University of Virginia Library

124. Visconti, Ennio Quirino.

A LETTER / FROM THE / CHEVALIER ANTONIO CANOVA: /
AND / TWO MEMOIRS / READ TO THE ROYAL INSTITUTE
OF FRANCE / ON THE / SCULPTURES / IN THE COLLECTION
/ OF / THE EARL OF ELGIN; / BY THE / CHEVALIER
E. Q. VISCONTI, / MEMBER OF THE CLASS OF THE FINE
ARTS, AND OF THE / CLASS OF HISTORY AND ANCIENT
LITERATURE; / AUTHOR OF THE ICONOGRAPHIE GREQUE,
/ AND OF THE MUSEO PIO-CLEMENTINO. / TRANSLATED

Plate CXLII. From No. 123b. Engraved portrait.

Plate CXLIII. From No. 123b. Door from the Villa Caprarola (p. 73).

FROM THE FRENCH AND ITALIAN. / LONDON: / PRINTED
FOR JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET, / BY W.
BULMER AND CO. CLEVELAND-ROW. / 1816.

Large 8vo. Title page ([i]); catalogue of the Elgin marbles, vases, casts,
and drawings (iii-xx); Canova's letter (xxi-xxii); half title: `MEMOIR
/ ON THE / SCULPTURES / WHICH BELONGED TO / THE
PARTHENON / AND TO SOME OTHER EDIFICES / OF / THE
ACROPOLIS, / AT ATHENS. / READ AT A PUBLIC MEETING
OF THE TWO CLASSES OF / THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF
FRANCE, / IN THE YEAR 1815.' (1 leaf); memoir (1-176); half
title: `MEMOIR / ON A / GREEK EPIGRAM WHICH / SERVED
FOR AN EPITAPH ON THE TOMB / OF THE / ATHENIAN
WARRIORS KILLED AT POTIDAEA. / READ TO THE CLASS
OF HISTORY AND ANCIENT / LITERATURE OF THE ROYAL
INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, / IN THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER
1815' (1 leaf); memoir (179-205); index (207-21).

Antonio Canova (1757-1822), the celebrated sculptor, was also a
painter, though his paintings are not much remembered today. He was
born at Possagno, near Bassano, and died at Venice. He studied with indifferent
masters, from nature, and from the antique. He became a leader
in neoclassicism and was twice called to Paris by Napoleon.

Thomas Bruce, seventh earl of Elgin and eleventh earl of Kincardine
(1766-1841), educated at Harrow, Westminster, St. Andrews
University, and in Paris, entered the army, and later the diplomatic
service. In 1799 he was sent to the Ottoman Porte, where he became interested
in Greek art. He sent artists to Athens in 1800 to record the
monuments and in 1801 received a firman from the Porte to "fix scaffolding
round the antient Temple of the Idols, and to mould the ornamental
sculpture and visible figures thereon in plaster and gypsum," as
well as "to take away any pieces of stone with old inscriptions or figures
thereon."

He spent £74,000 on removing his collection and was given
£35,000 in 1816 for it by the English government after an inquiry as to
his ownership. Previous to that he had opened it to the public at his
house in Park Lane and then in Burlington House.

Ennio Quirino Visconti (1751-1818), born in Rome, worked at
the Vatican, became president of the Istituto Nazional delle Scienze e
delle Arti, Rome, and after his move to France the administrator of
antiquities at the Louvre. His studies of the iconography of Greece and
Rome brought together for the first time all such material and examined
it scientifically. He was also a great enthusiast of the Elgin marbles.

The letter from Canova is a letter of thanks to the earl of Elgin
for allowing him to see the marbles. He says:

Visconti's memoirs are a rather pompous display of erudition.

Jefferson ordered this book for the University in the section on
"History-Civil-Antient" of the want list, and a copy was received before
1828, but it has not survived. The library's present copy has been recently
acquired, the gift of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation.

U. Va.

*NB92.E6.1816