And that is a new development.
0:45:07 > 0:45:11And with the art market came another development,
0:45:11 > 0:45:13the idea of provenance.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18Now, knowing who had owned works of art and when,
0:45:18 > 0:45:21became a factor in their desirability to a collector.
0:45:22 > 0:45:25As can be seen from a picture at Wilton House.
0:45:25 > 0:45:31This beautiful chalk drawing by Raphael is a perfect illustration
0:45:31 > 0:45:33of how collecting was beginning to evolve
0:45:33 > 0:45:35by the second half of the 17th century.
0:45:35 > 0:45:39It was first brought to England by the Earl of Arundel
0:45:39 > 0:45:42and, after his death, was sold to the artist Sir Peter Lely.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45The 8th Earl of Pembroke, in turn,
0:45:45 > 0:45:48bought it from the sale of Lely's collection.
0:45:48 > 0:45:51Peter Lely was the first-known collector
0:45:51 > 0:45:55to mark his drawings with what we call a collector's mark.
0:45:55 > 0:45:57Here you can see it's his initials PL.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01This is the start of a very interesting new dialogue
0:46:01 > 0:46:03between artist and collector,
0:46:03 > 0:46:05each adding value to the other.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08A drawing gives status to a collector
0:46:08 > 0:46:12but an established collector also can add value to a drawing.
0:46:12 > 0:46:16It's the start of a long tradition that continues today.
0:46:16 > 0:46:19Check any sale catalogue and you will see pages
0:46:19 > 0:46:23devoted to the provenance of a work of art.
0:46:23 > 0:46:26At Wilton, some of the collection
0:46:26 > 0:46:29was lost in a disastrous fire in 1647.
0:46:30 > 0:46:32Other important pieces were sold to raise money
0:46:32 > 0:46:35in the aftermath of the Civil War.
0:46:35 > 0:46:39But the idea of a private collection was here to stay.
0:46:40 > 0:46:45In the 1680s, the 8th Earl of Pembroke rebuilt the family collection,
0:46:45 > 0:46:50buying back some paintings that had been sold and acquiring new ones.
0:46:50 > 0:46:54He even bought many that had been in the Arundel collection.
0:46:56 > 0:47:01Here at Wilton, you get a clear idea of what these early collections must have been like.
0:47:01 > 0:47:05Walking from the Van Dyck room into the anteroom,
0:47:05 > 0:47:08you come face to face with another selection of real gems.
0:47:08 > 0:47:12Like Rembrandt's moving portrait of his mother.
0:47:12 > 0:47:17It would be another 200 years before the notion of a national gallery
0:47:17 > 0:47:20filled with masterpieces was born.
0:47:20 > 0:47:25But these private collections were already paving the way.
0:47:29 > 0:47:31Despite the impact of the Civil War,
0:47:31 > 0:47:34collecting was now embedded in English cultural life.
0:47:36 > 0:47:39In 1658, Oliver Cromwell died.
0:47:39 > 0:47:44Two years later, Parliament restored Charles I's son, Charles II.
0:47:46 > 0:47:50Despite almost 20 years of Cromwell's Puritanism,
0:47:50 > 0:47:52the taste for Renaissance riches
0:47:52 > 0:47:57and the Baroque style that Rubens had introduced had not gone away.
0:47:57 > 0:48:00Collecting now entered a new phase.
0:48:00 > 0:48:03Luckily for us, the legacy of this
0:48:03 > 0:48:05is perfectly preserved in the beautiful
0:48:05 > 0:48:07Burghley House in Lincolnshire.
0:48:09 > 0:48:11The Elizabethan exterior, though,
0:48:11 > 0:48:16gives little clue of the visual extravagance which lies within.
0:48:21 > 0:48:26Here is the very illustration of Restoration opulence.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33This is known as the Hell Staircase
0:48:33 > 0:48:38and was painted by the Italian artist Antonio Verrio in the 1680s.
0:48:42 > 0:48:47And at the top of the stairs is heaven.
