(b. 1681), s. of Dr Charles Davenant of London; Balliol Oxf. 1696; Frankfurt 1703 - 11; env. extra. Modena, Genoa, Parma and Florence 1714 - 23; m.
1715 - 23 Florence (by 31 May 1715), Modena and Parma (Jun., 17 - 23 Jul. 1715), Leghorn (Nov. 1715), Florence ( - 4 Nov. 1716), Genoa (8 Dec. 1716 - 30 Dec. 1721; Feb 1722) with visits to Florence (Oct. - Dec. 1717) and Leghorn (Apr. - May 1720); Rome (spring 1722) Florence (by 5 Sep.), Genoa (Nov. - Dec. 1722), Padua (12 Jan. 1723)
In October 1714 Davenant received his credentials as envoy extraordinary to the courts at Modena, Genoa, Parma and Florence, and he was in Florence by May 1715. He visited each court in turn to present his credentials, but resided chiefly at Genoa,1 where his wife joined him on 27 December 1716 (arriving on an English warship from Leghorn).2 In 1716, soon after he settled in Genoa, he was called upon to restore 'the nation's honour' after a Richard Cresswell had been imprisoned for flagrant and frequent acts of sexual deviancy.3
Davenant was a cultured diplomat. He studied Italian and was a friend of the poet Anton Maria Salvini who translated Addison's Cato at his instigation,4 and he helped James Brydges (later Duke of Chandos) to form his celebrated collection of works of art.5 He had sought paintings for Brydges from 1705 when he was at Frankfurt, and in Italy between 1715 and 1717 he bought several pictures from the Livio Odescalchi and Bardi collections, cartoons by Raphael and drawings by Michelangelo, as well as statuary, chimneypieces, doorways and tables. He recommended mural painters for the Duke's new house, Canons. Chandos paid for the education of Davenant's younger brother Charles, but relations between patron and agent were not always easy.
In 1722 Davenant and his secretary, Abraham Castres, were in Rome.6 Stosch, whom he consulted on antique gems, said he talked too much when in drink and had commented that the Pretender was a martyr to his faith, but Davenant's principal concern in Rome was to see the antiquities.7 He was in Florence on 5 September that year, when Rawlinson dined with him; he was going soon after to Leghorn with Castres, Benjamin Crowe and an officer from Port Mahon.8 On 12 January 1723 he was in Padua with Castres on his way back to England.9
1. Horn, 1:74 - 9. 2. ASG as 479, f.35. 3. Black 1992, 201. 4. E. Gibson 1987, 146, 161n69. 5. C.H. Collins Baker, Life of James Brydges, 70 - 83, 123 - 8. D. Sutton, Apollo, 114[1981]:318 - 9 (Davenant misidentified as Charles). 6. AVR SA, S.Lorenzo in Lucina. 7. Lewis 1961, 68 - 9. SP 85/14 (Walton, 4 Apr. 1722). 8. Rawlinson jnl. MSS. 9. Brown 1724, 1724a.