DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.73058#0025
Bartolozzi: Sketch of his Life.
In 1765 Bartolozzi joined the Incorporated Society of Artists, and exhibited in the
same year " three "—undescribed—" prints from drawings "—presumably his own. In
1766 he exhibited in the rooms of the same Society two crayon portraits of gentlemen, a
proof of the " Circumcision," after Guercino, and a drawing of a sleeping Cupid, afterwards
engraved ; in the year following a drawing of a picture by Caracci, and in 1768 (he had
then removed from Warwick Street to Broad Street, Carnaby Market) a " Woman and
Child " and " Venus and Cupid," from Luca Giordano ; but whether these were drawings or
prints is not known.
In 1769 toolc place an important event in the history of England—the foundation of
the Royal Academy, which has become, through the measures taken by its projectors, one of
the most important and national art institutions in the world. The original members were,
of course, nominated, not elected as all their successors have been ; and in that group, which
was headed by the great figure of Joshua Reynolds, Bartolozzi was called to take a place.
To this is to be attributed the bursting into flame of a long smouldering though one-
sided quarrel or grievance between himself and Sir Robert Strange, which gave rise to a
great deal of acrimonious and anonymous newspaper writing, in which mud was freely
bespattered by intemperate partisans on both sides. There is no record of Bartolozzi
having at any time been personally engaged in the strife, and his friend, Mr. William
Carey, has placed it on record that Bartolozzi never spoke of Sir Robert Strange in any
but terms of the sincerest admiration and respect. Strange's account of the unfor-
tunate misunderstanding is fully related in a little work by himself, published in 1775,
entitled, " An Inquiry into the Rise and Establishment of the Royal Academy of Arts, to
which is prefixed a Letter to the Earl of Bute. By Sir Robert Strange, Member of the
Royal Academy of Painting at Paris, of the Academies of Rome, Florence, and Bologna,
Professor of the Royal Academy at Parma, etc." The late Mr. James Denistoun, of
Denistoun, in his interesting "Memoirs of Sir Robert Strange" (Longmans, 1855), fully
discusses the quarrel; but even he, who, as a connection by marriage of Sir Robert's,
might naturally be expected to attach a portion, at any rate, of the blame to Bartolozzi,
refrains from so doing.
Though honourable and upright, Strange was of an excitable temperament and of
warm passions, and was further possessed of an almost consuming ambition to rise in his
profession.
On Bartolozzi's engagement with Dalton at Venice, it had been hinted in the English
newspapers that the former was about to visit this country in the hope of receiving the
favour and patronage of the King, from which Strange appears to have considered himself
debarred by previous misrepresentations on the part of Dalton, and the feeling of jealousy
in regard to Bartolozzi, which led to the quarrel, was at this time no doubt engendered.
In Strange's " Inquiry," he says: "In my journey from Florence to Parma, in the
year 1763, I passed through Bologna; and being informed that Mr. Dalton, accompanied
by M. Bartolozzi, was there, I stopped a day on purpose to wait on the former." And he
further goes on to relate that he met Mr. Dalton,* and, on being questioned, communicated
* Anthony Pasquin, in a short account of Bartolozzi which he wrote for his " Memoirs of the Royal Academicians"
(1794, P< I04), puts the cause of the quarrel between Strange and Bartolozzi in a very few words. He says :—
7 "While
In 1765 Bartolozzi joined the Incorporated Society of Artists, and exhibited in the
same year " three "—undescribed—" prints from drawings "—presumably his own. In
1766 he exhibited in the rooms of the same Society two crayon portraits of gentlemen, a
proof of the " Circumcision," after Guercino, and a drawing of a sleeping Cupid, afterwards
engraved ; in the year following a drawing of a picture by Caracci, and in 1768 (he had
then removed from Warwick Street to Broad Street, Carnaby Market) a " Woman and
Child " and " Venus and Cupid," from Luca Giordano ; but whether these were drawings or
prints is not known.
In 1769 toolc place an important event in the history of England—the foundation of
the Royal Academy, which has become, through the measures taken by its projectors, one of
the most important and national art institutions in the world. The original members were,
of course, nominated, not elected as all their successors have been ; and in that group, which
was headed by the great figure of Joshua Reynolds, Bartolozzi was called to take a place.
To this is to be attributed the bursting into flame of a long smouldering though one-
sided quarrel or grievance between himself and Sir Robert Strange, which gave rise to a
great deal of acrimonious and anonymous newspaper writing, in which mud was freely
bespattered by intemperate partisans on both sides. There is no record of Bartolozzi
having at any time been personally engaged in the strife, and his friend, Mr. William
Carey, has placed it on record that Bartolozzi never spoke of Sir Robert Strange in any
but terms of the sincerest admiration and respect. Strange's account of the unfor-
tunate misunderstanding is fully related in a little work by himself, published in 1775,
entitled, " An Inquiry into the Rise and Establishment of the Royal Academy of Arts, to
which is prefixed a Letter to the Earl of Bute. By Sir Robert Strange, Member of the
Royal Academy of Painting at Paris, of the Academies of Rome, Florence, and Bologna,
Professor of the Royal Academy at Parma, etc." The late Mr. James Denistoun, of
Denistoun, in his interesting "Memoirs of Sir Robert Strange" (Longmans, 1855), fully
discusses the quarrel; but even he, who, as a connection by marriage of Sir Robert's,
might naturally be expected to attach a portion, at any rate, of the blame to Bartolozzi,
refrains from so doing.
Though honourable and upright, Strange was of an excitable temperament and of
warm passions, and was further possessed of an almost consuming ambition to rise in his
profession.
On Bartolozzi's engagement with Dalton at Venice, it had been hinted in the English
newspapers that the former was about to visit this country in the hope of receiving the
favour and patronage of the King, from which Strange appears to have considered himself
debarred by previous misrepresentations on the part of Dalton, and the feeling of jealousy
in regard to Bartolozzi, which led to the quarrel, was at this time no doubt engendered.
In Strange's " Inquiry," he says: "In my journey from Florence to Parma, in the
year 1763, I passed through Bologna; and being informed that Mr. Dalton, accompanied
by M. Bartolozzi, was there, I stopped a day on purpose to wait on the former." And he
further goes on to relate that he met Mr. Dalton,* and, on being questioned, communicated
* Anthony Pasquin, in a short account of Bartolozzi which he wrote for his " Memoirs of the Royal Academicians"
(1794, P< I04), puts the cause of the quarrel between Strange and Bartolozzi in a very few words. He says :—
7 "While