0:49:02 > 0:49:06If you want to understand Baroque, this is it.
0:49:06 > 0:49:10Baroque was all about taking everything to the extremes,
0:49:10 > 0:49:14pushing the boundaries of perspective so that the walls
0:49:14 > 0:49:19seem to fall away and we're standing in a temple open to the skies.
0:49:19 > 0:49:21And the use of visual tricks,
0:49:21 > 0:49:26look at that wonderful, spectacular shaft of rainbow light.
0:49:26 > 0:49:30That's a true example of trompe l'oeil.
0:49:30 > 0:49:35And, of course, the tumbling, contorted naked bodies
0:49:35 > 0:49:38that are drawing us up into the heavens.
0:49:42 > 0:49:48Verrio spent over a decade at Burghley between 1686 and 1697.
0:49:48 > 0:49:52He came here through the patronage of two extraordinary collectors,
0:49:52 > 0:49:55John Cecil, 5th Earl of Exeter,
0:49:55 > 0:49:59and his wife, Lady Anne Cavendish,
0:49:59 > 0:50:02the only daughter of the 1st Duke of Devonshire.
0:50:02 > 0:50:06The Exeters picked up where the Arundels left off.
0:50:06 > 0:50:09But they took collecting in England in a new direction.
0:50:09 > 0:50:13This time, it wasn't so much a passion for old masters
0:50:13 > 0:50:16as the shock of the new.
0:50:17 > 0:50:20Archivist Jon Culverhouse has a wealth of documents
0:50:20 > 0:50:23relating to this extraordinary pair
0:50:23 > 0:50:26and their adventures in Italy in the late 1670s.
0:50:27 > 0:50:30They were clearly a real couple.
0:50:30 > 0:50:32They worked as a team, by the sound of it.
0:50:32 > 0:50:35An intrepid pair heading off into the unknown.
0:50:35 > 0:50:39She was very much, as you say, an intrepid lady.
0:50:39 > 0:50:41I mean, to go off on a party like this
0:50:41 > 0:50:46into territories unknown, crossing the Alps by wagon.
0:50:46 > 0:50:49The danger of brigands and all the rest of it.
0:50:49 > 0:50:53- They took gentleman soldiers.- It was impressive.- She was a brave lady.
0:50:53 > 0:50:57Um, it's amusing that they took far too many people.
0:50:57 > 0:50:59I think there were over 30 of them on the first trip.
0:50:59 > 0:51:01And far too much stuff.
0:51:01 > 0:51:07They took travelling beds, they took a tent, they took cooking equipment,
0:51:07 > 0:51:10woollen clothing against bad weather.
0:51:10 > 0:51:12- All sorts of things that they didn't need.- Oh, how funny.
0:51:12 > 0:51:15- I suppose they were used to English climate.- Yes.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18So, what idea do you have of their characters?
0:51:18 > 0:51:21I think he had a huge enthusiasm.
0:51:21 > 0:51:23I think that's what comes over more than anything.
0:51:23 > 0:51:28You've got to be enthusiastic to buy over 350 paintings in four trips.
0:51:28 > 0:51:32- He just didn't stop. He was incorrigible.- Yes.
0:51:32 > 0:51:34There was no way that anything was going to slow him down.
0:51:34 > 0:51:36He wanted the very best, or what he saw as the best,
0:51:36 > 0:51:38and he wanted lots of it.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41What really comes across from these records is the fact that
0:51:41 > 0:51:45- they immersed themselves totally in Italian life.- Yes.
0:51:45 > 0:51:49Here, look, they're in Padua, going between Padua and Venice.
0:51:49 > 0:51:52And they've obviously arrived in Venice because here they are paying
0:51:52 > 0:51:55- for a gondola. - How lovely.
0:51:55 > 0:51:59- Look, spent...- On cool drinks. - Cool drinks.- How lovely.
0:51:59 > 0:52:01They were buying iced drinks.
