Grand Tour 21st to 30th July 2014

Dear reader,

The architect of the glorious gardens at Stourhead, Henry Hoare (‘The Magnificent’), was known to have travelled on the Grand Tour (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Tour) from 1737-1741.  Sadly there are no extant accounts of his experience whilst away in the form of diaries, journals, letters, etc.  However, we know that Henry purchased a number of items whilst in Rome, including the famous Pope’s Cabinet (http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/731575) which was likely to have been owned by Pope Sixtus 5th (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Sixtus_V). It seems probable that whilst in Rome he purchased the Livia Augusta as Ceres statue (http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/562913.1) from the estate of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_Ottoboni_(cardinal) who had died in 1740.

The estate at Stourhead, and particularly the garden buildings, appear to have been inspired by many of the ancient Roman remains.  The Grotto nymph and her location are very like the arrangements that would have been seen in the Vatican Belvedere. Similarly the Pantheon at Stourhead appears to have been based on the Pantheon in Rome (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheon,_Rome) and the Stourhead Temple of Apollo shares similarities with a temple at Tivoli (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Vesta,_Tivoli). Many of the statues to be seen at Stourhead are copies of those that would have been available to view in Rome during the early 18th century.  Whilst we have no specific details of Henry’s time in Italy, Grand Tourists tended to follow a very specific program and so we can take some good guesses about Henry’s likely itinerary whilst in Rome.

I am currently engaged in researching classical myth in reception for my PhD thesis (http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/classical-studies/harrison.shtml) and in July of 2014 I will be staying in Rome at the British School (http://www.bsr.ac.uk/) with the intention of visiting the sites likely to have been seen by Henry whilst he was on Grand Tour.  My hope is that I will develop a better understanding of how Henry’s visit might have inspired and influenced his decisions regarding the program of building he initiated shortly after his return in 1741. Before departing I will be researching the early 18th century Grand Tour experience and I will use this blog to describe what Grand Tourists would have been likely to see whilst visiting in 1740.  More soon on Joseph Addison’s ‘Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c’ (1718), which I have downloaded from https://archive.org/details/remarksonseveral00addi.