Page 56 - Joseph Wright of Derby: Virgils's Tomb & The Grand Tour.

quently reflected increased interest in and apprecia-
tion of the power of realistic views more than imag-
inary scenes.
The prevailing attitude toward ruins by English
artists in the mid-eighteenth century was described
by Jonathan Skelton (c. 1735-1759) in a letter of
1758 from Tivoli: ‘One may draw many pleasing reflec-
tions from those venerable Relicts [sic] of antient Roman
Grandeur composed in this manner;They show how Time
erases everything;for those noble and immense Edifices were
certainly intended to stand for ever.’3 Wright expressed
similar thoughts after spending only a few months in
Rome. He wrote to his sister Nancy (dates unknown)
on May 22nd, 1774, that he was ‘continually engaged
with the amazing and Stupendous remains of Antiquity,
and so numerous are they, that one can scarce move a foot
but the relicts [sic] of some Stupendous works present them-
selves.When I consider the immense size of theWhole and
the beauty of the parts I cannot help reflecting how trifling
and insignificant are the present operations of mankind; we
are no better than Infants….”4
3. Jonathan Skelton to William Herring of Croydon, quoted in
Brinsley Ford, ‘The Letters of Jonathan Skelton Written from
Rome and Tivoli in 1758,’ TheVolume of theWalpole Society, No. 36,
1956-58, pp. 23-84, esp. p. 45.
4. Local Studies Library, Derby, Letter to Nancy Wright, 22 May
1774 (BA921), published in Elizabeth E. Barker, ‘Documents
Relating to Joseph Wright ‘of Derby’ (1734-1797),’ TheVolume of
theWalpole Society, No. 79, 2009, p. 80.
5. Local Studies Library, Derby, ‘Hannah Wright’s Memoir, 1850,’
MS 11172, transcribed in Barker, ‘Documents Relating to Joseph
Wright ,’ pp. 158-177, esp. p. 162.
6. A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701-1800,
compiled from the Brinsley Ford Archive by J. Ingamells, New
Haven and London, 1997, Appendix 5.2, p. 1066.
56
Wright’s decision to travel to Italy in the fall of
1773 was, according to a memoir written by his
niece, Hannah, due to him ‘not [being] satisfied with
his own performances, and anxious to acquire all the infor-
mation in his power respecting his Profession;he determined
to go to Italy, and study the works of the great Masters
there.’5 The painter arrived on the Italian Peninsula
in late December of that year along with a large in-
flux of other foreign visitors. For generations the
Grand Tour, as it was called, had already been con-
sidered an essential ingredient in the proper educa-
tion of many upper-class Europeans, especially young
English, Irish, and Scottish noblemen. Guided by
early published accounts and traveling according to
standard itineraries that sometimes lasted for years,
tourists from the British Isles sought to reconstruct
Roman antiquity by visiting the sites described in an-
cient literature and using surviving remains to eluci-
date illustrious figures and notable events. At the
same time the journey often enhanced interest and
appreciation of the Italian landscape and earlier inter-
pretations of it by seventeenth-century painters, in-
cluding Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), Claude Lorrain
(1604/05-1687), Gaspard Dughet (1615-1675), and
Salvator Rosa (1615-1673).
In addition to the growing number of affluent trav-
elers who arrived in Italy there were also many more
British painters, sculptors, and architects. In the
period from 1770 to 1780, over twenty percent of
the artists that have been documented throughout
the century made the trip during this decade.6 The
experiences left not only a lasting impression on each
of them and their work, but also fostered an on-going
interest in classical history and the landscape trad-
ition in their native countries among both patrons
and artists. Generations of portraitists, landscapists,