RKD STUDIES

In 1632, the most important painting collections of Italian art outside of Spain and Italy were housed in and around the royal hub of Whitehall Palace, demonstrating that Venetian art was equally popular in London as in Madrid and Prague thanks to the patronage of members of the Habsburg dynasty.¹ Given the dense concentration of artworks of the highest quality, London was the ideal place for Lievens to be properly introduced to and immersed in the artistry of the Venetian old masters, of which the best examples were in the collections of Thomas Howard (14th Earl of Arundel) (1585–1664) and George Villiers (1st Duke of Buckingham) (1592–1628), who shared their passion for Venetian masters with King Charles I of England (1600–1649).²

Still recognised today as the founder of modern collecting in England, Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, had started collecting in the first decade of the 17th century³ and his collection rivalled those of Charles I and Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.⁴ Widely recognised as a discerning patron of contemporary artists as well as an outstanding collector of older masters,⁵ Howard had a close relationship with Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), who he had invited to England in 1620–21. Lievens drew Howard’s portrait somewhere between 1642 and 1644, soon after Howard moved to Antwerp, which makes it quite likely that Lievens already knew Howard in London, perhaps through van Dyck, and had a chance to see his collection.⁶ In 1642, the king instructed Howard to escort his wife and their daughter Princess Maria Henriëtte Stuart (1631–1661) to the Low Countries to join Willem II, prince of Orange (1626–1650), whom Maria had recently married. Howard and his wife never returned; it seems likely that for some time they had been planning to leave London for good due to financial, health and political reasons. The couple made arrangements for their possessions to be sent to them in the Low Countries and in 1643, the great majority of Howard’s pictures arrived in Antwerp.⁷ The presence of such a grand collection, which included Titian’s Three Ages of Men [2], must have made an impression on the Antwerp artists and Lievens could have had the opportunity to visit this collection in Antwerp, if not previously in London.⁸ The Venetians made up the largest group of paintings in his collection, reflecting the predominant taste at the English court. Howard had no fewer than 30 Titians, 15 Bassanos, and substantial groups by Giorgione (1478–1510), Tintoretto and Paolo Veronese (1528–1588).⁹ Howard owned two of Titian’s late masterpieces, Flaying of Marsyas [3] and The Crowning with Thorns [4], and whereas Charles did not care much for Veronese, Howard’s enthusiasm for his art was boundless, represented by Christ and the Centurion [5].¹⁰

2
Tiziano
The Three Ages of Man, c. 1513
Edinburgh (city, Scotland), National Galleries Scotland

3
Tiziano
The punishment of Marsyas he is flayed by Apollo
Kromeriz, Zámek Kroměříž, inv./cat.nr. KE 2370, O 107

George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, was a well-respected and beloved figure at the London court during the reign of King James VI and I (1566–1625) and one of the most important collectors of that time.¹¹ He was a trusted advisor to Charles I, collector and connoisseur with a taste for Italian art and in 1627, he inspired Charles I to buy the Gonzaga collections. Having started his own collection in the early 1610s, Villiers soon outclassed Howard on the international art trade for works by 16th-century Italian artists.¹² At the time of the Duke’s assassination in 1628, his collection outshone all others of the London court and after his death the bulk of it remained at the Duke’s residence of York House until 1644.¹³ Although Charles I and the guardian of George Villiers’s son and heir took some of the paintings for themselves, the collection was eventually sold in Antwerp in 1649, where the greater part was acquired by Archduke Leopold Wilhelm von Österreich (1614–1662).¹⁴ Villiers’ collection focussed on pictures by Venetian painters such as Jacopo Bassano, Tintoretto and Titian, including the latter’s spectacular Ecce Homo [6].¹⁵ Villiers owned 27 pictures attributed to Bassano and his followers and 18 paintings by Veronese, among which Christ and the Woman of Samaria [7]. This group of Veroneses must have been among the rarest and most remarkable treasures to be seen in London because unlike Titian’s work, Veronese’s paintings rarely came onto the market; the artist devoted most of his labours to adorning public buildings in Venice and the Veneto region.¹⁶ Even though Villiers passed away four years before Lievens arrived in London, it is plausible during the interim years of 1631–1635 that Lievens had access to his collection by means of the following connections: either through van Dyck, who often received commissions from Villiers and his relatives, or through the collection of Charles I, who acquired some of the paintings after his mentor’s death.¹⁷

However, it is Lievens’ connections with King Charles I that are best documented. Frederik Hendrik, Prince of Orange (1584–1647) gifted Charles I Lievens’ Student Reading by a Turf Fire (before 1628, now lost) and thus Lievens’ reputation preceded him in Whitehall. At the Stuart court, Lievens gained the patronage of the king and painted the royal, members of his family¹⁸ and other important courtiers.¹⁹ By the time Lievens moved to London, Charles I’s collection had grown to one of the most diverse and substantial in Europe.²⁰ Having started collecting from the age of 10 and with some excellent guidance from his confidant George Villiers, Charles I quickly acquired pictures such as Titian’s Young Woman with a Fur Coat [8] and Jupiter and Antiope, also called the Pardo Venus [9]. By the late 1620s, after the acquisition of the famous art collections of the ruling family in Mantua, the House of Gonzaga, Charles I owned one of Europe’s most important groups of Italian art of the High Renaissance and early Baroque.²¹ Charles adored Titian above all others, yet he also owned half a dozen from the Bassano family, such as Jacopo Bassano’s (1510–1592) Adoration of the Shepherds,²² and many works by Tintoretto (1518–1594), such as The Muses [10].

7
Paolo Veronese
Christ and the woman of Samaria, c. 1585
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv./cat.nr. Gemäldegalerie, 19

8
Tiziano
Young woman in a fur coat, c. 1535
Vienna, Kunsthistorische Sammlung des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses, inv./cat.nr. Gemäldegalerie, 89