'The British as Art Collectors'

choi

Henrik Bering, A Legacy in Oil and Stone; Cromwell sold off Charles I's remarkable collection--but he kept Mantegna's 'The Triumphs of Caesar.' Wall Street Journal, Jan 26, 2013 (subtitle in print)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 57912602162802.html
(book review on James Stourton and Charles Sebag-Montefiore, The British as Art Collectors; From the Tudors to the present. Scala, 2012)

Note:
(a) The reviewer, Henrik Bering.
(i) Henry (given name)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_(given_name)
(Old French spelling; variants: Henric (Romanian); Henrik (Croatian, Danish, German, Hungarian, Norwegian, Slovene, Swedish, Estonian, Armenian)
(ii) Vitus Bering
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitus_Bering
(1681-1741; born in Denmark and died in Russia; an explorer and officer in the Russian Navy)
(iii) The North German surname Bering means son of "Germanic personal name Ber (meaning ‘bear’)."
Dictionary of American Family Names

(b)
(i) "Henry, Prince of Wales"

Prince of Wales
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Wales
(The tradition of investing the heir-apparent of the monarch with the title of "Prince of Wales" is usually considered to have begun in 1301, when King Edward I of England invested his son Edward Caernarfon [later Edward II] with the title at a Parliament held in Lincoln)
(ii) Charles I of England
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I_of_England
(1600-1649; reign 1625-1649; In 1625 married a Roman Catholic princess from France; Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles believed was divinely ordained; beheaded)

Both Henry (first-born son; died of typhoid fever) and Charles (second and last son) were sons of
James VI and I
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_VI_and_I
(1566-1625; King of Scotland as James VI 1567-1625; King of England and Ireland as James I 1603-1625, succeeding the virgin-queen--and thus childless--Elizabeth I)

(c) The review says, "Horace Walpole crammed his medieval pile, Strawberry Hill, with miniatures, suits of armor," and so on.
(i) Horace Walpole
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Walpole
(Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford; 1717-1797; an English art historian; now largely remembered for Strawberry Hill, the home he built in Twickenham, south-west London)  
(ii) The Latin form of Horace is Horatius, which was a clan name of Roman nobility.

* Horatia (gens)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatia_(gens)
(section 1 Origin of the gens)
The most famous person bearing the name was the Roman poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65 BC-8 BC).
(iii) pile (n): "a large building or group of buildings"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pile

(d) The review states, "Henry VIII had employed Hans Holbein to glorify the crown with battle scenes and portraits, including the famous one, known only from copies, of the king, standing with his feet wide apart and brimming with testosterone."
(i) Portrait of Henry VIII
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Henry_VIII
(ii) Hans Holbein the Younger
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Holbein_the_Younger
(c 1497-1543; a German artist)

(e) The review continues, "But it was Charles I who became the most successful royal collector ever when in the late 1620s he secured the Gonzaga collection from the impoverished dukes of Mantua * * * Unfortunately, Charles's political judgment did not march his aesthetic discernment. After his execution, the collection was sold at auction—though Cromwell kept Mantegna's 'The Triumphs of Caesar.'"
(i) House of Gonzaga
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Gonzaga
(a royal family that ruled Mantua in Northern Italy from 1328 to 1708)

The Italian (now Spanish also) surname Gonzaga came from a place name in Mantua.
(ii) Andrea Mantegna
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Mantegna
(c 14531-1506; an Italian painter)
(ii) Triumphs of Caesar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumphs_of_Caesar
(a series of nine large paintings created by the Italian Renaissance artist Andrea Mantegna between 1484 and 1492 for the Gonzaga Ducal Palace, Mantua)

(f) The caption of a painring that accompanies the review: "NOBLE ASPIRATIONS  A 1768 portrait of Sir Gregory Page-Turner (1748–1805) painted by Pompeo Batoni."
(i) Sir Gregory Page-Turner, 3rd Baronet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Gregory_Page-Turner,_3rd_Baronet
(Gregory Turner ("Page" was added later) was the eldest son of Sir Edward Turner, 2nd Baronet of Ambrosden; Pompeo Batoni painted Sir Gregory's portrait in about 1768; In 1775 he inherited substantial estates in northwest Kent (today part of southeast London) from his great-uncle Sir Gregory Page, and added "Page" to his surname)
(ii) Pompeo Batoni
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeo_Batoni
(1708-1787; an Italian painter)

* The Italian given name, as well as surname, Pompeo, has Latin form Pompeius, which was a clan name of Roman nobility.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeius