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Article

Adams, Tate  

(b Holywood, County Down, Ireland, Jan 26, 1922).

Australian painter, printmaker, book designer, lecturer, collector, gallery director and publisher of limited edition artists’ books, of Irish decent. He worked as a draughtsman before entering war service in the British Admiralty from 1940 to 1949, including five years in Colombo, where he made sketching trips to jungle temples with the Buddhist monk and artist Manjsiro Thero. Between 1949 and 1951 Adams worked as an exhibition designer in London and studied wood-engraving with Gertrude Hermes in her evening class at the Central School of Arts and Crafts (now Central St Martin’s College of Art and Design). In 1951, after moving to Melbourne, Adams began a 30-year teaching commitment at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), where he instructed many of the younger generation of Australian printmakers, including George Baldessin and Jan Senbergs. A brief return to Britain and Ireland in 1957–8 provided experience with Dolmen Press, Dublin, which published his first book of engravings, ...

Article

Aldrich, Henry  

Howard Colvin

(b Westminster, London, Jan 1647 or 1648; d Oxford, Dec 14, 1710).

English architect and scholar. The son of Henry Aldrich, later auditor to James, Duke of York, he was educated at Westminster School, London, and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated as a BA in 1666 and an MA in 1669. He remained in Oxford for the rest of his life, becoming in 1682 a canon of Christ Church and in 1689 Dean of the College and Cathedral. From 1692 to 1695 he served as Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University.

Aldrich was a highly accomplished man who was well known for his learning in many fields. He edited Greek and Latin texts, wrote a standard book on logic, and also published works on mathematics, music and architecture. He had a large library that included books on antiquities and many architectural and other engravings. He left his library to Christ Church, where it remains, but directed that all his personal papers were to be destroyed. As a result, relatively little is known about his architectural interests and activities. However, there is reason to think that he had visited France and Italy, and he was certainly regarded by contemporaries as an authority on architectural matters. He was himself an excellent draughtsman and made the drawings for the allegorical engravings that decorate the Oxford almanacks for ...

Article

Amenhotpe, son of Hapu  

(b Athribis, nr Benha, c. 1440 bc; d c. 1350 bc).

Ancient Egyptian architect and patron. Amenhotpe rose to prominence in his home town during the reign of Amenophis III (reg c. 1391–c. 1353 bc) as a royal scribe and chief of the priests of the local god Khentekhtai. About 1390 bc he moved to the royal court at Thebes and was rapidly promoted by Amenophis III to the position of chief royal architect, responsible for the whole process of temple construction, from quarrying to the sculpting of relief decoration, as well as the commissioning of royal statues. The full list of buildings for which Amenhotpe was architect is not known, but he certainly supervised the construction of a huge temple at Soleb near the second cataract of the Nile in Lower Nubia, where several of the reliefs depict him standing alongside the King during the temple consecration ceremony. He also built two tombs and a mortuary temple for himself on the west bank at Thebes (...

Article

Amenophis III  

Ian M. E. Shaw

[Nebmaatre]

(reg c. 1391–c. 1353 bc). Egyptian ruler and patron. He reigned in the late 18th Dynasty (c. 1540–c. 1292 bc), a time of great national peace and prosperity. Amenophis III was a prolific builder: it was during his reign that Amenhotpe, the greatest Egyptian architect since Imhotep, rose to a position of power and influence as ‘Overseer of all the King’s Works’.

Although Amenophis III constructed numerous temples, from Memphis and Bubastis in the north of Egypt to Soleb and Sedeinga in the south (see Nubia, §III), only a small number of these have survived. His mortuary temple, built in fine white limestone on the west bank of the Nile at Thebes, must have been one of the most impressive buildings of the time, but it was systematically dismantled in the 19th Dynasty (c. 1292–c. 1190 bc). Only a few items of sculpture and stelae have been preserved from it, notably the celebrated ‘...

Article

Ammenemes III  

Claude Vandersleyen

[Amenemhet III; Nymaatre]

Egyptian ruler. Both architecture and sculpture have survived from his reign in the 12th Dynasty (for chronological chart of Egyptian kings see Egypt, ancient, fig.). He built two pyramids, one at Dahshur and the other at Hawara in the Faiyum region, where is also a small temple, finished by Ammenemes III’s successor, Ammenemes IV; the reliefs in this temple have not been published in detail. Some reliefs of Ammenemes III were also found at Abydos (Philadelphia, U. PA, Mus.); they display little of the quality and interest of the reliefs of his predecessor, Sesostris III.

There are more than 50 statues and heads of Ammenemes III, easily identifiable because of his distinctive physiognomy. As with the statues of Sesostris III, they appear to correspond to various ages of the King; however, this progression is probably complicated by wider variations of style and dimensions. The characteristic traits of these heads are large eyes (always serious and impassive), exceptionally large ears and a nose that is far less prominent than that of Sesostris III and hooks back into the face after the bump of the nasal bone. His mouth has thick, curled lips, the corners of which turn up to end against fleshy protuberances. The cheek-bones are very high and wide and are cut by a wrinkle leaving the inside corner of the eye at an angle of 45°....

Article

Arthoisp [Artoes; Artoies; Artois; Artoos; Artoys], Jacques d’  

Hans Devisscher

(bapt Brussels, Oct 12, 1613; d between 26 April and June 17, 1686).

Flemish painter, draughtsman and collector . He was apprenticed to Jan Mertens on 11 January 1625 and became a master in the Brussels painters’ guild on 3 May 1634. On 10 July 1636 he married Marie Sampels, who bore him eight children. Besides his son Jan Baptist d’Arthois (b 1638) and his brother Nicolaes d’Arthois (b 1617), Jacques had six pupils; one of them, Cornelis van Empel, came from Mechelen, indicating that d’Arthois’s fame extended beyond his native city. He was made chartered tapestry cartoon designer of the city of Brussels in 1655. At the time of his death he owned several houses and a substantial paintings collection, though an expansive lifestyle had left him severely in debt.

D’Arthois, the leading figure of the Brussels landscape school of the second half of the 17th century, is best known as the painter of the Forêt de Soignes, where one of his houses was located. His painted and drawn landscapes, with their bushes, ponds, hollow paths, clay banks and sandy hills, are dominated by tall trees crowned with luxuriant foliage (e.g. ...

Article

Bagatti Valsecchi family  

Laura Mattioli Rossi

Italian family of artists, architects and collectors . Pietro Bagatti Valsecchi (b Milan, 15 April 1802; d Milan, 27 Nov 1864) was adopted by Baron Lattanzio Valsecchi and assumed the latter’s surname and inherited his estate. He gained a degree in mathematics and physics but later devoted himself to painting miniatures on ivory, enamel, glass, metal and porcelain, specializing in these techniques in Paris and Geneva. Returning to Milan, he soon gained considerable recognition for such work and took part in major exhibitions. In 1837 he presented a group of works at the Salon in Paris, including a miniature copy on ivory of Francesco Hayez’s Mary Queen of Scots Mounting the Scaffold (1827; Milan, Bagatti Valsecchi Col.) and a copy on porcelain of Francesco Podesti’s Raphael’s Studio (Milan, Bib. Ambrosiana). In 1842 he was made a noble of the Austrian Empire for his artistic achievements, and the Emperor Ferdinand acquired one of his paintings on porcelain, ...

Article

Beatty, (Alfred) Chester  

S. J. Vernoit

(b New York, Feb 7, 1875; d Monaco, Jan 19, 1968).

British mining consultant and collector of American birth. He was educated at the Columbia School of Mines and at Princeton University; by the age of 28 he was the consulting engineer and assistant general manager of the Guggenheim Exploration Company. In 1913, two years after the death of his first wife, he settled in London and became established as a mining consultant. He married Edith Dunn and bought Baroda House in Kensington Palace Gardens. With one of his associates, Herbert Hoover, later President of the USA (1929–33), he reorganized the Kyshtin mine in the Urals. The Selection Trust Ltd, which he established in 1914 to develop and finance profitable mines throughout the world, made great headway after World War I, and he remained its chairman until 1960. He was naturalized as a British citizen in 1933. In his youth he began collecting a range of items, including Western manuscripts and Chinese snuff bottles, but his main passion was collecting Islamic manuscripts and paintings, early Bibles and rare books, Impressionist paintings, French and Russian gold snuffboxes, 18th-century watches, clocks, and stamps. His interest in the Islamic arts of the book, particularly manuscripts of the Koran, was stimulated by frequent visits to Cairo, where he wintered between the wars. Although he had no knowledge of Arabic, Persian, or Turkish, he was keen to give scholars access to his collection and loaned manuscripts to many exhibitions. In ...

