DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1041#0014
4 History of the Society of 'Dilettanti
British Museum. A desire was promoted for the es-
tablishment of a truly national school of art, leading
to the St. Martin's Lane Academy and William
Hogarth, and later to the foundation of the Royal
Academy in the glorious age of Gainsborough and
Sir Joshua Reynolds. The pursuit of knowledge
and culture became not only popular but fashionable,
and a tour round foreign courts and capitals was
considered an indispensable qualification for young
men of birth and wealth. These grand tours became
the source of the formation of those great private
collections for which England long remained so
justly renowned.
Date of In the midst of such an age as this it happened,
foundation, f to qUOte tne WOrds of the preface of the Ionian
Antiquities (1769), that
cIn the year 1734 some gentlemen who had travelled in Italy,
desirous of encouraging at home a taste for those objects which
had contributed so much to their entertainment abroad, formed
themselves into a society under the name of the Dilettanti, and
agreed upon such resolutions as they thought necessary to keep up
the spirit of the scheme.'
It is a matter of regret, and one, it is to be feared,
past remedy, that, at the time of the foundation
of this Society, the original members had so little
idea of the important part which it was destined
to play that it was not thought necessary to keep
regular minutes of their meetings. Founded essen-
tially as a dining society, its future, so long as the
strength of the bond which held its members together
remained untested and unknown, was very imperfectly
foreseen. When, however, after a year or two, it
became evident that not mere conviviality (or, as its
enemies uncompromisingly alleged, hard drinking),
but the love of art, with the ambition of fostering
British Museum. A desire was promoted for the es-
tablishment of a truly national school of art, leading
to the St. Martin's Lane Academy and William
Hogarth, and later to the foundation of the Royal
Academy in the glorious age of Gainsborough and
Sir Joshua Reynolds. The pursuit of knowledge
and culture became not only popular but fashionable,
and a tour round foreign courts and capitals was
considered an indispensable qualification for young
men of birth and wealth. These grand tours became
the source of the formation of those great private
collections for which England long remained so
justly renowned.
Date of In the midst of such an age as this it happened,
foundation, f to qUOte tne WOrds of the preface of the Ionian
Antiquities (1769), that
cIn the year 1734 some gentlemen who had travelled in Italy,
desirous of encouraging at home a taste for those objects which
had contributed so much to their entertainment abroad, formed
themselves into a society under the name of the Dilettanti, and
agreed upon such resolutions as they thought necessary to keep up
the spirit of the scheme.'
It is a matter of regret, and one, it is to be feared,
past remedy, that, at the time of the foundation
of this Society, the original members had so little
idea of the important part which it was destined
to play that it was not thought necessary to keep
regular minutes of their meetings. Founded essen-
tially as a dining society, its future, so long as the
strength of the bond which held its members together
remained untested and unknown, was very imperfectly
foreseen. When, however, after a year or two, it
became evident that not mere conviviality (or, as its
enemies uncompromisingly alleged, hard drinking),
but the love of art, with the ambition of fostering