0:52:01 > 0:52:05It's an everyday account. Look, here,
0:52:05 > 0:52:07he's paid for washing their linen.
0:52:07 > 0:52:11So, thinking about sending things home, did they actually buy paintings on this journey?
0:52:11 > 0:52:14- Yes, very much so. - Do we have records of those?
0:52:14 > 0:52:16There is. Where are we?
0:52:16 > 0:52:19Um... Here we are. Here we are.
0:52:19 > 0:52:23- To Carlo Maratta, 600 crowns. - How wonderful.
0:52:23 > 0:52:26That's incredibly forward thinking, isn't it?
0:52:26 > 0:52:29To be buying these contemporary Italian painters.
0:52:29 > 0:52:31This was his great thing, really.
0:52:31 > 0:52:33He liked the contemporary.
0:52:33 > 0:52:36He wasn't looking for the Leonardos, for the Titians,
0:52:36 > 0:52:38as the other grand tourists were.
0:52:38 > 0:52:41He wanted things from artists that he met.
0:52:42 > 0:52:45This is a really good example of the kind of painting
0:52:45 > 0:52:49that the Earl of Exeter would have bought on his Italian travels.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52In fact, this artist, Pietro Liberi,
0:52:52 > 0:52:55the Venetian, was renowned in Italy
0:52:55 > 0:52:57for his outrageous and highly erotic nudes.
0:52:57 > 0:53:01It didn't seem to have deterred the 5th Earl, however,
0:53:01 > 0:53:04because he bought a group of six.
0:53:04 > 0:53:08It depicts Logic, with her mathematical instruments,
0:53:08 > 0:53:11caught between Vice and Virtue.
0:53:11 > 0:53:15But what's particularly lovely is that this Italian painting
0:53:15 > 0:53:18is surrounded by a beautifully
0:53:18 > 0:53:21intricately carved English overmantle.
0:53:26 > 0:53:29What the 5th Earl and Countess were doing at Burghley
0:53:29 > 0:53:33was not just building up an impressive collection of paintings
0:53:33 > 0:53:37but making their house a work of art in itself.
0:53:40 > 0:53:43The paintings were commissioned to go in specific locations
0:53:43 > 0:53:48to create an effect and then, just as importantly,
0:53:48 > 0:53:50the interior designed around them.
0:53:53 > 0:53:57These elaborately carved picture frames and overmantles
0:53:57 > 0:53:59are typical throughout the house.
0:53:59 > 0:54:03Some of the finest carvings are by the master craftsman
0:54:03 > 0:54:05Grinling Gibbons.
0:54:06 > 0:54:12Today, furniture conservator Anthony Beech has a workshop in the stable yard
0:54:12 > 0:54:15and has had the chance to conserve some of these carvings.
0:54:16 > 0:54:19When these were first installed,
0:54:19 > 0:54:21these swags of fruit and flowers, they would've been
0:54:21 > 0:54:24this bright colour standing out against the dark panelling.
0:54:24 > 0:54:26They really would. They would have been artworks in their own right.
0:54:26 > 0:54:29- It makes much more of it, doesn't it?- Yeah, absolutely.
0:54:29 > 0:54:32That's absolutely right because it's a very important part
0:54:32 > 0:54:34- of the artistic conception of the room.- It really is.
0:54:34 > 0:54:38They're not just carving to decorate panelling
0:54:38 > 0:54:41or to embellish something, they are artworks in their own right.
0:54:41 > 0:54:45And Gibbons really was an artist just working in wood rather than in paint.
0:54:45 > 0:54:49Because this was really quite a new thing at this period, wasn't it?
0:54:49 > 0:54:54It really was. Gibbons started off producing small items,
0:54:54 > 0:54:58small panels and was discovered, really,
0:54:58 > 0:55:00and then created this fashion.
0:55:00 > 0:55:02So as soon as it became fashionable,
0:55:02 > 0:55:06particularly at the royal court, everybody wanted it.
0:55:10 > 0:55:14The renovation at Burghley went on for almost 20 years.
