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Document number: 01600
Date: 15 Oct 1827
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: STRANGWAYS William Thomas Horner Fox
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Last updated: 1st September 2003

Milan

15 Oct – 1827

My dear Henry

I have been picture-hunting & will tell you with what success. Monsignore Crivelli <1> is hard to deal with – he told me that a year ago an Englishman wanted his Zingarella for 60 louis but he fixed the price at 80 & they parted – Now I think you told me he asked you 100 – & that you acknowledged it to be better than yours wch I did not tell him. Now if you are still in the same mind & can get yours off your hands in England you can get this for 80 if you think it worth it – write to me at Florence (or to the Canonico himself) & I will do any thing you like about it – He has some good venetian <sic> pictures (large) I think – but asks 4 – 5 – 600 £ for them – in general large pictures are the cheapest. I went to a certain Gozzi who asks 4000 – 1800 – 2500 – & so on – for every trumpery thing he has – he showed me the names of English men who he said were in treaty with him – Camskwich Cavendish <2> – & Lambton <3> I think he is fit only for such purses. I then went to Sanquirico – who has all sorts of pictures at all sorts of prices – all Titians Salvators <4> & great names – Every old yellow gipsey is a Luino <5> the great man of Milan after Leonardo, & who I really believe painted half the Leonardos. There is also a certain Macco d’Oggiono <6> who painted in every style from the teaboard to the sign post – very few of his works exceed that. – Vallardi shewed me the Luino <Guirrardi?> was cleaning at Bologna – it is beautiful it was not announced as a Luino till it was cleaned in its undress it was only Scuola Lombarda <7>. Vallardi has 2 soidisant <8> sketches of Correggio part of a set long known in Casa Aldrovandi in Bologna which selling off <sic> – I shewd them to Mr Irvine whom I luckily met here – he knew the whole concern & thought they were only good copies – however they are beyond a copy price. he has some other good things but pretends not to wish to sell. But the best man by far is Sigr Bianchi – he has an immense collection of all sorts at low prices & he tells you he wants only 10 louis profit on each he has a pretty copy of that Correggio of which there is a print, of which I have seen several copies here so I think it must once have been here – They say it is in Spain. One of his best is a Herodias <9> Venetian, which he has set down as Padovanino <10> on my authority because I saw it was like. Also la bella de Tiziano by Paris Bordone or Pordenone che c’e le stesso <11> – An obscure figure of Astronomy which pleased me – Mr Irvine is unfortunately gone so I could not take his opinion on these. I like the Bresa much – & found there the originals of several of my prints Genl Pinos collection is to be sold there are some very fine pictures indeed – among the 2d rate nothing very remarkable – The fine ones are the Poussin & Titian engraved by Anderloni <12> a Venus of L. Giordorno <13> one of his best – St Peter by Guido <14> – St Jerome by Rubens & a very fine Christ by Seb. del Piombo <15> – brought from Spain.

I think I see why the fine engravers engrave 2d rate & unknown pictures – They are in the hands of the publishers as much as the publicans in those of the brewers. It is all one to the engraver what he engraves if he is paid – The publisher gets his correspondents <Artaica?> Bardi Colnaghi &c to take a certain number off his hands whatever it may be – so he has the choice of the subject for nothing & directs the engraver to engrave some patched up thing of his own he wants to sell or some of his friends – gives a name which the gaping public swallow & seeing only the black & white cannot dispute & sells his picture – Old prints done in honester times help to authenticate a picture – but modern ones will not

Yr aff

W F S

Mgr Crivelli has just sent to shew me 2 prints of undoubted Raphael & Coreggio of his – he has ill-named them they wd pass better as Guido & C. Dolci <16> I am going to see Brocco’s Spanish pictures

Hy Fox <17> has been sought for in vain I hear from Mr Foster for these 2 months – he is lost – The Poles <18> went thro a month ago without him

The people here know the comparative value of their pictures better than the positive

A Monsr
Monsieur Henry F. Talbot
31 Sackville Street <19>
London
Lacock Abbey <20>
Chippenham
Wilts


Notes:

1. Art Dealer selling Correggio’s painting The Madonna Reposing, also known as La Zingarella. [See Doc. No: 01454].

2. Family name of the dukes of Devonshire.

3. Probably John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham (1792–1840).

4. Salvator Rosa (1615–1673), Neapolitan painter.

5. Bernardino Luini (?1465–1540).

6. He probably means Marco d’Oggiono (1475– ca.1530), Italian Painter.

7. Lombard School.

8. So-called.

9. Wife and niece of Herod Antipas; she persuaded her daughter Salome to demand the head of John the Baptist as a reward.

10. Padovanino (1590–1650); Venetian School.

11. Who is the same person. Not so, however: Paris Bordone (1495–1570), Venetian painter, was a pupil of Titian. Il Pordonone – Giovanni Antonio Licinio (1483–1539), Venetian painter – was a rival and enemy of Titian.

12. Probably Faustino Anderloni.

13. Presumably Luca Giordano (1632–1705), Neapolitan artist.

14. Presumably Guido Reni (1575–1642), Bolognese painter.

15. Sebastiano del Piombo (1485–1547), Venetian painter.

16. Carlo Dolci (1616–1686), Florentine painter.

17. Probably Henry Edward Fox, 4th Baron Holland. [See Doc. No: 00778.]

18. Possibly Sir Charles Morice Pole (1757–1830), admiral of the fleet, and his wife.

19. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.

20. Readdressed in another hand.