1.
1756 in art
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Events from the year 1756 in art. Richard Trevor, Prince Bishop of Durham, acquires 13 paintings by Francisco de Zurbarán depicting the patriarch Jacob and 12 of his sons for his palace at Auckland Castle in north east England, françois Boucher paints portraits of Madame de Pompadour. John Singleton Copley paints pictures with Rococo influence, szymon Czechowicz paints Bishop Stanislaus bringing back to life Piotrawin. Thomas Gainsborough paints The Painters Daughters Chasing a Butterfly Joshua Reynolds paints portraits of Susanna Beckford, johan Zoffany paints his Self-portrait as David with the head of Goliath
2.
1766 in art
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Events from the year 1766 in art. July 19 – A baronetcy is created for British sculptor Henry Cheere, englands oldest surviving Georgian theatre is constructed in Stockton-on-Tees. The Drottningholm Palace Theatre is reopened as an house in Stockholm, Sweden, in its surviving form. Denis Diderots Essais sur la peinture is published
3.
1765 in architecture
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The year 1765 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings. May - Bernstorff Palace, Copenhagen, Denmark, is completed, kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, England, designed by Robert Adam. Château dArcelot on the Côte-dOr of France is completed, remodelling of the Summer Archbishops Palace in Bratislava by F. A. Hillebrandt is completed. July 20 - Peter Nicholson, Scottish architect, engineer and mathematician October 21 - Giovanni Paolo Pannini, Italian painter and architect
4.
Old Master
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In art history, Old Master refers to any painter of skill who worked in Europe before about 1800, or a painting by such an artist. An old master print is a print made by an artist in the same period. The term old master drawing is used in the same way, therefore, beyond a certain level of competence, date rather than quality is the criterion for using the term. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term as A pre-eminent artist of the period before the modern, a pre-eminent western European painter of the 13th to 18th centuries. The term is used to refer to a painting or sculpture made by an Old Master. Les Maitres dautrefois of 1876 by Eugene Fromentin may have helped to popularize the concept, the collection in the Dresden museum essentially stops at the Baroque period. The end date is necessarily vague – for example, Goya is certainly an Old Master, the term might also be used for John Constable or Eugène Delacroix, but usually is not. The term tends to be avoided by art historians as too vague, especially when discussing paintings, although the terms Old Master Prints and it remains current in the art trade. Auction houses still usually divide their sales between, for example, Old Master Paintings, Nineteenth-century paintings and Modern paintings, christies defines the term as ranging from the 14th to the early 19th century. S. Master of Flémalle, Master of Mary of Burgundy, Master of Latin 757, Master of the Brunswick Diptych or Master of Schloss Lichtenstein
5.
Christ Church, Oxford
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Christ Church is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. The college is associated with Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, which serves as the college chapel and it is the second wealthiest Oxford college by financial endowment with an endowment of £436m as of 2015. Christ Church has produced thirteen British prime ministers, more than any other Oxbridge college, the college was the setting for parts of Evelyn Waughs Brideshead Revisited, as well as a small part of Lewis Carrolls Alices Adventures in Wonderland. More recently it has used in the filming of the movies of J. K. Rowlings Harry Potter series. Distinctive features of the architecture have been used as models by a number of other academic institutions, including the National University of Ireland, Galway. The University of Chicago and Cornell University both have reproductions of Christ Churchs dining hall, christChurch Cathedral in New Zealand, after which the City of Christchurch is named, is itself named after Christ Church, Oxford. Stained glass windows in the cathedral and other buildings are by the Pre-Raphaelite William Morris group with designs by Edward Burne-Jones, Christ Church is also partly responsible for the creation of University College Reading, which later gained its own Royal Charter and became the University of Reading. The first female undergraduates matriculated at Christ Church in 1980 and he planned the establishment on a magnificent scale, but fell from grace in 1529, with the buildings only three-quarters complete, as they were to remain for 140 years. In 1531 the college was suppressed, but it was refounded in 1532 as King Henry VIIIs College by Henry VIII. Since the time of Queen Elizabeth I the college has also associated with Westminster School. The dean remains to this day an ex member of the schools governing body. Major additions have made to the buildings through the centuries. To this day the bell in the tower, Great Tom, is rung 101 times at 9 pm at the former Oxford time every night, in former times this was done at midnight, signalling the close of all college gates throughout Oxford. Since it took 20 minutes to ring the 101, Christ Church gates, unlike those of other colleges, when the ringing was moved back to 9,00 pm, Christ Church gates still remained open until 12.20,20 minutes later than any other college. Although the clock itself now shows GMT/BST, Christ Church still follows Oxford time in the timings of services in the cathedral, King Charles I made the Deanery his palace and held his Parliament in the Great Hall during the English Civil War. In the evening of 29 May 1645, during the siege of Oxford. During the Commonwealth, John Owen attained considerable eminence, the Visitor of Christ Church is the reigning British sovereign, and the Bishop of Oxford is unique among English bishops in not being the Visitor of his own cathedral. The head of the college is the Dean of Christ Church, There are a senior and a junior censor the former of whom is responsible for academic matters, the latter for undergraduate discipline
6.
