The Dutch Gift of 1660 was a collection of 24 mostly

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( ) was a period in History of Italy, Italian history between the 14th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Western Europe and marked t ...

paintings, four by Dutch Masters, and twelve classical sculptures. The gift was presented to newly-restored King

Charles II of England Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651 and King of England, Scotland, and King of Ireland, Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685. Charles II was the eldest su ...

on 16 November by envoys of the

States of Holland The States of Holland and West Frisia () were the representation of the two Estates (''standen'') to the court of the Count of Holland. After the United Provinces were formed — and there no longer was a count, but only his "lieutenant" (the stad ...

. Most of the paintings and all the Roman sculptures were from the Reynst collection, the most important seventeenth-century Dutch collection of paintings of the Italian sixteenth century, formed in Venice by Jan Reynst (1601–1646) and extended by his brother, Gerrit Reynst (1599–1658). The gift reflected the taste Charles shared with his father, Charles I, whose large collection, one of the most magnificent in Europe, had mostly been sold abroad after he was executed in 1649. Charles II was not as keen a collector as his father, but appreciated art and was later able to recover a good number of the items from the pre-war collection that remained in England, as well as purchasing many further paintings, and many significant

old master In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

drawings. Some decades later, there was a reverse movement when 36 paintings from the English

Royal Collection The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world. Spread among 13 occupied and historic List of British royal residences, royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King ...

, including at least one of those given in 1660, were taken by the Dutch King William III of England to his Dutch palace of Het Loo. His successor to the throne, Queen Anne, tried to recover these after William's death in 1702 but failed, and they mostly remain in Dutch public collections. Fourteen paintings from the 1660 gift remain in the Royal Collection, with others now in different collections around the world.

The gift

The collection was promised to Charles II at a party in

Mauritshuis The Mauritshuis (, ; ) is an art museum in The Hague, Netherlands. The museum houses the Royal Cabinet of Paintings which consists of 854 objects, mostly Dutch Golden Age paintings. The collection contains works by Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt van ...

in May 1660, to mark his return to power in the

English Restoration The Stuart Restoration was the reinstatement in May 1660 of the Stuart monarchy in Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland. It replaced the Commonwealth of England, established in January 164 ...

. After the Declaration of Breda he and his two brothers James and

Henry Henry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Henry (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters * Henry (surname) * Henry, a stage name of François-Louis Henry (1786–1855), French baritone Arts and entertainmen ...

travelled to the Hague. Charles had spent many years in exile in Paris, where his mother lived,

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, and the

Spanish Netherlands The Spanish Netherlands (; ; ; ) (historically in Spanish: , the name "Flanders" was used as a '' pars pro toto'') was the Habsburg Netherlands ruled by the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs from 1556 to 1714. They were a collection of States of t ...

, during the short period of the

English Commonwealth The Commonwealth of England was the political structure during the period from 1649 to 1660 when Kingdom of England, England and Wales, later along with Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland and Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, were governed as a republi ...

when England was a republic. It was intended to strengthen family ties and diplomatic relations between England and the Republic. The gift was organized by

Cornelis de Graeff Cornelis de Graeff (15 October 1599 – 4 May 1664), often named ''Polsbroek'' or ''de heer van (lord) Polsbroek'' during his lifetime, was an influential regenten, regent and burgomaster (mayor) of Amsterdam, statesman and diplomat of Holland an ...

and Andries de Graeff. The gift seems to have included the Klencke Atlas, based on the ideas of Mare Liberum. An end of the

Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1660) The Anglo-Spanish War was a conflict between the Commonwealth of England, English The Protectorate, Protectorate and Spain between 1654 and 1660. It was driven by the economic and religious rivalry between the two countries, with each side at ...

, a renewal of the

Navigation Act The Navigation Acts, or more broadly the Acts of Trade and Navigation, were a series of English laws that developed, promoted, and regulated English ships, shipping, trade, and commerce with other countries and with its own colonies. The laws al ...

and the foundation of the Royal African Company would mean more competition in the East, the West and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. Only a few years after the gift the two nations would be at war again in the

Second Anglo-Dutch War The Second Anglo-Dutch War, began on 4 March 1665, and concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Breda (1667), Treaty of Breda on 31 July 1667. It was one in a series of Anglo-Dutch Wars, naval wars between Kingdom of England, England and the D ...

