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Gilbert Collection
Talking Peace 1604: The Somerset House Conference Paintings is a special exhibition to commemorate the fourth centenary of the Somerset House Conference that culminated in the Treaty of London between England and Spain. In the spring and summer of 1604 England and Spain were both seeking an end to the hostilities which had existed between them for a generation. The first moves towards peace were taken in 1603 when Philip III sent Juan de Tassis, Count of Villamediana, to England to explore the possibilities of a settlement following the death earlier that year of Elizabeth I and the accession of James I. At the end of the year the Constable of Castile arrived in Brussels with authorisation to conclude a treaty if one could be negotiated. On 19 May 1604 a full delegation representing both Spain and the Archduke Albert, governor of the Spanish Netherlands, arrived in London and the English negotiating team was appointed. An elaborate suite of rooms was prepared to receive the Constable of Castile in Somerset House which had already emerged as an artistic centre of Jacobean London under King James’s Queen, Anne of Denmark, who had been given Somerset House as her residence.
The two delegations met, without the Constable, and held negotiating sessions almost daily in Somerset House until 16 July when they had proceeded as far as they could without him. The Constable eventually arrived in London on 20 August and after four days of festivities a final round of discussions was held. Following further festivities and a lavish exchange of gifts, James I publicly swore on 29 August to uphold the Treaty of London, finally bringing an end to the Anglo-Spanish war. The Somerset House Conference was commemorated in a remarkable group portrait of the two negotiating teams. The painting exists in two versions, one in the National Portrait Gallery, London, and the other in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Talking Peace will bring the two versions together, possibly for the first time for centuries, and will explore some of the puzzles associated with the paintings such as who painted them, where were they undertaken and for whom? Displaying the two works in the context of other related paintings and objects of the period, the exhibition will make a real contribution to scholarship and to modern understanding of this significant moment in English and Spanish history. The paintings of The Somerset House Conference are both signed by the Spanish royal painter Juan Pantoja de la Cruz (c.1553-1608) but scholars disagree about whether he was in fact the artist since, although the signatures appear authentic, he was never in London and so it is possible that either the works are by a Flemish artist, possibly Frans Pourbus or John De Critz the Elder, or were copied by Pantoja from a Flemish artist who was in London at the time.
No painting of this subject appears in the Spanish royal collection but the lengthy inscription on the works with the names of the delegates indicates that it was written by, and presumably for, a Spaniard. The paintings depict the Spanish delegation of six, including the Constable of Castile, who was not there for most of the negotiations, sitting to the left and the English delegation of five to the right. They are seated in order of precedence either side of a table covered with a rich Anatolian carpet. The exhibition will include a fragment of a similar 16th century Anatolian carpet from a British private collection.
To complement these two central paintings, a number of important related pictures, documents and objects have been loaned to the exhibition including two from the Royal Collection by Juan Pantoja de la Cruz: Portrait of Philip III of Spain and Portrait of Margaret of Austria, wife of Philip III of Spain, 1605. The Dulwich Picture Gallery will loan a View of Somerset House from the Thames, circa 1660, by Cornelis Bol, and a magnificent full-length portrait of James I, circa 1605, attributed to John de Critz, while the National Portrait Gallery, as well as the Conference painting, will loan another portrait attributed to John de Critz of one of the English delegates to the Conference, Robert Cecil, later 1st Earl of Salisbury, circa 1602.
The National Archives will lend the illuminated bound volume with wax seal and silk seal bag of the Ratification by Philip III of the Treaty of Peace 1604 while the Archivo General in Spain will send their parchment with two wax seals of the Ratification by James I. Four exquisite miniatures by the great limner Nicholas Hilliard will be lent by the Victoria & Albert Museum, Waddesdon Manor and a private collection. They depict James I, circa 1604-9, Princess Elizabeth, circa 1605, Anne of Denmark, circa 1604, and another of the English delegates, Charles Blount, later Earl of Devonshire, 1587. From the British Museum will come a medal commemorating the peace with Spain, 1604, also by Nicholas Hilliard. Robert Smythson’s Plan of Somerset House in 1609 from the RIBA Architectural Library and a running-leaf pattern carved stone fragment from 16th century Somerset House from the Somerset House archaeological display complete this fascinating and informative exhibition that will be curated by Karen Hearn who is Curator of 16th and 17th century British Art at the Tate Gallery. Alongside the exhibition at the Gilbert Collection, the programme of events organised to celebrate the peace treaty will open with an academic conference that will explore the political, diplomatic, religious, commercial and maritime context of the treaty and will have a distinguished panel of English and Spanish historians and academics. This will be followed by a series of seminars on Somerset House and Jacobean London focusing on dress and visual and literary culture in Spain and England as well as a weekend celebrating contemporary Spanish culture curated by Instituto Cervantes and Somerset House Trust. Somerset House and King’s College London
will indeed be Talking Peace for three months
this summer and offer a splendid series of events to celebrate a treaty
which still resonates four centuries after it was signed by the monarchs
of two great European countries.
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