1.
Jonathan Richardson
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Jonathan Richardson sometimes called the Elder to distinguish him from his son was an English artist, collector of drawings, and writer on art, working almost entirely as a portrait-painter in London. He was considered by some art-critics as one of the three foremost painters of his time and he was the master of Thomas Hudson and George Knapton. Richardson was even more influential as a writer, he is credited with inspiring Joshua Reynolds to paint and this book is credited with being the first significant work of artistic theory in English. Richardson was born in the parish of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate in London on 12 January 1667 to William, in 1672 his father died and his mother married again. Richardson became an apprentice, but he was released early when his master retired. Richardson was lucky enough to be taken on as an apprentice by John Riley. He learnt the art of portraiture from Riley whilst living at his masters house, Richardson was even more influential as a writer than as a painter according to Samuel Johnson. He is credited with inspiring Joshua Reynolds to paint and theorise with his 1715 book An Essay on the Theory of Painting, in 1722, Richardson published with his son, also Jonathan, An Account of Some of the Statues, Bas-Reliefs, Drawings, and Pictures in Italy. The book was compiled by Richardson the elder using material gathered by his son whilst touring Italy in 1721 and this was a very popular book and was used by young men as a basis for their Grand Tour. It was said that the book became the basis for future purchases of art by wealthy collectors and it also provided an important model for Johann Joachim Winckelmanns History of Art. Richardson and his son also co-authored their Explanatory Notes and Remarks on Miltons Paradise Lost, the Richardsons responses to Bentley helped to lay the foundation for subsequent interpretation of the poem. Richardson was considered as one of the three foremost painters of his time with Charles Jervas and Michael Dahl and he was also an excellent and prolific draughtsman, and made a number of chalk drawings of friends and family. He was the master of Thomas Hudson and George Knapton and he painted and drew many self-portraits, which are highly regarded today. Richardson has over 120 paintings in public ownership in the United Kingdom, when the elder Richardson died in Bloomsbury on 28 May 1745 he left four daughters, one of whom married Thomas Hudson the painter, who had previously been Richardsons pupil. He was also survived by his son, Jonathan Richardson the Younger, horace Walpole stated that he painted a little but whatever works he created are now lost. He left a large and valuable collection of 4,749 old master drawings, today a drawing that still bears Richardsons collectors mark gains substantially in value. Richardson has been described as one of the greatest collectors of drawings of all time, with the life of the author, and a discourse on the poem. 133 Painting by or after Jonathan Richardson at the Art UK site
2.
Engraving
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Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it. Wood engraving is a form of printing and is not covered in this article. Engraving was an important method of producing images on paper in artistic printmaking, in mapmaking. Other terms often used for printed engravings are copper engraving, copper-plate engraving or line engraving, hand engraving is a term sometimes used for engraving objects other than printing plates, to inscribe or decorate jewellery, firearms, trophies, knives and other fine metal goods. Traditional engravings in printmaking are also engraved, using just the same techniques to make the lines in the plate. Each graver is different and has its own use, engravers use a hardened steel tool called a burin, or graver, to cut the design into the surface, most traditionally a copper plate. Modern professional engravers can engrave with a resolution of up to 40 lines per mm in high grade work creating game scenes, dies used in mass production of molded parts are sometimes hand engraved to add special touches or certain information such as part numbers. In addition to engraving, there are engraving machines that require less human finesse and are not directly controlled by hand. They are usually used for lettering, using a pantographic system, there are versions for the insides of rings and also the outsides of larger pieces. Such machines are used for inscriptions on rings, lockets. Gravers come in a variety of shapes and sizes that yield different line types, the burin produces a unique and recognizable quality of line that is characterized by its steady, deliberate appearance and clean edges. The angle tint tool has a curved tip that is commonly used in printmaking. Florentine liners are flat-bottomed tools with multiple lines incised into them, ring gravers are made with particular shapes that are used by jewelry engravers in order to cut inscriptions inside rings. Flat gravers are used for work on letters, as well as wriggle cuts on most musical instrument engraving work, remove background. Knife gravers are for line engraving and very deep cuts, round gravers, and flat gravers with a radius, are commonly used on silver to create bright cuts, as well as other hard-to-cut metals such as nickel and steel. Square or V-point gravers are typically square or elongated diamond-shaped and used for cutting straight lines, V-point can be anywhere from 60 to 130 degrees, depending on purpose and effect. These gravers have very small cutting points, other tools such as mezzotint rockers, roulets and burnishers are used for texturing effects. Burnishing tools can also be used for stone setting techniques
3.
