Chapter 56
curiosities of literature volume two by isaac disraeli charles the first love of the fine arts herbert the faithful attendant of charles the first during the two last years of the king's life mentions a diamond seal with the king's arms engraved on it The history of this diamond seal is remarkable and seems to have been recovered by the conjectural sagacity of Warburton, who never exercised his favorite talent with greater felicity. The curious passage I transcribe may be found in a manuscript letter to Dr. Burt. If you have read Herbert's account of the last days of Charles I's life, you must remember he
tells a story of a diamond seal, with the arms of England cut into it. This King Charles ordered to be given, I think, to the prince. I suppose you don't know what became of this seal, but would be surprised to find it afterwards in the court of Persia. Yet there Tavernier certainly carried it and offered it for sale, as I certainly collect from these words of volume 1, page 541, mais souvenant de ce qui est-il arrivé au chevalier de Réville, etc.
He tells us he told the prime minister what was engraved on the diamond was the arms of a prince of Europe, but says he, I would not be more particular remembering the case of Réville. Réville's case was this, he came to seek employment under the Sophie, who asked him where he had served. He said in England under Charles I and that he was a captain
in his guards. Why did you leave his service? He was murdered by cruel rebels. And how had you the impudence, says the Sophie, to survive him and so disgraced him? Now, Tavernier was afraid if he had said the arms of England had been on the seal, that they would have occasioned the inquiry into the old story. You will ask how Tavernier got this seal. I suppose that the prince, in his necessity, sold it to Tavernier, who was at Paris when the English court was there.
What made me recollect Herbert's account on reading this was the singularity of an impress cut on the diamond, which Tavernier represents as a most extraordinary rarity. Charles I was a great virtuoso and delighted particularly in sculpture and painting. This is an instance of conjectural evidence where an historical fact seems established on no other authority than the ingenuity of a student exercised in his library on a private and secret event.
a century after it had occurred the diamond seal of charles the first may yet be discovered in the treasures of the persian sovereign warburton who had ranged with keen delight through the age of charles the first the noblest and the most humiliating in our own history and in that of the world perpetually instructive has justly observed the king's passion for the fine arts it was indeed such that had the reign of charles i proved prosperous that sovereign about sixteen forty would have anticipated those tastes and even that enthusiasm which are still almost foreign to the nation the mind of charles the first was moulded by the graces his favourite buckingham was probably a greater favourite for those congenial tastes and the frequent exhibition of those splendid masks and entertainments which combined all the picture of ballet dances with the voice of music the charms of the verse of johnson the scenic machinery of
inigo jones and the variety of fanciful devices of guirbier the duke's architect the bosom friend of rubens footnote guirbier was in antwerp at rubens death and sent over an inventory of his pictures and effects for the king's selection There was a costly magnificence in the Fête at York House, the residence of Buckingham, of which few but curious researchers are aware. They eclipsed the splendor of the French court, for Basson-Pierre, in one of his dispatches, declares he had never witnessed a similar magnificence. He describes the vaulted apartments, the ballets at supper, which were proceeding between the services, with various representations, theatrical changes, and those of the tables, and the music.
The Duke's own contrivance to prevent the inconvenience of pressure by having a turning door made like that of the monasteries, which admitted only one person at a time. The following extract from a manuscript letter of the time conveys a lively account of one of those fets. Last Sunday at night the Duke's Grace entertained their Majesties and the French Ambassador at York House with great feasting and show, where all things came down in clouds, amongst which one rare device was a representation of the French King and the two Queens with their
chiefest attendants, and so to the life that the Queen's Majesty could name them. It was four o'clock in the morning before they parted, and then the king and queen, together with the French ambassador, lodged there. Some estimate this entertainment at five or six thousand pounds. At another time, the king and queen were entertained at supper at Guerbillet, the duke's painter's house, which could not stand him in less than a thousand pounds. Sir Simon's Dews mentions banquets at 500 pounds.
The fullest account I have found of one of these entertainments, which at once show the curiosity of the scenical machinery and the fancy of the poet, the richness of the crimson habits of the gentlemen, and the white dresses with white herons, plumes, and jeweled headdresses, and ropes of pearls of the ladies,
was in a manuscript letter of the times with which I supplied the editor of Johnson, who has preserved the narrative in his memoirs of that poet. Such were the magnificent entertainments, says Mr. Gifford, which, though modern refinement may affect to despise them, modern splendor never reached, even in thought.
