The collection of pictures at Wilton has been celebrated since the
seventeenth century; and its historic arrangement is uniquely well
documented in a series of catalogues of which the first, issued in 1731,
was the earliest such publication about any private collection in
England. Of successive owners of the house, three made significant
contributions: William, 4th Earl of Pembroke, who commissioned van
Dyck's monumental portrait of his family that dominates the Double Cube
Room he had created; his grandson, Thomas, 8th Earl of Pembroke who
assembled what was in some respects a pioneering collection of old
master pictures for the house; and his grandson, Henry, 10th Earl of
Pembroke, patron of Reynolds and Wilson, among others. Such masterpieces
as Lucas van Leyden's Card Players, Cesare da Sesto's Leda - long
attributed to Leonardo - and Ribera's Democritus are matched by
remarkable portrait drawings by Raphael and Holbein. These are
complemented by a substantial deposit of family portraits and other
pictures that attest to the tastes and interests of successive
generations of the Herbert family.