William Bailey Lang's

NiNeteeNth CeNtury VoluMe 33 NuMber 1 Magazine of the Victorian Society in America Contents 3 “Little Treasure Chamber NiNeteeNth of Perfect Works” CeNtury influence of the uffizi’s tribune Gallery on british and American Volume 33 • N umber 1 Arts and letters Spring 2013 Sirpa Salenius Editor William Ayres Consulting Editor 10 English-American Identity Sally Buchanan Kinsey and the Gothic Revival Book Review Editor the episcopal Churches of Karen Zukowski St. James the less and Advertising Manager / Graphic Designer St. mark’s, Philadelphia Wendy Midgett Anna Nau Printed by Triune Color Corporation Committee on Publications Chair William Ayres 20 Agecroft Hall From elizabethan manor house Anne-Taylor Cahill Christopher Forbes to Victorian Country house Sally Buchanan Kinsey Erika Kotite Chris Novelli Michael J. Lewis James O’Gorman Karen Zukowski For information on The Victorian Society in America, contact the 28 William Bailey Lang’s national office: Highland Cottages 1636 Sansom Street as endorsed by A. J. Downing Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 636-9872 James F. O’Gorman Fax (215) 636-9873 [email protected] www.victoriansociety.org Departments Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter 34 Local Focus 42 The Bibliophilist 46 Contributors Roswell Gleason, Tara Leigh Tappert Massachusetts Brian Coleman 47 Victorian Metalsmith Joyce Mendelsohn Travel Tales Anthony Sammarco Murder on 45 New & Noteworthy Maiden Lane 38 Preservation Diary Ann-Taylor Cahill Sally Buchanan Kinsey The Hereford Inlet Lighthouse Warren Ashworth hereford light postcard, c. 1911. Johann Zoffany, View of the Florence Gallery (1772-1778/79). Windsor, the royal Collection “Little Treasure Chamber of Perfect Works” iNFlueNCe oF the uFFiZi ’S tribuNe GAllery oN britiSh AND AmeriCAN ArtS AND letterS SirPA SAleNiuS For centuries, italy has attracted foreign travelers for a celebrated statues the Venus de’ Medici , the Wrestlers , number of reasons, ranging from health to religion to self- and the Dancing Faun – triggered extreme emotional improvement to pure pleasure. in medieval times pilgrims responses from many of them; in some cases, visiting the dominated the travel scene, soon to be followed by law tribune was the realization of dreams from early and medical students in the twelfth and thirteenth childhood. When stepping into the octagonal room, the centuries, merchants and diplomats in the fifteenth, and visitors were dazzled not only by the magnificent art humanist scholars in the sixteenth. 1 in the eighteenth works on display but also by the splendid walls and ceiling century – known as the golden era of the british tour of of glittering mother-of-pearl. the social ritual of visiting Continental europe – travel to italy had become an the tribune was subsequently mediated through detailed almost mechanical practice. written accounts of the experience. As the nineteenth- Florence soon became one century british and American of the Grand tour’s main texts discussed in this article destinations, on a par with demonstrate, the comments rome and Paris. the travel focusing on the tribune motives of visitors now masterpieces were intricately included the study of art, intertwined with moral, cataloguin g italian master- rathe r tha n aesthetic, pieces, and purchasing art evaluatio nof art , thus works for their own growing revealing Victorian attitudes art collections. 2 in the towards art in general and nineteenth century, italy nudity in particular. became associated with art th e tribune’s im- and culture in the minds of portance in this process was Continental luminaries such well established by the end of as the authors Johann the eighteenth century, by Wolfgang von Goethe, which time italy’s popularity Stendhal (pseudonym for among the british had marie-henri beyle), and escalated dramatically. madame de Staël, as well as Florence was one of the most british and American writers popular choices as a per- as such lord byron, mark Jean baptiste Fortune de Fournier (1798-1864), The Tribune Room - manent residence in italy Uffizi , 1850. twain and henry James. All and the ideal location for these visitors flocked to cities world-exploring aristocrats, like Florence to see in person the original art works they artists, and authors. the biggest curiosity in the had never seen in the original but had only viewed in renaissance capital was the “Galleria,” more precisely the copies or engravings or had read about in fictional works octagonal room called the tribuna. Sir roger Newdigate and travel letters. (1719-1806) seems to have been the first Grand tourist to the foremost attraction for these foreign cultural give a complete inventory of the paintings in the “register” tourists to cosmopolitan Florence was the famous medici he compiled and illustrated in detailed drawings during art collection displayed at the uffizi Gallery. especially its his visit to Florence in 1739. by 1754–55, some 120 renowned gallery known as the tribune – with its masterpieces were recorded. 