. The 24 Italian paintings and the 12 sculptures had been part of the Reynst Collection assembled by Gerrit Reynst (also known as Gerard Reynst) and his brother Jan Reynst, who had been based in

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

for many years. Much of the collection originated from the famous Vendramin family collection there, though others had been acquired separately. After the death of Gerrit Reynst, who drowned in the canal in front of his house, his widow sold a selection of the finest works in the collection to the States of Holland in 1660 for the then considerable sum of 80,000

guilder Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch and German ''gulden'', originally shortened from Middle High German ''guldin pfenninc'' (" gold penny"). This was the term that became current in the southern and western parts of the Holy Rom ...

s. In 1660 this group and twelve Roman sculptures were presented to Charles II, augmented by four non-Italian works. The gift seems to have been organized by Amsterdam

regents In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

, especially the powerful

and his younger brother Andries. The sculptures for the gift were selected by the pre-eminent sculptor in the Netherlands, Artus Quellinus, and the art-connoisseur Gerrit van Uylenburgh, advised on and accompanied the purchase. (Much later he was to flee from financial difficulties to England and become

Surveyor of the King's Pictures The office of the Surveyor of the King's/Queen's Pictures, in the Royal Collection Department of the Royal Households of the United Kingdom, Royal Household of the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, Sovereign of the United Kingdom, is responsible fo ...

to Charles, from 1676 until his death three years later.) The gift was unpopular with many of the Dutch, and became a bone of contention between the Dutch political factions. In July 1660 Louis of Nassau arrived in London to find out more about Charles' preferences; his countrymen Simon van Hoorn, Michiel van Gogh from Vlissingen and the catholic Baron Joachim Ripperda van Farmsum arrived in November to negotiate the Act of Navigation and to present Charles II the Gift.

Predecessors

Previous diplomatic "Dutch Gifts" had been presented to Henry, Prince of Wales, in 1610, and to Charles I in 1636, the latter including six horses and a state carriage, four paintings, a fine watch, a chest veneered with

mother-of-pearl Nacre ( , ), also known as mother-of-pearl, is an organicinorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer. It is also the material of which pearls are composed. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent. Nacre is ...

and a precious lump of

ambergris Ambergris ( or ; ; ), ''ambergrease'', or grey amber is a solid, waxy, flammable substance of a dull grey or blackish colour produced in the digestive system of sperm whales. Freshly produced ambergris has a marine, fecal odor. It acquires a sw ...

The Italian paintings

Fourteen important Italian paintings from the Dutch Gift, all previously in the Reynst Collection, remain in the Royal Collection, including: *

Titian Tiziano Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. Ti ...

's ''Portrait of Jacopo Sannazaro'', c. 1514–18, and ''The Virgin and Child in a landscape with Tobias and the Angel'' (with his workshop, c. 1535–40) – this last was Charles' favourite, according to the Dutch ambassadors sent with the gift. * Lorenzo Lotto's portrait of ''Andrea Odoni'', 1527, and his ''Portrait of a bearded man'', c. 1512–15 * Andrea Schiavone's ''Judgement of Midas'', c. 1548–50, and ''Christ before Pilate''. * Giulio Romano, ''Portrait of Margherita Palaeologa'', c.1531 *

Parmigianino Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (11 January 150324 August 1540), also known as Francesco Mazzola or, more commonly, as Parmigianino (, , ; "the little one from Parma"), was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, ...

, ''Pallas Athene'', c. 1531–8 *

Paolo Veronese Paolo Caliari (152819 April 1588), known as Paolo Veronese ( , ; ), was an Italian Renaissance painter based in Venice, known for extremely large history paintings of religion and mythology, such as ''The Wedding at Cana (Veronese), The Wedding ...

and workshop, ''The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine of Alexandria'', c. 1562–9. *Attributed to Vittore Belliniano, ''The Concert'', c. 1505–15 (then attributed to

Giorgione Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco (; 1470s – 17 September 1510), known as Giorgione, was an Italian painter of the Venetian school during the High Renaissance, who died in his thirties. He is known for the elusive poetic quality of his work, ...

