"Collections were assembled all over the Iberian peninsula on the basis of objects acquired throughout Italy, in the Low Countries, in England, from the Americas, and even from India and the Philippines" (Brown, Elliott 104). Madrid became the art center of Spain "because the Spanish collectors of the Golden Age...managed to inculcate in their society, and, more importantly, in their heirs, a sense of the value of art objects" (Brown, Elliott 104). Elsewhere in Europe, art collections have been subject to various misfortunes, seizures, sales, dispersals, etc. Yet, Spain is unique in its attachment to the works of art collected by its patrons during the Golden Age. "In spite of palace fires, Napoleonic rapacity, dynastic struggles, and tremendous social changes, the collected art remained. Even when dispersed, the best pieces often went to the king. The contrast between the collections of Charles I of England and Philip IV of Spain could not be greater" (Brown, Elliott 105). Noblemen like Don Luis de Haro, the Count of Monterrey, and the Marquis of Leganes were integral in establishing the epoch of great art collections in Spain. Starting with Philip II, whose own private collections were filled with a love for style and innovation, Spain's elite sought to capture the brightest lights of intellectual and creative endeavors -- mostly with some Italian influence.

Spain was a nation of non-revolutionaries -- and such was mirrored in its approach to art collection. Philip IV's own "cultural ambitions" had been made all the greater following a visit of Charles, Prince of Wales to Madrid in 1623. Philip "was to be a refined and elegant prince at the center of a dazzling court -- a Planet King who would cast his beams over Europe and whose brilliance would be reflected and disseminated by a host of lesser lights" (Elliott 270). Thus explains his seeming entourage of noblemen whose tastes coincided with his own, and whose collections mirrored his. But when Charles arrived, Philip learned that he still had much to learn about...

Yet even then, Philip's collection was impressive -- to Charles at least, who received among other gifts a painting by Titian. Their relationship extended to their diplomats, who were "well aware of the aesthetic interests of their royal masters, [and] kept [their kings] abreast not only of political but also of cultural news from the courts of their rivals." One such diplomat reported that the Marquis of Leganes was "sick of a dangerous calenture which imports this only in His Majesty's service, that he hath some good pictures and statues, which if he should miscarry may be looked out for, if His Majesty shall so ordain" (Elliott 271).
In conclusion, the Golden Age of art in Spain produced a lively interest in the great Renaissance artists (especially the Italian stylists and masters). By making art collecting of primary importance, the Spanish royalty from Philip II to Philip IV produced a circle of noblemen art collectors, like Don Luis de Haro, who achieved a kind of higher union with Philip IV, and was able to have some sway in the Spanish realm. Their bond, no doubt, was a love of art (which was mirrored in other nobles, who spent vast quantities on securing priceless masterpieces). To this day, Spain's art collection remains a figure of what the Spanish nobility prized among themselves during the Golden Age, and reflects a deeper current of religious sentiment, high taste, and cultural curiosity.

Works Cited

Brown, Jonathan. Painting in Spain: 1500 -- 1700. Yale University Press, 1998. Print.

Brown, Jonathan; Elliot, John Huxtable. The Sale of the Century: artistic relations between Spain and Great Britain. Yale University Press, 2002. Print.

Collins, Marsha Suzan. The Soledades: Gongora's masque of the imagination.

Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2002. Print.

Elliot, John Huxtable. Spain, Europe and the Wider World: 1500-1800. Yale Universtiy

Press, 2009. Print.

Enggass, Robert;…