Upon his death in 1658, he was briefly succeeded by his ineffective son, Richard. Parliament was reinstated, and the monarchy was restored to Charles I's eldest son, Charles II, in 1660. Partly inspired by his visit to the Spanish court in 1623, Charles became a passionate and knowledgeable art collector, amassing one of the finest art collections ever assembled. In Spain, he sat for a sketch by Velázquez, and acquired works by Titian and Correggio, among others. In England, his commissions included the ceiling of the Banqueting House, Whitehall, by Rubens and paintings by other artists from the Low Countries such as van Honthorst, Mytens, and van Dyck. His close associates, including the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Arundel, shared his interest and have been dubbed the Whitehall Group. In 1627 and 1628, Charles purchased the entire collection of the Duke of Mantua, which included work by Titian, Correggio, Raphael, Caravaggio, del Sarto and Mantegna. His collection grew further to encompass Bernini, Bruegel, da Vinci, Holbein, Hollar, Tintoretto and Veronese, and self-portraits by both Dürer and Rembrandt. By Charles's death, there were an estimated 1,760 paintings, most of which were sold and dispersed by Parliament. In the words of John Philipps Kenyon, "Charles Stuart is a man of contradictions and controversy". Revered by high Tories who considered him a saintly martyr, he was condemned by Whig historians, such as Samuel Rawson Gardiner, who thought him duplicitous and delusional. In recent decades, most historians have criticised him, the main exception being Kevin Sharpe who offered a more sympathetic view of Charles that has not been widely adopted. While Sharpe argued that the king was a dynamic man of conscience, Professor Barry Coward thought Charles "was the most incompetent monarch of England since Henry VI", a view shared by Ronald Hutton, who called him "the worst king we have had since the Middle Ages". Archbishop William Laud, who was beheaded by Parliament during the war, described Charles as "A mild and gracious prince who knew not how to be, or how to be made, great." Charles was more sober and refined than his father, but he was intransigent. He deliberately pursued unpopular policies that ultimately brought ruin on himself.