) * Giovanni Cariani, ''Reclining Venus'

the only work in the Dutch gift which can be traced back to the Vendramin collection. The Reynst collection included a ''Genius of Painting'' attributed to

Guido Reni Guido Reni (; 4 November 1575 – 18 August 1642) was an Italian Baroque painter, although his works showed a classical manner, similar to Simon Vouet, Nicolas Poussin, and Philippe de Champaigne. He painted primarily religious works, but al ...

, and the older of two old copies still in the Royal Collection is first recorded at

Whitehall Palace The Palace of Whitehall – also spelled White Hall – at Westminster was the main residence of the English monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when most of its structures, with the notable exception of Inigo Jones's Banqueting House of 1622, ...

in an inventory of 1688 and described as by Reni. It is now classed as "after Reni" though no Reni original is known. Whether this or an original work, formed part of the Gift cannot be confirmed, although one or the other seems likely. Paintings no longer in the Royal Collection include a

Guercino Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 – December 22, 1666),Miller, 1964 better known as (il) Guercino (), was an Italian Baroque painter and draftsman from Cento in the Emilia region, who was active in Rome and Bologna. The vigorous n ...

, ''Semiramis Receiving Word of the Revolt of Babylon'' (1624), now in the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...

, which was given by Charles to Barbara Villiers, his mistress, or to their son,

Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Cleveland Charles Palmer, later Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Cleveland, 1st Duke of Southampton, Chief Butler of England (18 June 16629 September 1730) was an English nobleman and illegitimate son of Charles II. He was styled Baron Limerick before 1670 ...

. Jacopo Bassano's ''Christ carrying the Cross'' is now in the

National Gallery, London The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current dire ...

, having been given to

Catherine of Braganza Catherine of Braganza (; 25 November 1638 – 31 December 1705) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England, List of Scottish royal consorts, Scotland and Ireland during her marriage to Charles II of England, King Charles II, which la ...

, Charles's queen, after his death. Two religious works, besides the Bassano, were recorded in an inventory of 1688/9 as being in Catherine's apartments, one "said to be

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...

" of the

Holy Family The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The subject became popular in art from the 1490s on,Ainsworth, 122 but veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de La ...

with a lamb, and a group attributed to Titian of "Our Saviour with his feet on a cushion, The B. Virgin St John and St Elizabeth". These may have returned with her to Portugal in 1692.

The other works

Pieter Janszoon Saenredam Interior of the Church of St Bavo in Haarlem

Of the four non-Italian works, two were by

Gerrit Dou Gerrit Dou (; 7 April 1613 – 9 February 1675), also known as Gerard Douw or Dow, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, whose small, highly polished paintings are typical of the Leiden fijnschilders. He specialised in genre scenes and is noted for h ...

, one of which, ''The Young Mother'' (1658), was only two years old when presented. The regents of the city of

Leiden Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...

may have chosen ''The Young Mother'' to augment the yacht ''Mary'' as a means to encourage Charles to look after the interests of the

House of Orange The House of Orange-Nassau (, ), also known as the House of Orange because of the prestige of the princely title of Orange, also referred to as the Fourth House of Orange in comparison with the other noble houses that held the Principality of O ...

in the Netherlands, which had lost effective political power in 1650. At the time of the Restoration, Charles' sister Mary was in perilous political waters as the guardian of her son, Prince William III of Orange. This was one of those works repatriated by William III and is now in the

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

. A heavily damaged version of ''The Mocking of Ceres'' by Adam Elsheimer (c. 1605), long thought to be a copy, but now seen as the original of this rare and important work, surfaced in the English art market in the 1970s and is now in the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in

Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the northeastern end of Lake Ontario. It is at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River, the south end of the Rideau Canal. Kingston is near the Thousand Islands, ...

. The composition is known from a copy in the Prado and an

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ar ...

, and the painting was still in the Royal Collection during the reign of George II. The damage was apparently caused by fire, perhaps in the 1698 fire of the

Palace of Whitehall The Palace of Whitehall – also spelled White Hall – at Westminster was the main residence of the English monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when most of its structures, with the notable exception of Inigo Jones's Banqueting House of 1622, ...

