Memories of the Grand Tour

THE symposium held in Dublin last weekend and entitled Irish Travellers On The Grand Tour was a coming together - both academic and social - of scholars and others in these islands interested in the subject. But it was also a celebration of the publication of a major work which had its beginning 34 years ago and which crowns the career of Sir Ford who, as a private scholar working in England, has devoted his long life ( he is now 89 ) to collecting material on British and Irish travellers in Italy in the 18th century.

The publication - A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy 1701-1800 edited by John Ingamells - contains 6,000 entries with a biography of each traveller, their Italian itineraries, accounts of their experiences, maps and a political chronology. Given such a feast, it will be no surprise to learn that it is 1,070 pages long and weighs three and a half pounds. This is not a book you're going to read in bed, but no one with a penchant for art history can ignore it and a wander through its pages will not only yield up a deal of stern research but also an intriguing insight into the life style of your average Grand Tourist.

There is Sir John Shadwell who, around 1738, with one daughter unmarried, placed an ad in a Naples gazette, seeking a merchant rich enough to become his son in law. Or take Hester Piozzi who, upon the death of her first husband - a wealthy but morose brewer - and finding herself pursued by the infirm Samuel Johnson, took off for Italy with her daughter's music teacher, the latter packing his collapsible harpsichord under the carriage seat.

The research for the dictionary has been financed by the Paul Mellon Centre in London. Paul Mellon - son of the US steel magnate Andrew Mellon, founder of the National Gallery in Washington - has long had a special interest in British art and has been supporting the project since the 1960s.

But, at the symposium, it was the task of the contributors to draw our attention particularly to 18th century travellers whose work and writings have so influenced art and architecture in this country. Dr. Edward McParland of TCD spoke about the career of, John Molesworth who, in 1711, was despatched to Florence as British Envoy Extraordinary, a post prestigious but unpaid, though fortunately his property developer father, by mortgaging his Dublin properties, was able to support him. In Florence, John Molesworth meeting cup with Allesandro Galilei, a builder architect with a special interest in hydraulics, twice brought him to Ireland where he was able to work on the fountains at Breckdenstown, the family estate north of Dublin's Blanchardstown.

John Coleman, a graduate of Trinity and now with the National Trust in England, delivering a paper on Luke Gardiner, pointed out that we have to reconstruct and recreate an image of the 18th century - and what better way to do it than by studying the diaries and letters of these travellers? Patrick Home, a patron of the arts, met Luke Gardiner and his brother in Italy and noted: "Two Mr. Gardners - Irish - good lads - large estate - g.father a footman.

The 18th century is a delicious cornucopia of gossip and back biting and the dictionary is rich in it, especially the section entitled "Advice on Travel in Italy". Written by William Patoun, who first travelled to Italy in 1761, the "Advice" is a gloriously xenophobic guide for travellers, giving hard advice about payment for board and lodging, appropriate dress and general behaviour. Gentlemen should buy their silk stockings in Lyons and white beaver hats - for wearing in a chaise - in Paris. Flannel should not be discarded too soon. Wine, in excess, is inflammatory and salads with oil should be avoided. Half a sequin (one sequin equalled half a guinea) was sufficient to tip a servant. There are also warnings about protocol. If the traveller arrives at a city where there is a British Minister in residence, then he ought to call upon the Minister to pay his respects. If, however, there is merely a Charge des Affairs", then it is the duty of this lowly person to wait upon the noble traveller - assuming the traveller is the eldest son of an English peer.

There, were many such scions of the aristocracy travelling about Italy at that time, for not only was it a place to go to study, art, it was also a land rich in pickings. Many men financed their journeys by acting as agents for the wealthy back home, giving out commissions on their behalf and buying up works of art or copies in job lots. There were always plenty of copyists willing to provide, to order, whatever was the fashionable painting, etching or statue of the day. If the King had an original Raphael hanging in his galleries then it was obligatory for every drawingroom in the land to display a copy also.

And because of the proliferation of copies, it has often proved difficult to attribute them to the appropriate artist. So, it was a triumph for Nicola Figgis of UCD and the National Gallery of Ireland that, in the paper she gave at the symposium, she was able to do just that. Taking as her subject a copy of the painting of The Transfiguration by Raphael, originally thought to have been executed by Anton Mengs, she, was able to show that the copyist was almost certainly a Scottish painter called James Durno - previously thought to have been Irish. The National Gallery acquired the Durno painting in 1864.

HELEN Byrne, of UCD, gave an energetic presentation of the work of Simon Vierpyl, who was commissioned by Edward Murphy, tutor to Lord Charlemont, to make copies of 80 imperial busts, some of which can be seen at the Royal Irish Academy.

And to lend further spice to the publication of the dictionary, Jane Fenlon - beavering away independently of the whole project - was able to fill in a missing gap in this splendid undertaking. Now working as a consultant to the National Monuments and Historic Properties Services, she drew on her doctoral thesis to examine one small detail in the life and travels of Charles Jervas. Born in Shinrone, Co. Offaly, around 1675, Jervas was a painter and copyist, as well as a buyer of paintings for the royal, collection. He financed his first visit to Italy, the dictionary tells us, by making a copy of the Raphael cartoons at Hampton Court and presenting them to All Souls College, Oxford, for which he received the sum of £50 for his journey. Dr. Fenton's research tells a different story. By examining letters sent by him, by matching dates and searching out wills and by a painstaking process of weeding through the evidence, she showed that the £50 would not have got him very far and that the real source of his finances was probably the inheritance from his father, who died just before he set off for Italy. Such devotion to detail is the stuff of researchers. Professor Michael McCarthy of UCD, while paying tribute to the many organisations which supported the symposium, including among others the Irish Arts Review, the Alfred Beit Foundation and the School of Irish Studies Foundation, drew our attention to all 12 contributors whose greatest generosity lay in sharing their discoveries and their research.