Christ Church Picture Gallery
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Christ Church Picture Gallery is an art museum at Christ Church, one of the colleges of Oxford University in England. The gallery holds an important collection of about 300 Old Master paintings and it is one of the most important private collections in the United Kingdom. The greater part of the collection was bequeathed by a member of the college, General John Guise. Further gifts and bequests were made by W. T. H. Fox-Strangways, Walter Savage Landor, the Picture Gallery is especially strong on Italian art from the 14th to 18th centuries. The drawings collection is shown by an exhibition, changing roughly every three months, and sometimes showing works not in the permanent collection, especially those by modern artists. The gallery was designed by Hidalgo Moya and Philip Powell, and built in 1968 and it is located in the Deanery garden. Professor Joanna Woodall of the Courtauld Institute is a former Assistant Curator of the gallery, the current curator is Jacqueline Thalmann. 40 Years of Christ Church Picture Gallery, still one of Oxford’s best kept secrets
7.
Uffizi
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The Uffizi Gallery is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in central Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy. The building of Uffizi complex was begun by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 for Cosimo I de Medici so as to accommodate the offices of the Florentine magistrates, hence the name uffizi, the construction was later continued by Alfonso Parigi and Bernardo Buontalenti and completed in 1581. The niches in the piers that alternate with columns filled with sculptures of artists in the 19th century. The Uffizi brought together under one roof the administrative offices, the Tribunal and the Archivio di Stato, the state archive. He commissioned from the architect Buontalenti the design of the Tribuna degli Uffizi that collected a series of masterpieces in one room, over the years, more sections of the palace were recruited to exhibit paintings and sculpture collected or commissioned by the Medici. The gallery had been open to visitors by request since the sixteenth century, because of its huge collection, some of its works have in the past been transferred to other museums in Florence—for example, some famous statues to the Bargello. A project was finished in 2006 to expand the exhibition space some 6,000 metres² to almost 13,000 metres². On 27 May 1993, a car exploded in Via dei Georgofili and damaged parts of the palace. The most severe damage was to the Niobe room and classical sculptures and neoclassical interior, the identity of the bomber or bombers are unknown, although it was almost certainly attributable to the Sicilian Mafia who were engaged in a period of terrorism at that time. Today, the Uffizi is one of the most popular tourist attractions of Florence, in high season, waiting times can be up to five hours. In early August 2007, Florence experienced a heavy rainstorm, the Gallery was partially flooded, with water leaking through the ceiling, and the visitors had to be evacuated. There was a more significant flood in 1966 which damaged most of the art collections in Florence severely. Here is a selection from the collection, The collection also contains some ancient sculptures, such as the Arrotino. Collections of the Uffizi Official website Uffizi – Google Art Project
8.
Florence
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Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the Metropolitan City of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants, Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time. It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, from 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy. The Historic Centre of Florence attracts 13 million tourists each year and it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture, the city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics. Due to Florences artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in 2008, the city had the 17th highest average income in Italy. Florence originated as a Roman city, and later, after a period as a flourishing trading and banking medieval commune. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, it was politically, economically, and culturally one of the most important cities in Europe, the language spoken in the city during the 14th century was, and still is, accepted as the Italian language. Starting from the late Middle Ages, Florentine money—in the form of the gold florin—financed the development of all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon. Florentine bankers financed the English kings during the Hundred Years War and they similarly financed the papacy, including the construction of their provisional capital of Avignon and, after their return to Rome, the reconstruction and Renaissance embellishment of Rome. Florence was home to the Medici, one of European historys most important noble families, Lorenzo de Medici was considered a political and cultural mastermind of Italy in the late 15th century. Two members of the family were popes in the early 16th century, Leo X, catherine de Medici married king Henry II of France and, after his death in 1559, reigned as regent in France. Marie de Medici married Henry IV of France and gave birth to the future king Louis XIII, the Medici reigned as Grand Dukes of Tuscany, starting with Cosimo I de Medici in 1569 and ending with the death of Gian Gastone de Medici in 1737. The Etruscans initially formed in 200 BC the small settlement of Fiesole and it was built in the style of an army camp with the main streets, the cardo and the decumanus, intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica. Situated along the Via Cassia, the route between Rome and the north, and within the fertile valley of the Arno, the settlement quickly became an important commercial centre. Peace returned under Lombard rule in the 6th century, Florence was conquered by Charlemagne in 774 and became part of the Duchy of Tuscany, with Lucca as capital. The population began to again and commerce prospered
9.
