Michael John Partington

Anthony van Dyck, Charles I, before 1635, oil on canvas, 84.4 x 99.4 cm (Royal Collection Trust, London) — Whatever his political misdeeds as king, King Charles I was a great collector of art.

Charles I as art collector

Thumb Anthony van Dyck, Equestrian Portrait of Charles I, detail, c. 1637-8, oil on canvas, 367 x 292.1 cm (National Gallery, London) — A portrait of the cultivated, but deeply flawed, politically inept, and unlucky King Charles I, who ended his days beheaded on a scaffold.

Anthony van Dyck, Equestrian Portrait of Charles ...

Inigo Jones, The Banqueting Hall, Whitehall, 1619–1622, from Vitruvius Britannicus, 1715, ed. Colen Campbell (Getty Research Institute) — Built to glorify the reign of James I, Inigo Jones’s hall later provided the backdrop for Charles I’s execution.

The Banqueting House, Whitehall Palace

John Nash, Royal Pavilion, Brighton (England), 1815-23 (photo: Xgkkp, CC BY-SA 3.0) — A prince-regent with a private architect builds a fantasy seaside home mixing all the metaphors of empire.

A-level: John Nash, Royal Pavilion, Brighton

John Nash, Royal Pavilion, Brighton (England), 1815-23 (photo: Xgkkp, CC BY-SA 3.0) — A prince-regent with a private architect builds a fantasy seaside home mixing all the metaphors of empire.

John Nash, Royal Pavilion, Brighton