Letters from a Young Painter Abroad: James Russel in Rome, 1740-63
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LETTERS FROM A YOUNG PAINTER ABROAD: JAMES RUSSEL IN ROME, 1740-63 by JASON M. KELLY INTRODUCTION AMES RUSSEL was an English artist and antiquary who lived in Rome between 1740 and 1763. At one time he was among the foremost ciceroni in Italy. His patrons included Richard Mead Jand Edward Holdsworth. Andrew Lumisden, the Secretary to the Young Pretender, wrote that Russel was his 'ingenious friend' .1 Despite his centrality to the British Grand Tour community of the mid-eighteenth century, scholars have virtually ignored him. Instead, they favour his fellow artists, such as Robert Adam and William Chambers, and other antiquaries, such as Thomas Jenkins, James Byres and Gavin Hamilton.2 Nevertheless, Russel's career gives insight into the British community in Italy at the dawn of the golden age of the Grand Tour. His struggles as an artist reveal the conditions in which the young tyros laboured. His rise to prominence broadens what we know about both the British and Italian artistic communities in eighteenth-century Rome. And his network of patrons reveals some of the familial and political connections that were neces sary for social success in eighteenth-century Britain. In fact, the experience ofJames Russel reveals the importance of seeing Grand Tourist and expatriate communities as extensions of domestic social networks. Like eighteenth-century sailors who went to sea, these travellers lived in a world apart that was nevertheless intimately connected to life at home.3 While many accounts of the Grand Tour mention Russel in passing, only Frank Salmon and Sir Brinsley Ford have examined his work in any detail.4 Part of this is due to the fact that his artistic output was relatively small. Nevertheless, the records of Russel's career as an artist and antiquary are more extensive than most of his contemporaries, and 134 letters from his correspondence are extant. FAMILY AND CHILDHOOD To understand the social networks in which James Russel operated while in Italy, it is necessary to trace his family's religious and political allegiances. Russel was born in 1720 to Richard (1685-1756) and Juliana, nee Frankwell (bap. 1686-after 1772). The Russel family had roots in Sussex and ties to Oxford. James's great-grandfather Thomas (c. 1608-61?), his grandfather Richard (1644-1700), and his father were graduates of Magdalen College, Oxford.5 As High Churchmen, both James's great-grandfather and father found themselves in conflict with the government. Thomas Russel was the son of Richard Russel of Hellingly, Sussex. After graduating with his MA, he entered the clergy as rector at St John's sub Castro in Lewes, Sussex, in 1632.6 Russel was an Arminian, and, for Puritan reformers, he represented a threat to Calvinist theology. He was also a supporter of Archbishop William Laud's reforms of the Church of England's liturgy.7 In the Civil War, he supported Charles I. As such, he refused aid to the Parliamentary Army in 1642. The House of Commons called for him as a 'Delinquent' 'for denying to contribute or lend any thing for this Service, in this Time of imminent Danger' in October 1642. 8 Fortunately for Thomas, the Commons released him in November 1642.9 However, he was removed from St John's sub Castro to Berwick in l 64 7. 10 61 .if? ;~ . ............+· ......................... _. ________ _ JASON M. KELLY Thomas Russel passed on his High Church and pro-Stuart sympathies to his son Richard, born in 1644. Like his father, he attended Magdalen College, earning a BA in 1663 and an MA in 1666. 11 After appointments as a deacon at Oxford (1666) and priest at Chichester (1667), he was made a vicar, first of Hollington (1667-78) then of Hellingly (1679-82). 12 His final appointment was at. Dallington, where he served as vicar between 1682 and his death in 1700.13 He married at least twice, having a son, John, with his first wife. With Susannah Hawes, whom he married in 1682, he had three sons, Richard, Thomas and Nathaniel.14 He built up landholdings in Sussex and Oxford, bequeathing most of them to his first son, John. 15 Richard's first son with Susannah, Richard, matriculated at University College, Oxford, on 9 July 1698.16 Upon his father's death, he inherited the buildings and lands in Dallington. 17 After receiving his BA in l 702 and MA in l 70 5, he entered the clerical service, first as deacon at Chichester (1705), then as curate at Ripe (1705-10), and finally as vicar at Selmeston (1710-16) and Alfriston (1710-16).18 On 9 September 1712, he married Juliana Frankwell of Eastbourne.19 Juliana's dowry was £500 and included the advowsons of South Heighten and Tarring Neville and property in the Manor of Southease.20 Despite this comfortable situation, the family would soon find itself in precarious financial circumstances. As a supporter of the Stuart line and defender of High Church policies, Richard formed alliances with others of similar principles. In print, Russel was an ardent defender of Henry Sacheverell, a cleric who was prosecuted in 1710 for his critique ofWhig latitudinarianism. To him, Sacheverell was a martyr who 'scorn'd the Danger' of critiquing the government's toleration of dissenters. 