Gandy, Joseph Michael
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- Gandy, Joseph Michael
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(1771 - 1843) architect; pupil of James Wyatt c.1786 - ; winner RA Silver Medal 1789, Gold Medal 1790; assistant to John Soane 1798 - ; ARA 1803; published 1805 The Rural Cottage and Designs for Cottages, Cottage Farms and other Rural Buildings.
1794 - 7 [dep. Portsmouth 26 Apr. 1794] Leghorn (21 Jun. 1794), Rome (Jul. 1794 - ), the Abruzzi (Nov. - Dec. 1795, with visits to Olavano, Subiaco, Tagliacozzo, Avezzano, Trasacco, Celano, Capistrello, Isola di Sora, Monte Cassino, Pontecorvo); Rome ( - Mar. 1796), Naples (Mar. - May), Rome (May 1796 - May 1797), Florence [England Jun. 1797]
Gandy went to Italy under the patronage of his father's employer, John Martindale, the proprietor of White's Club in St James's, and he described his subsequent experiences in a series of letters to his parents (Gandy letters mss). Travelling by sea, Gandy spent nine days at Gibraltar and narrowly avoided capture near Corsica by the French fleet, itself being pursued by Lord Hood. To make matters worse, Gandy's ship was lacking in fresh provisions and the captain died during the voyage, necessitating a period of quarantine on arrival at Leghorn. Gandy's travelling companion was Henry Holland's pupil and agent Charles Heathcote Tatham, but upon their arrival at Rome the two men took separate lodgings, Gandy's being in the Piazza Barberini. He was immediately in contact with Thomas Jenkins, but Richard Westmacott, whom he evidently knew in advance, was absent from Rome.
During the summer of 1794 Gandy worked to improve his Italian and studied as many buildings as possible. Despite the threat of French invasion, he managed to visit Tivoli and Albano in the autumn, and in the spring of 1795 he made an excursion to Cori via Velletri with the landscape painter G.A. Wallis. As early as October 1794 he had begun to prepare drawings for the 1795 Concorso Clementino at the Accademia di S.Luca.1 The prova was held on 27 May 1795 and Gandy was awarded a special prize in the first class 'in view of the merit of his [sepulchral chapel] design but without placing it among the other first class designs because it had departed from the specified subject'. Gandy claimed that, despite the support of Guy Head, he had been denied the first prize through the intervention of another of the professors, Giuseppe Barberi, whose son Paolo Emilio was a competitor (but in fact for the second class in architecture). He refused to accept any medal unless it was of equal worth to the first premium, and considered that these events had worked to his advantage, since they caused a stir in Rome and consequently advanced his reputation. Gandy reported receiving four silver medals at a ceremony in the salone of the Capitoline Palace on 2 June 1795 before Prince Augustus (himself just elected Honorary Academician) and his retinue, six cardinals and 'an infinite number of prelates, princes and knights, both Roman and foreign'. At the same time Richard Westmacott was awarded the first class first prize in sculpture.
Despite Gandy's success in the Concorso, his ambition remained relatively modest and he wrote of his aspiration to the surveyorship of some London parish or, on other occasions, to work in Corsica or America. His letters otherwise chronicled the political turbulence of the times. The inflation of prices may have been one reason why projected visits to Naples and to Pisa and Florence in the summer of 1795 did not take place. Lack of money certainly hindered Gandy's studies in Rome itself, preventing him from raising scaffolds to obtain measurements of antique monuments. He was able, however, to visit Palestrina, Frascati, Marino, and Ariccia by foot, again travelling with Wallis, and in late November he made an excursion through the Abruzzi, during which he met Westmacott and Mr Disney (see Disney-Ffytche).
Back in Rome early in 1796, Gandy began to receive commissions: a chimneypiece design for John Deare and drawings in the 'Gothic manner' for Sir Godfrey Webster. Demands on his time obliged Gandy to engage an Italian draughtsman to assist him. Between March and May 1796 Gandy visited Naples with 'Disney'. Sir William Hamilton obtained permission for Gandy to draw in the Naples area on 1 April.2 Arriving back in Rome in May, Gandy found the city in turmoil as the French had occupied Piacenza and were proceeding south. Prince Augustus had made plans to evacuate English artists to Corsica, but in the event Gandy reported that most of the English in Rome departed without warning in June leaving the poorer artists behind. In August the French commissioners arrived at Rome to remove 100 statues and 100 pictures, according to Gandy. He considered that Paris rather than Rome would become the fine arts emporium of the world, but pointed out that the Pantheon and the Colosseum could not be so easily translated. Late in September Gandy moved from the Piazza Barberini, first to Strada Gregoriana and then to the Caffe Inglese, evidently because his landlord of two years had robbed him of 200 crowns. In October he was assaulted on the Spanish Steps, the attacker fleeing only after mistaking Gandy's house key for a pistol. Then, in January 1797, Gandy learned that his patron Martindale had become bankrupt, at a time when Gandy was embroiled in a law suit with Deare (whom he suspected of cheating him over his chimneypiece designs) and had also spent a substantial sum on two paintings said to be by Poussin which he hoped to sell in England to repay the expenses he had incurred in Italy. By March, the French had occupied Rome and Gandy found himself sharing lodgings with five French officers who, despite his fears, treated him with civility.
In June 1797 William Ottley endorsed a credit note to Gandy for £;50, enabling him finally to escape from Rome.3 Meanwhile his two Poussin paintings had been yielded to the banker to whom he had presented the uncashable bills drawn on Martindale. In a letter of 4 March 1797 Gandy had drawn up an inventory of his possessions: 24 books on architecture, 154 Piranesi prints, 300 studies and architectural drawings, and 30 sketchbooks of architecture and memorandums. Perhaps much was sold in Rome, since transport would have been difficult and since very few drawings can now be located (six in the RIBA, of which five are dated 1796; one in the YCBA, and five in priv. colls.). It has also been suggested that Gandy sold his medals of the Accademia di S.Luca,4 though his correspondence indicates that the medals were being carried to London by Westmacott in the summer of 1796. What is certain is that having left Rome in May 1797 with no clear idea of how to get home, Gandy was fortunate enough to meet a friendly King's Messenger at Florence, a Mr Hunt, who brought him back to London with relative ease.
1. See F. Salmon, Georgian Group Jnl. [1995], 25 - 36. 2. ASN e 674. 3. Artaud letter bk.mss (27 Jun. 1797). 4. See J. Summerson, Heavenly Mansions, 115.
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