Browsing by Author "Spadafora, Claire Elizabeth"

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    William Kent in Italy: The Early Work of a "Raphael Secundus"
    (2024-04-19) Spadafora, Claire Elizabeth; Manca, Joseph
    This dissertation considers the formative years of William Kent (c. 1685-1748), taking as its chief concerns his training in Rome and travels throughout Italy, as well as his work as both agent and artist, with the ultimate aim of situating the success of Kent’s mature years within the context of his youthful labors. It considers the development of Kent’s career within the framework of early modern self-fashioning, exploring how Kent utilized to his advantage the opportunities offered to him by travel, training, and social networks in Italy and, in so doing, established a reputation for himself as a master of the Italian manner. Ever enterprising, over the course of the decade the English artist spent abroad, Kent studied in Italian studios, became the first English artist commissioned to decorate the ceiling of a Roman church, viewed countless masterworks while traveling, and built a social network that would aid him in securing the patronage that propelled his career upon his return home. Having built his reputation upon the expertise he developed abroad, Kent fashioned himself into an authority on the Italianate. Anchored by a journal kept by the artist during his years abroad, this project uses Kent’s own words and drawings as a guide through this murky period in his personal history. Ultimately, this dissertation examines the relationship between knowledge of Italian art and social status in the polite society of eighteenth-century England, considering as a case study Kent’s travel, social networks, collecting, and artistic production – with special attention paid to drawings, which have been largely neglected in Kent scholarship. Indeed, it is the aim of this project to present a more complete picture of Kent’s formative years, in an effort to bring light to the artist’s varied efforts to construct his career – and, ultimately, himself – and, in so doing, examine the social value of travel and expert knowledge at the dawn of the era of the Grand Tour.