Irish people
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The Irish people are a nation and ethnic group native to the island of Ireland, who share a common Irish ancestry, identity and culture. Ireland has been inhabited for about 9,000 years according to archaeological studies, for most of Irelands recorded history, the Irish have been primarily a Gaelic people. Today, Ireland is made up of the Republic of Ireland, the people of Northern Ireland hold various national identities, including Irish, Northern Irish, British, or some combination thereof. The Irish have their own customs, language, music, dance, sports, cuisine, although Irish was their main language in the past, today the huge majority of Irish people speak English as their first language. Historically, the Irish nation was made up of kin groups or clans, there have been many notable Irish people throughout history. After Irelands conversion to Christianity, Irish missionaries and scholars exerted great influence on Western Europe, the 6th-century Irish monk and missionary Columbanus is regarded as one of the fathers of Europe, followed by saints Cillian and Fergal. The scientist Robert Boyle is considered the father of chemistry, famous Irish writers include Oscar Wilde, W. B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Bram Stoker and James Joyce, notable Irish explorers include Brendan the Navigator, Robert McClure, Ernest Shackleton and Tom Crean. By some accounts, the first European child born in North America had Irish descent on both sides, many presidents of the United States have had some Irish ancestry. The population of Ireland is about 6.3 million, but it is estimated that 50 to 80 million people around the world have Irish forebears, historically, emigration from Ireland has been the result of conflict, famine and economic issues. People of Irish descent are mainly in English-speaking countries, especially the United Kingdom. There are also significant numbers in Argentina, Mexico and New Zealand, the United States has the most people of Irish descent, while in Australia those of Irish descent are a higher percentage of the population than in any other country. Many Icelanders have Irish and Scottish Gaelic forebears, in its summary of their article Who were the Celts. The National Museum Wales notes It is possible that genetic studies of ancient. However, early studies have, so far, tended to produce implausible conclusions from very small numbers of people and using outdated assumptions about linguistics, nineteenth century anthropology studied the physical characteristics of Irish people in minute detail. During the past 10,000 years of inhabitation, Ireland has witnessed some different peoples arrive on its shores, the ancient peoples of Ireland—such as the creators of the Céide Fields and Newgrange—are almost unknown. Neither their languages nor terms they used to describe themselves have survived, as late as the middle centuries of the 1st millennium the inhabitants of Ireland did not appear to have a collective name for themselves. Ireland itself was known by a number of different names, including Banba, Fódla, Ériu by the islanders, Iouerne and Hiverne to the Greeks, other Latin names for people from Ireland in Classic and Mediaeval sources include Attacotti and Gael
10.
Christopher Hewetson
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Christopher Hewetson was a neoclassical sculptor of portrait busts. Born in Ireland, he was active in Rome, Hewetson was born in Thomastown, County Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1737/8 the son of Lieutenant Christopher Hewetson whose ancestry was from Yorkshire. His father died in 1744 when Christopher was only 7, leaving his mother Eleanor with four children to raise. He studied at Kilkenny College, where his uncle the Rev. Dr Thomas Hewetson was headmaster, in 1765 he arrived in Rome with the American painter Henry Benbridge. He remained in Rome for the remainder of his life with the exception of two visits to Naples in 1766 and 1797. With the assistance of Thomas Jenkins, Hewetson received commissions from numerous British and he also sculpted busts of a number of local churchmen. Antonio Canova was at Rome during part of Hewetsons stay, the rivalry between the two sculptors emerged in two great commissions, the Tomb for Pope Clemens XIV and the Tomb for Pope Clemens XIII, both won by Canova. In the last phase of his career Hewetson held a production, he sculpted copies after the Antique - sometimes in marble. His workshop was in Via San Sebastianello, very close to Piazza di Spagna and he died at Rome in 1798, where he was buried in the Protestant Cemetery. His inventory after death, recently found, revealed the presence of 12 busts, some left unfinished, ulrich Thieme – F. Becker, Hewetson Cristopher, Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Kunstler, vol. Pietrangeli, a cura di G. Incisa della Rocchetta, Vincenzo Monti a Roma, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Palazzo Braschi, Roma,1955, pp.47,50, tav. Pietrangeli, La Protomoteca Capitolina, Roma,1955, pp.8,36,73,78, an unknown bust by Chrisopher Hewetson, Antologia di Belle Arti, s. s. Christopher Hewetson, An Irish Sculptor in Rome, Walpole Society 34, 42-54 at 50 and pl. XVIIIc Anne Crookshank in Brian de Breffny, the Irish World, The Art and Culture of the Irish People,146,147, and 170. Brian de Breffny, ed. Ireland, A Cultural Encyclopaedia,105 -106, Christopher Hewetson, Concise Biography and Preliminary Catalogue Raisonné, Irish Arts Review 3,52 -75, no. Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century, 228-230, 254-255, Christopher Hewetson and his monument to Dr. Baldwin in Trinity College, Dublin, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 134-135
11.