Article

Beaumont, Sir George  

David Blayney Brown

(Howland)

(b Great Dunmow, Essex, Nov 6, 1753; d Coleorton, Leics, Feb 7, 1827).

Amateur painter and draughtsman, collector and patron. He was the quintessential amateur, whose interests extended to literature and drama as well as to art; he became the leading arbiter of taste of his day. The painter Thomas Hearne described him as the ‘supreme dictator on works of art’. While Beaumont strongly supported new trends in poetry and did much to foster the careers of William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge, he maintained essentially 18th-century standards in his connoisseurship. His love of art had begun at Eton College, where he was taught drawing by Alexander Cozens; it was confirmed in 1771 by a meeting with the engraver William Woollett and Hearne, then Woollett’s pupil. Subsequently Beaumont was guided by a succession of distinguished artists including John Robert Cozens, Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, Richard Wilson, Thomas Jones, Joseph Farington, Benjamin West, Thomas Girtin and John Constable. His own work, of which there is a large collection in the ...

Article

Bourdaloue, Claude de  

Anne Thackray

(b Bourges; d Paris, 1715).

French collector, patron and amateur draughtsman. A member of the Bourges family that included the great Jesuit preacher Father Louis de Bourdaloue, Claude de Bourdaloue built up a collection in Paris (mostly untraced), which Germain Brice, who gives no specific details, knew to include a hoard of paintings and drawings by famous masters, a large collection of rare prints and a considerable number of antique engraved gems. Bourdaloue also owned Rubens’s manuscript Pocketbook on art, which he had purchased from Roger de Piles; after his death it was acquired by André-Charles Boulle, but was badly damaged in a fire in 1720 in Boulle’s studio in the Louvre, Paris (fragments and partial transcripts survive). De Piles recorded that the Pocketbook included Rubens’s observations on optics, chiaroscuro, proportion, anatomy and architecture as well as extracts from poetry concerning human passions, with illustrations copied from ‘the best masters’, principally Raphael. Bourdaloue is known to have commissioned drawings (untraced) from ...

Article

Buonaccorsi [Bonaccorsi], Raimondo  

Janet Southorn

(b Macerata, 1669; d Macerata, 1743).

Italian patron. A member of a noble Marchigian family, he embarked in the early 18th century on an ambitious programme of art patronage. In 1701 he commissioned the Roman architect Giovanni Battista Contini to rebuild the family palace in Macerata (now the Accademia, Via Don Minzoni); once the building was completed, he devoted particular attention to the decoration of the new long gallery, the theme of which was the story of Aeneas. In 1707 the Bolognese fresco painters Carlo Antonio Rambaldi (1680–1717) and Antonio Dardani (1677–1735) painted the Apotheosis of Aeneas on the gallery ceiling. The story was then developed in a series of 12 canvases commissioned between 1708 and 1717 from artists in the principal Italian art centres. They included the Bolognese artists Marcantonio Franceschini and Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole, the Venetian Gregorio Lazzarini, Antonio Balestra of Verona and the Neapolitan Francesco Solimena, whose Dido and Aeneas...

Article

Candlestick, S Paolo fuori le Mura  

Alison Manges Nogueira

Monumental, marble paschal Candlestick of the late 12th to early 13th century with reliefs signed by Nicolaus de Angelo and Vassallettus now in S Paolo fuori le Mura, Rome. The imposing column (h. 5.6 m), adorned with six registers of reliefs and surmounted by a fluted candle holder, rests upon a base of sculpted lions, sphinxes, rams and female figures. The upper and lower reliefs bear vegetal and ornamental patterns while the three central registers portray Christ before Caiaphas, the Mocking of Christ, Christ before Pilate, Pilate Washing his Hands, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection and the Ascension. The culminating Easter scenes reflect the paschal candle’s function during the Easter season as a symbol of Christ resurrected, as evoked in an inscription on the base. A second fragmentary inscription refers to the unidentifiable patron’s desire for commemoration. A third inscription identifies Nicolaus de Angelo as the master sculptor and Petrus Vassallettus as playing a secondary role. Both were active in the second half of the 12th to the early 13th century and came from leading families of Roman sculptors: the Vassalletti and Cosmati (Nicolaus’s family). The candlestick is the only work signed by and securely attributed to Nicolaus and the scope of his contribution remains uncertain. A plausible theory attributes the base and first register to Petrus, based upon similarities to works signed by him and ascribed to his family, such as the cloister of S Giovanni in Laterano in Rome and the narthex of S Lorenzo fuori le Mura in Rome. Nicolaus probably executed the Christological scenes, distinguishable for their more dynamic, expressive figures and decorative chisel work, and appropriate for the master sculptor because of their centrality and significance. Early Christian sarcophagi and Carolingian ivories may have provided models for the figural types. This form of paschal candlestick was probably inspired by Roman columnar monuments carved with triumphal scenes....

