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Joseph Smith (1682–1770)
Encyclopedia
Joseph Smith the British consul
at Venice
, 1744–1760, was a patron of artists, most notably Canaletto, and a collector and connoisseur, banker to the British community at Venice and a major draw on the British Grand Tour
. His collection of drawings were bought for George III of Great Britain and form a nucleus of the Royal Collection
of drawings in the Print Room at Windsor Castle
.
, of Florence, and the Venetian Zais
. His favoured architect for rebuilding the façade of his palazzo was Antonio Visentini
.
, whose press he bankrolled. A reproduction of Boccaccio's Decamerone from the Pasquali press, guided by Smith, was so exact a facsimile of the rare edition of 1527 that only close examination tells them apart. A Catalogue Librorum Rarissimorum was in fact a partial catalogue of the outstanding rarities in Smith's own library; the first edition consisted of twenty-five copies. A second edition (1737) adds thirty-one titles. A general catalogue of his library was published in 1755.
, was as the prime facilitator of purchases made by the British aristocrats passing through on the Grand Tour
. As the agent for Canaletto
for several years circa 1729–35, he virtually controlled the artist's output, to the benefit of both; it was Smith who arranged for Visentini to engrave thirty-eight of Canaletto's views in 1730, and Smith who encouraged the artist to make his successful trip to London in 1746. Smith himself was a passionate collector of contemporary Venetian painting and drawings, of etching
s and engraving
s. In 1768 he published a facsimile of the original edition of Palladio’s Quattro libri dell’ architecttura of 1570. In 1762 Smith sold the vast majority of his books, gems, coins, prints, drawings and paintings – including many works by Canaletto – to the young George III for £20,000. The books today form the nucleus of the King’s Library at the British Museum, while the Royal Collection retains his other treasures.
in London, who had introduced Italian opera
in Thomas Clayton
's Arsinoe (1705), the first Italian-style opera heard in England, and Bononcini
's Trionfo di Camilla (1706), and who arrived in Venice in 1711, where Smith immediately made her his wife.
on 24 March 1743, Old style
(1744 by modern dating), after which he was the "Consul Smith" whose name appears in every history of eighteenth-century British collecting and art patronage. He retained the post until the accession of George III in 1760. In expectation of his appointment Smith purchased outright Palazzo Balbi on the Grand Canal, which he had heretofore been renting, on 20 April 1740. Soon thereafter he commissioned Antonio Visentini to redesign the façade in the Palladian style
. Smith, who was in correspondence with the "architect earl", Lord Burlington
, was as devoted to Palladio as any of his British visitors: in the 1740s he asked Canaletto (whose agent he had been for many years) to paint the principal buildings by Palladio in Venice. A production of the Pasquali press was a facsimile of Andrea Palladio's Quattro libri dell'Architettura, as it had been printed in Venice, 1570, but presented as an eighteenth-century bibliophile felt it ought to have been printed in the first place, on fine paper with generous margins and engravings substituted for the original woodcut
s. Further neo-Palladian structures in a veduta ideata fantasy setting commissioned by Consul Smith are the series of eleven paintings commissioned in 1746 from Francesco Zuccarelli and Antonio Visentini showing English Palladian structures in idealized fantasy settings.
Smith's summer villa in the terraferma was at Mogliano.
known as the "King's Library". Smith did not stop collecting: the dispersal of his second collection of books by auction in London, took thirteen days in January–February 1773.
Many of Smith's paintings also went to the British Royal Collection, through the mediation of James Smart Mackenzie, brother of Lord Bute. The collection is celebrated for its dazzling series of Venetian views by Canaletto
, together with other Italian views by Canaletto and works by Sebastiano Ricci
, Francesco Zuccarelli
and Pietro Longhi
. On a more workaday level, there are numerous architectural drawings of sixteenth-century architecture at Venice and at Vicenza made in the studio of Antonio Visentini
that are scaled in British feet and must have been intended for some British milordo.
A generous selection of his manuscripts were purchased by Lord Sunderland for the library at Blenheim Palace
, which was dispersed in turn in the nineteenth century.
. His grave was on the Lido, where Goethe, travelling in the late seventeen-eighties, stopped to pay respects: "to him I owe my copy of Palladio, and I offered up a grateful prayer".
Consul (representative)
The political title Consul is used for the official representatives of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, and to facilitate trade and friendship between the peoples of the two countries...
at Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, 1744–1760, was a patron of artists, most notably Canaletto, and a collector and connoisseur, banker to the British community at Venice and a major draw on the British Grand Tour
Grand Tour
The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage...
. His collection of drawings were bought for George III of Great Britain and form a nucleus of the Royal Collection
Royal Collection
The Royal Collection is the art collection of the British Royal Family. It is property of the monarch as sovereign, but is held in trust for her successors and the nation. It contains over 7,000 paintings, 40,000 watercolours and drawings, and about 150,000 old master prints, as well as historical...
of drawings in the Print Room at Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...