Americans
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Americans are citizens of the United States of America. The country is home to people of different national origins. As a result, Americans do not equate their nationality with ethnicity, although citizens make up the majority of Americans, non-citizen residents, dual citizens, and expatriates may also claim an American identity. See Names for United States citizens. S, virgin Islands and Northern Mariana Islands in the 20th century. It also includes influences of African-American culture, westward expansion integrated the Creoles and Cajuns of Louisiana and the Hispanos of the Southwest and brought close contact with the culture of Mexico. Large-scale immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from Southern and Eastern Europe introduced a variety of elements, immigration from Asia, Africa, and Latin America has also had impact. A cultural melting pot, or pluralistic salad bowl, describes the way in which generations of Americans have celebrated and exchanged distinctive cultural characteristics, in addition to the United States, Americans and people of American descent can be found internationally. As many as seven million Americans are estimated to be living abroad, the United States of America is a diverse country, racially, and ethnically. Some other race is also an option in the census and other surveys, people of European descent, or White Americans, constitute the majority of the 308 million people living in the United States, with 72. 4% of the population in the 2010 United States Census. They are considered people who trace their ancestry to the peoples of Europe, the Middle East. Of those reporting to be White American,7,487,133 reported to be Multiracial, with largest combination being white, additionally, there are 29,184,290 White Hispanics or Latinos. Non-Hispanic Whites are the majority in 46 states, there are four minority-majority states, California, Texas, New Mexico, and Hawaii. In addition, the District of Columbia has a non-white majority, the state with the highest percentage of non-Hispanic White Americans is Maine. The largest continental ancestral group of Americans are that of Europeans who have origins in any of the peoples of Europe. This includes people via African, North American, Caribbean, Central American or South American and Oceanian nations that have a large European diaspora, the Spanish were the first Europeans to establish a continuous presence in what is now the United States. Martín de Argüelles born 1566, San Agustín, La Florida, was the first person of European descent born in what is now the United States. Twenty-one years later, Virginia Dare born 1587 Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina, was the first child born in the Thirteen Colonies to English parents. 8% of the total population, Hispanic or Latino Americans constitute the largest ethnic minority in the United States. They form the second largest group after non-Hispanic Whites in the United States, hispanic/Latino Americans are very racially diverse, and as a result form an ethnic category, rather than a race
12.
Henry Benbridge
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Henry Benbridge born October 1743 died February 1812, early American portrait painter, was born in Philadelphia, the only child of James and Mary Benbridge. When he was seven years old, his mother, who had left a widow, was married to Thomas Gordon. The boys artistic talent was encouraged and he made decorative designs for his stepfathers drawing-room which were much admired. When he was fourteen years old he may have watched John Wollaston paint Gordons portrait and it has been plausibly argued that young Benbridge had instruction from Wollaston, since his earliest known portrait, that of his half-sister Rebecca Gordon, seems to hark back to Wollaston. When he was 21, Benbridge was sent to Italy, where he studied with Pompeo Batoni, in 1769, on commission from James Boswell, biographer of Dr. Samuel Johnson, he made a portrait of Pasquale Paoli in Corsica which he took to London. It was exhibited at the Free Society of Artists, and from it three mezzotints were scraped and published with the artists name signed Bembridge, like other young Americans he was encouraged by Benjamin West. He wrote, on December 7,1769, to his stepfather, Upon my arrival I waited upon Mr. West who received me with a sort of affection, as did my cousin. You will find him an Ingenous artist and an agreeable Companion and his merit in the art must procure him great incouragement and much esteem. I deare say it will give you great pleasure to have an ingenous artist resident amongst you, in Philadelphia Benbridge married a Miss Sage and was admitted on January 18,1771, to membership in the American Philosophical Society, of which Benjamin Franklin was a founder. He painted the portrait of the Gordon family, with six figures. Suffering, however, from asthma, he sought a more congenial climate and moved to Charleston, South Carolina, around 1800 Benbridge settled in Norfolk, Virginia, whence he made frequent visits to his native city. At Norfolk he gave to Thomas Sully his first lessons in oil painting and he had previously instructed Thomas Coram of Charleston. Sully describes his master as a man of good address–gentlemanly in his deportment. Benbridges health is said by Hart to have declined in middle age, dunlaps assertion that his last years were passed in obscurity and poverty has been disputed. As a technician Benbridge drew well and painted solidly, exhibiting characteristics of the late Italian masters. His contemporary Charles Fraser said that his shadows were dark and opaque and his paintings, nevertheless, were notably good in respect of their black-and-white values and some of his miniatures are exquisite. His Italianate mode was much appreciated in the Mid-Atlantic and Southern states during his lifetime, hildeburn, Charles R. ed. Baptisms and Burials From the Records of Christ Church, Philadelphia, 1709-1760. Philadelphia, PA, USA, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, American Council of Learned Societies, 1928–1936
13.
Rome
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Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the Caput Mundi, due to that, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, in 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic. Rome has the status of a global city, Rome ranked in 2014 as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are among the worlds most visited tourist destinations with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics and is the seat of United Nations Food, however, it is a possibility that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternate theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago. Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence, several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the age and the beginning of the Iron age. However, none of them had yet an urban quality, nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. All these happenings, which according to the excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome has been indeed founded with an act of will as the legend suggests in the middle of the 8th century BC remains a fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth
14.