, when a considerable part of the

was lost, probably including most of the statues in the 1660 Gift, though at least one of these remains in England. The fourth non-Italian painting was a work by

Pieter Jansz Saenredam Pieter Jansz. Saenredam (9 June 1597 – buried 31 May 1665) was a painter of the Dutch Golden Age, known for his distinctive paintings of whitewashed church interiors such as '' Interior of St Bavo's Church in Haarlem'' (1636) and '' Interior ...

, a recent (1648) and unusually large protestant church interior of the Groote Kerk, Haarlem, which might have been intended to cement feelings of grateful nostalgia in Charles. This was apparently given to one of William III's Dutch courtiers, William van Huls, Clerk of the Robes and Wardrobe, as it appeared in his sale; it is now in the

National Gallery of Scotland The National (formerly the Scottish National Gallery) is the national art gallery of Scotland. It is located on The Mound in central Edinburgh, close to Princes Street. The building was designed in a neoclassical style by William Henry Playfa ...

. The Gift included with a yacht, the ''Mary'', a

tapestry Tapestry is a form of Textile arts, textile art which was traditionally Weaving, woven by hand on a loom. Normally it is used to create images rather than patterns. Tapestry is relatively fragile, and difficult to make, so most historical piece ...

, and bedroom furniture which had belonged to Charles' sister Mary Henrietta Stuart.

John Evelyn John Evelyn (31 October 162027 February 1706) was an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, who is now best known as a diary, diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society. John Evelyn's Diary, ...

, visiting

Hampton Court Palace Hampton Court Palace is a Listed building, Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. Opened to the public, the palace is managed by Historic Royal ...

in 1662, noted that "The Queen's bed was an embroidery of silver on crimson velvet, and cost 8000l., being a present made by the States of Holland when his Majesty returned, and had formerly been given by them to our King's sister, the Princess of Orange, and, being bought of her again, was now presented to the King.""Garden Descriptions, From the Diary of John Evelyn"
Gardenvisit.com A very tricky issue was the education and upbringing of her son, the orphan

William III of Orange William III (William Henry; ; 4 November 1650 – 8 March 1702), also known as William of Orange, was the sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from 167 ...

Notes

References

*Bruyn, J.; Millar, Oliver, Sir, "Notes on the Royal Collection, 3: The 'Dutch gift' to Charles I", 1923– 1962 *Broekman, Inge, Helmers, Helmer, Het hart des offraers' – The Dutch Gift as an act of self-representation'', Dutch Crossing: Journal of Low Countries Studies, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Winter 2007) *Gleissner, Stephen, ''Reassembling a royal art collection for the restored King of Great Britain'', Journal of the History of Collections 1994 6(1):103–115 *Halbertsma, R. B. (2003), ''Scholars, Travellers, and Trade: The Pioneer Years of the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, 1818–1840'', Routledge, p. 9–10 *Rüdiger Klessmann and others, ''Adam Elsheimer 1578–1610'', 2006, Paul Holberton Publishing/National Galleries of Scotland; * Levey, Michael, ''Pictures in the Royal Collection, The Later Italian Pictures'', 1964, Phaidon Press, London * Mahon, Denis, ''Notes on the 'Dutch Gift' to Charles II:'', The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 91, Part I in: No. 560 (Nov. 1949), pp. 303–305, Part II in No. 561 (Dec. 1949), pp. 349–350, Part III No. 562 (Jan. 1950), pp. 12–18. (All on

JSTOR JSTOR ( ; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources founded in 1994. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary source ...

:
Pt IPt IIPt III
an
a letter
) *Thiel, P. J. J. Van, ''Het Nederlandse geschenk (Dutch gift) aan Koning Karel II van Engeland 1660'', Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, 1965 * Penny, Nicholas, National Gallery Catalogues (new series): ''The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings, Volume II, Venice 1540–1600'', 2008, National Gallery Publications Ltd, *Lucy Whitaker, Martin Clayton, ''The Art of Italy in the Royal Collection; Renaissance and Baroque'', Royal Collection Publications, 2007, {{ISBN, 978-1-902163-29-1

External links

Royal Collection, paintings acquired by Charles II
1660 in England 1660 in the Dutch Republic * * Italian art Charles II of England Netherlands–United Kingdom relations Foreign relations of England 1660 in international relations 1660 in art Diplomatic gifts Foreign relations of the Dutch Republic Material culture of royal courts