.
Smith the collector
Smith took up residence in 1700, in the import-export trade and merchant banking house of Thomas Williams, the British consul; he eventually headed the partnership of Williams and Smith and made a modest fortune. His reputation was as a passionate collector, of paintings and drawings — both of sixteenth and seventeenth century masters and of living artists — and of manuscripts and books, coins and medals, and engraved gems. Beside Canaletto, among the living painters whom he patronised were Francesco ZuccarelliFrancesco Zuccarelli
Francesco Zuccarelli was an Italian Rococo painter.He was born at Pitigliano, in southern Tuscany, where he initially apprenticed with Paolo Anesi...
, of Florence, and the Venetian Zais
Zaïs
Zaïs is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau first performed on 29 February 1748 at the Opéra in Paris. It takes the form of a pastorale héroïque in four acts and a prologue. The librettist was Louis de Cahusac....
. His favoured architect for rebuilding the façade of his palazzo was Antonio Visentini
Antonio Visentini
thumb|220px|View of Piazza San Marco in Venice, by Antonio Visentini .Antonio Visentini was an Italian architectural designer, painter and engraver, known for his architectural fantasies and capricci, the author of treatises on perspective and professor at the Venetian Academy...
.
Smith and the Pasquali press
It was his pleasure to issue lavishly-printed books in extremely limited editions, for which he had the services of Giovanni Battista PasqualiGiovanni Battista Pasquali
Giovanni Battista Pasquali was a leading printer in 18th-century Venice, supported by the British consul Joseph Smith , a patron and collector. Pasquali was a scholar himself, who published his own essays as well as finely printed, unpretentious editions for a scholarly readership...
, whose press he bankrolled. A reproduction of Boccaccio's Decamerone from the Pasquali press, guided by Smith, was so exact a facsimile of the rare edition of 1527 that only close examination tells them apart. A Catalogue Librorum Rarissimorum was in fact a partial catalogue of the outstanding rarities in Smith's own library; the first edition consisted of twenty-five copies. A second edition (1737) adds thirty-one titles. A general catalogue of his library was published in 1755.
Smith's patronage
Smith's central role in the network of patronage of painters in eighteenth-century Venice, in which he created a market in the taste for veduteVeduta
A veduta is a highly detailed, usually large-scale painting of a cityscape or some other vista....
, was as the prime facilitator of purchases made by the British aristocrats passing through on the Grand Tour
Grand Tour
The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage...
. As the agent for Canaletto
Canaletto
Giovanni Antonio Canal better known as Canaletto , was a Venetian painter famous for his landscapes, or vedute, of Venice. He was also an important printmaker in etching.- Early career :...
for several years circa 1729–35, he virtually controlled the artist's output, to the benefit of both; it was Smith who arranged for Visentini to engrave thirty-eight of Canaletto's views in 1730, and Smith who encouraged the artist to make his successful trip to London in 1746. Smith himself was a passionate collector of contemporary Venetian painting and drawings, of etching
Etching
Etching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...
s and engraving
Engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...
s. In 1768 he published a facsimile of the original edition of Palladio’s Quattro libri dell’ architecttura of 1570. In 1762 Smith sold the vast majority of his books, gems, coins, prints, drawings and paintings – including many works by Canaletto – to the young George III for £20,000. The books today form the nucleus of the King’s Library at the British Museum, while the Royal Collection retains his other treasures.
Musical Smith
Smith's other passion was for music, which he indulged in part by marrying the noted but temperamental soprano Catherine Tofts (c.1685–1756). She had been the first true prima donnaPrima donna
Originally used in opera or Commedia dell'arte companies, "prima donna" is Italian for "first lady." The term was used to designate the leading female singer in the opera company, the person to whom the prime roles would be given. The prima donna was normally, but not necessarily, a soprano...
in London, who had introduced Italian opera
Opera seria
Opera seria is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to c. 1770...
in Thomas Clayton
Thomas Clayton
Thomas Clayton was an American lawyer and politician from Dover in Kent County, Delaware. He was a member of the Federalist Party and later the Whig Party. He served in the Delaware General Assembly, as Attorney General of Delaware, as Secretary of State of Delaware, as Chief Justice of the...
's Arsinoe (1705), the first Italian-style opera heard in England, and Bononcini
Giovanni Battista Bononcini
Giovanni Battista Bononcini was an Italian Baroque composer and cellist, one of a family of string players and composers. His father, Giovanni Maria Bononcini , was a violinist and a composer.-Biography:...
's Trionfo di Camilla (1706), and who arrived in Venice in 1711, where Smith immediately made her his wife.