Richard Wilson (painter)
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Richard Wilson RA was an influential Welsh landscape painter, who worked in Britain and Italy. In December 1768 Wilson became one of the founder-members of the Royal Academy, a catalogue raisonné of the artists work is published by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. The son of a clergyman, Richard Wilson was born on 1 August 1714, the family was an established one, and Wilson was first cousin to Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden. In 1729 he went to London, where he began as a painter, under the apprenticeship of an obscure artist. Wilson could often be found walking around Marylebone Gardens with his acquaintance Baretti heading toward the Farthing Pie House, from 1750 to 1757 Wilson was in Italy, and became a landscape painter on the advice of Francesco Zuccarelli. Painting in Italy and afterwards in Britain, he was the first major British painter to concentrate on landscape and he composed well, but saw and rendered only the general effects of nature, thereby creating a personal, ideal style influenced by Claude Lorrain and the Dutch landscape tradition. John Ruskin wrote that Wilson paints in a way. Among Wilsons pupils was the painter Thomas Jones and his landscapes were acknowledged as an influence by Constable, John Crome and Turner. Wilson died in Colomendy, Denbighshire on 15 May 1782, and is buried in the grounds of St Marys Church, Mold, in 1948, Mary Woodall, keeper of art at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, organized a pioneer exhibition of his work. London, Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 120–23, edwards, R. Richard Wilson and his pupil, in Country Life Ford, B. The Drawings of Richard Wilson Constable, W. G. Richard Wilson Spencer-Longhurst, an Italian sketchbook, drawings made by the artist in Rome and its environs. Solkin, David H. Richard Wilson, The Landscape of Reaction, davies, John, Nigel Jenkins, Menna Baines and Peredur Lynch. The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales
15.
Lake Avernus
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Lake Avernus is a volcanic crater lake located in the Avernus crater in the Campania region of southern Italy, around 4 km northwest of Pozzuoli. It is near the field known as the Phlegraean Fields. The lake is circular, measuring 2 km in circumference and 60 m deep. Avernus was of importance to the Romans, who considered it to be the entrance to Hades. Roman writers often used the name as a synonym for the underworld. In Virgils Aeneid, Aeneas descends to the underworld through a cave near the lake, in Hyginus Fabulae, Odysseus also goes to the lower world from this spot, where he meets Elpenor, his comrade who went missing at Circes place. Despite the alleged dangers of the lake, the Romans were happy to settle its shores, on which villas, the lakes personification, the deus Avernus, was worshiped in lakeside temples. A large bathhouse was built on the shore of the lake. In 37 BC, the Roman general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa converted the lake into a base named the Portus Julius after Julius Caesar. It was linked by a canal to a lake and, from there. The lake shore was also connected to the Greek colony of Cumae by a passage known as Cocceios Cave. This was the worlds first major tunnel, it remained usable until as recently as the 1940s. The Borboni, the Naples-ruling members of the House of Bourbon, owned the lake until 1750 when they ceded it to another aristocratic family, who in turn sold it, in 1991, to the Cardillo family. In 2010, a 55-hectare tract of land – including the lake, in the pre-modern era, Italian geographers also called Lago Averno, the, Lago di Tripergola. It was named after the village of Tripergola, which was destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 1538. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chambers, Ephraim. Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, james and John Knapton, et al
16.
Francis Cotes
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Francis Cotes RA was an English painter, one of the pioneers of English pastel painting, and a founding member of the Royal Academy in 1768. He was born in London, the eldest son of Robert Cotes, an admirer of the pastel drawings of Rosalba Carriera, Cotes concentrated on works in pastel and crayon. After pushing crayon to its limit as a medium—although he was never to abandon it entirely—Cotes turned to oil painting as a means of developing his style in larger-scale works and they have clarity and warmth and possess a remarkable attention to costume. In 1763, he bought a house in Cavendish Square. He also painted The Young Cricketer, after 1746 the costumes in his pictures were mostly executed by the specialist drapery painter Peter Toms. One of the most fashionable painters of his day, Cotes helped found the Society of Artists of Great Britain. At the peak of his powers, Cotes was invited to one of the first members of the Royal Academy. He also taught skills to John Russell, who described Cotes techniques in his book The Elements of Painting with Crayon
17.
Nathaniel Dance-Holland
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Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland, 1st Baronet RA was a notable English portrait painter and later a politician. The third son of architect George Dance the Elder, Dance studied art under Francis Hayman, there he met Angelica Kauffman, and painted several historic and classical paintings. On his return to England, he became a portrait painter. With Hayman and his architect brother George Dance the Younger, he was one of the members of the Royal Academy in 1768. He was commissioned to paint King George III and his queen, plus Captain James Cook and his group portrait The Pybus Family is in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia. In 1790, he gave up his career and became Member of Parliament for East Grinstead in Sussex. He served this seat until 1802 when he moved to Great Bedwyn, in 1807 he returned to East Grinstead, serving until his death in 1811. He was made a baronet in 1800, which became extinct upon his death and he was married to Harriet, the daughter of Sir Cecil Bishopp, 6th Baronet and the widow of Thomas Dummer, for whom his brother had designed the house at Cranbury Park, near Winchester. They lived at Little Wittenham Manor in Berkshire and his wife survived him until 1825. His nephew, Sir Nathaniel Dance, was a commander of British East India Company ships. Leigh Rayments Historical List of MPs Leigh Rayments list of baronets Hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by Nathaniel Dance-Holland
18.