Article

Cappelle, Jan van de  

Margarita Russell

(bapt Amsterdam, Jan 25, 1626; bur Amsterdam, Dec 22, 1679).

Dutch businessman, collector, painter, draughtsman and etcher. Though now considered the outstanding marine painter of 17th-century Holland, he was not a professional artist nor a member of the Amsterdam Guild of St Luke. His father owned a successful dye-works in Amsterdam, in which both Jan and his brother Louis were active. Their father enjoyed a long life and probably managed the firm until close to his death in 1674, when Jan inherited it. This left Jan with plenty of spare time to pursue his hobby, painting. He married Annetje Jansdr. (Anna Grotingh) before 1653. He died a widower, survived by his seven children, who inherited his considerable fortune. His last will shows that in addition to the dye-works and immense cash assets, van de Cappelle owned extensive properties and an art collection that must be rated among the most important of his time.

Apart from his involvement with the arts, Jan shared his countrymen’s love of ships and sailing. He owned a pleasure yacht, moored in the ‘oude yacht haven’, which must have taken him on many trips along the Dutch coast and rivers, giving him an opportunity to sketch and draw from nature....

Article

Cecil family  

Malcolm Airs

English family of statesmen, patrons, and collectors. As successive principal ministers of state during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I, both William Cecil and his second son, Robert Cecil, were arbiters of architectural taste: Burghley House, Cambs (built for the former in the early 1560s), and Hatfield House, Herts (for the latter; begun 1607), are leading examples of Elizabethan and Jacobean country-house architecture respectively. Wimbledon House, London (begun 1588, destr. 1732), was built for William’s elder son, Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter (1542–1623). John Cecil, a fifth-generation direct descendant of William, is considered to have been one of the most important late 17th-century connoisseurs of Italian art. He made substantial improvements to Burghley House in the 1680s and 1690s, and his collection of paintings, sculptures and decorative art survives intact in the original furnished setting. Between 1755 and 1782 ‘Capability’ Brown carried out further alterations to the house and landscaped the park for ...

Article

Charles, Prince of Wales  

Robert M. Maxwell

(b London, Nov 14, 1948).

English prince, writer, patron and watercolourist. In the 1980s he became especially interested in the problems of the inner city and the built environment, and out of this came his support for ‘community architecture’, a concept pioneered by Rod(erick Peter) Hackney, in which the social, rather than aesthetic, value of architecture is emphasized. The Prince’s influence was clearly demonstrated when the RIBA subsequently adopted ‘community architecture’ as an official programme. He showed his awareness of environmental issues in a speech marking the 150th anniversary of the RIBA, given at Hampton Court, London, in May 1984. It was not the expected mild encouragement of socially orientated measures but virtually an indictment of the architectural and planning professions as despoilers of the environment, and his comments, notably the description of a proposed extension by Ahrends, Burton & Koralek to the National Gallery, London, as a ‘monstrous carbuncle’, generated much controversy. His argument was put forward in a television documentary, an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and a book published in ...

Article

Chola  

J. Marr

[Coḷa]

Dynasty in south India that was prominent until the 13th century ad. The Cholas, best known for their patronage of temple architecture, were one of the principal royal lineages of the Tamil country. They are mentioned in the edicts of Ashoka (3rd century bc) and figure in the earliest Tamil literature (1st–4th century ad). However, little archaeological evidence exists for the Cholas before the 9th century ad. The first ruler, Vijayalaya (reg c. 846–71), captured Thanjavur from his Pallava overlords. Aditya I (reg c. 871–907) annexed the Pallava kingdom in Tondaimandalam (now Tamil Nadu) in 903, and Parantaka I (reg c. 907–55) attacked and conquered the Pandya rulers of Madurai. The two greatest Chola rulers were Rajaraja I (reg 985–1014) and his son Rajendra I (reg 1012–44), made co-regent in 1012. Apart from their conquests, which extended from Sri Lanka to Sumatra, they were responsible for splendid temple buildings. That at Thanjavur, the ...

