Blundell, Henry
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- Blundell, Henry
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(1724 - 1810), collector, of Ince Blundell Hall, Lancs, s. of Robert Blundell; educ. St Omer and Douai; Paris 1745; m. 1760 Elizabeth Mostyn (d. 1767); suc. fa. 1773; Pres. Soc. for Promoting the Arts in Liverpool, patron of Liverpool Academy.
1777 Turin (by 10 Feb.), Milan, Venice, Ancona, Rome (late Feb. - Mar.), Naples (17 - 22 Mar.), Rome (Apr. - 16 Sep.)
1782 - 3 Rome (by 15 Dec. 1782 - 3 Feb. 1783)
1786 Rome (by 15 Feb. - Apr. 1786)
1790 Naples, Rome (May)
Blundell came from a landed Catholic family and had devoted much time to his estates in Lancashire before first going to Italy, already over fifty years old and a widower.1 He then became a considerable collector of antiquities, an activity in which he was much encouraged by Charles Townley, a fellow Catholic and Lancastrian. Much of their correspondence is preserved2 and it reflects a relationship which was not always harmonious.
On this first visit to Italy Blundell set out late in 1776 to join Townley in Rome. It has been said they travelled out together, but Blundell was writing to Townley from Turin on 10 February 17772 describing his intended route to Rome as via Milan, Venice and Ancona. He arrived there at the end of February and the following month left for Naples with Townley. Blundell visited Pompeii and Herculaneum and bought some Greek vases and Vesuvian marble table-tops from Tomaso Valenziani (the assistant of Camillo Paderni, Keeper of the Royal collection in Naples). Blundell also acquired paintings by Gavin Hamilton and Mengs, views of Vesuvius by Volaire and old master copies by James Smith ('Smith of Parma'). Of old masters, he acquired from Ignazio Hugford (presumably in Florence) a version of Veronese's Marriage at Cana.3 The first classical sculpture he purchased came from Thomas Jenkins in Rome in 1777, the statuette of a philosopher (Epicurus) 'much recommended' by Townley. Blundell went on to buy from Jenkins en bloc some eighty of the statues remaining from the Villa Mattei, and a group of antiquities from the Villa Borrioni; in both instances he was buying what was left, the best pieces having already been sold. Seven more pieces came from the Palazzo Capponi, and Blundell also bought a group of heavily restored busts and statues from Cavaceppi (Blundell's interest was primarily in the form represented), a restored and reconstructed tazza from Piranesi (engraved as the frontispiece for the second volume of Piranesi's Vasi), and modern copies from Albacini and Angelini.
Although he had been greatly assisted in Rome by Thomas Jenkins he came to regard him as expensive and manipulative. This opinion was shared by Father Thorpe, Blundell's contemporary who had also attended the Jesuit College at St Omer in the 1740s, and who now became a constant friend. He obtained for Blundell five paintings by Carlo Labruzzi, commissioned in Rome by the Duke of Gloucester but left unfinished.4 In April 1777 Thorpe wrote that Blundell had had an audience with the Pope and had just left Rome,5 but Blundell was still there on 16 September 1777 when he inscribed a copy of Elegantiores Statuae Antiquae (Walker AG, Liverpool). Blundell subsequently received a set of marble-topped tables from the Pope.6
Blundell was in Italy on three further occasions. He was at Rome in December 1782, and on 2 February 1783 he was leaving for England 'the next day'.7 He returned in 1786, when Townley wrote in advance asking Jenkins to help him. Blundell was writing to Townley from Rome on 15 February, and Jenkins noticed that Blundell was treating him with reserve. But it was on this visit that Blundell acquired from Jenkins his most famous piece, the Athena from the Palazzo Lante. In April he called on John Deare who had been working on a model for him the previous November.8 In April, with the help of Father Thorpe, Blundell acquired from Carlo Albacini (Cavaceppi's pupil) a life-size Diana from Gordian's Villa. Writing to Townley early in 1787 Blundell referred to his having been 'in quest of Virtu this time last year', and as having 'looked over all ye articles at Volpato's [Giovanni Volpato, Piranesi's former associate] you mentioned in a letter to be worth my notice but I found their restors horrid.' He also placed a commission with John Deare, with whom he dined in Rome on several occasions.9
His fourth and last visit to Italy was in 1790 when he spent his time in Rome and Naples. He patronised Canova, commissioning a Psyche (1789 - 92; priv. coll.), for which he paid considerably more (about £;300) than he is known to have paid for any antiquity; he also acquired a terracotta Madonna and Canova gave him the plaster model for Theseus and the Minotaur. Blundell bought twelve marbles from the Villa d'Este, including a fine Theseus, and from the collection of Niccolo La Piccola, keeper of the Capitoline collections who had just died in 1790, he acquired the Satyr and Hermaphrodite, a piece coveted by Townley. Blundell was back at Ince by January 1791.
Blundell described himself, disarmingly, as a 'dabbler' in antiquities, but he had acquired nearly six hundred pieces (including gems, mosaics and glass), and the scale of his collection forced him to build for their display a garden temple (completed in 1792) and a pantheon (built 1801 - 10) in the grounds of Ince Blundell Hall. In 1803 he published an Account of his collection, not meant, he wrote, for the eyes of the 'learned antiquarian'. Townley, who had encouraged him with the production of the Account and who was the more professional antiquarian of the two, found Blundell 'irresolute, capricious, and unintelligent', and thought there were only five or six marbles in Blundell's massive collection of any real worth,10 though this was probably a temporary outburst. Much of Blundell's collection of antiquities now belongs to the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, with some pieces still in Ince Blundell Hall, but most of his eclectic collection of pictures was dispersed at Christie's in 1980 (12, 18 Dec.), 1991 (12, 19 April) and 1992 (3 Apr.).
1. See G. Vaughan in Patronage and Practice, Sculpture on Merseyside, [1989], 13 - 21. E. Southworth, Jnl.Hist.of Colls. 3ii[1991]:219 - 34. Ince Blundell Coll.of Classical Sculpture, [1991], 1:11 - 26. 2. Townley MSS. 3. J. Fleming, Connoisseur, 136[1955]:200. 4. F.J.B. Watson, Antique Collector, Jun. 1960, 97n8. 5. Thorpe letters MSS (23 Apr. 1777*). 6. Note by E. Southworth. 7. Ramsay jnl.MSS, 15, 22 Dec. 1782, 2 Feb. 1783. 8. Nollekens, 2:320 - 21. 9. Townley MSS (2 Jan., 5 Mar. 1787). 10. P. Funnell in Knight 1982, 57.