Anton Graff
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Anton Graff was an eminent Swiss portrait artist. His pupils included Emma Körner, Philipp Otto Runge and Karl Ludwig Kaaz, Anton Graff was born as the seventh child of the craftsman Ulrich Graff and Barbara Graff née Koller at Untertorgasse 8 in Winterthur, Switzerland. In 1753 Graff started studying painting at the art school of Johann Ulrich Schellenberg in Winterthur, after three years he left Winterthur for Augsburg. There he worked with the etcher Johann Jakob Haid, however, only one year later he was forced to leave Augsburg. The members of the painters guild feared his competition. With a letter of recommendation from Johann Jakob Haid, he moved to Ansbach where he found employment with the court painter Leonhard Schneider until 1759, Graff travelled frequently to Munich to study the paintings in the different collections. In 1759 he went back to Augsburg and later moved to Regensburg, in 1765 he went back to Winterthur and Zurich. He thought he was not good enough to work for the court of Saxony. To give Hagedorn an impression of his talent he sent a self-portrait to Dresden, the self-portrait arrived on 16 January 1766, in Dresden. It was so well received that one day later Hagedorn worked out Graffs employment contract. In early 1788, the Prussian Minister Friedrich Anton von Heynitz made Graff the financially very attractive offer to work for the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin, on 7 May 1789, Graff informed Count Camillo Marcolini, general director of the Dresden Art Academy, about this. On 20 June 1789, Graff was appointed Professor for portrait painting at the Dresden Art Academy, Graff made portraits of nearly 1,000 of his contemporaries and was the leading portrait painter in Germany in the late 18th and early 19th century. Graff was also the portrait painter of German poets between the Enlightenment and the early Romantic periods. Many of them were also his friends, like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe whom he met in Dresden in 1768, Graff was the favourite portrait painter of the German, Russian, Polish and Baltic nobility. Among others he portrayed Stanislaw Kostka Potocki and his most important clients included Catherine the Great of Russia and Frederick the Great of Prussia. His portrait of Frederick the Great is regarded as his masterpiece, the painting is exhibited at Schloss Charlottenburg. Frederick the Great never posed for Graff, however, Graff got the authorization to watch the troops parade in 1781. This was the chance for Graff to study the physiognomy of the King, Graff was also very popular with the landed gentry, diplomats, musicians and scholars
19.
Tilly Kettle
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Tilly Kettle was a portrait painter and the first prominent English portrait painter to operate in India. He was born in London, the son of a coach painter and he studied drawing with William Shipley in the Strand and first entered professional portraiture in the 1750s. Kettles first series of portraits appeared in the 1760s and his first surviving painting is a self-portrait from 1760, with his first exhibit with the Free Society of Artists in 1761. In 1762, he worked at restoring Robert Streaters ceiling paintings in the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, and painted Francis Yarborough and he painted many members of the family of William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth. In 1764-5, he was active in London and continued exhibiting at the Society of Artists, in 1768, Kettle sailed to India with the British East India Company, landing at Madras, where he remained for two years. There, he painted Lord Pigot and Muhammad Ali Khan twice, in 1770 Kettle painted a half-length portrait of Sir Levett Hanson, a peripatetic writer on European knighthood and chivalry originally from Yorkshire. Kettle moved on to Calcutta in 1771 and painted Shuja ud-Daula, in 1775, he painted George Bogle, Warren Hastings emissary to Tibet, in Tibetan dress, presenting a ceremonial white scarf to Lobsang Palden Yeshe the 6th Panchen Lama. He also took an Indian mistress and had two daughters by her and he left India in 1776 for London. She brought a dowry of £5,000, while he put up £3,000 toward a trust fund, however, contemporaries indicated that Kettle was manipulated into the marriage for financial reasons. At the same time, he switched his exhibitors to the Royal Academy of Art and he had fewer clients in England than he had before his departure, and his wife was financially imprudent. He had two daughters by her and one son, named James. He fell into debt, and in 1786 he set out for a return to India and he attempted the voyage overland through Asia. His last portrait was painted in Aleppo, and he died some time later, although where, National Gallery of Modern Arts, New Delhi Tilly Kettle at artcyclopedia. com Postle, Martin. Tilly Kettle In Matthew, H. C. G. and Brian Harrison, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
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Tate Britain
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Tate Britain is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in England, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and it is the oldest gallery in the network, having opened in 1897. It is one of the largest museums in the country, the gallery is situated on Millbank, on the site of the former Millbank Prison. Construction, undertaken by Higgs and Hill, commenced in 1893, however, from the start it was commonly known as the Tate Gallery, after its founder Sir Henry Tate, and in 1932 it officially adopted that name. As a consequence, it was renamed Tate Britain in March 2000, the front part of the building was designed by Sidney R. J. Smith with a classical portico and dome behind, and the central sculpture gallery was designed by John Russell Pope. Tate Britain includes the Clore Gallery of 1987, designed by James Stirling, crises during its existence include flood damage to work from the River Thames, and bomb damage during World War II. However, most of the