The Role of Charles I in the Evolution of Taste and Collecting in England
ANDERSON, BRIANNA ELLEN
M.A. Thesis, University of Florida, August (2008)
Abstract
More influential in art collecting than any one country or institution are the individual collectors, inspired by everything from an intense passion for art to pure competition in 
acquiring vast and historically significant collections. Perhaps no better examples of these spirited collectors exist than those kings and nobles of Europe of the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries. Owning a substantial art collection of good taste and high caliber provided rulers with certain amount of social elitism; their courts were celebrated as bastions of cultural advancement, allowing even the weakest ruler a certain sense of power. The intent of this historical background is to illustrate the similarities, and differences, between the collectors of the Renaissance and Charles I of England; what he may have copied or been inspired with, and what he chose to ignore.Throughout his years as an art collector, Charles I was mainly concerned with two major ideas: the recognition of his ability to commission and effectively use blatantly propagandist paintings and his desire to amass a collection to compete with the Spanish and French.
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