Newdigate, Sir Roger, 5th Bt
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- Newdigate, Sir Roger, 5th Bt
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(1719 - 1806), politician, draughtsman and amateur architect, of Arbury Hall, War, 7th s. of Sir Richard Newdigate, 3rd Bt.; suc. bro. 1734 as 5th Bt.; educ. Westminster and Univ. Coll. Oxf. 1736; m. 1 1743 Sophia Conyers (d. 1774), 2 1776 Hester Mundy; MP 1742 - 7, 1751 - 80.
1739 - 40 [Paris 25 Aug. 1738] Genoa (14 Sep. 1739), Leghorn, Florence (1 Oct. - 14 Dec.), Rome (Dec. 1739 - May 1740), Bologna, the Veneto, Milan, Turin [Paris 15 Jul. 1740]
1774 - 5 [dep. Rochester 25 Jul. 1774] Milan (4 Oct.), Parma (13 Oct.), Florence (27 Oct. - 19 Dec.), Siena (19 Dec.), Rome (24 Dec. 1774 - 8 May 1775), Naples (20 May - 27 Jun.), Rome (29 Jun. - 13 Jul.), Perugia (17 Jul.), Rimini (23 Jul.), Ravenna (24 Jul.), Venice (26 Jul. - 6 Aug.), Padua (7 Aug.), Verona (10 Aug.), Brescia (14 Sep.), Bergamo (17 Sep.), Milan (19 Sep.), Turin (5 Oct. 1775) [London 31 Dec. 1776]
The two tours of Italy made by Sir Roger Newdigate are documented by a quantity of drawings and carefully written records (Newdigate MSS). These papers are supplemented by letters from his nephew Charles Parker in Italy and Sicily in 1782 - 4 and a less detailed account of purchases made for Sir Roger by his heir Francis Parker Newdigate in Italy in 1793. Together these documents furnish a remarkable grand tour archive.
In Sir Roger's obituary notice1 it was observed that 'He made a point of delineating what had not before been published'. He was among the most accurate as well as the most comprehensive recorders of the ancient ruins, and his illustrations of the Via Appia Antica in particular are notable for the independence of his approach and the fortuitous manner in which the drawings of 1740 anticipate, in style and subject, the manner of Piranesi. His correspondence shows also his desire to extend the range of grand tour studies. In 1752 he received the earliest account in English of the Greek temples at Paestum, and the first notice of the work of James Stuart and Nicholas Revett at Pola. In 1776 he was urging John Strange, British resident at Venice, to have the Society of Antiquaries of London publish a survey of the Roman monuments of France. In 1783 Charles Parker sent him written and visual accounts of the ancient sites of Sicily.2
Sir Roger also distinguished himself by his patronage of Piranesi, from whom he acquired for Oxford University a pair of candelabra (Ashmolean Museum) and twelve bound volumes of prints of the master, a duplicate of the set bought for himself. Piranesi repaid the compliment by adding to his collection of 1748, Archi antichi, a print of the Roman Arch at Aosta disegnato dal Cav. Rug. Newdigate Inglese. Sir Roger had made the first careful survey of the Roman remains there.3
His collecting was mainly of books and prints, with some drawings by artists working in Italy and smaller paintings, mostly topographical and assembled for study rather than display. He did not seek original old masters, but commissioned copies (particularly after Raphael) and he also acquired casts of statuary. He was keenly interested in the display of works of art and his diagrams and notes on the public and private collections in Italy are the most informative available. To him is due the earliest and fullest account (made late in 1739), generously illustrated, of the holdings of the Uffizi, while his correspondence with Charles Parker provides a well-documented account of subsequent changes observed in 1782.4 For the Roman collections his records of the sculpture galleries are more complete than those of the picture galleries.
Between his Italian tours Sir Roger maintained close acquaintance with Italian affairs through correspondence with younger tourists, most notably Lascelles Raymond Iremonger, and through the sculptor he patronised in London, Richard Hayward.
His predilection for the display of statuary in Italy had practical results in 1755, when Lady Pomfret used him as intermediary to donate to Oxford University (for which Newdigate was MP 1750 - 80) the Arundel Marbles, first housed in accordance with his plans for them, in the Old Schools. Their disposition was his major preoccupation in his final years, when he sought to have them removed, under the care of John Flaxman, to the Radcliffe Library, a scheme for which he donated £2,000, but whose fulfilment was thwarted by his death on 23 November 1806.
1. GM, 77[1807]:633 - 5, 705 - 8. 2. M. McCarthy in R. Serra (ed.), La Fortuna di Paestum e la memoria moderna del Dorico, [Florence 1986], and Apollo, 136[1992]: 100 - 4. 3. P. Malvezzi, Boll.del'Accademia di S.Anselmo, [1982], 1 - 15. A. Peyrot ed., Immagini della Valle d'Aosta nei secoli, [Turin 1983]. M. McCarthy, Burl.Mag., 114[1972]:466 - 72. 4. M. McCarthy, Apollo, 134[1991]: 159 - 68.
M.J. McC.