That the expenditure was costly proves that the greater encouragement was offered to artists, nor should Buckingham be censured, as some will incline to, for this lavish expense. It was not unusual for the great nobility then, for the literary Duchess of Newcastle mentions that an entertainment of this sort, which the Duke gave to Charles I, cost her lord between four and five thousand pounds. The ascetic Puritan would indeed abhor these scenes, but their
magnificence was also designed to infuse into the national character gentler feelings and more elegant tastes. They charmed even the fiercer Republican spirits in their tender youth. Milton owes his arcades and his delightful comus to a mask at Ludlow Castle, and Whitelock, who was himself an actor and manager in a splendid royal mask of the four ends of courts joined together to go to court about the time that Prynne published his Historiomastics to manifest the
difference of their opinions from Mr. Prynne's new learning, seems even at a later date when drawing up his memorials of the English affairs and occupied by graver concerns to have dwelt with all the fondness of reminiscence on the stately shows and masks of his more innocent age, and has devoted in a chronicle which contracts many an important event into a single paragraph, six folio columns to a minute, and very curious description of these dreams past and these
vanished pomps. Charles I indeed not only possessed a critical tact, but extensive knowledge in the fine arts and the relics of antiquity. In his flight in 1642, the king stopped at the abode of the religious family of the Ferrars at Gidding, who had there raised a singular monastic institution among themselves. One of their favorite amusements had been to form an illustrated Bible, the wonder and the talk of the country. In turning it over, the king would tell his companion,
the Paul's grave, whose curiosity in prints exceeded his knowledge, the various masters and the character of their inventions. When Panzani, a secret agent of the Pope, was sent over to England to promote the Catholic cause, the subtle and elegant Catholic Barberini, called the protector of the English at Rome, introduced Panzini to the king's favor by making him appear an agent rather for procuring him fine pictures, statues, and curiosities.
And the earnest inquiries and orders given by Charles I prove his perfect knowledge of the most beautiful existing remains of ancient art. The statues go on prosperously, says Cardinal Barberini in a letter to a Mazarin, nor shall I hesitate to rob Rome of her most valuable ornaments, if in exchange we might be so happy as to have the King of England's name among those princes who submit to the apostolic see. Charles I was particularly urgent to procure a statue of
Adonis in the Villa Ludovicia. Every effort was made by the queen's confessor, Father Phillips, and the vigilant cardinal at Rome, but the inexorable Duchess of Fianna would not suffer it to be separated from her rich collection of statues and paintings, even for the chance conversion of a whole kingdom of heretics. Footnote. See Gregorio Panzani's memoirs of his agency in England. This work long lay in manuscript and was only known to us in the Catholic Dodds
Church history by partial extracts. It was at length translated from the Italian manuscript and published by the Reverend Joseph Barrington, a curious piece of our own secret history. End of footnote. This monarch, who possessed four and twenty palaces, all of them elegantly and completely furnished, had formed very considerable collections. The value of pictures had doubled in Europe by the emulation between our Charles and Philip IV of Spain, who was touched
with the same elegant passion. When the rulers of fanaticism began their reign, all the king's furniture was put to sale. His pictures, disposed of at very low prices, enriched all the collections in Europe. The cartoons, when complete, were only appraised at 300 pounds, though the whole collection of the king's curiosities were sold at above 50,000 pounds. Hume adds the very library medals of St. James's were intended by the generals to be brought to auction in order to pay the
arrears of some regiments of cavalry, but Selden, apprehensive of this loss, engaged his friend Whitelock, then Lord Keeper of the Commonwealth, to apply for the office of librarian. This contrivance saved that valuable collection. This account is only partly correct. The love of books, which formed the passion of the two learned scholars, whom Hume notices fortunately intervened to save the royal collection from the intended scattering. But the pictures and medals were
perhaps objects too slight in the eyes of the book learned. They were resigned to the singular fate of appraisement. After the restoration, very many books were missing, but scarcely a third part of the metals remained, of the strange manner in which these precious remains of ancient art and history were valued and disposed of, the following account may not be read without interest. In March 1648 the Parliament ordered commissioners to be appointed to inventory the goods and personal