collection was in storage elsewhere during the war. In 1970, the building was given Grade II* listed status, the museum stayed open throughout the three phases of renovation. Completed in 2013, the newly designed sections were conceived by the architects Caruso St John and included a total of nine new galleries, with reinforced flooring to accommodate heavy sculptures. A second part was unveiled later that year, the centrepiece being the reopening of the buildings Thames-facing entrance as well as a new spiral staircase beneath its rotunda, the circular balcony of the rotundas domed atrium, closed to visitors since the 1920s, was reopened. The gallery also now has a dedicated entrance and reception beneath its entrance steps on Millbank. The front entrance is accessible by steps, a side entrance at a lower level has a ramp for wheelchair access. The gallery provides a restaurant and a café, as well as a Friends room and this membership is open to the public on payment of an annual subscription. As well as offices the building complex houses the Prints and Drawings Rooms, as well as the Library. The restaurant features a mural by Rex Whistler, Tate Britain and Tate Modern are now connected by a high speed boat along the River Thames, which runs from Millbank Millennium Pier immediately outside Tate Britain. The boat is decorated with spots, based on paintings of similar appearance by Damien Hirst, the lighting artwork incorporated in the piers structure is by Angela Bulloch. The main display spaces show the permanent collection of historic British art, the gallery also organises career retrospectives of British artists and temporary major exhibitions of British Art. Every three years the gallery stages a Triennial exhibition in which a guest curator provides an overview of contemporary British Art, the 2003 Tate Triennial was called Days Like These
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William Pars
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William Pars ARA was an English watercolour portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman and illustrator. Pars was born in London, the son of a metal engraver and he studied at Shipleys Drawing School, St. Martins Lane Academy, and also in the Duke of Richmonds Gallery. In 1761, at the age of 17, he exhibited a portrait and miniatures at the Incorporated Society of Artists, in 1764 he obtained the Society of Arts medal for an historical painting. In June 1764, he was selected by the Dilettanti Society to accompany, as draughtsman, Richard Chandler, the result was published in Ionian Antiquities which was illustrated from Parss drawings. Pars returned to England on 2 December 1766, and soon after accompanied Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston to the continent, making drawings in Switzerland, the Tyrol, in 1769 he contributed seven views from Greece to the first exhibition of the Royal Academy. He was elected an associate in 1770, and in the year he sent eight European views, chiefly of Switzerland. He contributed regularly to the academy exhibitions till 1776, in the summer of 1775 he travelled to Rome on a bursary of the Dilettanti Society, where artists such as John Warwick Smith, Francis Towne John Robert Cozens and Thomas Jones were working. He remained there till the autumn of 1782, when he died of pleurisy, Pars elder brother Henry Pars was a draughtsman and metal engraver, becoming the Principal of Shipleys Drawing School. Like Pars, he also recorded antiquities in Greece and accompanied Nicholas Revett on tours, William Pars online Biography Biography and works William Pars, A Sepulchral Monument at Mylasa St Peters Rome Profile on Royal Academy of Arts Collections
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Nicholas Revett
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Nicholas Revett was a British architect. Revett is best known for his work with James Athenian Stuart documenting the ruins of ancient Athens and he is sometimes described as an amateur architect, but he played an important role in the revival of Greek architecture. Revett is believed to have born in Framlingham, Suffolk. He was baptised in the Church of St Michael the Archangel and he studied with the proto-Neoclassical painter Marco Benefial. He died in London, and was buried in Brandeston, revet met James Stuart in Italy where they had gone to further their artistic education. They decided to travel on to Greece, the Society was founded by men including Gray who had been on the Grand Tour, its patronage was to prove important to Revett. In Greece they stayed mainly in Athens, where they arrived in 1751 and they also visited the Aegean Islands including Delos. In England Revett and Stuart prepared their work for publication and found subscribers for The Antiquities of Athens, the project was intended to consist of four volumes, although a supplementary volume also appeared. The illustrations include 368 etched and engraved plates, plans and maps drawn at scale, the first volume, in which the authors are described as painters and architects, appeared in 1762/3. Revett gave up his interest in the project after the first volume, the fourth volume appeared in 1816, the year the Elgin Marbles were acquired by the British government. Revett took part in an expedition in the 1760s. He travelled with Richard Chandler and others to Greece and Ionia under the auspices of the Society of Dilettanti, there are not many buildings attributed to Revett. He considered himself a gentleman and he was probably sufficiently well-off not to have to earn his living, Revett designed two Greek additions to English country houses which arguably commenced the British Greek Revivalist period in architecture from the 1760s. Both owners were members of the Society of Dilettanti, the properties in question were, Standlynch Park, Wiltshire, now known as Trafalgar Park Revett added a portico to this house which was the home of Henry Dawkins. West Wycombe Park, Buckinghamshire Revett added a portico to this house, the portico is based on a temple at Teos. with James Stuart, The Antiquities of Athens. Richard Chandler, Nicholas Revett, Travels in Asia Minor and Greece, Richard Chandler, Nicholas Revett, W. Pars, Ionian Antiquities London 1769. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Revett
