John Talman : An Early Eighteenth-Century Connoisseur

by Edited by Cinzia Maria Sicca; Contributions by Christopher Baker, Cristina Borgi

• ISBN13: 9780300123357
• ISBN10: 0300123353
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2009-01-27
• Publisher: Paul Mellon Centre BA

Summary

Contributions by Christopher Baker, Cristina Borgioli, Louisa M. Connor Bulman, Antonella Capitanio, Marco Collareta, Peter Davidson, Francisco Freddolini, Cristiano Giometti, John Harris, Elisabeth Kieven, and Cinzia Maria Sicca This handsome book is the only full-length study of John Talman (16771726), first director of the Society of Antiquaries and one of the most influential collectors of drawings in early 18th-century Britain. Prominent scholars discuss the history of Talman's acquisitions, shedding light on the competitive nature, social practices, and aesthetic ideas of connoisseurship both in England and abroad. Talman's collection, amassed in England, Florence, and Rome between the 1690s and 1719, focused on Italian medieval art, architecture, and textiles as well as Renaissance and Baroque architecture and sculpture. It reflected the tastes and preoccupations of artistic and intellectual elites in pre-enlightenment Europe. A vehicle for disseminating aesthetic and historical ideas, the collection became not only an extraordinary document of the state of ancient and modern Italian monuments but also a history of architecture and culture at large that provided visual evidence of buildings and rituals lost through time.

Author Biography

Cinzia Maria Sicca is Associate Professor at the University of Pisa.

Table of Contents

The Making and Unraveling of John Talman's Collection of Drawings	p. 1
"Donee Templa Refeceris": British Catholicism, Roman Antiquity, Historical Contention	p. 77
William and John Talman: Architecture and a Partnership	p. 97
John Talman in Florence: The Court, the Courtiers, and the Artists	p. 127
John Talman and the Roman Art World	p. 159
Models of Perfection: John Talman and Roman Baroque Architecture	p. 189
John Talman and the Arts of the Italian Middle Ages	p. 211
John Talman and the Liturgy of the Catholic Church	p. 225
A History of Church Vestments and Textiles through John Talman's Drawings	p. 247
Talman, Aldrich, and the Oxford Virtuosi	p. 269
Richard Topham's Collection of Drawings	p. 287
John Talman: A Chronology	p. 309
Notes on Contributors	p. 313
Photography Credits	p. 317
Index	p. 318
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.