3 by Newdigate’s second visit 3 in 1775, one-fifth of the paintings had been replaced by byron also referred to the classical Venus as the “Goddess others. 4 the changes continued through the years, and in stone,” dedicating several stanzas to praising the written and illustrated testimonies documented the way celebrated statue. in which the collection evolved. in addition to the romantic poets – Keats, Shelley and two paintings, in particular, serve as visual byron – numerous other nineteenth-century british inventories, as well as evidence of the increasing writers headed for Florence. Among these were elizabeth fascination the british felt towards the tribune. Sir barrett browning and robert browning, who chose the Andrew Fountaine and Friends in the Tribuna (1715) by city as their permanent residence. their daily life in Giulio Pignatta depicts some of its most famous statues Florence included repeated visits to local museums and Venus Victrix and Venus de’ Medici and paintings such as art galleries, foremost among them the famous uffizi. as michelangelo’s Madonna that frame the visitors who elizabeth wrote to her sister, Arabella moulton-barrett, in occupy the central position in the may 1847, that “divine” is the only word composition. 5 Queen Charlotte, wife of to describe the artworks in Florence. 9 George iii, commissioned the other She also wrote about her maid’s attempt painting, titled View of the Florence to visit the tribune to admire the well- Gallery , which Zoffany painted between known statues. however, as she wrote, 1772 and 1777. in this picture, the artist Wilson (the maid) had only managed to incorporated a group of british visitors go as far as the door of the well-known among masterpieces of Guido reni and octagonal room before she was turned Correggio and titian’s Venus of Urbino . back by “the indecency of the Venus.” 10 Among the british figures incorporated When she saw the sculpture’s nudity into the painting were british consuls Sir from afar, the maid had felt so John Dick and Sir horace mann. 6 mann, embarrassed that she fled from the an art collector residing in Florence from museum. the sight of the marble 1740 to 1786, held receptions that goddess and titian’s stark naked Venus provided opportunity for visiting of Urbino (1538) hanging above it were aristocrats from all over europe, britain simply too much for her. in her letters included, mingle with italians of similar elizabeth mediated her own as well as rank. 7 indeed, Florence was considered her maid’s encounter with the exquisite one of the most important centers for Florentine objects of art and reconciled cosmopolitanism and intellectuality on the mixed emotions consisting of fears, the Continent. it was important to be excitement , anticipation,em- seen mingling with the international barrassment, anxiety and aesthetic high society as it served to consolidate pleasure. one’s position among european elite. Following the Victorian rules of the tribune’s fame increased in the propriety, John murray’s authoritative first decades of the nineteenth century guidebooks underlined the purity and when lord byron celebrated the Medici innocence of the nude Venus. in the Venus in his long poem Childe Harold’s 1863 edition of his Handbook of Pilgrimage (1818), which often was used Florence and Its Environs , which as a guidebook when visiting italy. developed from the earlier version of the byron coined many of the terms to be guide covering Northern italy, the associated with defining italy: Venice author first announced that a new was known as “a fairy city of the heart” catalogue of the uffizi Gallery had just and rome as “city of the soul,” whereas been published to replace the earlier Florence was associated with its art “very meager and imperfect” version. collections that made one “dazzled and According to the Handbook ’s estimate, drunk with beauty.” Further, he wrote, the five sculptures collected at the tribune would be “sufficient in We gaze and turn away, themselves to confer a reputation on any and know not where, 11 Venus de' Medici (Greece, 1st century museum of art.” especially the Dazzled and drunk with beauty, bCe). uffizi Gallery, Florence. celebrated Venus de’ Medici , “an till the heart reels with its fulness; example of perfect art,” was seen to draw 12 there – for ever there – the attention of every visitor. murray provided a detailed Chain’d to the chariot of triumphal Art, description of the statue, its merits, physical features, and We stand as captivates, the significance of the female figure. in an earlier edition, and would not depart. 8 from 1847, he had explicitly explained that the statue represented “the dignified” Goddess of Divine love, which, the writer underlined, should be “distinguished 4 from desire.” 13 to render the spectator further at ease in Florence in 1828, he immediately recognized the statues front of her nudity, murray pointed out that the “feet are of the tribune from a set of engravings in his father’s particularly beautiful.” 14 in this way, the description house.

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