estate of the late king, queen, and prince, and appraise them for the use of the public, and in april sixteen forty eight an act as whitelock was committed for inventorying the late king's goods etc this very inventory i have examined it forms a magnificent folio of near a thousand pages of an extraordinary dimension bound in crimson velvet and richly gilt written in a fair large hand but with little knowledge of the objects which the inventory writer describes it is entitled an inventory of the goods jewels plate etc belonging to king charles i sold by order of the council of state from the year sixteen nineteen to sixteen fifty two so that from the decapitation of the king a year was allowed to draw up the inventory and the sale proceeded during three years From this manuscript catalog, to give long extracts were useless. It has afforded, however,
some remarkable observations. Every article was appraised, nothing was sold under the affixed price, but a slight competition sometimes seems to have raised the sum. And when the Council of State could not get the sum appraised, the gold and silver were sent to the mint, and assuredly, many fine works of art were valued by the ounce. The names of the purchasers appear. They are usually English, but probably many were the agents for foreign courts. The coins or medals were
thrown promiscuously into drawers. One drawer having 24 medals was valued at two pounds ten shillings, another of twenty at one pound, another of twenty-four at one pound, and one drawer containing forty-six silver coins with the box was sold for five pounds. On the whole, the medals seemed not to have been valued at much more than a shilling apiece. The appraiser was certainly no antiquary. The king's curiosities in the tower jewel house generally fetched above the price
fixed. The toys of art could please the unlettered minds that had no conception of its works. The temple of Jerusalem, made of ebony and amber, fetched twenty-five pounds, a fountain of silver for perfumed waters, artificially made to play of itself, sold for thirty pounds. A chessboard, said to be Queen Elizabeth's, inlaid with gold, silver, and pearls, twenty-three pounds a conjuring drum from lapland with an almanac cut on a piece of wood several sections in silver of a turkish galley a venetian gondola an indian canoe and a first-rate man-of-war
a saxon king's mace used in war with a ball full of spikes and the handle covered with gold plates and enamelled sold for thirty seven pounds eight shillings a gorget of massy gold chased with the manner of a battle weighing thirty-one ounces at three pounds ten shillings per ounce was sent to the mint a roman shield of buff leather covered with a plate of gold finely chased with a gorgon's head set round the rim with rubies emeralds turquoise stones in number one hundred and thirty seven one hundred and thirty two pounds twelve shillings the pictures taken from whitehall windsor wimbledon greenwich hampton court etc exhibit in number an unparalleled collection by what standard they were valued it would perhaps be difficult to conjecture from fifty pounds to a hundred pounds seems to have been the limits of the appraiser's taste and imagination
Some whose price is whimsically low may have been thus rated from a political feeling respecting the portrait of the person. There are, however, in this singular appraised catalogue two pictures, which were rated at and sold for the remarkable sums of one and of two thousand pounds. The one was a sleeping Venus by Correggio, and the other a Madonna by Raphael. There was also a picture by Giulio Romano called The Great Peace of the Nativity at 500 pounds,
The Little Madonna and Christ by Raphael at 800 pounds, The Great Venus and Parde by Titian at 600 pounds. These seem to have been the only pictures in this immense collection which reached a picture's prices. The inventory writer had probably been instructed by the public voice of their value, which, however, would in the present day be considered much under a fourth. Rubens' woman taken in adultery described as a large picture sold for twenty pounds, and his piece
and plenty, with many figures big as the life, for one hundred pounds. Titian's picture seemed generally valued at 100 pounds. Footnote. One of these pictures, a concert, is now in our National Gallery. End of footnote. Venus, dressed by the graces by Guido, reached to 200 pounds. The cartoons of Raphael, here called the Acts of the Apostles, notwithstanding their subject, was so congenial to the popular feelings and only appraised at 300 pounds, could find no
purchaser. Footnote. They were secured by Cromwell, who had intended to reproduce the designs at the tapestry factory established in Mortlake, but the troubles of the kingdom hindered it. Charles II very nearly sold them to France. Lord Danby intercepted the sale when they were packed away in boxes until the time of William III, who built the gallery at Hampton Court expressly for their exhibition. End of footnote. The following full lengths of celebrated personages
were rated at these whimsical prices. Queen Elizabeth in her parliament robes valued one pound. The queen mother in mourning habit valued three pounds. Buchanan's picture valued three pounds ten shillings. The king when a youth in coats valued two pounds. The picture of the queen when she was with child, sold for five shillings. King Charles on horseback by Sir Anthony van Dyke was purchased by Sir Balthasar Gerbier at the appraised price of two hundred pounds.
Footnote. This picture is now one of the ornaments of Whimsor Castle. End of footnote. The greatest sums were produced by the tapestry and heiress hangings, which were chiefly purchased for the service of the protector. Their amount exceeds 30,000 pounds. I note a few. At Hampton Court, 10 pieces of aris hangings of Abraham, containing 826 yards, at 10 pounds a yard, 8,260 pounds. 10 pieces of Julius Caesar, 717 L's, at 7 pounds.
