In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a young British aristocrat’s education was not complete until he had crossed the Alps. The Grand Tour could last for years, and Italy was its goal: Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples and the slopes of Vesuvius. Whole families sometimes travelled in long entourages, and they came home with paintings, sculpture, books and souvenirs that still fill England’s great country houses.
This catalog tells that story through three of those treasure houses: Holkham Hall in Norfolk, Burghley House in Lincolnshire and Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire. Among the highlights are Pompeo Batoni‘s portrait of Thomas William Coke, work by Angelika Kauffmann from Burghley, and two grand Venetian views by Canaletto from Woburn, never before shown in the Netherlands.
Edited by Ariane van Suchtelen, who conceived the exhibition, the book brings together essays by Janneke Budding on travel and culture in the eighteenth century, Maria de Peverelli on Holkham Hall, Laura Nuvoloni on its library, Lucy Purvis retracing Thomas Coke‘s journey, Jon Culverhouse on the travelling Earls of Burghley, and Matthew Hirst and Victoria Poulton on Woburn Abbey and its celebrated Canaletto series. Some 100 color illustrations, with maps and historical documents, accompany the texts.
An elegant, accessible book for readers of eighteenth-century art, collecting history and the history of travel.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.