Antiquarian
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An antiquarian or antiquary is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with attention to ancient artifacts, archaeological and historic sites, or historic archives. Today the term is used in a pejorative sense, to refer to an excessively narrow focus on factual historical trivia. The Kaogutu or Illustrated Catalogue of Examined Antiquity compiled by Lü Dalin is one of the oldest known catalogues to systematically describe and classify ancient artifacts which were unearthed. Interests in antiquarian studies of ancient inscriptions and artifacts waned after the Song Dynasty, Books on antiquarian topics covered such subjects as the origin of customs, religious rituals, and political institutions, genealogy, topography and landmarks, and etymology. By contrast, antiquarian works as a form are organized by topic. Major antiquarian Latin writers with surviving works include Varro, Pliny the Elder, Aulus Gellius, the Roman emperor Claudius published antiquarian works, none of which is extant. Some of Ciceros treatises, particularly his work on divination, show strong antiquarian interests, roman-era Greek writers also dealt with antiquarian material, such as Plutarch in his Roman Questions and the Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus. The aim of Latin antiquarian works is to collect a number of possible explanations. The antiquarians are often used as sources by the ancient historians, despite the importance of antiquarian writing in the literature of ancient Rome, some scholars view antiquarianism as emerging only in the Middle Ages. Antiquarianisms wider flowering is more associated with the Renaissance, and with the critical assessment. The development of genealogy as a scientific discipline went hand-in-hand with the development of antiquarianism, genealogical antiquaries recognised the evidential value for their researches of non-textual sources, including seals and church monuments. Many early modern antiquaries were also chorographers, that is to say, they recorded landscapes, in England, some of the most important of these took the form of county histories. They increasingly argued that empirical evidence could be used to refine. Antiquaries had always attracted a degree of ridicule, and since the century the term has tended to be used most commonly in negative or derogatory contexts. Nevertheless, many practising antiquaries continue to claim the title with pride, Antiquary was the usual term in English from the 16th to the mid-18th centuries to describe a person interested in antiquities. From the second half of the 18th century, however, antiquarian began to be used widely as a noun. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, a distinction was perceived to exist between the interests and activities of the antiquary and the historian
4.
St Martin-in-the-Fields
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St Martin-in-the-Fields is an English Anglican church at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, London. It is dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, there has been a church on the site since the medieval period. The present building was constructed in a Neoclassical design by James Gibbs in 1722–1726, excavations at the site in 2006 led to the discovery of a grave from about 410 AD. The site is outside the city limits of Roman London but is particularly interesting for being so far outside, the burial is thought by some to mark a Christian centre of that time. The earliest extant reference to the church is from 1222, with a dispute between the Abbot of Westminster and the Bishop of London as to who had control over it. The Archbishop of Canterbury decided in favour of Westminster, and the monks of Westminster Abbey began to use it, Henry VIII rebuilt the church in 1542 to keep plague victims in the area from having to pass through his Palace of Whitehall. At this time, it was literally in the fields, a position between the cities of Westminster and London. By the beginning of the reign of James I, the church had become inadequate for the size of its congregation, at the same time the church was, in the phrase of the time, thoroughly repaired and beautified. Later in the 17th century capacity was increased with the addition of galleries. The creation of the new parishes of St Anne, Soho, and St James, Piccadilly, as it stood at the beginning of the 18th century, the church was built of brick, rendered over, with stone facings. The roof was tiled, and there was a stone tower, the ceiling was slightly arched, supported with what Edward Hatton described as Pillars of the Tuscan and Modern Gothick orders. The interior was wainscotted in oak to a height of 6 ft, while the galleries, on the north, south, the church was about 84 ft long and 62 ft wide. The tower was about 90 ft high, a number of notables were buried in this phase of the church, including Robert Boyle, Nell Gwynne, John Parkinson and Sir John Birkenhead. A survey of 1710 found that the walls and roof were in a state of decay, in 1720, Parliament passed an act for the rebuilding of the church allowing for a sum of up to £22,000, to be raised by a rate on the parishioners. A temporary church was erected partly on the churchyard and partly on ground in Lancaster Court, advertisements were placed in the newspapers that bodies and monuments of those buried in the church or churchyard could be taken away for reinterment by relatives. The rebuilding commissioners selected James Gibbs to design the new church and his first suggestion was for a church with a circular nave and domed ceiling, but the commissioners considered this scheme too expensive. Gibbs then produced a simpler, rectilinear plan, which they accepted, the foundation stone was laid on 19 March 1722, and the last stone of the spire was placed into position in December 1724. The total cost was £33,661 including the architects fees, the west front of St Martins has a portico with a pediment supported by a giant order of Corinthian columns, six wide
5.