Article

Clarke, George  

Howard Colvin

(b May 7, 1661; d Oxford, Oct 22, 1736).

English politician, architect and virtuoso. He was the son of Sir William Clarke, Secretary at War to Charles II. He was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, graduating as MA in 1683, Bachelor of Civil Law in 1686 and Doctor of Civil Law in 1708. In 1680 he was elected to a Fellowship at All Souls College, which he retained for the rest of his life. He entered politics in 1685 as Tory MP for the University of Oxford and subsequently represented the university from 1717 until his death. He held various offices under the Tory government, including those of Judge Advocate-General (1682–1705), Secretary at War (1692–1704) and joint Secretary to the Admiralty (1702–5). He was a Lord of the Admiralty from 1710 to 1714, when (on the death of Queen Anne) he relinquished office and devoted himself to academic life. He was buried in All Souls Chapel, where a monument commemorates his ‘taste in architecture, poetry and painting’....

Article

Clement XII, Pope  

Olivier Michel

[Lorenzo Corsini]

(b Florence, April 7, 1652; elected July 12, 1730; d Rome, Feb 6, 1740).

Italian ecclesiastic and patron, brother of Filippo Corsini. He studied at the Collegio Romano and later at Pisa University, where he read law. He was ordained a priest at the age of 33 and was made a cardinal in 1706 by Pope Clement XI. By the time he became Pope he was 78, in poor health and with failing eyesight. He was nonetheless an energetic administrator. As a patron and collector he had considerable impact, despite financial difficulties bequeathed by maladministration in the years of his predecessor, Benedict XII. He spent his personal fortune and income from state lotteries on embellishing Rome, relying for advice in his architectural projects on Neri Corsini and often favouring Florentine architects and artists. Two major schemes were the building of the Trevi fountain, designed by Nicola Salvi (for illustration see Salvi, Nicola), and the construction of a new façade for the basilica of S Giovanni in Laterano, the commission for which was won by the Florentine ...

Article

Clerk family  

Iain Gordon Brown

Scottish family of patrons, collectors, and amateur draughtsmen and architects. For 200 years, through five generations, they had a vital influence on the development of taste and patronage in Scotland. The family’s wealth and its artistic inclinations were founded in the early 17th century by John Clerk (Montrose), a merchant and art dealer who bought the Penicuik estate in 1646. His son Sir John Clerk (1649–1722) was created 1st Baronet of Penicuik in 1679. The 1st Baronet’s son Sir John Clerk, 2nd Baronet of Penicuik, was a lawyer, keen antiquary, amateur architect and writer as well as patron and collector; he was responsible for building Mavisbank House, Lothian, in the 1720s. The 2nd Baronet’s eldest son Sir James Clerk, 3rd Baronet of Penicuik, rebuilt Penicuik House and commissioned Alexander Runciman to decorate its interiors, including Ossian’s Hall. Sir James Clerk’s younger brother was John Clerk (Penicuik) of Eldin, a talented amateur etcher and draughtsman, whose son ...

Article

Cornaro [Corner], Alvise  

[Luigi]

(b Venice, 1484; d Padua, May 8, 1566).

Italian architectural theorist, patron, humanist and architect. Inheriting his uncle’s estate in Padua, he combined the activities of a landowner with interests in literature, drama and architecture and became an important figure in the city’s humanist circle, which included Giovanni Maria Falconetto, Andrea Palladio, Giangiorgio Trissino and Barbaro, Daniele. He encouraged Falconetto, previously a painter, into architecture, visiting Rome with him in 1522 and commissioning him to design his first works of architecture: two garden structures at his palazzo (now Palazzo Giustiniani) in the Via del Santo, Padua, a loggia for theatrical performances (1524) and the Odeon for musical performances (1530–33), both extant. The buildings derived from ancient Roman prototypes and followed their detailing closely; they formed a ‘forum’ in the courtyard. Although Cornaro may have helped in the design, it is more probable that his humanist interests influenced Falconetto. However, when Cornaro commissioned Falconetto to design the Villa dei Vescovi (now Villa Olcese, ...