"Consul" Smith
His appointment as British consul was gazettedLondon Gazette
The London Gazette is one of the official journals of record of the British government, and the most important among such official journals in the United Kingdom, in which certain statutory notices are required to be published...
on 24 March 1743, Old style
Old Style and New Style dates
Old Style and New Style are used in English language historical studies either to indicate that the start of the Julian year has been adjusted to start on 1 January even though documents written at the time use a different start of year ; or to indicate that a date conforms to the Julian...
(1744 by modern dating), after which he was the "Consul Smith" whose name appears in every history of eighteenth-century British collecting and art patronage. He retained the post until the accession of George III in 1760. In expectation of his appointment Smith purchased outright Palazzo Balbi on the Grand Canal, which he had heretofore been renting, on 20 April 1740. Soon thereafter he commissioned Antonio Visentini to redesign the façade in the Palladian style
Palladian architecture
Palladian architecture is a European style of architecture derived from the designs of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio . The term "Palladian" normally refers to buildings in a style inspired by Palladio's own work; that which is recognised as Palladian architecture today is an evolution of...
. Smith, who was in correspondence with the "architect earl", Lord Burlington
Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington
Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington and 4th Earl of Cork PC , born in Yorkshire, England, was the son of Charles Boyle, 2nd Earl of Burlington and 3rd Earl of Cork...
, was as devoted to Palladio as any of his British visitors: in the 1740s he asked Canaletto (whose agent he had been for many years) to paint the principal buildings by Palladio in Venice. A production of the Pasquali press was a facsimile of Andrea Palladio's Quattro libri dell'Architettura, as it had been printed in Venice, 1570, but presented as an eighteenth-century bibliophile felt it ought to have been printed in the first place, on fine paper with generous margins and engravings substituted for the original woodcut
Woodcut
Woodcut—occasionally known as xylography—is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...
s. Further neo-Palladian structures in a veduta ideata fantasy setting commissioned by Consul Smith are the series of eleven paintings commissioned in 1746 from Francesco Zuccarelli and Antonio Visentini showing English Palladian structures in idealized fantasy settings.
Smith's summer villa in the terraferma was at Mogliano.
Dispersing the collections
George III began to form his library by purchasing Smith's in virtually its entirety in 1765, for £10,000; they form that part of the British LibraryBritish Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
known as the "King's Library". Smith did not stop collecting: the dispersal of his second collection of books by auction in London, took thirteen days in January–February 1773.
Many of Smith's paintings also went to the British Royal Collection, through the mediation of James Smart Mackenzie, brother of Lord Bute. The collection is celebrated for its dazzling series of Venetian views by Canaletto
Canaletto
Giovanni Antonio Canal better known as Canaletto , was a Venetian painter famous for his landscapes, or vedute, of Venice. He was also an important printmaker in etching.- Early career :...
, together with other Italian views by Canaletto and works by Sebastiano Ricci
Sebastiano Ricci
Sebastiano Ricci was an Italian painter of the late Baroque school of Venice. About the same age as Piazzetta, and an elder contemporary of Tiepolo, he represents a late version of the vigorous and luminous Cortonesque style of grand manner fresco painting.-Early years:He was born in Belluno, son...
, Francesco Zuccarelli
Francesco Zuccarelli
Francesco Zuccarelli was an Italian Rococo painter.He was born at Pitigliano, in southern Tuscany, where he initially apprenticed with Paolo Anesi...
and Pietro Longhi
Pietro Longhi
Pietro Longhi was a Venetian painter of contemporary scenes of life.-Biography:Pietro Longhi was born in Venice in the parish of Saint Maria, first child of the silversmith Alessandro Falca and his wife, Antonia. He adopted the Longhi last name when he began to paint...
. On a more workaday level, there are numerous architectural drawings of sixteenth-century architecture at Venice and at Vicenza made in the studio of Antonio Visentini
Antonio Visentini
thumb|220px|View of Piazza San Marco in Venice, by Antonio Visentini .Antonio Visentini was an Italian architectural designer, painter and engraver, known for his architectural fantasies and capricci, the author of treatises on perspective and professor at the Venetian Academy...
that are scaled in British feet and must have been intended for some British milordo.
A generous selection of his manuscripts were purchased by Lord Sunderland for the library at Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace is a monumental country house situated in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England, residence of the dukes of Marlborough. It is the only non-royal non-episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. The palace, one of England's largest houses, was built between...
, which was dispersed in turn in the nineteenth century.
Legacy
At quite an advanced age, the widowed consul Smith, his wife having died in 1746, married a sister of John Murray, resident at Venice and afterwards British ambassador to TurkeyTurkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. His grave was on the Lido, where Goethe, travelling in the late seventeen-eighties, stopped to pay respects: "to him I owe my copy of Palladio, and I offered up a grateful prayer".