Heraldry
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The beauty and pageantry of heraldic designs allowed them to survive the gradual abandonment of armour on the battlefield during the seventeenth century. Heraldry has been described poetically as the handmaid of history, the shorthand of history, in modern times, heraldry is used by individuals, public and private organizations, corporations, cities, towns, and regions to symbolize their heritage, achievements, and aspirations. Various symbols have been used to represent individuals or groups for thousands of years, similar emblems and devices are found in ancient Mesopotamian art of the same period, and the precursors of heraldic beasts such as the griffin can also be found. In the Bible, the Book of Numbers refers to the standards and ensigns of the children of Israel, the Greek and Latin writers frequently describe the shields and symbols of various heroes, and units of the Roman army were sometimes identified by distinctive markings on their shields. The Book of Saint Albans, compiled in 1486, declares that Christ himself was a gentleman of coat armour, the medieval heralds also devised arms for various knights and lords from history and literature. Notable examples include the toads attributed to Pharamond, the cross and martlets of Edward the Confessor, and the arms attributed to the Nine Worthies. These too are now regarded as an invention, rather than evidence of the antiquity of heraldry. The development of the modern heraldic language cannot be attributed to an individual, time. Yet no individual is depicted twice bearing the arms, nor are any of the descendants of the various persons depicted known to have borne devices resembling those in the tapestry. A Spanish manuscript from 1109 describes both plain and decorated shields, none of which appears to have been heraldic, in England, from the time of the Norman conquest, official documents had to be sealed. A notable example of an armorial seal is attached to a charter granted by Philip I, Count of Flanders. Seals from the part of the eleventh and early twelfth centuries show no evidence of heraldic symbolism. One of the earliest known examples of armory as it came to be practiced can be seen on the tomb of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou. An enamel, probably commissioned by Geoffreys widow between 1155 and 1160, depicts him carrying a shield decorated with six golden lions rampant. He wears a helmet adorned with another lion, and his cloak is lined in vair. A medieval chronicle states that Geoffrey was given a shield of this description when he was knighted by his father-in-law, Henry I, in 1128, but this account probably dates to about 1175. Since Henry was the son of Geoffrey Plantagenet, it seems reasonable to suppose that the adoption of lions as an emblem by Henry or his sons might have been inspired by Geoffreys shield. Richard is also credited with having originated the English crest of a lion statant and it is from this garment that the phrase coat of arms is derived
6.
Godfrey Kneller
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Kneller was born Gottfried Kniller in the Free City of Lübeck, the son of Zacharias Kniller, a portrait painter. Kneller studied in Leiden, but became a pupil of Ferdinand Bol, the brothers came to England in 1676, and won the patronage of the Duke of Monmouth. He was introduced to, and painted a portrait of, Charles II, in England, Kneller concentrated almost entirely on portraiture. His portraits set a pattern that was followed until William Hogarth, nevertheless, he established himself as a leading portrait artist in England. When Sir Peter Lely died in 1680, Kneller was appointed Principal Painter to the Crown by Charles II, in the 1690s, Kneller painted the Hampton Court Beauties depicting the most glamorous ladies-in-waiting of the Royal Court for which he received his knighthood from William III. He produced a series of Kit-cat portraits of 48 leading politicians and his paintings were praised by Whig luminaries such as John Dryden, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, and Alexander Pope. On the landing in Horsham Museum hang works of art from the Museums extensive painting collection, featuring a large 18th-century portrait of Charles Eversfield and his wife, in the painting Eversfield is giving his wife some violets which signifies fidelity, love and honesty. It is likely that the picture was cut down at some time as it was unusual to stop just below the knee and he married a widow, Susanna Grave, on 23 January 1704 at St Brides Church, London. She was the daughter of the Reverend John Cawley, Archdeacon of Lincoln and Rector of Henley-on-Thames, Kneller died of fever in 1723 at Great Queen Street and his remains were interred at Twickenham. He had been a churchwarden at St Marys, Twickenham when the 14th-century nave collapsed in 1713 and was active in the plans for the reconstruction by John James. His widow was buried at Twickenham on 11 December 1729, a memorial was erected in Westminster Abbey. Knellers will gave a pension of £100 a year to his assistant Edward Byng, Byng also inherited the drawings in Knellers studio. Kneller and his wife had no children together, the site of the house Kneller built in 1709 in Whitton, near Twickenham, became occupied by the mid-19th century Kneller Hall, home of the Royal Military School of Music. As to thinking better or worse of mankind from experience, some cunning people will not be satisfied unless they have put men to the test, there is a very good story told of Sir Godfrey Kneller, in his character of a Justice of the peace. In his hometown Lübeck there are works to be seen in the St. Annen Museum and his former works at St. Marys Church were destroyed by the Bombing of Lübeck 1942. A large oil portrait of James VII of Scotland hangs on the staircase of private members Club, The Caledonian Club, in Belgravia
7.
Rose and Crown Club
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The Rose and Crown Club was a club for artists, collectors and connoisseurs of art in early 18th-century London, England. The club was initially a bawdy assembly of artists and cognoscenti. In addition to Vertue, members included Bernard Lens III, Christian Friedrich Zincke, William Hogarth, Peter Tillemans, Marcellus Laroon the Younger, the members of the club were known as the Rosacoronians. Tiffin, and it has suggested that this is a group portrait of the Rosacoronians. The group includes Hamilton himself, Michael Dahl, John Vanderbank, the architect William Kent, Vertue listed the painter and engraver Gerhard Bockman as a member in 1724. The club was connected with the older-established Virtuosi of St Luke, with which it is sometimes confused. The Rose and Crown Club remained in existence until 1745 and held its last meeting at the Half-Moon Tavern. Bignamini notes in his George Vertue that The meetings and annual feasts of the Virtuosi of St Luke and of the Rose and Crown Club had come to a definitive end in 1745
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O'Donoghue, Freeman Marius (1899). "Vertue, George". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography. 58. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 285–286. citing: Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting; Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, ii. 246; Chester's Westminster Abbey Reg.; Dodd's manuscript Hist. of English Engravers in Brit. Mus. (Addit. MS. 33406).
O'Donoghue, Freeman Marius (1899). "
