Nulty, Matthew
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- Title
- Nulty, Matthew
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(c.1716 - 78), draughtsman, antiquarian, agent, collector; b. Ireland; d. Rome.
- 1751 - 78 Venice (by Jan. 1751), Rome (1752 - d. 24 Jun. 1778) with visits to Sicily (Mar. - Jun. 1757), Florence (1760, 1771)
Nulty, 'a singular character', spent nearly thirty years in Italy and died in Rome at the age of sixty-two. Though he had set out as an artist, he was not particularly successful, and achieved more as an antiquarian and dealer. It appears he first stayed 'at Venice & other Cities as an itinerant Fan-painter' and that James 'Athenian' Stuart 'was his Associate'.1 This implies a date in the 1740s. It is certain that in January 1751 Thomas Hollis met him in Venice: 'Nulty, I knew first at Venice, where he served as a kind of Antiquary; and afterwards I met him at Rome. I believe him to be very honest, but he is, betwixt ourselves, one of the strangest poorest kind of ingenious men that I ever met with'.2
Nulty was first recorded in Rome living in the Strada Gregoriana from 1752 to 1755. He subsequently took rooms in the same house as Robert Crone, and from 1758 until 1767 was noted as living 'Vicino alli Avignonesi', in the house of Sig. Marmieri, where he probably stayed until 1771. From 1772 - 3 he was living on the ground floor of the house owned by Giovanni Antonio Mazzoni Scarpinello; during 1774 at the Isola della Purificazione and in 1777 at the Casa Bettolini. In his last year, 1778, he lived on the Vicolo S.Isidoro in rooms on the first and second floors.3 He appears to have spent nearly all his time in Rome, although he accompanied James Grant of Castle Grant from Rome to Florence in the summer of 1760 (when the Abb? Grant, referring to him as 'the little mortal', said that 'Nulty is returned full of accounts of Grant's kindness towards him').4 Nulty may also have been the 'Nult' recorded in Florence on 9 November 1771.5
Little is known of Nulty the artist, but in February 1757 he accompanied Richard Phelps as a draughtsman on an expedition to Sicily (Hayward noting that Mr Nulty was 'Engag'd ... near Gorgenti or Agrigentum', but he was mistaken in saying the visit was made in 1755).6 Nulty's drawing skills, however, fell short, and on 11 February 1758 Robert Mylne told his brother, William, that he was looking for a draughtsman 'to be sent to Sicily very soon to do over again what was done by Nulety'.7 It appears that Nulty may later have tried his hand at sculpture. When Joseph Ceracchi came to England in 1773, he brought with him a letter of introduction 'from Nulty, a sculptor at Rome'.8 He may have been involved in arranging the restoration of excavated antique statuary.
Nulty was perhaps more successful as an antiquarian although, according to Thomas Jones, he lacked 'that oily supple disposition necessary to the Profession' and consequently 'did not find much employment in that Line'.9 Jones further related that Nulty had a patron, an English gentleman whom he had once served as antiquary, who allowed him a small pension 'with which his few wants were easily satisfied'. It was, Jones believed, to this same gentleman that Nulty 'behaved in the following characteristic manner - Having accepted of an Invitation to accompany him & his Lady to England, in his traveling Coach - when they had made about half their journey The Gentleman happened to expiate a little upon the convenience of the Carriage - Old Nulty taking this as an innuendo of the Obligation he was under - order'd the Coach to stop, & out he jump'd - 'Sir says he I have traveld thousands of Miles on foot, and can do it again with more pleasure that in your coach', & notwithstanding all persuations to the Contrary, walked the rest of the way to England'.9 In November 1777 Jones and 'old Nulty the Antiquarian' travelled with Saunders Welch and his daughter by coach from Rome to Tivoli: but, recounted Jones, 'before we came to the bottom of the mountains the Carriage broke down - as I was the person who had had engag'd it, I was under great apprehensions of very severe reflexions on the Occasion from Nulty particularly, as he was of very sarcastic turn', but the 'Old fellow turned it to a joke'; they had to walk the rest of the way, 'The Lady mortified, the Justice grumbling & Nulty & myself making our selves very merry at the adventure'.(10)
Nulty was more successful as an agent and he made regular shipments of both antique and modern sculpture, vases, mosaic tables and paintings to England between 1 July 1758 and 18 March 1774.(11) On 4 May 1772 Patrick Home went 'to Netly to see his gallery as he calls it': he saw a copy of Poussin's Death of Germanicus and a copy of Raphael's Madonna della sedia by Angelica Kauffman.(12) In the previous year a bill from Nulty, dated 10 June and listing a Venus and Adonis by Veronese, a large Theseus and Aethra by Salvator Rosa, three landscapes by Poussin, a small Claude Lorrain and a cameo ring, was made out to Mr Edward Walter (who was in Italy with his wife and daughter from 1769 to 1771). The bill is endorsed 'gave him [Nulty] for his kindnesses to us while at Rome and on our journey to Paris, 1771, £180 sterling.'13
Nulty died in Rome on 24 June 1778. According to Jones, after over a fortnight's confinement in bed he 'had the Strength & Resolution enough to crawl to the English Coffee-house' where 'he sat all the Afternoon - drank two half pint Tumblers of rum punch, conversed cheerfully - shook hands with us all round, & bid us adieu for ever - the next day ... he dyed & was buried the night following.'14
Nulty's collection was sold in London in 1783 (Christy & Ansell, 27 - 28 Mar.), the catalogue describing a 'Capital Valuable Collection of Antique and Modern Marble Statues, Bustos, Cinerary and Ossuary Urns, Basso Relievos, Vases ... Marbles ... Antient and Modern Marbles, ... large Mosaic, ... Marble Tables, a great Variety of fine Roman Bronzes, by Zoffoli, Luigi, &c.'
1. Jones Memoirs, 74 - 5 (Jun. 1778). 2. How MSS, Add. 26889, f.13 (15 Jan. 1762). 3. AVR sa, S. Andrea delle Fratte. 4. Seafield MSS, GD/248/99/3 (12 Jul. 1760). 5. Gazz. Tosc.
6. Hayward List, 11. 7. Ibid., 29 - 30. 8. Nollekens, 2:116. 9. Jones Memoirs, 75. 10. Ibid., 54. 11. ASR aba 11, f.284; 12, f.285, 286, 287, 288. 12. Home jnl.MSS. 13. Verulam 1935, 295. 14. Jones Memoirs, 63 - 4.
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