
What makes a masterpiece?
Most of the paintings in our forthcoming exhibition, Masterpieces from Buckingham Palace, are securely dated and attributed; mostly we know which monarch bought them. But what makes them important? What do they still have to offer? Desmond Shawe-Taylor, Surveyor of The Queen’s Pictures, discusses four possible qualities which were valued by the makers of these works and which can still offer an insight into these paintings today: Realism; Use of Materials; Design; Expression. Are we missing something? What do you think makes a masterpiece?
Royal Collection staff discuss their favourite Masterpieces
Explore the exquisite details and hidden stories below.

de Hooch's 'Cardplayers in a sunlit Room'

Rembrandt's 'Agatha Bas'

Canaletto's 'The Bacino di San Marco on Ascension Day'

Parmigianino's 'Pallas Athene'

Vermeer's 'Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman, "The Music Lesson"'

Ruisdael's 'Evening Landscape: A Windmill by a Stream'

de Hooch's 'Cardplayers in a sunlit Room'

Rembrandt's 'The Shipbuilder and his Wife'

Rembrandt's 'Self-Portrait in a Flat-Cap'

Vermeer's 'Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman, "The Music Lesson"'

Steen's 'A Woman at her Toilet'

Lotto's 'Andrea Odoni'

Rubens' 'The farm at Laken'
Parmigianino (Parma 1503-Casalmaggiore 1540)
Pallas Athene
Rembrandt van Rijn (Leiden 1606-Amsterdam 1669)
Agatha Bas (1611-1658)
Pieter de Hooch (Rotterdam 1629-Amsterdam 1684)
Cardplayers in a sunlit Room
Jan Steen (Leiden 1626-Leiden 1679)
A Woman at her Toilet
Rembrandt van Rijn (Leiden 1606-Amsterdam 1669)
"The Shipbuilder and his Wife": Jan Rijcksen (1560/2-1637) and his Wife, Griet Jans
Johannes Vermeer (Delft 1632-Delft 1675)
Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman
Canaletto (Venice 1697-Venice 1768)
The Bacino di San Marco on Ascension Day
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (Siegen 1577 - Antwerp 1640)