The Sale of the Late King's Goods Charles 1 and his Art Collection
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About this book
Set against the backdrop of war revolution and regicide and moving from London to Venice Mantua Madrid Paris and the Low Countries Jerry Brottons colourful and critically acclaimed book explores the formation and dispersal of King Charles Is art collection. Following a remarkable and unprecedented Parliamentary Act for The sale of the late kings goods Cromwells republican regime sold off nearly 2 000 paintings tapestries statues and drawings in an attempt to settle the dead kings enormous debts and raise money for the Commonwealths military forces. Brotton recreates the extraordinary circumstances of this sale in which for the first time ordinary working people were able to handle and own works by the great masters. He also examines the abiding relationship between art and power revealing how the current Royal Collection emerged from this turbulent period and paints its own vivid and dramatic picture of one of the greatest lost collections in English history. A rip-roaring slice of seventeenth-century England...Readable history at its best Kate Mosse author of "Labyrinth "