21 Then, in the wake of George l's succession to the throne in late 1714, Anglican clergy were required to take the Oath of Abjuration. It necessitated that they denounce the claims of the Stuart line in favour of the Protestant Hanoverian succession. Most clergy took the oath, but Richard Russel stood alone among the Sussex clergy in his refusal. 22 Known as the honjurors, the men found the oath unjustifiable, and Russel recognized 'the sad Consequences of refusing the Oaths, namely, the Loss of Temporal Conveniences, and the Ruin of a Man's Self and Family' .23 In his farewell address to his parishioners, he reminded them of the Gospel of Luke: 'If any Man come to me, and hate not his Father, and Mother, and Wife, and Children and Brethren, and Sisters, yea and his Life also, he cannot be my Disciple'.24 According to Russel, 'Whoever is not ready to part with all these Things, rather than wilfully and deliberately to act against his Conscience, cannot have Christ for his Master and Saviour'. 25 The immediate effect of this was the loss of his livings, and he complained bitterly that his successor refused him even the tithes due to him in arrears. 26 Thus, the young Russel family found itself out-of-house and without a reliable income. Russel turned to farming and making translations to support the family. 27 He edited a four-volume edition of the Jansenist Pasquier Quesnel's New Testament with Moral Refiections. 28 From 1716 to 1719, the subscriptions for the Quesnel edition and the charity of anonymous benefactors aided the Russels. 29 Richard maintained his activism within Jacobite and nonjuring circles, from which much of his support came. 3° For example, Thomas Hearne, with whom Russel met on occasion, had a high opinion of the nonjuror: 'He is an ingenious, worthy man ... Non-Jurors are the Men that have stuck to Principles, and are the best Friends of Church & Monarchy'.31 However, friendly support was not enough for his growing family. He and Juliana had six children, Richard (1714-'71), James (1720-63), William (d. 1775), Elizabeth, Juliana (Kitty) and Clementina. By 1732, the Russel 62 LETTERS FROM A YOUNG PAINTER ABROAD . t d quarters in Smith's Square near the Horse-Ferry in Westminster.32 There, he &rnilY ren e . 33 . · ered a boarding house for the children of nonJurors. ··· ...· adJ:niIUSt en 17 3 1 and r 73 5, Richard was working in London as primary partner, editor and writer ·· ··· ··.. rBetwe the periodical, The Grub Street } ourna l .34 R usse l' s satmc. al epigrams. an d msmuatlons. were ~cted against numerous enemies, and to some extent he supported the interests of the circle of Alexander Pope. In one episode, he even accused Eustace Budgell, a former associate of Joseph Addison, of murder:35 ~e Grub S~reet]ournal ~o':ed ~ussel ~o c,ontin~e ~s sup~o1: of Tory and High Church principles m a public m~~ner. S1~ng. ~s entnes Maevms , the v1tnole o~ Rus~el against his loss of livings was apparent. Russel s pos1t10ns led the London Journal to descnbe him and his friends as follows: ... they strut, look big, vow revenge, and immediately turn Pamphleteers and Journalists against the government. Nonjuring Jacobite Priests, shabby, wandring, v~cio.us, ignorant Parsons. ~ithout a Cure, Night-House Wits, and beggarly Poetasters, are our great scnbbling Statesmen, and railing Advocates for publick National Faith, and public Roman virtue. 37 But, despite his enemies' accusation to the contrary, his Jacobitism was left for his private correspondence. onned Education in the Russel family must have been a demanding one. In addition to being an editor Henry and writer, Richard Russel was also a scholar with an affinity for Latin. By 1730, he was gathering 'ohim, subscriptions for a revised edition of Robert Estienne's Thesaurus linguae latinae. 38 And in 1732 he tion of published a translation of the Virgilian humanist Marco Girolamo Vida's works, which Russel clergy dedicated to Alexander Pope.39 At the same time, he finished much of his SS. Patrum Apostolicorum 40 ti.ms of Bamabae, Hermae, Clementis, Ignatii, Polycarpi, operagenuina, which was not published until 1746. th, but Richard's children, especially the boys, Richard, James and William, were expected to perform at a high academic level, which to James's dismay included proficiency in Latin.41 In 1727/28, his thirteen-year-old son, Richard, was in third form in Westminster School, and by August 1733 he had completed sixth form.