Charles Towneley

[poliphilo]

Charles Towneley (1733-1805) by Johan Zoffany.
 
Towneley was under the impression that his statues were Greek; we now know they were mainly Roman copies. Near the centre of the composition is the bust of Clytie- possibly a portrait of Mark Antony's daughter Antonia- which Towneley liked to refer to as his "wife". During the anti-catholic Gordon riots, when his London town house was under threat by the mob, Towneley went back inside- at some personal risk- to rescue Clytie. Unlike most connoisseurs Towneley allowed his collection to be viewed by the public. After his death the British Museum bought the collection from the family for £20,000.

Comments

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

This photo could have been taken at the American Cast Museum in Connecticut. At that museum there is a collection of plaster copies of many classical statues, including pieces of the Elgin Marbles. At one time the early Boston Art Museum displayed these plasters for lack of originals. Things have changed since then, and now the Museum's collection is so huge that even after several building additions there is not room enough to display everything at once. For those of us who cannot travel to the "Old" World, the American Cast Museum is our opportunity to view life-size images of great pieces of sculpture. When you walk into the display, you feel like you have entered a world of giants!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

There's a gallery in London's Victoria and Albert Museum where they keep all the plaster casts. Not only do they have statues, but entire gothic archways and the like. I've always thought it would be a brilliant place to film a Hitchcockian chase sequence.