Enfilade

Reviewed by Graham Perry in the February issue of Apollo Magazine:

Cinzia Sicca, ed., John Talman: An Early Eighteenth-Century Connoisseur (New Haven: Yale University Press/Paul Mellon Centre, 2009), ISBN: 978-0300123357 ($75).

Misfortune hangs over the Talman family like a cloud. William Talman the architect had a flourishing practice in the time of William III, but most of his work has perished. His son John formed one of the greatest collections of drawings ever seen in Britain, but was forced by financial necessity to begin dispersing it before he died. He designed architectural schemes for All Souls, Oxford, and for a new Whitehall Palace, all of which remained unbuilt. He knew more about contemporary Italian art than any man in England, and was mentor to William Kent, whom he took with him to Italy in 1709; yet his name remains virtually unknown. Only recently has his significance begun to be recognised, with an Italian team of scholars, headed by Cinzia Sicca, taking the lead in producing an on-line reconstruction of his dismembered collections, and now producing a volume that clearly illustrates his position in the early-18th-century art world. . .

For the full review, click here»