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Joshua Reynolds
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Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential eighteenth-century English painter, specialising in portraits. He promoted the Grand Style in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect and he was a founder and first president of the Royal Academy of Arts, and was knighted by George III in 1769. Reynolds was born in Plympton, Devon, on 16 July 1723 the third son of the Rev. Samuel Reynolds and his father had been a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, but did not send any of his sons to the university. One of his sisters was Mary Palmer, seven years his senior, author of Devonshire Dialogue, in 1740 she provided £60, half of the premium paid to Thomas Hudson the portrait-painter, for Joshuas pupilage, and nine years later advanced money for his expenses in Italy. His other siblings included Frances Reynolds and Elizabeth Johnson, as a boy, he came under the influence of Zachariah Mudge, whose Platonistic philosophy stayed with him all his life. The work that came to have the most influential impact on Reynolds was Jonathan Richardsons An Essay on the Theory of Painting, having shown an early interest in art, Reynolds was apprenticed in 1740 to the fashionable London portrait painter Thomas Hudson, who had been born in Devon. Hudson had a collection of old master drawings, including some by Guercino, although apprenticed to Hudson for four years, Reynolds only remained with him until summer 1743. Having left Hudson, Reynolds worked for some time as a portrait-painter in Plymouth Dock and he returned to London before the end of 1744, but following his fathers death in late 1745 he shared a house in Plymouth Dock with his sisters. In 1749, Reynolds met Commodore Augustus Keppel, who invited him to join HMS Centurion, of which he had command, while with the ship he visited Lisbon, Cadiz, Algiers, and Minorca. From Minorca he travelled to Livorno in Italy, and then to Rome, while in Rome he suffered a severe cold, which left him partially deaf, and, as a result, he began to carry a small ear trumpet with which he is often pictured. Reynolds travelled homeward overland via Florence, Bologna, Venice, and he was accompanied by Giuseppe Marchi, then aged about 17. Apart from a brief interlude in 1770, Marchi remained in Reynolds employment as an assistant for the rest of the artists career. Following his arrival in England in October 1752, Reynolds spent three months in Devon, before establishing himself in London, where he remained for the rest of his life. He took rooms in St Martins Lane, before moving to Great Newport Street and he achieved success rapidly, and was extremely prolific. In 1760 Reynolds moved into a house, with space to show his works and accommodate his assistants. Alongside ambitious full-length portraits, Reynolds painted large numbers of smaller works, in the late 1750s, at the height of the social season, he received five or six sitters a day, each for an hour. By 1761 Reynolds could command a fee of 80 guineas for a full-length portrait, the clothing of Reynolds sitters was usually painted either by one of his pupils, his studio assistant Giuseppe Marchi, or the specialist drapery painter Peter Toms. Lay figures were used to model the clothes and he had an excellent vantage from his house, Wick House, on Richmond Hill, and painted the view in about 1780
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George Stubbs
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George Stubbs ARA was an English painter, best known for his paintings of horses. Stubbs was born in Liverpool, the son of a currier and leather merchant, information on his life up to age thirty-five is sparse, relying almost entirely on notes made by fellow artist Ozias Humphry towards the end of Stubbss life. Stubbs worked at his fathers trade until he was 15 or 16, thereafter as an artist he was self-taught. In the 1740s he worked as a painter in the North of England. He had had a passion for anatomy from his childhood, in 1756 he rented a farmhouse in the village of Horkstow, Lincolnshire, and spent 18 months dissecting horses, assisted by his common-law wife, Mary Spencer. He moved to London in about 1759 and in 1766 published The anatomy of the Horse, the original drawings are now in the collection of the Royal Academy. In 1759 the 3rd Duke of Richmond commissioned three large pictures from him, and his career was soon secure. By 1763 he had produced works for several dukes and other lords and was able to buy a house in Marylebone, a fashionable part of London. His most famous work is probably Whistlejacket, a painting of a prancing horse commissioned by the 2nd Marquess of Rockingham and this and two other paintings carried out for Rockingham break with convention in having plain backgrounds. Throughout the 1760s he produced a range of individual and group portraits of horses, sometimes accompanied by hounds. He often painted horses with their grooms, whom he painted as individuals. Meanwhile, he continued to accept commissions for portraits of people. From 1761 to 1776 he exhibited at the Society of Artists of Great Britain, Stubbs also painted more exotic animals including lions, tigers, giraffes, monkeys, and rhinoceroses, which he was able to observe in private menageries. His painting of a kangaroo was the first glimpse of this animal for many 18th-century Britons and he became preoccupied with the theme of a wild horse threatened by a lion and produced several variations on this theme. These and other works became known at the time through engravings of Stubbss work. Stubbs also painted pictures, but these are much less well regarded. From the late 1760s he produced work on enamel. In the 1770s Josiah Wedgwood developed a new and larger type of enamel panel at Stubbss request, Stubbs hoped to achieve commercial success with his paintings in enamel, but the venture left him in debt
