Society of Dilettanti (London, England)

Private English organization of antiquarians.

The Society of Dilettanti, founded in 1734, was an informal organization of English collectors and artits which contributed to the neo-classical movement by sponsoring study and fostering interest in the remains of classical antiquity. Providing financial assistance, the society sent archaeological expeditions to Italy, Asia Minor, and Greece; and sponsored several magnificent publications on classical antiquities.

Biographical/Historical Note

The Society of Dilettanti was founded by Sir Francis Dashwood and other collectors in 1734. Formally organized as a London dining club, at least in terms of its bylaws, dues, etc., it consisted of young patricians recruited from acquaintances made on the Grand Tour, among the members were aristocrats, diplomats, courtiers, and men of the church, arts, and letters. With the mission of convival social exchange and cultivating the public interest in classical antiquity, the group aimed to correct and purify the public taste of the country. From the 1740s it began to support Italian opera, and from the 1750s it was the prime mover in establishing the Royal Academy. The most important role that the Society played in the cultural life of England is the contribution it made to the neo-classical movement by fostering an interest in the remains of classical antiquity. The society sponsored expeditions to Italy, Asia Minor, and Greece and published magnificent folio volumes such as the Specimens of Antient [sic] Sculpture, Antiquities of Ionia, and Unedited antiquities of Attica .

The two volumes of Specimens of Antient [sic] Sculpture were conceived by the collectors Richard Payne Knight (1751-1824) and Charles Townley (1737-1805). The first volume was published in 1809 with a commentary by Knight. The second volume did not appear until 1835. The work was intended as a comprehensive survey of the best specimens of Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek, and Roman marble and bronze sculpture and metalwork acquired by members of the Society abroad and housed in their private collections. Works in the collections formed by Knight and Townley account for most of the plates in the first volume. The remainder came from the galleries of Marquess of Lansdowne, Earl of Egremont, Thomas Hope, Earl of Yarborough and the Earl of Cork. By the time the second volume was published the Knight and Townley’s collections were in the British Museum. Thus the second volume marks the recognition by a national institution of private and amateur collecting nurtured in the age of the Grand Tour. The work was intended to be an achievement in neo-classical connoisseurship, with images of high quality and scholarly text. Knight's commentary to the first volume aimed to establish a chronology and to affirm the superiority of Greek over Roman work. The symbolic attributes of the sculpture are discussed in the commentary to the second volume, compiled from Knight's papers by John Sawrey Morritt, Thomas Hope, James Christie, and Sir Richard Westmacott. The plates, most executed in stipple engraving, are among the finest representations of marble and bronze works of art before the age of photography.

Antiquities of Ionia followed the 1764 expedition and exploration of Ionia. The results were published in four parts in 1769 (pt. I), 1821 (2nd ed. of pt. I), 1797 (pt. II), 1820 (2nd ed. of pt. II), 1840 (pt. III), 1881 (pt. IV), and 1915 (pt. V). The results of another expedition by William Gell, John Peter Gandy, and Francis Bedford to Greece and Asia Minor in 1812-1813 were to be issued as the second vol. of pt. III, but the publication was put aside after the death of the architecture editor William Wilkins in 1839. The unpublished printed proofs for the 2nd vol. of part III were later discovered in the Society’s archives, the metal plates were located in the custody of a copper-printer, and the fifth part of Antiquities of Ionia was edited and issued by W.R. Lethaby in 1915.

The English archaeologist, topographer, and explorer William Gell (1777-1836) became a member of the Society of Dilettanti in 1807. He participated in the 1812-1813 expedition to Greece and Asia Minor. The results of that expedition were issued in 1817 in Unedited antiquities of Attica, some were added to the 2nd editions of parts II and III of Antiquities of Ionia, but most were planned to form the second volume of part III of Antiquities of Ionia .