This article is the second part of "History of Art Collecting". If you want to read part one, we invite you to click on the following link: https://hartii.art/es/detalle-blog/historia-del-coleccionismo-de-arte-parte-i

In the first part of this trilogy on art collecting, we talked about the beginnings of accumulation, the interest in collecting and the spaces that brought together all these items, such as the studiolo in the Renaissance.

Next, in this historical tour we will talk about other spaces destined for the set of works in the High Renaissance. In the year 1503, Guiliano della Rovere ascended to the pontifical throne and became Pope Julius II, the warrior Pope. The humanist education that he received led him to be one of the great patrons of the Renaissance like other thinkers of this current. Such interest led him to mobilize the Vatican on archaeological expeditions to recover vestiges of ancient Rome, this increased the Pope's sculptural collection to the point that he had to commission a project to be able to organize and display it correctly. This is how Julius II commissioned Bramante to create a courtyard in which to place his sculptures, which would be known as Cortile de Belvedere, located north of the Apostolic Palaces and St. Peter's Basilica. This was one of the first steps towards the spaces that would become known as the Vatican Museums. Among the works that were revealed from the collection of ancient sculpture of Julius II are Laocoön and his children, the sleeping Ariadne, the Venere Felice and Apollo of Belvedere.

Decorative intentions regain importance as part of the motives in collecting with the appearance of Galleries. These spaces were not what we know today, since their purpose as such was not to display valuable objects such as works of art, but rather existed as a union between different spaces. The galleries were long corridors that were frequently passed through, which is why people began to think about their decoration, and this is how the idea of the pictorial gallery arose. By the 16th century, there were already galleries that were endowed with some works of art such as the Uffizi Gallery or the Fontainebleau, however, with the passage of time, their popularity expanded, and the idea of a gallery was developed. until it is very similar to the form we know today. The pictorial galleries would be filled with movable objects that would enhance the beauty of that space, such as paintings, sculptures, vases, pillars, among others. It would be at the end of the 17th century, in which the gallery concept would reach its culmination with the creation of the Gallery of Mirrors in Versailles, where the beautifully decorated space was used not only as a sliding, but everything there met with the purpose of being shown since ceremonies and dances were also held in that gallery in the presence of the king, who at that time was Louis XIV, the Sun King.

Simultaneously, between the 16th and 17th centuries, other types of cabinets were also developed whose purpose was to display the objects collected by the owner. These spaces would also serve as antecedents to the current galleries and were known as Wunderkammern or rooms of wonders, and the Natural History Cabinets.

The Wunderkammern had various variants in which the nature of the collection changed, then existing the Schatzkammern (precious objects), Raritenkammern (rare objects), Kuntskammern (works of art), antiquitaten kabinett (antiquities cabinet) and finally, the naturalienkammern, The latter were very similar to the Natural History Cabinets, however, they had different purposes. While the Kammern were intended to be spaces aimed at organizing objects of the same nature in a given place, the Natural History Cabinets intended for scientific study and dissemination, so these cabinets made inventories and catalogs of the natural science objects that they possessed, enriching them with information obtained from the research to which the owners of these spaces were dedicated. This background would serve as the basis of the institutions we know as museums rather than galleries.

In the 17th century, interest in collecting works by great artists was pronounced in such a way that the work of artists was not the only one that benefited from this; Antique dealers, agents and art dealers would be in charge of ensuring the recovery and purchase of works of art for their clients and in this way important collections would begin to be created among the aristocracy and royalty.

The purchase of art, both for collecting and patronage, became a demonstration of power between people who had the ability to pay its price. This not only gave the image that they had great wealth, but also good taste. It could be said that artistic wealth also conferred status and this was not only demonstrated in the number of works within a collection, but in the names of artists that were pronounced in it, as well as the owner's ability to discuss his art, give an opinion on this one and most importantly, show it off. However, not everything was about the acquisition of art as such; A very useful method to gain favor or favors among aristocrats and royalty would also be to give it away. Various works passed through the hands of more than one family in this way, an example would be the admirable collection that Charles I of England had, with more than 1,500 works, among which were many Renaissance and Baroque artists, names such as Van Dyck and Rubens. However, after its execution, its collection was sold and acquired by different collectors, being distributed throughout the continent.

A nobleman who stands out among those who were able to acquire part of the art that belonged to King Charles I, was Don Luis de Haro, Marquis of Carpio, who gifted several of these works to none other than Philip IV of Spain, a king known for his great interest in art, among his benefits. Later, a gallery of incredible importance today would arise based on the collection of Philip IV, but it is a little early to talk about that in this article.

Although, from the interest generated by the royal collections, greater enthusiasm would grow among the aristocrats to imitate them in their acquisition of art, an important contribution to the history of art would appear from the collections of said nobles, this is a genre of painting as such, the cabinet paint.

Archduke Leopold William of Habsburg was one of the aristocrats who helped give rise to the genre of cabinet painting. In a space in which the gallery and the wunderkammern came together with the purpose of collecting art and demonstrating it, the painting cabinets were born, just at the time when art was still an important part of the conversation that they should be able to sustain. the nobles The history of these cabinets and this genre, however, did not begin with the Archduke; Adriaen Stalbemt made a painting titled “The Sciences and the Arts” (1618) in which he portrays a space that could almost be identified as a painting cabinet, however, this is more like a background since the characteristics of the natural history cabinet They are still present in the room coexisting with works of art.

With backgrounds such as the artist Stalbemt and Willem van der Haecht who portrayed the bourgeois Cornelis van der Geest in his painting cabinet with the intention of showing him and immortalizing the moment in which he had talks about art with other people, Archduke Leopold and his painter Preferred commissioner Taniers, the Younger, would become the standard bearers of cabinet painting, creating up to a dozen paintings specifically of the Archduke in his cabinet displaying his art collection. It is worth mentioning that it was Taniers himself who was in charge of putting together the collection, purchasing not only pieces, but entire collections of English noblemen who fell into the misfortune of losing everything, such as the Duke of Buckingham and Earl of Hamilton.

Furthermore, the Archduke of Habsburg made sure that his collection was known and he was famous for being its owner. For example, one of the measures he took in pursuit of this was to send King Philip IV one of the paintings that he commissioned from Taniers from his cabinet and of course, the Archduke portrayed in it.

In this way, the collections grew and when their owners fell from grace, the pieces were relocated, sold and ended up in different cabinets or galleries, until the interest in making them public led the owners of very rich collections to take a step towards the people, in the next part we will see what that step was in the history of collecting and the appearance of new agents with the power to acquire and sponsor art at will.

Sources: Artelista, About collecting. Introduction to history, Rome Museum, ILCE Digital Library