5,019 pounds. Footnote. These would appear to be copies of Andrea Mantegna's Triumphs of Julius Caesar, the cartoons of which are still in the galleries of Hampton Court. End of footnote.
One of the cloth of estates is thus described. One rich cloth of estate of purple velvet, embroidered with gold, having the arms of England within a garter, with all the furniture suitable thereunto. The state, containing these stones following,
two cameos or agates, twelve chrysolites, twelve ballaces or garnets, one sapphire, seated in chases of gold, one long pearl pendant, and many large and small pearls, valued at five hundred pounds, sold for six hundred and two pounds ten shillings to Mr. Oliver for February 1649. was plain mr oliver in 1649 who we see was one of the earlier purchasers shortly after the lord
protector all the cloth of estate and heiress hangings were afterwards purchased for the service of the protector and one may venture to conjecture that when mr oliver purchased this rich cloth of estate it was not without a latent motive of its service to the new owner footnote Some may be curious to learn the price of gold and silver about 1650. It appears by this manuscript inventory that the silver sold at four shillings, eleven pence, per ounce, and gold at three pounds,
ten shillings, so that the value of these metals has little varied during the last century and a half. End of footnote. There is one circumstance remarkable in the feeling of Charles I for the fine arts. It was a passion without ostentation or egotism, for although this monarch was inclined himself to participate in the pleasures of a creating artist, the king having handled the pencil and composed a poem, yet he never suffered his private dispositions to prevail over his more
majestic duties. We do not discover in history that Charles I was a painter and a poet. Accident and secret history only revealed this softening feature in his grave and king-like character. Charles sought no glory from, but only indulged his love for art and the artists. There are three manuscripts on his art by Leonardo da Vinci in the Ambrosian Library, which bear an inscription that a king of England in 1639 offered one thousand guineas of gold for
each. Charles, too, suggested to the two great painters of his age the subjects he considered worthy of their pencils, and had for his closet companions those native poets for which he was censured in evil times, and even by Milton. In his imprisonment at Carisbrook Castle, the author of the Icon Basiliki, solaced his royal woes by composing a poem entitled, in the very style of this memorable volume, Majesty in Misery or an Imploration to the King of Kings,
a title probably not his own, but like that volume, it contains stanzas fraught with the most tender and solemn feeling. Such a subject in the hands of such an author was sure to produce poetry, although in the unpracticed poet we may want the versifier. A few stanzas will illustrate this conception of part of his character. The fiercest furies that do daily tread upon my grief, my grey discrowned head, are those that own my bounty for their bread. With my own power,
my majesty, they wound in the king's name, the king himself uncrowned, so doth the dust destroy the diamond. After a pathetic description of his queen, forced in pilgrimage to seek a tomb, and Great Britain's heir forced into France, where, poor child, he weeps out his inheritance. Charles continues, They promise to erect my royal stem, to make me great, to advance my diadem, if I will first fall down and worship them. But for refusal they devour my thrones,
distress my children, and destroy my bones. I fear they'll force me to make bread of stones. And implores with a martyr's piety the Savior's forgiveness for those who were more misled than criminal. Such as thou knowest do not know what they do. Footnote. This poem is omitted in the great edition of the king's works published after the Restoration, and was given by Burnett from a manuscript of his Memoirs of the Dukes of Hamilton, but it had been previously published in
Perrin-Chief's Life of Charles I. It has been suspected that this poem is a pious fraud, and put forth in the king's name, as likewise was the icon Basilike. One point I have since ascertained is that Charles did write verses as rugged as some of these, and in respect to the book, notwithstanding the artifice and the interpolations of Gowden, I believe that there are some passages which Charles only could have written. End of footnote. As a poet and a painter,
Charles is not popularly known, but this article was due to preserve the memory of the royal votary's ardour and pure feelings for the love of the fine arts footnote this article was composed without any recollection that a part of the subject had been anticipated by lord orford in the anecdotes of painting in england many curious particulars are noticed the story of the king's diamond seal had reached his lordship and vertu had a mutilated transcript of the inventory of the king's pictures etc discovered in morefields for among others more than thirty pages at the beginning relating to the plate and jewels were missing the manuscript in the harleian collection is perfect lord orford has also given an interesting anecdote to show the king's discernment in the knowledge of the hands of the painters which confirms the little anecdote i have related from the ferrars
but for a more intimate knowledge of this monarch's intercourse with artists i beg to refer to the third volume of my commentaries on the life and reign of charles i chapter the sixth on the private life of charles i love of the arts end of footnote end of section fifty six
