The story
Hampton Court is first of all a palace, not a gallery. Cardinal Wolsey built it in grand style, handed it to Henry VIII to save himself, and Henry brought his run of wives to its Tudor courtyards. Two centuries later William and Mary had Christopher Wren graft a whole Baroque palace onto the back of it, so the building today is really two royal houses fused together.
But art-seekers come for one thing above all. In a purpose-built gallery hang the nine great canvases of Mantegna's Triumphs of Caesar, painted around 1500 for the rulers of Mantua, a Roman victory parade of soldiers, musicians, elephants and plunder that stretches across the whole room. Charles I bought them for the English crown in 1629, and they are among the most important Italian Renaissance paintings in Britain.
The palace, part of the Royal Collection, is hung throughout with Tudor and Stuart portraits and rare Brussels tapestries, including a set on the life of Abraham woven in wool, silk and gold thread for Henry VIII.
