EVCS | Catholic Collecting and Patronage in Eighteenth-century England: The Lords Clifford of Chudleigh – Matthew Martin
European Visual Culture Seminar
Catholic Collecting and Patronage in Eighteenth-century England: The Lords Clifford of Chudleigh
Matthew Martin
The years following the Glorious Revolution of 1688 have been seen as a period of decline into provincialism for England’s Catholic Gentry and Aristocracy. A close examination of the activities of some of the leading recusant families of the eighteenth century as patrons and collectors suggests quite the opposite. Denied a role in the political life of the country, many Catholic families sought to accrue status through engaging in building, gardening and commissioning and collecting art. In this they emulated their Protestant peers, but Catholic families pursued these activities in a fashion which also expressed a uniquely English Catholic identity. This paper will examine the patronage and collecting of the Lords Clifford of Chudleigh as a case study in this phenomenon.
Matthew Martin is Assistant Curator, Decorative Arts and Antiquities at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
Date: Monday 18 June 2012, 6:30pm
Venue: Jim Potter Room, Old Physics Building, University of Melbourne, Parkville campus.
Click here for a map. All Welcome. If you would like to join us for dinner afterwards in Lygon Street, please RSVP to Mark Shepheard
Drinks and nibbles provided for the seminar: gold coin donation appreciated.
The EVCS is brought to you by the Melbourne Art Network with the support of the Art History Programs at the University of Melbourne and at La Trobe University.
