Dissertation on the Progress of the Fine ArtsScott, John Robert
Philosophy
Dissertation on the Progress of the Fine Arts
Scott, John Robert
Aesthetics; Art; Art and society -- Greece; Art patronage -- Great Britain; Art patronage -- Greece; Arts, British; Arts, Greek
[Footnote o: The fate of this ingenious youth deserves to be distinctly
recorded. Born of humble parentage in one of the more distant counties,
he had early manifested an admiration of the Arts, and, being admitted a
student of the Royal Academy, eminently distinguished himself there by
his abilities and his industry. Applying peculiarly to Sculpture, soon
after the termination of his studies in the Academy he exhibited, at its
annual Exhibition in Somerset-place, two models of unrivalled
excellence, which might, without fear of deterioration, have been placed
in competition with the happiest productions of the best days of Grecian
art, and which at the time met with their well-earned applause. But,
alas! applause was his only reward: no wealthy patron took him by the
hand, no affluent lover of the Arts enquired into, or assisted, his
circumstances; and his means being very confined, misery was his
portion. He had however the soul of an Artist, and for a length of time
bore up with manly fortitude against his distresses. The present worthy
President of the Royal Academy, suspecting his situation, with the aid
of the Council obtained for him from the Academy an annuity of 100l. a
year, to enable him to go to Italy, and improve himself there: but the
unhappy youth had unavoidably contracted some trifling debts, which he
was utterly unable to discharge, and his mind was too delicately alive
to every finer feeling to bear the thought of leaving this country
without paying them. This circumstance, preying on his agitated spirits,
and on a frame emaciated by the severest distress, caused his speedy
dissolution, to the irreparable injury of the Arts. After his death it
was discovered that, for the last two years of his life, he had resided
in a miserable cock-loft in the worst house in Clare market, which he
had rented for a shilling a week; and that his daily sustenance for that
time had been _only two dry biscuits with a draft of water from the
market pump_.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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