King Charles is a very lucky man. Largely thanks to a namesake – Charles II – the Royal Collection holds a peerless collection of Renaissance drawings in trust for the nation. For his delectation, the monarch can rootle through boxes that contain 550 works by Leonardo – the most important group in the world – some 20 Michelangelos and the same again of Raphaels. When he’s had enough of them he can move on to Veronese and Titian, Fra Angelico and Fra Bartolomeo. Indeed there is hardly an artist of note whose graphic work he can’t hold in front of his nose.
HRH is, however, kindly sharing some of his most cherished pieces for the next few months. Handily, he won’t have far to stroll to catch up with those on display at his own venue, the King’s Gallery, where 160 pictures by more than 80 artists are on show in “Drawing the Italian Renaissance”, and it is a short limousine hop to another part of London to reacquaint himself with 11 more that have joined loans from elsewhere for “Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: Florence, c1504” at the Royal Academy.
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