Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. Softcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> Anton Raphael Mengs never visited Britain but his con- tacts and relations with British collectors artists and con- noisseurs were so extensive and evident that they offer rich material for study. The decisive factor in Mengs’s many contacts with Great Britain from 1751 until his death was evidently the Grand Tour. This had become obligatory for the British aristoc- racy in the eighteenth century and it provided one of the most important channels of communication between the British Isles and the continent throughout that period. The British love of travel was the result of growing wealth and it continued astonishingly independently of political alliances and conditions. However political devel- opments helped to further British interest in the continent the Treaties of Utrecht and Rastatt of 1714 for example which ended Anglo-French hostilities until 1781 and the *renversement des alliances’ which made Britain an ally of Prussia in the Seven Years’ War. The accession of the Protestant House of Hanover fuelled general interest in northern central Europe after 1714. Cultural contacts between the countries of Europe were greatly encouraged by the growth in diplomatic activity which was one of the most striking developments of the eighteenth century. It created the basis for cross-relations and cultural symbioses which were new in this form and again the Grand Tour played an important part as the activities of the diplomats and the interests and personal contacts of the travellers frequently coincided opening up important and far-reaching prospects. The British aristocrat on the Grand Tour was not only eager to see the art treasures and the variety of landscapes and peoples on the continent he was also able thanks to his generally comfortable financial situation to take some of these treasures home with him. (SP)