The temporary exhibition "Copyist Painters in the Gallery of King Carol I" was a premiere for the Peleș National Museum. It brings to the attention of the general public representative canvases from the gallery of copies, which reflect the artistic affinities of the creator of the royal art gallery. Until September 29 of this year, we invite you on an imaginary journey into the universe of the history of European painting, illustrating each major trend from the Quatrocento to the Rococo era, that is, four centuries of art, through sixteen works displayed in the exhibition halls of Peleș Castle. The exhibition has an extensive catalog, with color reproductions of the most valuable works.

Fortunately, after the inventory of 1948, the copies remained in Sinaia, which facilitated their research. Thus, the collection was thematically divided into two categories: copies after the great masters, representing portraits, religious scenes, genre scenes and landscapes, and the Gallery of the King's Ancestors, composed of copies after original works generally kept in the castle of Sigmaringen. The copies from Peleş were made between 1880 and 1910, after famous works of great painting from the Dutch, Flemish, German, Italian schools, etc., preserved in some of the most important museums in Europe: Alte Pinakothek, Munich; Gemäldegalerie, Dresden; Sigmaringen Castle; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; Musée du Louvre, Paris, etc. The King placed orders both for foreign artists (mainly German) and for Romanian scholarship holders, such as Otilia Michail-Oteteleşanu or Gheorghe Bălănescu. The most sought-after copyists were Gustav Bregenzer, the court painter from Sigmaringen, Maximilian von Schneidt, curator of the royal painting collection, Charles Félu, the armless painter, Letizia Witzleben, daughter of Baroness von Witzleben, lady-in-waiting to Queen Elisabeth, and Eugen Ritter-Gotha, perhaps the most talented of the copyists, etc.

You will thus discover works belonging to the international Gothic and the early Renaissance, more precisely, copies of famous canvases painted in the 14th-15th centuries by Rogier van der Weyden, the Master of the Life of Mary, Albrecht Dürer and Gérard David. For the first time, we bring to the attention of the general public a special canvas, a copy by the Italian Giovanni Barezzi, after one of Raphael's most beautiful creations, "The Betrothal of the Virgin". The sovereign's preferences in terms of trends undoubtedly go towards the Flemish and Dutch Baroque. Through the titans of this artistic trend, Rubens, van Dyck and Rembrandt, as well as through their disciples, Cornelis de Vos, Willem Drost and Ferdinand Bol, King Carol I manifests his adherence to an era marked by royal splendor and aristocratic elegance. Finally, royal tastes in landscape and genre scenes are illustrated by a copy after Wouwermann, one of the most gifted landscape painters of the golden age of Dutch painting, and by a theatrical scene from the series of "gallant celebrations" after Lancret.

A refined connoisseur of fine arts, Maximilian von Schneidt (1858-1927), executed at the request of the sovereign of Romania Small copies after Rogier van der Weyden, Meister des Marienlebens, Barthel Beham, Titian, van Dyck, Cornelis de Vos and Wouwermann. King Carol I also entrusted him with the reproduction, down to the smallest details, of the anonymous portrait of Carl-Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. At the beginning of the 20th century, Maximilian von Schneidt entered King Carol I's favorite Gallery, the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, where he copied three of Rubens' canvases, "Rubens and Isabella Brandt under the Honeysuckle Arch" (1609-1610), "Fruit Garland" (1615-1617) and "Portrait of Alatheia Talbot, Countess of Arundel, with Her Suite".

A masterpiece by the greatest Flemish painter, "Alatheia Talbot, Countess of Arundel, with Her retinue" had piqued the client's interest since his adolescence. It is well known that around the age of twenty, Prince Charles of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen attended the University of Bonn out of a passion for the fine arts. The Royal Gallery in Munich served as a formative instrument for him and inspired his subsequent artistic choices. The German copyist honorably fulfilled his part of the contract, and his canvases are displayed in the interiors of the sumptuous summer residence.

In an atypical composition, Rubens immortalizes on canvas one of the leading figures of the English Royal Court of the 17th century. Alatheia Talbot (1585-1654), daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury and godmother of Queen Elizabeth I, to whom he lent one of her first names, was the wife of Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, Duke of Norfolk, an influential diplomat at the Court of Kings James I and Charles I Stuart and a passionate collector. She had a remarkable existence, marked by endless travels, abruptly ended by the premature death of her husband and by a ruthless legal war against her own children. Documented since the Norman Conquest (1066), the ancient Norfolk family was related to the English royal family through Edward I (1239-1307) and Edward III (1312-1377). At the end of the 15th century, the head of the House of Norfolk received the honorable dignity of head of the College of Arms, the only recognized authority on heraldry in England and Wales. Devout Catholics, the Dukes of Norfolk tolerated the Anglican Reformation with difficulty and secretly practiced, in the Fitzalan Chapel, built in the underground labyrinths of the old Arundel residence, the consecrated rituals of the Vatican.

