Fountaine, Sir Andrew
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- Fountaine, Sir Andrew
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(1676 - 1753), virtuoso, of Narford, Norf., e. s. of Andrew Fountaine; Ch.Ch. Oxf. 1693; Kt. 1699; to Germany 1701 with L. Macclesfield; Royal Soc. of Berlin 1701; built Narford 1702 - 6; unm.
1702 Venice, Padua (20 Mar.), Rome (by 5 Apr. - after 1 Jun.) [Augsburg Sep.]
1715 - 16 Turin (by Aug. 1715), Florence (Oct. 1715 - ), Rome (by 14 Jan. 1716 - Apr.), Venice (May - 26 Sep.), Padua (30 Sep.)
When he first came to Italy in 1702 at the age of twenty six, Sir Andrew Fountaine was established as a remarkable scholar, the friend and correspondent of Leibnitz. He was also versed in diplomacy; he had been knighted in 1699 and in 1701 had accompanied Lord Macclesfield to Hanover to deliver the Act of Succession.1 'The sweetness of his conversation', it was subsequently observed in Italy, offset his 'great Erudition' and 'knowledge & experience in medals, statues, carvings & designing'.2
Fountaine arrived in Padua with Lord Woodstock (later 1st Duke of Portland) on 20 March 1702,3 and he visited the Duke of Shrewsbury in Rome on 5 April.4 In June he told Leibnitz that he was 'enjoying the conversation of Cardinal [Enrico] Noris [a numismatist] and Monsignor Bianchini [an archaeologist], whom I take to be the most learned Antiquary in [Rome]'.5 He sat to Carlo Maratti for the beautiful chalk drawing now at Narford, and probably acquired on this first visit the two small Marattis on copper (Holy Family and Marriage of St Catherine) which also remain at Narford. Fountaine had apparently intended to meet the 8th Earl of Pembroke in Naples, but was refused a passport on the grounds of his religion.6 He was in Augsburg by 27 September 1702, in Zell in March 1703, and had returned to England before the end of that year.
His second visit to Italy followed a long stay in Paris in 1714. He was still in Paris in February 1715, but in August he was in Turin and in October in Florence.7 In 1715 Fountaine sat to Giulio Pignatta in the Tribuna in Florence with the friends who were then travelling with him: Anthony Lowther, Richard Arundell, a Frenchman de Centville, and Captain William Price, who is shown bringing in a tray of medals from the Medici collection (the picture is at Narford). Fountaine became very friendly with the Grand Duke Cosimo III, who corresponded with him and whose portrait by Domenico Tempesti, dated 1717, remains at Narford. Fountaine encouraged A.D. Gabbiani, Giuseppe Chiari and Luti to give their self-portraits to the Grand Duke's gallery. The Florentine A.F. Selvi made Fountaine's medallion portrait in 1715 with, on the reverse, Pallas examining medals on a cippus.
On 12 October 1715 William Kent had heard that Fountaine, with Lord Herbert's step-brother [i.e. Richard Arundell], was coming to Rome, and he had arrived by 14 January 1716 with Lowther and Arundell.8 In February he was assisting Lord Harrold in the choice of subjects for history paintings by Chiari.9 Kent wrote on 20 March that his friend Fountaine was making a collection of drawings; this he confirmed in a letter of 9 June in which he also said Fountaine had given him a ring set in gold.(10) Fountaine intended leaving Rome in April in order to see the Easter festivities at Venice, and he was still in Venice on 21 August.(11) On 26 September, with Lowther and Arundell, he left for Germany,12 Fountaine and Arundell visiting Padua on 30 September.(13)
Fountaine accumulated a vast collection of medals,14 drawings, prints, sculpture and maiolica, but it remains unclear how much he acquired in the course of his two visits to Italy. Lord Burlington complained to him from Turin in 1719 'cosucci [bagatelles] are so scarce since you drained Italy'.15 Fountaine's coin collection was dispersed probably in the 1720s, a great part being acquired by the 2nd Duke of Devonshire and the 6th Earl of Pembroke.14
1. See R.B. Ford, Apollo, 122[1985], 352 - 63, and Moore 1985, 26 - 31, 93 - 113. 2. By Robt.Nelson; Moore 1985, 28. 3. Brown 1172. 4. Shrewsbury Jnl., 761. 5. Moore 1985, 28. 6. Ibid., 94 (letter from A. Morell to Fountaine, n.d.). 7. Wrest Park MSS (J. Gerrard, 15 Feb., 26 Aug., 1 Oct. 1715). 8. Kent letters MSS (12 Oct. 1715 and 14 Jan. 1716). 9. Wrest Park MSS (Ld. Harrold, 22 Feb. 1716; J. Gerrard, 29 Feb. 1716). 10. Kent letters MSS (20 Mar., 9 Jun. 1716). 11. Wrest Park MSS (Ld. Harrold, 14 Apr., 21 Aug. 1716). 12. SP 99/61, f.232 (Cunningham, 25 Sep. 1716). 13. Brown 1513. 14. See H.E. Pagan, British Numismatic Jnl., 63[1994]:114 - 22. 15. Quoted in Apollo, 129[1989]:320.