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A General History of Painting amongst the Ancients

1838

Title

A General History of Painting amongst the Ancients

Date

1838

Archive reference number

NGA2/2/2

Description

Manuscript volume of 'An Outline of a General History of Painting amongst the Ancients' written by Wornum over two years while on his European travels. It is dated Rome, 1838. A note added in the inside front cover states that: "Strange enough, in the beginning of the year 1838, when engaged on the following sketch at Rome Scott (now dead) asked me one evening at the Caffe Bon Gout when I meant to publish My History of Painting, for it was well known among the English artists at Rome that I was engaged upon such a work - I answered 15 years time, th.- said Scott that's six years later than necessary, for Horace says a man should keep a work only nine years - as it happened, exactly nine years after the conversation I published my Epochs of Painting". In the Preface he states that his aim is for "the Reader to form a tolerable idea of the rise, progress and decline of Painting amongst the Ancients from the very earliest times until the decline of the Roman Empire".

Record type

Item

Alternative reference numbers

NG32/22

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