Without being among the beauties of the era, Alatheia more than compensates for her temperamental character and intellectual curiosity. At Arundel House, which she buys back through intelligent interventions with the Royal House, she lays the foundations of a real court, where she organizes opulent balls and surrounds herself with the great personalities of the era. Like a sovereign, the Countess of Arundel spends a fortune to display exorbitant luxury. Upon the death of her husband, she inherits not only an enormous fortune, but also corresponding debts, which she simply ignores. Disturbed by the pomp of the Earls of Arundel, by the prosperity of their castle on the River Arun, in West Sussex, surrounded by impenetrable walls, splendid Italian gardens and the attention of the entire aristocracy, King Charles I Stuart keeps them away from London.

But the family that gave England a saint in the person of Philip Howard, martyred for his faith in the 16th century, two cardinals and two queens (Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, wives of Henry VIII Tudor), does not cling to the appreciation of a single sovereignty. True globetrotters, the Arundels share the same passions and prides: the pleasure of traveling and the desire to impress. Year after year, their impressive procession stops at the gates of the great Courts, where they are covered with honors. In 1613, they attend the wedding in Heidelberg of the Elector Palatine, Frederick V, with Princess Elizabeth Stuart, sister of King Charles I, nicknamed the "Winter Queen". In 1620, Alatheia lives in Venice near the Doge's Palace, from which she receives hospitality and precious letters of recommendation. In 1623, he visited the sister of the King of Spain, Philip IV, and in 1636, the Emperor Ferdinand II of Habsburg. In 1642, the names of the Earls of Arundel appear on the select list of guests at the wedding of William II of Orange.

Thanks to her social position, tact and sparkling conversation, of great erudition, Alatheia maintains cordial relations with the circles around which the aristocracy and artists alike gravitate. The former seek her presence, the latter transform her into a muse. In the picture gallery of the Earls of Arundel there are several portraits painted by Cornelius Johnson, Anton van Dyck and Rubens. In a double portrait made around 1646 by Anton van Dyck, the two spouses are represented in military costumes, with chlamydes, hair and collars, like true sovereigns, boldly scanning the future, while the immense globe indicates Madagascar. The hopes of the descendants of the ancient Norfolk family are linked to this distant island in the critical moments of their reckless existence. At the count's death, the family's inventory included no less than 600 canvases, signed by Dürer, Holbein, Raphael, Titian, Bruegel, Rembrandt, Rubens, van Dyck, 200 statues, 500 sketches, several properties, but also a debt of one hundred thousand pounds.

Notorious schemers, the Arundels were involved in diplomatic scandals and plots against the Stuart dynasty, for which they displayed undisguised contempt. The sketch of the Countess's portrait would not be truthful if we did not mention her impulsive moments of mysticism, in which she begged the Pope for seclusion in a Catholic monastery. In 1641, at the beginning of the Civil War, she retired to Holland, where she met her end in 1654, at the age of 69, ostracized by her descendants and hounded by creditors.

The portrait from the Alte Pinakothek, made in 1620 by Rubens, immortalizes an Alatheia at the peak of her existence. Painted during the brief stopover in Antwerp on the journey to Italy, the painting was supposed to surprise with its precision of execution and truly impressive dimensions (the original is 270 cm by 260 cm!). Not having such a large canvas, the artist preferred to paint each character separately, insisting, of course, on Alatheia. Thus, in a horizontal composition, the countess appears in the middle of the suite, like a sovereign, surrounded by the jester and the dwarf Robin, who carries the falcon in her hand. Seated on an imposing chair, in a wide black dress, with puffy sleeves and lace cuffs, with a diadem on her head and the family seal around her neck, Alatheia gently touches the hunting dog.

Over the centuries, the identity of the male figure in the right foreground has given rise to heated debate. The hypotheses range between Francesco Vercellini, the family's Italian secretary, Sir Dudley Carleton, an English diplomat in The Hague, and even the Earl of Arundel. Thanks to modern research, art critics have concluded that the knight's portrait was added later. The artist placed the suite in front of the twisted columns of the loggia, between which the banner of the House of Arundel was unfurled, embroidered with the Latin motto: "SOLA VIRTUS INVICTA". In the background, the artist represented the silhouette of the castle of the Earls of Arundel family. Maximilian von Schneidt exactly respected the scenography and chromaticism of the original canvas, but widened the field of view, in order to give more amplitude to the landscape.