Gavin Hamilton (artist)

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Gavin Hamilton, artist and antiquarian
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Gavin Hamilton
Gavin Hamilton by Ozias Humphry, 1778, pencil, NGS
Born
Gavin Hamilton

1723 ODNB
Died4 January 1798 (aged 74–75)
NationalityScottish
MovementNeoclassicism, Scottish Enlightenment
RelativesJames Hamilton (brother)
James Hamilton (nephew)

Gavin Hamilton (1723,

history painter,[1]
who is more widely remembered for his searches for antiquities in the neighbourhood of Rome. These roles in combination made him an arbiter of neoclassical taste.[2]

Biography

Born in Lanarkshire, Scotland in 1723, he matriculated at the University of Glasgow under the Professor of Humanity at the age of 15.[3] By 1744 he was in Italy, and probably studied in Rome in the studio of Agostino Masucci. From 1748 to 1750 he shared an apartment with James Stuart, Matthew Brettingham and Nicholas Revett, and with them visited Naples and Venice. On returning to Britain, he spent several years portrait-painting in London (1751–1756). At the end of that period, he returned to Rome. He lived there for the next four decades, until his death in 1798.

Aside from a few portraits of friends, the Hamilton family, and British people on the

Lord Shelburne, Lord Spencer, Lord Hope and Sir James Grant. Among the artists who sought his favour and advice were Anne Forbes, William Cochran, David Allan and Alexander Nasmyth.[3]
As an art dealer and
Villa dei Quintili), ca 1775 Castel di Guido and Gabii.[5]

Gavin Hamilton by Christopher Hewetson, Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow

In an age when restorations to Roman sculptures were broadly conceived and the refinishing of whole surfaces was still common practice, Hamilton maintained a reputation as an honest man who did not tamper unduly with the sculptures that passed through his hands.[6] Hamilton sold many of the works of art he recovered to his British clients, most notably to Charles Townley, to whom the painter wrote: "the most valuable acquisition a man of refined taste can make, is a piece of fine Greek Sculpture";[7] and to William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne at Shelburne, later Lansdowne House, London.[8] In 1771 Hamilton discovered the Warwick Vase at Hadrian's Villa. He sold it to Sir William Hamilton

, a connoisseur and the British envoy at Naples.

Gavin Hamilton worked closely with Giovanni Battista Piranesi. He was an early advisor of Antonio Canova, a young sculptor whom he met at a dinner party in December 1779 on Canova's first visit to Rome. The painter advised the younger man to put aside his early, Rococo manner and concentrate on conflating the study of nature with the best of antiquities and a narrow range of classic modern sculptors.[9]

In 1785 Hamilton bought Leonardo da Vinci's Virgin of the Rocks and sent it to London for sale. His purchase was the version now held by the National Gallery, London.

Such hunting and sale of antiquities was considered a marginally shady undertaking. Hamilton was successful in making generous offerings to the Vatican's Museo Pio-Clementino, as the Pope claimed one-third of all excavated works and had the right to forbid export of outstanding treasures.[10] In addition, Hamilton paid landowners for excavating rights, so kept his peace with them.

He died in Rome on 4 January 1798.

Gallery

Further reading

See also

Notes

  1. ^ A Grande História da Arte (Vol 16)
  2. ^ David Irwin, "Gavin Hamilton: Archaeologist, Painter, and Dealer" The Art Bulletin 44.2 (June 1962:87–102).
  3. ^ a b Skinner, Basil C. (1966), Scots in Italy in the 18th Century, National Galleries of Scotland, pp. 14 - 23
  4. ISSN 0264-0856
  5. ^ A. H. Smith, "Gavin Hamilton's Letters to Charles Townley," The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 21 (1901), pp. 306–321; Irwin, David. (1962) "Gavin Hamilton: Archaeologist, Painter and Dealer", in The Art Bulletin 44:2, pp. 87–102;
  6. ^ Irwin 1962:89, noting J.T. Smith's assessment in Nollekins and His Times, vol. I:207f.
  7. ^ Quoted Irwin 1962:88.
  8. Thomas Jenkins
    .
  9. ^ Irwin 1962:87ff.
  10. ^ Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique (Yale University Press) 1981, p. 66f.

External links

Coriolanus
. Engraved by James Caldwell from the painting by Gavin Hamilton.