0:55:14 > 0:55:16It must have been a nightmare at times.
0:55:16 > 0:55:19As, like with any modern building projects,
0:55:19 > 0:55:22tensions were never far from the surface.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26One of the most important relationships
0:55:26 > 0:55:30was that between the artist Verrio and his patron the earl.
0:55:30 > 0:55:33And, at times, it was explosive.
0:55:34 > 0:55:37Verrio was a florid Italian.
0:55:37 > 0:55:40He liked his drink, he liked his women.
0:55:40 > 0:55:43And, I think, very quickly proved problematical.
0:55:43 > 0:55:46Well, I suppose it must be quite a difficult relationship,
0:55:46 > 0:55:48- the patron and painter relationship. - HE LAUGHS
0:55:48 > 0:55:51And think of a painter who has worked for the king
0:55:51 > 0:55:54- and thinks he's pretty grand. - Yes.
0:55:54 > 0:55:56As far as we know, he was living in
0:55:56 > 0:55:58for the first time, for the first months here.
0:55:58 > 0:56:02But when the second contract comes along,
0:56:02 > 0:56:05the earl and his craftsman fall out.
0:56:05 > 0:56:07And they have an argument, which Tanner the steward records
0:56:07 > 0:56:10in scribbled notes and you get things like,
0:56:10 > 0:56:12"Milord, you impudent dog."
0:56:12 > 0:56:15The story is, there's a figure upstairs on one of the ceilings
0:56:15 > 0:56:18portrayed as Ceres, the goddess Ceres, with six breasts,
0:56:18 > 0:56:21and it's meant to be the cook who rejected him.
0:56:21 > 0:56:25- So his revenge was to paint her with six breasts for all eternity.- Really?
0:56:29 > 0:56:32It may not have been the easiest of relationships
0:56:32 > 0:56:34but it was clearly worth it.
0:56:34 > 0:56:38By 1697, Verrio had finished these rooms
0:56:38 > 0:56:41and the effect is breathtaking.
0:56:52 > 0:56:56The 5th Earl died in 1700
0:56:56 > 0:56:59and, unsurprisingly, he left huge debts.
0:56:59 > 0:57:02Over the period of his earldom,
0:57:02 > 0:57:06he had managed to overspend his income by 50% a year.
0:57:06 > 0:57:11It took 14 years and an Act of Parliament to clear the estate.
0:57:13 > 0:57:17These pioneer collectors, from Arundel to Exeter,
0:57:17 > 0:57:20brought a fundamental idea to England
0:57:20 > 0:57:24that paintings could be so much more than just functional.
0:57:24 > 0:57:28They could be enjoyed for their aesthetic value.
0:57:28 > 0:57:33And their legacy lives on not only in these wonderful houses
0:57:33 > 0:57:38but in the way that we as a nation appreciate and value art.
0:57:42 > 0:57:45In a century, collecting in Britain
0:57:45 > 0:57:48had gone from almost nothing to all this.
0:57:51 > 0:57:55Arundel's original ambition of having a mini Italy in England
0:57:55 > 0:57:58was beginning to come to pass.
0:58:00 > 0:58:03In the next programme, I'll be looking at the golden age of collecting.
0:58:03 > 0:58:07Now the passion for art spread throughout the aristocracy.
0:58:07 > 0:58:09And, as the very best of European art
0:58:09 > 0:58:12was brought back to Britain by the shipload,
0:58:12 > 0:58:14treasure houses dotted the country.
0:58:14 > 0:58:17By the end of the 18th century,
0:58:17 > 0:58:20our collectors began to turn their attention to home
0:58:20 > 0:58:25and patronised the first great British artists.
0:58:28 > 0:58:33Many of the paintings collected and commissioned by British collectors
0:58:33 > 0:58:35are now in public ownership.
0:58:35 > 0:58:37To find out more, visit
0:58:37 > 0:58:42www.bbc.co.uk/yourpaintings
0:58:47 > 0:58:49Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd