The exhibition at the Royal Academy opened in January and runs until mid-April and contains works loaned from a vast array of sources including the British Royal Collection, the Louvre and the Rijksmuseum, some of which have never been on loan to a different gallery before. The Van Dyck portrait of Charles I in the hunting field in particular is believed to have never returned to England since the seventeenth century. When, along with the vast majority of other works from the Charles I collection they were sold in a dispersal sale in the aftermath of his execution in 1649. A number of these works we re-purchased during the Restoration and now hang in the Royal Collection. As the collection of Charles I was well documented the exhibition and catalogue are able to tell us where the works hung when in his possession. Among the works exhibited are a series of 9 paintings by Mantegna that are normally housed at Hampton Court and exquisite works by Bronzino, Rubens, Titian and Holbein. One r