William Aglionby Explained

William Aglionby (c. 1642–1705) was an English physician, known also as an art historian, translator and diplomat.

Life

It has been inferred that he was the son of George Aglionby, who was tutor to William Cavendish, 3rd Earl of Devonshire from 1629, and who married Sibella Smith in 1635, dying in 1643. He had an M.D. degree from the University of Bordeaux.[1] Fluency in French later caused him trouble when claiming to be English in France.[2]

Aglionby was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1667.[3] From 1669 to 1671 he acted as tutor for Sir Andrew Henley, 1st Baronet and then for Robert Paston, 1st Earl of Yarmouth.[4] [5] In 1679 he was secretary to Sir William Temple at The Hague.[3]

During the 1680s Aglionby was in practice in London as a physician. He was based in Broad Street, and was licensed by the Royal College of Physicians in 1687. At this period he took an active part in the Royal Society.[1]

In 1698 Aglionby was attempting to negotiate a postal treaty with the French Farmer-General of Posts, in Calais.[3] Other diplomatic postings were to Madrid, Turin and Zurich.[6]

Aglionby's associates included James Brydges,[7] Abraham Hill,[8] and Matthew Prior.[9]

Works

Aglionby's major work was Painting Illustrated in Three Diallogues (1685).[1] It has been described as the first original English book of its kind, based on the theory that Italian history painting was the leading genre of art;[10] it contained eleven biographies of Italian painters.[11]

Aglionby used Giorgio Vasari's Lives, but selectively, and imposing his own views.[12] [13] He began with lives of Cimabue and Giotto, interpolating in the series then a dialogue on the history of painting. There followed: Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea del Sarto, Raphael, Giorgione, Michelangelo, Giulio Romano, Pierino del Vaga, Titian and Donatello.[14] Other sources used include Gian Pietro Bellori and Carlo Cesare Malvasia.[15] Dismissive of Nicolas Poussin, Aglionby mentions favourably if not at length four artists from northern Europe: Dürer, Holbein, Rubens, Van Dyck.[16] The two latter were among the 12 Vite of Bellori, from which he borrows heavily.[17]

From a nationalistic point of view, Aglionby pointed to a revival of the arts at the Restoration of 1660, and promoted the painter John Riley, and the sculptor Grinling Gibbons.[18] [19] As apologetics for English art, which had not contributed to history painting, he argued for its success in portrait painting.[20]

Works

Notes and References

  1. Book: Craig Ashley Hanson. The English Virtuoso: Art, Medicine, and Antiquarianism in the Age of Empiricism. 15 May 2009. University of Chicago Press. 978-0-226-31587-4. 94–6.
  2. Book: Sir William Trumbull in Paris 1685–1686. CUP Archive. 96. GGKEY:UZA45ZPKLNP.
  3. https://collections.royalsociety.org/DServe.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=0&dsqSearch=%28%28text%29%3D%27aglionby%27%29 Royal Society database, Aglionby; William (c 1642 – 1705).
  4. Book: Cambridge University Library. Churchill Babington. Charles Cardale Babington. John Thomas Abdy, William Reynolds Collett, John Henry Webster, John Glover, William Wayman Hutt, Thomas Bendyshe, George Williams, Charles Brodrick Scott, John Eyton Bickersteth Mayor, Edward Ventris. A Catalogue of the Manuscripts Preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge: Ed. for the Syndics of the University Press. 1856. University Press. 457–.
  5. Book: John Robertson. A Union for Empire: Political Thought and the British Union of 1707. 2 November 2006. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-02988-9. 40 note 14.
  6. Book: Jeremy Black. British Diplomats and Diplomacy, 1688–1800. 1 January 2001. University of Exeter Press. 978-0-85989-613-9. 119.
  7. Book: Brian William Cowan. The Social Life of Coffee: The Emergence of the British Coffeehouse. 1 November 2005. Yale University Press. 978-0-300-13350-9. 110.
  8. Book: The London Magazine, Or, Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer. 1767. R. Baldwin. 234.
  9. Book: Anna Marie Roos. Web of Nature: Martin Lister (1639–1712), the First Arachnologist. 12 July 2011. BRILL. 978-90-04-20703-5. 381.
  10. Book: Craig Ashley Hanson. The English Virtuoso: Art, Medicine, and Antiquarianism in the Age of Empiricism. 15 May 2009. University of Chicago Press. 978-0-226-31587-4. 93–.
  11. Book: Patrick Doorly. Truth About Art, The. 30 August 2013. John Hunt Publishing. 978-1-78099-841-1. 42.
  12. Book: Philip Lindsay Sohm. The Artist Grows Old: The Aging of Art and Artists in Italy, 1500–1800. 2007. Yale University Press. 978-0-300-12123-0. 136.
  13. Book: Professor David Cast. The Ashgate Research Companion to Giorgio Vasari. 28 February 2014. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. 978-1-4724-1392-5. 290.
  14. Book: John Rigby Hale. John Rigby Hale. England and the Italian Renaissance: The Growth of Interest in its History and Art. 17 February 2009. John Wiley & Sons. 978-1-4051-5222-8. 45.
  15. Book: conte Carlo Cesare Malvasia. Malvasia's Life of the Carracci: Commentary and Translation. 2000. Penn State Press. 0-271-01899-2. 37.
  16. Book: Craig Ashley Hanson. The English Virtuoso: Art, Medicine, and Antiquarianism in the Age of Empiricism. 15 May 2009. University of Chicago Press. 978-0-226-31587-4. 106.
  17. Book: Giovanni Pietro Bellori. Giovan Pietro Bellori: The Lives of the Modern Painters, Sculptors and Architects: A New Translation and Critical Edition. 21 November 2005. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-78187-9. 1.
  18. Book: Kevin Sharpe. Kevin Sharpe (historian). Reading Authority and Representing Rule in Early Modern England. 6 June 2013. Bloomsbury Publishing. 978-1-4411-5675-4. 204–.
  19. 23651. Riley, John. J. Douglas. Stewart.
  20. Book: Homi K. Bhabha. Homi K. Bhabha. Nation and Narration. 13 May 2013. Routledge. 978-1-136-76930-6. 151.
  21. Book: C. D. Van Strien. British Travellers in Holland During the Stuart Period: Edward Browne and John Locke As Tourists in the United Provinces. 1993. Brill. 90-04-09482-2. 44.

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