Charles Townley in his Sculpture Gallery
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| Charles Townley in his Sculpture Gallery |
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| Johann Zoffany , 1781–1783 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 99.1 x 127 cm |
| Towneley Hall Art Gallery and Museum, Burnley |
Charles Townley in his Sculpture Gallery , also Charles Townley and his Friends in the Townley Gallery, 33 Park Street, Westminster , is a painting by the German-British painter Johann Zoffany , which was created between 1781 and 1783 and was commissioned by Charles Townley and three by shows his friends in Townley's library and between his antique collection.
Charles Townley, a wealthy English country gentleman , was an important collector of ancient works of art. These served not only for learning, but also always as representative objects for the self-presentation of the owner. Townley is sitting on an upholstered armchair on the right edge of the picture, he is shown completely in profile and looking to the left into the scenery. A book lies on his lap and he seems to be pointing with the finger of one hand where he is reading. In the center of the picture is his friend and protégé Pierre-François Hugues d'Hancarville . He, too, is sitting on an upholstered red armchair, but unlike Townley, he is shown in half profile. In his left hand he is holding a book that he has placed on the table in front of him. Townley and d'Hancarville seem deep in conversation. Behind Hugues d'Hancarville are Thomas Astle on the right and Charles Francis Greville on the left , both deep in conversation. D'Hancarville was a well-known art historian of his time, who emerged primarily as an editor of the collection of William Hamilton . Astle was a well-known antiquarian and paleographer, and Greville, Hamilton's nephew, was also an art collector.
In the background of the picture, part of Townley's library can be seen in a large bookcase. The rest of the picture is dominated by various antiquities that are not arranged in a real constellation. Most noticeable behind Astle is the so-called Townley Venus . On the table in front of d'Hancarville is a bust of Klytia . Front of the table, the statue stands on the floor of a Faun in Barberini type . In the foreground on the left is an incorrectly reconstructed copy of the Diskobolo , which is now in the British Museum like the rest of the collection , next to it is a bust of Athena and next to it a copy of the ankle player . On the right you can see the Townley Sphinx . There are several busts on the cupboard behind Townley, with a bust of Homer directly behind him . On the opposite wall there are several reliefs, including the tomb relief of the shoemaker Xanthippos at the top right in incorrectly reproduced proportions. Next to it stands an Attic black-figure amphora on a ledge . The marble Townley vase can be seen on the bookcase in the background, and above the door there is a relief with a horse and its guide from Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli . Thanks to the images in the picture, the provenance of many items in the collection can be traced back to the life of Charles Townley. This makes the picture an important testimony to the reception of antiquity .
Images of illustrated original pieces
Discobolos
Grave stele of Xanthippus
Relief from Hadrian's Villa
Homebust
Bust of a companion of Odysseus
sphinx
Satyr and nymph
Dionysus and the Personification of Wine
Statue of Venus from Ostia
literature
- Mary Webster: Zoffany's Painting of Charles Towneley's Library on Park Street. In: Burlington Magazine. Vol. 106, No. 736: Art in Britain (1570-1820) , 1964, ISSN 0007-6287 , pp. 316-323.
- Brian F. Cook : The Townley marbles in Westminster and Bloomsbury. In: British Museum Yearbook 2, 1977, pp. 34-78.
- Brian F. Cook: The Townley marbles. British Museum, London 1985, ISBN 0-7141-1279-8 , pp. 30-37.
- Gerard Vaughan: The Townley Zoffany. Reflections on "Charles Townley and his friends". In: Apollo. Vol. 144, 1996, ISSN 0003-6536 , pp. 32-35.
- John Anthony Nicholls: The gallery image in the 18th century and Johann Zoffany's “Tribuna”. Dissertation. Bonn 2006, pp. 241–248, (PDF; 1.81 MB) .
- Viccy Coltman: Representation, replication and collecting in Charles Townley's late eighteenth-century library. In: Art History. Vol. 29, 2006, ISSN 0141-6790 , pp. 304-324, doi : 10.1111 / j.1467-8365.2006.00503.x .
