Society of Dilettanti

History

Though the exact date is unknown, the Society is believed to have been established as a gentlemen's club in 1734 by a group of people who had been on the Grand Tour. Records of the earliest meeting of the society were written somewhat informally on loose pieces of paper. The first entry in the first minute book of the society is dated 5 April 1736. For a number of years it held its meetings at the Thatched House Tavern in St James's.

In 1743, Horace Walpole condemned its affectations and described it as "... a club, for which the nominal qualification is having been in Italy, and the real one, being drunk: the two chiefs are Lord Middlesex and Sir Francis Dashwood, who were seldom sober the whole time they were in Italy."

The group, initially led by Francis Dashwood, contained several dukes and was later joined by Joshua Reynolds, David Garrick, Uvedale Price, and Richard Payne Knight, among others. It was closely associated with Brooks's, one of London's most exclusive gentlemen's clubs. The society quickly became wealthy, through a system in which members made contributions to various funds to support building schemes and archaeological expeditions.

The first artist associated with the group was George Knapton.

The Society of Dilettanti aimed to correct and purify the public taste of the country; from the 1740s, it began to support Italian opera. A few years before Joshua Reynolds became a member, the group worked towards the objective of forming a public academy, and from the 1750s, it was the prime mover in establishing the Royal Academy of Arts. In 1775, the club had accumulated enough money towards a scholarship fund for the purpose of supporting a student's travel to Rome and Greece, or for archaeological expeditions such as that of Richard Chandler, William Pars, and Nicholas Revett, the results of which they published in Ionian Antiquities, a major influence on neoclassicism in Britain.

Among the publications published at the expense of the society was The bronzes of Siris (London, 1836) by Danish archaeologist Peter Oluf Bronsted.

Membership

The society has 60 members, elected by secret ballot. An induction ceremony is held at Brooks's, an exclusive London gentleman's club. It makes annual donations to the British Schools in Rome and Athens, and a separate fund set up in 1984 provides financial assistance for visits to classical sites and museums.

Notable members

James Hamilton, 8th Earl of Abercorn

George Anson, 1st Baron Anson

Thomas Anson (founder member)

Thomas Archer, 1st Baron Archer

John Ashburnham, 2nd Earl of Ashburnham

Sir Joseph Banks

William Barrington, 2nd Viscount Barrington

George Beaumont

John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford

William Ponsonby, 2nd Earl of Bessborough

Henry Bilson-Legge

William Stewart, 1st Earl of Blessington

Norborne Berkeley, 4th Baron Botetourt

Thomas Brand

Gustavus Hamilton, 2nd Viscount Boyne

Augustus Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol

Henry Scott, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch

John Hobart, 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire

Sir Charles Bunbury, 4th Baronet

Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford

Simon Luttrell, 1st Earl of Carhampton

Robert Knight, 1st Earl of Catherlough

References and sources

References

Sources

The Penguin Dictionary of British and Irish History, editor: Juliet Gardiner

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907). The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

This article incorporates text from:The Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Volume 2, James Northcote, 1819

Members of the Society of Dilettanti, 1736–1874, edited by Sir William Frazer. Chiswick Press.